Wall Pincushion

This is the pincushion I made to put on my design wall to minimize how many pins my son put into my design wall. I finally finished it, and now he wants nothing to do with it. At least it is something I can use a regular pincushion as well. I did not attach it permanently in place, so that I can move it where it can be more useful for me if I need it as well.

Monsters, Inc.

We've finally figured out a way to get Nate to sit still. There is not a day that does not go by without him asking to watch "Monsters," several times a day. I think if I let him watch it much more he will have it memorized. On the other hand, he's watched it so many times now that I can actually read while he watches. I've always had trouble with focusing on a book when there is noise around me.

Sit Upon

 One of the joys of this pregnancy has been the return of the pain in my tailbone (from when Nate was born). I have been saying for weeks that I need to make a pillow that I would be ok taking to church with me since that is when it hurts the worst. I found a video online that covered the basics like how big to cut the fabric.

I picked a pillow out at Jo-Ann Fabrics. I went with a softer one for fear that a harder one would not actually provide the cushioning I was hoping for. Luckily, it has a zipper so I can add more fluff if it gets too flat too fast.

I went through my fabrics to find a fabric I wanted to use. I do plan on making a second cover eventually that is quilted and a little more intricate than this eventually. This fabric was actually from my most recent Red Tag sale fabrics. I'm really liking butterflies right now.

And 45 minutes later, I was done. I have also been using this in my craft room, since I have the same style of chair in there. My son has even made me get up, so he could put it back on the chair for me one of the times I sat down after it had fallen off.

Salsa

Around the time of my birthday I had someone give me 38 pounds of tomatoes. So I thought I would try my hand at canning some salsa. I found a recipe online that turned out to be perfect for me. I've always been really picky about my salsas.

 I did 1 single batch to make sure I liked the recipe, and then I gathered the supplies I needed to make more. These pictures of from that second day of salsa making. We had the supplies for 2 double batches, and still had tomatoes left over for BLT's and Tuna Tomatoes (something my mom introduced me to as a kid, tuna salad on tomatoes).

 First, I had to clean my kitchen, so that I would have room to make it (really wish my kitchen was a little bigger).

I had everything sorted and divided for the 2 different batches (only a double batch would fit in my pot), on the kitchen table. Then, I realized it was lunch time.

This definitely felt like one of those moments that wins you both good mom point ans bad mom points. My son was a real sport about it though. We had lunch on the floor.

I meant to get an after picture, too, but I forgot. However, I can say in all I managed to get 22 jars of salsa. It has been a big winner with my family. In fact, just the other day Nate and I were eating quesadillas and he kept asking for more salsa. I had given him a spoon to move the salsa from his plate to his quesadilla, and he kept spooning the salsa directly into his mouth and asking for more. At one point, I tried spooning it directly onto his quesadilla, and with a grin on his face, he spooned the salsa off of the top of his quesadilla straight into his mouth. He thought Mommy was playing a new game with him.

3rd Finished Quilt

I have a 3rd finished quilt finally. This is one that my mom and I started doing at the same time. She had found the pattern in the Moda Bake Shop, and thought it would be fun if we both had the same project to work on. We started it before Christmas last year. She did the quilting on it (really cool snowflakes) and it sat waiting to be bound for most of this year. At one point, I had gotten it out and done most of the binding then life caught up with me and it got put on hold again. When I got back to it, I found that I had less than 3 feet of binding to finish. Half an hour later I was proud to say I have officially finished 3 quilts.

Etsy Picture Day

 I love that I always have a little helper for everything. He is also fascinated by some of the simplest things. I had managed to accumulate a large number of things that were just waiting for the photo day that was required to get them posted to Etsy. For my rat cages I actually have a small cube that I use specifically for pictures. Nate was fascinated with the chains that hung down (and he would make them swing back and forth.

He did a really good job staying out of the line of the camera (just playing beside me on the table, but at one point one of the toys got away from him and he had to go get it. It was too cute a picture not to share somewhere.

Measuring Tape Necklace

One of Nate's favorite toys in my craft room is the measuring tape. He wears it as a necklace, wraps it around his waist, or just unrolls it (and asks me to roll it back up for him). I've even carried it in my purse for a few of my errands because I knew it would keep him quiet for quite a while.

