Happy Halloween!

This year's theme for some of the teachers at school was Wizard of Oz!  I think we all look pretty cute!  And if you can't tell the hubby (in the grey) is the tornado.  His costume looks much better with his arms out to the side so you can get the full tornado effect.

Happy Halloween! Don't eat too much candy :)

Fall Pinterest Challenge: Envelope Pillows

It's time for another Pinterest Challenge!  This time I am linking up with Sherry, Katie, Carmel, and Sarah.

I've seen so many cute pillows popping up all over blog land and on Pinterest, so I thought I would whip some up for a Christmas gift.  Dad, if you are reading this, close your eyes!

Here is my inspiration:

                                                                          Source: maillardvillemanor.com via Liz on Pinterest

This seriously has to be one of the easiest sewing projects that I have tackled.  You only have to sew four straight lines!

We took a trip to Ikea last week and one of the new fabrics they have reminded me of some coasters I picked up from a local greenhouse in Michigan.

This super cute fall fabric is from Ikea and runs for $6.99 a yard.  One yard will be more than enough fabric to cover two pillows.

Margareta Fabric

First, cut your fabric to size.  My pillow inserts were 16", so I cut my fabric to a 16" x 36" rectangle.  

Then mark your fabric for your hem and fold lines.  Mark 1/2" from each end so that when you fold your fabric over you have a 1/4" hem line.  Also mark your fabric 10" in on your longest sides so you know where to fold before you sew the sides of your pillow.

Next, hem the two short sides.

Then iron your pillow on your fold lines.

Once you finished ironing, sew down each of the sides with 1/2" seam allowance.  Fold your pillow right side out, and stuff with your insert.

The result is a great looking pillow that was super easy and required no buttons or zippers!

This is what the back of the pillow looks like.  There is about a two inch overlap of fabric so that you cannot see any of the pillow insert.

Hopefully my dad will like them, and they will add a nice touch of the outdoors to his office space!

Half-Marathon: Review

Last week Sunday I completed my first half-marathon!  I never in a million years thought that phrase would come out of my mouth.

I am seriously so proud of myself.  I ran the entire thing, and only wanted to stop running once around mile 9.  My finish time was 2:25:34, which averages out to 11:07 minute miles!

If you have ever thought about running give it a try.  I had attempted to become a "runner" a few times, but always failed.  This summer I thought I would give it another try, and this time I actually stuck with it.  It really help me to have a group of women that were running the half marathon with me because we were able to hold each other accountable and talk about how our running was going.  I seriously started the summer not even being able to run one mile without being winded, and now I can comfortable do about six miles.

I followed the following training guide:

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3	Rest	3	3	Rest	4	Rest	13
2	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	5	Rest	15
3	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	6	Rest	16
4	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
5	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	10	Rest	21
6	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	11	Rest	24
7	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	12	Rest	26
8	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	9	Rest	22
9	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	8	Rest	18
10	3	Rest	3	Walk 2	Rest	13.1 (Race!)	Rest	21.1

This plan comes from this website.  I didn't start using this plan right away, I was running about three times a week for a month before I started.  Once I was able to run three miles without dying, I started to use this plan.

I also cannot stress enough how important stretching is!  Make sure you stretch before and after every run.  When I run on a treadmill I usually walk for about 3 minutes prior to starting any run just to get warmed up, but when I run outside I just start off running.

You can do it!  Just have faith in yourself and keep pushing through, even when you have days where you feel like you just can't run, or you just can't do it anymore.

Here are some pictures on race day:

 Before the race!  We made sweet t-shirts, and our team name was Wicked Wild Women.

 Me and my running buddy around mile 5. Photo credit: Daniel Grossman.

Passing through the starting gate again around mile 10. 

Me after the race!  It was such a great feeling to finish!

Half Marathon

My first half marathon is coming up in THREE days!

It got here so fast it's insane.  Luckily for me I am running with a group of five amazing women who all live here at Cardigan, so hopefully we will be able to motivate each other throughout the race.

We are running in the CHaD Hero Half Marathon, and the money raised in this race benefits the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth.

We will be rocking out in some cool "Wonder Woman" t-shirts that we made just for race day, so stay tuned for pictures!

Be on the lookout for a photo post coming up soon!

Fall is Here!

I love fall!  I used to think I loved summer the best, but I can safely say that fall is my favorite.  When the leaves change colors it seriously makes me so happy.  Fall in New England is pretty cool.  I wish I had a better camera to take pictures of how beautiful things are around here.

