Leelersinc

opening a birthday gift

2011-10-20T21:51:00.002-04:00

Evaleigh Reading

2011-07-14T18:35:00.003-04:00

She calls the green pumpkin an apple.

You Are My Sunshine

2011-06-13T23:23:00.003-04:00

The book is "You Are My Sunshine". She is singing while reading it. At the beginning I think she says "I love you".

Apple

2011-03-08T17:55:00.002-05:00

She can say "apple" now! She loves apples! Here she is having fun practicing her new word.

Animal Noises

2011-02-10T11:14:00.003-05:00

Evaleigh is getting really good at making animal noises! She can do a dog, cat, cow, monkey, lion, and today she started making a bird sound. She also loves to do "so big!" that she learned from her nana.

It's a little hard to hear the dog (ruff ruff) and the lion (rowr). Sometimes she will do a sheep sound.

Walking!!

2011-01-24T19:42:00.002-05:00

FINALLY she is walking!! We went to Joel's parents' house last night and I think she liked the soft carpet, and she took several steps on her own! But usually when we tried to get to walk again she would just sit down. Then tonight we were helping her walk and she did! She took lots of steps! This video is after she took several steps. After this video she took several more steps. She had been walking behind her push-carts for a long time and walking while holding our hand, and now she is finally walking by herself! (She is 16 1/2 months old!). She is very cautious and only does stuff when she is confident.

She is saying a lot of words too. She imitates a dog, cat, lion, elephant, and monkey. She says dada, daddy, mama, kitty, yummy, baby (beebee), and sings her ABCs, even though it sounds like E, C. She can sometimes feed herself with her spoon. She climbs on the futon and climbs down backwards. And she still loves to read books! She will sit and read for a long time. She is growing up so fast!

Snow!

2011-01-10T10:38:00.002-05:00

We got about 6-7 inches of snow last night! I am home from school and may be most of the week. It's not supposed to get much above freezing until Thursday.
Evaleigh is 16 months old now, and still not walking! She walks fine when she golds our finger, but when we let go, she stand a little, then plops down and crawls.
I have a lot of videos and pictures that I should post...

Today I hope to sew some cloth napkins. We had tons of paper napkins and I wanted to have some cloth ones made by the time we ran out. We are on our last bit of paper napkins!
I also plan on baking a cranberry nut loaf, and some cranberry/pear/applesauce for Evaleigh to freeze.

Maybe if we are out of school most of the week I can start some of the many other projects I have!

Here's a real short video of her on her rocking horse that she got for Christmas. She can do it by herself, with help getting on.

Walking with her Walker

2010-12-13T10:26:00.003-05:00

I haven't been online for a long time. Our computer had a bunch of viruses. We still don't have it back.. the lady who is working on it found a lot more problems.. so we bought a little notebook for Christmas.
Here is a video of Evaleigh using her walker. She is already much better at it than in this video. She can turn corners and maneuver it around objects on the floor.
She will sometimes stand by herself but she is still too cautious to take a step without us helping her or using her walkers.

Almost Walking!

2010-11-08T17:54:00.002-05:00

I helped her use her walker toy yesterday and Joel did today. Today he got brave enough to let go and let her walk by herself and she did great! Sometimes it goes too fast and she plops down and she can't turn corners yet, but she's almost walking by herself!

Evaleigh Reading

2010-11-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

Evaleigh loves to read! She will sit and read for a long time. Here she is reading in her highchair while waiting for her food.

She has 4 teeth now! On Monday I saw one top tooth. Then a couple days later I saw the other top tooth. They grow more each day!

Evaleigh's Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

2010-11-07T13:15:00.011-05:00

Evaleigh turned one on September 4, and her party was on September 5. I wrote this post a while ago but it keep getting an error. Finally today I copied the whole thing into a word document and copied and pasted and it worked!

For Evaleigh's first birthday we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party!
We followed the book for the menu and decorated the room based on the book.
This was her invitation. I also ordered cupcake toppers from the same person.
Joel's mom helped me to decide on The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a theme and my friend Mary helped with most of the party ideas. I also looked here for inspiration (number 81 is The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme).

It was a lot of work and we didn't get everything done, but it still turned out great! I read the book when everyone was there because most of the food had to do with the book.

This was our menu (with quotes from the book):

In the light of the moon a

little egg lay on a leaf.

We had hard-cooked eggs on lettuce (didn't have time to make deviled eggs).

On Monday through Friday, he ate through one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, and five oranges.But he was still hungry.

(We paraphrased these next few pages into one sentence since it was all one dish).
We had a fruit salad with apples, pears, plums, strawberries, and oranges for the part of the book where he ate through all the fruit.

The next part of the book says,

On Saturday, he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese,one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake,

and one slice of watermelon.

We had brownies for the chocolate cake, the ice cream was in the punch, we had a dish of pickles, there were cheese and salami rolls (we used provolone and american), the lollipops were on the tables, cherry tarts, tofurky (italian sausage flavor) with mozzarella balls and mushrooms, cupcakes were with the cake, and a plate of watermelon.

The next day was Sunday again.

The caterpillar ate through one nice

green leaf, and after that

he felt much better.

We had a big green salad with toppings (cranberries, croutons, walnuts, almonds) and dressings.

We also added mini burgers (we left the bean burgers on home by accident!), hummus with carrots, bell peppers, and chips, and salsa with chips.

The bulletin board pieces kept falling off the wall!

For her cake I used a recipe here and I bought the book! (I think it's my favorite baby and toddler cook book.) I thought the cake was pretty good! The icing was cream cheese, organic vanilla yogurt, and some natural raspberry jelly. I think Evaleigh liked the raspberries the best.

The cupcakes were used from a recipe called

Baby Turns 1 cake from a really awesome website! It uses brown sugar so it's a little sweeter.

We used a digital frame to show pictures from her first year.

This is where I got all the decorations:
-I already mentioned that I got the invitations and cupcake toppers from design dream. I also found really cute invitations on kodak but they were more expensive and took too long to get to me and I'd still have to mail them out. Maybe a good idea if I had more time and money.

-I bought a 2-inch scalloped cutter and a 1 1/2 inch circle cutter on amazon.

-I found great party favors and ideas at the Eric Carle Museum website, but shipping was so expensive! I ended up getting ideas and then buying everything somewhere else.

-I got an Eric Carle party kit on amazon. I got mine for really cheap by looking at the other sellers.

-I got the border and bulletin board set from Carson Dellosa. I also got some birthday stickers here.

- I bought bubbles at Walmart and glued the cupcake toppers on to match the theme. I also bought twisty straws.

-I reused baby food jars by hot gluing a ribbon around them and gluing on a circle from the cupcake toppers. Inside I put jellybeans and lollipops. I bought washable markers, crayons (big and regular), and colored pencils to put in cups on the tables.

-I printed a coloring page for people to color from the Eric Carle website. I found other activities by searching online but I didn't use them. This and this looked great but I didn't use them for the party.

-I bought fabric from Fat Quarter Shop. The link is for all Eric Carle fabrics.

-We got balloons at a local party shop. We had some made into a caterpillar and others made into butterflies.

She loved opening presents!

Swinging in the Park

2010-10-05T19:09:00.002-04:00

She loves to swing at the park!

Birthday Toy from Nanna

2010-09-30T19:43:00.002-04:00

I have so many cute videos to upload.. I am way behind and she is growing so fast and doing new things all the time! Here is a video if her playing with her new birthday toy from Nanna. Joel said she played with it a lot today. And she's actually playing with it right now as I type. There is so much to do on it.

I have videos of her playing her drum and xylophone, swinging in the park swing and laughing, turning a light switch on and off, pulling books off a shelf, and more.. I hope to upload them soon!

Playing With a New Toy

2010-09-09T20:37:00.004-04:00

I have a long post all about her birthday party but I can't get it to post! It keeps giving me an error. So in the mean time here is a video!

Playing

2010-08-30T18:01:00.002-04:00

Evaleigh Crawling

2010-08-09T12:30:00.003-04:00

I am finally posting another video! I have a bunch of videos from the summer but just haven't posted them. This one is pretty up-to-date. I took it this morning. But while I was uploading my pictures she crawled again even better! And of course I didn't have my camera ready...

She started getting her first tooth yesterday! I thought I saw a little white dot on her bottom gums, and when I put my finger in her mouth I felt a little hard point!

She is (finger) feeding herself really well now. She likes to eat bananas and puffs. Last night I gave her some small cooked pieces of green beans, potatoes, carrots, and peas. She made a face but kept eating them anyway. It was too much fun for her not to!

I go back to school on Thursday. It's been a fun, eventful, relaxing summer. Can't believe it's over! I didn't do half the projects I wanted to... but I always plan too much. We made a trip to Mexico which was great- Evaleigh's first trip out of the country and first trip to a beach and pool!

I have been working on the embroidery class I am taking. I almost finished one of the dolls I have in my last post. I got another pattern for crochet but I don't think I even picked up a crochet hook all summer... We've been trying a lot of new recipes and eating healthier. I got this book from the library: Eat to Live, and we are going to try his meal plan. It's a really good book so far! But it's going to be harder to cook once school starts.. I know why so many people settle for fast processed food even though it's unhealthy.

Well, now it's time for her nap!

Summer projects!

2010-06-09T20:41:00.006-04:00

I have a long list of projects I've started and never finished that I plan to work on this summer, but I am also starting some new ones...
I am going to sew some dolls for Evaleigh from Wee Wonderfuls:

I plan on buying some cute fabric and trim from Super Buzzy!

I also signed up for an online class about embroidery! Wild Olive's blog is where I found it.

Evaleigh Reading

2010-06-06T16:45:00.002-04:00

Here is Evaleigh reading a book. When we read to her, she turns every page, when we start it for her. She loves books!

