Happy New Year, 2011

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Started working at home. Left Jacob with my mom for the night. Took CS to see OWU. Tried to do the Couch to 5K program.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?




Go back to Pennsylvania.

Lower my debt, I'd like to pay off at least one credit card.

Potty train Jacob, even if it means no more cute diapers.

Lose five pounds or just get my body back in shape. I have no strength in my arms anymore..

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No, not yet!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Chris's Grandma passed away in September. She was a sweet woman and very much missed this holiday season.

5. What countries did you visit?
OHIO!

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Financial security. Real health insurance, with dental and vision for me.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Not that I remember. April I weaned Jacob, June I got a job, in September Jacob turned two. The year was full of really bad things and some really great things.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?


Getting my job was the greatest blessing of the year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not getting more involved with my personal faith. I seem to have a block when it comes to doing more than just getting to church every Sunday.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, we are all healthy!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Tickets to Ohio to see my friends and family. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got there.

12. Where did most of your money go?
Sallie Mae for my horrible student loans.

13. What did you get really excited about?
Going to Ohio and visiting my Grandma in PA.

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Anything by Lady GaGa.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or Sadder: Happier

Thinner of Fatter: Thinner but not as strong

Richer or Poorer: Richer, but not by much.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Taken more pictures of people other than Jacob.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worried about money.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
In the morning, CS and I opened gifts with Jacob for the first time as a family. We went over to my mom's later to make ravioli and eat with almost all of my family.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
How I Met Your Mother. I heard how great this show was, but I had never watched. Now all the reruns are on all the time and it's my favorite. Mad Med is another I never miss.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?


I was a terrible book reader this year. I spent most of my down time on the sewing machine and I can't read and sew (yet...) I got a Kindle for Christmas and I've already read Room by Emma Donaghue and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I have plans to download the Hunger Games and Little Bee next. I also re-read the Harry Potter series because I do that every few years, and I had strange dreams of it just like every time before.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

I like The Band Perry a lot, along with Lady Antebellum.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
I only saw two in theatres. The first I can't remember and the second was Harry Potter. We watch a lot of Scooby Doo. I saw Babies and thought it was pretty good, but sad.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 27 this year and CS and I went with his sister and her friend to Water World for the afternoon. It was fun, but we should have been there early to enjoy it more.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

CS having a job and living in a house of our own.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
I distract everyone from my clothing by making cute purses. I'm just happy to be back in jeans under a size 10 and non-flowy tops.

26. What kept you sane?
Sewing, it's a great outlet for me to relax and be creative at the same time.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

For me, everything came together when I started praying and tithing, even if only at church. I know that's not something everyone does or agrees with, but it's been so true in my life this year. I am very blessed and I can't say that I did it on my own. I had a lot of help.

Monday After

I have to say that I was dreading today. I wanted to spend the day going to different shops, spending my Christmas money. Instead, I had to work! But I got Friday off and I get the 31st off, so I can't complain. And I can't take a day off! I should make up some hours, actually.

Christmas was great! CS and I woke up around 7:30, and sat around waiting for Jacob to get up. I went in to his room a few times, and tried to wake him but he's just like his daddy and can't wake up if he's tired. Finally, around 8:30 he was up and happy. The night before we had set up his new train table with all his new to him trains and track then covered it with a sheet. I had planned to wait until the end to let him see it, but CS told him to take the cover off right away.

And that's where we lost him. He had no interest in opening ANYTHING after he saw his trains. When we would hold out a wrapped package and ask him to open it, he would point at us and say "NO! Playing my trains!" and go back to moving them around. We finally convinced him to open other presents and he was happy to add all his new Cars cars to the train table.

CS got me a Kindle, which is pretty awesome, although he didn't realize that most Kindle books are closer to $10. He thought it was only $3 or so, but it will be good to kickstart my book-reading again. I've been so busy with sewing for Christmas that I haven't picked up a book in months! I read Room already and it's terribly haunting but a good story.

I also managed to forget handing out my Christmas cards to everyone so now I have to mail them all AFTER the holiday and that just sucks. I tried, I really did!

