T-shirt skirts

So I wanted J to have some skirts that were long enough and fit her petite waist. They pretty much don't exist so I decided to make some. I'm rather lazy so I took three highly pit-stained T-shirts (they pre-date my hippy deodorant revolution) and chopped them up for the easiest skirts ever. You don't even need to hem them.

Here is the sacrificial shirt.

Then I eyeballed the length I wanted using one of J's too short skirts and went snip snip.

I wrapped my elastic around J to measure and sewed it into the proper sized loop.

Then in an effort to make my sewing projects a bit higher quality, I zigzagged stitched the rough edge. Someday there my be a serger in my life, but I'm still scared of them.

Then I did a truly terrible job sewing the edge onto the elastic. One of these days I'll purchase some fold over elastic and use the appropriate number of pins necessary for a pretty final product. Today though, I stick with my poor craftsmanship and knock out three of these in an hour.

Then I put all three in her drawer without telling her. If I presented them to her as wardrobe options, she would have thrown a fit and refused to get dressed. This way, she discovered them herself and wanted to wear one every day, even after we had already wrestled her into a dress she had picked out. So we compromised and let her wear it underneath the dress. If petticoats become a trend, J totally started it.

Flying

So Husband had a pilot friend at his last job. He had taken several of the guys at work on flights but there was always something that came up so Husband never had the chance to go. As part of his birthday extravaganza, I used back channels to contact the friend and gave Husband a lunch flight as one of the surprises.

Well I let him pick the day so it wasn't that cool a surprise, but still cool.

So we met Kurt at Falcon Field and hopped in this little fella for a flight to Marana, a suburb of Tucson.

 Oh and this was taking off next to us.

It was a bit cramped inside because it has four seats. I managed to wrangle my pregnant body fairly comfortably though.



Then I started getting artsy while the menfolk were going through the pre-flight plane check list.

Of course I didn't have a good lens for taking pictures inside the plane so I just used my trusty point and shoot, my phone. Look at those fluffy white clouds and blue sky. It made for bumpier air, but great pictures.

Here is a little view of the valley

This one is right before Tucson.

Here is the only picture I have of Kurt because I felt dumb asking him to pose for one. I'm not embarrassed asking my husband to humor me and pose for pictures, but I get a little shy with folks I've only communicated with via email.

I have no qualms taking pictures of the back of their head though.

 And since I was doing nothing in the backseat, why not take a self portrait while you look like part of the Top Gun cast? (The aviators are my only sunglasses, not just for theatrics)

So the biggest surprise was finding out Kurt is a flight instructor. That means he was totally chill and had us both fly for part of the way. Without sounding like a mother and newly permitted driver.

It. was. awesome.

After I let go of my death grip of course. I sat up front on the way back and he had me do some of the taxi on the run way. The pedals are right and left, not go and stop. He didn't even have me put my hands on the wheel at all to resist the habit of turning with it. And when you are up in the air, you just give the slightest pressure on the wheel to make adjustments. I thought it was more of a steering wheel kind of pressure, but it is more thumbprint amount. I only had a total of three fingers on the wheel but they looked a little like talons because I couldn't quite give up my need for control.

While flying the plane in around Picacho Peak was a highlight of my life thus far, I have adapted my bucket list from "Get pilot's license" to "Fly a plane." I'm not sure it is a hobby I like enough to invest in, but man, it was cool to try once.

Doughnuts

There is something incredibly satisfying about the perfect doughnut. Unfortunately, powdered doughnuts have no place in this vision of perfection due to their tendency to make one choke with a single mistimed inhalation.

Thankfully we have someone in our house to dispose of them when the multi-pack contains the offending variety.

Cauliflower

I don't know why I plant things I don't particularly like to eat. This season the only things that really survived were cauliflower, kale and carrots. I just ignored them after the freeze but my sister went snooping around and low and behold, the cauliflower had become huge. So huge it demanded some pictures.

The kale looks prettier than it tastes. I think it tastes like dirt, but the health nut in my feels obligated to put it in things like lasagna and soups. You know, things you can't taste it in.



I do like carrots though.



The cauliflower didn't look very big in the garden picture so we took some to give you a sense of scale.

In case you haven't noticed, I have a rather large head.

J wanted to compare it to her head too since the adults were wearing it like a hat.

Then she decided it was time to stop letting the food go to waste.

This cannot be my kid. Cauliflower is only rendered mildly palatable with serious amounts of cheese or pureed into an indistinguishable pulp. This girl eats it raw. 

Weird.

Valentine's Portraits

Big Sis wanted some pretty pictures for her husband's Valentine so we hung a $5 tablecloth up and started snapping away. There are several, but remember my dear mum is living in Spain and the blog is her main source of pictures.

And the best shot of the day goes to this bit of sibling love.

We were trying to get an authentic smile when my cousin suggest E think of ring pops. What we got was a "thinking" pose.

Who wants the cupcake my sister is dangling over my head? You can see the eyes tracking it.

Not sure what was so funny, but I love this one.

 Such a stud at 2 months old.

Look! You can actually see a few pictures of me on my blog!

J decided my pants needed some adornment. It's a good thing she has never encountered a Bedazzler.

 Then the baby bump needed the stickers.

Then we had to take a 28 weeks shot.

And in case you needed a little more sweetness after all that...