Happy Dance!

I blinked

Has it really been six months already?!? With taking care of 3 kidlets, moving in temporarily with the in-laws, house hunting and getting ready for kindergarten I've been a wee bit busy. Most of my crafty supplies are packed away in storage but I kept out all the cross stitch stuff and the crochet hooks. I've managed to stay sane by doing as much stitching as I can when I can which is, of course, no where near as much as I'd like!!

This is the Oak Haven SAL, not sure if I showed this one here before.


I'm a bit behind, I think I had the April square started the last time I worked on it.

This one is actually part of a bigger pattern but I just wanted to do the tiny sampler. The pattern is an old one found at a rummage sale and looks like it might have been taken out of a book or magazine.
Better late than never! I finally found a pattern I liked for my son's birth sampler. Peapod Baby Sampler by Bent Creek. As usual I used my own colors instead of the recommended threads.



My current WIP - Rules For Life by Kincavel Krosses. I only have a little bit more to go on this one. I've really enjoyed stitching all the different fonts and the sparkly fabric is perfect for this design.

No post is complete without one of my 3 greatest creations! Emily at 5 months old.

Love!

Emily Elizabeth

Born on Feb 18th and perfect in every way!

Welcome to the world baby girl, we're so happy you're finally here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everybody had a wonderful day and hello to my new followers! I'm so glad to know somebody is actually reading!!

I just wanted to pop in to show off my Valentine's gift to the hubby. This cute little freebie is from Plum Street Samplers and I chose it because we're about to have our third child and hubby is such a great daddy.

This is me trying to be fancy with the camera skillz. I really need to remember to turn the date stamp off once in a while.

I spent half the day, with many kid interruptions, trying to get this finished before DH got home from work. I did it with two minutes to spare! For once I figured out the finishing myself without a tutorial and am very very happy with how it turned out. I originally planned to use ric rac on the border but didn't have any, luckily I found some leftover piping which worked out great.

And, in case you were wondering, he loved it!

Hoo are you? plus a few

1. Are you married/in a relationship/single? For how long? I've been happily married for almost 6 years now
2. What do you do for a living? Do you enjoy it? I'm a stay at home mom and love every moment!....ok maybe not every moment, kids will be kids after all.
3. In what state do you live? Where were you born and raised? I live in upstate New York. I was born in this area but my dad was in the army so we moved a lot so I spent a several years of my childhood in Germany and Japan too.
4. Do you have children? If so, how many? If not, do you want them? I have 2 children with a 3rd due in two weeks!
5. Who is your favorite blogger to follow and why? I have quite a few that I really like but I guess one of my faves would have to be Plum Street Samplers. I originally started following her blog because of her stitching but she also has a beautiful family and I love the stories she shares about them.

I finished the heart/baby sampler last week. I still gotta chart baby's name and birth info (after she's born obviously) I really need figure out how to take better pics of cross stitch.

Yesterday I finally got around to sewing the car seat tent that I've been planning to make for the past 6 months. I bought the fabric way back before I knew I was having a girl so I went with one of my favorite color combos, turquoise and brown. Now baby girl with be protected from the cold and nosy strangers!

Friend Makin Monday!

A Short Survey

1) What is your favorite household chore? And what is your least favorite?
Is it really possible to have a favorite one? I guess it would have to be vacuuming cause that's usually the last chore then everything's clean and done! My least favorite is picking up the same kids toys over and over and over and over...

2)What is your favorite city?
Frankfurt, Germany

3) Have you found real love yet?
Yes, through my husband and kids
4) What's one thing you eat almost everyday?
baby likes ritz crackers with pepperoni
5) What was your last thought before falling asleep last night?
I hope the kids sleep in tomorrow *they didn't*
6) What's the worst injury you had as a child?
When I was 18 months old I was jumping on the couch and fell, hitting the back of my head on the coffee table and ending up needing stitches. Probably a lot more traumatic for my mom than me. I've never had any broken bones and the only other times I needed stitches was for c-sections so I've been pretty lucky.
7) Will you/have you worked out today?
I'm 9 months pregnant, just about every movement I make is a work out!
8) Do you tweet? If so, what's your name?
I have an account but never remember to use it
9) List three things you wouldn't want to live without:
My family, my computer and crafty projects
10) Hold old were you when you had your first kiss?
17, sad but true. I was an Army brat so between the constant moving and being very shy it took a while!

Stop by All the Weigh and make some new friends!

Better early than never

Since Baby Eviction Day is Valentine's Day I figured I should get the kids valentines done ahead of time just in case baby decides to show up early. Both kids are in the same preschool class so I wanted to make them each something different.

I thought these would be perfect for Paige since she's always playing with my ipod. Unfortunately the boxes of hearts I bought were too big. I was just gonna deal with it and make it work but then I happened to find this one which was made to fit the boxes I had and also looks more like my ipod! I already had the peanut butter cups for the original idea so I went ahead and added them to these. Wonder if anybody will recognize them as earbuds.

I decided to go with these for Noah (any excuse to break out the sewing machine!) Along with the cinnamon hearts I added little stretchy monkeys I found at Target.