I got CS a Ninja blender and he keeps saying that he's never going to eat solid food again, but he also got a waffle maker so guess what we had for breakfast? If you said waffles and a smoothie, you'd be wrong because I failed to buy frozen yogurt and fruit to make smoothies.

Next year, I'm going to make lots and lots of lists and actually remember to check them.

I hope you had a great holiday!

Merry Christmas

Since I was determined to get at least one good photo of Jacob for my Christmas card Groupon from Mixbook, I dragged the Cars couch over to the tree, sat Jacob on it and gave him a Hershey's Kiss and started talking about his favorite train ornament. You can see it off to the side, looking like a little castle being eaten by a wooden fish from above.

I stuffed him into this vest and expected him to protest but he LOVED it and was mad when I took it off. I think he will be wearing it this weekend, and the best part is that we have two! I cannot resist a baby in a vest, especially if I put him in his little brown old man shoes.

I'm seriously counting down the days and hours until we get to rip into his piles of presents under the tree. I am so excited!

My family starts coming in tonight and I anticipate that it's going to be a great Christmas! I wish you the very same thing!

PS. The second photo is on the card. I love the first but it is blurry!

Santa, Baby

The baby kind of sucks at posing. He won't look at the camera or he only wants to push the shutter button to get the flash to pop up so he can smack it down.

He also won't look at me when he sees the camera in my face so I have to resort to yelling and making weird noises to get him to glance over.

I can't wait for Christmas! I know he is going to have a total blast in the morning when we open gifts and I'm kind of regretting that we will have to leave to go to lunch/dinner at my mom's house around 12. When we were growing up, we almost NEVER left the house for anything. I remember we did once, to go be with a friend of my parent's who had just gotten a divorce. We took tons of our stuff and it was fine. But I'm happy that we always made it a family day, except maybe to go across the street to have dinner with my grandparents.

This is the very first year that CS, Jacob and I have been together in our own house, EVER. We decorated the tree and presents are all wrapped and waiting underneath. Only 7 more days...

Etsy Party

My Etsy party this weekend was a small scale success. I only had 4 people come over and I anticipated a few more than that but I still made some Christmas money and had a good time. Jacob didn't get a nap so he was screamier than usual. Luckily, there were only tears and no hitting.

Some potholders made with Insul-bright to protect your hands. In other news, I sold them.

Box pouch. My mom calls them shave kits. I would use it for knitting projects.

Re-usable snack bags. I lined them with PUL so you just wipe them out. This way, you can slice an apple, peel an orange or fill it with carrots and not worry about the mess. I think these will make great gifts for kids. I bet they won't think so though!

I Do (not) Believe

Oh, the Santa thing. I'm dreading it this year as Jacob is getting bigger and more and more people are bringing up the Santa Thing.

I did not grow up believing in Santa. I'm not sure the exact reasons why, although I imagine putting Christ first in Christmas was part of it. My brothers and I thought the UPS man was the best thing ever because he always brought the boxes of toys that we knew were coming for Christmas. I've never regretted not putting out cookies (although I did, just to prove he wasn't real), or writing letters or going to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. We circled all the things we wanted in Sears catalogs and waited impatiently to tell our Grandma in Pennsylvania what we wanted. She was the best grandma, the one who got us the great toys. Our other grandparents lived next door and they always gave us clothes. Helpful! But not fun.

CS, on the other hand, did believe in Santa. Despite the fact that his parents pulled them from school on Halloween, they really did the Santa thing. His mom said it helped when they wanted really expensive toys, since Santa could only bring one thing? I'm hazy on the details.

The other day, CS's dad spoke directly to me about how Santa would be in town every Saturday for the next few weeks. I suppose I should have known it was coming but I was pretty surprised. He's only TWO! And I know he will be terrified if we take him to a big man with a beard and tell him he has to sit on his lap. I know he's not ready for that, and I'm not going to terrify him in the name of "tradition" for something I never knew.

But the more I think about it, the more I struggle with the whole concept. Say he does grow up believing in Santa. He's always going to ask questions about it. And I will have to lie. Not only will I have to lie, but I will have to buy a gift with the money I work very hard to have and tell my son that Santa gave it to him. Where the heck is Santa when I need to pay a doctor's bill?

