Happy Birthday! Cap at 10 months

Garden 2014: Fencing 101

I know, I know, absentee bloggers aren't really the right way to work a blog but I was so stressed with having to accomplish a post all of the time that I had to cut somewhere and this was first! Honestly, I figured that if I was stressing about blog posts then it just wasn't worth it, I want this to be a stress-free zone, a place for me to unload (or upload) my life, a way to detox and let some out without overburdening Hubby and freaking out the neighbors! So, no promises that I have returned indefinitely, but I am hoping to restart (again) and stick to it. 

My biggest issue is that I feel like I need a schedule, so I make one post a week, which seems too little so then it becomes three posts a week, which also seems cheap but I can't keep up with five posts a week either. So let's settle on a number here, my obsessive nature demands it. I will post twice weekly, I can manage that through the summer, while the kids are home. In the fall, I might change that, but for now, I can commit to some Momma time spent here. On to what I actually came here to chat about!

I have epic plans for a brand new garden this year. Plans that may or may not actually come to fruition, considering that we had snow not so long ago and this Northeast weather has decided to skip between winter and summer, pretty much skipping spring! We have just now got around to putting in the posts, Hubby says that we have to have all the plants in by May 15 in our zone. We shall see if that happens. We needed a pretty fair sized fence since we live surrounded by woods and we have three dogs. We found a great deal on pressure-treated posts, which, looking now, may be a bit overkill but I suppose, that it is better to be safe than sorry. 

Hubbs had a day off and our two older kids were spending a weekend with their mom, so we had relatively unhindered time to get half of the posts in. Cap fell asleep and took a nap with his grandpa while we dug so that was helpful too. 

This adorable helper had me in teary smiles with how cute he was. Not very helpful but who can say no to sunshine and smiles

Digging went a bit slower since a few of the spots had rocks the size of my hand in them. 

My brother even came out at one point to help me dig one post hole while Cap tested his leg strength

Cap desperately needed to climb into the holes that I made and then use the trowel to pull the dirt back into the hole, just in case it was an accident that it was in a pile next to the hole. 

I am so happy and grateful that I have this beautiful child to help me enjoy the sunshine

Happy Spring Everyone!!!

St Valentine's Day family celebration: Thank you Pinterest!

Happy Late Valentine's Day everyone! Cap is learning to crawl so my ability to sit and update the blog or my Etsy store is rather limited. The store comes first, well, after sweeping, laundry, sleep and food! He has really picked up on it so quickly, within a week he now will follow me around the living room while I clean or work at my craft table. There are days when I am so tired but the majority of the time I am so in love with all three of the kids that I cannot wait to be pregnant again and start the whole process over! 

Valentine's day is a little different with three kids, Hubby had to work through until the afternoon and then we picked up the older kids from their mom's house, so we had to plan a family friendly, love filled evening instead of a romantic night out for just the two of us. 

Friday morning brought the citizens of the Hudson Valley almost a foot of snow and since Hubby had to be to work at 5am, we were up early to shovel so he could even get out of the driveway. After finishing up, he went to leave and I went to the window to make sure that he was able to get out of the driveway okay when I saw him sneaking in with this wonderful bunch of flowers! I am not the biggest fan of cut flowers, it seems an odd tradition to me, but since I don't get them often, the once or twice a year that he buckles and buys some are even more special. I do love fresh flowers in the house, it makes everything seem pretty and I love having the reminder of him sitting in the middle of the kitchen table all day. 

Originally, we had planned on making cupcakes with the kids but I wasn't sure how late they would end up getting home with the snow so I made them in the morning. I caught a look at a cupcake recipe on Pinterest where she put strawberries inside of the cupcake. I can't find the original blog that I found it on but here is another. The one that I was reading, the woman had cooked the cupcakes completely, then dug out the middle to put in the strawberries. I am impatient and with an infant on the hip, I need minimal time from start to finish for a project, so I just stuck the strawberry in the batter while it was cooking. I made six without strawberries and the rest with, which went over really well with the family. Sprinkles and some fresh strawberries topped them off beautifully (the leftover raw strawberries were finished well before the cupcakes, we love our fresh fruits here). 

yummy red velvet, strawberry, vanilla cupcakes!