Happy 9 months old Evaleigh!

2010-06-04T16:16:00.002-04:00

Can't believe she's already 9 months old!! But she's not crawling yet and still has no teeth... soon enough...!
Here's a video from a few days ago.

Dadadada

2010-05-03T18:43:00.003-04:00

Here's a video of her babbling "dadada".

Talking and Sitting

2010-04-24T15:20:00.003-04:00

She can sit up on her own pretty well now! She also says more things such as "ning ning ning" like her cousin Tamsin!

Mouthy

2010-04-19T18:54:00.003-04:00

Evaleigh makes funny sounds with her mouth....!

Toxin-Free Home

2010-03-29T17:46:00.003-04:00

The Rookie Moms website has a great list of information for toxin-free homes.
http://www.rookiemoms.com/cheat-sheet-of-non-toxic-tips-and-eco-wisdom/

Here is the video from the Healthy Child Healthy World website:

Dr. Green is the author of a very interesting nutrition book I am reading right now, and he is part of that website! Here's the book on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Baby-Green-Nutrition-Pregnancy/dp/0470425245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269899387&sr=8-1

Talking!

2010-03-22T17:35:00.003-04:00

I just took this video of her talking! It's so cute! She wasn't doing this even a week ago!

Evaleigh in March

2010-03-21T20:21:00.008-04:00

It's been a while since I posted and Evaleigh has grown! We've been feeding her solids about once every day ever since she turned 6 months old. So far she's had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, plums, butternut squash, and a taste of green peas. She seems to like whatever we give her.
She also just starting talking more. She has been making sounds for a while and screeching, but just last Friday she all of a sudden starting making consonant sounds. She is saying, "mamama"! And b, n, g, and sometimes d sounds, but no dada yet...
She is also now in size 6-9 months. It's good it's getting warmer because most of her clothes in that size are summery.
She still isn't really rolling over yet! She scoots around a little and rolls to the side but her arm is always in the way for her to roll without help. Although today I had her on her tummy, and I went and did something and when I came back she was on her back! I asked Joel if he turned her over but he didn't! So I guess she rolled over, but then she didn't do it again! But she does a lot better on her tummy and doesn't cry as much. And she can push herself up a lot better too. Whoa! Just as I finished typing that I watched her slowly roll over on her own!! She was reaching for a toy and then rolled to her back! Yea! And she just did it again! I got it on camera the second time to show Joel (he's at work right now).
She's reaching for everything now. She crinkles the pages of my magazine when I'm reading with her. She touches the pages of books when we read to her. When we say "mamama" to her she watches and listens and moves her mouth like she's trying to say it too!
She also reaches for her toes. Today she pulled off her sock and pulled on her leg warmer.
She almost sits by herself. She holds herself up pretty well, but needs something to help keep her balanced.
She doesn't have any teeth yet. She still sucks her thumb all the time, especially when she's sleepy or hungry.

Here's a video from earlier this month. Either she's supposed to be asleep or she just woke up, I can't remember, but she is playing with her toys with her feet! Cute!

Laughing Evaleigh

2010-02-23T19:40:00.002-05:00

I have bad aim in this video but the sound is more important. I was holding Evaleigh and bouncing and holding the camera out to the side. She loves it when we bounce and sing! You can hear us (mostly Joel) singing and Evaleigh laughing. So cute!

naptime..?

2010-02-12T17:21:00.003-05:00

I came home early today because of snow. Evaleigh usually takes her nap right about then, but didn't. After a while I fed her and she started to fall asleep so I put her in her pack 'n play... this video was taken shortly after...

Homemade Baby Food

2010-02-03T20:00:00.005-05:00

I had a few sweet potatoes that I got on sale for a little while that I wanted to make into baby food. She'll be eating solids in about a month so instead of letting them go bad I thought I'd try my hand at making baby food. It was so much fun I can't wait to do it again!

First I washed and peeled the sweet potatoes (I read it's best to steam them and then peel them to get the most nutrients, but my recipe said to peel first).

Then I sliced them up and put them in the steamer basket. I put a little over a cup of water into the pot, boiled it, then simmered with the lid on.

I kept checking to make sure there was water in the pot and kept sticking a fork in the potatoes to see when they were soft.

When they were mushy I put hem in the blender with the water from the pot (full of nutrients!) and blended and pureed until all the lumps were gone. I had to add a little more water a few times.

Then I filled the trays. It had a wonderful texture!

Three sweet potatoes filled 4 trays!

Then I put the trays in the freezer overnight.

The next morning I had 48 cubes of sweet potato baby food!

I put them in a bag with a sweet potato label and the date, ready to be thawed and served! The bigger cubes are about an ounce of food.

I can't wait to make more flavors with all kinds of fruits and veggies! But I better wait, she doesn't even eat solids yet...

Voice Lessons

2010-02-02T17:03:00.003-05:00

Here is Evaleigh practicing opera singing.

Toys

2010-01-31T16:13:00.004-05:00

Look at how she carefully studies her toys and when she reaches for them she gets them! Her coordination is really improving!

January 2010

2010-01-30T11:17:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd post a bunch of pictures to show what's been happening lately...

I ordered some things onnline, mostly at www.babyhalf.com: eco nuts natural laundry soap, a wet bag (we have a yellow one too) for the cloth diaper pail, two pairs of legwarmers, and the sweater is from Evaleigh's Nana.

This is Evaleigh's new keekaroo highchair put together. We also got a red infant seat for it. We got a great deal on amazon- $150 for the highchair and tray, which they no longer offer...

These alphabet wall art cards are for her room, but we still didn't hang them up...

Here is a signing kit. It was a great deal on amazon! It has a book, flashcards, a cd, and a signing songbook to go with the cd.

I started her green bean suit last summer before she was born, and haven't worked on it much since she was born. I realized she will outgrow it if I don't hurry! She even likes it! So I am going to work hard on finishing it soon!

I've also been cooking quite a bit in January. I didn't remember to take any pictures but I made these muffins filled with jam twice this month. They just went too fast to take a picture!

I found a neat recipe in one of my cookbooks for a winter stew in the crockpot. In the picture you can see leeks and parsnips- two vegetables I never bought before. It was fun learning something new!Here is the stew before I cooked it. I forgot to take a picture afterward but it looked like stew! It was yummy too!

I made homemade caramel corn.

I made homemade macaroni and cheese. This is before I cooked it.

I tried 3 times to make bread in the bread maker and it finally worked the third time! Which is good because I would have given up by then. The first time I didn't bring the yeast to room temperature first and the bread was all clumpy and weird. The second time I followed a bread maker recipe I found online that said to dissolve the yeast in warm water and add honey and let it sit for 10 minutes before adding it to the machine. Well, my breadmaker says to add yeast last on top of the flour, but it always mixes it right away so I thought I'd try it. Didn't work. Half the flour didn't even mix in. I finally followed a recipe from the bread maker book exactly and with room temperature yeast and it turned out yummy!

I also finally made potato-spinach gnocchi. It was on my list of things to make for a looong time.
First I cooked and mashed some potatoes, then added flour, spinach, and some other things to make a dough.

Then I rolled the dough into long ropes and cut little dumplings. I had to put them in boiling water for a few minutes.

It made pretty much! We ate some with a tomato sauce and put the rest in the freezer for later.

I have some more videos of Evaleigh talking and squealing and laughing and playing, but this post it long enough, Maybe tomorrow!

rattles and Eustace

2010-01-24T19:13:00.003-05:00

She likes to have a toy in each hand now. Eustace was curious and came to watch. She blinks every time she bangs the rattle on the tray and makes a loud noise!

Photo Shoot

2010-01-23T19:38:00.003-05:00

I have some cute hand-me-downs from my husband's sister. One outfit that my be my favorite is her size now but kinda summery... I don't think she'll still fit in it when it gets warmer so I dressed her in it and took some pictures today. Evaleigh is very photogenic!

Look at her toes!

More Playing

2010-01-07T18:20:00.002-05:00

She is getting stronger and can bounce her seat now!

Evaleigh and her Rattle

2010-01-07T17:40:00.002-05:00

She likes to sit in her bumbo chair and play with her toys. Right after I stopped this video she dropped her rattle into the toy basket! She is growing so fast and is fun to watch!

Evaleigh in her Bumbo Sitter

2009-12-31T16:06:00.003-05:00

This video is also before Christmas. She is in her Bumbo Seat.

Evaleigh and Rings

2009-12-30T20:53:00.004-05:00

Here's a video of Evaleigh from about a week ago. She was playing with Oli and got the rings around her wrist like bracelets. Then she was sucking on her pacifier and sticking her thumb in it like she was sucking her thumb. She sucks on her thumb and fingers a lot now and drools a lot.

We just got back from Christmas in Minnesota. Evaleigh did well on her first plane rides. We did a lot and saw a lot of snow. Evaleigh talked a lot and had fun seeing her Grandpa and Gramma Holly and her cousin Tamsin and all her aunts and uncles. She got a lot of presents for Christmas.

She is getting good at sitting in her Bumbo seat. In this picture she has her hands on the sides like an armchair! Cute!

Evaleigh Playing

2009-12-20T19:20:00.003-05:00

This looks like the other videos at first, but now she is in a bigger size of clothing, and now she grabs Oli's rings and pulls. She usually has one hand pulling the rings and the other pulling her bib. She grabs onto anything her hands touch now!

Touching the Lion

2009-11-23T14:37:00.003-05:00

Evaleigh is learning to reach out and touch things. Most of the time she still has her hand in a fist but she gets excited when she touches things! Last night she kept concentrating really hard and reaching out and touching the lion, then she'd get so excited and kick a whole lot, then stop and reach out and touch the lion again, over and over. It was so cute!

This morning she was concentrating really hard to open her fingers to hold onto Joel's finger. It was so cute. She's growing so much every day!

