Meeting a new friend // Mother’s Day

I got to meet Baby Pope’s future best friend this week – Baby Morris! Morris’s mom, Patricia and I were roomies in college and she is thankfully in Lincoln now so I get to see her all the time. :)

Mother’s Day was let’s just say…odd. It was very nice receiving so many “Happy Mother’s Day!” comments from people at church. But it’s hard to really think of myself as a mother yet. I’m just kind of in the “freak out” phase, so that probably didn’t help. I was also missing both of my families that day and was just in a sad mood. All of the Pope clan was together for family branding – we had to miss. The Frasier clan was together for Miss Maelle’s dedication – we also had to miss. And I was sick. Boo.

But it was the only day Ronny was home in two weeks so I went with him to breed heifers. Romantic! But I’m glad I got to spend some time with him and enjoy our nice weather. And he “treated” me to a free DQ blizzard. :)

And lastly, an update about this mother and every-growing Baby Pope, here is “the bump”.

High five for Friday.

The last two weeks ran together for me. Here are my top five highlights:

5. Travel to St. Louis – I just love this city. Especially when I can enjoy a baseball game.

4. Coming home to my favorite guys. I love that they have the same expression. :) / Hank is so happy the weather is warmed up and he can spend time outside. He is such a weeny in the cold.

3. Spending time with one of my favorite pregnant mama’s – yeah for September babies!

2. Speaking of baby, I thought it humorous that my baby app popped up with the baby being the size of an ear of corn this week – since I work for corn farmers and all. One of my counterparts has nicknamed my babe, “The Cornflake”. :)

1. Garage sale! I made $60 bucks and between the 8 families that participated, we totaled $680. I got rid of these crates, but still looking for someone who needs a desk. Ronny is glad to have his garage back, however.

high five for friday.

Cheering

I’m used to being the one competing in an event, but I was happy to be a cheerleader this weekend for one of my best friends, Melissa, as she completed her first marathon!

Melissa came to Lincoln Saturday night with her husband, Todd, and Patricia and Craig, Ronny and I met up for dinner. It was a fun Theta reunion!

Melissa ran with another one of our K-State Theta friends, Danielle, who ran the 1/2 marathon. Here they are at mile 6.

Then she went on to run the second half by herself. Here she is at mile 16 – all smiles!

Even mile 23 she is rocking it!

It was a fun day to cheer her on – I’m so proud of her and how far she’s come in two years! You can read her view of the marathon here.

DIY Pillow Shams

To match the quilt I made for my sister (almost finished!), I made matching pillow shams that I gave to her this weekend.

DIY Pillow Sham Tutorial

I put together my own pattern, but you could make these with any pattern or solid piece of fabric. It’s important to measure the pillow you’re going to use for the sham. I used a standard pillow and cut the following pieces of fabric (times two for two shams):

• Front – 31 1/4 in. length x 23 in. height
• Back – 35 in. length x 23 in. height
• Interfacing – same size as front

I wanted to use a heavy interfacing to hold up the sham nicely. The type I found was 20 inch - too short height-wise, so I added 3 1/4 extra inches to the bottom and sewed it on with a zig-zag stitch and a 1/4 inch overlay.

Once the interfacing is the correct size, lay the top of the sham right-side up on top of the interfacing.

To create the back piece with an opening to easily insert your pillow, you’ll need to cut the back piece. It really doesn’t matter the exact area of where to cut, but I measured over 16 inches and cut through the middle, top to bottom. Label your left and right sides and keep right sides up. I did this with the blue and yellow pins.
 

You’ll be hemming the left side of one rectangle and the right side of the other.  Fold over 1/2 inch and press. Hem each one.

Lay the left side of your backing right-side down (back of hem facing out). Pin in place.

Then position the right side of the backing right-side down. Pin in place. The two small rectangles will overlap, which is how you’ll insert the pillow when you’re done.

Sew all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trim corners and fold inside out. That’s the beauty of these shams! Poke the corners out with the tips of scissors or a pencil. Iron the seam all the way around.

Measure your pillow to double check the size for the border. I created mine with a little more than a 2 inch border. You want the pillow to be snug, but fit correctly, so I made my border 2 1/4 inch in from the edge.  

Now you’ll sew it again, while it’s right side out, to create the border. I measured in 2 1/4 inch at each corner and made a mark.

Some machines have measurements on them, but I just made a small black mark on my machine at the 2 1/4 inch mark (so I didn’t have to mark my fabric all the way around) and followed around the entire pillow sham.

Insert your pillow through the opening in the back, and you’re done!

Insta-Monday

I didn’t get around to InstaFriday, so here goes the last few weeks via Instagram.

Ronny and I went to Manhattan for the BJ Angus production sale // catching up with one of my besties, Georgia // checking our stones on K-State’s Senior Sidewalk

New magnet at work //

Walking Hank on a nice day // walking Hank on a cold day all bundled

I received my Honorary State FFA Degree at the Nebraska FFA Convention

Watching my former FFA mentee, McKehna, compete in the pole vault for the Doane Tigers at Concordia University in Seward //

high five for friday.

Girl time

One of my besties, Patricia, and I took some much needed girly time this weekend to shop, find some fun antiques and get our nails done.

We met up and ate at Hu Hot – one of our faves and a place that neither of our husbands will eat at with us! We went antiquing and I found some fun stuff for the baby’s room.

We of course needed to pamper ourselves with manis & pedis. Pat is due with her baby boy May 5 – so we enjoyed our time at the salon together.

Since Pat is due so soon, we took advantage of a belly pic of our future besties.

Great weather and a great day!

Easter weekend–He is Risen!

We had a fun-filled, family weekend to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus!

My Kansas grandparents hosted Easter with my mom’s side of the family, so all of the siblings and cousins were together to spend time – and to enjoy Grandma’s amazing food. (Why is it that I can make her recipes to the exact recipe and it still doesn’t taste the same? I think she throws some Grandma-magic spice in, although she won’t admit it. ;)

One of the events we participated in was the annual Easter egg hunt. All of the “kids” ages 21 to 30 enjoyed a Easter egg hunt thanks to Aunt Tam (for filling over 400 eggs with candy) and Grandpa. (You really like finding Grandpa’s eggs because it means money – and this year, Subway gift cards!)

We got all lined up for the hunt – then had to be  just a little bit silly. :)

Then, because they love pity me, the pregnant one, they let me take three steps of a head start. And guess what…this lady got 82 eggs! I almost beat Josh (the non-relative) so really I won. :)

It was a great weekend and so great to all be together. One of the best parts this year was having Miss Maelle with us! I don’t think she was put down for one minute – she got lots of love this weekend.

Hope you had a Happy Easter to celebrate Christ being Risen!