Aeroplane

I drug the Man into Marshalls briefly a couple days ago and lo and behold, found something I had to have. Actually, not sure what my problem is just now, because I am generally a tightwad, but I am so in the mood to buy anything and everything my little heart desires. I'm blaming it on the pregnancy and hoping it goes away. Its not like we are finding enough legitimate things to spend money on these days with the equipment that a baby requires. But I digress.


Isn't it cute? We both thought that it would be a great thing to put in the baby's room. Of course. Its for the baby! Perfect reason to buy anything, right?

Tea Poster

Saw this poster a couple months ago at the Keep Calm Gallery and it made me think of Mom. She is a tea person. If you visit her, you will probably end up with a tea cup in your hand.

I thought I'd try to recreate this poster myself and it turned out great. I printed it and framed it for Mom's birthday. I forgot to take a picture of it after I framed it, but here's the poster.


I think perhaps I need one for myself. Then I could add it to the collection of pictures that I love, but haven't actually hung yet. Yup. I have one. You're not surprised, are you?

Roses and Vase Sleeves

A little while ago, I had a chance to run into Pottery Barn in the mall and found these vase sleeves or wraps or whatever they called them. I really liked them. I've not seen them online or in their catalogs, so why they were in the store, I have no idea. They had nice heavy hurricane glass with them, but they were too much, so I picked up some glasses at W*lMart instead and they work fine.

Then the Man bought me a couple dozen roses from S*m's Club and I decided to put them in the sleeve. Those roses are now 2 1/2 weeks old. What in the world? I don't think I've ever had them last so long. They are lovely. I am ready to forget the little tiny bouquets of flowers you can get for cheap. I'm going for the big bunches of roses!

Buckets Gets His Paw Fixed

I've put off a lot of things lately, one of which was fixing the paw of Dutch's "girlfriend" Buckets. Her paw had come open and a pouch of little tiny beads were spilling everywhere. We gathered all the beads up and put her in a plastic bag and hid her away until I could get around to fixing her.

The other day, I decided it was really pathetic that I hadn't fixed the little guys favorite toy, so I got her down while Dutch was out soaking in the sunlight and unlikely to come see what I was doing. I hadn't gotten very far before the Man saw what I was working on and of course, he brought Dutch back to check it out.

That little stinker was so excited. He cried and begged and bounced off my leg the entire time. Fortunately, it didn't take long to get her stitched and Dutch happily dragged her off to the sunshine.And I've got something, however little, crossed off that never-ending list of mine.

Goof

He's a silly dog. I'm not sure what he was doing, but he was cute.

I had to crouch down on all fours to get his picture.

I even, in a moment of complete stupidity, tried to lay on
my stomach to get his picture. That hurt. Duh.

Monogram Designs

Any idea where I you can find monogram designs like these? These are from the RH Baby & Child. I love the bordered designs especially, but you never see things like this in embroidery design selections.


The cutest things that I've found are from Heirloom Letters. This is one of my favorites.

Hurricanes

Check out these hurricane lanterns from West Elm. I like!

Exactly 2 months to go!

Childbirth classes start tomorrow. We took the hospital tour last week. This is starting to get real.

Yikes!

Another Quilt for Baby

I don't know how good an idea this was, but I decided a couple weeks ago to take apart the blanket that came with the crib bedding set that I bought and make quilts out of it instead. I figured that I would take each half of the fabric and back it with some super plush minky for a really soft quilt.

It was hard to sew with the minky on the back. I had to turn down the tension to 0 and really push the fabric through the machine. It didn't turn out perfectly, but it turned out rather well. I just quilted a crosshatch following the print on the fabric. I ended up just using plain white fabric for the binding. I sewed it to the minky side and then turned it over and did the hand sewing on the fabric side.


I did start the quilt with the other half of the fabric, but it was looking horrible. I have a few rows of stitching to rip out and then I'll have to repin the whole thing, so of course, I just put it on the shelf and we'll see how long it takes me to get back to it. I really like the other fabric, though, so I'll get to it. Surely!


It is pretty soft. I didn't wash it, so I'm not sure how that will turn out. I thought I'd wait until the other one was done and do them together. Hope it works!

