Completed projects and things to go...

This week we celebrate 38 weeks pregnant, yay! Although her St. Patrick's Day due date is a few weeks off still, they are thinking baby girl may make an early arrival.  In our last ultrasound, she measured a healthy seven pounds and four ounces with tiny wisps of hair on her head!

Of course, I hope to have a few more weeks only because once I accomplish one task in anticipation of her arrival, I find another that needs to be done. My brain has turned into one big "to do" list of uncompleted projects. My burgeoning size limits my capacity, and I find that I am often frustrated by my inability to complete basic tasks, nonetheless more complicated projects. (By the way, I hate when people say that pregnancy is easy. There is nothing easy about it. It's do-able, that's for certain, but it takes a lot out of a person to grow a human being from scratch!)

Thankfully, I've finished some tasks successfully, which I'll share below, so I have been busy, despite having more than a few things to go... Maybe I'll finish everything by St. Patrick's Day?? Let's just hope she's patient like her Daddy! ;-)

Yup, in case you were wondering, Mama is hanging in there! :-) 

 Wooden letters for her room covered with scrapbook paper:

 A large tote to bring pillows and such to the hospital:

This is the same cradle my mom used when my brothers and I were little. Unfortunately, you can't readily buy a mattress for this size, so I made my own with cotton and badding. (Sorry for the dark picture here; this is in the poorly lit corner of the bedroom)

I tufted the pad (made those cross stitch "x" shapes) by hand to be able to make the whole thing washable. It took for-ever-ugh! Now all I need is a sheet to put over the pad.

Of course, she needs a place to store all her hair accessories! ;-) The hubby helped with this project which required painting a picture frame pink, adding hooks on the bottom for headbands, and stapling in the ribbon straps to hold bows (which is currently bare, I know, but I'm sure we'll fill it up quick enough!). The angel hook is something the hubby and I found thrift shopping back in Albany. (And yes, he bought her the bunny ears at Target the other day)

I glued on the pink and white ribbon rickrack around the frame and added a matching pink grosgrain bow for hanging on the back of the door. The ribbons in the center are authentic vintage in shades of pink and blue which match the room well:

 I've also been doing a little hand embroidery for the days that I'm not feeling so well. I traced this free printable Pooh image from my iPad. I'm debating on where to put the bees. The pictures make the embroidery look dingy, but I assure you they are both embroidered on bright white fabric (And I'm sorry my picture taking skills are lacking lately!!)

I began this hand embroidery when I first found out I was expecting, only uncovering it in my sewing room the other day, so a quick press and it was done. My favorite part is the metallic silver lining of the clouds! :-) I think I may make these into padded canvases to hang in her room?  Any other suggestions?

5 Things: Crafty Deal Websites

 

We've been busy crafting over here, but a little lazy on taking pictures, so hopefully I'll post some soon! In the meantime, it had occurred to me that it's been some time since I've done a "5 Things" post, so today for my crafty friends, I will share 5 crafty deal websites that I visit regularly because, honestly, who doesn't love a bargain?! :-)

1.  http://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop/dailydeal

 This website is called Missouri Quilt Co. and they feature a new deal daily. My mom was the first to get me hooked on this website, and now I check it every day. Their specialty is pre-cuts, and they can offer quite a discount if you hit the website early. I've purchased charm packets and jelly rolls at some significant discounts and shipping is super fast. I highly recommend this site!

2. http://stitchsteals.com/

  This website also features a daily deal, specifically on yardage or sewing supplies. If you like designer fabric, you can find a real discount on lines like Riley Blake, Ty Pennington, or Michael Miller. They also occasionally offer quilting rulers, templates, and miscellaneous sewing supplies.

3. http://craftysteals.com/

   A sister website of stitchsteals.com, this site features craft items on a daily discount. This site is specifically geared towards non-sewing crafts. In the past, they have offered Clover flower forms, scrapbook paper packs from Anna Griffin, and Martha Stewart gift sets. My only complaint is that they occasionally will feature the same deal on both websites, boo! :-P

4. http://pickyourplum.com/

   This site requires you to sign up through e-mail to receive their daily deal, but they offer enough variety that I think it is worth it. They don't always feature craft supplies; they also offer personalized items, such as monogrammed cutting boards, and accessories, like watches and scarves. I've purchased a couple of times from them and I am surprised how quickly I receive the item coming from the West Coast.