I again stalked Pinterest to find quick Valentine's cards for the kids. Our Minecraft obsessed boy, Griffin got a Creeper themed card, while little miss Eve got a fox themed one. I found them here  and here. Mine are not nearly as fancy, but I had to work with the things I had and in a limited time frame. They both liked them, although I was told that my Creeper was not perfectly drawn. I'll get 'em next time! The fox was a wooden decoration that I had bought on clearance from Michael's more than six months ago and finally got to use!

      This was Hubby's Valentine's collection. The superhero poster in the background was one of his old shirts that he had worn so much that the collar was fraying unattractively. Since I hinted that he shouldn't really wear it out of the house, I figured that I would use it to decorate the house instead. Using a canvas from Michaels, again on clearance, I stapled the shirt onto the canvas frame and cut away the rest of the t-shirt. He liked it and I think it will look great in our bedroom (next to our Captain America and Doctor Who posters).
I have Pinterest (I might be addicted) to thank for the card and the bacon roses. I found the bacon roses here, although I did not follow the instructions perfectly. I refuse to drill holes in my cupcake pan, for one. I use that thing for everything! All I did was to roll the bacon, stab it through with a toothpick, then broil it for about half an hour. I let them sit until they were cool, them finangled them onto the skewer sticks that I had laying about. Those directions also called for using the stems from a bouquet of fake flowers, which I did not have on hand, so skewers with paper leaves in my TARDIS coffee mug worked beautifully. The card came from Pinterest too, but I can't find the link, I believe it was through Etsy's Pinterset board, but I am not sure, sorry!

In addition to my wonderful flowers (and a box of chocolate that is almost gone already!) Hubby and both of the older kids picked out cards for me, which were adorable. Eve's was the kitten, Grif picked out one that had Love you written out in stitches and Hubby picked out the diamond one (I told him that it made me feel like Beyonce, cause ya know, bling). He also gave me a cute little moon necklace, the package said "I love you to the moon and back" and an amber resin necklace that I have been eyeing since before Cap was born! We will see if we like it or not, if nothing else, it is pretty and the baby likes to hold onto it while nursing, so it's a win for me! It was a perfect Valentine's day. I love just spending time with the family with nothing too pressing or stressful going on.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and a huge thank you to my wonderful Hubby for being the best and making me laugh and love every single day!!!

A Good Momma day

My month of limited internet turned out well and outside of my deep-seeded addiction to Pinterest, most of the internet holds little to amuse me anymore. So as far as Resolutions go, this one was successful, I didn't stick to every day with no internet, but for the most part I was pretty disconnected. It did help that two weeks ago I cracked my screen, then a week ago we went to pick up the replacement and by the time we got home, realized that it was a demo phone (which supposedly, is illegal for them to sell?) but it took a week for us to get back to put in a request for a new phone. So another week with a phone that interrupts texts with a video telling me how awesome Slacker radio is. Thankfully, Hubby and I both kept our cool at the service desk, considering the money we put into phone insurance but such is life. 

On to a much better topic! Today was a great Momma day. I didn't get to shower, or really get dressed out of lounge wear. I didn't get all of my laundry done for the week. I didn't cook a week's worth of meals today. Really, I did not do much, if we consider chores "doing." But I was awoken an hour and a half earlier then normal by the baby (don't gasp, but it was 7am). So we grabbed the last half hour of Sesame Street, that he has no interest in but I like to use it to gauge his awareness of people's faces, kids, and music. We then had breakfast of mango applesauce, I had greek yogurt with Dove chocolate chunks in it. Baby then got dressed while I threw on my peasant skirt from yesterday and a clean top.

