For Erin and Baby Ava

I got carried away :)

Thank you to the amazing talented Christina! She quilted the blanket for me with her super cute "blossom" quilting. It fit perfectly with the quilt and the thread matched so well I couldn't get a picture of it to share. There is one here, if you are interested.

Complete With a Pattern

I finished the project for Colin...

That's right...mom went all out...it even glows-in-the-dark :)

Main fabric is 100% linen and super soft. I love how it wrinkled after washing. It helps to notice the star quilting when they are not glowing.

Featuring:

Amy Butlers wonderful Full Moon Dots

Planets in blue from the Rocket Scientist line by In the Beginning fabrics

American Jane “Basic Building Blocks” numbers in red and blue

More pictures here.

After finishing the Brooke's quilt I knew I had to make one for Colin. I love this quilt and I am so glad it gets to stay here with me and not be gifted away :)

Alas it is to cute to keep to myself

You can find a copy in my Etsy shop or in the right side bar of my blog.

Sweet Tweet Giveaway

Update: The Giveaway is over, sorry to anyone who missed it :(

Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful comments about Brook's Quilt. It has since been renamed, thank you Sarah, to Sweet Tweets. And is now available in the shop as a PDF pattern. Many thanks to Christina (who has a new pattern in her shop too), Sarah, and my hubby for all of their help and inspiration.

To celebrate I thought I would do a giveaway for the pattern. Rules: simply leave a comment on this post before Sunday, October 25 at midnight. Winner will be announced on Monday.

Edit: Thank you to everyone you participated in the giveaway and for all of the lovely comments. The giveaway ended October 25, 2009. You can find the pattern for sale in my Etsy shop or there is a pay pal button in the right side column.

We made it

My husband as been in Germany for two weeks, working of course, and I am happy to report that Colin, Kona, and myself are all in one piece. Half way through the first week I did not think I was going to make it. Colin decided to change his most compassionate sleeping schedule to an unruly one. Waking up after bedtime after sleeping for as little as one hour, it was a different story every night, even though I put him to bed at the same time. I will be so happy and well rested when he sleeps more consistently through the night.

I did find lots of energy for some projects around the house, and thanks to my little brother Ben we got them done before Brett got home.
This is a frame we made to fit this Alexander Henry decorator weight fabric on. I got it out of the remnants section at Fabric Depot. You just can't pass up the savings and the fabric piece was 3/4 of a yard, I think. I also got a yard of the Alexander Henry decorator weight fabric Mocha (and a extra yard to use with Christina's diaper bag pattern when it's finished) and I made two panels and a third out of some Laurie Smith fabric I had in the stash.
The wall is long enough for a fourth panel and it looks a bit strange with just the three so I am going to make a fourth panel with the Laurie Smith stripe. I got the frames for these at Ikea, they were only $4.99 and it came with screws and nails. The nails were complete junk and it went much faster with a stapler. Overall I am very pleased with both projects but of course the one in Colin's room is my favorite, since we made the frame ourselves. Next time I will just make the frame myself so I can vary the size/shape to fit the fabric I have and add more pezazz.

Here is a peek at the rest of the fabrics I bought from Fabric depot, all at least 30% off, to add to my stash.

That's right there is a piece of Paisley print fabric ;)

New baby blogging site, Weebloggity.com

My brother in-law, Cory, is one the founders of this new family blogging site. It has tons of really cute blog templates and is super easy to use. So I just had to start one for our family, of course it will mainly be about baby Colin but I will try and put family info/updates their too. So stop by and check us out here.

Back blog #1

I have been working on a fabric pinwheel mobile for Colin's room, I can honestly say it doesn't take much time at all to make the pin wheels and the tutorial can be found here. She did a great job on the tutorial as always. Even if you don't check out the pinwheel tutorial you should definitely check out Chickpea Sewing Studio's web site. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the one I have completed but I am using the sock monkey fabric, the ones in primary colors. I will try and take a picture tomorrow and post it. I really need to get the office organized so that I can leave my crafting projects out all the time. I think they would get worked on a lot more if they were not put away.

A fun little tid bit that happened over the last month is that Colin found his thumb. It started out with him sucking it only at night time, he was so aggressive you could hear him in the middle of the night going to town on his thumb. After three weeks he now looks for it and his fingers all day. It's amazing how fast they grow up. I can't believe how much I love and adore him, it takes my breath away.

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 :)