Happy Monday! I hope that you are ready to conquer the last week{s} of school!  I am not sure I can remember a more jam packed weekend. On Friday, we traveled to the campus of A&T in Greensboro to cheer on 4 of our All-Conference varsity track team members compete in the State Track Meet.

 

 

That's Maris is Lane 2!!

 

It was almost 90 degrees, which made those metal bleachers a little warm.  

 

 

She competed in the 100 and 300m hurdles and although she didn't have her best times, she placed 9th in the State in both!

 

 

A few hours after Maris competed, Jack's baseball team won the 3rd Round of the Conference Play-Offs! This is the fartherest {is that a word??} a SM baseball team has ever gone!! We compete in game 4 on Tuesday.  

As soon as the hand-shaking ended, Jack ran to get himself to the campus of WCU for opening night of the high schools amazing performance of 'Pirates of Penzance'. 

 

 

Doesn't our ship look 'floatable' ???!!!

 

Here's a close-up of Jack, my favorite dancing Pirate.

We truly have the most talented high school kids and some incredibly dedicated teachers and moms.

 

And the 2 happiest Stage Managers ever, Steph and Maris. {We got her back in time for Saturday's shows!}

 

 

As the final performance was wrapping up Sunday night, Maris snuck out of backstage to make it across town to the Hall of Fame Banquet.

 

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I can't tell you how special it was to be among such honored former Jackson County athletes, to hear their recounts of past games, their touching stories of the coaches that shaped them, and the lasting team friendships.   

 

 

But the most special part of the night was witnessing Maris receive the 'Most Outstanding SM Athlete of the Year' {yes, she beat out all of the boys!!} for her participation of 4 years of Volleyball, Basketball and Track. She has worked so hard, on and off the court/field, to better herself, her times, and her technique. She never settled and continued to put in as many hours as possible to get a little better and a little stronger and she always encouraged her team mates to do the same. {Her cheerleader, Cal, was also pretty proud, I think}  

It was a fantastic end to a pretty amazing weekend!

 

 Now I need a weekend to recoup form the weekend...  

 

  

 

I have kept the sewing machine hot this week. It is Spirit Week at our high school which

 means a different theme/outfit everyday. Monday was ‘Decades Day’, so, of course,

Maris decided to don her 80’s attire. She couldn't find any pink legwarmers {need I remind

 you that our little town doesn’t have any malls, teen clothing stores, Claires—nada..within

 60 miles} I searched Wal-Mart with no success.

Enter plan B:

I bought a big pink sweatshirt for $7.

Know where I am going here?? Look closely and you can see the legwarmers in the above pic.

I cut off the sleeves, straightened up the hems a bit and folded

over the top to create a small hem.

  

 

I thought she rocked the 80's .

Tuesday came along and it was all about the 'Pink Out’ in honor of Cancer Awareness Month.

Remember when I made the volleyball team these? Well, this week I got busy with this pile:

 

 

A few minutes at the sewing machine and 6 yards turned into these pretties:

 

 

 

 

The JV team {on the floor} made awesome tie-dyed pink shirts and the Varsity team sported

Breast Cancer Awareness socks with their sparkly headbands.

 

 

There was pink support everywhere.

 

 

Even the ball was pink!

Then we moved on to today..

'Character Day'.

 Maris decided to go as, well, who else..baseball legend, Roger Maris.

For those unfamiliar with Roger Maris:

 

 

My Maris isn't named after him, but, she does get questioned about it often *. We didn't have time to order an official Roger Maris Yankees shirt {and I am cheap} so I bought a long-sleeve blue t-shirt from Wal-mart along with a pack of iron-on letters.  

 

 

 

 

After 'Maris' was ironed on {which was super easy}, I used frog tape to make a #9.

Using a combination of white craft paint mixed with textile medium, I started applying this

 in thin layers to the 9. 

{make sure you put a book or a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to prevent any bleed through}

 

 

 

 

It's really important to do this in thin layers so the paint doesn't bleed under the tape

{I used a hair dryer after every layer to speed up the process}.

 After I pulled off the tape, I was left with this:   

 

 

     

 

 

I turned it over to add the New York Yankees logo to the front. I found this image online:

 

 

 

 

I taped off a 4" {ish} area on the front left chest of the shirt and used chalk to sketch out the logo.

 

 

 

 

With a small paintbrush, I painted over the chalk lines. When it was dry, I used a damp cloth to wipe off any chalk lines that were left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She threw on some baseball pants and called herself a Yankee

 

 

 

 

but, only for today.

 

Twin Day is tomorrow followed by the Talent Show and Homecoming on Friday.

I guess Mr. Sewing Machine and I will have yet another midnight rendevous. 

 

* we actually first heard {and loved} the name Maris on the TV show Frasier. Maris was Miles' never-seen

wife...remember?? 

While browsing through Pinterest recently, I found this picture of a bracelet made
from a baseball. Cute right?!


{I can find the time}

It's rare that I find a project to make for Jack, but he is totally into baseball jewelry. This one I
hadn't seen before, so I was excited to make this for him. I clicked on the site 'I can find the time',
the great blog that posted the picture. I grabbed a ball and got busy using Kathryn's great tutorial.
 {there is no telling what kind of search engine hits I will get on this post due to that last sentence--I'll keep you posted :) }   



{I tweaked the directions just a bit} First, draw a line close to the stitching.  




Using an exacto knife, cut along the pencil line. My blade was really dull so it took a lot of pressure
and several times around to cut through the leather.  
  




Once all the leather was cut, I removed the pieces. This takes some tugging cause 
MacGregor does not mess around with glueing their balls together. 
 







After the 'extra' {non-laced parts} are pulled off, I pulled off the laces which come off as one big circle.





Find the spot on the back side of the seam where the laces begins and ends and cut the leather in
 that spot. You have one long row of laces at this point. Fold the laces in half, and cut again. Be careful to
 leave the strings uncut. You now have 2 rows of laces about 8" long.  Each row of laces makes one bracelet.  

Start unthreading the laces. I used the lead of my mechanical pencil to help get me started.





Unravel each end about 1". {If it is a for a young child with a tiny wrist, you may want to unravel 
up to 2"}. Tie the strings in a knot and then cut off the extra leather making sure not to
 cut the strings. Braid the 3" tail on each end and knot the end.  




You can clean up the edges, if needed, with your exacto knife or a pair of scissors.
When you want to wear it, simply tie the strings in a knot around your wrist.





You may need to stretch it out a little because it wants to stay in a circular shape.
 I am sure that water {ie. showers} will also help it to relax a little.   





I think he is going to love it!





And if he doesn't...no worries, there's always Plan B.





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I am over visiting my blogging buddy, Courtney, today. He is the great blogger behind Courtney Outloud.



I have loved getting to know him over the past year and living vicariously as a west-coaster through
his blog! He is having a great series this week on prepping for Back to School and I am sharing
my post on how our family survives this crazy time of year! Click here to check it out.

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If you came over by way of Pinterest yesterday--Welcome!! I am not sure what happened
but over 3000 folks visited via the site. If someone came that route yesterday and would 
share with me in the comments how they were sent over, I would love to find out!