 Since there was no school, my nephew was dropped off so we lounged in front of the tube for a while until Lil Cap wanted to nurse and then he fell asleep for twenty minutes until I tried to put him into his crib. He woke up but I wanted to at least load the washing machine, so I figured that he may fall back asleep. No such luck but he stayed quiet and cooed to his stuffed animals until I went in to get him. He was happy and no crying!!!

Then the three of us played on the living floor with Cap's new wooden blocks ( where I spelled inappropriate things to take pictures of to send to Hubby, I gotta keep myself amused!) and while the two boys played, I swept and mopped the kitchen. By mopped, really I mean I used my new steamboost Swiffer sweeper, which I highly recommend. It is pretty much amazing, with three kids and three dogs, the floors get rough but this thing got them clean. Find a coupon and go get one! 

After Nephew left (all the Whovians can now giggle), I called my grandmother to chat her up about her new apartment and so she could talk to the baby. While on the phone, I scrubbed and filled up the kitchen sink and gave Cap a bath. He loved it and was able to look out the window at the six inches of snow we got. After wearing himself out in the bath, Cap nursed and fell asleep for two and a half hours, so I could sweep and mop the dining room, scrub the counter tops and clean up. Oh, and eat a meal, a hot meal in its entirety. It was awesome. Hubby came home and he got to eat a hot meal, in its entirety as well. The entire day we had Pandora playing Sublime, Alanis maybe a little Nicki Minaj. We jammed out to Teach me how to Dougie and Jagged Little Pill. I love that Cap loves to dance, in his own little infant way and he loves when we have dance parties in the kitchen. Last week, for an hour, we played the Harlem Shake, the Cupid Shuffle and other miscellaneous songs until we were all sweaty and tired and Cap loved it. 

It was a great day. I wasn't worn out and cranky, the baby wasn't worn out and cranky and Hubby got home safely. Thank goodness for good days!

Hanging out in just a diaper, eating his weight in oatmeal mixed with bananas

Happy Birthday! Cap at 6 Months

I guess it is becoming a habit, hopefully one that I am going to beat this new year, but Baby Cap's six month birthday was over a week ago but I missed it in the midst of my disconnect from the interwebs. So here we go:

 Dear Baby Cap, 

Happy Six month birthday, baby boy. You have grown so much in six month, it is crazy to me to think that you were born at 8 pounds and you are 17 already. You and I spent an hour the other day switching out your clothes again, packing up the 3-6 month sizes and busting out the 9 month sized clothing. We kept some of the old clothing in hopes that we will have at least one more sibling for you in the future. You are so curious about everything, as long as you can see me from where you are. You aren't crawling yet, or walking but you try. I am still leaning towards you learning how to walk and skipping crawling all together but we will see. The dogs and cat encourage you to try to crawl because you want to touch them all the time. Jack, our cat, is your greatest motivation. He does not really want you to touch him so he will lay right out of your reach while you giggle and wiggle to try and get him. 

The other night you woke up and stayed awake for an hour in the middle of the night and giggled ridiculously every time I whispered "kitty kitty kitty." No other words and not just talking. It was adorable. Things like that make me so insanely happy to have you in our lives. Brother and Sister love making you laugh and sometimes your silly little laugh throws us all into a fit of giggles.

We are really trying to get you on a loose schedule to give me time to keep up the house and to give Daddy and I some time together but I am not trying very hard and you aren't helping either! We almost have nap times down, but bedtime is a complete toss up whether is goes well or not. You are eating homemade blended foods at least three times a day and still nursing twice that many times. You are spending more time amusing yourself, at least in waves, so that makes it easier for me to do chores. Outside of that, you are pretty happy in your new high chair while I cook or hanging in our new sling while I fold laundry . 

Your eyes have stayed blue still I am pretty positive they will stay that way. Your hair has not really grown in any more, you still have cradle cap that I oil regularly and the tiniest birthmark on the back of your head that I love. You are so tall, at least to me. We already may have to take out the insert in the playpen because you are starting to pull yourself up and Daddy is worried that you will lean too far over the side. If we do take it out, I am so short that it will be so weird to try and lay you down to sleep but we will manage. 

