Dabbing in Love: Celebrating 60 years

Earlier this fall my family got together to celebrate something magical: Love. Long-lasting, unconditional, wonderful love.

October 7, 2011 marked my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Yup - they've put up with each other for over six decades. Not only have they put up with each other, they've done it with warmth and grace and have given their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren an incredible example to emulate and live up to.

So, to celebrate two of the most loving and wonderful people we all know, my dad, aunt and uncle worked together to put on a very fun anniversary party. We all got together for food and a good chat after church the weekend of their anniversary. It was such a blessing to see our family all together - well, as many of us who could make it. We got to hear great stories and laugh and eat some amazing food - courtesy of my dad and Uncle Dave who smoked some delicious pork and whipped up some amazing barbecue sauces.

Since most of use made it to the party, we took the opportunity to get a big family photo - this includes all of the children, most of the grand-children and a few "outlaws" in the form of spouses:

The afternoon reminded me of Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations from when I was younger - when everyone would gather at Grandma & Grandpa's big house on Cedar Street and we'd all cram around the tables to enjoy delicious food and good conversation. Those are cherished memories - just like the love my amazing grandparents have shared for more than half a century. (Here's hoping we have many more fun family gatherings like this one!)

Until next time - happy dabbling!

Dabbling in Crafts: Blankets for charity

(Okay - so I have a little time and I'll use it to blog and procrastinate doing other things, you lucky readers, you!)

Back in October I whipped out 5 blankets for our United Way raffle at work. I was actually pretty excited to make them and tested out a new technique that saved me a slew of time and quite a bit of money on supplies.

Since the raffle was for everyone at work and not everyone has a baby or needs a baby blanket, I decided to make a few "adult" blankets in addition to a few baby blankets. It was actually a lot of fun to pick out all of the fabric and put them together.

I went without the ribbon edging this time - simply stitching the blankets together, turning them right-side out and then doing a second seam to give them a "finished" look. I think they turned out really well!

Here are the "adult" blankets - since we're in Madison, I made a Badgers blanket and a Packers blanket. I should've also put together a Brewers one - but JoAnn's was out of Brewers fleece. (They were still in the hunt for the World Series at the time and Brewers Fever was certainly catching!)

 

Now I REALLY want to make a Hawkeye blanket for our living room - just have to find the time & the money to do it!

Here are the baby blankets - I decided to make 3. One for a little boy, one for a little girl and one that could be used for either. These were a little harder to make because the minky material is pretty slippery and the baby-themed materials were stretchier than the fleece - but they really turned out quite nicely:

The little girl material is one of my favorites and I really do like the baby feet for blankets as well. Maybe I'll have to just buy a bolt of each and start whipping out blankets to have on hand. ;)

All in all, this design is super simple - each baby blanket took maybe 30 minutes and each adult blanket took roughly 1 hour. The hardest part was finding a place big enough to lay out the material and get it all cut to size! Hopefully that Hawkeye blanket will become a reality by the end of the year. I'm really excited to put it together! :)

Until next time - happy dabbling! :)

Dabbling in Life -- A promise to blog more

I'm terrible at blogging. I admit this. While this won't be a long post - what it will be is a vow to you, my (dedicated?) readers.

I promise I will get better and blog more.


But probably not today. I *do* have a list of blog posts I keep meaning to post and they *will* get done, I promise. But, for now, you'll just have to wait.

In the meantime - a list of reasons why I suck at blogging:
My laptop is super slow.
I get bored on the upstairs computer because I can't watch tv.
I get distracted by watching tv too often to remember to blog.
I've been (sort of) busy (mainly watching tv).
I've been making super boring meals and very few crafts.
I've gone back to "regular" eating instead of sticking to the Dukan (because I am weak-willed).
I am lazy. (This is probably the main reason why I've been sucking at the blogging).

Until then - happy dabbling. Get excited for my upcoming blogs. I'm sure they will be awesome. ;)

Dabbling in Adventure: Staycation Adventures

First off - this post is LONG overdue. For that, I apologize.

Exactly one month ago today, Chris & I returned to reality after our 6 day "Staycation."

