Today is Benjamin's due date, and his 3 week birthday. I feel so lucky to have had these three weeks with him. Today was a really good day. For the first time I was able to see that I will be able to get things done in the days to come, that there will be a time that I can care for Ben and still take care of things around the house - maybe even have time to do a little sewing.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments on our baby boy. We are over the moon. The blog will still be quiet for a little longer but I do plan to return. I have many projects in the works and am looking forward to getting back in front of my sewing machine!
Labels: family
Benjamin Arthur
Born December 30th, 2009 at 9:59pm
7lb 6.1oz 21.5"
Three weeks early but doing wonderfully. We are so happy to be home with our little boy. As you can imagine, posting will be light as we settle in. I hope everyone had as wonderful an end to 2009 as we did.
Labels: family
My nephew was in town for the weekend so I spent some quality time with the sweetest 2-year-old I know.
This awesome truck is his birthday present, from
Grandpa John's on etsy and is fantastic in person. Highly recommended if you need a gift for a little car-lover on your list!
Labels: etsy, family
I actually had another post planned yesterday before I found out about
Dana's giveaway! Some of you may have guessed, but I actually do have a big project in the works that I can finally share.
Baby Mikke, due January 20, 2010.Now that this little one is sapping a bit less of my energy, hopefully crafting and blogging will return to normal. Which is a good thing - I have quite a list of projects planned before January! (And won't that be more fun on my
new toy!)
Labels: family, wip
I didn't have the productive long weekend that I had hoped for but I did get the wedding quilt quilted and the binding is ready to hand sew. As for the rest of the weekend, I will allow Hitch to demonstrate our level of activity...
Remember our sweet little black kitty? Yeah, he grew a little!Labels: family, quilting, sewing, wip
...to put away the Christmas tree.
Labels: family
When it starts to get cold outside the puppy gets especially cuddly. And I think he just might know how cute he is.
Labels: family, simple pleasures
Earlier today I was in Virginia (don't you love airplanes?) and I got to hang out for a few hours with Pete's brother and his family. In Texas we don't really have leaves that change color and fall from the trees, so we can't do this:
And then this:
I remember doing this as a kid! If I hadn't been looking at a three hour plane in the same clothes, I would have been diving in after them!
Labels: family, travel
My sister knows me so well. We both have an obessive love of
Etsy and are constantly sharing favorites with each other, and she has long known of my love for owls.
So for my birthday she got me an all Etsy, all owl present! The adorable stamp above is from
The Mayberry Sparrow. These awesome earrings are from
Heatherly Designs:
I got a print from
Berkley Illustration, too.
Even the card has an owl on it and is from
e.soule.
And probably my favorite, from a shop I had managed not to stumble across on my own, this completely fabulous stuffed owl made from upcycled clothes from
squishyfish.
Thanks, Katy! I love
everything!!
52 Nights Update - Night 32 - Last night was quite busy! Sweet Addie had to go in for her shots (she has doubled in weight since we got her! You can't say we don't feed our animals well), and we had a woefully neglected yard to take care of. I used my birthday as an excuse to skip all my chores this weekend, so there was some catching up to do there, too. I was never even tempted to come to the computer!
Labels: 52 nights, etsy, family
Yesterday after my crazy prep for the baby shower, and the baby shower itself, I got to spend a little time with my sister and my nephew who came to town for the baby shower. Then we were going to meet up with Pete for dinner - much to my surprise, when we got to the restaurant we were greeted by about 20 friends there to surprise me for my birthday! It was so fun.
AND. Pete made cupcakes. From scratch.
And took pictures because he knew I'd want to post about it.
So awesome.
Labels: cooking, family
Happy 5th wedding anniversary to my sweet husband.
Today is also the 11th anniversary of our first date. We were just kids when we started dating. I was only 16. Everyday I feel lucky that we have known each other so long, and grown so much together.
He went out early this morning to pick up these roses. I love them.
Labels: family, photography
What is there to do when you have free time, and eggs were one of the only fresh foods available at the store, besides make cookies?
My mother-in-law and my mom both use very good but very different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I alternate between the two to keep my husband and me both happy. These are from my mom's recipe.
Nothing like a little comfort food on a quiet night! Especially when you also have a new kitty to snuggle...
Labels: cooking, family
Every other week I do a route delivering meals with our local
Meals on Wheels organization. For a couple months now, I've gotten to say hi to this really sweet stray kitten that one of the families on my route has been feeding. Can you see where this is going yet?
It turns out the family decided they couldn't keep taking care of the kitten. They were going to take it to the local shelter.
Even those of you who only know me through this site know I couldn't let that happen! So, with our furry household finally starting to settle down since adopting
Hitch, and a possible hurricane evacuation tonight, we now have another new kitty.
Name is still unknown, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!
Labels: family
Any plans I had for my 20th no-tech night were forgotten when we got some very bad news. Our sweet kitty Baxter had been missing for a few days, and before we put up signs we asked our neighbors if they'd seen him. Our next door neighbor saw him this weekend, he'd been hit by a car. He was only four, and he was the most awesome cat I've ever met. This sucks.
Labels: 52 nights, family
For Mother's Day I made my mom and sister matching pouches for their
Christmas totes. Mom needed a larger one and Katy wanted a coin purse sized one.
