Nice weather

The last two days have been unseasonably warm in the 716 with temperatures hitting in the 80s yesterday! We decided to take advantage of the nice weather, and the hubby's earlier than usual departure from work, for a walk in the neighborhood on Wednesday and our first outing of the season for soft serve ice cream on Thursday.

All bundled up and ready for our walk!

 Oh wait, somebody needs their hat fixed... And there we go! Much better!!

Daddy and Cora -- "I see you, Mommy!"

Cooing Mama

Our trip for ice cream really pooped somebody out!
(By the way, she's wearing her $1.00 "I heart Daddy" shirt we found at Goodwill brand new with tags, talk about score! :-))

Spit bubbles while sleeping!

 Ahh, but we needed to be woken up and changed. Does somebody look unhappy to you? ;-)

Hanging with the cousins

Coraline spent her Saturday afternoon and evening with the hubby's family, enjoying some quality cousin time. In anticipation of our big family outing, I made Coraline her first dress (after all, a little girl has to look spiffy!).

But first we spent our morning in our jammies, snuggling, kissing, and smiling! We've been smiling a lot more recently :-)

To make her jumper dress, I used this free pattern online, but it ended up being waaay too small for Cora (my little growing girl, sniffle!), so I added elastic and buttons to the back opening for extra width, and used two layers of lace at the hem to add some extra length. The Hello Kitty fabric was from Walmarts, and the top bodice was a matching vintage fabric scrap which had this light textured diamond pattern to it. I like how it came out, but I don't love it--I see some definite areas for improvement, but it was tough since I wanted to get this dress done in a few hours (so as Tim Gunn says, "I had to make it work!").

Super Hello Kitty Cora!

Coraline was pleased to see her Great Grandma Ruth was in attendance, and of course her cuddling promptly put her to sleep:

Great Grandma Ruth also got some cuddles in with Samson, Cora's cousin, who is two weeks older than Coraline:

Cousin Mikayla was there too, and she was very happy to see Baby Cora again. She was very gentle with her. She'll be a great big sister when Coraline's new cousin shows up in October.

And here's all the cousins together with their happy grandparents, although I think Coraline was a little tired from all the picture taking...

"Looking cute all the time can be very tiring, Mommy!"

Okay, okay, only one more then: our first little family picture :-)

1 month (a little late!)

Little Miss Coraline Mae turned 1 month old recently. She's my growing little girl! At her one month doctor's appointment, she weighed in at 9 pounds and 15 ounces, and she had gained over an inch in length. Her doctor was extremely pleased with her progress! 

I had hoped to take her picture every month until she turned 1, although she wasn't too willing of a participant for her first month photo shoot, so I guess we'll see... ;-)

Happy one month my little baby girl! :-)

Trip to the Finger Lakes

Today was expected to be the warmest day of the week, so the hubby, Coraline, and I decided to take a day trip to one of my favorite places: the New York Finger Lakes.

This was our first adventure with Coraline that exceeded a few hours. She was a sweetheart! (One customer turned to us in a church owned thrift shop and gestured to sleeping Cora, "She's the cutest thing in here!") We hit some of our favorite places, including The Second Hand Shop in Geneva, as well as a slew of other thrift shops, and ended our trip with sandwiches in the park by Canandaigua Lake.

Our thrift finds include a red jersey knit dress for Cora, a Sesame Street hoodie for Cora, a few children's books for Cora (are you seeing a theme here..?), but we did manage to make a quick stop at the Freihofer's Outlet for some chocolate chip cookies, yum! (Unbelievably, they don't sell them in the western part of the state!!!). Our biggest expense was gas, so it was a good day! :-)

All that thrifting on a warm day can make a guy thirsty for some ice coffee!

Cover girl!

Daddy & Coraline at the lake

Proud Mommy

 

My cutie :-)

Grassy spring wreath

The hubby mentioned the other day that Coraline had become the star of my blog, and admittedly, crafting has taken a back seat to Cora, who takes up about 99% of my time. Since showering, brushing my teeth, eating, and other regular activities need to be done too, sadly, crafting hasn't been much of a priority.