You are growing so big and so fast that I am terrified that I might be missing it so I do spend so much time just staring at you or watching infomercials with you on my hip. Don't tell Daddy! We love you tons and are looking forward to your first steps, your first words and to see the new person that you will become!

Teething Biscuits Trial and Error

   First, a resolution update: 

Obviously, from my lack of posts, my resolution to unplug has been relatively successful. When it came down to it, I really think that I wanted to separate myself from social media and the somewhat petty emotions and obsession that results from it. The first week of the new year I had no internet access other than updates from my Etsy store. My biggest vice was checking Facebook continuously. While I was nursing, I always felt like I had to be doing other things, up until January, that was Facebook and Pinterest. Since the New Year started, I have finished a book that I have been sitting on for two months and am halfway through another. At this rate, I will finally finish this Salvatore series that James bought for me two years ago (in my defense, there are over 20 books in this series). 

Cap' enjoying new teething biscuits

This most recent week, I have buckled and scoped out Pinterest a few times. Mostly because I can't stay away and I was looking up recipes. Hubby had a bake sale at work to help a coworker pay for a relative's funeral (his job matches all funds raised by associates for things like that) so I looked up an amazing recipe for pumpkin bars that was so successful that there weren't any left by the end of day! So on top of doing something wonderful for someone else, I found a great new recipe that already has made it onto a hard copy recipe card in my vintage recipe box. 

Last week, Hubby had jury duty all week, thankfully putting away a bad person but it meant that he also had to go to his normal job after jury duty. It made for a couple long days and at least one burnt-out mommy day where I cried and we fought. But I got some sleep and we had a talk so it's all good now. (until the next sleepless night with teething coming!)

Speaking of teething...
I haven't seen or felt actual evidence of teething, and Baby Cap' has been drooling excessively since he was two months old, so I am not sure if we have started teething officially or not. We received gel teethers as a holiday present that he doesn't really like when they are cold, but enjoys just fine at room temperature. We found out over the holidays, while making chocolate covered pretzels (that we called Sonic Screwdrivers) that Baby really likes hard pretzel rods. Not really meant for babies, he was under very careful supervision when eating them but still went through almost an entire package in the past month. We then tried Nilla wafers. Warning, do not do this until chewing is a habit. They are too soft and again, not meant for babies.

I figured that we would have to buy some teething biscuits next time we went grocery shopping but then I remembered that I know how to cook and I have Pinterest. I looked up three different recipes and Cap helped me bake and test them out. All three recipes were so easy to make and I had all the ingredients on hand. All in all, I spent about an hour (once I take out all the nursing breaks, diapers breaks and other random intrusions) mixing and baking all of them. All I did was type in "teething biscuits" into Pinterest and pick out a random three to test.

Recipe #1

The first one seemed easy, I just didn't have any baby cereal on hand and was hoping that oatmeal would suffice as a substitute. Don't do that! I would definitely cook them longer if I did it again and I would use the blender on the oatmeal to make it more of a fine powder. I found the recipe here at Ashley Thunder Events. It was an easy recipe to follow...as long as you actually follow it. I ended up not giving Cap any because they were too soft but Hubby and my younger brother both really enjoyed them!

Recipe #2

The second recipe was the one I was originally most excited about but I think that I overcooked them a bit and was heavy handed on the molasses. I am a chronic anti-measurer, it's an issue. The dough was really great and I loved that I could make them into neat shapes and finally use my dinosaur shaped cookie cutter for something. I also used a dog bone shaped cutter and then cut some of them into long rectangle shapes. Cap seemed to like them just fine, the adults in the house, notsomuch. I found this recipe here at Lil Sugar. 

Recipe #3

This third recipe ended up being my favorite so far. A couple things that I would change? I would make a double batch and a larger loaf. I would cook it longer to make them harder and I would potentially flavor it. I would also use whole wheat flour and a healthier sugar option. I didn't want to buy special ingredients in case I ended up not liking how they turned out. I found this recipe here (via Pinterest) at Spilling the Beans. This one was the winner as far as I am concerned, they ended up being the right size for Cap's little hands, they were easy and all the adults liked them as well so while all the recipes will end up in the recipe box, these are the ones that I am going to make more of this weekend with the older kids to help!

