My sister is fabulous!!

Look at what my sister sent me...

How can I slack off if I am wearing this???  (Dirty, sweaty, post-workout!)

A perfect reminder of why I do Crossfit.  Did I tell you that she joined her local Crossfit gym and loves it?  I am so happy for her.  After all, misery loves company!

Thanks so much, Love Aphid, you're the best!!

The Conclusion of the Holiday and a Cool New Shirt

Patriotic deck...love the view...we've been lucky that no one has built in
the field behind us the entire time we've lived here.  I know it is coming,
but for now, I remain oh so grateful for our amazing view.

I keep my patriotic decor up from Memorial Day through Independence Day...kind of a festive welcome to summer.  After July 4th, however, I'm definitely ready to put it all away.  So, in a little bit of productivity for the day, I got it taken down and put away for next year. 

Until next year...

Hmmm...I'm thinking pinwheels for the remainder of summer.  Wouldn't those be fun, festive, and inexpensive?  Here is a quick and easy DIY tutorial.  I love it.  What do you think?

Anyway, moving right along.  I should have been working in the yard today, but realistically, that is going to wait a week...there is nothing that needs to be done urgently enough that I'm going to brave 100 degree weather to do it.  Nope, just not doing it.  Instead, after a morning spent running errands like getting another package off to Superman, after Valiant headed off to work, Buttercup and I retreated to the basement where it was nice and cool, even without the air conditioner on.

Cleaned my desk, ironed some napkins, and watched "My Cat from Hell".  Love that show.  Jackson seems to really care.  I'm just astounded by how little common sense people have.  Then again, I'm a cat person, so maybe obvious to me isn't obvious to non-cat people.

In the meantime, I needed to keep busy in the basement.  I'm not good at sitting around doing nothing.  I had one more plain t-shirt in Valiant's size and I knew just the image that would bring a smile to his face.  So, I got out my Silhouette machine and some heat-transfer vinyl and got to work.

Heat transfer vinyl is so cool!  Just remember to cut the mirror image of your
final look...

Once I cleaned up the image, I flipped it so I had a mirror image and sent it through the Silhouette.  A few minutes weeding the excess vinyl and I was ready to iron it on.

Ironing it on takes 30 seconds...

A few minutes later, I had a finished product designed to appeal to a teen-aged boy. 

"Everyday, I'm Shufflin'"...

When he came in from work, the smile on his face told me that Valiant did, indeed, like his new shirt.

Day 117.  Another day closer to Superman coming home and I was successfully productive again!  Woot!

T-Shirt Project - Quick & Easy

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was fabulous once Superman finally made it home.  I'm finally able to catch my breath and start to think beyond the holiday, however, and thought I'd share with you the t-shirt project I did to go with the Christmas pajamas I told you about last week.

Different personalities needed different sayings!

In addition to making each of us pajama pants, I also made each of the men personalized t-shirts.  Since they're all "talls", I ordered inexpensive tall-sized t-shirts from Old Navy a few weeks ago.  Then I ordered heat transfer ("iron-on) vinyl from Expressions Vinyl.  I gathered up a silly saying for each of them, got out my Silhouette SD and went to work.

The tutorial on the Expressions Vinyl site was really clear and I had no problems whatsoever. Honestly, the most difficult part was figuring out what to say on each shirt.


Superman's:

Really, he is!

Charming's:

Long-suffering Charming truly appreciated this one!

and Valiant's:

Have a 15-year old?  Then you know how appropriate this one is!

I think they turned out pretty well, don't you?  The entire project took me less than an hour for all three.  Best of all, they really matched nicely with the pajama pants.  The men liked the sayings I surprised them with and they liked the colors of the shirts...win/win all around.

I ordered extra t-shirts, so now I'm already looking to make more quirky t-shirts for the family.

(SewDucky:  No pictures of the men in their pants...they just weren't into pictures on Christmas!)