A quick year in review - projects

I've seen a number of these types of posts floating around and I thought that I would go ahead and compile my own. I've been busy with school and with a lactation mentorship, so my sewing was scattered and not at all regular.

Pink, black and white apron. Became part of my sister's Christmas gift. :)


Black, red and white apron. I think this is my favorite apron from the whole year. And it sold. :)



Steeler apron #1 - My sister snagged this one from me for a gift. Hopefully the gift recipient likes it. She's a huge Steeler's fan, so she just might. ;)


Steeler's apron number 2. This one will be on it's way soon to the intended gift recipient. I'm just bad with the mail.


Another of my faves. It didn't sell, so I kept this one for myself. Because we all need a cute apron (or eight). ;)


Apron for the Christmas flirty apron swap.


One of two identical aprons. One went to my mom for Christmas, the other one is still here. I'll keep it on hand for a quick gift.


The couch recover. I've since washed the cushion covers and as predicted, they shrunk, so they fit much better. It's slightly concerning that I prepped the fabric and it still shrinks every single time in the wash because I don't know how long they'll last at this rate. After all, I've got young kids, making washing often necessary!



I did start and not finish a number of crochet projects. I need to get back into that - as I'd like to make the newest little one on the way a blanket. Plus, I'm teaching myself to knit. So far, I like it, but I can see me tossing it to the side because right now I'm just practicing - not really making anything. I could make so much more with crocheting and the time spent. I have a scarf for DD almost done but ran out of yarn, went to a different JoAnn's and they were out of that color, so I need to go back and get some of that yarn yet. Also, I made a cowl for my sister for Christmas. I didn't take a picture of it, but my sister snapped one of her husband in it. It's very warm and fluffy.


All in all, a light year in terms of craftiness. Maybe 2011 will be better. I'm almost hoping it won't - as I'm hoping to finally start nursing clinicals in the fall. But, maybe I'll have some time between now and then, you know, despite being about to welcome another newborn home. :)

Christmas sewing....

I had a whole post written about various Christmas sewing that I'm undertaking, but alas, a spool of cotton yarn fell off the back of my desk and knocked the plug out of my computer. I don't feel like writing the post completely over, so let's just say that I have lots of Christmas sewing to do - both to sell and for gifts.

And here's where I started - with a swap apron. I still have to buy the tuck ins, since I've been sick this weekend and haven't ventured out since Friday. I also don't recommend sewing while having a sinus headache, because you'll likely end up like me, with her seam ripper the next day. Ooops.

And, I also discovered that my coat rack works wonders for taking pics of aprons (not perfect, but the best I could do - and no, the houndstooth is not in the apron, that's my daughter's "fancy coat"), since when I put the apron on to take a self photo, I realized that my big baby belly just got in the way, lol.

Christmas decorating

We're hosting Christmas this year, including for my lovely sister, BIL and my mom. Because they'll be venturing from California and Montana, we're busy here prepping the house. General organizing has been happening since October. It's amazing how quickly I've filled up tubs and tubs of kids clothes (out of season, too small), bags of Goodwill donations and yet, we could probably still fill dozens more totes and bags! We have some time before they arrive, so we'll continue to purge stuff out of our house - it's good for when they come to visit, but it's also good nesting for me. Speaking of nesting, this baby is due in just about 8 weeks. Not sure how that happened!

Oh, back to Christmas decorating. Yesterday I brought up all the decorations and the tree from the basement. Very tiring for a pregnant woman! I then set the tree up, scratched my arms up arranging the lights and branches (yes, we use a fake tree) and then set about decorating. The pictures aren't the greatest, as they're taken by my itouch, but I didn't feel like bringing out the camera. I'm sure I will at some point. And, I didn't take a picture of all the decorations evidently, I was too tired.

Finally finished those couch cushions...

It took way longer than I anticipated. Not because they took a long time, but because it took me a long time to get motivated. In the end they came out okay, not the best, but certainly better than what they were. The cushions look a little big, compared to the cover itself - but, the cover has been washed about five times since I made it, and has shrunk a bit each time. I expect the same thing to happen to the cushions over time, so I purposely made them a bit big to start with. This couch takes a beating, with a two and a four year old being the primary beaters, so it is good that the fabric washes up so nicely. Now we just have to hope that it stops shrinking! The couch is so comfortable and even though it's our main couch, one day when we can afford to buy a new couch, this couch will be kept for a basement rec room couch - it's that comfortable, I just won't be able to part with it until it falls apart. Since it was built well, I'm hoping that day is a long, long way off.