Aww

Feathers and Fairy lights, anyone? I like. . .

photo from http://www.reallylindabarker.co.uk/

Basement Bathroom

I mentioned a week or so ago that we had a contractor come out to look at our bathroom and to give us a quote on it. We've already ripped it out completely and now we need someone to rebuild it, since we don't really know what we're doing. Home improvement stuff is not The Man's forte, so if he's willing to earn what we need to pay someone else to do it, whatever. That works.

We haven't actually heard back from the guys yet (who's surprised at that??), but we've been doing our shopping and trying to decide what we want to use for materials so that we can get those purchased as soon as they decide they're ready to start.


These pictures are from the original walk-through. As you can see, it was a horribly ugly and tiny little bathroom. Its not going to get more than an inch or two bigger, but its still a bathroom. It will at least look nice when we're done and at least those tiles will be gone! I've never seen so many different tiles in one shower. The guy that built this house was very, um, resourceful. I had forgotten just how tiny this bathroom is. I think we'll have to put some storage or something outside the door!

This is what we've picked out so far.

Tile from Home Depot, faucets from Home Depot, pedestal sink at Lowes.

Wholecloth is Finished

So this past week, I had my 3 hour glucose tolerance test (BTW, still don't know if I passed or not, but so far no calls from the doctor's office, so I hope that's a good sign) and I had just finished the quilting on this wholecloth crib quilt. I made up some binding for it and had to leave it sit for a day without working on it. That was actually hard. I find hand sewing the binding to be addictive and irresistable. How can you not? You spend ages on a quilt and just a few more hours sewing to finish it all up.


Anyway, I wanted to take it along with me to have something to do in the lab. I did take a book, but I have a hard time concentrating on books when people are talking around me. Sewing is perfect, except that it sometimes makes people want to talk to you, which is exactly what happened. But it helped to pass the time, anyway. I finished the entire binding during my appointment.

After the test, I came home, treated it for a couple little blood stains I managed to get on it from pricking myself when quilting and threw it in the laundry. I am so impatient to see the final product and washing just makes it perfect.

The Man made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so I ate that while trying to get some work caught up. Wow. I wasn't hungry until after I finally got to eat. About half an hour after I ate it, I got all hot and started sweating and ended up going to lie down for awhile. It went away after 15 minutes or so and then I felt fine. What in the world was that about? The sugar and the fasting suddenly get to me?

But the quilt is finished and it is perfect. The preprinted design completely disappeared and the quilt is wonderfully soft and wrinkly. Whose genius idea was this to make it for a baby boy? I'm thinking he doesn't get to really touch it. Much.

Wish I could get better photos of it, but this is the best I could do. I tried. I think you can click on them to enlarge and see a little closer.

Salad Tables and Boxes

The other day on Martha, there was a Jon Traunfeld from the University of Maryland talking about making salad tables and he demonstrated building the table and showed a smaller salad box. What a great idea!

I've been thinking about how/where we can put some sort of raised bed in our backyard. The deer are terrible pests. It never occurred to me that I'd have deer trouble in the city, but what did I know? They've already eaten my budding tulips for this year.

Anyway, you can check out the segment and the instructions at Martha's website here, or for more detailed instructions and information, including the smaller salad boxes, download here from the Maryland Cooperative Extension.

Photos from University of Maryland's instruction sheet

I so want these right now!

These lemon spritz cookies with buttercream filling are beautiful and sound yummy. I want.

I Don't Know Where I Am

So its been almost 3 weeks since I last posted. I don't know where I've been. I have a lot of things on my mind right now, I guess, and don't seem to have anything actually completed to talk about.

What's on my mind? Um.

Well, I have 79 days before the baby is due, according to my little ticker thing. Am I ready? No. We set up the crib and dresser in my office, but we are missing a mattress yet. That's about all that we've purchased.

Got the lamp from Pier 1 this week and I bought nickel knobs to replace the wooden ones that came with the dresser. I like.

I did pick up a bedding set I liked, but I still want to make another. I don't know why. Because I can.

After watching the rates for a couple months, we've decided to go ahead and refinance our mortgage. Yay! This excites me, cause we're knocking off more than 2 points on our rate. 'Course, we'll have to shell out for the fees, but whatever. The payback is worth it. I've already recalculated everything on my spreadsheet, because I'm that nerd that gets totally excited over the spreadsheets.

