Monday, December 28, 2009

8 Months Already!


Here are a few of B's latest:
...he gives high fives and kisses upon request.
...has the beginning of a wave going on.
...makes the same "aghhhhhhhh" noise when he gets excited about seeing his little trucks or some toy he thinks is fun.
...is starting to make some forward motion but still not crawling.
...likes to sleep in bed with mommy and daddy.
...is very ticklish.
...loves exploring the dog.
...can spin himself all over the floor.
...likes Veggie Tales.
...loves his Christmas music book.
...loves all types of cell phones and computers.
...always has a big smile and little gasp when he goes outside and the cold air first hits him.
...is constantly using his little index finger to "explore" everything including people's mouths.
...loves the camera (the kid can't stop smiling when he sees a camera!).

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas 2009 Part II

Final Christmas Projects Revealed!

I told you felt food can be addicting! After making these green eggs and ham ,I just had to make some more of this cute play food. I used this tutorial from Skip to my Lou and didn't really stray too far from her idea. But you could have tons of variations to the lunch sack theme.



One of the final gifts I made this year was the first bag that I ever made. I used this book (which I highly recommend to anyone - beginner or expert sewer) for the pattern and instructions. It took me a little while because I kept reading the directions over and over again because I would get interrupted and I didn't want to mess it up since I was only using one yard of fabric with little room for error. I think that it turned out pretty good. I chose a black heavy weight cotton for the outside and a black/white/lime flowery print for the inside. It also had a magnetic closure at the top. This wasn't a hard project, just a time-consuming one for a beginner like myself. Also, I thought the bag would turn out a little larger than it did. That was a little disappointing. But overall, I really liked it and see myself making more in the future.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Getting Closer! I Can Feel The Pressure!

My nephew loves Sponge Bob, so when I saw this fabric remnant in the clearance bin at Wal-Mart, I thought of him. I had bookmarked this tutorial a while back, wondering if it was really as easy as they said it was in the tutorial. Well folks, it was! It was probably the easiest project I completed all year. I had a couple of pillows/forms that someone had given me, so I just altered the dimensions to suit my pillow form and voila! It turned out great! I see some pretty cool pillows in B's room in the future...and maybe even some more interesting ones on our couch as well!




I also made this game called 5 Stones from a tutorial found here. The rules are a little more challenging but I thought it would be nice to have a harder game for the older kids and adults. I had never heard of the game before but it sounds kind of like jacks. Its a great project to use up your scraps. I actually used part of a green linen napkin that I picked up the same day that I bought my buttons for this project.



My final project for today was another tag-along prop kind of thing (yep, that is its official name) that goes with a book. Since my soon to be niece already has the book and loves it (so my lil bro says) I decided to make her "green eggs and ham"...well the ham is more like a ham steak. I'm just getting into making felt food (which is very addicting I might add) and the 3D food is a bit harder. But the ham steak didn't turn out too bad, right?

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Puffs Are A-Okay!

So, remember our little encounter with the lethal rice krispy kernel? Well, it was one-month ago today that we tried anything remotely resembling a solid food. Today, I worked up my nerve to give it a go again. We went with a puff this time. In my opinion, after I tried one of them, I didn't think that they dissolved that fast. But, my mom made a good point when she said that B was basically a slobber machine (not her words exactly) and he had a lot more moisture going on in there so it would dissolve faster for him. Well, he successfully maneuvered (the majority of the time) the puffs from his high-chair tray to his mouth with only a few going into Mickey's mouth. (That is where this house dog thing is going to come in handy.) He did have a little issue with the release. Sometimes he wouldn't let go of them once it got to his mouth, while other times they were just moist enough, that they would stick to his hands and not stay in his mouth. Its a work in progress, but we are just a little bit closer to big boy food!

Mmmmmmm....Pie

I've made this pie, twice now...just in case it was a fluke. It is darn-tootin' good pie. If I were you I'd make it, but only for a party because you may just eat the whole thing yourself if you were left at home alone with it. ...I'm not implying that happened or anything, cause it didn't...yet.

Christmas 2009 Part 1

One More Checked Off The List...