I know it's all relatively harmless and lots of children grow up loving the fact that they believed in Santa. But I am happy with my Christmas past and so grateful to my family for all that they gave to me for Christmas and I want Jacob to appreciate how wonderful it is to not only get a gift but to give them as well. More fun, in fact!

So what about you? I'm curious!

Headaches

This morning, after a really good walk (2.5 miles) and after the baby took a bath, we got in the car to go get lattes as a reward. And I discovered that Jacob was missing part of his face when I tried to get him into the car. Fortunately, his face was not really missing, it was just my eyesight failing. Recently, I've started getting visual auras before the onset of a migraine. It's helpful since I can combat the pain by taking aspirin and drinking some caffeine as soon as I notice something is not quite right. After getting the drugs and caffeine into my system, I try rest but it's hard to do that when I've just woken up and there is a baby on my head.

Today, I only got a slight headache that went away after a hot shower. I'd love to find a fail-safe remedy to prevent them, but I've never noticed any patterns that could signal a trigger. Of course, it could turn out to be something like chocolate or potato chips and then I'll just have to live with Russian Roulette.

Hello December

I can't believe I only have 25 more days to finish my Christmas present list. I've already started my list and I'm actually planning on making something for all the little kids we celebrate with, rather than forgetting about them until the morning we are scheduled to head over for New Year's. I hate it when people consistently get things for my baby and I fail to return the favor. I also hate buying things for kids when I don't know them well enough to get things they will enjoy. But this year, I'm crafty enough to make something useful even if it won't be the most loved toy EVER.

I'm not making the pillow cases for the kids but I love how quick and easy these baby pillow cases are. Perfect for a new baby! I'd make full size ones but I will need a lot more fabric than what I have on hand.

Cyber Monday Sale

Monday after a holiday is ALWAYS the worst. I'm spending my morning cleaning my filthy house and doing some laundry before I start work at noon. But in honor of Cyber Monday, I decided to do a sale in my shop! Etsy just created Coupon Codes so all you have to do is enter BOOYAH into the box and you get 15% off everything! I'll keep the code valid until tomorrow at 12. I hope you have a stress free Monday!

Shop Notes

Kleenex cover

Make up brush roll. Perfect for travel and ADORABLE Alice in Wonderland fabric.

Coasters. Don't you love the blenders?

Reversible Puffs tissue box cover. I love this Rocket ship fabric AND it's organic.

You can see them all in the shop.

Black Friday

I went to bed at midnight last night and my alarm went off at 3:45 AM. I got ready in five minutes from the stack of clothes I set out before bed, grabbed my new Starbucks re-usable mug and got in the car. I felt pretty out of it when I got on the road but luckily my co-shopper had her car warmed up and ready to go.

We got to Target around 5 AM, snagging a good parking spot and the last cart in the cart bay. There were tons of people in line but very few wandering around. I've never been shopping on a Black Friday, so I was really disappointed to find out that only certain things are one sale and almost everything else is full price. I did find a good deal on some Cars cars for Jacob, a steal for $20 when you consider that one Car retails for $4.99 and I got 9 of them! I also did an impulse for CS's present but I know he's going to like it! I found an adorable set of pajamas for me but I was a big dummy and didn't check the size and ended up with an XL. TOO BIG! So I have to take them back and I know I won't get the super cute pair I want so I have to settle for something less cute. Biggest blunder of the day!

The rest of the day was fine, although places started to get busy as the morning passed. Our longest wait time was at Eddie Baeur, of all places!

We got home around 1 and Jacob and I took a nap on the couch together. I have no plans to go next year, although I'm bummed that I did not manage to get any 500 thread count sheets for $20.

Tomorrow morning I am going to update my Etsy shop with a few new things, I hope you like them!

Thankful!

Every year, CS's family asks everyone to say five things they are thankful for after we have dinner. Last year, things between me and his family were frustrating at best and I was not very thankful for much of anything besides my mom and Jacob.

This year has been insane, really. It's been full of good and bad, but I'm happy that the good is outweighing the bad. I am so blessed. So below are my five things that I am thankful for this year.