5. http://www.craftsy.com/shop

   While this isn't technically a daily deal website since they change their promotions every week or two, Craftsy (which also offers online craft classes, by the way) offers some great deals on craft supplies, including fabric, notions, yarn, and craft kits. I have not purchased from this site personally, but they do seem to offer some good deals on fat quarter packs for quilters, etc.


*In case you were wondering, I have not been endorsed by the above websites. I share them in case you're like me and like to craft and save money! :-) Do you have another daily craft site you check? Comment down below if so!

A gift for Baby Samson

My sister-in-law delivered a bouncing baby boy named Samson on February 13th. Yay! This meant that I had to shift it into high gear to finish up the blanket that I had began sewing several months before. The hubby volunteered his services, which were much appreciated, because being nine months pregnant and crawling around on the floor to pin a blanket was a tad bit difficult.

The design for the whole present was inspired by the Michael Miller fabric I found on fabric.com. I thought the dachshund fabric was too cute! Of course, I wanted the blanket to be soft and cuddly for the new baby, so I included matching flannel from the Riley Blake line and a Minky back.

Goodness me, what a headache to sew!!! I encountered problem after problem, but I refused to give up. Have you ever watched the movie "Meet the Robinsons"? See the short 37 second clip above to see what I mean! ;-)

In the end, it worked out OK, I think! The black fleece binding on the blanket was crooked, despite sewing it by machine twice and fixing up spots by hand. The Minky fabric, while incredibly soft and snugly, was a nightmare to cut and sew (hellllo shedding stretchy fabric!). Then I had the brilliant idea to wash the blanket in baby detergent after I had sewed the whole darn thing, which caused even more problems, like splitting of a few seams! Ahh!!! So I had a little meltdown, but with the hubby's help, I was able to mend it with grosgrain ribbon sewed down to give a quilted appearance.

By the time it was all said and done, I was also able to fuse his initials on his lovey blanket, and even made a little matching gift bag with the rest of my scraps to wrap it all up. I happily gave it to the new parents yesterday and they said they loved it. Phew!!! Welcome to the world little one! :-)

Here's a shot of the blanket. I cut strips the width of the fabric, alternating the design, so it ended up being quite large. The dark brown grosgrain ribbon gave it a more pronounced striped effect: 

 His initials were cut by hand and fused on to one side of the lovey. (See previous post for other side)

 I made the gift bag large enough to hold the blanket, lovey, and a few goodies they might take home from the hospital. I had the light blue baby blue applique in my stash which matched perfectly! And check out the bag handles--yup, that's dachshund ribbon!

And here's a shot of it all together, ready to go! I used my Cricuit to cut the "S" initial for the front of his card:

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

It's been a busy few days around here with little time for blog posting. Valentine's Day, aka the hubby's birthday, was decidedly low key this year. He said he wanted to stay home, watch movies, and eat chicken wings for dinner--so that's what we did! (Like you have to twist a pregnant woman's arm to stay home!)

We did have a little time for food crafting and made some chocolate covered strawberries. We melted chocolate in my double broiler, as well as in the microwave, to mix up a few flavors. Our varieties included dark chocolate, milk chocolate with walnuts, and white and pink chocolate. Yum! The hubby was happy!  :-)

Snowstorm Nemo

A blizzard called Nemo has hit New England, and we are getting our fair share of snow in the 716 too. I am still not feeling well, so the hubby went out and took some pictures of our backyard to share today. Hope you are warm and well wherever you are! :-)

 

Flannel lovey blanket for baby

My sister-in-law is due one month before me, Valentine's Day 2013, which also happens to be my hubby's birthday. How cute would it be if they were both Valentine's babies?? Of course, I've been working on a blanket for the baby for a little while, but due to my strained back, I'm stuck at the end process of quilting and backing (it's just too hard to climb around the floor and pin it).

Today I spent a little time in my sewing room (a first in over a week!) and made the baby boy a little lovey blanket with my leftover blanket scraps. A lovey is a baby-sized blanket that Mommy is supposed to sleep with to imbue her scent and then give to baby to sleep with to calm him down.

Flannel side with ruffled edges:


Back side featuring dachshunds, which is the dog they own. Such cute little boy fabric! I only have itty bitty scraps left from the in progress larger blanket:

I'd like to embroider the plain side, but I will have to wait until they reveal his name. I'm especially proud of the ruffles, which I made using my ruffler attachment. They are so neat and tidy! Of course, I think I still need some practice--I broke two needles, whoops! Overall, though, I'm pleased with the end result! :-)

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

Football in our house means food. Every Sunday, I try to make a "hubby approved" football dish. During the regular season when the Buffalo Bills play, Buffalo chicken dip is very popular with the hubby.

Unfortunately, the Bills did not make it to the Superbowl (sigh!), but at least we ate well! :-) This year for the Superbowl, I went with the simple Sunday dishes of crockpot pulled pork, Mexican layered dip, and a new item: crab and cheese crescent bites.

Crockpot pulled pork is super easy--I highly suggest it! Cook pork (here I used pork chops) in stock or water in the crockpot, barely covering the meat. Set on low for several hours until the pork is fully cooked. Remove from heat and shred the meat in a separate bowl using two forks. Return to the drained crockpot on warm, adding your choice of sauce and seasonings. Yum!

For the Layered Mexican dip, we used refried beans, salsa, cream cheese, jalapenos, olives, and cheese, with a dollop of sour cream after cooking.

The crescent bites were new for me! They were similar to crab rangoons, which the hubby and I both love. We used imitation crab, cream cheese, mayonnaise, cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper in Pillsbury crescent rolls. I followed this recipe I found from Pinterest, minus the green onions, but changed to a pinched wonton shape. The hubby really liked them, but I think they needed a little more kick. Next time I'll try the green onion, or some chopped celery for crunch, and I still think it needs more seasoning, maybe some Buffalo hot sauce? ;-)

Nursery Sneak Peek

We are almost done with the nursery (woohoo!), and I thought I'd share a few pictures of our progress. There's still a few more things to go, so hopefully I'll be posting a full view of the room soon! :-)

4 narrow display bookshelves line one wall of the room. Many of these books I've had long before finding out about baby girl--which would explain my copy of "Kara, the Lonely Falcon" on the 2nd row ;-)

This is the same rocking chair my Mom used when I was an itty bitty baby, now repainted with white milk paint. We distressed the chair to look a little "shabby chic." You can also see a glimpse of the colorful rug beneath. I think I'd like to make some sort of padding for the chair in the future:

 

The hubby and I built this padded valance to display the parade fabric which we both love, love, love (personally I think it's the girl on the pink elephant!). I made the pink gingham pattern curtains out of vintage yardage from my stash: 

The hubby built these corner shelves to display her stuffed animals, adding the white scallop trim as decoration. He made matching shelves in the opposite corner. He's had the purple dragon named Figment on the top since he was a kid!

This dresser is also from my hubby's childhood, but we painted it with white milk paint to match the rocker. We also changed out the original brass handles. These "new" handles were originally in our bathroom and made of ceramic and chrome metal, but are now a bronze metal finish with a little tape and metal spray paint. 

I am still deciding on a lamp, and I am waiting for her mobile for the crib to arrive, so there's a few more things to add. I also have yet to work on her bedding and changing pad cover (I'm planning the yellow one above to be a back up), but I threw out my back earlier in the week, so unfortunately all sewing has come to a halt. Hopefully everything will be all together in the next week or two! :-)

2012: A Year in Review

2012 was an eventful year for me as a teacher. I had my usual workload: teaching my 5 classes, which include some 130 students every semester, academic advising 30 additional students in their majors, and running my school's 200-plus member honor society.

Now with only one year away from tenure, I kept myself busy in 2012. I started the year by giving a presentation about technology at a private four year college, then organized and conducted my school's honor society ceremony, played MC for our community writing journal, met the SUNY Chancellor while attending an award's ceremony, filmed a video for my college about technology in the college classroom, volunteered at our May graduation ceremony, taught a summer writing class, and by mid-summer had submitted proposals for presentations at four national organizations in big cities like Orlanda, Las Vegas, and Dallas. I was accepted for 3, two of which were in the fall. When the Vice President of the college sat to meet with me before the start of the fall semester, he said my accomplishments were impressive; I was proud!