This I-spy bag was a quick project that I checked off my list tonight...finally. I had slowly been collecting supplies for it since I first saw this tutorial on Make It and Love It. She has got tons of great tutorials along the left hand side of her blog. This little gem is going to be part of a Christmas gift that I am putting together for some younger kids. It wasn't hard to make at all, if you have all of the supplies. I went with the poly beads because I didn't want it to be ruined if it got wet like it would with rice or beans. For the vinyl, I just used part of a onsie package that I had saved for this purpose. You would just need to use some sort of plastic that is strong but not too tough for your sewing machine. I put all kinds of little beads and shapes inside also. Hopefully this will entertain them for a little while in the car.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

From The Ashes...A New Project Has Risen!

So, I tried my hardest to make the oven mitts work and look nice. They worked but I could not for the life of me get the binding to look nice. So I scrapped that idea...literally. I didn't want to waste all of that nice Christmas fabric that I had bought and cut up already so I went on a mission. A mission to find something cool and easy and fun and did I mention easy? And what luck! I found something on my first stop at Sew Mama Sew. She has a wonderful list every year called Handmade for the Holidays. Every day there is a new category with multiple similarly themed projects. I chose this cute little star ornament. I skipped the button because I didn't have any cool, vintagey ones laying around the house.


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Projects In Process

No finished projects to report today. Instead, I leave you with some blog cruising...

Need a good laugh, then head on over to this blog for their daily photo.

Go here for a little ongoing crafty competition.

This amazing woman has overcome so much. Read her story here.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Mitts!

This project is still a work in progress. With the addition of another layer of Insulbright in The Idea Room's updated oven mitt tutorial, I realized that my binding could be a little wider. I missed the tape a couple of times so it looks a little messy. And that is why these will be my Christmas oven mitts and not wrapped and under a tree. So, until I can get wider binding this week...this project will have to be on pause.



Sunday, December 13, 2009

Teaching Moment

We know that B is still too young to fully understand a lot of things but we also know that his mind is like a sponge right now. He is taking in so much information with all of his senses, sometimes it is hard to make sure that it is all positive.
Today, we got out a gift a couple of friends gave us for Christmas last year. This little Nativity is a great interactive tool to tell the story of Jesus' birth. It will be a tradition in our house to read it and open all of the boxes and set the Nativity up before Christmas.
This year, we had a little issue with B trying to eat the book and all of the pieces but I think that he thought that all parts of the scene were pretty cool.

Getting In Gear

So this week, I plan on cranking out handmade gifts like my life depended on it. I completed one and a half projects tonight. Well...kind of. One project was more of a test run and now I have to figure out what I need to do to make it better. I won't say who the gifts are for but I wanted to go ahead and post them in case anyone needed a couple of good project ideas for gifts.

I really liked these towels from Pottery Barn Kids so I went searching online for a way to make my own. This kid's hooded towel was made from Skip To My Lou's tutorial. It was very easy to make and add a little personality to. I've seen a few patterns/tutorials on these and like this kind of full bath towel shape the best. I think that it will last longer for growing kids.

As you can see, one of my models was more than willing to pose for the camera, but since he was unable to er...stand on his own. I went with the vacuum for the full length shot.



I made my own binding with fabric specifically purchased for this project and I'm very happy with how both towels turned out. Hopefully their new owner will like them too!



Check back tomorrow and I will hopefully have another project completed! :-)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Happy Anniversary! 5 Years!

One day at...


this girl...


met this boy...


They fell in love and exchanged these...


A couple of years later they adopted this little cutie...


Then a few more years went by and they came home with this little cutie...


Sweetie,
Thanks for balancing me out and sharing everything with me for the past 5 years. I can't wait to see what the next 50 have in store for us!

I love you!
P

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Goodness Gracious!

It's December 10th already and I have to turn this...



into this! All before Christmas!

For The Men In Your Lives

Well, at least for the little guys...but who knows, maybe you know a big guy who would like one of these. I made the following for our friends, Ordell and Beth's youngest son's birthday. He turns the big '3' on Saturday. He is really into toy trains and cars so when I saw this car cozie tutorial, I thought of his upcoming b'day. Hopefully, he will like it and it will be a great traveling companion for the whole family. I made two of these this week, one according to My Little Gems pattern with a ribbon tie and one with a velcro closure. After I made the ribbon one, I thought about the many times the little one would be asking mommy or daddy to tie the roll closed for them and that just might start getting old for mommy and daddy. So voila! Velcro to the rescue! It was a pretty easy tutorial and I thought that it turned out pretty good. B may be getting one of these babies next year! Here is another tutorial with a little variation on Homemade by Jill.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Don't Judge...