Without further ado, here is the couch today vs what it started as:


For more before pictures, and to see just how bad it was, see this post. At some point, I'll probably add a pleat around the bottom like it had before, since as it shrinks, it rides up a bit, but for now, I'm going to leave it as it. ;)

The weather is cooling down....

And I'm thinking Halloween! I'm going to be more ambitious than normal and attempt to make Nora's entire costume this year. Last year she went as Little Red Riding Hood. I made the cape and her apron, but the rest was just things that I pulled from her closet. Still, I got lots of compliments on her apron, so I'm going to attempt to go all out this year. I want to be super mom this year. ;)

ahem, yes, it's been another month...

I've been busy. Completely my 500 hours for my lactation mentorship, studying for school, reading for the lactation exam and shuttling my kids around.

Nora started back to school and is doing well.
It's her second year of preschool and I was initially apprehensive about the fact that the school switched teachers, but so far, it seems great. Nora grew socially last year, but there wasn't really an academic focus for her, since it was geared towards things that she already knew. This year, she's starting to identify lowercase and uppercase letters. I can tell that things are clicking with her when we're reading books now! She can recognize letters and even a few words (mom, dad and her name for now). It's so exciting!

She misses our school districts cut off for Kindergarten next year by 9 days, as the cutoff is Aug 1. They'll test her, but from what I understand, pretty much no one passes their tests. One woman told me her daughter was short for her age and didn't get a point for height and ended up one point short. For reals. I am a public school product and really thought that we would go that route, but it's now looking that at least for Kindergarten, she'll be going to our Parish school. I'm not entirely upset about this for now. It's five days per week full days, whereas the local school district is split into two groups, the Monday/Wednesday class and the Tuesday/Thursday class. They go all day on their assigned days, plus every other Friday. Can you say scheduling nightmare? Especially since I should be in nursing clinicals by then?

Josh is still receiving early intervention through the Help Me Grow program, for his speech delay. Cognitively and Gross Motor skills are ahead of the pack, Fine Motor skills are the only other area that he is even close to borderline on, and I'm told that it's common for a speech delayed child to have some Fine Motor skills that are slower in emerging. And, let's face it, this boy is all about the Gross Motor skills at this point. He climbs, jumps, does stairs, etc. Josh has several words that he uses very regularly: mommy, daddy, 'kay, go, kitty and his new word that emerged this weekend was sissy! Yay, so happy to hear that one. :) He also signs, with his big ones being please and more. The EI Specialist and his EI Coordinator are impressed that despite his speech delay he is able to readily communicate his needs. They note that he shows his emotions well (his smile does light up a room if I do say so myself) and he's generally just good about pointing and letting people know his needs.

All is going well with this pregnancy. I think I'm 23 weeks along (yes, I said think....that's what happens when you have a few to chase down, you can't keep track as well). We're members of Team Green (and no, I'm not talking earth friendly here, rather the want to wait and find out group). :)

I skipped a whole month, oops

So, apparently, I haven't posted since June. Ooops. That's what taking microbiology in an 8 week summer session does to one, I guess. That class kicked my rear end. Thankfully, I passed (with a C, which I normally would have been upset over, but oh, heck no, it was just fine!). I got sick one week, then Nora, then Josh, then Nora got it again. Did I mention it was an 8 week class? Yeah, that's a lot of sickies in 8 weeks.

I haven't been doing much in the way of projects or craftiness. I plan to remedy that. :) My fall term looks pretty mellow - all online classes. I still haven't finished the couch, though it's a big part of this month's plans. I will finish in August. :P

I guess the only think that I've been working on this summer is baking. Baking a new baby. ;) I'm 15 weeks pregnant (heard the heartbeat today!) and due in January. I plan on a few projects in anticipation of the baby arriving. You know, things like moving rooms around to make room for a new little one. :)