But once we get into a more regular schedule, one which involves me being able to use both hands at my leisure for longer than an hour, I hope to be able to create the things I dream about in my head, namely the perfect diaper bag and onsie dresses for Coraline. (Okay, okay, maybe she's on my brain 100% of the time! What can I say? I'm a proud Mommy! :-) I guess for the time being, you're just going to have to deal with posts that can be done in a half-hour, I'm sorry! Atleast I am getting better at this one handed typing thing! ;-))

Anyways, two days before Coraline arrived, I did decide to make a spring wreath for my mudroom which I never showed on here. I wish I could say that I came up with the idea of the grass, but I was inspired by this wreath I saw on Pinterest. Using another tip I found on Pinterest to make the wreath base out of foam pipe insulation at the hardware store, this thing clocked in under $10 overall--especially since we had unused insulation sitting in the basement, and the lime green "fun fur" yarn was on sale for $2 or 3 at JoAnn's.

The whole thing took a few hours total. The most time consuming part was wrapping the yarn around and around, which required a lot of wrapping (2 skeins total!). I used felt flower garland I bought in Target's $1 section, which I cut into individual flowers, and then secured them to the wreath with white sewing pins. Using some leftover scrapbook paper, I made a little flag declaration in cursive. I then tied some leftover bright blue ribbon to hang the whole thing up.

It definitely brightens the space! Now to get to cleaning the rest of the room...ha! ;-)

Springtime with Daddy

The weather has finally warmed up here in Western NY, and the snowdrops are blooming in our yard. This week Cora celebrated one month (pictures to follow soon), and the doctor declared her a healthy and growing little girl! Our favorite activities include drinking milky, snuggling with Mama and Papa, and sleeping:

Springtime is always a little bittersweet in our household because is also means that Daddy has to return to work soon. In our world, our seasons are dictated by my husband's family business, a farmer's market: spring is for flowers and gardening; summer is for fruits and vegetables; fall is for pumpkins, apples, gourds, and Indian corn; and December is for Christmas trees and wreaths.

Since soon Papa will be back to the daily grind, Coraline and Daddy have been trying to get some extra sleepy time in:

And since I am still on the road to recovery, but feeling somewhat spry since a change in medications, Daddy and I decided to enjoy yesterday's warm-ish weather with a trip to the library. Here we are all bundled up in our stroller. Knitted blanket courtesy of my husband's aunt :-)

And look at that proud Daddy behind the wheel!

Our trip to the library yielded a 10 cent pop-up book at the library bookstore. (Yes, as the proud pet Mommy to three kitties, we have A LOT of kitty stuff!)

A walk on the street revealed two consignment shops that we had never seen before, one for furniture and one for clothes. I purchased these vintage tea towels from the 50s or 60s for $1 a piece. Since we are such a milky piglet, I'm thinking of turning them into bibs for Coraline:

Baby clothes, especially when they are  gently used, are very cheap! These are my favorites, which were only a couple of dollars. The onesie on the left is peach in color and reads "just picked." I love the peter pan collar of the pink one on the right--perfect for spring!

Our last acquisition was this onesie which was a whopping ninty-five cents! And I knew a little girl it was just perfect for! :-)

Peter Rabbit

My sister-in-law's Mom made this adorable Peter Rabbit blanket for Cora, as well as gave her a stuffed Peter Rabbit and a storybook, and today we had a little bit of tummy time on the floor. Granted, we only made it an inch before Mommy bundled us back in our snuggle sack for pictures, but isn't it the cutest blanket? :-)

Super Cora!

"Mom, you take my picture too much!"

"OK, well, since I guess you're not going to stop, I'll pose then!"

Easter festivities

We spent this Easter at home, just the three of us, enjoying a dinner of spiral ham (our first time cooking a whole ham!), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, and yummy strawberry cake. Now we have food for a week (or more!). Yup, that's funfetti frosting, although boy do I need some practice frosting a cake!!

Of course, with little Miss Coraline being fussy from her first diaper rash, poor little thing, it did take all day to cook with the hubby and I taking shifts. As I'm figuring out, everything takes about twelve times longer than usual when you have a baby! :-P

Thankfully she found some time to catch a snoozle, so I took some pictures for Grandma. Look at those long legs poking out of our gown!

And Dad caught a picture of the two of us. Snuggles!! Hope your festivities were likewise nice! :-)