Oli

2009-11-13T13:16:00.003-05:00

Here is Evaleigh playing with her good friend Oli the Oliphaunt.

Evaleigh Talking

2009-11-08T20:13:00.002-05:00

Here is Evaleigh talking to her favorite friend, the Raccoon.

Cloth Diaper Adventures

2009-11-06T14:29:00.005-05:00

I thought it was about time to write about cloth diapering now that I have the experience. I used disposables for the first couple weeks (and went through over 4 packs of newborn diapers!) After Evaleigh's cord fell off then we started using cloth diapers. I love it! I would not want to use disposables instead!

I use mostly Bummis prefolds and covers. I fold a diaper in thirds and put it in the cover and put it on the baby. It's that simple!

At night I add a stay dry liner so it lasts longer.

There aren't many in this picture but I also use cloth wipes in the wipes warmer. I feel like these do a better job of cleaning than the disposable wipes, but I have to mix the solution every couple of days. They are also easier because I just throw them in the wash with the diapers.

When the diapers are dirty, I put them in the diaper pail. It's small, but just the right size. When it's full, it's time to wash the diapers.

I use Charlie's Soap and I think it works well. When it's time to wash, I just take the bag out of the pail, turn it inside out and dump all the dirty diapers into the washing machine. I first do a prewash, then add soap and do a normal wash with hot water. I always line dry my diapers because it not only saves energy and money, but it helps the diapers last longer, and when they dry in the sun the stains get bleached away. However, we've been having a lot rainy days lately and they've been drying in the nursery for a long time.. when it is sunny, they dry pretty fast outside!

Here is a picture of Evaleigh with a clean diaper. There's a dirty diaper in the background...

When the diapers are dry, I fold them in thirds and put them in the drawer. I also make solution for the wipes and add them to the warmer.

The covers can usually be used more than once so we have less of those. We have 19 prefolds and do laundry about every other day. The recommended amount is about 24 for newborns but we are doing ok with only 19. We have 5 covers and 4 gdiaper covers. I use the prefold diapers in the gdiaper covers which doesn't work as well but it still works. We also have one all-in-one diaper I use at night. I still need to sit down and figure out how much we spent on cloth diapers to see when we start saving money. Every time I hang the diapers up to dry, I count them and add them to the tally count. As of right now, we used 269 cloth diapers, and that doesn't count the load in the washer that just finished that I am going to hang as soon as I finish this post.. And that doesn't count the wipes either. We went through 5(?) boxes of wipes the first few weeks. So I know we are saving by using cloth wipes too! Also, we pretty much got all the cloth diapers and supplies from showers or shower money, but we are still going to see when we start saving money...

Dancing Evaleigh

2009-11-01T23:25:00.003-05:00

Evaleigh was 8 weeks old on Friday. This past week she grew so much! She now smiles and coos. She is also bigger and more active and alert. And in this video she is moving so much! Joel was singing to her and she was going crazy! I took several videos but I had to post a shorter one. That same night, she slept for the longest stretch so far- 6 hours! I guess she was really worn out. She is growing so fast!

Dad and Holly's Visit

2009-10-25T14:56:00.006-04:00

Last week we had a visit from my dad and Holly! Evaleigh enjoyed seeing her grandpa and grandma. We did a lot too! Evaleigh had her first trip to Atlanta to pick them up from the airport. We made breakfast and ate dinner at a friends' house and played the Wii. We took a hike to a waterfall and ate a birthday dinner for my dad at Okinawa hibachi. We went to church and walked around the square in Ellijay and looked at the booths and ate treats. We hung out at Whitepath Lodge where Dad and Holly were staying and had dinner and played 1,000. We went to Dahlonega and went gold panning. And we relaxed a little and had fun with Evaleigh.

Natural

2009-10-08T18:13:00.004-04:00

Dangerous chemicals are everywhere! Even in our food and baby products. Here is a blog where you can download a recipe booklet for making natural household cleaners.
http://junie-moon.blogspot.com/2008/04/natural-cleaning-recipes-booklet.html

Here is a website where you can search cosmetic products and find out what's in them and how safe they are. Even baby products have dangerous chemicals in them! It's best to use products that have a 0 or 1 rating.
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1

There is a new Parasol magazine.. I bought this one.
http://aprintaday.blogspot.com/2009/10/parasolcraft-2-is-up.html

Cute Baby!

2009-10-05T14:55:00.002-04:00

Here's a video of Evaleigh being a cute baby! She is about 1 month old!

2009-09-28T21:11:00.003-04:00

Evaleigh is over 3 weeks old now! The days are going by fast! Joel went back to work and the past 2 days I have been doing laundry- washing, drying, folding, putting away, and cleaning a little. I also gave Evaleigh a bath today and baked cookies- from scratch! It's fun being a stay-at-home mom but I still feel like I am changing diapers and nursing all day. But it's fun!

Evaleigh

2009-09-14T18:08:00.003-04:00

We are having fun with Evaleigh! She didn't sleep well last night.... but we are still enjoying her!

She puts her hands by her ears and sticks her legs up when she gets changed. That's how she keeps herself from crying.

Evaleigh Miriam Smith

2009-09-07T18:36:00.004-04:00

Well, she's here! Evaleigh Miriam Smith was born on Friday, 09-04-09, at 5:38 am. She weighed 6 lbs. and 15 ozs., 18.5 inches long. The birth was all an answer to prayer- natural and fast! Her whole birth story is an answer to prayer....

My mom and sister are here for about a week and it's great to have them helping out! Evaleigh is a great baby, and she sleeps well, at least during the day...

Minutes after she was born.

Relaxing after her first bath.

I took more but haven't put them on the computer yet..

2009-08-27T19:32:00.006-04:00

I got three great new books!

Click on the pictures to see them at amazon. I haven't made anything yet from any of them but they all look really good. I am just a little busy right now with school and other things.....

Here are a few pictures updates:

Our friend Will made this bookshelf for the baby's room.

Ants helping us put away the groceries.

Birthday flowers from Joel! My birthday was over a week ago and the flowers still look good.

Quilt made by my mom's cousin Dianne. It's really soft and nice!

We went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor said I was already 1-2 cm dilated... meaning it could be any day now! or still weeks away.. I am hoping to finish one more week of school and then rest a day or two first....
Just in case we started packing our bags for the hospital..

Stuff

2009-08-08T12:30:00.006-04:00

I just finished watching the online video the Story of Stuff. It was really interesting. I think it's something everyone needs to see. I added a link on my blog on the side so it's always there for people to see. Our house is small and already full of "stuff" so we are already trying to buy a lot less. We tried to have a garden this year, but didn't get a lot from it. We have big plans for next year. She didn't talk at all about cloth diapers but that's definitely one way to help! The organic cloth diapers don't have toxins and don't fill up the landfills! And there is definitely less waste to make a few cloth diapers and ship them than to make tons of disposables instead!

School started this week so it has been a busy week! I think I have a pretty good class this year! I will only be there for one more month and then I'll be on maternity leave! I am glad to have this month to get to know the kids and get everything started. So when I come back, hopefully they'll remember me and it will be pretty smooth transitioning back.

The cats went to the vet yesterday so we could get rid of fleas once and for all! They didn't wake me up this morning so I slept in pretty late. I think their eventful day yesterday left them really tired all night and morning.

My sister and her husband and some friends are coming next week. I need to make sure the house is ready.. At least the fleas are gone.

Here are some recent photos:
After my first week of school. I look like I am slouching.

We got 2 okra from our garden! A day or two later Joel saw that all the leaves were chewed off... I guess we'll only get 2 this year...

We are pretty sure this is a pumpkin plant. In the mornings the flowers are open and beautiful! The other plant had 2 huge flowers open yesterday but I didn't get a picture.

Ants was resting his arm on Eustace.

Where is Eustace's head?? He didn't seem to mind that Ants was using him as a headrest.

Cats

2009-07-27T13:12:00.002-04:00

Our cats, Ants and Eustace, do silly things. Here are a few photos from mostly this summer.

Ants is letting me know that they've been waiting for water from the sink.

He loves boxes.

Ants is hiding from Eustace. Eustace is on the other side.

Joel likes to throw his socks on the cats.

Ants is showing off/stretching his good leg.

Baby Shower and more

2009-07-25T16:49:00.005-04:00

We had a wonderful baby shower this past Sunday! Other people were taking pictures and I didn't get any yet, but a friend used my camera to take pictures of the gift opening.

It was a couples' shower so we both got to open gifts! Here we are opening a cloth diaper with a Bummis cover. Can't wait to use them!

Handmade booties from Peru.

Joel thanking everyone for coming and for all the gifts.

I sorted through everything and took pictures of everything. I kind of organized it all on the couch.

We got a nice variety with not many doubles of things!

This is our pack 'n play set up. The swing in the back is a hand-me-down from Joel's older siblings.

The cloth diaper collection so far. 2 bummis super whisper wrap covers, gerber and Bummis organic cloth diapers, small wet bag, liners, reusable liners, and eco-friendly disposable wipes. Most of this stuff was ordered from suburbantreehugger.com. Great service and even free shipping with the promotional code! I now also have some reusable flannel wipes.

We hung up our IKEA lamp and mobile!

Diaper bag, Toms, cobbler, baby gym... updates!

2009-07-15T15:50:00.008-04:00

I have several things to update- July is going by way too fast!
This was how far I was on the green bean suit, but now I am a lot farther. So this picture is old.

I was in the mood for cobbler. Instead of making peach or blueberry cobbler, we made peach, blueberry, strawberry cobbler. It was really good! In fact, we made it twice this week...

I was also in the mood for cherries so I bought these...

I got new Toms! There is a store 5 minutes from our house that sells them! And these were 30% off because they were the spring styles. Fun!

