Baby Shower

This past Saturday Emily, Lara and my sister Liz threw a baby shower for me. It was wonderful! I felt so very special. I am so blessed to have so many friends! I can't wait for the baby to get here so he/she can get further showered with all the love so many people already have for them.
I didn't take any pictures but Emily posted a few on her blog which you can see here.
The button flowers that Emily made are awesome! I've got to start stocking up on buttons to make some, as well as other things. The latest issue of "Ready Made" Magazine has a feature about buttons including a really awesome lampshade. You can check it out here - they have the whole issue online! How awesome is that!?!? Totally.
Have a nice Monday!

Accessorizing

Helloooo!
Sometimes I get on a roll with things and have really been feeling like sewing lately. Meaning my couch is sure to get done in the next few days (weeks at most) and I keep thinking of other things I'd like to do.
On my list of things to sew/create are...
1. curtains for the nursery
2. curtains for the kitchen
3. convert some pants/shorts/skirts (whatever I can get my hands on really) into maternity stuff - probably mostly shorts/skirts for this summer as it's already heating up
4. make softy toys for my little one and anyone else's little one that wouldn't mind receiving some so I can make as many as possible. On a related note, if anyone has any fabric scraps they'd like to donate to that endeavor please let me know! I don't have much of a stash as I haven't been sewing for very long

Of course in the midst of my list making I think of random things and they usually grab my attentions first. For example...
Today I got home and thought to myself "I should make a hat." Why? I don't even really wear hats. But then I saw this beautiful creation on Etsy and knew that I had to give it a shot in hopes of making one this cool one day.
So here's the inspiration...
And here's my attempt. I think it turned out ok.
I definitely need to make one with that cute button brim next. And as this hat only took me about 30 - 45 min. using THIS awesome tutorial I might do that tomorrow! :) I have to find the perfect fabric though as nothing that I have right now is really speaking to me.

On another note I found this half finished purse in my "needs to be finished" box while organizing my sewing corner and decided to finish is the last few days. For those of you who don't know, my sewing corner is basically half of the nursery so I'll half to plan accordingly and put the baby down for a nap in the cradle in my bedroom instead of their crib when I want to sew, but I can definitely do that. Anyway, the bag is made out of dishtowels that I got at BigLots about a year ago and now, finally, they're a cute spring bag! I got the idea for the button closure from Emily. Thanks! and it works well, isn't the easiest to get open quickly, but there's plenty of room around it to grab a cell phone or something. And yes, the fabric is the same as what I used for the brim of the hat. Who knew I could accessorize so well?!?

Couch Project

I'm working on recovering my sofa for the second time and I really like the new look. The original fabric was ok, but I wanted to have a cleaner look. I think the cream is more modern and although I often have terrifying visions of juice spills and peanut butter fingers I remind myself that it's just stuff and I'd rather have to deal with a few spills than sit on a plastic covered sofa. I suppose I just have to forbid peanut butter, juice and other such things from being on the couch.
Here are some of the work in progress photos as I haven't finished the whole thing. I'm sort of famous for getting things mostly done and maybe never finishing them but I think my couch will get done.

The pillows were on sale at Dillard's and are perfect for my new colorful living room.

The Nursery!

I've finished most of the painting in the nursery and am working on the details! I'm having a lot of fun dreaming up sewing projects and thinking about color. Here are a few pictures to help with the visualization. The walls are a few shades of cream with an overall sponge effect. Very soft and soothing. None of the photos really do it justice so when I get more in the room and take more photos you'll get to see it.
I've painted a chalkboard on the closet door that might get some more embellishment but maybe not.
And here's the curtain fabric, very dramatic.
Also, I've decided - after much mind changing I'm constantly reminded - that orange, purple and teal will be the colors of choice for accents. I have some vague ideas of circus's or theatrics but I don't want the room to be "themed." I am, however, very taken by this little mobile so maybe I'll get it or just make one similar. Have a lovely Sunday!

Kaboodle

I've had a lot of people ask me about my baby registry lately and realized that I hadn't shared my awesome find.
I stumbled upon Kaboodle.com while I was scouring the internet for alternative baby registry sites. I didn't want to have to pick just one store like Target or Babies-R-Us because although they have lots of good stuff they didn't have everything I wanted. And then I found Kaboodle!