Handmade Holidays: Five Months old!

While I know this may not be part of a "Handmade Holiday," I did make him and it is the holidays, so here ya go my Little Captain America: 

Dear Baby Boy,

Happy Birthday Steven! I know you actually turned 5 months last Wednesday but Momma has been super busy getting ready for the holidays. I am so happy that you came into our lives, however unexpected you were. You make me smile every morning and exhausted every night but I wouldn't change it for the world. You let us sleep for at least three hours every night before you wake up hungry, then you spend the rest of the night cuddled into my arms, keeping me warm when Daddy steals all the blankets. You used to wake up crying because you were unsure of life, now you wake up smiling and the first hour you are awake, nothing could make you angry. 

Almost every morning we wake up, you spend a little time in bed with Daddy while I take out the dogs and make coffee. Then Daddy gets ready for work while we make his lunch and we wave to him from the front window when he leaves. Then we have breakfast. You have oatmeal, strawberries, bananas, pears and/or applesauce while I have my coffee and yogurt. Then we fill the day with various chores, playing with the dogs, playing piano, practicing crawling, sewing and watching Doctor Who. You were taking a three hour nap everyday for a week but you seem to have given up on naps all together at this point. You will take two or three twenty minute sleeps, just long enough for me to use the bathroom or switch laundry, barely. 

I am astounded every day how big you have grown. Seventeen pounds already! Over twice your birth weight! You are eating tons of baby food, handmade by your loving momma, with no known allergies, high five! You like to help me sew but want to touch the needle, so you don't help too often. You might be starting to teeth since you put everything in you mouth now but I have thought that since you were 3 months old. You love eating paper and your socks. You like it when the dogs lick your feet and face and hands and legs and arms and hair. You laugh when I nibble on your baby fat neck and chubby little thighs. You prefer when Daddy changes your diaper because he made up the Diaper Song that I can never remember and when I try, it sounds lame with no rhythm at all. 

Thank you Steven, for helping me find a life that makes me the happiest, for being happy even though I have no idea what I am doing and for helping Daddy and I continue building our family together. We love you a googolplex!!!

- Momma

using our newly found arm muscles, but mostly getting angry at being on our belly!

Wearing a tux to Brother's winter concert!

the happiest baby and the best thing to wake up to every morning (sorry Hubby but it's true)

Handmade Holidays: Holiday Party #1

Hubby had a company holiday party this past Sunday so there was minimal crafting done, with all the pumping and prepping and showering that I had to do prior to leaving Steven with his grandfather. This was really the first time that I have left him alone. I have left him once before, for an hour for a drink with friends but he stayed home with his Dadda. This time, Hubby and I were both out from 6:45pm until 11:21pm. Not that I kept track of the time or anything.  

It was tons of fun, James even bought me a new outfit and I got to wear shoes that we bought two winters ago for the first time. I absolutely love the top that we bought (thank you Target), it was light and airy, glittery and just drapey enough to cover the baby belly without being frumpy. James insisted on wearing my Van Gogh- Doctor Who skirt from Hot Topic, very cute and not something that I would have bought without him, but it turned out to be really comfortable. 

The food was awesome, the people he worked with (he just transferred to another store so we have another party next week!) are awesome and fun, we danced and other then a sore on my toe the night was awesome. Halfway through, my best friend (since fifth grade) went over to the house and dressed the baby up for bed and she finally put him to sleep, after my dad tried twice! They both said that it wasn't too bad so I am hopeful for next week. On the other side of that, Steven might have been horrible and they are nicely lying to me. James' mom told me when she was over that James was four before she left him with anyone else. They left James with his grandmother and she swore that he was happy and perfect the whole time, while his aunt tattled and told his mother how he wailed the entire time they were gone. I imagine that it was somewhere in between. My friend also bought Steven two new pajama sets and she sent me a picture of him in it, which made me cry in front of a table of James' coworkers, embarrassing but I missed him!!!

very blurry because of the poor lighting, but yey us!

