five on friday (12/4)

ONE. I finished up my first-ever set of quiet book pages this week, loosely based on this one. They weren’t anything fancy and definitely didn’t turn out perfect, but I certainly learned a few things along the way. And miniature felt food is pretty adorable.

TWO. Mia had Kaya over for a little princess tea party last week. Katherine sent me this photo below. Two adorable girls, dressed up as princesses, sipping from their tin cups… Be careful looking at this, it might just make your heart explode from a cuteness overload.

THREE. Kaelyn had an unexpected trip to the doctor last week for what I thought would be her first stitches/skin glue, and for the craziest reason… she had a piece of hair wrapped around her toe, and when I took it off (not realizing how deeply it had cut her), it looked like it had gone through half the width of her tiny toe! The doctor ended up leaving it open so that we could clean it (instead of gluing it shut and worrying about infection), and prescribed us a strong antibiotic ointment. I feel like this photo doesn’t even show how deep the cut truly was.

So really, check your baby’s toes/diaper area for hair tourniquets. I’m just glad we seemed to find it pretty quickly and it’s healed up nicely.

FOUR. With the rain and colder temperatures lately, we’ve been staying inside more and getting a whole lot of preschool work done. Kaelyn loves to be included, so I sit her up at the table with Kaya and give her any extra worksheets to color. She loves it!

FIVE. We finally busted out our hardcore winter gear this week. The weather is suddenly feeling more like it should for December! One of my goals this winter is to get my kids outside and playing, even when it is on the colder side… so I got them some awesome-heavy-duty-warm coats (and you know, if you’re buying new coats, you might as well make them match 🙂 )._MG_0156

Barring extreme wind/snow/ice, I think we’re set to still have some fun on the playground this winter! 🙂

Happy weekend! 🙂

Linking up here!

upcycled onesie dress

What do you do when you buy a $1 onesie that never actually fit your baby? Turn it into something cuter, of course! I cut off the snaps off the bottom, made a little skirt, gathered it, and sewed it on. I also drew and appliquéd a baby bird to the top._MG_3180_MG_3189_MG_3175_MG_3177 Not bad for a quick project!

friday favorites

As always, another week has just flown on by! Here are some of our highlights:

I’m so glad to have a little buddy to keep me company while I work on projects- I took my sewing machine out for the first time in a couple weeks. Hopefully Kaya will be modeling the finished project at church on Sunday!_MG_3129

These two together melt my heart. She is always so happy when daddy comes home! (Sorry you’re out of focus, buddy. Aperture fail!)_MG_3161

This little cutie is SO CLOSE to crawling. She just needs to learn to lift up her legs! Michael helped her a little last night, and she was starting to move. We might want to start baby-proofing…_MG_3163

There’s nothing like a peacefully sleeping baby (well, until I decided to be “that mom” and walked in there taking pictures. The shutter on a DSLR isn’t exactly quiet, you know. Lucky for me, she stayed asleep). She’s been waking up through the night a lot this week, so I am grateful for naps. We even had one that was three hours long, which was very out of the ordinary. I kept checking in on her! (I also love how infatuated she is with that little brown bear).
_MG_3170We also had a super-fun play date with two other cute girls and their mamas today! Kaya always loves seeing her baby friends.

I also might’ve eaten waaaay more cookie bars than I can admit count this week. My sweet tooth has been out the roof! I also just started leafing through a “cookie dough lover’s” cookbook my brother gave me… this could be bad. And by bad, I actually mean DELICIOUS.

Happy weekend everyone!

the boppy

Some people say they couldn’t live without one, and other people say it’s completely useless. And then there are people who want one, but don’t want to spend about $50 for a simple pillow (*ahem*… me…)

So, I made my own! It cost me almost nothing to make the pillow itself (my mom-in-law had given me some sturdy corduroy fabric when I first started sewing, and for some reason, I already had two bags of poly-fil stuffing in my sewing stash… doesn’t everybody)?

If I don’t like it or use it that much once baby gets here, I don’t have to feel guilty, since it was practically free and fun to make, anyway. I made two covers for it, both flannel on one side and fleece on the other, so it’s super soft!

I did end up buying a waterproof cover made for a “real” boppy, and it fits perfectly, so my pillow is true-to-size!

I used this pattern here, so now you can make your own, too!

creative productivity

I’ve been pretty excited about crafting lately. We reorganized the den (where my work space is), and I LOVE being in there now, so it makes it easier to just go make something! The only thing missing is a comfy desk chair (hopefully Michael is reading this…haha!)

Finding out that our munchkin is a baby girl has motivated me even more. There are so many fun things I want to make for her!