Nate's Big Boy Bed

Around the time of Nate's Birthday, we got him a new big boy bed. He was not getting naps because he was more interested in climbing in and out of his crib. He's actually done a good job from the beginning sleeping in his big boy bed. Some days he will take a while before he crawls into bed, but he almost always makes it back to bed before he falls asleep.

Lots Done

Well, I had plans of getting a nice post on here for you, but then I don't remember what I did with my camera, so I think I'm going to make you wait another week.

I did actually get quite a bit done this last week (2 weeks since the last post). I basted more hexies for the big hexie project. I finally remembered that I wanted to get a pillow and make a cover for it, for sitting on, especially for at church where the chairs are hard for the classes. I blame the pregnancy hormones for making the bottom of my spine so owie. I managed to finish that this morning. I decided to try replicating my favorite tank top (with modifications) and that is mostly finished. I actually managed to clean almost every day this week. And I started on a little paper pieced lonestar that I thought might fit on my sit-upon pillow, but will have to become either a wall hanging or a center for another quilt.

As it stands, I promise to find my camera and get the pictures and posts ready to go at some point this week, so you can see some of the progress (and not just have to take my word on it). As for now, I think I will go try and see if I can find just a smidgeon of my sanity, so that I can actually manage that this week.

Until next time.

Birthday Fun

Monday was my Birthday. So on Sunday, we had one of my favorite meals with my best friend and her husband (and little girl) on Sunday night. I figured since I thought I looked really good that day that I needed to get more belly pictures. This is me at 21 weeks 6 days. I had also dressed Nate up nice for church and wanted some pictures with him.

 This picture turned out pretty good. We couldn't get him to give up his thumb for the pictures though. It really wasn't that surprising since it was after 5pm and he still hadn't had a nap all day (church starts at 1 which is right during naptime).

 I eventually forcefully removed the thumb. Then because I was being silly because I was on the high of it being my birthday weekend and stuck it in my mouth instead. I'm glad Marsha got that picture. Despite Nate laughing, that pose only lasted about 30 seconds.

The next day for the my actual birthday we headed up to the State Fair. We were joined by my best friend and her husband (and daughter) again. We also got to see his sister and brother-in-law. Nate was enamored with them for sure. He had won a little stuffed leopard at a choose-a-duck midway game, and they showed him, that the leopard could "attack" them. We got to ride a Merry go round and this year Nate didn't hold onto me at all. He is growing up so fast. It was a perfect birthday weekend. Maybe, just maybe, I might have another one next year.

Second Baby Blanket

As some of you may remember, at the beginning of the year, I committed to making baby blankets for several of the people I knew who were having babies. I have fallen a little behind on this goal. I had 6 people to complete the blankets for, and this is the second one I've managed to complete. All 6 of the babies have been born, and this will be going to a little girl who was born in February, so she is 6 months old already. I'm just glad I finished it.

Luckily I have a few baby blankets that had been made previously, to try the patterns, and a few of these will be given instead of making a whole new blanket. I had been holding on to them until I could find out what this baby would be, and pick one to keep.

 This pink one will be given to my husband's coworker, whose wife just had a little girl. We are super excited for them. This is the one I was holding onto in case I had a little girl. It was the second baby blanket I ever finished.



This blue one will be given to a friend at church, who had a little boy in May, I believe. This is the blanket I started when I found out Nate was going to be a boy. However, I didn't give it to him because I stopped halfway through when I remembered I had another one I had made years before for a little boy.

This yellow one is the one we are planning on giving to our little boy this time around. It will be nice and warm for him since it is made from cotton yarn. This was the second baby blanket I ever started.

Baby #2

Well. Here is the first baby bump picture for this pregnancy. Yes, I did get a shirt up picture, too, but I don't really like sharing those.

This picture is from 8/21 and puts me at 19 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I don't think I got any belly pictures with Nate before 20 weeks because I was worried it wasn't baby. This time, however, the baby has been insisting on being visible for several weeks already.

