Hello, Yellow!

Hooray for yellow pillows! They aren't quite as "gold" as they look in the pictures, but a nice, cheery, canary yellow. Loving them. (Next couch project? A cream-colored cozy crocheted blanket. May not be done for a year or two.)

And a little personalization for my little man:

I am a HUGE fan of personalized stuff for kids (although, admittedly, I am picky as to what it looks like.) I realize it is impractical for two reasons: buying personalized clothes/plates/bags is EXPENSIVE, and the objects can't be passed down to the next child (although my family defies that reason. My brother Pat has a yellow baseball shirt that says COLLEEN on the back, and a blue one that says CHRIS. He wears them all the time.)

However, I still can't get over how cute it is, and I am willing to spend a couple bucks and lose out on the opportunity as a hand-me-down. Yes, I said a couple bucks. Not more than that - although I'm drooling over the adorableness of these $24 plates. Too bad that with my mad bargain hunting I could get 24 PLAIN plates at that price. I just can't justify it.

So my cost for Ben's shirt: $2 for the onesie (yes, it was brand-new - I could have found an old one or bought a used one but it came in a 4-pack and I was impulsive), approximately 45c for the iron-on transfer and the ink I used printing on it, and the energy my iron used when it was plugged in. Not bad. I made it in 9 month size, even though he is mostly wearing 6mo stuff, so if he grows the same rate Nate did it will fit him til March. Then perhaps a friend will have a baby named Ben and I will pass it along.

And this cute little bib was a gift from my wonderful Aunt Aimee. I LOVE it! (And even though I don't think she reads this blog, I would like to thank her so much from the bottom of my heart here and apologize profusely for my EXTREME tardiness in sending a thank you note! It will be on its way this week. I feel horrible!)

I've also been working more on a couple artwork projects for the boys' room - one is finished and the other is nearly there. It was the reason I was spray-painting frames at 11pm on a Saturday night. My advice - if you're going to spray paint, move the object immediately after spraying to a different surface so it doesn't stick to the leftover paint, and don't spray paint in the dark. Really.

And thank you notes. Yeah. Those. Need to do! I did all the ones from gifts for immediately after Ben was born, but there are a few stray ones I never got delivered (intended to hand deliver, haven't seen the people in a while, that sort of thing) and then a couple more for gifts that came later that I'm still dragging my feet on. And a couple birthday cards... and some Confirmation cards. Oh man.

Dreamin' In Color, Livin' in Black & White...

But in our case, it's brown and white.

**disclaimer: in this post are pictures of our house. our house is a mess. I am in the middle of de-cluttering, which is taking me much longer than it should. so ignore the desk full of papers, the kitchen table full of crafts, etc.**

I should start off by saying that I LOVE where we live. We rent a 1300 sq ft, 2 bedroom townhome for a STEAL of a monthly rate. We have a large unfinished basement (that we are slowly making livable with carpet squares and a little play area), a good-sized deck, a fantastic kitchen, large bedrooms (think 12x16 and 15x18), a 1-car garage, and 2 1/2 bathrooms. So that's a little more bathroom than I like to clean, but that's all right. Even though there are things I could complain about, there is ALWAYS going to be something that we don't like about where we live, so for the most part, we are really blessed to have found such a wonderful place.

But we have the problem that nearly all renters face. OUR WALLS ARE WHITE. And not even a creamy white, or a glossy white. It is the whitest, flattest paint you will ever find. You can brush your elbow along the wall and it will leave a mark. Ick.

In our lease, it states that we must have permission from the landlord to paint. And while I think we could obtain that permission fairly easily, we then would most likely be responsible for painting it back before we move out. Considering my last three moves have occurred uncomfortably close to major life events (high school graduation, wedding, and a mere two days after baby #1 was born), I don't exactly have my rose-colored glasses on when it comes to the thought of moving, and I balk at the thought of having to prime and repaint everything during a week that will already be extremely hectic. So, for now, the walls stay white.