My two main focuses right now are sewing and wire jewelry. Here’s the first wire bracelet I made out of brass (for practice) and some glass beads my aunt gave me.

And of course I had to make something for munchkin. So I cut up Michael’s old jeans and made a little skirt and matching booties! (tutorials here and here)

The next creation took no skill at all, actually, but I wanted to share it anyway because I thought it was pretty cool! I found a word-cloud generator here and used it to make a little wall art for munchkin’s room. Of course, it’s in the shape of a horse… just wait until you see the rest of the room!

Apparently, baby girl has been getting creative too- she somehow went out, bought a card, and mailed it to me for Mother’s Day. It’s pretty interesting that her handwriting looks identical to my mom’s and that she already knows to shop at Hallmark!

gingerbread madness

This weekend was so much fun! On Friday, my buddy Lelia came over! We went to the Christmas Parade, ate homemade pizza, decorated gingerbread cookies and watched "A Christmas Story". How can it get better than that?

Check out our cookies! I'm very happy with the way these turned out, since it was my first time ever doing gingerbreads. They tasted just like my mom's!

Yum.

And I gave Lelia her Christmas present, which was a purse I made (with Michael's mom's guidance 🙂 I am pretty pleased with how cute it turned out!

Only 9 more days until school is out!

19 days until Christmas!

sew cool

Yesterday was our 18-month anniversary of being married! A whole year and a half… we're practically ancient now. The funny thing is that some of the things we bought as newlyweds are just running out, like air-freshener spray or salt, which means that next time we buy those things, we'll be married 3 years… Whoa!

Last night he took me out for dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant. That food always brings me straight back to my days in Europe… Nostalgia's hit me hard.

Today I practiced a bit of sewing and made my piggies some cuddle cups… Maggie loves it, but Juni is just a little shy.

how much do i like vacation?

Well, probably more than chocolate, but definitely less than guinea pigs. That's the most accurate comparison I can give you right now.

Anyway… you want to know what I did with my first "official" day of break?  I sewed! and naturally, it was a present for my guinea pigs.

a sleeping bag! and yes, they love it.

it even passes the "comfy" test:

end of break!

Five days until we go back to school! I'm pretty excited to get this semester rolling, since it will be the hardest of the 3 I have left. And, I am glad to officially be back in Animal Science! =)

Not too much has been going on besides work… I caught some stomach flu bug and called in sick on Tuesday. Thankfully, it only lasted about 24 hours and now I'm back to normal (er… well, normal for me, anyway!), just a bit sleepy.

I've been practicing sewing a little… here's Scruffy wearing his brand-new shirt!

I guess I'm pretty goofy, but the thing I worry about most when I'm sick is infecting my piggies. Guineas pigs are used in labs to study disease, so they can catch something from me. So, their cage was two days overdue to get cleaned, but I did it this morning and gave them the new blanket their "grandma" (aka my mom) gave them for Christmas. They love it so much that they keep trying to burrow under it (ahhh!)

Where are the piggies?

Oh! there they are! I spy 2 pigs!

What can I say, she sure loves getting her daily intake of fiber!

2010

Well, happy 2010 everyone! It's amazing to take a moment and contemplate all the wonderful things that have happened during the last year, and especially this last decade.

Our holidays were fantastic (sadly, I don't have any photos for you right now because I'm on a library computer)… On Christmas Eve, we went to Michael's grandparents' house for the huge family get-together. We had food and re-enacted the Nativity story. I was the "star"… so basically, I got to stand in the corner and shine the flashlight. But hey, it's tough work being the star of the show!

That night we went to my family's house where we goofed off a lot, and later opened up our "Christmas jammies". Michael and Karl received matching "Virginia Tech" ones. Now they're practically twins! 

Christmas day was wonderful. It was refreshing to be with my family again, since I haven't seen them since August. On Christmas morning, I was so excited to give my mom the gift I had made for her (a sewn snowlady pilgrim… she collects snowmen). When she opened it, she smiled widely with joy. She was pretty impressed that I sewed it myself… and ironically, she gave me a sewing machine. How lucky! I'm really looking forward to using it and increasing my skills.

We all watched "A Dog Named Christmas" that night. I hadn't yet seen it, and I'd definitely recommend watching it if you're in the mood for something heart-warming.

The next day we went to Michael's parents' home and just relaxed and had fun. The best part was when his Mom helped me sew Michael some pajama pants! It didn't turn out bad for my first try.

Well, the holidays are over now, but that doesn't mean we should stop seeking the special Spirit we feel during this time. Giving and caring for others shouldn't stop when January 1st rolls around. We can have the Spirit with us as we seek to serve and be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.