Speaking of pictures, I have failed miserably at uploading the ones I took when we were in Michigan a few weeks ago.  Also, my camera is terrible.  I am saving up for a new one and hoping to purchase it around Christmas time!

In Cardigan news, I am no longer teaching French!  That was definitely an adventure though.  Mark was practicing pronunciation with me one day and said that my French pronunciation sounded more like Spanish than my Spanish pronunciation does.

Yesterday in celebration of Founder's Day and Columbus Day the entire school went to the Sandwich Fair.  It's just like the Hudsonville Fair in MI complete with stinky animals, way too much deep fried food, carnival rides, and crafts to look at and buy.  It was a nice break from school though.

I'm running my first half marathon in less than two weeks!  Ahh.  I have been totally slacking on the training though.  Hopefully I don't die.

Now that things have calmed down and I feel like I am starting to have more free time I hope to update more often with real content!

Life Lately

Wow.  I am a terrible blogger.  But most of you probably know that already, and that's why I only have three followers :)  Plus I like reading blogs better than writing my own.

As for a summer recap, we spent most of our time just hanging out in Michigan.  We did get to catch a Tigers game.  They played the Yankees, and even though they lost it was still a fun game.

I kept up with my running, and was up to 10 miles before we came back east.  We also read a lot!  It was nice having so much time to ourselves, and we were able to relax and just hang out together.


We have been back in NH for a week and a half, and are slowly getting back into the swing of things.  Mark and I had faculty meetings (that I officially get to go to this year!), and today our 9th grade leaders arrived on campus.  It's really weird seeing a group of kids again, as this is our first year that we "returned" somewhere.  The boys look so much older, and they are so much taller too.

Our apartment update is still a work in progress.  After a recent trip to IKEA, we finally got rid of the futon!  We are now the proud owners of a matching couch and chair, but they are currently without slipcovers (boo IKEA for being sold out!), so those are currently being shipped to us.  Pictures will be coming soon.  I promise!  We also have curtains on three of our seven windows, but IKEA was sold out of curtains too, so I have to make a trip back there to get some more.  Speaking of curtains, I did learn how to sew this summer, and I even hemmed the three curtains I have, and made one of my own for our front door!  So that was pretty exciting.

In other news, we became cat owners.  Shocker.  It's still really weird for me to say that I actually own a cat.  Her name is Scout, and she is 11 years old.  One of the teachers here at school has had her since January, he got her from a friend who could no longer keep her, but he got a Boxer puppy and they didn't get along very well, so we took her.  She is super cute, really cuddly, and she loves attention.

Loving all the attention.

Sitting on her pillow.

Upside down sleeping.

Silly cat.

I signed up for my first half marathon today.  It's called the CHaD Half, and a group of women from school are all running it together.  I'm pretty nervous, and really need to start some hard core training.

I also am excited to get back into crochet.  I know a few people who are expecting babies, and I have some really great ideas of cute hats to make.  If you would like to place an order, just let me know.  I'm still considering starting an Etsy store, but it makes me nervous.

Mark is planning a trip with some of our students for 10 days of Spring Break.  We would bring them to Rome, and I'm super excited at the possibility of going back to Europe.  I will keep you updated on this!

We start school next week Tuesday, but all the kids are arriving this weekend.  It will definitely be nice to get into a routine again.  I will try to post more regularly, and I also want to redesign my blog header.  I've been experimenting a bit more with technology (and I get a nice MacBook Pro to use for school!), so it would be nice to figure out how to make my blog more interesting.

Have a great week!  Thanks for reading!

The Pinterest Challenge: Quotes on Canvas

Today I am joining my first linky party!

Quotes on canvas are all over Pinterest, and I thought I would whip one up for my friend who is getting married at the end of the month.

This was my inspiration:

(source)

My friend and her husband will be dancing to (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams for their first dance together, so I decided to use the title of that song for my "quote."

And here is how I did it:

First, gather your materials.  I used a canvas, 6 pieces of scrapbook paper, mod podge, 3" stick on letters, and craft paint.

Mod podge the scrapbook paper onto the canvas.  Use lots of mod podge, I didn't use enough so the paper didn't lay totally flat on the canvas.  I also use mod podge both on the canvas/under the paper, and on top of the paper.  Once everything is dry, put your stickers on the canvas.

Paint over the entire canvas and wait for it to dry.  In this picture you can see where the paper didn't lay flat on the right hand side.

After the paint is dry, pull off the stickers.

Overall it was pretty easy.  The hardest part was getting the letters in a straight line.  I would definitely recommend measuring where you want things and drawing lines with pencils so you have somewhere to work off of.

