DIY: Tie blanket

Hooray for DIY christmas gifts! I decided to make Riley a large tie blanket so he could wrap up and stay warm while I am away in Spain. So I was going to go with the traditional tie blanket but I found this tutorial for tying but with smoother and cleaner edges. 

Supplies: Two pieces of fleece (1-3yds. is standard, I used 2.5 yds.), safety pins, scissors, ruler, paper

1. Lay out fleece so edges line up and safety pin together.

2. Cut out a square of the corners. Look at the tutorial I used (I forgot to take a pic).

3. Using the paper, cut out a template for the length and width of your fleece strips. 

4.  Using the template cut strips for each side. As you cut a strip flip fleece strips so they lay flat on top of the top fleece. 

5. Once you have cut your strips go back around and and cut a small slit in each strip. 

6. Thread both fleece strips through the small slit.

Overall, people have said it takes longer but I think it was more convenient and looks much better than the traditional tie style! And even more importantly I think Riley loves it! 

Much love,

Sara

Merry Christmas!

Merry christmas to you all this holiday season! I am off to eat delicious crab legs and steak with the lovelies pictured above! 

Much love,

Sara

Hollidazzle Parade

Hip hip hooray for getting the gang back together again! Basically a week ago (Woah time has flown) I arrived back home and by Sunday most of the friends had arrived back too. It has been so joyous to see these lovely faces again. So to celebrate our first moments back together, on sunday night we loaded into the man van and headed downtown to see the Hollidazzle Parade. (Does a parade like this exist else where?! Seriously let me know if it does.) But basically this is a parade that happens every Thursday through Sunday night from Thanksgiving to Christmas, featuring people in costumes containing Christmas lights! Its way cool (not that you can tell from my blurry iphone pics). There are different themes like Zoo, Wizard of Oz, Disney,  and of course SANTA! We had a blast even though we couldn't feel our toes at the end. 

Much love,

Sara

P.S. Does anyone else have 10 blog drafts literally half finished? Because I def do not.....

As of now!

As of this very moment I am 

8 days until a finished fall semester

19 days until Christmas and 

30 days until a flight to Madrid, Spain. 

Everything is becoming more and more real. I officially have 3 classes left in conjunction with 2 tests and one essay, packing of a dorm room (sad), friends to be seen while on break, some Christmas fun to be had, along with some shopping left to be done, a new year to ring in and then a start to a new semester on a new continent!

I love life! So much greatness to be had!

Much love,

Sara 

Thanksgiving: Family edition

A week at home consisting of...

Baking with sister

Turkey Trot with mama

Turkey dinner with family

Trouble shooting electronics

Black friday shopping

Movie watching

Friends

and so much more! 

It was great to be home and give thanks!

How was your thanksgiving? 

Much love,

Sara

Thanksgiving: Dorm edition

Our floor decided to have a floor Thanksgiving! And boy was it delicious! We had a turkey, potatoes stuffing, and all sorts of delicious extras! It was so good considering we normally eat cafeteria food...which isn't too bad but after 1 1/2 years...donezo! It was so very fun and it was even more special because we have an exchange student who had never had Thanksgiving. During the meal we went around and said what we were thankful for. Goodness I love my floor and I will miss them so much when I am abroad. 

Much love,

Sara

Family Pictures

We took some family pictures this past weekend for our christmas card. It was so much fun! Lauren is awesome (she took Ryan's senior pics too!). Check her out here! Gosh I love my family!

Much love,

Sara

Happy (belated) birthday, America!

 Happy late 4th of July, Friends! 

I had a fabulous day with friends. We went on our good friend Lewis' boat and tootled around the lake. It was about 100 degrees so we did lots of swimming. We saw a boat parade on the lake and enjoyed each others company. After we ran out of gas we docked the boat and played on the paddle boat and swam in the weeds(ick) or should I say the boys did that and the girls watched them. That night we enjoyed some sparklers and tried to do some small fireworks but it was so buggy so it kind of failed. It was a great day! I hope your 4th was as fun as mine was.

Those two black dots are Riley and Mitch's heads. They swam far!