We spent the first 3 days enjoying various spots in Wisconsin and the last 3 days enjoying friends and family in Dubuque.

First up: Milwaukee for my birthday.
We started the day at one of my favorite places - the zoo! Doesn't matter what zoo it is, what animals they have or how much it costs for us to get in. I LOVE ZOOS.

I took a ton of photos, but will only share a few here:

^ Chris compares his size to a baby Gorilla.

^ I compare my size to a baby Gorilla!

^ One of my birthday presents from Chris - a stuffed Red Panda! (He says the red panda is my "spirit animal." It's true. I love them.)

After the Zoo we tried to do a tour of the Sprecher Brewery - but we were too late. So, since we needed to get to Summerfest, we trekked out to Veterans Park and snagged a paddleboat to kill a little time before the Hall & Oates concert (more on that in a second!!).

^ Loving the Paddleboat! Can't wait to try one on the Madison lakes. :)

After our paddleboat adventure, we walked along the Lake Michigan Lakefront (which is GORGEOUS) to the Summerfest grounds. It was a nice little walk.

Once on the Summerfest grounds we wandered a bit and got some dinner.
Then, for my birthday (err... the first night of Summerfest), there was a fireworks show!

^ Fireworks for my birthday/Summerfest

Then, it was the main event - the main reason for a day-long foray in Milwaukee (The City of Brewers? I have no idea what they call Milwaukee): HALL. AND. OATES.

That's right, we got to see them live for my golden birthday. It was amazing. Amazing.
While my camera battery was dead (super sad!),  my cell phone managed to snap a few photos in the concert.

^ This is from the second encore.

After the concert, we drove home for some shut eye prior to our big adventures.

Next up on the staycation agenda: 2 days, 1 night in the Wisconsin Dells!

Once we checked into our hotel room we set out for adventure. First stop: Lost Canyon.

The canyon offers up a horse and wagon ride through the Canyon. It's beautiful! One of the first rock formations we saw was the eagle:

The tour was very fun and we saw a ton of pretty scenery... but it only took us about 90 minutes. Sooo... we found a spot where you can feed alligators and other reptiles: Alligator Alley!

^ We didn't feed any of the reptiles - but got plenty of photos. They were kind of creepy!

^ This albino toad was SUPER creepy. It kept flicking its tongue out at me while I was trying to take photos - which kept scaring me!

Once we finished up our time at Alligator Alley, we grabbed some dinner and spent time relaxing in our hotel room.

We'd originally planned to go on a boat tour Thursday night, but we got to the ticket stand too late for the last boat tour of the night. So, Friday morning the first order of business (after breakfast, of course) was to hit the boat tours! We opted for the Upper Dells tour. It was GORGEOUS. (Super hot, but still gorgeous.) I took WAY too many photos to share here, but will share this one:

^ One one of the land stops, they had a dog trainer jump from one rock to another. Usually they  have a dog do it - but it was too hot for the dogs that day. They do this to emulate one of the Dells most famous photos. Very cool.

Once we finished up the boat tour we spent a little time at the outlet mall (I got some new jeans) and then climbed into the car and drove to Spring Green for "The Critic" at American Players Theater.

^ The stage. APT is an outdoor theater group. It was so amazing! I can't wait to go back for another show.

We hadn't really planned out Saturday. After sleeping in for just a bit we decided to hit up Cave of the Mounds on our way to Dubuque. I am SO glad we did. Although, now I want to go on cave tours every weekend!

Everything inside the cave was beautiful. Stunning.

^ One of the many beautiful things to see inside the Cave. Awesome.

After the cave, we hit up Dubuque for some 4th of July celebrations with friends and family. I didn't take any photos - my SD cards were full! I'm sure the next time we're in Dubuque we'll be sure to take photos of our crazy Iowan adventures. :)

Until next time - happy dabbling! Go out and get a little adventure...

----------------

So. I got done with this post and Chris noticed that I completely skipped part of our adventure: The Deer Park!

After we went on the boat trip, we went out into the heat to feed deer. It was awesome.

There were tons of deer and they came right up to you to take the food. It was really fun interacting with animals so closely.

