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!