You can't see it in the photo, but the small one is pretty crummy. I definitely need practice with zippers. Luckily she still likes it! She's so sweet and enthusiastic about receiving all my imperfect prototypes.
Labels: bags, family, sewing
I love having both my mom and my mother-in-law in town, but it made for a busy Sunday! This morning we had brunch with Pete's mom, and I made a new make-ahead French toast that was so delicious.
The recipe is
here except I used real eggs instead of egg substitute.
Very yummy. And
Mint Bellinis, too. We also went out to dinner with my mom and my sister's family, so it has been a day of eating!
Among all the cooking I did get time to work on a new project.
I do have all the pieces cut for the
master quilt and I'll try to piece the top this week. Then I'll have three weekends to get it quilted to meet my May goal. It's nice to be able to still work on other projects, though!
Labels: cooking, family, quilting
My sister was able to deliver my grandma's
purse and
necklace to her over the weekend, and was thoughtful enough to capture this for me:
If people ever ask me why I enjoy crafting, I want to be able to show them this picture!
52 Nights Update - Are you sick of these yet? Night 10 I ran a
ton of errands, worked on my
quilt, and made dinner. I did cheat - I played a few games of the new MarioKart for Wii. My first slip in 10 weeks, not bad! And I still got so much done, which wouldn't have happened before with something like MarioKart to distract me. I look forward to Mondays, and I am treating more nights like no tech nights. I think this weekend I might make Sunday a no tech day - a whole day! On Mondays I don't count time at work since I need the computer. I'm not sure I can handle a whole day...
Labels: 52 nights, family
As the weekend winds up I hope you all had a good one! I got in my first swim of the season yesterday - not that it hasn't been warm enough before now! No April snows for us like for our friends up north.
Pete's birthday was last week and we went to my mom's tonight to celebrate, so I spent a little time this afternoon making
honey peanut cupcakes. I must be on a peanut kick right now.
The honey taste came through wonderfully, and the cake was a little spongy and very tender. Love these recipes.
And of course I had to take my camera since I knew my nephew was going to be there...
Hope your weekend was good, too!
Labels: cooking, family
In addition to
her bag, my grandma requested a colorful necklace. I hope this qualifies!
I was able to do something I've always wanted to do to make this - just rummage through my containers of beads and pull together ones I love. I'm not sure I could do this with other colors yet, I do seem to be drawn to blues and greens!
Of course, something also happened I've been expecting but not looking forward to... One of the cats jumped up onto my desk while I was working and knocked my entire divided organizer of tiny silver beads and pins off, onto the carpet. It's all picked back up but it will be a while before I get it resorted! The craft room is
off limits to kitties until future notice!
Labels: family, jewelry
A few weeks ago I got a very special call from my grandma - she wanted to buy a purse and necklace from me! I insisted on making them as a gift, she insisted on being a customer, we still need to reach a compromise.
I got everything for this bag cut and almost ready to assemble during a no-tech night, which made me feel quite productive!
Her only request was that everything be colorful! The bag is similar to the last
auction bag except it has an outside pocket for her handicap tag and it closes with a magnetic snap instead of a zipper.
It is SO much fun to make projects with a specific person in mind. I still have to finish the necklace, then I'll get everything in the mail soon, Grandma, I promise!
52 Nights Update - Night 8 showed that my productivity is related to how busy I am at work... I had a long day yesterday, and ended up taking a nap after work! I never do that!! But I redeemed myself by helping on the
floor project, making dinner, and editing photos from a fun "session" I had on Sunday. I don't count using the computer for "to do" items like that as breaking the rules, since my intent is to get more done. So, overall, yay!
Labels: 52 nights, bags, family, sewing
I know I've bragged on here before about my mom. But I just can't resist another chance to show off how talented she is.
I saw this bowl at her house and pleaded until she sent it home with me - I love everything she makes, but I am so smitten with my new birdie bowl!
I really admire the way my mom has used her pottery to express some of her grief since we lost Dad, and she's made some amazing pieces, but it made me smile to see something so cheerful.
In the bottom of the dish is melted glass from my favorite
glass blowers, and it melted just right to look like a little birdie reflection.
What a bonus, to get to spend time with my mom
and come home with such a beautiful birdie bowl!
Labels: family
I always appreciate having a few quiet minutes to spend in my sewing room. This is especially nice on the weekends, when we are usually going at top speed! Recently I was busy sewing, and glanced up to see my entire zoo hanging out with me.
Can you spot everyone? Click if you need help!
Labels: craft room, family
For my birthday (...in October...) I got a new lens for my camera. Well, the promise of a new lens - I had to decide if I wanted a better all-purpose lens or a fixed focal length "portrait" lens... After a lot of research I decided to get a lens that will give me the yummy shallow depth of field I love so much... I am already smitten with my new toy!! Just a few examples from the past few days...
My puppy DJ being silly.
My precious sleeping nephew.
Hitch looking out the window.
Our new pelican.Do you see that last photo? That pelican? My mom
made him! Isn't he gorgeous? Living on the gulf coast we have a special place in our hearts for pelicans, and now we have one of our own. My mom is so talented!!
Labels: family, photography
