artsy-crafty babe

Gratitude Friday

My Babies

It's been one of those weeks.  Not really bad, but not really good either.  Definitely not crafty.  I am glad that it's over because I am ready for the weekend. 

I'd say the best way to describe this week is frustrating.  I felt like though I tried, I never could get anything accomplished.  For instance, I finally finished folding all the laundry I washed last weekend, but it isn't put up and now the hamper is full and ready to be washed again.  So frustrating.  I would have liked at least a few days where I didn't have to worry about laundry, or anything house cleaning related (like that's ever gonna happen). 

Then there's the sewing studio.  I really wanted to get in there to finish up some things, but I never had the chance.  I'd get to go up there for about 5 minutes, then someone needed me.   I feel like when I finally post a picture of the whole room it's going to be a total letdown.  There are still so many things to do in there.  I have a picture in my mind of how I want it to be, but it isn't turning out that way.  Again, so frustrating. 

I've had a few people ask me how Weight Watchers is going.  It's going okay.  As of my last weigh in, which was week 3, I had lost a total of 6 lbs.  I decided to change things up a bit by switching to core this past week because I noticed that I was spending too many points on junk (damn those 100 calorie Hershey bars!).  I was doing well until a retirement party at work yesterday.  I was weak.  I caved to party foods.  Those cocktail weenies and all those sour cream based dips were calling my name.  Definitely not core and way out of the realm of my 35 weekly points allowance.  When I weighed myself this morning I was 2 lbs heavier than yesterday.  Yes, I know that it is water gain (I bloat like a dead fish), but still, so FRUSTRATING!  I think I'm going to use my "No Weigh-In Pass" tomorrow.  I can't deal with the scale going up.

Despite all my frustrations, I am grateful for many things.  Here is my oh so random list of gratitudes:

• Ava's first morning smiles.  They make any frustrating morning better.  How can you be in a bad mood after that?
• Coffee.  I couldn't make it through a day without it.  I think my favorite time of day is when I enjoy my morning cup of coffee.  I'm usually enjoying it while I'm pumping, which isn't so much fun, but the coffee makes it better.
• The customer service department of Hollister, who makes my Ameda Purely Yours breast pump.  I emailed them late last week asking where I can get my pump serviced because it wasn't working well and was making a weird noise.  After not hearing from them by Tuesday, I was about to make a call to complain about their lack of response.  Good thing I didn't because there was a new breast pump at my front door when I got home that afternoon.
• All of you who stop by this blog to read and make comments.  It makes me so happy when  I get comments.  Though I don't always respond to everyone, I do read them all, I promise.
• I feel like I should knock on some wood - we made it through a week without someone getting sick.  Hooray!
• Whoopee cushions.  They have provided my family lots of entertainment this week.  I'm not ashamed to admit it, I like potty humor.
• Though so frustrating, I am so grateful that I have a house to mess up, clothes to wear, and a sewing room all to myself. 

Have a great weekend!!!

The Sewing Studio continued...

I'm sure you're getting tired of hearing about this room, but it's what I've been pouring all my creative energy into lately.  It's not finished yet, but it's pretty close.  I'm in the process of prettying it up, adding those little details that make it all mine.  I have a few more projects to complete before I'm ready to show the whole room, but here is what I worked on this past weekend.

A girly chair.  This is a garage sale find that I bought years ago when I was in college.  It was originally dark stained wood with a black naugahyde seat.  It has since been painted a few times - red, gold, and most recently dark green.  This time around I tried something new - spray paint.  Oh yeah, spray paint is my new best friend.  I had this chair painted in about 10 minutes, then it was dry in another 5.  Ballet pink. It doesn't get any sweeter than that.  I still have another chair, a night stand, and a lamp to paint, all with spray paint, of course.

Just to remind myself what it is that I'm supposed to do in this room, I made this banner.  It didn't turn out quite as I planned, but it'll do.  There wasn't enough contrast between the background and the letter on some of the squares, so I outlined all the letters with a sharpie.  That wasn't exactly the look I was going for, but I was determined to use only what I had, and that's what I had.  It would have worked out better if I had some nice solid colored papers.  But that's okay, it still makes me happy.