Now for the part, everyone wants to know about anyway. We have found out that Nate the Great will be getting a little brother in January. I was hoping for a little girl, but have known since I married my husband that girls would probably not be in our future (boys run on his side of the family). I will admit I am actually relieved to know that prepping for this baby will be nice and simple, since I already have boy things and know boy things. We are still discussing names. I have one picked out that I love, but I'm still working on getting Spencer from "It's high on the list" to "Yeah, that's his name." When we do have a name, I will share, I promise.

Prepping for Nate's Birthday Party

For Nate's Birthday in July, we scheduled a pool party. The day before the party the weather was really stormy, and the forecast said the next day was going to be the same. Well, needless to say, I panicked. I started desperately searching for some good backup indoor games. Nate was going to be the youngest there, as all of his guests were adults or aged 4-12. That created some problems in coming up with things they could all do.

I decided to do a bean bag toss, a marble race option, a treasure hunt dig, and a balloon pop. Here are the bean bags I made for the bean bag toss. I used rice, and each has an inner pouch and an outer pouch. These were made the day of the party. For the marble race option, I cut 2 pool noodles in half length wise. These ended up not being used for the party since the weather was nice and we were outside, but Nate has enjoyed playing with them since.

For the treasure hunt dig, I shredded paper and hid a bouncy ball, and a ring pop for each kid to find. I also had a batch of 40 army men for them to find for the birthday boy. The balloon pop was in place of a pinata. I put candy into balloons to have the kids pick from and pop before they left. I did enjoy popping the last of them after everyone left, since I had over-stressed myself that day.

All of these were things I had seen on Pinterest in some form or another. I don't know that I could have pulled these together on my own otherwise. Thank you Pinterest.

Nate the Great

Sorry, I  have been a little AWOL. Between having a two year old and being pregnant, I can't say I'm getting much done. I have been working on my Hexies mostly, since his favorite thing right now is "Monkies" as he calls Baby Einstein. I always thought it was silly that this had become a thing, until I started watching them with Nate. I must admit there are times when I can't pull myself away from it. He is starting to mimic some of the signs, sounds, and words that he hears on them. It is surprising how quickly he seems to be growing and learning.

This picture was taken in July, I believe. We had gotten him this truck for his first Christmas. He still loves it. I think he was trying to tell me that he wanted a ride on toy. He actually rides around on it like this a lot. It makes me smile. Now he has a real ride on toy, so maybe this one might still survive to see Baby #2.

It is a Sunday.

Howdy again. So it is a Sunday. And yes I am aware I missed a Sunday. I'm not sure where the last 2 weeks have gone. I can say that I have another couple of Hexy flowers done (finally watched my Netflix movies that have been sitting there for a week or 3). And I have some intense plans to get a border onto a quilt before Thursday (not that I have a deadline or anything :P).

Now though, I must say it is bedtime. A headache is forming, and Nate is asleep (after waking me up at 7:30 this morning). Good night all.

Actually Remembered on Time

Well, I can say I have successfully updated on time for the first time in quite awhile.

Lots has been going on here. Today my little boy turned 2. We had a party for him last night. I managed to somehow get the party ready in time. On Friday, we realized that the weather might not cooperate with our pool party/cookout plans, so I frantically gathered a few games that would suit a 2 year old and his guests (kids aged 4-11). Luckily, we didn't need those extra activities as the weather stayed clear until we were cleaning up. We still used a few of them though. I will try to get the pictures up of what I managed to make later (camera is upstairs and I am not).

With as much as I was able to get myself to do yesterday, it really should not have surprised me as much as it has that today I would not be able to hardly anything. I spent most of the day laying on the couch watching my son play with his new toys, and even crashed in bed for a 4 hour nap (and I'm just barely awake to try and get this done). Unfortunately, this means I had to miss church. I really even tried telling myself that I would feel better when I ate, but that was a lie, I couldn't eat much of anything today. By the time I realized I wouldn't be able to make it to teach my class, Church had already started. I felt bad about it, but was reassured when I talked with the one in charge of the teachers after I managed to wake back up. I guess I have to be a lot more careful not to overdo it when I feel good on a Saturday.