...unless you have the entire story. This is what I was thinking today as I was walking around our small-town grocery store with B strapped into the cart. There, I felt many mothers' eyes fall upon my child. You see, my son managed to somehow get into the store with only one sock on. And yes it is quite chilly outside today. But no, he did not leave the house that way nor did he get into the car that way. But somewhere between the car and the area in the store where you pick-up a cart we were solo on the socks. He didn't seem to mind and I wasn't going back out to look for it since I was only there to get out of the house and to get a couple of things. I got a few comments from folks, pointing his bare digits out to me. I'm sure they were just trying to be helpful... Then I saw a more eyes being drawn to the sockless foot and even a couple disapproving shakes of the head. Am I that bad of a mother? No. They don't know that my 7 month old gets his kicks from pulling socks off and hiding them from his mother. For some reason I have been resistant to putting shoes on B. He can't walk, why does he need them? I guess my answer is, to hold the socks on.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

I'm Crushing...

...on these babies. My MIL got them for me at Target this past weekend and they are soooooooo comfy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Another Season Gone By


Saturday was our last game of the 2009 football season. It was a great game but didn't have the best outcome. We lost by one point, 29-28. The other team kicked a field goal with a minute or less on the clock. I think that one of the players said it best when he said that it would just give the team fuel for the off-season. But for now our family is enjoying having daddy home again most evenings. We are looking forward to starting some fun new holiday traditions in our family.

Card Outtakes

For some reason, this year I have felt there is plenty of time to pull together a Christmas card. Its like Christmas is so far away to me. I don't know if it is because the weather isn't very Christmassy or what. I just have not been motivated. But today I decided was the day. Spur of the moment you know. We did an impromptu photo shoot at our house courtesy of my index finger and the timer on my dad's camera. B loves to get his photo taken. He is always cheesing but for some reason he was distracted in a lot of the pictures we got. It could have been the massive amount of tickling daddy gave him before we started or the antsy dog sitting on the other side of daddy. Who knows. I think that we got a winner though. Now it just needs to make it onto a card and into every one's hands before Christmas. Here are some outtakes for you all to enjoy.

Any babies on your list this year?

There are several babies on our Christmas gift list this year. The following are a couple of items that I whipped up last week. I saw the following baby legs on a blog somewhere (can't remember) and they were sooooo easy to do and adorable to boot. It's too bad the lettuce ruffle edge is more girl than neutral. But you don't even have to have to have a serger to do it and it only took me maybe 10-15 min tops for 3 pair. I just cut knee socks above the heel and then pulled the material tight when I sewed the cut edge with a zig-zag stitch. Soooo easy! There are other tutorials out there with you making a cuff from the foot part of the sock but this one seemed the easiest and cutest.





The giraffes were kind of a hybrid of my own design and something I saw online. I sketched out a pattern and used some fabric and ribbon I had on hand. If anyone would like to know how I did those I can let you know. They are pretty basic taggy animals. I'm working on some patterns for other animals as well.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Snap, Crackle, Puke

What?...That's not the saying? Today I decided to conduct a little finger foods experiment with B. Since I am borderline nervous about giving B anything that isn't fed with a spoon I am surprised I even attempted this experiment today. Anyways, I threw caution to the wind and spread about 5 or 6 rice krispy (I guess you would call them kernels?) on his high chair tray after he finished with his baby food. I figured they were smaller than the puffs and less likely to be a choking hazard. Well, he pushed them around for a while and some got stuck to the food already on his hands. I ended up holding one up for him to see if he was interested in putting it in his mouth. Of course he was. Well, it stuck to his bottom lip and he did a mini freak-out trying to swat it off. I gave him a sec to compose himself and push some more around on the tray and thought I would try again. Big mistake. I put one in his mouth and he grimaced and it looked like he didn't know what to do. Then he started gagging. By this time I could feel myself start to panic a little. I started flipping through my mental file for the time I learned the baby Heimlich years ago. Where was that?! He gagged again, and again...and then threw up all over his bib. At last he got it up. By that time, I had taken the tray off and was ready to haul him out of the chair. We then looked each other in the eye and made a pact to not try anymore solid food...ever again. I told him he could look forward to a life of pureed cheeseburgers and spaghetti. Problem solved, right? :-)

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Egad!