Terrified face on my little reindeer baby!

One of my favorite ever pictures of us

Handmade Holidays: Project 4: Soap and Candles

Another super easy project that I wanted to do this year was to make soap and candles. I do not make soap or candles completely from scratch, at least not yet, but the craft stores have easy and pretty kits that are great for beginners, or for those of us that are making them with an infant attached to the hip. I was going to try and make these with the kids, but at this point in the game, if I have the time, energy, supplies and infant cooperation, I do it. I had made soap last year to presents (and made way too many of them) so I had some left over for this year, which was good considering the 24 people that will be at dinner, plus presents for those that won't be at the meal. I also wanted to de-stash some of my crafting supplies, so I ended up using up all of my candle and soap making supplies, all I have left are some wicks which I am going to hold onto and maybe make crayon candles with the kids this winter. 

I started with herbal soaps, making oatmeal, patchouli and lavender bars for a grown up option. I still had more soap left, as well as coloring and scents that came in the kits that I had bought last year. I made super-saturated colored ones for the teens on my list, in my heart shaped silicone mold. I most definitely recommend using silicone molds for soap and candle making, they say that you can use metal pans but, in my experience, the ease of the silicone molds is incomparable. I let the soaps sit for maybe an hour, in the fridge, and they were completely set and ready for wrapping up. I just wrapped them in cling-wrap, since that is what I had in the house and we never use it for food (I couldn't even figure out why we had bought it in the first place, although I may make sugar cookies later this month and I may use it then). 

my messy workspace, aka my kitchen counter

After making all the soap, which really consists of just melting the soap in the microwave, adding color, scent and pouring it into the mold, I started on the candles. This I had never done before so it was a little bit of trial and error but I think that they turned out nicely.  I didn't use the molds for these because they were all filled with soap, instead I reused jars and glasses from spent candles. I bought white wax, no coloring and no scents. For the first bunch, I coloured them with three green crayons and scented them with the leftover bits of pine scented candles, they smell slightly but not as over-powering as the originals, which I actually ended up liking. I had enough of that to make five of the green and still have a fair amount of wax left. I crushed up dried lavendar and grabbed two purple crayons to color the wax, hoping that they purple overpowered the green, which it did. The second batch made a large candle, a tiny jar candle and three tiny jarred candles from the scents I had used in the soap. I don't know how well any of these will burn, but they look really pretty and I will probably test them out soon. I managed to do this entire project with Steven in his bouncy seat or on my hip, so it wasn't difficult at all and I really enjoyed it. The smells were amazing!

I used chopsticks to keep the wicks centered and upright

My five pine tree scented candles sitting while the lavender wax melted on the stove

this was the final result. 50 soaps and 10 candles (notice the adorable R2D2 soaps? I have a huge Star Wars fan on my list)

My little Holiday Helper! Thanks Granmichelle for the owl pillow!!

Handmade Holidays: Project 3: Birdseed Ornaments

I have been looking for a couple of presents that I can include the kids on so I have been stalking Pinterest (again!) for a couple ideas. I found one, here , but of course I decided that this was the exact project that I wanted to do and then realized that I did not have all the ingredients. So we had to improvise a little and they did not come out as beautiful as the ones in the pictures. But the kids had fun making them, although next time I will use two separate bowls and separate molds so they each can have their own space, sharing became a little bit of a problem. Maybe even invited their cousins over and make a little buffet of different kinds of seeds and mixtures that they can add. We could also collect seeds throughout next summer and fall, throw them in the freezer and use them as well.  

We ended up using raspberry gelatin which turned it red and I have since found a few other recipes that may be a little easier to use. Overall it was fun, it took about forty minutes to make but we let them dry for a whole 24 hours. We may end up making more after the holidays since we have tons of bird seed, lots of hungry birds, and cold weather activities will be in demand. It was fun and will make a cute little present for family and their feathered friends on Christmas day. 

