And a year later...

I'm a little red faced as a write this as I'm sure you may have noticed that its been a year since I last posted, yikes! I have thought of the site many, many times but I just didn't know where to begin as so much has happened. But if I don't start somewhere I'm sure it will be another year before I post! So, here I am.  Hoping that I can jump right back in and start sharing again.

Before I dropped off the face of the blogging world I was working on preparing for my little baby girl.  Needless to say, my little angel showed up before I finished my long to-do list.  In fact I went into labor sandwiching her little quilt together! Oh yes, I was down on the floor pinning when WHAM she was ready to  come!  I'm thankful that she gave me a good reason not to finish the quilt until she was almost 6 months old.  And you know, life kept moving on even with my to-do list half complete.  What a relief!  Now she is almost a year old and her second quilt is still hanging off the back of my sewing chair waiting for binding.

When do sewing/crafting/blogging mothers have time to do their projects?  I am still trying to figure this balance out.  I'm thinking that they must be luckier than me with nap times. I swear my little knows when I need/want to work on something because that is when she won't nap.  Or if I take her into my hobby room, well lets just say I spend more time putting things back on shelves that I spend working on a project!  Oh but it is so great to see her work and figure out things. Recently she has started to take the fabric scraps off the shelf and put into her box. Cute.

I hope that you hang on while I figure out the balance of being a working mother who misses sewing and blogging. I leave you with a few pictures of my little angel as I'm sure the last year of not blogging will soon be forgotten.

By the way, welcome all the new followers that have joined over the last year! It is great to see you on board. My projects I'm sure won't be as labor intensive but there will be projects none the less to come.

My angel at one month old

A glimpse at nursery

The finished quilt when she was 5 months

Happy New Year!

Me and my angel

Six months old

Eight months old

 

Eleven months old

That was a quick glimpse at my angel over the last year.

Hope to see you again soon :)

A Warm Fuzzy

Pattern

I just couldn't resist sharing an email I received from another blogger.  Its really neat when you hear that someone has used your pattern to make something and it feels super special when someone blogs about it.  Lu, from I Am Just Lu sent me an email sharing that she made a version of my scrunch bag pattern for her neice.  She wrote a really nice blog post about the bag.  Doesn't that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling.   

I Am Just Lu

I love how she used a necktie for the strap, how clever, right?!  Also love how she hand-stamped the fabric to give some plain fabric some style.

Thank you so much Lu for blogging about the scrunch bag pattern.  If anyone else has blogged about one of my patterns I would love to hear about it. 

The Sewing Room

A quick update on the sewing room progress.  The tables have made it to the sewing room, yay!!  The sewing machine is finally up off the floor.  There is still plenty of work to do to get the room in order (lots of stuff still packed in boxes) but this is a wonderful start. 

I also pulled out my pattern for little baby shoes and cut out pieces for two pairs.  Feels so good to be back at it again.  Isn't this so exciting!  I think I like this feeling and just keeping my fingers crossed that the motivation will continue.

Wish me luck.

Sneak Peak

Blogging does the sewing soul some good :)  I think writing that last blog post gave me the little boost of motivation that I needed to get started with projects, yay! 

My husband and I went to India in February for our nieces' wedding.  We had a fabulous time and I can't wait to share pictures with you of this out-of-this-world-wedding!  There were 8 different ceremonies/parties and each one just topped the other in terms of extravagance.   But more on that later.  One of our priorities while there was to find some decor for the nursery, you know, in searching for that one of a kind item to make the room special.  And I had chosen to do an elephant theme and what better place to find elephant decor than India!  What we came back with was this wall hanging (pictured below) that is made of scrap sari pieces.  Pretty cool, ey!  I love it and am so excited to get it hung up and start some serious decorating. 

As nice a piece as it is, I now need to coordinate other fabrics with it to finish off the room.  This weekend I took some time and went through my fabric stash to see what I could pull together to make this nursery spectacular.  I first went right to my Amy Butler "special use" fabric that I have been saving for just the right project.  And my baby girl's room is just that perfect project to use it on!  I'm so exciting that it almost matches perfectly to the elephant wall hanging.  Who would have ever guessed it would work out.  What do you think, is it a good match? 

Now my dilemma is what to make.  The firsts on the list are a crib skirt (still need a crib), sheets and quilt.  Are there any other essentials I should add to the list as far as nursery items?

Now to get to the actual sewing part.  But did want to show you that progress is being made and I am so super excited to have gotten this far.  Just seeing the fabrics out and coordinated has given me the inspiration and motivation to get going. 

Hopefully some project posts next!

It's a...

How time flies when you are busy!  I can't believe I haven't blogged in such a long time.  And its sad to say that it has been even longer since I've sewn, or done anything crafty.  Moving into the new house, the holidays and just plain life has seemed to have taken over any spare time that I have these days.  But I am hoping with the holidays behind us and the new year upon us, that I'll have some time to start sewing again.  Well, that is at least my goal.

