Baby Shower Invitations

My cousin Amanda and her husband Shelby are adopting a little boy from South Korea- Elijah Patrick. They expect to go pick him up from Korea in the next month! To prepare for their first child, my aunt Becky and I threw Amanda a baby shower. I was in charge of the invitations, but could not find any invitations in the stores that I liked. So, I decided to make my own.

Shelby grew up on a farm and loves tractors and the like. The nursery for Elijah has tractor sheets and tractor decals on the walls...so I thought, what better for a baby shower invitations but a tractor?

This project was a little time-consuming, but not difficult. I started with some bright green card stock from Michael's.

I cut the paper in half to fit into my printer, and printed the words for the invitation, 2 per half sheet. It took some trial and error at first (on white computer paper first, of course) to get the words laid out how I wanted so they'd fit into the shape of the tractor.

Next, I traced the tractor shape around the words from a picture of a tractor I found online. I made sure the tractor fit into the white envelopes I would be mailing them in. Then I cut out all the tractors. This was definitely the most time consuming step.

I cut a piece of ribbon the length of a pen I had sitting there, which was actually the perfect length. I used that piece as a guide to cut the rest, making sure to cut the ribbon at an angle for a nicer edge.

At the top of the tractor, I punched 2 little holes, fed the ribbon through (with the help of a toothpick!), and tied it in a bow.

I bought a bag of buttons from Michael's and picked out 2 buttons per invitation, one bigger button and one smaller button, and different colors for each. I love buttons and had fun with this step!

With a hot glue gun, I glued the buttons on all the invitations. I loved all the variations with the buttons!

Finally, I addressed the envelopes, stuck in the tractors, stamped and mailed them.

I was so pleased with this project and how they turned out! I always thought making your own invitations would be so hard, but this gave me confidence that it really isn't- all it takes is a little creativity!

Chocolate Break

When work gets hectic, nothing like a Cadbury egg to make it better...

Rodes City Run- 10k

Yesterday was the 2nd race of the Louisville Triple Crown races I'm running. This was the 10k (6.2 miles), and as usual, running with Jenn made it a lot easier than it was running that the weekend before by myself. It just helps to have someone to talk to the whole way, plus we run at the same pace and keep each other motivated. Here we are before the race.

Our friend Amy did the race, too.

And here's the start line (we were a little closer this time):

We were lucky to have really great weather. It was in the mid 40s at the start, the sun was shining, and no rain. Not too hot, not too cold...just right! Here are my official results:

Time: 1:12:31

Overall Rank: 5,181 out of 7,301

Gender Rank: 2,402 out of 4,052

Division Rank (Females 20-24): 208 out of 267

I guess I'm slow for my division, but oh well. I was just happy to have run the whole thing! Jenn finished 2 seconds ahead of me. Ben told me that next time I should tell her that her shoe is untied right at the end and then bolt ahead first- ha. Amy did great and only finished 6 minutes after us and she walked most of the time! Shows you how fast she walks and how slow we run!! We met up with our cousin Jason again after the race- Jason's time was 53:22- again, this is why we just meet up after the race instead of running together. :)

Of course, we held to the tradition and Jenn, Amy, and I met up with Ben at Wild Eggs for brunch. I ordered a bananas foster waffle. Oh my.

Waffle with vanilla ice cream and powdered sugar

+ bananas and some sort of syrupy deliciousness

=love

I highly recommend this waffle, but I also highly recommend you split it with someone because it is way too sweet to eat all by yourself!!

Ham & Cheese

When Ben's dad Carl, Ben, and I were in Paris last summer, we ate at this little place near the train station and Ben ordered the most amazing ham and cheese sandwich that we all tried and loved. I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was just Paris...but this sandwich was unlike any ham and cheese we'd ever had!! Last weekend, Carl decided to re-create the sandwich for us.

He paired it with M5, a wine our brother-in-law Noah got him from the Getty in Los Angeles, which was a 10 out of 10. The presentation on the square green plate was a nice touch...and the sandwich was delicious!! Our only critiques to make it more like the original were that the cheese needed to be pouring over onto the plate (can never have too much cheese, right?), and the Eiffel Tower needs to be in the background (not that we're picky or anything)!

YUM!!!

That's all I have to say about that.

Anthem 5k

Today was my first running race ever, the Anthem 5k- first leg of the Triple Crown of Running. I was amazed when we got there at the excitement in the air...there were 8,515 participants, not to mention all the on-lookers and people cheering everyone on! There were some cheerers with funny signs, one that said, "Keep running- people are watching!" and another that said, "Run like someone is chasing you!"

The weather was nice, pretty cold before we ran (low to mid 30s maybe), but good in that the sun was shining! I was there with my sister Jenn and my cousin Jason. Here we are, excited to start the race!

We lined up for the race to start at 8:00, but as you can see we were a ways from the red "Start" archway we had to pass through (you can barely see it in this picture):

We didn't cross the start line until 8:06. The time chip on the number you wear on your shirt doesn't start the time though until you pass through that archway. Jenn and I ran together the whole way (3.1 miles)...Jason, of course, is way faster so we didn't run with him! We started off running really fast, a little overly excited to be running with a mob of people. Then we realized we should probably slow it down a bit if we wanted to run the whole way! The first mile felt great, and it was exciting to cross the first mile marker. The second mile had a slight decline and then incline, and it slowed us down a bit trying to get through all the people who had slowed down a lot doing uphill. The third mile felt like it was longer to me, mainly because I was so anxious to finish. Once we could see the finish line, I was so ready to be done! Jenn wanted to sprint to it, but I really didn't think I could. So she darted like a bullet through some people and crossed, and I got there 10 seconds later.

After the race, the stats are available online. Here's how I did:

Time: 31:54

Overall Rank: 4401 out of 8515

Gender Rank: 1847 out of 4904

Division Rank (Females 20-24): 188 of 356

Jenn's time was 31:44 and Jason's was 25:08 (no wonder we didn't run with him!!).

Afterward, Jenn, Jason, Amy, Julie (Amy and Julie are friends of Jenn's who did the 5k as well), Scott (he didn't do the 5k, just met up with us :)) and I went to brunch at Wild Eggs. My avacado, cheddar, fried egg, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich and skillet potatoes were yummy!

My first race experience was a good one, although the first thought through my mind when I crossed the finish line was, "I'll never be able to do the mini-marathon!" This made me realize how much harder I need to train, especially since the 10k (6.2 miles) is coming up in 2 weeks! I am just so glad Jenn is running all these with me because she keeps me going during the race...she's faster than me and motivates me to keep up!