Category: crafty

project life 2013 : weeks 36 – 37

This is from September 1 – 15. When I started working on it I wasn’t really in the mood but it ended up coming together really easily and it’s actually one of my favorite spreads.

These were normal weeks. All pictures are just daily life with a couple of pregnancy bump shots. There was kind of a pink and green color scheme in the photos that I tried to stick with, and of course neutrals.

On the above journaling card I wrote about a small moment I observed and it’s something I’d never remember if I hadn’t written it down.

I surreptitiously grabbed a photo of Meredith at daycare through the window just after I dropped her off. It was so cute because she is much happier when one of her little friends is already there and this day they both sat down at the table to eat their morning snacks together. I love watching her friendships being born.

I hit 20 weeks during this time. I didn’t write anything about it but I still wanted to include the milestone.

And then a few other tidbits that didn’t fit anywhere else. I end up doing one of these cards almost every time; it just works well for me.

Still so happy with this!

September 30, 2013
quick takes

one

So, this happened at the beginning of the week:

Apparently I’m prone to stomach viruses because I seem to catch one every year at least. But catching one when you’re pregnant is a whole different ballgame. It’s super easy to get dehydrated (especially when one doesn’t drink enough water to begin with – I’m working on it, okay) and when you get dehydrated you start contracting and that’s no bueno all around. I spent the night in the ER on Monday night receiving fluids and getting the contractions to stop (they gave me terbutaline and that stuff is weeeiiird). For some reason they refused to give me anti-nausea meds until I was still vomiting at 3 a.m. even though I begged to the best of my ability. Somewhere in the middle of it I think I decided that I don’t want to try for a natural birth this time around. I’m kind of over pain and discomfort at this point, no matter how worthy the cause. Anyway, I took the next day (obviously) off work to sleep, and the next day to regain my strength. Fun times.

two

One slight positive to the ordeal is that I had some extra time to lie in bed and work on my stitching. I probably should have used it to work on my niece’s stocking (I have made progress on that, but I forgot to take a picture this week) but instead I was way too excited to start on the autumn sampler. Here’s my progress so far:

It took me way too long to get this far (can I blame my weakened state?) so I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with it in real time but I’ll do my best. It’ll be ready to display next fall. :)

three

This stuff already has me in holiday prep mode. I have so many plans, but most of them involve making things and I think I just need to check my expectations at the door right now because 1) I don’t have much time to begin with, 2) my extra time right now is devoted to the stocking, and 3) I have a baby due in January so I probably at some point need to focus on that a little bit. Not to mention my goal of getting our bedroom halfway set up before then. It feels like I have forever to get ready but this time of year flies by.

four

I listened to a really interesting Freakonomics podcast this week about the impact parents have on their children. Turns out that obsessive parenting regarding things like having your kids in a bunch of activities & educating them super early doesn’t make much of a long-term difference, but things like behavior modeling (whether you smoke & drink, if you are kind) do. That was a relief to me because I am not into the rugrat race. I don’t care if my kids are the smartest or highest educated or earn a lot of money later in life. I want them to be happy and I want them to know they are loved and I want them to know Jesus. So I’m going to keep on keepin’ on with my “lazy” parenting ways.

five

I’m sure glad I didn’t decide to do seven quick takes each week because that’s just too many for me.

six

Weekend plans: chores, lunch with another couple from church, do a Project Life spread, get together with my MIL and SIL to work on the stocking, maybe take a trip to Lowe’s to pick up some things for our bedroom, hang out with the fam.

September 27, 2013
quick takes

Another round of randomness coming at you! (Linking up.)

one

Fair warning that it just might start to get very crafty/nesty up in here. Our new carpet will be installed in a couple of weeks, and we’re painting our bedroom this weekend. I have barely touched the back half of our house and so this is really inspiring me to fix up our room. It’s such a sad state of affairs in there right now and I would love to have a happy master bedroom. I have plans, people. Will be sharing them soon.

two

I’m also spending almost every spare moment working on my niece’s stocking. Here is what it looks like so far:

The lighting is kind of weird here but you can see just how far I have to go. So far I’ve just embroidered and sequined the gold stars and sequined/appliquéd Santa’s hat poof.

