Finished Color Book

I finally finished the color book that I started last week. It was a lot of fun. It ended up being really thick because I threw in an extra set of colors, but I like it. You can see that I still need to title the book, but I just need to go find my fabric markers to do that.

Some pages aren't really crazy-quilt blocks but I wanted each page to look different and I had to work with the sizes and shapes of fabric scraps I had.

The white and black were tricky but I ended up finding a good variety of textures for each, including a piece of the old diaper bag I was trashing, part of some of my knee-highs, and even some cotton batting.

And there you go! If you want to make one of your own with the same tutorial I used, go here. Or here for a similar one.

Today was another well-visit for Katrina. Once again she is perfectly healthy and on-track for development. The doctor and I both hope her vocab picks up soon, but since her comprehension is excellent, we're not too worried. (Katrina actually stops doing things when I tell her to stop and then count 1-2-3! It is very nice, even if she starts crying afterwards because I'm mean). Her weight and height are right on the 50th percentile and her head is something like the 85th percentile.

I finished another Christmas present during naptime today and wish I could share. I'm running out of sewing projects to do, and trying to refrain from starting new ones (though I really want to make this diaper bag and a quilt for Katrina for which I've already bought some of the fabric). It's just getting too close to the baby coming and I don't want to have unfinished projects lying around forever. My sister has a need for some crocheted snowflakes so I am attempting to follow my first actual crochet pattern. The snowflake I made last night was a sad failure but I figured out a lot of things and the second one is looking much better. This will be good because I need to do something in the evenings, especially if I'm going to be watching tv. I can't just sit and watch tv. I always have to be doing something else too.

Poke in the nose!

Yesterday was a great Saturday--we spent the morning cleaning a couple of closets and freeing up space for both storage and baby things. Then we headed down to New Jersey for Adam's sister's birthday. Katrina was well-behaved and even napped there. Those sorts of Saturdays are a nice mixture of fun and accomplishing things.

We were at the park yesterday and Katrina was fairly shy around the other little kids. She would smile but stay close to my leg. That's pretty normal for her. But then after being at the park for several minutes she headed over to where some other kids were at. To my suprise she walked right up to a toddler younger than her and poked the little girl in the nose! Then she went over to her sister and tried to do the same! I've seen her do that to her little cousin, but never to a stranger. Adam and I laughed so hard. Today when I dropped her off at nursery I warned the sister that Katrina had developed that habit and to watch out in case she started poking kids in the nose and got their eyes instead.

Our speaker in Sacrament meeting ran over ten minutes past the end of the meeting, which normally would have made us miserable trying to entertain Katrina for even that much longer. However, we seemed to have hit the jackpot for entertainment. After we cycled through all of the normal toys, I pulled out a coloring book with those markers that only write on special paper. They are much more expensive than normal markers and coloring books, but we decided it was worth it if it worked. Well, it did! She was quite happy to scribble and play with the markers for over half of the meeting. She also liked to stand on the bench and whisper "hi" over and over again to the people behind us. I really do have quite a cute child.

Baby shower and our future chess champion

I just got back from my baby shower! I've been happily cutting off all the tags from the clothes and showing them off to Adam and snacking on the skittles that I found in the middle of the diaper cake. :] So here are a few pictures from the evening.
My visiting teacher threw me the shower. She spent all day cooking (and she cooks really well). I was amazed to have a full dinner instead of just hors d'ouevres.

Blankets with little turtles from my mom! I've been eyeing our supply of pink and purple blankets and trying to figure out how many of them aren't too girly to use for this little boy, so these are awesome.

My chubby little nephew. He liked the vaulted ceiling which allowed his little noises to echo. He's four months old and it's fun to see him looking around and starting to interact more with life.

The awesome diaper cake that my sister-in-law made. Isn't it amazing? I've seen diaper cakes before but I've never seen socks and washcloths turned into flowers! Plus, like I mentioned, there were bottles in the middle full of candy, which makes me extra happy! :]

Lots of adorable clothes. I love new baby clothes. I buy a lot of used clothes to save money and it's so fun to have the occasional brand new outfit, and tonight I got a bunch!

Love the winter suit. This baby is going to be so snug and warm.

I tried to find a clear pregnant shot of me where I'm looking toward the camera but I was always looking in other directions. Oh well. I also tried to find pictures where my face didn't look as wide. :] At least I know that will get better too!

I left Adam with Katrina tonight. She was pretty content when I left, even accompanied me to the door and waved good-bye. I occasionally have to give myself a huge pat on the back when I find awesome ways to distract her. Tonight I fished this chess set out of the closet right before I left and sure enough, she loved it.

Adam says she happily played with this until bathtime. Go me! I spend so much of the day with her crying at me because I won't let her do things (bubbles or tv or monopolizing the computer mouse) or crying because I put a stop to her fun (drawing with the crayons on the tv), or crying because I'm sitting at the computer or on the couch being boring. So it's nice to occasionally find something that really holds her interest.

This next picture isn't quite clear because she kept moving. Katrina likes to climb around on Adam anytime he's on the floor. Today she was playing a lot with the little electric massager we have. Adam convinced her to massage his back and she did pretty well! It was rather cute. She also liked it when I massaged her back.

See how clean that floor is? That's because Adam has taken it upon himself when he gets home to clean the hurricane debris of toys, blocks, and books. He also has taken over bath duty. He's great!

Our fun morning

We haven't gone to the park in awhile because Katrina always wants me to pick her up and put her on the slides, and that is physically really difficult. Today she was distracted by all of the leaves and she is better at climbing up the stairs now, so I don't have to lift her up as much. She definitely had fun! She brought home some big ball/pod/seed things and carried them around all day, including at lunch and dinner.

In other news, we are basically done with Christmas presents! How awesome is that? I still have a cousin gift but that list hasn't been sent around yet. I also still need to finish some homemade gifts but those are all planned out completely. We found a great idea today for our difficult giftees (cough, the guys, cough), and now Christmas stress is basically over. We just need to figure out what to get Katrina and each other. I feel like my mom--she gets gifts done early every year so she can enjoy the holidays without as much stress. My real motivation this year is to get things done before the baby comes, but it's the same idea--I want to enjoy the new baby and the Christmas season and all of the fun stuff involved with the holidays without stressing over everything that still needs to be done.

Today's pictures

I'll warn you in advance, I took lots of pictures today. First I got out the camera to photograph our dining room wall, and then I just kept taking pictures. Also, last Father's Day I got Adam a swiveling picture frame for his desk at work. He's requested updated pictures a few times since and so I decided that I needed newer pictures of Katrina. Those are hard, because she's always running everywhere.

First off, I finally hung up the wall hangings that I made for the dining room. This took forever because I needed a hammer and our hammers were stuck in the car while it was in the shop.
I like how it looks, though I'm a little embarassed at how crazy the tops of those cupboards look.

I tried to get a picture without them but the Cheerios are just so prominent! :] I hung the quilts on some pieces of bamboo that someone had thrown on the grass in front of our patio.

Next I took pictures of the squares I created yesterday and last night during commercials of So You Think You Can Dance (and honestly, I skipped all the commentary and judging too. I just like watching the dancing!).

Some squares I like better than others. Some were much easier to create because I had more fabric of that color. I like the squares where I got to use fur.

I still have to make pink, brown, black, and white. The real hang-up is the black. I only have one piece of black felt and some black fur. The white square will be a bit boring too because I just have different pure-white fabrics, nothing with cool texture except a little white fur and white felt. I will have to figure out what to do about those squares, preferably without spending more money on a non-essential project. We'll see what I can scrounge up, maybe among some of the Goodwill-bound clothes.

Here's the start of the Katrina pictures. Hair all over the place!

She likes to live on the edge. The other day she was doing this with her lion push toy as well. At least this is a bit more sturdy.

I took about fifteen pictures before I got a good expression and a clear picture!

First attempt at putting her hair up--she pulled it halfway out in minutes.

She sure loves to read.

Okay, so she spent some time unclothed because she had some awful bleeding diaper rash. I'm not sure why it was so bad but all signs point to the green crayon she ingested during naptime yesterday. I like this picture because it gives you an idea of how high her hair sticks up when it's in a ponytail. She really wasn't that grumpy. In fact, she spent her twenty minutes or so of naked time eating crackers and doing laps. The pony tail and purple socks made it rather laughable.

Finally dressed for the day and looking cute.