I finally finished my diaper bag last night! I hated sewing on the vinyl- it stuck to the presser foot and caused problems the whole time.... but somehow I still finished it!

Here are the pieces cut and ready to start sewing.

The exterior is finished, just need to do the interior and assemble it.

Finished!!!!

Pockets on the front under the flap and on the sides with velcro. The flap uses snaps.

The back has a zippered pocket.

The inside is all vinyl and waterproof with elastic pockets.

I got the pattern here. It looks like her vinyl is thicker and patterned. Mine was clear and thinner.. oh well. I think it will still work. The fabric is from ThisandThatFromJapan on etsy.

I put together the activity gym from IKEA. Ants thinks I put it together for him.

Here he is trying it out and showing off his good leg.

Here I am at 31 weeks working on the green bean suit, Eustace couldn't get on my lap so he settled for leaning on my leg.

Anniversary Trip to Helen, GA

2009-07-05T14:20:00.010-04:00

I ordered myself a birthday present. Two new books that I really wanted, one that is now available, and one that won't be available until August, are expected to arrive Aug. 17- the day before my birthday! I really wanted both, but I couldn't get free shipping unless I spent $25, which would be buying them both. So I ordered them hoping the one would come right away and the other one when it's available, but it said they'd come in one package by Aug. 17. Oh well, I am excited for them to come! They are Ana Paula Rimoli's crochet book and Amanda Blake Soule's Handmade Home book.

There is an interesting movie I heard about, seems to be big in MN- Fresh, all about the food we eat. I'd like to see it, but looks like I'd have to buy it or go to another state. They said there were a bunch of other food movies coming out soon too.

I am going to post some pictures of our trip! For our 4th anniversary we went to Helen, GA. It's a little tourist town in the Blue Ridge Mountains made to look like a European town in the Alps. First, we stayed at Lucille's Mountaintop Bed and Breakfast, which was really nice. Turns out Lucille, the lady who owns it, is from Bethlehem, PA! Weird! She went to Moravian College.
Views from the porch at the bed and breakfast.

Watching the sunset from the porch.

The view from our bathroom window.

Our first night we ate at The Vines restaurant. At our hotel we saw a menu and I really wanted the vegetable lasagna. When we got there the menu was different and they didn't have that.. so I tried the eggplant parmesan for the first time. It was pretty good! Then we went to the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen and got some jelly bellies.

The next day we went to a soap store. The B&B had handmade soaps from a local place called Greenstone Soap Company. They are made with natural materials and essential oils. We bought a few small things.

Then we went to a coffeeshop called Sweetwater Coffeehouse. They have fairtrade items and I bought a bag that was handmade in Ghana, Africa (where Joel has been) for a company called Global Mamas. They help support women in Ghana. My bag was made by someone named Esther and Eli-Emma! It's cool to see pictures of the women who made the bag I am using!

Then we went miniature golfing! We realized we had never been miniature golfing together. We had fun and Joel wanted to do it again, but neither of us got a hole-in-one when we could've gotten a free game. I got a hole-in-one on another hole! We ended up tying in the the end!

Then we visited some shops. We went to The Glass Blowing Shop. The day we left, Joel was watering the garden and a hummingbird came to explore. While we were on the porch of our B&B in Helen we saw some hummingbirds. We decided to get a hummingbird feeder when we got home. Well, we liked the ones in the glass shop so we got one there. We already filled it up and hung it outside. I hope we get some visitors!

Then we walked around some more and visited a store called Scandinavian and European Import Company. They had all kids of little things from Europe. I bought a Dala horse and a little straw ornament. I saw a mug that I got from Grandma! There were a lot of neat things to get.

We didn't go on a horse and carriage ride this time. We did that for our honeymoon in Savannah, but not here. But we did go to the Live Tarantulas Gallery!! We watched a video all about tarantulas and spiders. Ick! Tarantulas are not really dangerous to humans, but other spiders are like the banana spider and the black widow. Here are some live spider pictures:
This last one is the Goliath Birdeating spider. It's the biggest spider and can get to be as big as a dinner plate. Sick!! They also had a scorpion, some lizards and iguanas, and a huge albino snake.

After that we went to Dahlonega. We were going to pan for gold, but it was getting late and we wanted to be home earlier. So we ate at a yummy restaurant (I had vegetable lasagna) and then went home. As we were leaving Dahlonega I noticed that our gas light was on. I remembered that we were low on gas coming to Helen and we drove a bit since then. We had no idea how long the light had been on but Joel said we better turn around because the next gas station would be in our hometown! So we did. Joel put it in neutral every chance he got and we turned off the air conditioning. We made it safely to the gas station!

When we got home, the cats were lonely, but we saw my yarn all over the living room, dining room, and bedroom! And the project I was working on was under the table! Eustace!!!

We made some sugar water and hung up the hummingbird feeder.

And, while I was watering the watermelons and Joel was watering the ivy behind the house, a black widow spider crawled out!! I called for Joel and he came over. We watched it for a while and brought it to the pavement with the watering can, and then Joel killed it. We just watched a video about spiders and how black widows are one of the dangerous kinds and then I found one! That was the closest I ever was to one.

Joel is at work today so I am planning on working on my diaper bag! I can't believe summer is over half over and the baby is due in about 2 months!!

Crafting

2009-07-04T13:29:00.007-04:00

Here are some more sewing projects I finished:
I didn't know where to hang this banner so I just took a picture of it on the sofa. The Creative Family book said to make it twice as long. I thought I would make a smaller one and then maybe one day make another small one.

Here are more bibs. One with a terry cloth back and two with chenille backs. I cut the fabric different ways, one because I thought it looked better and the other because I could get more cut from the fabric. The chenille is rather expensive and so far the bibs are just for me, so I think I will go with the save-the-fabric way rather than style.

I made this grocery bag holder a little while ago. I looked online for patterns, and then just kind of improvised an easy way to make one. We had a HUGE bag of plastic bags to recycle, and that's after we started using reusable bags. We've been really good lately at bringing our bags in the store to use. We don't get many plastic bags any more which is great! But we needed to save a few.

I ordered this fabric at the beginning of June for a diaper bag. It finally came! It came from Japan and I ordered it from ThisandThatFromJapan on etsy.com. I haven't started the bag yet but I want to soon!!

Yum.. muffins on a favorite plate and juice in a favorite mug.

My favorite summer "craving"-chocolate milk and fake hot dogs, and I like dill relish on them! (I've never liked pickles.)

One minute the cats are wrestling, and the next they are snuggled up on the couch using each other as pillows. Silly cats...

July 2 was our 4th anniversary and we went to Helen, GA. I'll have to post more about that later...

Fun Freebies!

2009-06-26T09:43:00.011-04:00

Here I am again, in front of the computer finding tons of cute free crafts, mostly printables today. Here are some things I found so far:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/tags/How-Tuesday/ This link takes you to a bunch of free tutorials on etsy. I'll share some of my favorites... (click on the picture for the pdf file of link)

If you click on that picture it will take you to a long list of really cute Valentine cards to print by all different people.

http://www.livinglocurto.com/?page_id=132 Tons of neat printables at this site too.

Christmas gift tags
Weekly meal planning sheet with grocery list

http://www.cakejournal.com/ Really neat cake making site.

http://purlbeehive.squarespace.com/busy-bees/ A site with tons of crafting blogs. I could spend hours on here!!

Canon has tons of cute printables including calendars here: cp.c-ij.com

Cute memory game and other printables here: http://del4yo.squarespace.com/non-dairy-avant/category/paper-toys

Good and Sad News

2009-06-24T15:19:00.002-04:00

The sad news... Ichiban Kan is closing their online store! I made two (large) orders from there so far and planned to order more in the future.... They are one of my favorite online stores! They have the cutest bento products and are cheap! And the only online store I found like that. If I lived in CA or Japan, I wouldn't mind so much. But since there are no stores on the mid- or eastern side of the USA I am rather disappointed....!

The good news isn't quite as exciting, but there's a cool website that has lots and lots of free stuff. Actually, they just list all the free things and you go to the actual websites to sign up if you'd like. I've gotten many awesome free things by using this site: http://freethingy.com
It's good to check every few days so you don't miss anything. Warning- whoever types the words doesn't always use proper grammar... but hey- it's free!

Sewing

2009-06-21T21:35:00.004-04:00

I sewed a bib the other day and finished a few today:
This one has a pocket and a nylon back. The rest have a terrycloth back.

I made a fleece sleep sack. It seems pretty big... it was a medium. I should add a cute applique in the corner.

This is the first time I sewed a zipper, which will be good practice for when I make my diaper bag. I am still waiting on the fabric to come from Japan. The lady said it should be here any day now....

Painting

2009-06-19T10:55:00.003-04:00

We painted the baby's room! It was hard finding a place to put all the stuff we had in that room. Our TV and computer are now in the living room. We are going to keep the futon in the baby's room. I have to find places for all my yarn and craft supplies. But the room is pretty much empty now and we painted the ceiling "Nightfall"- a light blue for a sky, and "Northern Pear Tree"- a light green for the walls. We are thinking of painting designs on the ceiling and maybe walls. I can't wait to start setting up the crib and changing table!!Painting the ceiling...

What the wall color was before the green...

Finished! Except for a few touch ups.

Eustace is so glad to be allowed in the room. He hates having any door closed. While we were painting he was pulling the newspaper out from under the door and scratching at the door (he got in trouble for the scratching).

Patterns to make

2009-06-17T11:29:00.005-04:00

Here are three more things I want to sew!

A super cute fabric dollhouse! UK lass in US has great tutorial.

Another neat bib from Nested. Here is the pdf.