Here’s a close-up; it’s still kind of hard to see the poof but I think I got the hang of the appliqué and I hope the rest will get better and faster. So it’s not much progress so far really. But I’ve never done this before, so time has been spent doing research and watching tutorial videos and practicing. Look for weekly updates on this process.

three

I discovered a new crafty blog this week, and it made me so happy to see that she’s a cross stitcher! What was even more exciting is that she has a shop selling patterns, and is doing a seasonal sampler subscription program. I decided to sign up for the autumn sampler subscription, and even though I’m not sure how I’ll fit it in, I’m going to attempt to keep up with the stitching each week and share my progress here too.

Look at the cuteness though!

Any current or wannabe cross stitchers out there that I can enable into doing this with me??

four

We had a bit of an up and down week around here. First we discovered that our mortgage increased by almost $300 a month, so that was not fun. Then my car broke down and we were 90% sure we were going to have to buy a new one. All this right after we had placed our carpet order, which was a big expense for us. So stressful when we’re trying to save for new baby! But then the car got all fixed for under $500, and a doctor’s expense we thought we were going to have to pay ended up being totally covered by insurance, and the carpet guy took pity on us and gave us a discount. All in all more than we wanted to be spending, but way better than it could have been.

five

Last night was kind of a bummer for me because I came home ready to make dinner, spend time with the family, and work on the stocking. But as soon as I stepped in the house – it was so hot and stuffy in there – I got a wave of nausea and fatigue so strong that I couldn’t even stand up. I laid down on the couch so of course Meredith wanted to lie on top of me and roll all over my stomach. David could tell I was down for the count so he took Meredith to his parents’ house and I ended up sleeping the entire evening starting at 6:30. I woke up briefly at 8:45 to brush my teeth, throw the diapers in the dryer, and feed the dogs, but otherwise I was OUT. I’m better today though, so it seems it was just a weird pregnancy thing and not a real sickness of any kind.

six

“Meredith, what is mommy going to have?”

“Baby brudder.”

“Where is baby brother now?”

“Right dere.” (Points to my tummy)

“Very good!”

“And cake?”

September 20, 2013
project life 2013 : weeks 34 – 35

I’m caught up again, and back on schedule for every two weeks! Feels so good.

This spread is approximately the last half of August. They were just regular weeks so this is normal everyday life stuff. Again, it was great to have a bunch of horizontal photos to fill the space and I’m definitely going to keep making an effort to do this.

I got a short video of Meredith taking a “running jump” into a kiddie pool at her cousin’s house and it was super adorable.

I decided to write about one of our Saturdays and detail what exactly we did that day since it was a fun one. It also goes along with the photos at the bottom which are from the birthday party at The Little Gym. I noticed later that the stamped date is wrong, but I just left it since it’s close enough.

On the right there are mostly just photos of Meredith around the house – playing in her room before bed, jumping up and down on the couch watching “Jessie,” playing outside, going through all her clothes, and then one of me outside watching her play.

And I still like having a place to write down all the other random stuff that happened.

It’s great to have one creative part of my life back in action! Next up is working on my niece’s stocking since we just got the kit in the mail. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are going to be working on it too so we can finish on time. Wish us luck!

September 11, 2013
project life 2013 : weeks 31 – 33

I am getting back on track! The weeks aren’t lining up exactly because this spread encompasses roughly the first half of August, but eventually I’ll get back on a two-week schedule. One thing that helped me a lot in putting this together was that I had a lot of horizontal photos to pull from.

I’m still keeping things simple and it was nice to not have any inserts to deal with. The first page was pretty much all about our impromptu trip to Nashville to vist a friend.

I loved the video of Meredith chasing geese so I uploaded it to YouTube and printed a QR code for it.

This pocket includes the bulk of the journaling about the trip. I wanted to write more than what would fit on a 3×4 and since it was personal I thought a fold-out card would work best. I hope the arrow will clue future me in to the fact that there is more written inside. :)

The right side is daily life stuff. A couple of Meredith playing with her cousins, at the store with daddy (he won her a stuffed animal that she carries around with her now; so cute), playing in the sandbox, and a bump shot with a recap of my latest doctor’s appointment. Then I used one journaling card to write about a few other things that I didn’t have pictures of.

Feels good to be getting back into the swing of things!

September 4, 2013