Screen Printing

I just finished up these shirts for my niece and nephew who live up in Chicago. I need to heat set them tomorrow and take them to the post office. I hope they like them. I used the same screen printing method I used for Adam's father's day shirt. Making it just involves an embroidery hoop, sheer fabric, mod podge, paint brushes, paint, and whatever you want to put it on. 

a narwhal print for my niece who adores animals 

a dr who print for the nephew

(next time he will get the more complicated shirt)

Updates:

-18 lbs to go!

-We found Emma a bed! We are picking it up tomorrow!

Toddler Bumper/You are Special

I have been working on a few things recently. First up is a toddler bumper for a good friend of mine whose daughter is transitioning from crib to toddler bed. I came up with the idea to make one for my own daughter last year when she moved to a toddler bed. We realized after the first night that those tiny built-in bed rails don't keep a child from rolling out.

Most people who stumble upon my blog come thru google searches. I want to apologize for my lack of instructions/tutorials. This is pretty simple though: Use an existing crib bumper. Cut to size. Remove some ties. Fold in and iron down fabric on the cut in. Pin in piping and ties and sew closed. Add ties to the existing end because they are just singles. Sew a tie at the bed rail location to add stability. Tie onto your bed and enjoy!

Here is my friend's new toddler bumper (on my daughter's bed for fitting)

Next up is just a little thing I made for my mom to take to Africa (my parents are there right now). One of the things she does while she is there is teach at a women's conference. We had these printed out so that each woman would have two. One for herself and one to share with another woman in her village.

I hope they like it (looks brighter here than printed)

Updates:

-19 lbs to go!

-Stupid spigot is fixed after 3 years of living here

-Front yard is clean, mulched, and adam pulled up our rotten pampas grass. 

-We have Emma in a twin bed. The mattress and box are just on the floor currently, 

-Made a dentist appointment. 

-We went to church and Emma actually loved it!

turning 30

I am turning 30!

I said it and now it is out there. You have no idea how hard that is to say. My birthday isn't until March, but I can't stop thinking about. I've been thinking about all the things I want to do before I'm 30 and decided that I will put my list here. While I was creating my list I googled around checking out other people's 'things to do before thirty' list. There was a lot of go bungee jumping, skydiving, swimming with sharks type stuff out there. I have zero desire to do any of that. My list might seem boring to some, but it is all things that are personal to me.

Things I MUST do Before I am 30!

Physical:
Be and stay at goal weight (post baby-40 down 20 lbs to go!)
Get fit (like actually have muscles fit)
Run a race (I think the Color Fun Run in Austin would be a blast)
Get eyes fixed (I have always had poor (legally blind) eyesight, but pregnancy has made it worse)
Get teeth fixed (Absolutely terrified to go to the dentist, but it must be done)

Just Cause:
Buy a vintage(or vintage inspired) dress
Sew my picnic quilt
Go on a picnic (and eat on my quilt)
Paint something for myself (no idea)
Make adam and my photo albums (we have ten years of pictures with no home)

How I Live:
Simplify! (EVERYTHING!)
Start a fruit and veggie garden (I am thinking a container garden on patio)
Start recycling (so terrible... I don't even know where the recycling center is)

Spiritual:
Go to church consistently
Get involved with something that moves me (I have no idea yet)


So now it is out there and I can't avoid it. I better go get started.

I am back

I am back to the blogging world. Why am I back? Mainly because I have a lot of spare sitting time in the evenings now and I don't like being unproductive. Right now I am rocking Lilian to sleep. Well she is asleep I just don't want to put her down. Also Adam, my husband, is studying for his third of four CPA exams. So, in the evenings, I try to stay out of the way so he can focus. We are hoping if all goes well he should be done by December. When he is done we are going to have one crazy party.

Before Lilian was born I had a list (spread sheet in excel) of all 50  things I wanted/needed to do around the house before she arrived. Of course I didn't get them all done, Remaining on my list are the following:

-Put door pulls on bathroom and laundry cabinetry
-Touch up finish on laundry room cabinetry
-Spruce up master bathroom
-Fix spigot on back of house
-Finish decorating master bedroom
-Find/make something to go in the dining room
-Do something in the back left flower bed
-Sew Emma a Twin quilt
-Fix dining room lights 

The list of things I want to do grows daily so I really need to start checking things off my list. I must finish my list so I can have time to make this dollhouse for the girls' Christmas present.

Sorry for the boring post. I just needed to write this down to get my rear in gear. This is kinda fun though... the father's day things we made!

I did a quick home-made screen print on these shirts for daddy and the girls

I also made him this cute hand picture thing

 (sorry the pic wont stay rotated correctly)

and emma made this for daddy

introducing lilian

The most exciting thing that I have made this past year is a BABY! Welcome to the world Lilian!

