Sunrise Surfing

This is a pretty picture-heavy post…because that’s really all it’s about. Tim took me and my camera along with him when he went surfing on Saturday morning at River’s End in Seal Beach. This is a bit of a photo journal of that morning:

Up and at ‘em early…although I’d already been awake for almost 3 hours by this time : )

My post back on the beach:

My post on the jetty to try and get shots of Tim on the waves:

Here’s a succession of one wave…

A view of Long Beach:

It’s the warmest water around, but not always the cleanest…

I tried to jump in my own picture to prove that I was actually there. Tim still dominates the shot, though. : )

Donuts taste better after surfing…or so I hear…

How to: Hooded Towel

Wow, am I behind on my posts, or what? Tomorrow is the beginning of April, and this post is about my niece’s birthday, which was March 1st. As they say, “better late than never,” right? I’m gonna go along with that for now.

I decided to make Leanna a nice big hooded towel for her 1st birthday. The ones you buy in stores are so small and thin, which probably works alright for smaller babies. But, I thought there should be something better to get Leanna all nice and cozy after a bath. Here’s how I made it:

1.Materials:

You’ll need 1 nice big bath or beach towel, and a hand towel to made the hood.

2. Make Hood:

A. Cut the hand towel in half (in the direction of the shorter height, not length)

B. Using one of the newly cut halves, fold in half along the unfinished edge (This should make an almost-square shape. If you fold it the wrong way, you’ll get a super long rectangle).

C. Sew the unfinished edge together to make a triangle shape for the hood, and turn right-side out.

3. Attach Hood

A. Fold the towel and hood in half to line them up correctly. (This is easier than measuring). I put the hood in the middle of the longer side of the towel, that way the towel can wrap around Leanna when the hood is on her head.

B. Pin the hood in place and sew it on!

4. Add Embellishments

A. I cut the letter “L” out of the unused half of the hand towel to place on the middle of the big towel. You can make shapes like flowers, stars, or whatever you like. This “L” was super easy to cut and sew.

B. Using a stitch that will keep away fraying, stitch along the edge of the letter. I used a fancy honeycomb stitch, but a regular zig-zag stitch would probably do the job just as well.

C. I also decided to add some purple rick-rack to the edge of the hood. I just used a straight stitch and sewed along the edge of the hood.

5. Give it away!

Here’s Leanna and her dad opening gifts at her birthday party. She put everything that she opened on her head, and this one actually fit. : )

Sedona: Mountain Biking

Tim and I drove out to Arizona for a cousin’s wedding this past week. On our way (okay, so it was really out of our way), we made a stop in Sedona for some mountain biking. We planned to camp in the bed of our truck the night we arrived, then head out to the trails in the morning. Very unlike California, you can drive a certain distance down any forest service road and camp…but the waist-deep snow around Flagstaff wasn’t plowed on those forest service roads, so we found a nice cozy hotel and actually got to shower after our ride. : ) We focused more on riding our bikes than taking pictures, but here are some that we did stop to snap:

This was the first time I had been biking on a “real” trail…and it wasn’t exactly meant for out-of-shape beginners (that would’ve been boring anyway!). Tim was nice enough to stop for a rest here and there to enjoy the scenery and catch our breath.

There were a couple creeks to cross, and we figured that carrying or walking our bikes across was the good way to go. : )

Our self portrait with the camera sitting on the ground on a little flat rock : )

I did a good job of avoiding the cactus, but more than once, I poked my backside on these plants that look like agave (?) when I crouched down to take a picture…so Tim thought it would be appropriate to take my picture sitting with them…?

These purple cactus looked so pretty against the red dirt and green shrubs…a great display of God’s artistic handiwork. : )

I can’t wait to get back to Sedona some day and spend even more time exploring all the different places to mountain bike with my wonderful hubby!!

i heart faces: best face photo

I’ve been keeping up with the blog i heart faces for a while now, but I have yet to enter one of their photo challenges. This week’s theme is “Best Face Photo,” and I thought of this adorable picture of happy Daphne:

Christmas ’09: The Princesses

I made tutus for the little girls for Christmas this year: black and red for Daphne, yellow and teal for Lily, and two shades of purple for Leanna. I’m still waiting on pictures of Leanna since she couldn’t be with the rest of us at Christmas, but here are the other two!

Lily, Barbie, and Heather: