40 weeks

Tummy's due today!

Here's a belly shot from last week.

I'm pulling for tomorrow. 2/2/11, my Grandpa Lawrence's birthday, the presentation of Jesus at the Temple...seems like a good Birthday.

Anna's Quilt and Pillow

The unexpected gift of a Snow Day last week meant I had time to sew Anna a quilt for her bed. I've been wanting to make a nine-patch quilt forever, so I decided to use up of scraps and make a pastel scrap quilt with lots of sentimental fabrics.

This has fabric from three dresses I've made, from the leftovers from the quilt Grammy Rita made her, from quilts I made for Aunties Linda and Shannon, and some fabric we used to line the wheat baskets at our wedding.

I backed it with a pretty sheet I had from Goodwill and used some extra squares to make a quilted pillow sham. I purchased NOTHING new in the making of this quilt. That was fun.

Tummy's Room

I think Tummy's room is ready for a tour.

The blanket on the changing table is made from old polyester pants. A neighbor of my Grandma Madge's made it for me when I was a baby. It's always been the changing table blanket. The cute puppy is a new addition. Goodwill, of course.

This picture is from my friend Megan. Isn't he sweet?

Our rocking corner, complete with Dr. Turtle's Babies. Looks like I'd better be careful with my copy!The wall hanging I made in my first quilting class. Mom and I took it together just before Anna was born.

New Goodwill curtains. I love them, and I was especially excited to find them after paying $30 for black-out curtains for Anna's room this fall. $3 is much more my speed.

A few toys, the elephant hamper, and a good picture of the wonderful wall paper. (That's Goodwill too)

Cute hats that my sisters and I all wore.

A few new toys from the Fisher Price Reproduction toys. I'm addicted to those. Matthew loved that clock when he was little.

Found this picture at Goodwill a couple of years ago. I was really excited to find it in with the baby things.


There's Tummy's room! All ready for baby.

Good blog

Yesterday I had to wait at the Dr.'s office for 45 minutes for my appointment. I felt a little cranky about that.

Read this for the cure. The Soddo Samaritan

And then pray for her.

Love in the mail

One day last week MJL came in from bringing the mail and I asked, as I do every day- "anything good?" And he said YES!

My dear friend Melanie, from K-State Rowing days, whom I haven't seen in person for 10 years, but *see* online every day, sent some lovelies.

I'm not sure how she did such sweet embroidery on the stretchy knit of a onesie-I need to figure that out!

This "go cats" almost made me cry, it was my catchphrase in college-for anything good.

And a new burp cloth seems like such a treat. Sure I have some left over, but I know this one will be a favorite.

Thank you!

Answered question

In this post I wondered how long I would last before digging into the pile to make something.

Answer-about a week.

The first project was a simple cover for Anna's light switch.

The next night I cut out squares for a quilt. Because I TOTALLY have time and space to do that. Sheesh.

I was really hoping for a snow day, but MJL says to give it up and go to bed.

Pictures of the rooms coming soon!

I won something!

Looky here!

Thanks, CRAFT:

Cumpleaños feliz

Anna wishes Abby a Happy Birthday and makes her Mama proud.

Butterfly Rattle

Last week something lovely fluttered into our mailbox.

Crocheted by Kelsey. I just love it.

It's soft and sweet and has a nice gentle little rattle. Thank you! and Yay for handmade toys!

Progress?

On Friday Katrina and Joe came out and helped move my craft room/office down into my new craft room/office. Matthew wondered how I fit SO much stuff into that tiny room.

I'm actually looking forward to putting it all away and creating a nice new space for myself. Until then, your birthday card, thank you note, handmade gift, etc. is buried in a giant pile. I don't get to put my things away until I finish:

Anna's Room

Tummy's Room

MJL's office

(I wonder how long I'll last before I dig into the pile to make something.)

Really, Pottery Barn?

Does Pottery Barn have a sense of humor?

Or is this real?

"Avid readers know that a stack of books can be a comforting sight. We’ve taken authentic vintage books and turned them into art objects by removing their covers and binding them together in sets of four. Neutral in color with deckled and uneven pages, they bring relaxed style to a bookcase, mantel or side table.

• Approximately 8.5" wide x 6" deep x 4.5" high
• Each bundle features four real books with covers removed so that they are all paper.
• Pages are glued shut and books are tied together with twine.
• Purely decorative; contents and titles are not important.
• Catalog / Internet only."

Bassinet

Last week my sisters came out and lugged up boxes of baby stuff and helped do 700 loads of laundry and wipe down lots of things. It was wonderful. Now if Tummy comes, we at least have things clean, even if there's nowhere to put them.

I was most looking forward to getting the bassinet set up.