And our furniture? It's brown. All of it. Since we have been married we have bought a desk (brown), another smaller desk (brown), a buffet to hold our fine china that we really need to use more often (brown), a large living room rug (brown), and a couch (brown). Not to mention a bookcase I already owned (brown), our kitchen table that belonged to my parents before they outgrew it (brown), and an electric piano that we are borrowing from sister-in-law (espresso.) A lot of our furniture is actually TECHNICALLY "dark cherry", but really, it just kind of looks brown.

And while I LIKE brown furniture, I also like color. Bright colors. Which is something we are sorely lacking. I did make two blue pillows for our brown couch, and a little blue curtain for our bookshelf, but other than that, there is very little color in our living room.

view from the entryway

view from the stairs. check out the swinging, sleeping baby

I also don't really love the furniture placement, but I spent a couple hours trying to rearrange the other night and everything ended up back in the same places. I want our living room to be COZY and CHEERFUL, and I'm just not feelin' it. And this blank wall in the kitchen stares at me day after day, begging for me to decorate it.

But I'm really not good at decorating blank walls! So I've been perusing one of my newly-discovered blogs, Young House Love, for some inspiration. These people are SERIOUSLY amazing - a young couple who bought an old house in Richmond and fixed it up. And when I say fixed it up - holy cow. I have, quite honestly, NEVER seen a house transformation as incredible as this. Not even on HGTV. They did 95% of it themselves, and the coolest part is that they did it on a budget. And not a $10,000 a room budget, either. I am loving the long white shelves in their living room and in their office/playroom, and trying to convince Brian how fantastic they are. I think they would be great in our kitchen along that blank wall, with some colorful accessories on them. And IKEA even carries them online. But he is apprehensive of mounting long shelves, which I'm sure has NOTHING to do with our attempt to put up a similar (brown) shelf in our old apartment that pretty much completely flopped and ruined the drywall. If I knew how to do it, I would. But about the only tool I know how to use is a hammer.

So, any ideas on how to bring pops of color into our house? While the room looks brighter without the giant brown rug, we do need SOMETHING there... a little flood issue after we moved in kinda sorta left a giant orangey stain on the carpet... (and ruined our old couch, which is how we ended up with a nice, new, brown one - thanks, renters' insurance!) I am thinking more pillows on the couch (yellow!). I would like to do curtains in the kitchen, but every time I go to purchase some, I get a little scared, and never go through with it. I like the ease of the mini-blinds and don't know if I really want to mess with curtains.

We also need to do something about toy storage. I would like to have a "set place" for every toy. Right now they're all just shoved in our blue toy bin, which is overflowing and explodes on a daily basis, leaving the floor looking like this:

I do normally clothe my children.

I am also working on some stuff in the boys' room, since I can't ever do just one project at once. Theirs is coming along nicely, though. Ben's quilt has been started!

So much rambling. Sorry. It's just that this has been consuming my brain for days now. I need an interior decorator to come do it all for me, I think.

(And if you don't get the title's reference to an obscure country song, that's okay. I blame it on my dad.)

Summer is Ending...

There's something about the end of summer that makes me a little depressed. I am one of those people who is seriously affected by the weather, and I think it's the realization that the warm, sunny days are coming to an end and the dreary days of winter are arriving. It's hitting me especially hard this year, although I don't know why. I feel like in a way I have been jipped out of the last two summers - having a baby the last week of May two years in a row means that most of May is spent waddling around large and uncomfortable, and June is spent "recovering", resting, and getting to know the new little one in. It seems like July rolls around before I am ready to take on summer, and by then it is hot and humid and my desire to spend my days outdoors having picnics in the lawn and going on long hikes has waned. And while I absolutely wouldn't change a thing!, it doesn't make up for the fact that the beginning of next spring is now a long 8 months away.

The last couple weeks been absolutely gorgeous (when it hasn't been raining - who says Kansas doesn't get hurricanes? Thanks, Tropical Storm Hermine) - mid-80s or a little warmer. We have been trying to spend as much of it as possible outside, considering we don't have a backyard to play in. On Labor Day we went to Shawnee Mission park on a picnic (like 5000 other people!) and sat by the lake. It was BEAUTIFUL, and so nice just to relax as a little family. We have decided not to camp this fall, but we do want to go somewhere for a day to hike. We need another baby backpack, though. After researching all the options, I have been craving the Beco Butterfly II Aiden. It's an expensive craving, at a price of $139+tax. And as much as I would like to support a mom&pop babywearing shop, I am saving up my Swagbucks and survey points for Amazon gift cards so I can get it, since it will appease my bargain-hunting guilty conscience. The carrier holds up to 45 pounds, which is perfect for Nate (who is now 28 pounds!), and we have a smaller backpack that will hold Ben.

Brian's sister Nicole, her husband Simon, and their adorable baby girl Maureen came to visit a couple weeks ago all the way from Canada. Considering we hadn't seen them since OUR wedding (we couldn't go to theirs because it was in California the day before Nate's due date!), they were a sight for sore eyes. The kids spent a lot of time staring and poking at each other, but we got some cute shots of Maureen lovin' on Ben. We hope to go visit them sometime next year when the kids can appreciate each other a little more. We still have to get our passports, which by the way, cost an INSANE amount of money now! I think I spent $50 on mine when we went to World Youth Day in 2002? Now they are $140 for adults and $110 for kids, plus some other random fees - over $500 just for the 4 of us! And the U.S. has recently required ALL Canadian border-crossers to present a passport, so we can't get away with birth certificates anymore.

photos by Simon Noster

Love the look on Nate's face in the second picture. Ben appears less than interested.

At the park on Labor Day - my handsome guys (no, we didn't leave Ben in his carseat the whole time, I just don't have a good picture of him after we took him out) :)

P.S. Sorry about the GIANT Nate face in the header. I don't know how to get it any smaller! At least he's cute. ;)

Dirty Pools

Last night was "scrapbook night" here - I was SO excited to finally pull my stuff back out and work on it! Brian's sister Courtney came over for dinner, and we worked until 11:30! Unfortunately, Ben wasn't in the sleepiest of moods, and he needed a bit of attention, so I didn't get to start really working for a while. I didn't get a lot done, but since I had pulled everything out, I just left it on the table and went back to it during the day today when I had a spare moment. I was able to get several pages done during naptime today, but I still have a long way to go... that's what happens when you allow yourself to get 2 years behind, I suppose. I'm working on the boys' baby books, and once I get caught up with them I'm going to go back and (finally!) work on our wedding album.

So I am not the most organized scrapbooker around. :P

I also went out onto the deck for a few minutes into the sweltering heat this evening (the heat index is supposed to be 115 tomorrow!), and a little friend followed me...

The fascinated look on his face - he saw his baby pool that has been out for over 2 months. It's been sorely neglected, as we've been spending a lot of time inside, and unfortunately, the pool looked like this:

Notice that spot in the horrible looking orange sludge on the bottom of the pool that is bright blue? Yes, that's where he stuck his hands and rubbed them around. I couldn't get him in time. My yelling "Ew, Nathan, don't put your hands in there!" didn't deter him in the least! I have to keep reminding myself that he is a boy, and boys are hard-wired to find the most disgusting thing ever and be fascinated by it.

Tomorrow Daddy is off work, and we will ask him to clean out the pool.

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My Shred accountability log: I did Day 3 yesterday, and Day 4 tonight. Only one more day and I'll be 1/6 of the way done! :P

Day 2

I just finished Level 1, Day 2 of the Shred... and it's 11:45pm. I really should start earlier tomorrow! Last night I finished at 5 til midnight. Brian has been getting home from work after midnight, so I have been procrastinating.

I also made skirt #3 of my new "trademark skirt" tonight. It is very bright spring green - not neon, but close. All 3 of them are exactly the same, sooo comfortable, and excellent for the summer - very light and airy. So far I have a bright blue and a dark maroon-ish one, and now, green. I also want to make navy and black ones... and possibly a tan. I am totally addicted! I have been limiting myself to buying the fabric only when I have a coupon for JoAnns - but I usually have at least 1 a week, and they take competitors' coupons, too. I am going to fill my closet before the summer is over... although they would probably work for the winter with some leggings under them! Okay, maybe not the spring green. It's a little too bright. (I keep meaning to take pictures but forgetting... and pictures always turn out so much better in natural light, so it's a little late now. Hopefully I'll remember during naptime tomorrow!)

I also finished another craft project late last week. The fruit of my labor:

Felt "Very Hungry Caterpillar" pieces. Yes, we are obsessed with that theme around here! (That was the theme of Nate's birthday party as well.) But it is truly his favorite book. It is so cute to see the look on his face when we read it. There is a piece to act out every page of the book. To give you an idea of the size, the butterfly is about 7 inches across, and the apple is about an inch and a half high. I used felt glue, which I was very wary of at first, but it worked great! These pieces have already been toddler tested. :) And now I have a felt-board-scene-creating obsession. (I still haven't finished my felt farm in the basement, though! It is on my "crafting to-do" list.)

The 30 Day Shred

I have started and stopped an exercise routine more times than I can count - I think that means I'm fairly normal. The longest I can ever remember doing a workout as a ROUTINE was after Nate was born - I did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for 12-13 days, and then got sick and stopped, then was too lazy to start back, and then found out I was pregnant again and completely quit. Since Ben has been born, I've done the workout 6 or so times, and a couple Walk Away the Pounds workouts, but nothing really consistent.

But now I am determined to make it through the 30 Day Shred IN 30 days, or as close to 30 days as possible. I won't beat myself up for skipping a day here or there, but I am going to try my best to keep up with it and complete it. I really, really want to do the Couch to 5k program in the fall (when it's not 100 degrees out!). I've always hated running, and have no idea why I ran track for 3 years in middle school! But this program looks doable, although challenging! I think it would be SO cool to be able to run 3 miles without stopping... or heck, even 1 mile! I would totally be satisfied with 1 mile. But I want to make it through the Shred first, and go from there.

When I attempted the Shred last summer, I noticed something after the first week or so - I had a lot more stamina. I actually WANTED to jog, for some strange reason. I didn't! But I had the urge to, and the thought of running didn't make me want to crawl back into bed with my laptop and a Snickers bar. One other huge benefit of the Shred was that I could touch my toes after doing it for a week. I have NEVER been able to touch my toes, for as long as I can remember. Even in elementary school when we did the physical fitness test in gym class, I always failed at the toe-touching part (there was a specific name for it, but I don't remember what it was.) But after doing the Shred for a little while, I could REACH! I remember standing in my mom's living room showing her how I could FINALLY, after all these years, touch my toes! She thought I was kind of nuts.

Why I'm rambling on my blog about all this: I NEED ACCOUNTABILITY. Isn't the first step towards achieving a goal putting it in writing? (Okay, so that didn't work really well with my New Years resolutions.) I'm planning to come back here often and update on my progress and post specific goals so I can see how far I've come. Even if no one else reads my updates, I will go back and read and relish in my success (or hang my head in shame at my failure. wait. think positive!)

Overall Goals:

1. Complete the 30 Day Shred.

2. Lose 40 pounds. (obviously the 40 pounds will take longer than 30 days. how unfortunate.)

Prize for Success:

Some new shirts that fit.

Punishment for Failure:

Continue to look 4 months pregnant.

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Today: Level 1, Day 1 of the Shred complete!

Delivering a Baby and Other Exciting Happenings

So it's been a while.

I had a baby.

Said baby was baptized.

Nate turned one.

We celebrated our 2-year anniversary.

Summer is flying by.

Life is good!

I Can't Breathe...

It's been a month since I blogged last? Oops. In the day-to-day quest to keep up with everyone else's blogs I've abandoned my own. (I've found some new craft blogs and I now have 22 bookmarked. TWENTY-TWO! And most of the bloggers update every day. A lot of reading to keep up with. And that doesn't include the personal blogs that I read...)

I'm having some serious breathing issues right now. Looking at me now compared to a month ago you'd think my belly has dropped, but the fact that the baby is starting to put on some serious weight is having a huge effect on the amount of room my lungs have to expand. And considering the average 35-week-gestation baby weighs about 5-1/4 pounds, mine is probably 7. at least. He/she was measuring 2 weeks ahead, plus if Nate's birth weight was any indication of the future, I think I'm destined to have babies that are 2 pounds bigger than average... more chub to love.

I need to make myself a to-do list before the baby's born... that includes pre-registering at the hospital. Forgot about that one last time around. I don't want to be signing consent forms while in active labor.

And on a totally random note, I want her house. Or one that looks just like it, but that isn't located in Michigan.

ramble ramble ramble. time to do something productive. the fact that this blog post has taken me 2 hours to type means I should just stop here.

I know nothing about HTML...

Like my new header? It's quite a bit bigger than I intended, and for some reason it doesn't "fit" in the box at the top. On my (13" Macbook) screen it overlaps on the right side just a hair. I'm thinking on a larger screen it must be totally off center. And I have no idea how to fix it! So it will probably be gone soon... things that aren't symmetrical bother me.

I also don't know how to get rid of all the extra white space on the sides of my page (although I've been trying for a while!) without actually changing my template. I learned how to make my pictures show up bigger, but when I do, they get cut off because of my primitive blog-creating skills.

We have a pacifier black hole in our house, and I think it's located directly underneath Nate's crib. I used to have a stash on his dresser, and when he would wake up in the night I could give him a new one without having to search around in the dark... and that stash is GONE. We were down to 1 paci for a week, and finally found another one yesterday. 2 out of 9. I think I'm going to have my brothers search and offer to pay them $1 for each one they find - it's cheaper than buying new ones!

So to prevent the pacis from falling through the bars (which I THINK is unintentional, but I peeked through the door and watched Nate toss one out of his crib the other night, so I'm not completely sure about that anymore) I decided I'm going to make a bumper pad for his crib to match his quilt to keep them in. How hard could it be, right? We'll see...

I bought fabric for the bumper pad at JoAnns yesterday. Not JUST fabric for the bumper pad. LOTS of fabric. I couldn't help myself - it was all 50% off and I had an additional 20% off coupon. So I just emphasized how much I SAVED instead of how much I SPENT when I showed Brian everything I got. (He is pretty sympathetic towards my craft obsession, I must say, and is always kind enough to smile and pretend to admire anything new I come home with.)



These are definitely my favorites:



And this one I've had my eye on for a while, but couldn't bring myself to pay full price for it since I have no idea what I'll do with it. There was only a little over a yard left on the bolt, so I bought the rest of it and it almost cost me $212. Somehow 1.25 yards rang up as 61 yards... so I had to wait behind 11 more people at the cutting table to have my ticket fixed. I have NEVER seen that store as busy as it was yesterday (and I've spent quite a bit of time in there!)



And this was Nate when I told him he didn't have to go spend two hours in JoAnns with me this time - he could stay home and play with Daddy.


It's another rainy Saturday... 3 loads of laundry are calling my name!

And It's Done!

This project was much more fun than I anticipated. I think I only yelled at my sewing machine twice (?), and it was during the piecing together of the top. The quilting part wasn't so bad, even though my lines definitely aren't perfectly straight, and the binding was actually easy! I used this tutorial, but I machine-stitched the back instead of hand-stitching. (Hand-stitching - are you kidding? WAY too much work.) The quilt measures about 45"x60", which is the perfect size for a crib/toddler bed.


Here are some of the squares up close -if you promise not to look at the stitching carefully, and not to notice that the squares don't match up perfectly. Trying to cut 6x6 squares with a rotary cutter but NOT a ruler is not a good plan. (I was trying to be cheap. Needless to say, I bought a ruler this week at JoAnns. I was just waiting for a sale.)

The plan is to wash and dry it so it will be all crinkly. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the opportunity yet... my washer/dryer have been tied up with lots of pukey laundry. I finally got my last load in the washer (there have been 3 of those kind of loads this week so far) & then Nate did it again. And I thought he was getting better... It turned out his fever had just spiked to 104.5 (!) We're pretty sure it's just this ear infection he can't seem to get rid of, and the accompanying medicine. After 7 days on amoxicillin he broke out in a rash, so we had to stop - but the infection hadn't cleared up yet. Now he's on a new antibiotic that I can't spell, and it does not agree with his tummy, nor his taste buds. I've been sneaking it into fruit purees... Needless to say, we're taking another trip to the doctor tomorrow morning. And I have yet another load of stinky laundry to do tonight. My poor little guy. :( Motrin is a wonderful thing.

Lazy Saturday

Saturday has always kind of been a let-down day for me. All week long, everyone complains about how the weekend is SO far away, including me. (Or at least back in my M-F school/work days.) But once Saturday comes, unless I have something specific planned, it's kind of just a boring, lazy day. And while it might be nice to sleep in, I always regret it - I hate the way I feel when I've slept in late. The day is half-wasted and I lose any ounce of motivation I might have had. The fact that Saturday is now not really the "weekend" for us hasn't changed my feelings towards this day. (Brian typically has his 2 days off during the week and works Saturday and Sunday, so today Nate and I are home alone until he gets off at 7.)

The dreary clouds make this Saturday even worse. If it were sunny and warm, we would go on a walk or to the park, or at least open the blinds and enjoy the sun inside the house. But it's gray and cold outside, and rain is probably in the forecast yet again today. (Although I am extremely grateful for the few spring-like days we had earlier this week!)

We got a new camera earlier this week - a Canon Rebel DSLR. Oh yes. It is very high-tech and professional looking. Brian had been trying to talk me into it for a while now... so we finally ordered it and got it Tuesday. Now if I can just figure out how to utilize all the features! Thankfully I've been practicing with our point-and-shoot camera in manual mode the last few weeks, just for the heck of it, so I already *sort of* know how to work some of the settings. I can't wait until we can spend a lot of time outdoors - pictures always look better with natural light!

We went out on our deck the other day to play/practice with the camera. Here are a couple of the shots - if the lighting is too bright or too dim... well... that's why I was practicing. ;)

Mr. I'm-So-Cool-I-Can-Stand: he has been pulling up on things and it's so exciting, but kind of scary for me! He hasn't gotten hurt... yet.

This is pretty much my favorite picture - he fake-smiles for the camera. Such a ham. :)
(And apparently the fact that the fence behind him is blurry means I did a good job with the focus on this picture. Or so Brian says. I don't really know much about this stuff.)

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I really should take advantage of this nap-time and clean, or work on the binding for Nate's quilt (which is all done! except the binding. haha.), or SOMETHING productive. But alas, it's Saturday... and I'm feeling lazy.

Spring Fever

The last few days of GORGEOUS weather have given me a huge case of spring fever. I'm already pessimistic thinking about what next week will bring... it's only the beginning of March, and the chances are slim-to-none that this weather is going to stick around. And besides, didn't the groundhog say there would be 6 more weeks of winter? We're only 4 weeks into it...

I've been working on Nate's quilt most of the evening and it is coming along FABULOUSLY. I'm so excited to see what it will look like when all is said and done! Of course, it's nowhere near perfect, but I was able to let go of my perfectionism for this one project and take the whole thing in as a learning experience. I'll be finishing the actual quilting tonight (hopefully) and then I just have the binding left!

We replaced our camera batteries (again), so here is one of my fantastic living room pillows. I got the fabric at JoAnns and it's going to be 30% off next week... I'm seriously considering buying more to make kitchen curtains. (The kitchen is just to the right of the couch.)

My couch isn't really as dark as it looks in that picture, and the pillow is a little brighter in real life. This is why I'm trying to learn how to use my camera more efficiently (since as much as I want a DSLR they're super pricey!)