Of course, the park is home to more animals than just deer (goats, horses, rabbits, raccoons, LEMURS!) - and Chris loved the three little pigs in particular.

After an hour or so, we went on with our staycation - mostly because we really needed some air conditioning! It was sweltering that day.

I promise more blogs are coming... Just have to carve out a little time here and there. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to provide a few project updates...

Dabbling in Adventure: Owen Conservation Hike

The City of Madison has an AMAZING Parks Department. This Spring/Summer/Fall the Parks Department is offering a special look into the City's conservation projects through a special series of hikes called Hike Madison's Wild Side. The series is awesome! Chris & I have only made it to 2 of the hikes - but they are always informative, fun and beautiful!

The July hike was at a west-side conservation park - Owen Conservancy. We went along and I got some really fun photos:

^ Our guide talking about the ponds and how the city's working to conserve the area.

^ My absolute favorite shot from the night. :)

^ A view of the campus area from the parking lot.

The park is beautiful. If you ever get a chance to explore it, you really should! There are some amazing trails - but don't bring your dog. The park has a coyote population and apparently dogs attract the coyotes.

Until next time, happy dabbling - and get out for some adventure! :)

Dabbling in Fitness: Yes I Will 5K!

Last weekend I ran another 5K. It was a bit ambitious, considering the Full Moon 5K was 2 weeks prior.

Regardless, I signed up for the good cause and convinced my friend Trevor to run it with me. Running with a friend is always so much fun! :)

It was a bit hot and a bit humid even though the race didn't start until 6:30 p.m. Because of the humidity (or maybe the fact that I didn't run at all between races?) I had to walk more than I anticipated. Trevor was nice enough to walk with me - even though he totally didn't need the walk breaks.

The course was nice - from the Capitol to the Goodman Pool. We ran along the same bike path we ran part of the Full Moon on so it was nice to have some familiar (and relatively hill-less) territory to run on.

Chris decided not to run with us this time - so he was at the finish line to take some photos!

^ Running in

^ Feeling so good at the end I was able to throw up double-thumbs-up!

^ Best finish time yet! :)

After the race there was a fun pool party for participants. Goodman Pool has 2 water slides - SUPER fun! Chris & I hung out for awhile before heading out to get some dinner after the race. Makes us want to spend more time in the water, for sure!

I have a few more posts in mind - so until next time - happy dabbling! :)

Dabbling in Fitness: Full Moon 5K

Last Thursday I joined my good friend Jen on her first 5K.

I was worried. She's been training - like actually training - for a race for MONTHS. I've been running like 3 times in the past 6 months. She goes running like three times a week. Oh, and she actually runs all three miles. In a row.

So, going into the race I treated it like I've treated all of my other races: just run the beginning, run the end and maybe run a little in the middle. Just finish in less than 60 minutes (because they will close the course on you).

I really wasn't expecting anything - especially since the last time I ran before the race I completely bonked. It was an awful run. And my other runs either got thunder-and-lightning stormed out or I just was a sleepy, whiny baby and stayed in bed.

Then something amazing happened.

I ran the full first mile - no walking. And I ran it at a 12:20 pace.

First - I'm fairly certain that's the first time I've ever run an entire mile without a walk break.
Second - I KNOW that's the first time I've ever done a mile that fast.

I honestly don't know how I did it. But it felt AMAZING. Even after the first mile I was able to run more of the race and improved my overall time by TEN MINUTES. Yes. 10 full minutes. I can't even tell you how excited I am about that. :)

This is the first 5K I've run at night. The race started at 9 p.m. Every other race I've run has been in the morning and I usually try to run before work or in the morning on the weekends. Running at night is awesome. I think I need to start doing it more. :)

While the actual running of the race went really well, there were a few drawbacks. First - I am covered in mosquito bites. Second - I had a few bugs fly into my eye and my nose. It's really hard to run when you've got a gnat in your eye.

Anyway, now I'm looking at a ton of other races. I definitely had a runner's high after the race and wish that it wasn't so hot and humid out this week - because I think I'd be totally killing my 1.5 mile route right now.

Until next time - happy dabbling! :)