Blake and Rebecca's Baby Shower (02-20-10)

After the race was over my mom and I headed over to my cousin, Blake, and his wife, Rebecca's baby shower. They are expecting a little girl, Caroline Leigh Hardee, on March 25! I am so excited for them and I know they will be wonderful parents. They live in Simpsonville, SC so I do not get to see them as much as I would like. Blake is one year younger than I am and we were extremely close growing up. I was even able to convert him to a Clemson fan which was not an easy feat! Blake is infamous for the "thumbs up" pose in pictures- if he wasn't 26 I would swear he invented it, hince, the significance of the above picture!

Here they are with the proud soon-to-be grandmomma...

My mom and I made petit-fours for the shower. I didn't get a picture of them prior to the shower and then they were gone when I wanted to get one!

The Wednesday before the shower, my friend, Brooke Faulkner, came into town for a seminar and I was able to finagle her into staying with me so that she could teach me a thing or two about this white box that I received for Christmas. To most people, this white box is known as a sewing machine! I have not sewed since I was in the seventh grade and enrolled in Home Economics. I remember making a horribly uneven pair of boxer shorts that was pretty much a waste of fabric.

I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas and I was fortunate enough for Santa to bring one to me. I really wanted to learn to do some of the basic things and Brooke was the perfect one to teach me. She is the best sewer I know and does very advanced projects such as smocking and making crib bedding. She can look at a pattern on a piece of paper and turn it into something beautiful. I just wanted her to teach me to applique so I could make some things for the upcoming babies that were scheduled to come into the world.

Here is Blake and Rebecca opening their handmade gifts...

I completely fell in love with appliqueing. It is totally like sewing for cheaters. I mean you don't actually sew the outfit you just do the fun stuff that makes it personal. You get to draw something on a fabric and see it on a piece of clothing. I am no expert so don't look too closely as I literally learned how to do this three days before.

Here is the bird T-shirt...

Star Bib...

Cupcake burp cloth...

Monogrammed burp cloth...

For the record, I was completely skeptical about decorating a burp cloth. I mean, it is named a burp cloth. Surely something solely dedicated to catching bodily fluids should not be decorated but new moms love them. I have actually warmed up to the idea and I have loved making them- a total change in perspective from a non-mother!

Cupids Chase (02-20-10)

So I haven't exactly been very good with keeping up with blogging lately. I had one really busy weekend in February where a ton of things happened and it just became a bit overwhelming to write about it all. Well more and more big events have been happening and it is time to bite the bullet so I can share them with you. I have also had a lot of people ask me why I haven't written in such a long time which is nice to know that people are looking. I will put the dates in the title so you will know when all of this happened. Here is my attempt at catching up...

I have previously written about the organization that I am a part of called Community Options. I have been chairman of their board of directors since 2008 and I am very passionate about their worthy cause. We have been planning a 5K race in order to assist with fundraising. We did one in 2008 but it was more of an awareness walk. This one was a timed 5K race on a certified course. We were able to draw in a lot more participants and running enthusiasts. Originally, the date was on February 13th (hince the name Cupid's Chase and the Valentine's Day Theme) but the police chief called the night before and said that we would be unable to do it due to the snow (see previous post). We were definately discouraged as we pushed the race back a week. I know we would have had a lot more participants if we had not changed the date. (There was another 5K race going on the same day). Anyways, it turned out to be beautiful weather and we were able to raise some funds for a great cause.

Here is the front of the T-shirt. I think it is so funny that it lists all of these big cities (Manhattan, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Dallas, etc) where the race was taking place and then you see "Irmo" in the mix. I am sure that people from the other cities all had to google where that was when they received their official t-shirt!
Here is the group lining up for the start of the race...

Taking off...

Here I am with one of the assistants from 'Strictly Running.'

Jason Richardson is on the board, too.

My sweet mom volunteered to work registration and Adam was the official photographer.

I was in charge of the metal ceremony and giving out door prizes.

Here is the finish line...

This is a video of the start of the race...