Feels good to have something done ahead of time for once. I must have the crafty version of nesting.

....I really should get that hospital bag packed.

Linked to

Hoo are you Tuesday

1. Do you use an alarm clock or some device to wake you up, or do you wake up on your own? My kids are my alarm clock. Does anybody have instructions on how to reset them?!?
2. If you could go on any game show, which won would you choose? I don’t usually watch game shows although the hubby likes the new money drop one so I’d probably do that one with him.
3. Do you prefer the weather to be hot or cold? I def prefer warmer weather
4.What color of clothing do you wear the most? seems like most my maternity clothes are gray
5. What is your favorite color? purple!

Check it out at Night Owl Crafting!

Still stitching

I haven’t had the ambition to break out the sewing machine so I started a new cross stitch instead.  These hearts are from a SAL here and are meant to be turned into a 15 sided biscornu.  I decided to make a sampler type thingy instead putting them on a 4x4 grid.  Since there’s only 15 heart squares I’ll have to come up with something for the 16th.  Possibly a baby sampler?

I did do a bit of crochet too, finishing up a mini baby blanket (lovie?) to match the baby blanket.  It was actually meant to a part of the baby hexagon sweater but I didn’t notice til I was done with it that  I messed up and made a pentagon instead of a hexagon.

 

I haven’t finished the sweater yet and not sure if I will but here’s a pic anyway.  I didn’t think to make the stripes match the blanket until too late so I don’t think it came out as cute as I hoped.  It’s also way too big for a newborn so I have plenty of time to finish it if I change my mind.

Yummy stitchyness

I decided to take a little break from baby stuff *ran out of yarn* and pulled out an old UFO.  

I ordered Charleston Lady from The Stitchery sometime in ‘09, started it and then forgot about it.  As you can see from the pic (lower left) I didn’t get very far.  This pattern is a lot more detailed and bigger than I usually do but I really fell in love with it when I saw it in the Stitchery catalog.

It’s been calling my name so I decided to make it one of my 2011 crafty goals to get it finished by the end of the year.  I think I got a pretty good jump start on it over the weekend!  Isn’t she pretty?! 

I really needed a break from those skin tones so I decided to start my Oak Haven SAL.  It’s a year long SAL and my first time joining one so I hope I can stick to it.  I finished the January square today and can’t wait for next months!  The owl and snow were supposed to be white but I really didn’t want to kill my eyes stitching white on white so I changed them.  *Hope that’s ok!*

Now I really should get back to the baby stuff.  Only one month to go before her arrival!!!

Happy New Year's Eve!

I am looking forward to the new year, especially my new baby due to arrive on Valentine's Day!

So here is my last finished project for 2010 but definitely not the last baby project planned.
A blanket for baby Emily! I love how this turned out and the fact that it took my only 3 days to make. Needs to be washed and blocked still and the colors are much brighter than this pic shows.

Tried to get a close up of the crab stitch border

Linked to
Sugar Bananas!

Happy Holidays!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was working hard on Christmas presents and didn't want to spoil any surprises! I decided to try the home made route for gifts this year and it seems to have been a hit.

I made these zippered pouches for all the moms, aunts and grandmas in the family using this tutorial. I had to learn how to sew on zippers but it was pretty easy once I figured out what I was doing. It was fun trying to match different fabric patterns while making sure to use favorite colors.
A couple of the insides

Yup, my sis-in-law's fave color is orange, the brighter the better!
Gift card cozys for a couple of the nieces

For the Papas and Grandpas I made these stamped key chains. They look much much better than the pic shows. The top washer has the recipients name and 2010, the bottom washer has "Love Paige & Noah".
Side note: You need a really hard surface to stamp these. The only surface hard enough here was the basement floor. NOT easy when you're 7 months pregnant!

Made this zippered pouch for the hubby's cousin. We both love Gir from Invader Zim so I made him my first embroidery project and sewed him on this pouch. I had to make my own pattern for this pouch since the pleats in the other pattern weren't gonna mix well with the embroidery. It's a very simple pattern but I'm proud cause I was able to figure it out myself even adding a zipper and pocket!
I wanted to keep it for myself so I must have done something right!
This is a baby quilt made for me by hubby's cousin. I love it and wish it was big enough for me! She used purple minky (my fave) and I love that she used black/rainbow fabrics instead of the usual baby pastels.
I also got some very cute hand made baby things from hubby's grandma that I still need to take pics of.

Baby girl is due to arrive on Valentine's Day so be prepared for much baby crafty things coming soon!

Now all we need is snow

The kids had a blast decorating the tree yesterday. I bought a lot of new decorations on clearance after Christmas last year so getting to finally play with all the new stuff was like..well, Christmas!

Noah preferred to keep all his ornaments close together.

After a wee bit of help from mommy.

Lights!!

Linked to

Go check out all the other beautiful Christmas trees!

This cute little design is from Daffycat! It was a pretty quick stitch, which I love, and I enjoyed thinking of ways to finish it. Thanks Daffycat!

My second flat fold!

I learned a lot from the first flat fold I attempted and this one came out a ton better! Definitely more fun once you know what you're doing.
Now who's next? O.0