My first ever crafty swap!

OK, so I'm a posting fool today...sorry! I like for things to be all seperate and organized lol. Well, theoretically!

I've been cruising all sorts of crafty, lovely blogs lately, and I have been so awestruck and inspired!!! Allsorts, Angry Chicken (also coordinates Tie One On which I can't wait to get participating in!), Apron Thrift Girl (lots of thrifting and vintage inspiration, plus her kids are just adorable!), Artsy-Crafty Babe (all I can say is WOW she has so much talent), Craft Apple ( she makes some really neat drawing pad covers, and some cards that are very similar to ones I've been doing for awhile...nice to see I'm not alone!!), and Wren's Nest (lovely vintage goodies!). And these are just the tip of the iceberg! I am amazed at the creative and talented people I've stumbled across in blogland..and I've decided to put my talents, as they may be, up with some others!

Happy Zombie is hosting a Potholder Swap and yesterday I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I am SO excited, and can't wait to get my partners name so I can start creating something specially for her/him. Wish me luck!

Finished Friday!

Ok, due to the same issues as the previous post, I didn't get my posts up on time last week. So I changed Friday to "Finished". As in, look at what I finished!!!!

This is the front side of my husband's new "blankie". Even though football season is almost over, I made this for him to snuggle under while watching games (or, very soon, Nascar races). This is a premade fleece Notre Dame panel, cut straight off a bolt. It was pretty boring alone, so I wanted to create a bit more of a "thing" to spice it up a bit.

This is the back of the blanket, decked out in Dallas Cowboys style, for his other favorite football team. The pillow I made using leftover yardage of the Cowboys fabric and plain white squares. This is the first pillow I've made but it turned out really well, and he's been using the set every evening since it was finished.

The satin binding was tricky, I don't know if it was my lack of sewing knowledge, my machine, or a combination of the two, but there are a couple of spots the didn't turn out quite right as you can see in the first picture. Anyone have any ideas? I don't know that I'll make anymore blankets using the binding, but if I do, I would like to know how to do it RIGHT.

Thrifty Thursday..didn't happen

Well, week 2 of Thrifty Thursday didn't happen. I had a preggo baby scare this week so I didn't get out like I wanted! All is well though, Wyatt is just growing along in there giving Mommy fits!

Baby News!

Well, I had my visit with the specialist today. We had to check on the subchorionic bleed, and also the baby's growth, etc. of course. The baby is growing great, actually measuring just over a week ahead of the dates which is great! The ultrasound was VERY VERY quick, less than 10 minutes start to finish, but...we did get a very short, quick glimpse of what appears to be BOY parts!!!!!! So, for now, we're going with the fact that we will be welcoming boy #4 into our house in June. YA!!!!!!!!!!! Neither my husband nor I are completely convinced that we actually saw boy parts, seriously, it was less than 10 seconds, and it wasn't the "full turtle" so to speak, so there is a chance we could be wrong, but with 3 boys already.....we figure it's a boy lol. The good news other than that the baby is fine, is that the bleed is GONE!!!! Both of my docs were a bit worried when the bleed was still showing up at 14 weeks, they had hoped it to be gone well before then, but it's gone now! I am still at increased risk for an abruption, but for now, no worries!

Unfinished Friday...late

Well, I planned on posting this on Friday, but ya that didn't happen lol. Fridays are going to be my days to hold myself accountable for all my crafty projects I have going on.

First and foremost is a project I started in the first trimester of this pregnancy, which, everyone remind me to NOT do again!!! Our house is old, and next summer we're going to replace windows, but until then I needed a way to help insulate our draftier windows. Enter window quilts. I found the original directions here, and tweaked them a bit. I'm a VERY novice sewer, so please keep that in mind! These are made of 2" squares, and if anyone has a bigger brain than me, they would realize that was NOT the smartest idea I've ever had. It has taken FOREVER. Anyways..last night I finally finished the top of the quilt for the large window in the kitchen (measures 71 inches long and 40 some inches wide). In this picture you see that top in khaki and white, beside it is a scrap version which will be used in my husband and I's bedroom (we have the massive long windows in our room too), and the one in blue's is for Alex's room (DS #2).

Next up is a blanket that my husband requested. You can't see the fleece panel design, but it's a large Notre Dame panel. The back is odd looking, as designed fleece tends to be, so we decided to back it with a cotton fabric of his other favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. I will cut that to size, then bind it with navy blue satin binding. This will be quick and easy and hopefully finished by later this week!


Last one I have pictures of is a blanket for the baby in the oven. This is a marble fabric I got in a lot off Ebay, which I will back with snuggly red flannel. I love the design on this, this will be very basic, but it's a start on some things I plan to do in the near future to sell.

Well crap, I cant get the picture to upload, so I'll try to add it later on. The only other project that is currently actually being worked on is a pair of fleece pants for me. I'm finding myself to be way on the cold end of the spectrum this pregnancy which is SO wierd. So I found a pattern on sale at Hancock's last week that seems pretty simple, and I found some pretty blue fleece. I've started cutting these out but haven't started any actual stitching yet. Pictures will follow next week!