I got it at an auction while we were expecting Anna. (Then known as "Izzy").

It was all dirty and rusty and I asked my Mom to make something pretty for it. She used eyelet and an old mattress pad and made it beautiful and soft and sweet for baby.

I'm so thankful for it, and for my crafty heritage.

Sweet 16

My sweet baby sister is 16?

Sweet sister, unbelievable auntie.

Love you Abby doo.

Shrinky Dink Rings

This year for Christmas Anna made Shrinky Dink rings for a few of the sweet Aunties in her life.

First she drew a flower on a sheet of paper.

Then we traced it onto Shrinky Dink plastic, colored it with colored pencils, and cut it out.

Then we shrank it. I also cut out longish strips of plastic which she colored green, but I didn't take pictures of that part.

The green strips I took out of the oven and wrapped around a tube of chapstick while still hot to shape into ring shapes. Then I used super glue to put them together.

Anna loved making and giving them, and I think the Aunties were pleased too.

We used information from thriftyfun on shrinky dinks and a tutorial from PlanetJune about how to size and shape the rings.

Tummy Blanket

I finished Tummy's blanket.

It has wavy edges, just like Anna's blanket, but I think fewer holes.

And the crocheting is tighter, though not as much as I originally thought.

Anna took a picture of her blanket over the top of Tummy's. You can see what 5.5 years of loving will do to a blankie.

May Tummy's blanket be as loved.

2011

My two resolutions for last year were:

1. Do Less. I think I actually did this. There were people I didn't make things for, and things that people asked me to do that I said no to, and things I thought I ought to do that I just didn't. Still hard though.

2. Buy no crafting supplies in 2010. I think I bought *fewer* craft supplies, but certainly not none. I'd like to continue though, having the attitude of using up before buying new. It's more inspirational for me, anyway.

I also read through the Bible last year! I'm very happy about that. I got really behind in August when school started, but through diligent catch-up in October and November I got back on track and actually finished on New Year's Eve. Now to get started on the stack of books by my bed that were neglected.

Now for this year.

2011

1. Pray more. I'd like to memorize some more prayers. When I feel especially overwhelmed, it really helps me to have some prayers in my head to pull out. Impromptu prayer doesn't help me the same way that reciting prayers does. I'm starting with this one:

"Dear Lord, teach me to be generous, teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not count the cost, to fight and not heed the wound, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to seek reward, save that of knowing that I do your will." --St. Ignatius Loyola

Suggestions welcome!

And while there are other things I'd like to do-like do a better job of feeding my family, eating together, doing projects and having fun with two kiddos, being more DIY and less spendy, etc, I think the only "resolution" will be prayer.

Happy 2011!

Merry Refrigerator!

On Christmas Eve, about 11:30, I was piddling a little on the computer while Matthew was at the farm with his family. At first I thought my new Christmas jammies smelled really bad, and then my nose perked up enough to know that there was something else going on.

I walked out into the living room, hazy with smoke, and identified the smell as "electrical fire". So I called the farm and asked Matthew to come home.

He did, and we wandered around turning things off and touching outlets and trying to figure out what was going on. (We crossed the refrigerator off the list of possibilities early since it sounded like it was still running fine.) Not being able to find anything, we started to get more worried about the possibility of fire inside a wall.

So we called the farm and asked them to bring over the fire extinguisher from the combine and Matthew went out to the shop to get the ladder.

While he was gone, a whole crew of brothers and brothers-in-law and nephews armed with hoses came bustling in and went to work.

(I know MJL has a big family, but it still surprised me to see so much help come through the door. It's awfully nice to have so many big strong men and boys come to your aid).

We searched the attic, the basement, moved the piano, climbed up to check the lights, and still found nothing. (I saw "we", but mostly I just tried to keep my big belly out of the way. It's harder than you might think).

Finally we narrowed the smell to the kitchen, and sometime around 1:00 Matthew found the burned out wires on the back of the refrigerator. It was really really nice to find the problem, though losing the fridge and freezer the night before Christmas was not ideal. Anna slept through the whole thing.

We spent a happy Christmas ignoring the problem and throwing some stuff into a cooler.

We spent Sunday identifying the problem (compressor), pricing parts and repairs ($), and convincing cranky Betsy that the best option was to buy a new fridge, even though her parent's fridge has lasted 35+ years. hmph. Anna passed the time playing "Christmas Eve" in her new doll house - where all of the dolls run around saying "The fridge is on fire! The fridge is on fire!"

We spent Monday picking it out.

We spent Tuesday waiting for it.

And now it already seems like it belongs. And I like it. It's a little bigger, and I'm hoping the black handles and silver front won't show farm dirt as much as the white one did.

Merry Christmas! Would you like a cold glass of milk?