1- My wonderful job. I went looking for a job at the last possible minute. I hardly even looked, honestly. My mom mentioned it to one person and she told me to call so I did and I never thought I could be so blessed to work. I am passionate about this company, the things we do and the people I work with. I love that I get to work from home, even when I get a little stir crazy. I was sure I would not work when I had Jacob but now I am so glad that I can do both.

2- Jacob. He is growing up to be an awesome kid. We have our share of tantrums and spankings but all the other things do does outweigh those naughty times. I love that he's learning to talk. He loves to read books and watch Scooby Doo. A year ago, he couldn't sleep in his crib for more than an hour and now he goes to bed alone and wakes up in the morning, calling for me. I miss the baby but I love what he's becoming.

3- Chris. He makes me laugh and he always stops what he's doing to read Jacob a story. He's made a great effort to change his internal clock from staying up all night to going to bed with me and it's a great change in our relationship. I love that CS and Jacob go get breakfast in the morning or take a trip to Canon in the afternoon while I work to have lunch together. We are finally functioning like a family and it's awesome.

4- My mom. We go over every Tuesday night for dinner and Glee. Hunter comes and Jacob gets to love on Memma. She always cooks for me and we sit around and watch Glee until they start singing and then we dance with Jacob. She has been a great investor of my Etsy shop and I really appreciate that.

5- My church. I try not to proclaim faith and God too much because I know it can turn people off. I do believe that my life is so blessed because of God and I am happy to find a church that I can go every Sunday and learn something new. I've been a believer my whole life but I've never really grown in it and I'm trying to change that. To me, I am blessed by God and I am thankful that I have the ability to proclaim that without fearing for my life. I'm also grateful that I have enough to provide for my child as well as give to those in need. No one in this world should go hungry and I am so sad to hear of children that are starving. If you are interesting, I fully endorse Convoy of Hope

Year to Date

One year ago, this was me and my baby. I thought he was getting so big.

Turns out I was wrong. He's SO big now.

It's just going to get worse, isn't it?

Sallie Mae Can Bite Me

I've worked for the past two days and I'm pretty sure my eyeballs were about to fall out at the end of each day. I am still not sure I can see clearly when I look around too quickly. Everywhere else I have worked was had me at a desk for most of the day, but none have had me so tied to the desk when I'm working. I'm just not used to spending 9 hours in front of a computer screen, and it's not like I can do my job in the other room. Not that I'm complaining, more like I don't understand how people can go to work for 8 hours a day, everyday, without terrible suffering. I suppose you become accustomed. Obviously, I've never tried to write a novel either.

I had a mini crisis today when I went to pay my student loans and discovered that they had gone up again for the third month in a row. I keep calling to change my payment and it's different every month. Apparently, I've used up all my time for repaying with interest only so I'm supposed to be paying on the full amount. I asked one person I spoke to today if there were any other options for lowering my payment and this is what she said "You could make a lump sum payment and lower your monthly payments."

I am not kidding. I told her I couldn't make an large one time payment as I do not have any money. If I had a stash of cash stored away, I wouldn't be calling to lower my payments. I would be PAYING MY BILL.

I hate to be a little bit judgemental but I really hate the fact that Sallie Mae outsources all their calls to another country, India, I believe. No one really knows what is going on, as I spoke to three people before I found out what was going on and when I called a 4th time, the man I spoke with managed to change my loans to a lower payment. I have no doubt that they will be at the same rate next month so I know I can't keep doing this forever. But I will probably enroll in two classes next semester so I can buy myself some time. We can't afford my student loans at the full amount if CS doesn't have a job. It's frustrating that I have run out of options. I want to pay my loans but how can I on a part time salary? I don't want to pay thousands of dollars in interest either. It's a terrible system.

I wish that my college had been honest about the cost of paying back tuition. I wish they would have sat down and explained it to me when I went in every semester to work out my finacial aid. I should have had more grants and scholarships. I should have gone to a college I could afford. I know it will work out but I really hate the time in between.

Jacobese

Jacob is at the age when he says things that are so awesome and if we don't write them down, we will never remember half of them. I'm having mini panic attacks over the fact that we almost never record him and I know I'm going to be sad to not have his little voice to listen to when he's grown. I guess this is a good reason to invest in a Flip camera, right?