Thrifty Thursday

Well, life has hit again..BUT I decided that Thursdays are going to be "Thrifty". I'll talk about my thrift store finds for the week, and will usually post pictures as well. I'll edit this post later on to include the pics of my finds this week.

We're relatively new to our area (we just moved to very Southern Indiana in June), so we're still exploring. But this week we found a St. Vincent De Paul's Thrift Store, of course Goodwill, a local Hospice Thrift Store, and 2 independent stores, one is called New To You, and the other is actually in Kentucky, and its called Unique Thrift Store.

We hit St. Vinnie's first, I've heard lots of good things about these stores so was very excited to find one nearby. Their clothing is reasonably priced, childrens items ranging from $1-$1.50 for clothing, up to $5 for shoes, womens and mens clothing ranging from $2.50-$5. They also have a selection of furniture and housewares, books, etc. I didn't purchase much, I found 2 cloth diapers for $1 a piece, and a couple of Ebay clothing items. All in all I spent just over $3. I chatted it up with one of the workers, which is a good idea at any thrift store you visit to find out about sales, etc. The worker told me that in addition to their 50% off colored tag sales (common in alot of thrift stores), on Mondays they have the color from the previous week for .25. So, we're going to make sure to hit them on Mondays. She also told us about their warehouse in Louisville, so we're going to hunt that down soon.

Next we went to New To You, they just opened last month, and their prices are quite a bit higher than most thrift stores I'm used to (except Goodwill of course). Clothing ranges from $2 for childrens on up. I did find a Boppy pillow for the baby for $2.79 in great shape, a couple of spools of ribbon reasonably priced, and my husband got a funnel for .50. I was relatively unimpressed, he said they don't run sales at this point, although they have enough donations to fill the store 4 TIMES!!! That's alot of thrift!!! We'll visit this one maybe once or twice a month.

Next we hit the store in KY, Unique Thrift Store. This place is HUGE. It's a warehouse, and its FULL of stuff!!! The prices on clothing are horrid, ranging from $2 up to at least $10 that my husband saw on a pair of used Faded Glory jeans. Ridiculous! Anything that looked vintage, was priced more expensively than was probably necessary. I did find a gorgeous Classic Pooh quilt (not vintage lol) for $4.95, it has a stain on it but I'm hoping to get it out.

Last we hit the small Hospice Thrift Store which is actually just a few blocks from our house. Prices are VERY reasonable, plus for every $5 you spend you get $1 off on your next visit. I got some great sewing notions and some vintage hankies. We'll definitely be visiting this one again!

Vacuum sealers?

I'm trying to start getting ready for when the baby arrives, and have been thinking about getting a vacuum sealer for quite some time. I'm thinking this way I can start using my freezer more now to make things easier later. I've heard the Foodsaver and Rival Seal-A-Meal are the best brands, but beyond that, which is better? Does anyone have any recommendations for me?

An introduction to my family

I know I did a vague introduction when I first started the blog, but I decided to go more in depth! This is our family picture from our wedding. You see my wonderful husband in his uniform ( he is an Army Reservist, has been for 16 years), me in my gorgeous dress, that I definitely did NOT do justice, my husband is holding our youngest son (he will be 3 in February), and then our two older boys. From left to right is Matthew, Jacob and Alexander. We were married at my parents home on a beautiful evening. This is our lovely little family, soon to grow by one more! We find out the baby's sex on the 22nd if it is being cooperative!

Ahhh I'm back..and doing some housekeeping!

Ok, it's been MONTHS since I've posted here. I need to dust, sweep down the cobwebs, and put out the welcome mat because along with the New Year, have come New Plans! First, the reason I was so absent is because of pregnancy complications.

I was diagnosed with a subchorionic bleed and also hyperemsis gravidarium (sp?). The bleed is actually quite common evidently, but with my history has caused some worry. I tried to find more information about it online, because even in my extensive reading of pregnancy books, etc I had never heard of it. So if anyone wants me to post what I've found out, or my experiences, please email me or comment here and I'll explain, otherwise don't wanna bore ya'll with it!

The hyperemesis is basically REALLY BAD morning sickness. I've had all-day sickness with all of my children, and lost quite a bit of weight with each one, but WOW this little monkey has been kickin' my butt! Suffice to say I've spent much more time with my bathroom than any person should ever have to, I was quite tempted to build myself a bed in there!

But now, I'm 16 weeks along today (WOOHOO!), and while I'm nowhere near out of the woods from my complications, I'm feeling much better, more energy, etc. I've started cooking a bit more (my poor husband is amazed!), catching up laundry, and doing all those lovely things a stay at home mom should do.

So as I mentioned earlier, with the New Year came some New Plans, both for this blog and my life in general. I would really like for this blog to take the shape I envisioned for it originally, before I fell off the face of the earth (aka got pregnant! lol). I've been reading some awesome blogs lately, some which I love whole heartedly, and some which I agree with the principal. I'm going to start adding some links to the sidebar so ya'll can see what I read when I'm in blogland. I'm going to start posting frugal tips hopefully every other day or so, ways to make some money from hom, sewing projects I'm currently working on, etc. If there are any topics you would like to see covered, drop me a line!

To close, it's good to be back!!!