However, little did I know that my greatest accomplishment had yet to come. In July 2012, I found out my husband and I were expecting our first child--the news was exciting and surprising! And completely changed everything. While I spent my days negotiating morning sickness, and all the other joys of growing this new life, I made some executive decisions professionally, like dropping out of all but the largest conference, and doing my best to reduce my workload for the fall. My life at home changed too. Instead of mixing cocktails, my husband served me juice. We talked about impending parenthood, a nursery, baby names, diapers, and childcare, all while attended many doctor's appointment. And in December, we celebrated 10 years of being together. By the time Christmas 2012 rolled around, I was seven and a half months pregnant:

  
Now 2013 is here. This is the first time in seven years where I have not taught the spring semester. Before ending the 2012 semester, I made one last executive decision before leaving: I would take the next year off in anticipation of baby girl's arrival for St. Patrick's Day 2013. So 2013 has been spent with my husband, who as a farmer is off every January-April, to enjoy the last few months before 2 becomes 3. This is the first time we've had time off together since I began working full-time five years ago.

So I'm sorry that I have not kept up my blog, but I hope to be sharing more soon. I suspect 2013 will be my best year yet! In the meantime, I'll share a few pictures from my Florida trip in October when I gave a presentation about technology in the college classroom. Since the conference was held at a Disney resort, we tried to enjoy some of the sights when we could and I was feeling up to it.

The lobby of our hotel:

Mrs. Potts! (Walk of fame at Disney's Hollywood Studios)

Outside the Muppet's 3D movie at Hollywood Studios. I'll always love you Miss Piggy! :-)

Waiting inside for the Muppet show:

Yes, sir! (An army man outside The Toy Story exhibit)

Live action Indiana Jones show:

A 50's-style dinner with movies. And can you believe it, but a former student took this picture?! Yes, apparently even when I go to Orlando, Florida, miles and miles away from the Queen City, there is always the possibility that I could run into a student!

And a  kiss! :-)

Homemade Laundry Soap

A lot of people make their own laundry soap because of cost. I made mine because I ran out of laundry soap and it turned out I had all the ingredients on hand.

A basic web search found some notable recipes worth sharing. The base for my own recipe comes from TipNut's 10 Homemade Laundry Soap recipes, but I added Oxyclean to the mix as this blogger suggested. To boost scent, this blogger uses Purex Scent Crystals, but I didn't have any. I do have essential oils, which this blogger suggested, but I'm not crazy about the idea of using my expensive oils for a scent that will mostly wash down the drain anyways. I went with powder because it is both the quickest and easiest to make. Once you have your ingredients, it took maybe five minutes to mix max. Liquid usually requires some cooking, a large pail or pot, and can get moldy over time. However, in the future, I may try this no-grate Liquid Dawn version.

So far, I like it! I do miss the scent, so I may look into the scent crystals, but the cleaning power is definitely comparable. I think if you had especially dirty laundry, you may want to add more baking soda or Oxygen cleaner which all the Mommy bloggers recommend (I mean, really, what's dirtier than diapers?). A lot people online said it is trial and error until you find something you like. I will keep you updated! :-)

Grate 2 cups worth of soap. I used Ivory soap here, but there's lots of different kinds you can use.

Use a food processor (or a hand blender that has a food processor attachment like mine, yippee!) to grind your soap shavings down. You want the particles pretty small to dissolve easily in water.

Optional: I decided to add a little bit of Octagon soap, which is an old school laundry booster. This is not necessary, and if I hadn't included it, the powder would have been completely white.

The Octagon soap was more moist than the Ivory soap and didn't grind down to a powder exactly.

Combine with 2 cups of Washing Soda. Forgot to take a picture of the box, but this is another laundry cleaner you can find in the cleaning aisle.

More optional: Next, I added a 1/2 cup of baking soda, and 1/2 cup of Oxygen cleaner. This was to boost cleaning power! I used the generic Dollar Store knock-off Oxyclean which hopefully I won't regret later ;-)

Lastly, add 2 cups of Borax cleaner. As you can see, Soap + Washing Soda + Borax are the base for my recipe here.

Mix again...and tada! Your own homemade laundry soap! :-) I've been using 1/4-1/2 cup per load. I dissolve the soap in the water basin first before adding clothes.