Fik it! (Fix it)

Memma ( Emma)

Dapper (diaper)

Sthcooby Doo

fpeet (feet)

Queen (McQueen)

Street! (Sesame Street)

He is obsessed with the movie Cars and even more in awe of Scooby Doo, thanks to weekends at Gramma's with Jayden. He likes to play outside with the "kids" and his best friend is a little girl named Kendra (Chendra). He would prefer to go to sleep in our bed but he can usually sleep in his crib the whole night. He pretends to sneeze and says "thank you, welcome" when you give him something. He loves Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and asks for Gaga every time go somewhere.

Having a toddler is awesome.

Posin'

My boy likes to be silly. He doesn't pose very well for pictures, but he can yell "CHEESE" every time I hold it up.

He can also give the best kisses. Ever.

But then he starts looking for his "booboos" and the game usually ends there. Somehow, Jacob doesn't get that No means NO when it comes to pawing at my shirt for his most beloved objects.

Yeah, we might have nursed for too long!

What are your Saturday night plans? My involve sewing up some coasters while CS plays XBox and Jacob watches Scooby Doo on the laptop. Ah, simple domesticity.

Ouch

I got the final Guardasil shot today and that vaccine is the MOST.PAINFUL shot I've ever had. I can handle the prick, but there is a horrible burning sensation that lasts for a few minutes afterwards. I don't really think it's something that 9 year olds should get. 16 year olds, sure!

However, I think it also gave me a headache tonight and I'm having a hard time functioning. CS was gone for most of the day, fighting the fire that popped up this afternoon. Jacob doesn't understand when I tell him that my head hurts and I can't run around and watch him "zoom!"

I also found out that my weight between last year and this year is the same, which I guess is a good thing. Last year, I was working out five days a week, and now I do three, maybe four. I certainly feel trimmer than last year but I'm still more Saggy Baggy Elephant than svelte Jillian Michaels. I'm just not ready to give up all the foods I enjoy. Like chocolate and cookies and cheese.

Quilt Update

So when I said that I thought I had a lot of strips for the quilt, I wasn't kidding.

Obviously, I am not quite ready to be making quilt patterns. I made it way too long and not wide enough. I actually had another batch of strips I wanted to use for pillow cases but I decided to add them to the side of the quilt. The only problem with that is they do not have white in between them, so it's a bit different on one side but I think I'm alright with that. Now all I need is another three yards of batting, and I'm ready to quilt.

I think we are going to be quite warm and toasty this winter. I'm using a cotton and bamboo batting, I love how light and soft it feels. I hope it makes the quilt a little more pliable.

Off the Wagon

I pretty much fell of the NaBloPoMo wagon this year. Completely spaced my mind yesterday. It didn't help that I worked from 12 to 5 and CS didn't come home from the hospital until midnight. That was not part of the plan. I was not very happy.

But I did make a lovely beef stew in the crock pot. A friend of mine mentioned how much she liked making meals in the crock pot and I have to agree. So little mess! Prep and cook time is minimal since the pot cooks for you. I need a good chicken recipe though, all mine are for beef. Although I do have plans for a pork roast to be turned into pulled pork sandwiches.

Jacb has put himself on a terrible schedule. He wakes up at 8:30 but he doesn't want to nap until 4 which means he's up until 11 PM. Is it horrible. So this morning, he woke up at 7:30 and he will go down for a nap by 2 so I can have an evening of baby free time after 10. Sorry kid. I like you but I like to relax at 11, not pull your cars out from behind the couch.

I finally used my Groupon for a photo book from Shutterfly. I had intentions of making it for CS's parents but I decided to make it for Jacob. I am somewhat of a lazy mom when it comes to make prints and putting them in albums but making books is a great way to preserve the best photos of the year and keep them in one place. I may start a yearly tradition of making books for each year as a gift to Jacob. Last year, I gave it to my mom but I got two of the same and kept the other one. If only I could have saved it until December, I could have taken Christmas photos! But the coupon expired on the 22nd so I have to use it now!

This makes a good cover photo, yes?

Shop Notes

I made this circle scarf out of some super soft jersey I got at JoAnn's. I can't get the true color of the purple, but this is pretty close.