In other news, I had begun to smell something unpleasant downstairs. At first I thought it was something that was just a house smell and most the house had it (since I don't feel good most of the time for some odd reason :-). Well then I started to realize that it was localized downstairs. I was thinking that it had to do with the furnace being downstairs and all the intakes centralizing in that area (just the smells of a house, and a 2 year old). It was annoying because it was getting strong enough I would feel awful just walking from the bottom of the stairs to my craft room (about 8 feet distance) and then I would panic because I didn't have any locations for an upset stomach downstairs (downstairs bathroom is still unfinished). Well, we figured out what it was tonight. The window well in the playroom has been collecting too much water again, and it has leaked into the room (a quarter of the carpet is soaked). I'm gonna try and get in there tomorrow with the carpet cleaner and try to get more of the smell gone (or at least masked by the smell of cleaning chemical). I really hope that we can get it fixed back up soon. This poor tummy does not appreciate my current super-sniffer.

And, just so you don't think that crafting has no room in my life anymore, I should mention that I am trying very hard to make sure I get the next round robin done on time (Thank you Annette for being so understanding of my lateness last month). This round robin, however, is teaching me something. Despite all the fabric I have (and my hubby says there is too much), all my fabrics seem to be the wrong shades of everything for these quilts. I think I've found a few things that will work with this one. Guess if I don't, I get to go shopping again. :-)

Sorry for the length. I will try to get pictures up soon-ish.

Until next time.

Tuesday Musings

Well, I have a fairly good excuse for missing my Sunday goal this week. I got home from the Stirling Family Reunion (Husband's Grandmother) on Sunday. It was a great Reunion with lots of time spent with family.

As far as projects I've been working on...I'm nearly done with a round robin (that is late going out) that I believe will be finished with another hour or 2 tomorrow. I could have gotten more done today if my math hadn't been wrong (in a few places). Otherwise, I'm very pleased with how it is turning out.

I also managed to get a touch more Hexagon stitching done at the Payson Concert in the Park this Sunday. My husband is playing in the band this year, so Nate and I have been going. We sit with some friends from church and their 11 year old was kind enough to watch Nate on the playground to give me some time to enjoy the music.

2 weeks ago, we had the privilege of seeing Baby #2 in an ultrasound. The doctor said that it was measuring about a week older than we had originally thought, so the official estimated due date is now January 13th. He kept saying it was about the size of a cinnamon bear (and looked a bit like one too), so that is what I keep calling it in my head. I was very insistent with Nate that I would call him Baby until we knew if it was a boy or a girl and then by his (or her) name. I've always thought it slightly silly when people call the baby a bean, or a peanut, or some such things that only references really one early size of the baby, but this time it has taken over my mind. I guess that was bound to happen with more things going through my head, and less brain power. (Just seems simpler than trying to correct myself.)

Now this tired Momma needs to get to sleep. It is much later than I usually allow myself to stay up.

May Fortune Smile Upon You Until Next Time

Oops, Looks like Monday Again.

I really did plan on posting yesterday. I thought about it and planned on it, and even knew what I was gonna post about. Then it was nighttime, so I slept, without getting any of it ready to post. Guess I'll try again next Sunday.

I will post Sundays...

I promise to continue to post once a week (Sundays are my goal). Yesterday, happened to be a crazy Sunday, so I thought I'd drop a few lines today instead.

I got to visit with my best friend and much of her family yesterday, since it was the day they had their little girl blessed. It was a very spiritual day for me. I then went to my own church meetings and had the joy of teaching 11 eight and nine year-olds. While it can get loud in my class, I learn so much from them.

In other news, my first baby doctor appointment is tomorrow. I'm sure all will be well, but I am a tad nervous as this is my first time meeting with this doctor. That being said, I should probably get to bed since the appointment is first thing in the morning.

Until next time.

The Real Reason Behind Falling Behind

So I have a confession to make. I have not been getting much done on anything. I promise it is not because I'm just giving in to a lazy bug (though some may still insist that's it).

I still try to get a little of something done every day. Some days that something is just making sure I stay fed and hydrated.

The reason for this is that I am expecting Baby #2 in January.

I do plan to continue to update, and I may drop it down to just 1 or 2 times a week, but that decision has not fully been made yet. I do also plan on getting pictures from the local quilt show and doing a small series on all of the wonderful local talent. I just have to go and get the pictures first.

Well, Hope to see you all again soon.