There has been some exciting news that I have been wanting to share with you for quite some time, but in my lack of blogging time haven't been able to.  We are expecting a baby girl in June!!!  Yay!! I am so excited.  I was so hoping that with this news I would be sewing up a storm in preparation for her arrival, but to my disappointment I haven't sewn one thing for her.  Very sad.  I have had so many plans and big ideas for when I had a little girl.  Oh the things that I was going to make for her.  But it hasn't happened yet. 

I still have a lot of plans to get things done.  Technically I have 12 weeks left to do things, so I'm not completely out of time, just yet.  And I heard about this nesting stage yet to come.  But, I'm looking for some motivation to get me going.  To get started I need to get a table in my sewing room.  Right now my machine is sitting on the floor, not exactly an ideal place for a pregnant chick to sit! 

As soon as I get my machine up off the floor I'm hoping that a miracle will happen and I'll be able to start cranking out projects for my little girl.  I've at least started making a list of priorities: shoes, bibs and a quilt.  Keeping it simple to get me started, although have a lot more on the agenda.

Thank you for sticking with me in my absence and looking forward to coming back again soon with some completed (or partially completed) projects.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with some pictures I've found on Pinterest that are my inspiration.

Our Holiday Home

Decorating a home for the holidays is nothing short of an undertaking, but one that I am happy to do over and over again!  Isn't it exhilharating stringing lights, decorating a tree and hanging stockings on the mantle?  Oh and the Christmas music that resounds and plays over and over in your head.  And don't forget the aroma of cookies wafting in the air, mmmmm...  Just love the holidays.  Don't you? 

As I mentioned in an earlier post my husband and I recently moved into our new home, so the decorating excitment is at an all time high as we have all this new space to fill with Christmas joy.  The home is quite a bit bigger than our previous so filling the space has been somewhat of a glorious challenge.  But we were certainly blessed with the previous owners leaving a large lot of Christmas goodness stored in the attic.  Not sure if they intended to leave it behind or if it was forgotten, but either way, we feel blessed to have the extra goodies to dig through and use this season. 

Wishing everyone a happy start to their holiday decorating. 

Be on the lookout for some exciting news that I can't wait to share! 

Curtain Shock

I'm so excited to start sharing information about our new home with you.  To get you up to speed the home was not well maintained so we have been busy for the last 2 months getting it in order.  We have patched holes in walls, painted, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned.  Not to mention move out a lot of stuff that the previous owners left behind.  Now, thankfully, that icky stuff is behind us and we can move on to making it pretty.  Yes, I said icky! 

One of the first items on the agenda was to get some curtains for a few rooms.  I thought, for fun, that we would have a 'free' designer come in, give us some ideas and price out some custom curtains.  Now mind you, I have never, ever done the whole custom curtain thing.  I've either made them myself or purchased panels at a discount store.  So, I had absolutely no idea what I was in for. 

Let me tell you, we were in shock.

When we were first told the dollar figure I don't think it really registered.  Then it hit us as we walked out of the design center.  What did she just say??  Are we sure we heard her right?

Ummmmm......

Seriously.  That much.

Before I divulge the dollar value we were given I want to share with you the design plan.  The one room we really wanted curtains for has super high ceilings, like 2 stories high. Small room overall, just super high ceilings with 4 windows.  The design plan that was constructed for that room involved two 13 foot panels and two 9 foot panels.  This room opens in to the dining room which has the normal 10 foot high ceilings.  The designer thought that to keep the flow the curtains should be the same and hang from the 3 windows in that room.  Sounds good.  So lets add 4 more panels there.

These curtains, granted its a lot of fabric, but they are not special in any way.  The designer only wanted to do pocket curtains hung from a fancy rod with a finnial and draped across the window.  Easy enough.  That means no pleating or special hardware required.  As she is telling me all this I'm thinking, good she is being price saavy and not adding a lot of extra sewing features. 

Ok, are you ready.  Hold on to your socks.

The dollar figure we were quoted for the 2 rooms worth of curtains....$11,000.  Yes, there are three zero's there.  Can you believe it?!  It does also include installation, but its hanging curtains.

Needless to say, I'm sewing my own curtains!! 

But some good did come out of it all.  I found out how much money I save when making my own home decor items and I have some great ideas on how to hang the curtains.  I  think thats a win.

Once I locate the right fabric to use I'll keep you posted on the sewing progress.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Been Awhile

Wow!  I feel so bad for not blogging for over two months.  I've so missed it and my blog friends, but it has been a super crazy few months.  My husband and I purchased our 'forever' home and have been busy getting it in order.  We have still yet to move in, but we are getting oh so close to making the move.  Its been a lot of work, but we are excited that we have had a chance to fix it up and make it our own.  I'll show pictures when I have some good things to show.  I have a feeling that there will be PLENTY of opportunities for some craftiness in this new home as sticker shock on decor items is making me remember why I love crafting!

On another note, it has come to my attention that in my absence my account was hacked.  I don't think anything bad happened, but if anyone recieved a message from me in the last two months, I'm sorry, and do know it was not me.  I do hope that the message was false and I can resume my normal blog messaging.

On a happier note, I'm hoping that we will get moved into our new home soon so I can start crafting up a storm making it pretty :)  I hope everyone has been well and hope I can get back to regular blogging soon.

Have a great evening.