Amy Butler Bag

This bag came in a round about kind of way. Last Saturday, I was getting "Crafting ADD". So I googled Amy Butler fabric to find out which stores in Denver carry her fabric. I discovered a small shop down in Castle Rock, so I grabbed my keys and headed out. The shop was a cute little booth in a barn with many other stores. The owner told me that she is hoping to be able to move to her own store and expand her inventory- I hope it can happen. I loved what little she had. I decided to make a bag to take as a carry on when I flew to Dayton. I was trying to be sneaky with the airline and needed a bag that could hold my camera bag AND other items. Amy Butler's pattern for a "Modern Diaper Bag" worked perfectly. My only frustration is that I found the pattern to be a little stingy with the fabric. I didn't have enough interior fabric so I used some leftover blue fabric I had from Julie's graduation present laundry bag. It was a good and challenging pattern which included lining, pockets, darts, and box pleats. Good thing I have my super-sewing Ma's genes.


Top fabric is the exterior fabric in my bag:

Third fabric in top row is the interior fabric:

Laundry bag for Julie (also from an Amy Butler pattern):



In other news, watching the movie Matilda on ABC Family tonight. Matilda by Roald Dahl is one of my all time favorite children's books.
Heading to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (down in Colorado Springs) tomorrow with Sandy, Annessa, and their kids. We've been to the Denver Zoo every summer for the past few years, so we thought we would try something different this time around.

O-Hi-O!

On Monday, Eric and I flew to Dayton to visit his family. We really enjoyed the chance to see Eric's family!

Loved to see all the lushious plants fostered by some good ol' Midwestern humdity.

Hello Ohio.

Eric's parents' backyard.





Happy 3rd Anniversary to us! Jean and Marlowe had this cake made for us- it was yummy!

Eric, Jordan, and Shane played wiffle ball after supper.





Followed by soccer.


Jordan is gaining some height on Eric.

Marlowe, Eric, and Jean.

Unfortunately on Thursday we had a 6-hour wait in the Dayton airport waiting for a weather delay in Detroit to be lifted. We misconnected with our next flights so we were stuck in Detroit for the night. The thunderstorms knocked out half the power in Detroit- I guess we were lucky to even get a hotel room with all of those stranded passengers. The glow stick that provided us with light in our powerless hotel room in Detroit.

The monorail in the Detroit airport.
Monorail, monorail, monorail...

The eastern plains of Colorado.

Getting ready to land at the Denver airport.

Belle

Yesterday Eric and I met Sandy's new puppy, Belle. She is about 2.5 months old and really cute. She is a Spaniel mix (I think Cavalier King Charles and Cocker). Belle was really calm and shy at first. However, when we went outside it didn't take long for her to get wound up chasing after Dani and Kacey. The beeping from my camera also peaked her curiosity.








Eric also spent some time trying to discover the cause of our leaky window by inspecting the roof. No clues.

Mid June

A little of this and that...

Saw this advertisement at the bike store- thought this was a clever name and logo for a race.

I took my brother's bike (acquired from my parents' house- thanks David!) and my bike into to get a tune-up last week. Actually they probably need more than a tune-up. A full blown welcome to the 21st century is what these bikes need. They're pre-shocks, No-Fear-sticker-covered, Taco-Bell-visiting dinosaurs. The techs (including one of my students, of course) at the bike store seemed very confident that they were up to the challenge. Stopped in today to check on the progress and should be able to get them back tomorrow. Eric and I are looking forward to doing a little bike riding around our neighborhood and hopefully around Chatfield Reservoir. Found a online posting that said the trail around the lake is about 12-13 miles long. (Although now that I'm looking for a specific map of the path, I can't find one. We may need to do a little exploring our first time out.)

In other outdoor adventure news, our tent is going camping this week.
We are not.

Our friend is borrowing the never-been-used wedding present. When Eric and I put this on our gift registry, we had to stop and figure out if we were "camping people" or not. It actually involved quite the lengthy discussion in the sports section of Target. Neither of us had gone camping very often, but we didn't want to rule out any future adventures. If we haven't used our tent after three years, does that indicate that we are not camping people?

And now some of our flowers. (Can you spot the bee in the 2nd photo?)

As Kenny Rogers Would Say...

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.
I should be running full speed away from my kitchen right now.
First, I tried canning peaches. We've had some pretty good peaches trickling into the grocery stores. I had been thinking about trying canning; the store's clever display sucked me in. I bought all of the supplies thinking about how lucky we would be to enjoy yummy summer peaches in the middle of the winter.



Well, six pounds of peaches yielded 3 pints!!! That's it. I couldn't get the skin off the peaches, so I ended up losing way more meat than I should have. Boiling water for sterilizing jars, for sterilizing the lids, for cooking the peaches, and for sealing the jars took a long time! I thought I found some good directions and hints online. At least if I decide to try it again, I'll have a better idea of how to juggle my time.
My second kitchen disaster of the day- cupcakes. If you're like me, cupcakes sound innocent enough. There was an article in the Denver Post this week about cupcake bakeries around Denver. They also included some recipes for cupcakes and frosting. I made chocolate cupcakes which ended up being dry. The butter-cream frosting tasted like I used shortening and took an hour to make. Bleh. I'm very disappointed in these recipes. They didn't come from the bakeries so I'm not sure where the Post dug them up. Double bleh!

Eric may not want to step foot in our kitchen anytime soon as well. Between canning, supper, and cupcakes, I think I managed to use every item in our kitchen. He spent a good hour and a half doing the dishes while I made the frosting. I have a good husband (who is probably hoping he gets called out for a trip tomorrow).

Rockune

So when the Rockies did well in September, it was nicknamed Rocktember. In October, we had Rocktober. Tonight the Rockies grabbed their ninth straight victory. So apparently, we are in the middle of Rockune. (Credit to a 9News sportscaster for creating this one.)

Threatening skies made way to a lovely evening- only a few sprinkles and then the clouds opened when we were driving home.



Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game tonight. They beat the Mariners 6-4. (Sorry Riffle's) Ken Griffy Jr. pinch-hit at the end of the game, but only got on base because he was walked (not intentionally). Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a great, complete game. The Rockies had some amazing offensive and defensive moves.

I would rank this game as one of my top 5(?) games.

Other top contenders (in no particular order):

- Catching a foul ball in the upper deck of a 4th of July game at Coors Field. I thought my dad was going to start crying; he looked so proud. Loved the fireworks after the game as well. The foul ball is proudly on display in my china cupboard.

- My dad grabbing a foul ball at Coors Field. (Was it another 4th of July game?) This was the first time he had gotten a foul ball at a MLB game. Even better- he didn't just hand it to the bratty kid near us who spent more time at the snack bar than actually watching the game. Dad definitely deserved to keep that one.

- Attending a Mariners game with the Riffles. This was at the beginning of the Ichiro craze. The Japanese fans were as entertaining as the game.

- Any Twins game. It's been a long time since I've attended one and now the Dome is in its final season. The best part about leaving the Dome was getting blown out the doors. Dad always made sure to grab our hands on the way out.

Griffey up to bat, Ichiro on deck:

Jimenez pitching to Griffey:

Go Rockies!