sweater for my mug…

I recently cut up an old hand-me-down pair of sweatpants. They were from name-a-store-that-caters-mostly-to-teens and I don’t know whether it’s just the way they cut their sweats, or if they shrunk a little too much in the wash with their previous owner (but only in the butt region)… I know it is not because of my post-baby (and currently-holding-baby) body just doesn’t work with their style because they were given to me before I was pregnant with Eli and, gosh, those sweats were not even “hipsters” … they were like, below-the-hipsters. “Uncomfortable” doesn’t even do them justice. “Impossible to wear” would be more like it! Unless you have no butt.

And so they got cut up. And I’ll show you kind of how I cut them up in another post because they were used for something else as well. For now I’m just showing you what I did with one of the scraps of cut-up-sweats.

A sweater for my mug. That pretty red material is not my sweats… just some fabric I had laying around. You can see part of the sweats peeking out on the bottom rim.

There is how it is held on to the mug – a button and old pony-tail holder that broke last week thanks to my even-thicker-than-normal crazy pregnant hair. I usually have the gap positioned behind the handle of the mug… it is just turned to be able to show you how it works.

This is what I had originally intended it for, because I had used an old Starbucks sleeve as my template for cutting material, but I must have cut a little off because the mug sweater just slid right off this Starbucks mug. I could probably have put another button on to make it tighter… but I use my own mugs MUCH more often than I ever get coffee so it works out :)

Ahem… and also please note cute tiny thumb of toddler trying to steal my Starbucks cup… he likes to help mommy “make copfee”, and also likes to sit and pretend to drink “copfee” from my empty cups. Yes, we go on coffee dates together :)

Here is the reverse side of the mug sweater.

I roughly used this tutorial, and I would definitely recommend it :)

Things I did differently:
– I skipped the quilt batting. Since I was using sweatpants material, I didn’t need any extra heat-absorption :)
– I did not pin anything. ‘Cause I’m lazy  gutsy like that. (Ha.)
– I used a combo of fusible webbing stuff (the kind you use an iron for) and hand-sewing instead of using my machine… because machines frustrate me…

sun-kissed and blue gems

My coffee date today.

His style is speed-dating-esque. Mommy only got a few minutes of interaction, and he flirted with everyone else in the room.
His daddy is the best date. At least he has the best to learn from :)

{I love this post by LoveFeast Table… a Coffee House Culture is something that I want to cultivate in my home}

We went to the farmer’s market yesterday and found these sunny things.
Trying to photograph a bunch of sunflowers is like trying to photograph a group of kids … you can’t get them all to sit facing the same direction.

We also found these yummy things…

And Isaac is growing. As always. {I am so bad at taking pictures of myself… either my face is screwed up into a perplexed expression, or the angle is weird, or my shirt and hair get in the way… so I gave up after about the 20th try. This is what you get.}

25 weeks

kitchen art {slow progress}

I am making slow progress on the art for the kitchen. My process seems to be kind of jump-from-one-thing-to-the-other lately {I never sit and finish one piece before moving to the next}… but that’s okay. I’m enjoying it :)

This is just an idea of how the tiles might be arranged on my wall. They are imperfect and unfinished… but I am finally letting go of the it has to be perfect standard in my head, and so enjoying the freedom in that!!

This one might be my new favorite, simple though it may be… {it is special to me, because of this day}

This tile finally has some color…

And I made some more coffee mugs…

talking to birds

sat outside this morning ♥

Eli played with dew-covered grass ♥

it makes me think of Fireflies, “cause they’d fill the open air and leave teardrops everywhere” … but why would fireflies cry? ♥

My cat is talking to the birds outside ♥

I have coffee! ♥

homemade soy-banana frappuccino

Breakfast today – one piece of whole grain bread with nutella and half a banana (sliced) on top (Eli “ate” the other half of that banana), and a soy-banana frappuccino.

**I recently discovered that it seems my pregnancy triggered more severe milk-intolerance than what I had before. Even lactose-free coffee cream bothers me, so I have switched to using vanilla soy milk in my coffee and have found that I like it just as much if not better – especially since my stomach aches have gone away :)

Soy Banana Frappuccino

(adapted from FreeSpiritFood)

1/2 Cup of espresso (I made mine in my Moka Pot)

1 Cup soy milk

1 frozen banana

2 Cups ice (I like mine extra slushy)

1 squirt chocolate syrup

Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth (or the consistency you like). I added my chocolate syrup as an afterthought, after it was blended, but I am sure that it is just as good when you blend it in. Mine made enough for 2 frapp’s, so I poured the rest into a freezer baggie and it is now waiting in my freezer for me to take it out and blend it up!