A diaper changing pad from sewtakeahike.

thelongthread.com has a list of great baby sewing projects, with more projects on the side links. Now I need to get off the internet and start sewing! Except I need to finish taping the baby's room so we can paint. And figure out where to put all the stuff we took out of that room... I really shouldn't be sewing (or looking at projects online) much at all today....

Sewing and Buying

2009-06-16T16:33:00.006-04:00

It's hard when I don't post every couple of days because then I have too much to write about. I sewed a few more bibs. Some were the same and one was based on a pattern from Martha Stewart but with nylon backing.

I also made a drawstring bag for some baby toys based on the tutorials from happythings. I had to change it slightly because of the shape of my fabric.

We went to the doctor today and I had to take my glucose test. Everything seems fine! We also went to Kroger- saved about $87 and spent about $67 on groceries. I am ready to eat a second bowl of cocoa krispies... yum! It was nice- on the door of the store I saw a sign as we walked in asking if we remembered our reusable bags. I always have 3 small ones in my purse but the sign reminded me to run back to the car to get a bigger bag we have. I'm glad they put the sign there! We also bought paint and rollers to paint the baby's room at Home Depot! The paint has no chemical odors so I will be able to paint too!
Last week we went to Babies R Us and got our crib! It would not fit in our tiny car so we had to take out each piece and then it just barely fit. While we were there we saw that the stroller set we liked was on sale, so we got that too. We had to take it out of the box and stuff some in the trunk and some in the middle on top of the crib pieces. Then we went to Target and Joann's and I got more sewing things. Then we went to IKEA and got some really cute baby things. They have some really neat items there for cheaper than other stores and made out of more natural materials. Everything there is reusable or recyclable. In fact, they don't even have disposable bags as an option. And the cafe uses all washable dishes and cups and silverware. There were a few more baby things I would have liked to get but they are for older babies so I guess I can wait a year or two and then go back. After IKEA we went to see mewithoutYou.
Here are some baby things we got at IKEA:
A hot air balloon mobile, frog lamp for the wall, soft rattles, little toys, bibs, and one of those things they always have at doctor's offices with the beads and metal loopty-loops.

You can kinda see what the mobile looks like. There are animals in the basket and they look over the edge at the baby.

The dish set has a cute penguin cup.The blue is a rubbery piece that comes off so the baby can drink. There are hangers, cloths, wooden rings to stack, and a toy on a stick to push around.

Here are some pictures of the stroller set after we put it together:
Joel put Ants in the stroller to try it out and he liked it!

Ants got in the carrier by himself this time.

I had to take a big state test on Saturday. I graduated with my master's in TESOL but can't Teach English as a Second Language until I have it on my certificate, meaning I have to pass the GACE test. I had to drive over an hour. I had 4 hours to take both tests, and then drive over an hour home. I felt pretty good about it... I think I passed. I won't know until July 13 when the scores are released. At least now I don't have that in the back of mind anymore. My summer is free to sew and crochet and relax!
Joel moved the cats' apartment into our bedroom. Ants LOVES his apartment. He's a good house cat. Eustace likes going in the second story. They don't sleep on our bed as much anymore because they sleep on the apartment at night now.

Ahh... a nice Sunday afternoon family nap...

Finally, some good crafty blogs or sites:
http://thelongthread.com/
http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/
http://www.youcanmakethis.com/index.htm
http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/index.html
http://retro-mama.blogspot.com/

So many neat ideas out there- not enough time to make everything!

Sewing and New Fabric and Stationary!

2009-06-05T17:13:00.008-04:00

I just posted yesterday and by the evening had enough to post again. Then today I had enough to make another post- so this will be two days worth if I have enough time. Joel and his band are playing tonight and we leave pretty soon.

Yesterday I sewed a bunny from Wee Wonderfuls. I really liked how it turned out! I just need to add the pom pom and hand stitch it closed (my least favorite part). I also made a baby block in similar colors (that also needs to be hand stitched closed). I used some foam cushion inserts I got at Walmart for the inside. I used cotton fabric and fleece for the outside.

Also yesterday, my order from starlit nest came! With kawaii Japanese fabric pieces!
These are 6" squares perfect for quilting.

Here are 7 fat quarters. I plan on making bibs, triangles for the banner, and quilt pieces.

Here are some bibs already cut and ready to sew. I am going to have a lot of bibs! The terry cloth on the back is from a pack of Walmart washcloths that I got for a really good deal. I hope they are quality enough....

I was so excited! I went to Walmart today and decided to look around the craft section (I almost always look around for something on sale or sale fabric). I knew they sold quilting squares, but I never really looked at them. Well, instead of regular price ($1.47), the fat quarters were on sale for only $1.00, and there were prints I really liked!! So I had to get several....

Here are some close ups of the fabric:
Now I will be able to make tons of banners, quilt squares, bibs, blocks, bunnies, and other cute small crafts!

And last but definitely not least, my order from shopkawaii.com came today!!
I got a mini notepad and mini-mini calander (it's 2008, I got it for the cute pictures):

I also got a letter set, mini stickers, and two bigger notepads. These notepads have 8 different designs each. They will be so cute to decoupage something in the baby's room!
I tore out one page from each design and laid them all out here. There are so many things I could cut out for papr crafts! I think I will also scan them and then I can blow them up and print the designs for projects too.
Here is a close up of some cute pages:

I finished writing this just in time! It's time for us to go. I'm sure I'll have some more finished projects to write about tomorrow (but hopefully no more purchases for a while..)

More Inspiration

2009-06-04T12:03:00.010-04:00

I usually spend too much time online looking at all the cool things others have made. Then I have less time to work on my projects and my list of projects grows longer... Here are some cool things I've found lately:
Sweet Jessie has these bookplates to download for free!

If I ever finally start embroidering, here are some free (and some to buy) vintage embroidery designs at patternbee.

Here are some really cute tags and embroidery designs, but not for free...

I am really enjoying the happythings blog. That is where I am learning to make my quilt. She has several tutorials to teach you how to make things, like drawstring bags, quilts, bibs, and other neat things.

There is a lot of inspiration at this flickr site!

Martha Stewart's website has tons of project ideas. My favorite right now is a really cute project from Petit Collage with 2 free templates to download:

You can watch the video from the show to see how to make them.

Here is a tutorial for making a crayon roll. The only thing I would change is adding more fabric across the top to fold over the crayons so they stay in the roll better.

Here is a tutorial for sewing a tote bag.

The cutest paper dolls to download for free!
Here are more free downloads from A Wee Wonderfuls.

I think that's all for right now.... However I did add cloth baby blocks to my list of things to sew, and I am almost finished with one. I also need to add crayon roll, tote bag, fabric concentration, wee bunny, and bean bags. Here's a picture of the banner I am going to make (with different fabric of course). I have a lot of fabric cut, now I need to sit down and sew.

Crafting and Shopping

2009-06-02T19:59:00.009-04:00

I started sewing the other night and finished one bib, except for the snaps:
The back is a washcloth. The part I had to keep open to turn it inside out got a little weird when I sewed it shut, but the rest looks great!

I found some fat quarters I bought in the quilting section at Michael's and figured out I can make one bib, a double-sided triangle for the banner, and 1 large and 3 small squares for my little quilt. I have 4 fat quarters I bought at Michael's and 7 more on the way- Japanese fabric!! That will make a bunch of bibs and several triangles and lots of cute quilt squares. I have some other fabric to use also.

I found several neat fabrics at Walmart lately. I have quite a collection of different odds and ends of fabric.

It was very sunny and hot yesterday, so I decided to wash all my fabric, and hang it in the sun. It dried so quickly! Joel is watering our garden in the background..

We went shopping today. We were going to buy the crib at Babies R Us but they didn't have it in stock. We had to order it and will have to drive another hour in about a week to pick it up. We drove home right at rush hour and it was busy traffic. At least I'll be able to visit JoAnn's again then. I bought some things but not everything I need because we had to go. I wanted to get a mat, ruler, and rotary cutter. Walmart didn't have a very good selection, and I'm glad I waited- all the cutting tools were 40% off!! So I got a mat, rotary cutter, clear ruler, and pinker shears for 40% off! That stuff is not cheap so I was very glad for the discount. I also got some bias binding for the banner and some of the bibs. And I got a zipper for the baby sleeper and vinyl for the diaper bag and other projects. I still need to get some interfacing and a zipper for the diaper bag and shop for cute fabrics and chenille. I will do that when we have to go back in a week or so.

We did buy our bedding set while we were at Babies R Us. It is organic and cute! And expensive... I wanted to have it so we could use it to match colors for paint for the room.
We ate at a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes. You pay one price and then it's an unlimited buffet of salad and veggies, all different soups, breads, some pasta, and frozen yogurt and jello. It was pretty healthy and pretty good! Joel and I both liked the Moroccan Garbanzo Bean and Lentil soup.

I got a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter. Sunday was day 10 so I baked the bread. I gave away 2 starters and froze the other two (I read somewhere that you can freeze them). I also gave those 2 people a mini loaf so they could taste it.

I have learned a lot about crocheting over the years and will make several things this summer. But now I am also learning a lot about sewing. I have so much yarn, we don't have room for me to start collecting a lot of fabric! I do have some, and the rest that I bought so far is for a specific project. Maybe next summer I'll try knitting.. at least I already have yarn to use.

