time stealer

This little girl has been keeping me on my toes. I have those good days where she's happy and sleepy and I get lots done, but there are definitely those days where she's not tired at all and I get nothing done. But my favorite days are the ones where she's happy and squirmy and full of smiles for me and her daddy:

welcome to bebe land

Since everyone seems to be having children, i've had several bebe gifts on my project list. This time it was some burp cloths:




and a very wonky stuffed rattle/ball:



A quilter I am not. I found the tutorial on Pinterest, but you can get it here. Hers look much nicer! Anyway, I'm sure you're sick of bebe themed crafting, but I'll have something else to show you soon. I've been working on a living room remodel...

for bebe Sloane

A friend finally delivered her 'not-going-to-find-out' baby and it turned out to be a girl, SO a girly gift was on the project list. I decided to cover a wood letter for her and add some hanging ribbon for hair bow storage. I added a few dimensional flower stickers to the ends of the ribbons to keep them weighted. I'm pretty happy with the final project, I'm finding that I love anything fabric-covered and I have enough stashed fabric for years of projects...

did i ever tell you the story?

You know, the one where I had a baby?

It's a good one. It started on a Thursday at about 3pm. I was getting bundled up to take le dog out for le walk when my water broke. It must have been all the walking around Target that morning. I called the husband {who had just left home to go back to work} and told him what happened and that if he wanted to come home he could or he could just wait until I spoke with the midwife and figured out what we should do. He turned around as the midwife told me to come into the hospital. She wanted to make sure I had actually gone into labor. Well, I of course had, and decided to head back home until I really started to feel contractions. So around 8pm or so I decided to check into the hospital. In hindsight, I probably could have labored a bit longer at home, but being my first time, I was new to all this and not really sure how much time I had.

So back at the hospital, my contractions were pretty strong, about a minute long and a minute apart, yay, I was close, right? Not so much. I labored all night long with those contractions, a minute long, pretty intense, a minute apart. You don't realize how tired it can make you when you're only getting 1 minute naps...So I cried, and slept, and felt very much drugged through the night, even though I wasn't. I stood, I leaned, tried a bath, a birthing ball, the rocking chair. I begged the midwife to drug me, just let me sleep, but she assured me I could do it, I could actually stick to my birthing plan and that I had the strength to do it all sans drugs. So i'll leave out a lot of the gory details, it wasn't the best 20+ hours of my life, but it was almost over, she was almost here and doing remarkably well. By about 11 the next morning, my midwife decided it was time for me to start pushing. I pushed and pushed, and according to my husband, the midwife pulled and pulled {bebe was really cozy and happy in there} and finally at about 12:30ish bebe made her debut.

We didn't have a name picked out yet, so on Friday she remained unnamed and then by Saturday we filled out all her paperwork as Elsie Grace and I loved it. Sure, it wasn't Zoey, but it was cute and unique, and really we think it fits her perfectly.

The first month was crazy and a HUGE adjustment. I felt like a walking zombie, but we had helpers and somehow we made it through unscathed. Elsie didn't do a whole lot except eat and sleep and a whole lotta pooping.

The second month has been so much easier, and although I'm finding it difficult to have 'me time', I've organized my days to handle all the necessary things, like diaper washing, house cleaning and food making. And I even manage a daily shower now, which is more than I can say for month one.

All in all, I was blessed to have had such a drama and problem free delivery as well as an amazing pregnancy. I am proud to have experienced a drug-free labor. My midwife says they still talk about my birth at the hospital, and were all impressed by my strength and determination {it's called stubbornness and I have it in droves}. The main nurse who helped said I was only the second successful hypnobirth she had witnessed! I was so blessed to have an amazing support system in my family and friends, a wonderful midwife team, and most importantly my husband. Without his encouragement, his help and his love, I would never have made it through to the other side with my sanity in tact.

And now, we have this beautiful little girl who fills our days with smiles and coos and several poopy diapers:

fabric covered letter: E

Remember that thing I did with the light switch? Well, I did a similar thing with fabric and a wooden letter:

fabric-covered switchplate tutorial: make it pretty

You wanna make one, you know you do, and if you have a few dollars and five minutes, you can:


In order to do that, you'll need:
fabric
scissors
mod podge
plastic switch cover
marker


First step, trim your fabric about a 1/4-1/2" larger than your switchplate using scissors or a rotary tool:


Second step, mark your openings and screw holes on the fabric, and trim using scissors. Leave enough extra material inside the switch square to allow the fabric to fold in and adhere to the back of the plate.



Now, cover your plate with a thin coat of mod podge. Place it on your print side down fabric, making sure to line up your holes. Press flat.


Turn your plate over, and trim the edges, leaving enough to glue down to the plate underside. Cut towards each corner on the inside of your switch hole, and glue to the underside.



That's it, you're done! Easy right? Perfect for a craft room, laundry room or a kids room. I made mine for the bebe's room. And I love it. It's so cheery.

52 A YEAR: week 2

Blue. I'm not exactly thrilled with this shot, but the way my week is going, I'll be lucky if I have time to shoot something else. So for now, this will have to do:

52 A YEAR: week 2 theme

Our theme for this week is 'blue'. I'm really interested to see how you all interpret this!

52 A Year: week 1

New. Everything is new right now. This is even the first time I'm blogging from my phone. That was the first time I added 'blogging' to my phone's auto correct. This is the first new phase of my new life and I'm just sitting here trying to survive. Yes, I have a beautiful new baby, yes I am now part of a new 'family', but my gosh, it takes a bit of stamina and sheer will-power to adjust to 'new'.

I'm not a complainer, usually I'm a go-getter. A do-it-aller, a firecracker. I'm a to-do lister. A project-starter. The girl you hate because she seems to find time to do it all. All that stuff you wish you knew how to do. Well, she's a thing of the past my friends. Or at least she's on a temporary leave of absence. For now I find myself just getting by, trying to get enough sleep to function during the 'light' hours and maybe even accomplish a thing or two, like washing diapers or showering. Nothing fancy really, if I have dinner planned and made, it's a good day.

That being said, I know I'm blessed. I have a beautiful, healthy, calm and happy baby. I have a wonderful husband who strives to make sure I'm 'ok'. I have the ability financially to stay home {thanks to said husband} and try to get the hang of this new career that I now have the utmost respect for. And we have blessings beyond our deserving, thanks to an amazing thing called grace.

So here I sit, up at midnight again, keeping this baby warm and upright to avoid upsetting her tummy after our last feeding, and I'm thinking about all the other new mothers out there. Sitting up alone in the dark of night wondering just what they got themselves into. Just like me, alone, but equally part of an unspoken world, trying to give everyone the illusion that we are just fine, 'doing great!' we say, but really, we would all jump at the chance for a good nights sleep and a bit of makeup.

But that's life, and it's a new adventure. Just like breaking in a new pair of shoes. There's going to be pain, maybe a couple of blisters and even a little blood. But if they're cute, it's so worth it.

If you are participating in the 52 A Year Project and would like to link your blog post and pictures, please click on the button below:

52 a year: a photography journey through 2012

Well Marybeth decided to rope me into a photography project to keep our creative juices rolling, and keep us learning new styles and techniques. And since neither of us can commit to creating or blogging an image a day, she decided once a week was a lot more reasonable. We've created a Facebook page, 52 a year, for members who commit with us {cause we all should be committed...} and we'll be announcing a weekly theme on Mondays, giving you a whole week to come up with something fabulous, or just something, depending on how crazy your week is. We will also have linking available here on the blog in the comment section of each weekly theme post. {once we figure out how to do that!}

So here's our first theme, which you have until next Monday to complete: