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.