Baby Sewing, Crocheting, and Crafting

2009-06-01T12:11:00.007-04:00

I have a loooong list of projects to do this summer to get ready for the baby. I am going to make my list here so it's easy for me to refer back to. I have little notes written down on my Rilakkuma notepaper but it'll be easier to organize here with links. And Ravelry doesn't have a queue for sewing or crafting projects, only crocheting and knitting.
Let's start with crocheting:
1-Green Bean Suit (Hooded Baby Lounger)
2- Buttercup Footies
3- either the Dusty Rose Sweater or Hooded Jacket with Frog Closure
all these projects are from Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies that I borrowed from my sister.
4- Firesoaker shorties and pants- 3 pairs total
I bought a nice stash of yarn from knitpicks to make these projects. I also need to:
5- finish my baby blanket
6- finish all the many other projects I started and thought about starting

Sewing:
1- Terry cat, just because it's so cute!
This site was very helpful for finding neat baby sewing projects.
I plan on making:
2- chickpea bib (I already made 1!) I plan on making several. It's pretty easy.
3- Hip Mama Diaper Bag I just ordered some really cute Japanese hot air balloon fabric on etsy for this bag.
4- Mini quilt with all the cute fabric I am getting and so I can try making a quilt
5- a diaper changing mat with the same fabric and vinyl I will use for the diaper bag (I don't have a pattern, I'll have to wing it)
6- shopping cart cover; I found some not very expensive patterns on etsy
7- cloth diaper drawstring bag to put dirty diapers in when we aren't at home. I found some online drawstring bag tutorials I may follow, or I may read those and kinda make my own. I plan on making the inside waterproof with something like vinyl or nylon, and with a drawstring at the top.
8- Flag Decoration for all celebrations, and another way to display all the cool fabric I found!
The pattern is in Soule Mama's book. She has another book coming out in the middle of August!
9- A fleece baby sleeper with a McCall's pattern I bought at Walmart.

Now for the crafting:
1- Mostly, I bought some cute paper from shopkawaii that I want to make a collage to frame, or decoupage on the furniture.... but I am not sure yet if I want to do that.
2- I guess I can count painting the baby's room. Joel will help a lot with that, we both want to do that.

That's all I can think of right now....
I have a big state test coming up soon that I need to study for, some pregnancy exercise dvds to do and books to read, and a handful of recipes I want to try, and cleaning and rearranging the house. Two months of summer is definitely not enough!

b'ECO Carrier

2009-05-13T17:52:00.003-04:00

Our b'ECO carrier arrived! When I got home from school Joel was wearing it..

I can feel the baby kicking a lot now. Our cat Eustace was really annoying last night and woke me up a few times. It was hard to get back to sleep. He must've woken the baby too... the baby was kicking and pushing a lot! It's fun to feel but it kept me awake!

Free downloadable cookbooks and my belly

2009-05-08T19:06:00.006-04:00

There are two really neat cookbooks to download for free. I already got some ingredients to make the spinach gnocchi from the holiday one.

Mother's Day is coming up. Even though I am almost a mother, I got flowers and a card! And a piece of chocolate.
Beautiful hanging plant from Joel (I've been wanting hanging flowers for a while!)

Another beautiful flower from Joel.

A flower from Kindergarten and the FHA for mothers.

A beautiful handmade card from Mary!! Thank you!

Rachel ordered a baby carrier that looked really neat. Well, I just placed an order too! Joel really liked it so we bought a brown one with owls.

My belly is growing. I feel like I am pregnant now. I am 22 weeks along.

Only 10 more days of school!

Bentos!!

2009-05-03T19:23:00.006-04:00

Yay!! My bento order came the other day! I looked through the box and took pictures right away but am just posting now. I loved everything in there! I ordered from ichibanusa.com. They have the neatest Japanese stuff for fairly cheap. Some things will be saved for our future child but I got them anyway.
Here are some pictures of the wonderful things I got:

I love the directions on the back of the pencils on how to refill them.

I also got a new mug from Target and Joel got one from Starbucks.

And we made stuffed shells for dinner, mmmmm.....

Here's an old picture of our garden. We planted more today and everything's a lot greener, but I didn't take a picture.

I am ready to read, eat, and crochet!

I also went to a book sale where everything was only $5. I found something I had gotten earlier for $11, which was already a lot cheaper than it was on amazon.com, so I had to get another one for $5 for a gift. I got several board books and book sets-- all for $5 a set! Brand new books! I am stocking up for our baby! Now it's time to fill an empty box with things to take to the thrift shop.. we need to make room for the new baby, and all the new stuff.

Top 7 Baby Costs

2009-04-25T16:19:00.005-04:00

I just read an article at babycenter.com about the top 7 costs of having a baby. We have already come up with a plan for each!

1-Formula- We plan to breastfeed for a while, which is better for the baby and mom and free!
2- Diapers- We are going to invest in cloth diapers which will eventually save a lot of money. There are also benefits such as they are way better for the environment, healthier materials, and very cute! Just a little more work with laundry- but isn't there going to be a lot more laundry anyway..?
3- Childcare- Joel is going to work more part-time- evenings and weekends, and stay home during the day when I have to go back to work. In the summers, I will be able to stay home for about 2 months.
4- Gear- We are grateful for anything we get from relatives and baby showers. The rest we would like to look for in thrift shops as long as they are in good condition. We already have a changing table, and a carseat/stroller and crib/bed promised to us!
5- Clothes- If I have a girl, Joel's sister has a lot of cute girl clothes she's saving for us. If it's a boy, his brother has some boy clothes for us! We will probably get some at our baby shower, some hand me downs, and I already bought a few items on sale in neutral colors. We can always use them again if we have another baby even of the opposite gender. Since babies grow so fast, we'd like to stock up on cheaper basics, like plain onsies. They only need to wear the cutesy outfits when we are in public.
6- Food- I already invested in the Baby Fresh So Easy baby food making kit. It looks so easy and fun! Also, healthier for the baby and much cheaper than buying baby food. And I got it for only $21.99 at Wegman's, where online it's around $38 everywhere I look for the kit. I can also purchase extra trays online if I need to.
7- Toys, Books, and DVDs- Well, babies aren't supposed to watch TV until age 2, so we'll be ok for a little while. And I already have The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories on DVD. I have already purchased several board books and kids' books from school. I always check the book orders and buy cute books on sale. Some paperbacks I can get for only $1. I love books and have a bunch of board books I bought a few years ago too. As for toys, I don't want to have tooooo many... and we have friends with children who have offered some toys. Also, baby's birthday, Christmas, etc. will probably bring in enough toys to last until the next event. I will also buy a few things here and there, mostly if it's educational, on sale, or super cute. Oh- and I have some cds already. I have the Wee Sing collection and some preschool ones from when I student taught in preschool.

These top 7 baby costs aren't enough to scare us! We already have our plan ready!

Ultrasound Pictures

2009-04-24T17:27:00.007-04:00

We got our 20 week ultrasound this Wednesday! We wanted to keep it a surprise so we still don't know if we are having a boy or a girl... A lot of people are saying we are going to have a boy. Just the other day a few people said they think it's going to be a girl. I like hearing opinions from both sides to bring it back to where we started- it could be either!

In the top one, the baby is sleeping how Joel sleeps- with his arms up. In the bottom one the chin and mouth look like Joel's side of the family and our niece Miley (Joel's sister's baby):

I can't figure out the mouth in this one. I think it might be the cord going across.

We even saw the baby swallow! The ultrasound lady replayed it and we could see something go down the esophagus and then disappear. Weird!

We are already halfway through. It's going so fast!

At school today we took our last big state test. It was a long test! So now the end of the year is pretty much here. It was almost 90 degrees today and will be hot next week too. Summer's almost here! Time for me to try on all the summer maternity clothes I borrowed.

Broccoli Soup

2009-04-20T18:55:00.005-04:00

I made broccoli cheese soup tonight. I had a bag of fresh broccoli that I needed to do something with. I looked at allrecipes.com for some ideas and based on those I made up this recipe (which was pretty good!):

Put fresh cut broccoli into a pot with some water and a can of swanson broth (enough to cover the broccoli). Boil until soft. Add a can of cream of celery soup and 3/4 can of milk. Stir. Add velveeta cheese until it tastes good.

And that's it!

Healthy baby eating

2009-04-19T00:03:00.002-04:00

Healthy Eating Habits: The 10 times rule

The American Academy of Pediatrics conducted a study of toddler age children that concluded the average toddler may need to see a new food on their plate at least 10 times before they will eat it! Here are some tips for introducing new foods:

1. Always let her know what she is eating. At the beginning of each meal, point at each item on her plate and tell her what it is. The more she hears about it, the more familiar it becomes.

2. Offer new foods first and at times when she is most hungry. When children are hungry or first sit down to a meal, they will often eat without thinking about what they are eating.

3. Don't give up. Try very small portions of new foods, so you can throw them out without feeling guilty about wasting food and be patient, 10 times can seem like a long time.

4. Encourage your child to "try it". Do not force her to eat, but ask her several times during a meal to "try" the new food. Show her how you "try it" too - make it look like fun to try new foods!

Taken from freshbaby.com archives.

I got the So Easy baby food making kit and it looks great! It'll be almost a year before I start, but I am excited already!

This Week

2009-04-18T12:44:00.004-04:00

It has been an interesting week. Last week, while we were in PA, Joel and I both felt the baby move! This morning when I felt it moving again, and I think I felt its head poke up. It's weird but neat!

Earlier this week we found out that a family friend committed suicide... This was really sad to hear. I never would have guessed it would be him a few years ago. He was always a nice guy. My brother was trying to help him and get him to talk to people. I thought there was hope for him. But now it's over. It's so weird.. I've been thinking about this all week.

Fun news- I ordered again from Ichiban Kan. I love that website. I also found a new w ebsite- shopkawaii.com that has TONS of cute Japanese products, but they are a lot more expensive. They have a store in Pennsylvania! But in Pittsburgh, hours from where I grew up. They have the cutest paper. I might buy a little and decoupage furniture in the nursery...

There is even a tofu character! Cute!

These cats dress up as all sorts of things- they are really cute!

While sitting here at my computer, I've seen a lot of wildlife out the window. I saw plenty of squirrels, and also a bright red cardinal, a bright blue blue jay, and red-headed woodpecker! I don't know if I ever saw one so close! It landed on a log and started pecking away. I thought about getting my camera, and when I finally decided to get up, it was gone when I came back.