That's it for now.  Hopefully next time I mention this room it'll be finished and open for business!

Dirty Birds

Sunday afternoon fun.  This is what happens when you tell your daughter that you used to make mud pies when you were a little girl.

This all happened under Daddy's watch, of course.

It's hard to imagine that they go from this cuddly sweetness to THAT!

Friday WIP

I'm finally making my way back to my studio.

Getting over my fear of that MONSTER machine.

Doing a bit of organizing.

Doing a lot of cleaning.

Gaining LOTS of inspiration.  I can't wait to finish MY room.

Baby stuff

Here is my finished WIP from a weekend before last.  I actually finished that project back then, but had to wait until all the gifts had been received.  I was a baby stuff making fool that weekend.  I ended up making 5 bibs and 9 burp cloths.  What a sense of accomplishment that gave me, it was just what I needed to kick my crafting in gear.

The inspiration for making these came from gifts I received for Ava.  The burp cloths are made like those I received from Rebecca, formerly of 3 peas (I miss her blog!) and the bibs are fashioned after the one made by Catrina of Bumblefunck.  I loved these gifts so much that I wanted to make more for Ava, then it occurred to me to make some as gifts for some soon-to-be mamas.  I ended up using some of the flannel sent to me from Tasha for one set.  For most of these I used flannel for the face fabric then lined them with terrycloth.  These are oh so absorbent.  I know for certain that I'll be making more of these soon!

For Lera and her baby boy.

For Claudia and her newest addition, a baby boy born last week.  At the time I made this the gender was unknown.

For my friend Erica and her soon to be born baby girl Kate.  I dipped into my precious Amy Butler stash for these.  They aren't made with flannel, but the cotton is so soft. I just love the ric rac.  It didn't even occur to me to do any sort of piecing until I made this bib, which happened by accident.

And last but not least, here's what was made for Ava, a cute pink paisley flannel lined with pink terry cloth.  I was able to squeeze out two bibs from that polka dot flannel, so she got one of those too!

See that fabric in the background of all these photos?  That's a piece of vintage sheet I bought from Angela's new store.  If you haven't been there yet, you need to check it out.  She's got some great stuff!

Change complete, almost

Remember this?  With a party planned this past weekend for the christening I was forced to finish some household projects, namely my living room spruce up.  Here are the results:

A new rug and some minor furniture rearranging.

Some new sofa pillows.

A change up on the mantle.

Up close of the new pillows.  These aren't complete - the rectangular one is waiting for tassel fringe and the leopard ones are missing a fabric covered button in the center.  I was frantically sewing these babies up the morning of the party.  I'm thrilled with how the big ones turned out.  I wish I had enough of that fabric to make some curtain panels for the french doors.

The red chair is now in the corner by the fireplace where the dresser used to be.  I am now able to use the matching foot stool.  The three paintings came from my kitchen.

The dresser now lives to the right of the french doors.

The little upholstered bench now resides under the side table beneath the stairs.  That table was made by someone in my family a long, long time ago.

Now that the seasons are changing and I've made a few changes, I'm loving my room again.  I think it'll do...for now.

God Bless Ava

Whew, is the weekend over yet?  This weekend we celebrated the baptism of Ava.  This is the reason my posting was so sparse this past week - I had things to do!  As much as I like the idea of entertaining, the preparations for it totally stress me out.  In the end, everything turned out great and I was able to relax and enjoy the company of my family.

As usual, I didn't take near enough pictures, and the ones I did manage to take didn't turn out all that great.  Here's little Ava all dressed up in her christening gown, bonnet and all.  She actually wore the bonnet the entire mass!  See those cute booties?  Leanne made those.  I was so happy that she was able to wear them for this special event.

Here we are at the baptismal font.  Isn't the stained glass in the background beautiful?

Ava and me with our matching double chins.

The food!  I always take a picture of the food when I throw a party.  It was a lot of work getting the house in order and all the food prepared, but it was all worth it.