She comes closer, eyeing the dangling lenscap...

And whoops! Goodbye....

Ha, I managed to get more pictures after all.

Ooo, another almost-smile.

And Katrina demonstrates her proficiency with a mouse. She recently figured out how to use the scroll knob with her finger. She also liked to slide her hands all over the keyboard but luckily doesn't press down, so she doesn't mess things up too much.

Pulling out her trusty lion. I think she was saying "Whoa!" or "Ooo-weee!"

So that was our morning! And it sounds to me like Katrina is asleep now and so I'll have to go move her off the floor. She falls asleep in her bed almost every night now but has yet to accomplish that during naptime. Maybe today will be the lucky day.

Yes, I just checked and she's on her bed!!!!!

Christmas sewing

I've been having great fun during Katrina's naptimes the past two days. I am working on some Christmas presents and I am going crazy because I can't show them to anyone or on here or on Facebook... I'll definitely take pictures but by the time Christmas comes, who knows if I'll remember to post them. I think they are turning out very nicely. But today I ran out of some necessary supplies, so I have temporarily switched my attention to a different project, one that has no reason, it just looks fun. I am making this little book of colors. I suppose it will be for Katrina, but I don't know how much she'll be interested in it. Mostly I'm just making it for our book collection, and because it looks cute. Since I don't have nearly enough fabric scraps in the different colors, I went onto eBay, my favorite place for buying fabric these days, and got an assortment of colored squares. I made my first crazy quilt square today for the red page and it looks cute. I don't know if I'll work on it more tonight or not, since there's actual tv to watch instead of baseball (yay Phillies for winning last night, but I'm getting really tired of baseball!), and I like to be in the same room as Adam in the evening. Sometimes he irons shirts and I sew, which is fun and domestic. :]

Not only did I sew a lot today but I did five loads of laundry and made dinner. And I made dinner last night too! Twice in a row is amazing for me. Two of the loads were baby boy clothes and I organized them all in the drawers. We'll see how long that lasts before Katrina reorganizes them.

On a separate note, can I just hire a nanny for the mornings? Katrina was awful today, and not much better yesterday. Yesterday she got bored easily, but today she didn't even want to play with anything, she just wanted to cry at me and watch tv and then cry when I wouldn't let her, and then cry when I turned it on because I put in the movie Ratatouille and anytime it got loud or frantic she got scared. Yesterday was really difficult in the napping department, so today I really did intend on putting her down later to avoid the same troubles. But when I asked her if she was ready for a nap she climbed on her bed, waved goodbye, and then did that again after I changed her diaper. Then when I left the door open to go get a sippy cup she ran behind me and closed it. Okay. Fine by me. She took an hour to fall asleep while she played happily and then she napped for three hours. Also fine by me. But then she turned into a stinker again about the time Adam came home and the rest of the day was miserable too. So can I hire a nanny in the evening too? I'll cover the afternoon shift.

Um, calling all first violins...

Our stake is performing the Messiah again this year on December 13th. Since I'm due the 5th, it doesn't really seem feasible for me to participate. But I've really been wanting to play violin lately and I just couldn't handle staying at home tonight for the first rehearsal. Adam had a youth fireside at the same time as the rehearsal, and babysitting was provided, so we both headed to the church. It was a good thing I went! I was the only first violin. There were three second violinists, and later a fourth came. We had two cellists as well. There's also several woodwinds and brass, but we didn't practice with them until later in the evening. It was pretty daunting. But somehow, even though I haven't played this music for a year and haven't picked up my violin since July, I was barely rusty at all. I really enjoyed the evening and plan to keep going. If the baby comes early, then I will be more likely to be able to perform with them. If not, well, at least I get to enjoy pulling out my violin for the rehearsals! Luckily, there are two other first violinists for sure who weren't there, and the first chair second violinist can definitely play the first violin part if certain other violinists show up next week like we have heard they will.

I'm going to go enjoy President Uchtdorf's CES fireside with Adam. I actually think he's almost done, but it's nice to be able to get KBYU on our cable. And if after the fireside we switch the channel to quickly check the score of the Phillies/Yankees game, I don't think anyone would fault us! :]

Outlook hazy. Ask again later.