I'm linking up with Kate, Sherry, Katie and Michelle!

I cannot believe Mark and I are already celebrating our one year anniversary.  This past year went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like we have already been married forever (in a good way)!

Looking back at this past year of our lives, we definitely had some ups and downs, and I feel like we grew closer because of everything that happened.

We had an amazing wedding day, went on a nice honeymoon to Washington D.C., and then had about a month until we moved to New Hampshire.  Once there we had to get used to living at a boarding school, making new friends, Mark starting a new job, me being unemployed, and adopting a dog.  As the year moved along Mark spent some time in the hospital, I started tutoring and working at school, we had to put our dog down because he bit some people and was acting really aggressive, we thought Mark was going to have surgery, we drove back and forth from NH to MI 4 times, and we drove to Mayo in preparation for Mark's surgery.  As most of you know, Mark didn't end up having surgery and we are currently waiting to see if an increase dose of his medication and some iron will get things back to normal for him.

With everything that happened this year, I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite wedding pictures!  Thanks again to our family and friends for celebrating with us that day and continuing to be there for us over the past year!

Summer Beginnings

Can you believe it's already the last week in June?  Crazy.  This summer has definitely been relaxing so far, and definitely needed.  It's the first summer that Mark and I haven't had to work, and it has really been nice :)  

Taking a look back at my summer "to do" list, I'm slacking a little bit...

• Exercise!  
• I have been running at least 3 times per week!  I've gotten to the point that I can run 4 miles!
• Learn to sew more!
• Read!
• Sadly, I've only finished 3 books so far.  That's pretty terrible.  I need to get on that. 
• Go to a Tigers game.
• Road Trip!  
• Check into online programs to start my Masters degree.
• Open an Etsy shop! 

So yeah, I've only made progress in two areas.  Bummer.  Two more months to go to work on the rest.

Our one year anniversary is coming up in 13 days!  That's insane.  I can't believe we've been married for a year.  Anniversary gifts are hard.  We're thinking about going the traditional one year paper route.

I would love to get this game:

(source)

And its got some paper in it, right?  Any other ideas of cute gift ideas?

Singing in the Rain

I absolutely love thunderstorms!  I swear we haven't had a thunderstorm out here since the tropical storm came through in August.  Tonight's storm was pretty good, but definitely too short.

We have been pretty busy finishing up the school year and getting ready to head back to Michigan.  We leave in 7 days!  So much stuff to pack!

I've been thinking about some summer goals I have, and decided that if I write them down somewhere, maybe I'll actually accomplish them :)

• Exercise!  I want to start running and riding my bike regularly.  I'm hoping to be able to run at least a 5K before the end of summer, and I would like to ride my bike as much as last year.
• Learn to sew more!  Curtains for our apartment are definitely on the list.
• Read!  I've finished 38 books so far, so I'm hoping to add quite a few more this summer :)
• Go to a Tigers game.
• Road Trip!  We are thinking of going to Texas to check it out.
• Check into online programs to start my Masters degree.
• Open an Etsy shop!  I'm thinking of calling it Beckwith Boutique...

Speaking of my Etsy shop, here are a few of my most recent projects:

 Mini minion hats

 Puppy dog newborn "outfit"

 Owl newborn hat (probably the best hat I have made yet)

Striped "elf" hat

It's Opening Day!

Go Tigers!

Crafting!

**Edit:  I found the pattern for the black hat with the flower!  It's posted below.**

Just a warning that this post will be picture heavy!

Last month was March Break (that's right, almost a whole month of no school!)  And I was busy reading and crocheting.

Up first is a vintage football helmet Packers style.  It was inspired by this pattern.  I made one in newborn size and one for a 6th month old.  To make the logo I cut it out of some felt and then hand sewed it on to both sides of the hat.

These owl slippers were tricky to make.  They were inspired by these slippers I found via Pinterest, but I didn't want to pay for the pattern, so I made one up by combining a bunch of patterns I found online (this is the pattern I started with, but I modified it quite a bit).  I started writing a tutorial, but then I got lazy about finishing it, so maybe someday I'll feel inspired to make another pair and share with you.

This is a brain wave beanie hat I made for my brother.  You can download the pattern for free here.  It was actually really easy to make.

This hat was so hard to make!  I had to take it out so many times I thought I would never finish.  My biggest problem with it was that you crochet in clusters instead of just single stitches, and counting the clusters was throwing me off.  I can't find the pattern I used, but I'll keep looking and post it as soon as I find it.  I found the pattern!  Here it is!

Here is a close up of the flower.

