Eleanor @ 10 months

Thought I would share a recent photo session- this is my adorable niece Eleanor who is 10 months old in these pictures. My youngest daughter, Makayla, and her were born exactly two weeks apart! I always enjoy taking pictures of sweet Ellie, and even though her mom said she wasn't being very happy I think I got some good shots!

'What We Did' Wednesday

Today we made last minute plans with a friend to beat the heat and check out the new waterpark inside the local amusement park. After reviewing the website and seeing that kids 3 and under were free, we armed ourselves with half off coupons for our $15 admission and met up at the park. 

Then the cashier told us that all of the kids were indeed 'free' to get into the park, but admission to the waterpark was $10 per child that was able to play (i.e. could sit, crawl or walk) and $15 per adult- no coupons allowed.

 Um...yeah... no thanks. 

I'll let you in on a little secret * I'm cheap *

I try not to be so cheap that my kids miss out on experiences, but...that is a rip off plain and simple. We aren't talking about a waterpark with slides, rivers and wave machines...we are talking about a glorified splash pad with a bridge and balcony. 

So plan B was the old stand-by on a hot summer day- the city splash pad for $1 a person. 

Love it. 

No guilt here either because the girls thoroughly enjoyed their water fun 

and we didn't break the bank doing it. 

Happy Belated Birthday America

My most recent sewing projects-patriotic dresses for my little American dolls! I didn't have the time to sew up bloomers for Makayla (mostly because I am AWFUL at sewing bloomers) so I paired her open backed top with some striped ones she already had. I think the combo turned out pretty cute.

We enjoyed our 4th with family members we had not seen in a few years, barbecue, brownies, and of course- fireworks! This was actually the first year that Kinsey had been able to see a fireworks display for the 4th! To say she loved it would be putting it lightly. She even made her own song while watching..."rainbow fireworks, rainbows, rainbows, fireworks...la,la laaaaaaaa!!!!" Or something like that. Makayla pointed and said "wha dat?" over and over...so I think she approved of them as well!

What...It's been over a year?

Wow! March 2011. That's the last post I wrote. It's now July 2012. Time. Has. Flown.

Here are some things that have happened since my last post (In no particular order):

- I crafted a lot.

- I left a lot of those projects unfinished...as usual.

- We went on a family vacation to Padre Island, Texas and then didn't want to come home.

- I photographed my second wedding and did some portraits along the way.

- Oh! I had a baby... Makayla Ann,  aka. Boo, was born July 28, 2011- she is the cutest little thing and I cannot believe she is about to be ONE!

-  I went brunette...than back to blonde 2 weeks later. I didn't like looking so serious, it made me depressed 

-  Kinsey turned 3 and will be 4 soon.

- We got the house all fixed up to sell, then met with a Realtor who promptly squashed all our dreams of selling. 

So now that you are all caught up, lets get down to why I decided to come back to this blogging world after so long. I missed writing. I missed sharing even if no one was reading. But most of all I missed knowing that someday I can look back on all this for myself, or with my girls, and it will be like a journal of our lives as a family. Of all the crafty things I do, scrapbooking is not one of them. So this is my little scrapbook for myself..and hopefully an interesting, insightful or just plain funny take on a normal mama's life. 

“There are two kinds of perfect: The one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself.” 
― Lauren King

Burp Cloths 3 Ways!

I'm sharing with you today the first of many baby related projects to come. I started out with a tutorial from another blog, homemade by jill , and then evolved that design into 2 different adaptations of my own. Even if you aren't planning on having a newborn around anytime soon, these burp cloths make a great baby shower gift!

The first set I made was for a friend who just that day had given birth to her second child, a beautiful baby girl named Madison. I brought a set of 4 to the hospital when I went to see the baby, along with a summer dress and matching bow I had also made. Here's a picture of the set I made her and the dress as well.

Those burp clothes were made using this tutorial, and they were really easy to make. I finished 6 of them in about one hour (minus washing time, of course)

Here's the same style in a different fabric- these one's I'm keeping for myself!

Next I moved on to another play on the same design. I wanted to use bias tape to wrap the edges, and although I've never worked with it before I was happy with the results! I used this blog post from Angry Chicken to help me figure out how best to work with bias. 

Instead of doing a peanut shape I opted for a simple rectangle with the same general dimensions. I sewed wrong sides together 1/4" from the edge, with a nice layer of quilt batting sandwiched in between. Then I trimmed the edges with the bias tape and sewed 2 seams down the length of the cloth, making 3 sections so the batting doesn't budge in the wash. 

Here's how those turned out. (p.s. don't you love the fabric Kinsey chose?)

Lastly I wanted something thinner and that I could keep in the diaper bag at all times without taking up a lot of room. I decided to make the original peanut shape, but without any batting inside and without the frayed edges. To do this I just placed the 2 sides right side together, sewed 1/4 from the edge, leaving a 2" space un-stitched. Then I turned them right side out, pressed, and top-stitched to finish them off. Voila!

Total cost for 16 burp cloths (4 of which were a gift) was less than $15! I got all the snuggle flannel at Joann's for $1.99/yd and each set of 4 only uses 1 yard total. 

I think it's safe to say I have more than enough burp cloths for the new baby, especially since I kept everything from when Kinsey was little, too.

I'll close with a sneak peek at my next sewing project, hopefully to be completed next week. What do you think I'm making for baby now? 

Update

I've been lacking in the blog department lately. 

Not that anyone seems to mind.

But I'll catch up a bit by posting about our little family and how it's currently growing.

Kinsey is almost 2 1/2 years old! She's turned into a VERY outgoing little lady, she says 'HI' to almost everyone she sees, especially kids. If another kid doesn't respond to her first attempt to be friendly she will literally follow them around saying "hi, hi, hello, hi" until they respond. Silly girl. She's definitely got her daddy's need to be social. She's talking up a storm, even if some of it is in her own secret language, counting to 5, knows her colors and shapes, and is quite the budding dancer and artist. That part comes from me :o)
She's almost 30 lbs and right at 3 ft tall, and we're sorta, kinda working on that whole potty training adventure. We have our good days, our great days, and the inevitable bad days, too.

Roy is working long hours with his company, in this economy we can't complain about an abundance of work and plenty to keep him busy. He works really hard for me to be able to stay home with Kinsey, and I love and appreciate that so much.

As for me, I'm being crafty as usual. My current endeavors have been all about baby....which prompts me to explain that I'm currently 5 months pregnant with our 2nd daughter! Things have been going smoothly and hopefully the heat of the summer won't get to me in my final months too much, baby is due August 3. I'm itching to try and sell our current house, so the girls won't have to share a room and we can have more space for our growing family overall. That may or may not become a reality, for now it's just a goal/dream/idea.

Overall we are happy and healthy and looking forward to warmer weather and the growth of our family from 3 to 4!

Oh, and I hope to get better at this blogging continuity thing ;o)

Roy and Kinsey enjoying spring by flying a kite

Her first try at flying it by herself

She's very proud and excited!

Happy Valentine's Day!