Finished

I finally finished Taylor's first birthday present. I got the pattern from The Stuff I Live For blog, it's great you should check it out. This is my first time posting about a project that I have made from a fellow bloggers website, I hope I am doing this right and giving credit where credit is due. If not someone please let me know so I can correct the issue.

The tutorial was super easy to follow and has great pictures, which always helps me.

Oops...It's a halter dress is sized for 18 months, which is a bit big for Taylor as she turns one tomorrow. But she is really tall for her age and I hope it fits. The best thing about it is that it can be used as a skirt when she is bigger and then as a halter top. The Stuff I Live for is a genius. I got this adorable fabric at Joann's it was even on sale, I love that when it happens. I had enough fabric left over to make a matching headband using Heather Bailey's pattern. Everything was super easy to make I just really hopes it fits, as I have no idea on sizes. My only child is just now 3 months old today, and dad didn't really want me trying the head band on him. But I did while dad had his eyes closed, hehehe. And it was plenty big. I followed the baby size pattern and used 4" of elastic.
Here's a close up of the button I used, I think it is really cute and worked well with the fabric.
Sorry it's not the best picture, but it has two sun like shapes in each corner that are orange with a yellow center.

Just for fun her is a picture of Taylor and Colin playing on the floor.

A weekend of accomplishments

I have had an eventful/ productive week. My husband (Brett) and I had our first date night since Colin's arrival. I did not think I was ready to leave him, but my mom insisted. Lucky us. We went to one of the nicer theaters, Cinetopia, in town and watched the new Indian Jones movie.

A quick review of the movie, I give it 2 1/2 stars, for being predictable and having a bit of a silly (did not seem like an Indiana Jones movie) plot. It was enjoyable but not worth the money we spent ( I will say we are cheap when it comes to going to the movie theater, if it's not any better in their theater then our home, why go?)

We still had a great time and enjoyed movie popcorn and soda. Afterwords we did a couple errands, I know really romantic, but they were in the area so we couldn't resist. And we ended the night with a soft serve ice cream cone from Burgerville (Yummy). All and all it was nice to go out just the two of us, it felt strange to be without Colin, which was surprising since we had been doing things as a couple for six years.

Friday: was crazy busy and a mental breakdown, not going to say anymore about it because I have moved past it :o) But it was Colin's first night sleeping in his own room in his crib. I don't think he even noticed or if he did it didn't bother him one bit. I on the other hand and so serious emotions to deal with. I just can't believe how fast he is growing ( he turned 12 weeks on Saturday). He has completely grown out of his newborn clothes and most of his 0-3 month. I definitely feel like time is flying by. So I am going to take (and did) the comments from the previous post to heart and put them into action. I have several new things to try so I can get some me time in and most importantly I am going to enjoy every moment my son wants me to hold him. Even if it means the floors don't get vacuumed ect.

Saturday: I had made it through the night without bringing Colin back into our room until his 5am feeding, then he slept in our bed until 9. It was wonderful. We ran errands and I got something new for myself that I have been wanting ever since I read about it in Chickpea Sewing Studio's Blog, a Moby wrap. She of course made her own and I of course chickend out and bought one. I got the natural colored one hoping not to get to hot wearing it this summer. Unfortunatly I didn't get to try it out on Colin until Sunday because my husband and Colin went to his parents house to help in the garage. This was another first for me, me being home alone with out the baby, just me and the dog. I decided to stay home so I could get some of the much needed chores done. As soon as they pulled out of the driveway it was like my heart was attached to the bumper of the car and being draged down the street. I immediatly wanted to call Brett and have him bring Colin back home but I didn't. Instead I cleaned house, but only enough to where I could say to myself "this looks good" and then i started sewing a present for Brett's cousin.
I made it 4 hours before I called my husband and asked him to please come home because I missed the baby so much, I didn't even finsh making the gift.

