Another Baby Wave!

It seems that these things come in massive waves; seriously, tidal wave proportions here! It is either no one's having a baby, or it is what seems like everyone is having a baby....all at the same time! Right now, we are in the everyone is having a baby phase! So, that means I get to work on lots of projects! I loved getting handmade specialties when I was pregnant with Amelia, and I hope that the sentiment is the same for other mommas who receive something especially made for their little blessing! Also, I try to make them practical becuase really, who needs one more thing to clutter up space that will probably be discovered by and destroyed played with by that little blessing a year later!

Handmade Faux Chenille Blanket

This blanket was a tedious one, as in this is the blanket that never ends... but WELL worth the end result! I just followed the tutorial on  Dana Made It. If you are wanting to try this one, it's simple in the fact that you are simply sewing straight lines, then partially cutting them, but it took me 8-9 hours over the course of 2 weeks during nap times, which are now infrequent at best, and after bedtime! 

Self-Binding Flannel & Fleece Baby Play Blanket

This blanket was a lot less time consuming. It took only about an hour to make and it's a great size for playing on the floor or even outside! Instead of two sided flannel, I made it with one side flannel and one side anti-pill fleece for some extra softness. Here is the tutorial I used from Tea Rose Home.

Nursing Cover

Another go-to gift I like to do for baby showers is nursing covers. These allow a considerate nursing mother to feed her baby nearly anywhere without the risk of exposure and making others possibly feel uncomfortable. It's lightweight so that neither the baby nor mother get hot, and it has boning at the top so eye contact with the baby never has to be disrupted. I don't have a tutorial to send you to on this one as I just sort of make them now without directions. Maybe one day I'll write one up on how I do it, but they are fairly simple to make and I'm sure Pinterest is abounding with great ideas for embellishments and all the bells & whistles you can add to these!

That's it for now....until the next baby shower wave...next month!



Making Laundry...Enjoyable?!

The laundry room has long been neglected around here. But, with the shifting of rooms to make space for the new nursery, I'm loosing the craft/office/everything-happens-in-here room. So, I needed to move all my scrapbooking, sewing and other craft supplies somewhere, and the current linen closet was just the spot. So, now what was I to do with the towels and sheets?! With a quick and inexpensive addition of a shelf, shopping the house for some baskets, they now have a new home and I get slightly giddy every time I look in my laundry room! The new spot for the cleaning schedule has even helped me to stay on track, for the most part, over the last month! Gotta love that! All I need to do still is add a few attractive labels and I'll call this one done.

Before

After

After


Cleaning Schedule

Easter 2012

This year, we spent Easter celebrating the Lord's ressurection with our church family and then with our family family during the afternoon! Amelia Jane was in quite the mood after church, so a decent family photo was difficult to come by. But, after a nap and some tasty lunch, she was all ready to dye some eggs, throw and break a few, and then go on her first egg hunt!

Re-Stocking

I try to keep the "essentials" in stock around the house just in case someone jumps in the shower and oops, we're out of shampoo! My modest stockpile was getting a bit low, so I jumped over to a few of my go-to websites for these types of situations: http://www.couponmom.com/ and http://www.krazycouponlady.com/. Fortunately, some of the things I needed were on sale at some really good prices, and there were a few money makers at the stores I was going to anyways! Always love it when that happens, but unfortunately, once I got to the store, the money makers were gone :( Oh well, good deals were still to be found!

Here's the breakdown (pre-tax):

Full Price- $39.97
Total Actually Spent- $17.93
Total Savings- 54%

I thought that was a pretty good day and especially considering I would have bought these types of products anyways. Sure, we don't always get our "preferred" brands, but fortunately, no one around here is that picky and will usually just use whatever is available! It works for us!>

Let's Play in the Dirt

Spring is here and in full swing…or maybe it’s already summer and we totally skipped spring this year!? It’s a hot one nonetheless, and for the gardening, it’s been great! No threat of freezing temperatures anywhere in sight.

We/I have wanted to build and grow a garden ever since we moved into our house about 2.5 years ago, but we just haven’t actually done it. That is, until this year! Back in October, I started researching and planning all of the delicious and nutritious foods we would plant (keep alive) and grow and eat and preserve. (These were great resources for me: Vegetable Garden Calendar & Vegetable Planting Guide both by UGA CES) I had squash, zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, spinach, corn and okra on the list. I had even printed out the 2012 calendar and added specific plant dates and estimated harvest dates for each variety of plant. Neal and I sat down and I asked him to realistically tell me if he thought I could handle it and make it worth our while to spend the money investing in this garden. Did I have too much of a variety? Could I manage it all and have a baby right in the middle of the harvest (sounds like a Little House episode!)? Would something I planted actually grow and survive since I can’t even keep a house plant alive for more than a month. Or a cactus, but that’s another sad, sad tale. We talked it all through, I showed him the “Master Plan” and we decided to scale back the variety a bit. So, after an afternoon of planning together, we were all ready to get the dirt and plant! This is what we settled on: Zucchini, Squash, Beans, Cucumber, Bell Pepper, Eggplant, Tomato, Spinach and Lettuce.

One trip to the hardware store, some wooden planks, braces, nails, etc later, we had these 10’x4’ boxes built and ready for some soil.

The soil is now unloaded and some of the seeds are planted. I’ve not planted everything all at once, because I don’t want a whole harvest of everything at one time. The plan (fingers crossed) is that things will harvest in a nice and steady stream so that we can eat what we want to, preserve what we need to, and I can try to keep some sanity during the process!

Our first plants have sprouted and I was SO excited to see that this dream is coming true! Organic, homegrown, healthy, nutritious, non-pesticide treated foods here we come!

Bush Beans

Spinach