Today, I saw part of my future pass before my eyes. I took B to his first open flu clinic. I went at the beginning since I thought that we would get in quick and there wouldn't be a line. There was a line but it went pretty quick since there were around 6-7 nurses giving shots. Since I had a little time, I took in my surroundings and observed the lil'uns filing through the line with their parents. You could tell that the older ones were acting brave but were pretty quite because they knew what was coming. The younger ones were either super nervous or oblivious to where they were. A couple had lovies gripped tightly in their arms, comforting them. As the line through the hallway made its way closer to the area where the shots were given, I could hear kids screaming their lungs out. It sounded like some medieval torture chamber. (Maybe that is a bit dramatic...)
Anyways, as I came to the doorway I noticed a bunch of rope sitting in a tub on the floor. I jokingly said something about tying kids up to the mom behind me. As I got closer to the shot area I got a good view of parents holding their crying and squirming kids down for the shots. I thought to myself that would be me in a couple of years. I hated to see those kids so scared and frantic. I don't know if I will be able to take it when it is B's turn. For now though, he takes those shots like a champ. He doesn't even make a sound. In the future we may not be hitting up those clinics though.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

GC Wins Again!

Yesterday was our last regular season game and Senior Day. It was a great game against a tough opponent (LaGrange) and the guys pulled it off with a 28-21 win. Their season has also been extended by a week since they were invited to play in the NCCAA Victory Bowl which will be next weekend. GC will be hosting Geneva since we finished in the rankings as #1. Yayyyyy!
Here is a pic of Jeff, B, and Jesse(Jeff's youngest brother) after the game. His old college roommate, Derek, was also at the game with some recruits (for some reason I did not take very many pictures).


Some of What I Have Been Up To...

Last week I was busy sewing and prepping for more sewing projects most evenings. I didn't really complete a whole lot of projects but I did get some baby gifts done. Somehow I missed getting a picture of the third onesie I made, it was a pink hippo shape. My personal fave was the guitar...


All By Myself!

...well almost. B is pretty much sitting by himself now. He can sit by himself for longer periods of time but still falls over every now and then. He is eating about 7 different kinds of baby food now (about a 4 oz. jar a meal) and his latest stats (taken last week) were: 24 lb 4 oz and 28 1/2 in. He is currently in 18-24 months depending on the type of clothing. No crawling yet but he is inching his way backwards when he wants a toy in front of him. We are still working on that. He is starting to really get into bathtime now. He chases one of his bathtoys around his little tub and splashes the water. I don't have to be so much of a contortionist when I give him a bath now either. The slippery lil guy still needs a little support but not as much as he used to.


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Shout Out To My Tig"hers"


*He doesn't look so tough with those ears on does he? :-)

The other day, when I was cleaning out the garage, I found my tiger ears from back in the day. Way back...when I was in some sort of shape and played college volleyball at ONU. Anyways, as college volleyball is starting to head towards conference tourneys and post season play, I just wanted to give my coach and the current gals a shout out for another great season. And I especially wanted to recognize my coach, who has recently celebrated her 700th win. Yeh, that is right...700 "W"s. Amazing. She is 5th in active NAIA volleyball college coaches. Great job Coach! Congratulations!

Is Our Little Guy Going To Start....Crawling?


I don't know...how much time do you give him? Right now we are getting a little backward motion but nothing in the forward direction. We are totally up on our hands with arms extended but no knees yet.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Rooooaaaaarrrrr!


I am B, hear me roar! Happy Halloween!

GC Wins In the Dome!


Last night, B and I watched/listened as the GC Panthers beat Northwestern (26-20) in the final game of "Dome Day" in St. Paul, MN. Only 2 more games (both home) to the regular season.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Art...With Wings!


This afternoon, B and I met up with some friends at the College's art building to view a traveling exhibit. I had heard many good things about the exhibit and so I mentioned it to Beth to see if she and the boys would be interested in going this week. I thought that the boys might think it was cool because it was made entirely of bugs. Artist, Jennifer Angus , pins large insects to the walls in various patterns to create an amazing display. You can check out the whats and the hows in this video interview by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It is very interesting.

Picture courtesy of: Jennifer Angus, A Terrible Beauty (detail of installation), 2005.