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

Happy Birthday Noah!!

My little bug turned 3 today!! He's grown so fast and it's hard to believe in a few months he'll be the middle child. Don't worry bud, you'll always be my (not so little) baby boy.

Grandma brought over some gifts this morning since she won't be able to make it to party later.

The new toys kept the kids distracted while I made a school bus cake! Obviously cake decor is not one of my strengths.

Yesterday I found this while searching for ideas for school bus decorations so I made one to hang on the front door.
Now I better get my butt moving and get the rest of his presents wrapped!

Romy's patterns

I discovered Romy's Cross Stitch Patterns blog a couple months ago and went a bit crazy stitching up some of her patterns with plans to do more! If stitching is your thing go check her out! She has a ton of cute patterns (for free!) and now has a book of new designs for sale.

Here's what I've stitched so far. Unfortunately I didn't get these first two finished off in time for Halloween.


My first flat-fold!

Not sure if I'll make this one a flat-fold or an ornament

That last update was pretty appropriate

I can't believe it's been over a year since my last update! Although not completely due to procrastination. I had a bad case of tendonitis for a couple months and wasn't able to do any kind of stitching. Then it took a while for my crafty mojo to come back. So here's some of the things I've made since the beginning of the year. Enjoy!

This is what 357 granny squares looks like and they only took me a month to make! I seriously expected this afghan to take six months at least but I was determined to at least finish it, unlike many other projects. That determination really helped speed me along, no procrastination here!
All put together with a border!

Jasmin guarding the goods

I thought I'd never want to make another afghan like that again, then I surprised myself by making 237 hexagons for another one for my daughter. I have yet to put them together.

A Sue Hillis design. The hubby says I'm not allowed to use this excuse :P

A shawl crocheted for myself!

My current project, a checkerboard baby blanket. I now have five and a half rows of blocks done. This may or may not be for my baby...yes, I'm expecting baby #3 in Feb. 2011!

So true

Thanks to Cross Stitch Happy for offering these free charts! I enjoyed stitching with beads for the first time and made one other small change. Can't wait to start the next one!

P.S. I have no idea why my text is underlined