Happy Halloween! We had a nice, warm, muggy Halloween here. We also had detergent left outside our door and later on some Dove soap too. Our neighbors had the same gifts in front their doors. Random, but we sure appreciate detergent!

I have been pretty clueless about Halloween costumes, so today I hit up the internet and found some great ideas for pregnant costumes. Do you like what I picked?
I was a Magic 8 Ball! I made a little pouch with two circles of white fabric and if people asked me a yes or no question, I pulled out a little triangle with the answer. Fun, huh?

We used our morning to organize Katrina's clothes. Next weekend will be the storage closet. We went to the ward Halloween party, then skipped out on the trunk or treat because Katrina refused to nap today and by that point she was running around at full speed laughing hysterically. We headed to New Jersey (she napped fitfully on the way) and joined them for a Halloween dinner. It was fun, though there wasn't a single trick or treater all night! Crazy.

Yes, I'm probably nesting

I know I've been going on a craft craze lately. Thank you for bearing with me. I just have this need to constantly be working on several projects. Some are Chrismas gifts, some are just random things I want to do. I try to spend as little money as possible and use as much as I can from my current sewing and craft supplies. Often, I enjoy the planning more than the actual making and the result, so knowing that about myself, I really try to make sure that it really is worth it before I embark on a project.

So here was yesterday's project. There is a sister in the ward whose baby shower I missed. I don't really know her at all but Adam is their new hometeacher, so I feel a desire to do something for her. I got the idea for these online and thought that if they turned out cute, I could give them to her. Supplies were $2 for some bells and some more felt. Here they are. I like them (mostly).

Two of them have bells inside to make them rattles. Two are stuffed with plastic bags in an attempt to make them crinkly.

The red one has two sides. Newborns are supposed to like red and black and white, which is why I made that one. Katrina has some books with shiny paper that occasionally she rips off, so I salvaged some of that. I think these rattles are cute definitely, but I'm not sure how useable they are. I didn't quite make the handles long enough. Also, I planned on making them so they could be chained together, but I forgot and only made one handle thing for each one.

Anyway, the trouble these days is Katrina and her sleeping. She woke up yesterday and today at 6:45 (an hour and a half earlier than normal), and ran into our room. Yesterday we put her back, today we let her just lay on the bed with us and she cuddled with us. She fell asleep in the car on the way back from the doctor's for five minutes and then refused to nap the rest of the afternoon. Then she fell asleep on the way back from picking Adam up at work, and was so incredibly sleepy that we put her to sleep for about forty minutes. We just got her up (at 5:30!) and she is so tired and cranky. I'm hoping she doesn't continue this schedule after Daylight Savings Time ends, because then she'll be waking up at six! Bleh. I know tons of other parents have to deal with early risers, but Katrina typically sleeps until 8 or after, so this stinks for us.

Phillies, Pumpkins, and Pouch Slings

Ha, I'm having way too much fun with alliteration.

I arrived home tonight to Adam watching the Phillies game while Katrina was still awake in her room (she actually fell asleep and then woke back up). Apparently she is a Yankees fan, since whenever they cheered on the tv she cheered and said "Yay!" in her room.

So tonight I went to a meeting with my doctor and a bunch of other pregnant women due in December. It was primarily for first-time moms, but intended to help all of their patients. I was pleasantly surprised. I get a calm sense about this birth. I liked my last birth, but you never know what to expect with a new hospital and a new practice of doctors (with six doctors!). This particular doctor was rushed and very business-like in my one appointment with him but I felt much better after this meeting. They also seem more open to different birth plans that my last doctor.

Then I went to the craft store for supplies for several Christmas presents. I got some awesome deals! That put me in a great mood. I came home to find a clean house and a cleaned-out pumpkin, ready for me to carve. Have you ever used those pumpkin carving kits? Those tools are so much easier to use than a kitchen knife and a spoon. We had already picked a design and I went to work. Adam prefers scooping and I prefer carving, so we're a good team.

I like how it turned out.

Here is my baby sling that I finished last night. I used this tutorial. She has a bunch of other tutorials for other slings if you're interested.

It's reversible. I'm particularly proud of that decorative topstitch. It took me forever.

Trying it on with a "baby." I think it will be a lot easier when I'm not pregnant.!

And as I write this, the Phillies won the first game of the World Series! Awesome.