 

bits of bird treats and one to hang on the tree in a little tin foil cookie package 

while Brother and Sister were making bird treats (and let's be honest, squirrel and deer treats) Steven ate some sweet potatoes 

Handmade Holidays: Project 1: Baby Quilt

My first project for Christmas ended up being a complete by chance sort of thing. I have a problem. A problem that I have heard many crafters have, and that there may be support groups for. I collect craft things, tons of craft things. Even before I was working in a craft store, I had tons of bits and bobbles. Then I worked in a fabric chain store for a year and goodness did the collection grow and spawn. It was/is a problem. Hubby gives me the "look" when he glances towards my corner/closet/room/pile of things that will become other things one day. With that look in mind, I am making in a serious focus this month to make as many presents as I can manage, thus eliminating a fair amount out of my stash and saving us money on shopping (kind of, considering I have already spent the money). 

I was in the middle of sewing super hero themed curtains for my nephew (there will be no photos because they were a ton of fabric and by the time I was done sewing, I was soooo done looking at them. Plus, they are wrapped already), and I found a pile of handkerchiefs that I had bought from evil WalMart, probably five years ago. They are the white fabric with gray owls and little stars on them. I imagine, when I bought them that I had a plan. What it was? I have no clue. But they were adorable, I have a thing for owls and considering Baby had a loosely Potter themed nursery, the print was actually kind of perfect. I had matching gray fabric left over from RenFaire costumes, yellow scraps from a box of my mother's fabric, white flannel that I had bought for burpcloths (before realizing that I never use them) and a package of crib sized batting that had been on clearance for 3.97. So I had everything except for binding. Hubby suggested an orange colour to match the little owl beaks, and I agreed.

When I made the two older children blankets last year, I just used sating ribbon folded over as binding so I figured that I would do that again for this blanket. Foolishly, I thought when I couldn't find sating ribbon, that acetate ribbon would work just as well. I was wrong. Very wrong. Don't ever do that! I washed it and it fell apart so horribly that I was very tempted to toss the entire blanket in the garbage. But I had already stitched in Steven's name and the date. So out came the seam ripper and two evenings wasted, then out to buy actual blanket binding and a night to sew that on correctly. Note to self: do it correct the first time, you cheapskate! We also went to the secondhand bookstore to pick up a copy of Harry Potter to go with the blanket for his first reading book. I can't wait to start reading my favorite series to him. I am secretly hoping that the older two kids cuddle up and listen too. So, after using four or five yards of fabric that I had laying about and a slightly stressful binding experience, Steven's first Momma-made blanket is all finished, folded and waiting to be wrapped. 

Piecing together the squares

Finished top

Hand stitched little message for Steven's first baby quilt. Hopefully, we will have many, many nights snuggled underneath, reading together

I also finished a handful of burpcloths, mostly I just use these when feeding Steven to wipe his face and hands. The fabric was a flannel flat sheet from the thrift store for $2 and it made 9 burpcloths. 

Holiday Season Starts!

     This past month I have not been a great blogger, but I have definitely been working on being a great momma. Steven and I spend every day together, lots of one on one time just hanging out with each other. I am trying to figure out how to put a baby on a schedule when I have no real schedule and no real solid reasons to stick to a schedule. But it is a work in progress. Here's hoping that I can figure it out in a reasonable amount of time *fingers crossed*
     So as of this past Sunday, December is finally here and the Christmas season really starts. We had 11 people for Thanksgiving dinner and are now planning a dinner for potentially 27 people on Christmas day. It is a very good thing that I enjoy hosting and prepping and decorating and setting a cute table! Tomorrow I will start the hand made holiday presents countdown and I am debating doing a Doctor Who month in January, with crafts, episode reviews, lots of pictures and maybe a cosplay or two.

I hope every one had a blessed and thankful Thanksgiving with loved ones and is looking forward to a love filled holiday season!