Nate and I walked to the park yesterday because the weather was SO gorgeous (although it was 10 degrees warmer today!)

I got him to smile, but he was really not sure what to think about the swing (it was his first time!) He was a little nervous about it.

It's Almost March!

I'm sooooo tired of winter. There has been snow on the ground since Christmas. It almost melted all the way, but then it came back. GO. AWAY. PLEASE. Spring, I need you... I want to buy flip-flops. My boots are getting worn out. (One and a half weeks into Lent... doesn't "Lent" mean "spring"? Hmm.)

And while I'm excited that the first week of spring is only 20 days away, it always seems like Kansas is about 3 weeks behind the spring & fall season changes. So I'm holding out for Easter.

Why have I not blogged in so long? I'm lazy. Really, that's just it. I've been keeping up on my reading of everyone else's, just not updating my own. And my New Years resolution to take more pictures? Yeah, about that... batteries are breaking the bank. We've gone through 4 sets since January. 4 sets! That's 16 batteries. All dead. I need to find the rechargeable ones. They're around here somewhere.

I took a little break from scrapbooking to work on costumes for the play, A Man for All Seasons, that the high schoolers from church put on the beginning of February. While I didn't take any pictures from the play (I did the videotaping), my sister did. As soon as I get those from her I'll put them up to brag about my mad costume-making skills. Even though we had 5 months to prepare, I made them all in 2 weeks. Of course, it was the 2 weeks directly before the play. But they got done in the nick of time - the day before the dress rehearsal.

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EDIT: Coincidentally, some of the play pictures just showed up on Facebook.

From left to right, Thomas More, Will Roper, Margaret More, Alice More. I made Roper & Alice's costumes (and yes, they are my brother and sister - Chris & Shannon.) :)

This was the jail scene - I also made Alice's (Shannon's) red and gold dress (on the left.) And while it looks almost the same as the red dress Margaret is wearing in the picture above, it is, in fact, a different dress. Gotta love the crushed velvet fabric - hem-free!

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After the play was over and I could get back to my regularly scheduled hobby, I discovered something - my house is plain. Our walls are painted a flat stark white. Oh, the life of a renter. So in lieu of continuing my diligent work on our family album (that now has THREE pages!), I decided it was time to spruce up the house a little bit. After all, we've only lived here NINE months now! Time for some decorating. (We do have a few things hung up on the wall, but that's it.)

My current project is a quilt for Nate's room - something I've been mulling over for months now. I finally decided to make the leap, and I spent an hour last week browsing JoAnn Fabrics picking out material. Yes, with said child in tow! (Lots of Apple-Strawberry Puffs to keep him occupied.) Every time we go in there he tells me without words how much he hates that store and never wants to go there again. I tell him he's turning into his daddy. I don't understand why men don't enjoy browsing through aisles and aisles of brightly colored fabrics and delicious patterns, and yet they can spent hours in a store that has thousands of computer parts lined up in square boxes that have cryptic names like "USB" and "VGA" and "HDMI." Wouldn't you much rather look at something called "Kate Spain - VERDA in Dewdrop and Budding Pink"?

I've sewn together the top of the quilt, and will be doing the actual quilting this week. It's certainly not perfect, as using a rotary cutter is not as easy as it looks. But, with a little luck, it will turn out super cute, and bring a little color to his white-walled room with white furniture! (And as an added bonus, the blue and green fabric with polka dots I'm using also comes in the same style in PINK! So if this baby is a girl, they can have coordinating quilts, which makes me very happy.)

I Should Be Posting a Picture of This...

that was built by me, and now resides in my child's bedroom.

But even though I worked on it for 4 (!) hours tonight, I'm not.

I built the frame before Nate went to bed for the night, and worked on the drawers in the hallway outside his room. I went to put the drawers in and realized that I had screwed the slider bars on the left hand side in the wrong hole. (Why there were two holes, I don't know, but I apparently should have followed the set of directions for side B, and not done the steps on side A twice.)

It's an easy fix, but not when you don't want to turn the light on, flip the dresser on its back, and wake a sleeping child.