Our peas in our garden are growing well! The lettuce is also growing. We started the broccoli inside and then planted it outside. I think it's doing ok.. We are still waiting for the carrots, potatoes, and spinach to show up. But it froze again last week.. and snowed! We still have a lot of seeds to plant soon.

Spring Break

2009-04-12T18:27:00.004-04:00

For my spring break, we drove to Pennsylvania to see my new niece Tamsin! She is so cute and it was great to see my family again, even for only a few days.
We first stopped in VA for a traditional visit to Haggard Appleseed (Johnny Appleseed Restaurant, exit 264 in New Market, VA). I am showing off my pregnant belly of 17 1/2 weeks.

Here are some pictures of Tamsin at 2 months, and some things I crocheted for her.
Here's my husband Joel holding her.

Here's a bear I made for her.

Booties that I crocheted. I love her pants!

In a super cute bib.

A blanket I had been working on for a while- I finished it right before we left.

I have all my projects posted on Ravelry! Now I am going to work on some things for our baby.

Cat Grass

2009-03-21T16:06:00.003-04:00

We were tired of the cats chewing on our plants so we got some cat grass for them to chew. They sure love it! Ants takes big bites but Eustace pulls out each blade and then munches away. They are funny to watch!

Exciting Times

2009-02-23T20:13:00.005-05:00

1- My sister had her baby this weekend! Saturday, 5:56 am, 7 lbs. 2 ozs., 19 inches, Tamsin Olivia. I am hundreds of miles away and only saw two pictures....

2- Two of our friends got engaged this weekend! We are so excited for them!

3- We had friends over this weekend and saw a good movie- "Fireproof".

4- We had another ultrasound and it now looks like a real baby!!!

5- Amanda Blake Soule has another book!! It's not out until August though...

In the background while I type I am listening to my husband play guitar and sing... including a song he wrote for me.....! Life's good!

Ana Paula's Amigurumi Two book!

2009-01-31T13:58:00.002-05:00

Ana Paula has a new book!! Too bad it's not out until June 2009! It has some cute toys for baby! Take a look:

Free recipe booklets!

2009-01-27T18:48:00.004-05:00

If you go to http://www.sunmaid.com/en/recipes.html and click on the recipes booklets on the right, you can order free booklets! I ordered them all of course and am waiting for them to arrive!

I also went to Hersheys.com where they have recipes and other neat things for Hershey's chocolate!

I also got a Karo Corn Syrup booklet for $1 and it looks delicious. I want to try and make the caramel corn.

And an Argo Cookbook for $1.

I also sent away for three kids' cookbooks through Smuckers and Jif. They came and look like so much fun! I thought of making the granola bars.

I wish I could've ordered more but I had to send in a receipt and proof of purchase or something.
If you go to http://smuckers.com/promotions/ there are 2 offers on the left for a free Smucker's recipe booklet and peanut butter booklet. I may just have to send for those too!

snow day and sewing

2009-01-24T11:38:00.006-05:00

I know this is a late post but I had a snow day last week! I had off of school Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What's strange is our school district was one of the last one's to make that day a holiday. I was surprised when I found out how new that holiday was to our county. Some teachers were telling me that for several years, it snowed and they had to cancel school that day anyway! How interesting. Now it's a holiday. On Tuesday it would have been the 100th day of school, and of course the inauguration. One teacher commented on how we should have off to watch history happen! Well, at about 9:15 Monday night I got a call that school was canceled! They were predicting snow, but we didn't have any yet. Two other teachers said they had some already. We never got any. When Joel left at 5:20 am the next morning there was still nothing! I didn't see any snow until later that day, and then there were big flakes, but nothing stuck. So we got to stay home to watch history happen! We don't have channels on our TV so I watched it on the computer while I sewed.
There is so much cute fabric online I want to buy, but I knew I'd have to prove I'd use it. So I made sewing machine cover with some fabric scraps I bought at Walmart. I found the pattern online from http://www.spoolsewing.com/ Here's the pdf for the sewing maching cover.
I went back to the site and realized they are a store in Philly on South Street! Cool! I wonder if i've passed it before.
The cats were sure annoying while I was trying to measure and cut the fabric!

Here's the sewing machine my mom gave me when I got married. I used it to sew my veil, and then had it in a box for a long time. I decided it's time to use it! I needed to make a cover so I can set it out and throw away the gross old box it was in. I even bought an old antique sewing machine table (with an old Singer inside!) at a thrift shop for our Christmas tree. That's where I'm going to put the sewing machine.
Finished! It was an easy project.

We had plants on the table but the cats kept jumping up and getting dirt everywhere and eating them. Ever since I put the sewing machine on it, I don't think they've gotten up there. Yay!

Easy Healthy Meals

2009-01-20T10:41:00.007-05:00

I've been trying to come up with some easy healthy things to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with fresh fruits and veggies and whole grains. Here are some things lately:

Cream of wheat with fresh strawberries and a banana

Whole wheat bagels with pizza sauce, cheese, and diced tomatoes

French toastwith vanilla yogurt, blueberries and a banana

Veggie burger on whole wheat toast with olive oil mayo, ketchup, cheese, and fresh spinach, with couscous and veggies

Hot "ham" and cheese grilled on a George Foreman

Sushi- brown rice, nori (seaweed), avocado, and cucumber, on our new bamboo dish!

Bentos for lunches at school- yogurt with wheat germ, applesauce with wheat germ, grapes, carrots, hardboiled eggs (with sea salt in the little pig), apple, juice, water, and sandwiches- spinach, olive oil mayo, cheese, "turkey", and whole wheat bagel, multigrain crackers for a snack
Grape Nuts with blueberries, bananas, and strawberries and milk

Vanilla yogurt with bananas, strawberries, and blueberries

Spreading the News

2009-01-18T16:00:00.002-05:00

Our baby is now the size of a lentil! I only told my family so far, but my first appointment is this Wednesday, and then we plan on telling everybody!

A Lot to Say

2008-12-14T19:18:00.006-05:00

Pictures pretty much sum up what's been going on lately (on here and on facebook).

Here are some pictures of our house when it's clean:

Here's a new decoration I got at Target yesterday:

I could probably make one just like it. So I bought it for inspiration.

I have some wonderful bento pictures from the bento order I got over a month ago:

Everything is so much fun!

Here are some pictures of our house:

Our tree is a potted Leyland Cyprus. We are going to plant it outside after Christmas. We might make this a new tradition- you know, a gift for the earth and a fun way to mark the years!Wrapping presents....

Fun Things

2008-11-25T19:09:00.005-05:00

I am finding some fun things online! I will list them here. (Then later I will post all the other things I have in mind..)

1- www.coverleaf.com- I have a subscription to Family Fun and can read all the current and past magazines online- every page! I can also look at some pages of many other magazines, and buy online copies for about $1!

2- www.kraftfoods.com- You can sign up to receive a FREE magazine with lots of recipes! (I am still waiting for mine but I looked through a friend's). The website also has good recipes, and how- to videos!

3- Better Homes and Gardens- They have an offer to subscribe to their magazine for only $6, and get 2 cookbooks! I already had a free subscription from a bookcase we bought (still waiting for this magazine too!). Their website has a lot of neat things including a lot of helpful videos at Better.tv.

4- Itasha- The cutest Japanese erasers! I found them from a Family Fun magazine.

5- Ichiban Kan- Can't forget about this website! It's the best and cheapest place to buy bentos and other cool Japanese products online!

6- Paper Museum- The neatest paper crafts ever! Just click on the pdf links underneath the picture to download FREE pdfs to print and fold! On the left there are pictures for other printables (a fork for food, wrapping paper for gift boxes, etc.). They are the neatest projects! I just wish I had an umlimited supply of ink.

7- Family Fun- They have a lot of free printables and craft and recipe ideas.

8- www.marthastewart.com/kids- They used to have a magazine that was really neat but is discontinued. I have 4 issues, I may try to find back issues. The website has some cute ideas.

9- A Common Place Magazine- This is a Mennonite missions magazine that you can receive for free! My friend from college is a photographer from this magazine and she takes incredible pictures! (She also took pictures at our wedding.) She has traveled all around the world. The magazine helps you to be aware of global issues as well as ways to help out.

10- Last but not least, www.thegrocerygame.com- My husband and I save $100s on groceries! We always save at least 50% every time we shop. You have to pay to subscribe to the website and buy the Sunday paper for coupons (we buy 4) but it is well worth it. Here are some of our true stories:
It rang up as $140.32. We scanned the store card, and then our coupons, and it came to $47.61! We saved $92.71! And it was all name-brand stuff. That paid for our online subscription and newspapers for months!
Another receipt: It was $39.20, and we paid $10.60. We saved $28.60!
Another one: Total- $145.74, we paid only $58.90! Saved $86.84!
Another: Total- $124.10, after the card was scanned and we used our coupons ($34.50 in only coupons!) the total was $45.06. Fortunately we had a $15 giftcard, so we only paid 30.06! We felt really good that day! Just in this one shopping trip the coupons alone paid for 7 weeks worth of newspapers!

We shop at Ingles (they double $0.50 or less coupons), Food Lion, and sometimes Kroger (they can have some really good deals).
We only buy something if it is on sale and we have a coupon. When it is a really good deal, we buy a ton and stockpile. We usually don't need to buy it again until it's on sale again. We are glad we bought a chest freezer and that our new house has a pantry! We also don't go shopping every week. We have already skipped almost a month, not including getting a few things here and there like milk.

I have a ton of photos to post, but i still need to download them.
We got a new couch! My family is coming on Thursday and we wanted to have a couch by then.
More to come..

Ichiban Order!