This is a flax and lavender filled eye sachet. I love the feeling of flax and it smells amazing.

Potholders! I wasn't sure how to bind them so I used bias tape and it worked out quite well. I have a few more I need to finish, hopefully this week.

You can see the other things I've listed here.

Patterns

I made the first version this bag a few months ago at a little sewing get together that Randi held. I just used some fabric from Walmart along with a few scraps I had in my stash. I liked it but it wasn't really bright enough for me. (Black and white, with pink inside.)

So when I got this striped medium weight fabric from Ikea, I knew I should make a bag. I wasn't sure what I could match with it though.

Luckily, Randi was around to help point me to some fabric that would match and I love the results. This time around, I made the front pocket taller and turned it into three pockets instead of two. I can put my phone in one, keys in one and a sippy cup in one.

I wish I would have made a big pocket in the inside, instead of two small ones, since I'd love a space to keep my wallet secure.

I'm having terrible trouble with my pictures coming out true to life with this winter light. Blue tones look terrible. But baby pictures still look good, even though I used the flash.

Computers Hate Me

Specifically my work computer hates me. I had a crashed hard drive a few weeks ago and when we finally got that fixed, the connection between my computer and the warehouse computer stopped working after 10 days.

Why does it hate me! I play Pandora for it all the time, I let it sleep at night! Maybe it needs some porn, although I think that tends to attract problems, if I have things straight. I just heard it beep in the other room and it's supposed to be shut down, how is this possible!

I suppose I will head off the the post office instead. I've sold two things on Etsy this week! I made a bunch of these this week, they are so easy!

Just Like Dad

Sitting just like his daddy, watching thSCOOBieee!

Babywearing

A while ago, a few friends from high school asked me to make mei tai carriers for their newborn babies. I had a jersey tie-on when Jacob was little but I wish I would have made one of these. My mom was always talking about how much she lived her metal backpack carrier when we were little and while I never wore the one she found for me at the thrift store, I wish I had one of these!


Jacob loved being in this, though I doubt he would stay in one for long. I was really worried about how to put it together but it was rather simple, as long as I thought my moves out in advance. I'm rarely good at that, so I'm happy they came out so well. I'd love to make one with a minky lining, I think it would be very snuggly for winter.

The fabric is a great Alice and Wonderland Japanese fabric that I want to buy by the yard but it's $14 so I have to restrain myself.

Babies Need Stuff

Things I wish I knew before I had a baby:

You will get too many coats. I hung up Jacob's coats today and he has more coats than there are days to wear them. I have not bought him a single one.

People will give you baby wash, lotion, baby oil, warming gel baby oil, diaper rash balm in obscure brands that you will never use. Especially if you have a baby with sensitive skin!

Receiving blankets are another popular item and I have yet to find a use for most of mine. I made curtains out of two but I have another dozen or so that I never used.

I am sure I have been guilty of buying blankets, toiletries, and other items that everyone else thinks a new mom needs. I've yet to come up with a perfect solution. Handmade items are always well received (well, not always as I have a knitted "boot" in pink and blue that I have never set out) and good art for a baby's room is a great idea. I'm trying to decorate Jacob's walls and I wish I had something special to put up for him. It might be time to go browse Etsy!

Cousins!

Jacob has pretty much abandoned me and CS this weekend in favor of spending time with Jayden. He's doing and saying everything she can. It's terribly cute.

Last night, Jayden was moaning in the backseat of the car about her tummy hurting, so Jacob starts saying "tummy...huuuurt." They were both fine. But I did give Jayden a plastic bag just in case.

I have tons of cousins on my dad's side of the family. Over twenty kids, at least. On my mom's side, we have four. Two of them live in the Midwest so we saw them very rarely. And the other two are are much younger than me, so playing with them wasn't as fun. Jayden is a lot older than Jacob but they are so cute together. She's really come a long way from the mean only grandchild to a very patient cousin. I only wish that Carter could be here to play as well. I think Jacob is doomed to being the much older cousin on CS's side of the family and I don't see anyone else having a baby soon on my side of the family.

Sorry, Jacob. You will never know the craziness of summering with 20 cousins.

Life After...