Sunday: I made it another night with Colin sleeping in his room. He woke up at his usual time, 5 am, but for some reason I thought he still looks really sleepy so I just changed his diaper and went back into my bed and waited to see if he was hungry. He wasn't or if he was it wasn't enough to keep him awake, he went back to sleep until 6:30 or 7 (not really sure because Brett got up and fed him). We got ready and made it to our good friends twins 1st Birthday party on time and we got to use the Moby wrap for 4 hours. It was great and Colin loved it.
Please excuse the hair it was really windy out. The wrap is really easy to use the only down side is that I feel a bit silly wearing it when he is not in it. But it is much easier to put it on at home without worrying about getting it dirty. I am sure I will get over this feeling and assume that everyone in Costco is staring at me ;)

It was a wonderful week with lots of new memories and I can't wait to see what this next one brings.

Wishing everyone a great week,
E

Just Breath

There are numerous times a day I just have to tell myself to "just breath." Either it's the untouched stack of beautiful fabric looking at me, the dog constantly under foot begging me to throw her ball, the baby wanting to be held while he sleeps, or the ever growing stack of dishes in the kitchen all begging for attention at the same time. I can't possible start them all at once and they won't all get seen today, I just take a deep breath and do as much as I can. Which usually means that the beautiful fabric continues to lay there untouched and lonely.

My question to all you crafty people, how do you find the time? Do you just have to let some of the household chores go for one more day so you can craft?

I honestly have at least 5 projects waiting for me. I have all the supplies but none of the time.

Well I did not intend for this posting to be so negative, I apoligize, but for now this is where I will have to end it has I am being paged by my dearest (the baby, sorry hubby) ;0)

Ya ssou

Colin is now almost 11 weeks old and it seems like everyday we cry a little more. This is mainly due to the fact that he was born 7 weeks early and he never cried until he reached his gestational age of 38 weeks. Apparently he had spoiled for those 5 weeks because now I am at a loss on how to make him happy. I know babies are supposed to cry and that it is part of their development but it just seems unnatural.
I try holding him, singing to him, walking with him, burping him (he is a huge spit upper, due to being a preemie), sitting in the bouncy chair (him not me), looking out the window, changing his diaper, and just trying to entertain him. But nothing really seems to work. He just falls asleep when he is ready to.
For example today after hours of unhappiness and dismay he fell asleep on his play mat, made by Christina, this is actually the first time we have used it. I have been afraid to use it due to the fact he spits up at random times and I just adore it and I would be devastated if it got ruined. He has now been asleep for an hour on his play mat, I turned up the heat and covered him with a blanket, I think he loves his play mat Christina.

My question is "is this behavior normal for a baby, a preemie, an 11 week old?" And if anyone has any helpful tips please leave me a comment.

On to something more tasteful, last nights dinner. I was hoping to blog about it last night but I just got to tired. So here we go...

Greek salad with herbed pita
This is one of my favorite recipes, it's from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Salad
It has a suggested variation for picnicking, just add chopped cooked chicken and insert salad and chicken into the pita and enjoy a fabulous sandwich. I add the chicken even if I am not going to be using it as sandwich filling, it's delicious either way. It's even great as leftovers, which I am not a big fan of, but I love to eat this the next day for lunch. Yum, just writing about it makes me want to go back in the kitchen for seconds.

Wow, this is a long entry for me, here I was afraid I wouldn't know what to blog about. So before I bore you too much I will say "Ya ssou (Greek for hello/goodbye to a friend)."

No time to be camera shy

We spent a fun filled day at our wonderful friends house followed by a delightful dinner consisting of BBQ Chicken and chili. We went to our friends house so we could have Sarah take some great pictures of our 10 week old baby, Colin, some featuring me in them as a Father's Day present for my husband. I am one of those people who hate having my picture taken, which inevitably leads to worse looking pictures. But alas I have given in after realizing I have very few pictures containing my face and my son, and even less with my husband in them too. I haven't got to see all the pictures yet but the ones that I have seen are amazing. I am anxiously awaiting to see the entire lot of them. I am so grateful for Sarah taking these professional pictures and not charging us a penny. She is a great friend and I will have to repay her with something really cool and crafty :)