 Pregnancy: UGH! That pretty much sums it up. I was nauseous before the pregnancy test would give me a positive . I spent most of the pregnancy very ill. Thanks to my friend Zofran I stopped barfing 6 to 7 times a day. I had terrible sciatic nerve pain the last several weeks of the pregnancy which made doing anything painful. Then the weeks of false labor started. I was very ready for Lilian to come.

Labor/Delivery: after 40 weeks came and went my dr. had scheduled an induction. I called and cancelled the induction because I just felt like she needed more time. I was sent for a non stress test to make sure baby was okay. Since she was fine, my dr moved the induction date to 41wks 6days. 2 days before the induction I was having contractions that got down to 4 minutes apart and went in to the hospital were they told me she was very far back and I was hardly dilated.

The the next evening we went again because they started getting stronger and closer together. We got admitted this time! We got our room and I began walking the halls for the next 7 hours. During this time no one checked on us... I had to hook myself up to the monitors for 20 min. of every hour for these 7 hours(I am still a little bitter about this if you can't tell). I kept telling adam the whole time something wasn't right. I mean I have had a baby before so I do have some point of reference.

They came in later and nothing, no change, so they broke my water, which I thought would do it for sure. I tried to get up after that and get on the birthing ball but I literally couldn't walk, I had no function of my right leg. My leg hurt worse than any of the contractions. Adam helped me around a bit and I got my nurse. She said that I am not required to walk and that I can just sit/lay down. I kept tell Adam that something didn't seem right, but I got him to help me on the ball where I sat for hours.

Then the nurse came back and checked me and still no change, so they said they wanted to try pitocin. I seriously was crying because this was not going how I wanted. Within 30 minutes the contractions were ridiculous. After awhile they came and checked me again and I had little progress, the nurse told her best guess was six hours and we will have a baby. At this point I caved and got the epidural. I paged the nurse to tell her the epidural was taking and I was still in some pain. She went ahead and checked me and told me to push and then said stop stop let me get a dr. The nurse was running around to find a dr. any dr. I told Adam to page the nurses station to tell them that I am not pushing but this baby is coming now. They prepped fast and 5 contractions later out comes Lilian with her hand on top of her head.

As soon as Lilian was born I got to hold her on my chest and I was able to nurse her. It was the most amazing experience. After Lilian was born the doctor said OH she had a velamentous cord insertion. Which is the cord connecting to the outside of the placeta instead of the inside. It causes higher hcg levels which is what probably made me so sick during the pregnancy. It also can cause the baby to be undernourished, which might be why she was smaller than anticipated. She weighed in at 8lbs2oz. After much discussing all that transpired during my labor with my actual doctor, it was decided that she was most likely right occupant transverse, which is why I had the looooong drawn out labor and the terrible leg pain. Whew! I really meant for that to be short story I promise.

 the first moment I got to lay eyes on my sweet baby girl.

Postpartum: she was born at 11:58 am on April the 3rd and we went home 24 hours later. We asked to leave sooner, but they said no. She was a great nurser from the beginning, which I attribute to having experience with Emma.

Now: She is now three months old and doing fabulous. She seems to be a happy baby... if you give her what she wants the moment before she wants it. So far she hasn't had a bottle and thankfully there is no where I 'have' to be so it has worked out fine (I loathe pumping, bad experience with my first). I have no idea how long she sleeps at night because she sleeps next to me and I don't look at a clock. If someone told me before I had kids that I would have a bedrail on my bed I would've laughed at them, but now I wouldn't have it any other way. Love you sweet Lilian.

emma's belated bday

Happy second birthday Emma! Only 9 months behind in posting the pics. Oops! Emma was obsessed with all things pirates and ocean so we knew that had to be her birthday theme. Below are some of the pics I took of her party decorations. Now it is time to start planning her third birthday.

 

felt sea creature center pieces

  more felt sea creature center pieces

 and even more felt sea creature center pieces

 emma's gift table (the table cloth was a painter's drop cloth)

we still have the ahoy sign hanging up in the playroom.

 we put treasure for the kids to find in the sandbox. emma loved it.

Our little pirate. I made her shirt using photoshop and some easy iron on paper.

Baby Shower

Something else I have done since I've posted last is that I threw a baby shower for my good friends Matt, Allison, and their soon to be baby Evan (who is now here). I think the shower turned out great and that the parents to be enjoyed themselves. To the right is a picture of the paper garland and modpodge/scrapbook paper name.

I made the picture in the picture frame and the tags on the prizes. 

My favorite part of the picture is that I put Matt and Allison's initials 

carved into the tree.

 A close up of the adorable little cookie owls I made as thank you gifts.

 The owl diaper cake and sign in frame.

More paper garland, flowers, and owl cookies.

project updates

Okay people I have been gone for a over a year. So I am going to post quick pictures of things I have done. I will start with a few projects that I found pictures of.

apron for emma (front)

 

apron (back) emma couldn't wait to get her hands on it

 

flower headband i made for baby lilian

 

basket of beautified burp rags

 

bird feeders set up 

 

diaper pouches (emma said she wanted the blue one)