We also had a contractor come out yesterday to give us a quote on rebuilding the basement bathroom that we ripped out almost a year ago. I can't tell you how much it excites me to get started on this too. We're going to redo the basement bathroom first and then, hopefully, we will move right on to the upstairs bathroom. They said they could start in 2 weeks, so we've been out looking at tile and pedestal sinks and fixtures for down there cause it sounds like it won't take long to complete. Its a tiny bathroom, so I guess that's not a surprise. Yay!

Let's see. What else? Oh, I failed my first glucose screening test by 1 point. Suck. Now I have to go back for a 3 hour test with blood draws every hour. I can't tell you how much that annoys me. I hate this stuff and every time I go to the lab, its packed with weird people. The doctor is still lecturing me on cakes, cookies & ice cream and looking at me like that must be all that I eat. From what I have heard, 2 out of 3 women who fail the first test pass the second. I desperately hope that works for me, but I am not holding my breath. I have decided that I don't particularly like her, but I've gotten scheduled for her again. My 3rd time in a row. Oh well. The appointments from here on out don't sound like much fun.

I did finish a few items that I've had unfinished for ages and put them in the Etsy shop. Yay for that too.

Gray Corduroy Bag

Ruffled Apron 1

Ruffled Apron 2

Oh, and I could possibly be getting another dog. Its a long story. Not a toy dog, though. Regular sized. I don't know how I feel about this, but whatever. Bad timing?? Agh. I'll survive, right? We'll see. I'm currently ignoring the idea until it appears that it will actually happen. That's my favorite tactic.

So. That's it. I'll be back around eventually.

Silly dog. Isn't he cute?

Beautiful Food

I found this food blog the other day (mentioned on decor8) and wow. The pictures are just beautiful. It makes me hungry just looking at it.


Check out Cannelle et Vanille, even if just for the pictures.

Style Quiz

Saw this quiz the other day on HowAboutOrange at Sproost to determine your decorating style.

This was my result and its not far off. Try it.

Let's say resistance was futile. . .

Mom was here for a few days this week and I dragged her around shopping for stuff that the Man was not really into, or well, Mom was a more appropriate shopping buddy for. Ya know.

I finally went into a maternity store and actually found some clothes (Yay!). I was pleasantly surprised at what they had. We also walked around Babies R Us and I found this cute little jacket. It was so cheap, I had to get it.


Seeing all the little baby clothes made me want to see the baby in them. I'm actually getting a little anxious to see what he'll be like.

Speaking of . . . I had another OB appointment this week and aside from getting a mini lecture about my weight by a doctor I'd not seen before (I was informed that I should not eat cake, cookies, ice cream, fruit juice, or pop. The Man said I should have been sarcastic and asked, "Well, what on earth should I eat then?") and getting my slip for the dreaded glucose test, she did tell me they were going to send me for another ultrasound. That I don't mind. It will be fun to see him again. I'll be looking forward to that while I pout about being given crap for gaining weight. Unfortunately, she's going to be in for my next appointment, so I guess I will really have to be good this month. I swear it was the little guy's fault and not mine. Last month they said I was fine.

Finally, one that worked

I finally made a shirt that may actually work. Granted, its maternity, so its perhaps not as hard to look bad. It was easy to make and I think it turned out okay.

Simplicity 3762

I think I'm going to try another version with gray t-shirt fabric and see how that turns out. I made a shirt with a similar knit awhile ago and I never got around to putting that on here, cause it turned out awful. It was too heavy a fabric and didn't lay nice at all. I bought a thinner fabric to try for this pattern, so we'll see!

Cork Board

I've been wanting a bulletin board in my office for awhile, but I guess I haven't done anything about it because I was wanting a huge one, but for cheap. I happen to be in the aisle with them at W*lMart the other day and this board was there for $9 or something. Its big enough, I suppose. So I bought it.

Then I shamelessly copied Erika from Urban Grace Interiors and covered it with white cotton duck fabric and hammered in upholstery tacks around the edge. Its perfect! I love it. And the whole thing probably cost about $25 or less. Yay.


Now if I could figure out how I'm going to rearrange my office, I might hang it up. Someday.