This morning, I scanned Netflix on the XBox and I found an old Looney Tunes movie and put it on for Jacob. After Jacob saw the part with the Roadrunner and Wiley E. Coyote, he started running around the house, saying "beep beep...pshhhew!"

Having a kid is awesome.

This evening, he threw himself to the ground in a fit over not wanting to hold my hand in the middle of the street as we left Noodles & Co.

Having a bratty toddler with an independent streak 4 million miles long, not so awesome.

Little Boy Blue

Baby quilts are very fun to make! I wish it was as quick to make a full size quilt as a baby one so maybe I could put my stack of quilt strips together and have a new quilt for winter this weekend.

I based this one around Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo. I originally planned to do the whole thing with the quilted boxes but it looked way to busy so I made the boxes be a border and added some white in the middle. I had terrible trouble with my free motion quilting, I finally switched needles and things were a lot smoother. However, I left the feed dogs up the whole time so that might have been why my thread kept breaking! Live and learn.

I tried to take these photos in the evening, without flash, and all the pictures of the full quilt came out too dark. But I really love the binding on this. Stripes are so fun to use for binding up a quilt! I'm going to make Jacob a quilt just like this one, as soon as I finish up all my other projects.

How Do You Like It?

I got a new coffee mug at church this week. We had a guest speaker on Sunday and while he spoke, he showed up how he makes pottery on a wheel. It was really amazing to watch! I took pottery classes when I was in high school and I was able to make a few really cool pieces. I would love to be able to do that again, but I don't know of anyone in town who offers studio time for something like that. So since I can't make my own cups, I thought I would buy one of his to help support his ministry and look pretty on my desk. I drink at least a cup of tea a day now that it's chilly out. Although today was really nice and I wish I could have spend more time outside!

Anyways, back to my new cup. I don't think I can microwave it and I rarely ever fill the teapot up with water for tea. I should but it's so much quicker to hit a few buttons. So I decided to drag the coffeemaker from the closet and brew a (half) pot of coffee. I am also out of coffee filters so I use a paper towel. It's classy up in here! I like sugar in the raw with my tea, and no I do not like to substitute white sugar. I would be one of those annoying people at a coffee shop asking for sugar in the raw from the barista if they were out. A friend of mine told me that sugar in the raw people are the most obnoxious about it when she worked at Starbucks.

Action shot! Oooooo. I had to take two, actually.

Then I pour in cream, something that most "true" coffee people think is all kinds of wrong. I can drink coffee with just sugar but I need it to be a very dark roast and preferably Starbucks brand. I only learned to like it that way because a friend of mine drank hers with just sugar and the only milk she had was 1% (also, I cannot drink milk that is less than 2%, gross!) and it's like adding milky water to coffee.

So I like my coffee sweet and full of cream. How about you?

Preparing

I've heard that you need to start stocking your Etsy store in November. The other day, I spent an couple of hours cutting out pieces for things I think I can sell for Christmas presents.

Cutting is always the most work and it's going to be really nice when I get time to sit down and sew. Hopefully everything will come together easily. I have a few sets of potholders and I'm wondering what the best way to sew on the bias tape will be. Make my own or buy some?

Don't you love this toaster fabric? It just screamed "Kitchen" to me so I had to get some. You can get some here!

IKEA

A friend of mine from college offered to pick up some fabric from Ikea for me in exchange for an apron.

I fell in love with the stripes when Dana from Made did a tutorial on a Chevron pillow with the same yellow stripes. I want to use the navy one for pillows with a nautical theme.

I added a baby for scale. The Ikea website is terrible with showing scale. I assumed that this pattern was a lot smaller. I thought I was getting fabric with lots of starbursts, not just one very large burst. I am not sure what I can do with this. I'm thinking it might look cool as a messenger bag but I'd have to cut carefully.

I saw these trees on Extreme Home Makeover tonight. They used them for curtains and I loved it! This fabric was on sale for $1.99 and I wish I could have gotten 4 yards instead of just one. Anyone want to go to Ikea for me?

This is going to be used as a backing for a baby quilt at some point. Or a lap quilt. I don't want to cut it!

So my stash of Ikea fabrics is quite lovely. I really need to work up some patterns to use it up.