A non-car seat picture of Ava in her gown along with her darling rosary bracelet and medal.  This is was an afterthought picture.  By this point she was spent.

God Bless you, baby!

Got milk?

Breastfeeding.  ALL about the boobs ALL the time.  Right now my life revolves around my boobs.  The girls have done my children well over the years, but I'm so over them.  I'm either feeding, pumping, leaking, or feeling myself up to see if I need to pump or feed. 

My pumping experience this time around has been very different than in the past.  When Lily was a baby, because I was home with her I didn't pump except for the occasional outing.  I didn't really get into pumping until I went back to work after having Alex.  That boy could eat, so I was the pumping queen.  I remember overflowing the bottles because I had so much milk.  It was so satisfying to hear the ppshhh ppshhh of the milk pouring into the bottles.  I could pump 8 ounces in less than 10 minutes - I was quite proud of that.  I'm sure it had everything to do with Alex's appetite.  He would eat until he puked, drenching us both, then go back to eating some more.  I guess that's why he was bigger at 8 weeks than Ava is now at 4.5 months.

Ava, she isn't so much of an eater.  She could take it or leave it.  Because of this pumping isn't going as well.  I struggle to get 4-6 ounces at a 15-20 minute pumping session.  Even then I never hear that lovely ppshhh ppshhh sound, only a slight drip drop.  I have been having a surplus up until this point, freezing my leftovers, but not anymore.  Oh well, it had to end one day.  I am by no means stopping my nursing or pumping, but it's getting old.  I won't truly stress until I have to start dipping into the frozen supply.  I think the girls are getting worn out.  I know I am.  But as long as Ava is happy and satisfied, I guess they're doing their job.  Keep up the good work girls!

Since I'm on the topic of babies and body parts, have y'all seen this site?  It made me realize what a skewed idea I had about what a female body is supposed to look like, especially after having babies. 

Good Weekend

This was a good weekend.  It all started when I came home to this surprise in my front flower bed.

Right there amongst the agapanthas was this beautiful blooming spider lily that I never planted.  Friday night was like old times - my sewing machine and I hummed away until midnight.

Saturday morning didn't go as planned.  I had to take Lily to the doctor because she wasn't feeling well.  She just stopped taking antibiotics for strep throat/scarlet fever earlier in the week, but her symptoms were returning.  I was afraid that she had it again...I was right.  While waiting to get her prescription filled Lily decided that she wanted to get her hair cut.  Here she is with her new do:

Despite being under not so great circumstances, it was nice to spend a morning together, just Lily and I.

The rest of the weekend included lots of playing, laughing, and hanging out.

Alex had a good time playing babies.  See, he even covered them up with Matt's hankie.

Saturday night was another successful sewing night.  I'd like to show pictures, but 75% of it is gifts, so I can't show them just yet.   Instead, I'll show you the progress I made on my bedroom:

Still no new paint on the walls or new bedding made, but it's a start.

It's almost 9 pm, the kids are in bed, the house is picked up, life is good.

***edited to add one of the best things that happened this weekend:  After my first week of Weight Watchers I lost 3.4 lbs - woohoo!!

WIP

This is what's going on at our house this weekend.  Pickets!  We have pickets!  This little fence was supposed to be finished before I had Ava so that this summer I could let the kids out to run around like wild banshees while being contained.  Ava is 4 months now and this is what we've got - posts, rails, and a few pickets.  There is still 3 gates and lattice to put up.  Maybe by next summer?  I can't imagine the lack of progress that would have been made at this point if we had decided to enclose our whole back yard!

 

Here's a whole stack of things that need to be sewn up.  Last weekend I worked on cutting stuff out, so here it waits.  If I play my cards right, I may get the chance to sew something up tomorrow morning while the kids are engrossed in cartoons and Ava takes her nap.  What a good mom I am.  I usually spend this time cleaning up, but the house is still in good shape and the laundry is under control for once.  I've already spoken to my beloved about my NEEDING some sewing time, so something will get done, DAMMIT!

Have a great weekend, y'all!