Spring Break 2011: Utah and Projects

What a wonderful Spring Break we had!  Last year I was sorely disappointed by the end of break because we hadn't gone anywhere and the kids were sick, so we couldn't even play outside or go shopping or have a babysitter come over or anything.  Cabin Fever!

This year, however, I had a huge list of things that I wanted to do, and we were successful.

First, we wanted to get out of town, so we loaded up the car on Saturday morning and drove to SLC to see Tim's brother and sister-in-law and our niece Monet.  I took no pictures while we were in Utah, but here are the pics of the trip down there.

Kate's cute hat:

 Kate occupying herself with lotion, and the look on her face when we took the bottle away:

 We let Ethan play with our camera and Kate play with my phone when they were getting impatient:

 We had a great lunch in SLC and played at Liberty Park for a while, then headed north again to my parents' place, where I went shopping for kids' clothes with my mom, the kids played trains with Grandpa, and Tim and I played cards with my parents after we put the kids to bed.  How funny that we didn't take any pictures while we were there.  Next time!

Tim had taken Monday and Tuesday off from work, so Tuesday morning I got to sew and work on some projects while Tim took the kids to the mall or Costco or whatever it is that they do together on their outings.  Here are some projects that I worked on throughout the week.

The valance on the door:

 This took some math and creativity, because the rod pocket is actually a separate piece than the skirt, and I had to get them to match up.  Can you believe it worked?  I can't.  Then again, once I was done, I could hardly get the rod in the pocket because I had to keep sewing it smaller and smaller so the fabric would match up.  Miraculously, it worked. 

 The stools below are what motivated me to look at fabrics in the first place.  I wanted to recover the cushions (which were covered in brown leather from the 70s or 80s) in fun fabric, so last Thanksgiving I found the circle fabric and these rectangles and decided to make panels too.  I also made some pillows and started a table runner with the leftover fabric.  Not that I'm trying to overdo it with matchy-matchy stuff. 

More on Spring Break coming up!  Also on our to-do list was lots of playing!