And finally the cutest hat I have made so far!  It's inspired by the minions from Despicable Me and I think he turned out quite good!

I've also been reading like crazy and finished 13 books last month!  I'm always looking for recommendations of good books, so let me know if you have any.

I also decided to give sewing a try while we were back in Michigan for March break.

My first project was a pair of pajama pants.  I probably should have started with something simpler, the fabric I used (Jersey Knit) was tricky to sew because the edges kept rolling up.  Thanks to my mom for helping me figure out how to make them!

                                       

Then I made two pillow cases.  This project was from a "Learn to Sew" kit, so all I had to do was cut out the two pieces of fabric and sew them together.  Much easier than making pants once I figured out how to thread the machine properly!

Winter is Here?

I think winter finally decided to show up.  We actually have a few inches of snow on the ground, just in time for the winter sports season to be over :)  This morning it looked like we were going to have a blizzard, the wind was whipping and it was snowing hard, but now the sun is shining!  New Hampshire weather is a lot like Michigan weather, it can change in the blink of an eye.

My schedule has gotten much more hectic over the past few weeks.  I've started working in the library every morning as well as tutoring at night.  I'm much busier now than I have been since moving here!

I've been reading like crazy lately.  So far this year I've finished 13 books for a total of 4,800 pages!  I don't think I'll have any trouble reaching my goal of 40 book this year.  I'm currently reading the last book in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  The 1st book was hard to get in to, but about half way through I had a hard time putting it down.  The 2nd book (The Girl Who Played With Fire) was great.  It hooked me right at the beginning and I finished it in less than a week, and the final book is going good, I'll let you know my final opinion soon :)

I've definitely been slacking in the crochet world.  I've finished a few projects that are going to be gifts, so I'll post pictures once they have actually been given out.

This is our last week of school before March Break (our spring break comes early and we get a whole 22 days off!)!  We will be back in Michigan soon!

Super Bowl Sunday!

Wow I've been a terrible blog slacker.  I really have no excuse, except that I find it more entertaining to read other people's blogs than actually write my own.

This weekend is parent's weekend here at school.  I forget how loud the boys actually are until they are gone.  It was really quiet around here last night :)

One of my latest projects was making a Kindle case for myself.  I used this pattern.  I liked it for the most part.  I learned how to moss stitch, and I think I like this stitch.  I did have to make a few adjustments to the pattern.  I basically just had to make it wider and longer to fit my kindle (but this may be because I crochet very tightly!).  Also, when I stitched up the sides I turned it inside out, so when I turned it right side out the top is a little wider than the sides.  Oh well, for my first attempt it wasn't terrible.

I've also been experimenting with more monster hats.  I made two baby hats (6 month size) with ear-flaps and ties.  They were probably the best hats I've made so far, and I only took one crappy cell phone picture :(

But I've heard happy things from both babies (and their mamas)!  I was really worried about the size, since I've had two size failures so far, but they both fit great! 

I'm still debating about opening an Etsy store.  Not really sure if I want to pay a portion of all sales to Etsy, as well as a listing fee...

In other news, it's Super Bowl Sunday!  I'm excited to watch the commercials :)  It's pretty big news in these parts since the Pats are playing, but I'm secretly rooting for the Giants. 

Also, I'm going to make some cookie dough dip (don't worry, no raw eggs!)  and I'm pretty stoked to try it out.  I've been in a cookie mood lately.  I made cookie dough bites and chocolate chip cookies the other day... Good thing I've been running lately ;)

Crocheting

So I taught myself how to crochet using You Tube a few months ago.  Sometimes I feel like I am doing it all wrong, but things turn out (for the most part!).  One thing I need to work on is making sure my gauge is correct! 

I did spend a lot of time making hats and then taking them out.  Hats are tricky!  But I think I'm getting better. 

Current works in progress:  one more hat and scarf, then possibly attempting mittens and a new blanket for our apartment!

I'll leave you with pictures of what I've done so far and links to where I found the patterns:

 To make the flowers I used this pattern.  I just didn't pull the magic circle tight to leave a hole big enough to fit a button through.

 

This hat was based on this pattern, but remember that gauge thing I talked about earlier...yeah, when you actually use the right size yarn the pattern works amazing, but my yarn was way small, meaning i made quite a few hats before getting one that fit :)

 I made this pattern up myself.  Not too hard though :)

These cute monster hats came from this cool blog, but I modified them a little bit (larger size and the teeth are crochet, not felt).

I'm also having a lot of trouble with sizing of hats.  Every source I find has different information for head circumference and hat length.  It's pretty frustrating.  Any tips?