So TOMORROW, I will be posting a picture of how darling that little dresser looks in my child's bedroom!

(And reveling in the fact that I built it by myself.)

Hooded Towel: Part 2

It really wasn't too big after all. (Maybe the hood, just a little.) Nate was excited to not be cold after his bath.


And the color green looks so much more vibrant on the regular camera than on the webcam!

A Hooded Towel...

that's actually big enough to wrap around a baby!


Picture of the baby wrapped up in it to come soon. He's in bed for the night.

I think I made the hood waaaay too big - toddler size. Oh well. He'll grow into it. I might just have to make another one. or two. And the plush towels are on sale at Target right now too... hmm.

New Years Resolution #3

Wash my dishes every night.

And yes, it's sad that I had to make this a resolution, but I am so bad about cleaning up the kitchen before bed. It's so nice to come downstairs to a clean kitchen every morning!

(The blue cup on the counter is dirty, and you can't tell from the picture, but there's a cup soaking in the sink. Brian was cleaning out his car today and found these lovely gems in the backseat. I don't do 3-month-old moldy chocolate protein shake. He promised to clean them when he gets home from work.)

My New Obsession...

California clementines. I've had 7 today.

New Years Resolution #2

Get more organized.

Today we turned this:


into this:


(Our closet is long and skinny so it was hard to take a good picture, but you get the idea.)

We moved our second dresser into the closet to make room for my table in our bedroom. I finally get my own craft table! So it's not a craft room... but beggars can't be choosers. (I could have had a nice workspace in the basement, but who wants to be two levels below the rest of your family in an unfinished basement when there are subzero temperatures?)

New Years Resolution #1

(It's currently 12:17am on January 2nd, but humor me and pretend it's still the 1st.)

I've never been much of a New Years Resolution kinda gal. Probably because I know how I am... I have spurts of great ambition which fade away quickly, and I don't like to be disappointed in myself. (definitely the sanguine side of me.) That's not to say I never make resolutions... I do. Just not at the start of the new year. Something about the new calendar year combined with "I will do all these things better!" intimidates me.

But this year, I've decided to change. (ha!) I'm making a few resolutions. Not because it's the new year, but rather, because it's something I need to do anyway, My decision just happens to coincide with my purchase of a new calendar (that was 50% off at Barnes and Noble, by the way... score 1 for waiting til the last minute!)

New Years Resolution #1: Take more pictures.

So vague.

So I've decided my motivation is to use the 365 Photo Blog idea. But instead of starting a whole new blog for it (because really, I already have 2 to keep up with and I'm doing a pretty bad job as it is) I'm just going to upload my pictures here.

My biggest stumbling block?

My camera broke on Halloween. So I have to use Brian's. No biggie, except that my computer and his camera don't get along. In fact, the computer refuses to acknowledge that the camera even exists. (Apparently it has something to do with the drivers that come preloaded onto the computer, but what do I know about that?) So for now, I have to upload my pics onto Brian's computer and transfer them to mine, either through a flash drive (where did that go?) or via email. Sure, I could just do my blogging from his computer... but then I couldn't post while laying in my bed under the covers. And that just won't do.

I'm hoping that in all this I will be encouraged to dive into Photoshop (which is only on Brian's machine.) I love love love my MacBook (even though I distinctly remember saying how I would never use one less than a year ago), but the iPhoto editing software is just not cutting it.

I know I won't be able to upload a picture for the next 365 days... but my plan is to at least take a picture every day for the next year, and upload as often as possible (ideally, once or twice a week.) And most of them will probably be of my child, which is fine by me, and actually leads into my second resolution (which has to do with scrapbooking!)

I did take a picture today. But am currently unable to upload it (other computer is in use and I need to go to bed!) But just for the heck of it, I'll upload the most recent picture I have on my computer (just from a couple days ago.) I already posted it on Facebook but it's so stinkin cute I just have to put it up again.

He loves playing with the candy canes (and pulling the low hanging ones off the branches.) Caught him grinning at just the right moment!