It's sort-of like a facebook for shoppers. That being said you don't have to keep it up like you would a facebook, or even meet/interact with any of the other users. You can simply create your free account and build a wishlist (or in my case a baby registry) and send the link to friends, family, etc. around Christmas or whenever. You can even just make your wishlist and then the next time you've got $30 extra dollars you can remind yourself of that awesome find instead of blowing it on coffee and snacks (or am I the only person that does that?).

So anyway... you add the "add to kaboodle" bookmark and then go shopping. Whenever you find an item you want to add you select that bookmark and it pulls up a page that has you put in info about the item. You can add comments and all kinds of stuff! It's really easy. If you want a better idea of how it turns out you can check out mine.

On another note, I'm painting the nursery AGAIN but I'm almost done this time so I'll post photos and an explanation soon. Hopefully tonight! Have a great afternoon! :)

at least the car doesn't leak

So what's the latest? Well...
We bought a new vehicle. We got a new red Kia Rondo and I really enjoy it. There's lots of room for babies without it being a van or an over sized SUV. They took our Kia Rio as a trade in even! God really paved the way for us because we thought we wouldn't be able to get anything for a few months but the deal was perfect! I'll have Chuck post a picture soon as the photos are all on his phone - I have no idea how to get pictures off of our camera - that lesson will have to happen soon.

Also we discovered that our roof leaks this morning at about 1 am. After a rousing trip to Wal-mart for a few things like a ladder, Chuck was able to staple some tarps to the roof to stop the leaks and now he and my brother are in the attic/on the roof making more permanent repairs.

On a related note, I've know this for a long time but discovered once again today that Chuck doesn't see a separation of work and play clothes. He got home from work early, gathered a few things and went up on the roof - in his work clothes. Nice shoes, un-ripped jeans and a polo shirt. It's not that Chuck doesn't have "play" clothes - he does - it's that most of them have become play clothes because he wore work clothes to do very dirty things, like change oil, or paint, or fix the roof! Luckily I saved the clothes today and hopefully will be able to keep a better eye on his wardrobe. He's just so talk oriented that sometimes his focus skips over things like changing shoes. I love him so much and he really makes me smile. I have a feeling, however, that our children will lack the work/play clothes discernment as well so pray that I don't loose my sense of humor before then.

Finally!!!

The long awaited photo! So it's not even a good photo but I've got to
start somewhere. Now that I know how to do it and, like this post, can
email from Chuck's phone, I'll post more pictures more often.

Ah! I've been tagged!

Thank you Jen for tagging me I had fun filling these in - sorry I don't blog much, I'm trying to remember more often!

10 years ago:
I was younger than most people would guess. I went to the school right across from my parents house and enjoyed doing what people my age did I'm sure. I had aspirations of becoming a famous author or poet I think and had not discovered my love for photography.


Things on my To-Do list today:
Paint, clean the house (that's at the bottom of the list for sure) maybe go shopping for curtains, enjoy the beautiful weather and hopefully see my brother and his girlfriend tonight - oh and my husband as I haven't seen him much the last few days

What Would I do if I became a billionaire:
give most of it away and by most I mean nearly all of it. Pay off my parents debts and whoever else's we felt we should, then pay off ours and trade the Kia in for a nicer car for carrying babies then hopefully we'd have a little left over to put in the bank - and probably look into investing or something too so we'd have money each year to give away

Three of my many bad habits:
leaving dirty dishes in the sink too long, making "to do" lists and not doing them, butchering the English language thanks to living in MN and not reading enough to improve my vocabulary or spelling

Five Jobs I have had:
helper, cleaner, paint mixer at the lumber yard my dad works for (in junior high mostly), barista at coffee shop, Atlanta Bread for a month, Independent candle company for a month, Kolache Baker at Point Bank until they decided the job was actually illegal - that's an interesting story. And really... those are the only jobs I've had. Oh I substitute taught a few days but other than that I really only like being a wife/expectant mom


5 Things (most) People don't know about me:
I'm going to get a tattoo after this baby is born, one of my favorite snacks used to be lettuce dipped in mayo, my favorite place to take naps is outside on a warm sunny day, I miss living in St. Paul, MN daily although I'm afraid that it would never feel the same if I ever moved back, and I have a small bald spot on my head that I often tell people is from when I got struck by lighting although it's really just a birthmark

Ok, there you are. And I understand I'm supposed to "tag" 5 more people but I don't know if I know that many people with blogs who haven't done this yet... so I'll just tag Chuck and maybe he'll do a better job with this tag thing - sorry!