2008-11-09T21:06:00.002-05:00

Well, I did it! I placed an order on Ichiban Kan! I went through and wrote down everything I really wanted, trying to not overdo it. Well, it ended up being way over $100 and my goal was to spend $50 or less. So I started taking off things one by one. I made sure I had a couple of each type of thing I wanted (2-tier bento, sealed bento, dividers, molds, etc.). I also had a few gifts for Christmas. It was one of the hardest things to do! And most everything is $1.00-$2.00 so taking off $10 is a lot! I already narrowed it down as much as I thought I could and I still had to take off about $20 more! I decided to spend $59.99 because then my shipping would go down $2. It was a struggle, but I made it! And placed the order. I will post pictures as soon as everything comes, hopefully in less than a week...!
I can't wait!!

Bento Boxes

2008-11-09T15:51:00.005-05:00

I never heard of Bento Boxes until about a week ago. Now I can't wait to order some online! I heard about them from Wendolonia's blog. The main idea is to create cute lunches with all reusable items rather than having trash to throw away. And of course all the reusable supplies are adorable Japanese designs. The only way I have found to buy a bento box with supplies is from Ichiban Kan. They have some of the cutest stuff for super cheap! Except of course for shipping costs. Everywhere else I found bentos online they've been much more expensive. I am a little tight on money right now and have 3 different gifts to buy (weddings and birthday) and just paid a large sum of money for online courses and need to buy plane tickets and gifts for Christmas and want to get a sofa before my family visits for Thanksgiving... but I really want to place an order from Ichiban Kan! At least a small one...

Here are some pictures of bento items bought from a Japanese a-little-over-a-dollar store (of course it's in California..) from Wendolonia's blog:

These items aren't from Ichiban Kan but they have similar cute things for bentos. These are actually from a store called Daiso. I want to plan my next vacation for CA so I can go to a Dasio store. I used to love Dollar Stores. Now I love Daiso stores (even though I haven't been to one yet). Almost everything $1.50 and it's all so much cuter than what I can find at the dollar stores I've been to! Although I enjoyed the Chinese dollar store in China town in Philly... but it was still nothing compared to a Daiso...

Another fun thing I found is 3 cookbooks for free (if you buy 2 items and pay $2.50 shipping) from Smucker's, Jif, and Scholastic. The cookbooks look really cute. I bought two jars of jelly (on sale and with a coupon that doubled..) and am going to send away for the cookbooks. I wonder if I should try and get more.. they would make cute gifts..

http://smuckers.com/promotions/scholastic/book_offer.asp

Hallllloween

2008-11-01T11:37:00.008-04:00

I found delicious-looking cookies on angry chicken's blog. I went to the recipe at allrecipes.com and made the cookies. They are delicious! My husband loves them too. We are trying to save some for our friends who are coming over today but I just ate another one... I guess we can all finish them off today (we are going to a corn maze- a fall tradition I love)

We finally carved a pumpkin yesterday! This was our fourth Halloween as a married couple and our first carved pumpkin! I wanted to carve one every year but our first year Joel had a super busy job where we couldn't do much extra. Then the next two years I was taking masters classes and had hardly any extra time. So we finally did this year! (I am already excited for our gingerbread house making this Christmas...)

I used to carve a pumpkin every year when I was at my mom's growing up. I was surprised to find out Joel only ever carved one- and he mostly watched! It was fun to watch him put his hands in the pumpkin. He had the idea for what to carve so he did the drawing, I did the stem carving and most of the scooping and the dirty work, and he carved out the leaf shapes. We had fun and started a new tradition at our new house.

We saved the seeds to roast. We rinsed them but didn't roast them yet. Maybe tonight.

We didn't know if we'd get any trick-or-treaters this year at our new house. We got a little candy just in case, but no one came. We kept the pumpkin lit just in case.

I dressed up today for school. We had a carnival. The kids and the parents and even the teachers had a wonderful time! It was a success! I wore my jedi cloak and had a lightsaber on my belt. Not every one knew what I was but a few kids knew right away that I was a jedi. When I got home joel wanted to try on the outfit with his plasma lightsaber.

Working and Baking

2008-10-26T18:36:00.009-04:00

Today is the last day of my Master's classes!! I am almost finished with my last paper. To celebrate, I let myself get distracted and bake. First I made a baked potato in the oven (so much better than in the microwave!)

and then I made chocolate muffins from a recipe from allrecipes.com. They have really neat recipe books to download! They also let you print the recipes on a 3"x5" size so they'll fit in a recipe box. Neat! The muffins were delicious but very chocolaty. I guess that was because of the 1 cup of chocolate chips. I wouldn't have put in that much except that I had a bag that needed to be used up and there was exactly a cup left.

What did the cats do while I slaved over a hot oven? What they do best of course:

Yesterday I made tapioca pudding with the real tapioca pearls. Yum! I also made lemon bars the other day from a little ABC recipe book my mom got each of us kids when we were little from Gold Medal flour. I found the book online!

Earlier this week we changed the wooden sign for our house number by our driveway to a neat one. We used a neat looking root we found and my husband used tile to mosaic around the house number. I haven't taken a picture of the finished product yet.

Eustace loves to sleep on the printer. Anytime I am on the computer, he jumps up onto my lap, onto the desk, and curls up on the printer. It doesn't look very soft, but he seems to enjoy it..

New Post

2008-09-26T21:26:00.005-04:00

I have been thinking about posting ever since my last one, but like everyone else- I've just been so busy! We moved into our new house and are almost finished unpacking. I am still working on my masters degree (only a month left!!). And of course school is always very busy. I guess I should post some pictures of our new house:Lots of boxes!

Sushi making despite the mess.

Almost finished living room with beautiful custom-built bookcase!

Come and visit!

(In about a month I plan to have more crochet postings!!)

Japanese Crochet books!

2008-08-02T12:30:00.002-04:00

I figured I better hurry up and post a picture of the crochet books I got from yesasia the other day. I've looked through them several times and picked out the first ten things I want to make! But decided I better try and finished a few started projects first. These are the books I got:

They are each super awesome!!! I want to make everything in them and I also want to buy MORE! I guess I can't be greedy, but these Japanese crochet books are the best crochet books I've ever seen! Now I wish I could read Japanese and buy Japanese yarn. Some of the things I make don't look as good as the pictures because I don't have the same yarn and I can't read what yarn to use. I could go to the yarn shop and get nice yarn, but then I'd have to spend a lot.

Well tonight my husband and a few other bands are paying music at Starbucks. That means I get to sit and crochet while I listen! It's a tradition now and I look forward to it. Especially because school is starting again and I don't have any more free time really. (I just spent 13 hours there yesterday trying to get my classroom ready!)

Creative Family giveaway on Simple Mom blog!

2008-07-28T22:01:00.002-04:00

If you haven't read Soule Mama's blog yet, it's a good place to visit. I don't own the book yet but I love what she blogs about and looking at her flickr pictures. However, there's an interview with Amanda Blake Soule and a chance to win a copy of her book on Simple Mom's blog!! I hope I win!

Speaking of books, I got 4 of my Japanese crochet books from yesasia.com today!! I am so excited! I will post more about that later.

We have been dealing with a house loan today.. I don't enjoy all the paperwork part, I am ready to hang curtains and move in! We stopped by the house today and started dreaming about where we would put everything and how we'd arrange the house. I can't wait! The closing is in less than 3 weeks!!

Pictures!

2008-07-23T22:57:00.006-04:00

Well, I bought a new camera, but I don't like it. I really needed a camera so i looked around and then bought one today for pretty cheap ($112 for the camera, batteries and recharger, 2 GB card, and case!!) but it already froze a few times! I had to open the battery part and turn it on again. I've been using it a lot tonight and it's doing better, but Joel thinks (and I agree) that I should still exchange it. I don't want it to keep doing that- it's brand new!! I have 30 days to exchange it- i just don't like the hassle. I know I bought a cheap one, but it should at least work, right?
Here are some pictures:

Our new kitten! Eustace Clarence!

A bag I made- very easy and a free pattern from Clover!

Wrist warmers I made- free pattern!

I am finally finishing this cat puppet.

House shoes. I am almost finished! Another free Clover pattern.

We just had our offer accepted on a new house!! So I will be busy packing and also starting school soon. I may not have time to do a lot of crocheting but I hope to finish some of my WIPs on Ravelry (I have quite a few...).

New Kitten!

2008-07-18T20:36:00.003-04:00

We have a new kitten! We were far from home yesterday going to see a movie. We already bought the tickets and were heading to the theater from another store when the car in front of us slowed down and we saw what looked like a rat running across the road. When we got closer we realized it was a black kitten! Luckily there were only two cars behind us and we all stopped. The kitten ran back across the lanes and ran into grass along the right side of the road. We pulled over, got out, and found him huddled under a spider web in the crevice of a tree root. We have been wanting a kitten but wanted to wait until we moved to a bigger house. Right away we both wanted to keep him. We changed our tickets to a later time and brought him to the vet. He was covered in fleas and had a lot of worms and his fur was matted. When we came back to pick him up he looked so much better. He was so calm the whole ride home and sat on my lap during our whole cell group meeting that evening.
We have him at home now and today he seems like a normal healthy kitten! All his fleas are gone, his fur is nice and soft, and he's taking worm medicine. He is now very playful and meows for food. He uses his litter box and walks up to our other cat. He also walks over to me when he's lonely. I wish I had a picture! We were going to buy a new camera because mine stopped working but we bought a kitten instead. It was about the same price. So I have no pictures of him or of my several crochet projects I finished or am working on. I made a bag, wristwarmers, finished my hamburger, got farther on my cat puppet and house shoes. But I'll just have to wait I guess...

It looks like the kitten is part Siamese. He has a black head, legs and tail, with a brownish-gray body and a small white spot on his throat. He's super friendly, especially for a stray!