Friday, October 24, 2014

Who, who, whooo!

Since I clearly had no time last time I was pregnant I thought I would show you all the cute pictures I have of some of my showers that were thrown for me.  My sweet sister and sister-in-law put this together for me.  




Owl cupcakes and m&ms.  So yummy and so easy!
You know how hard it is to find a specific picture on a shirt once you have it in your mind to find it?  Well, iron ons!  So easy and clever.  
Each flower is made out of two baby washcloths and a cute little button in pinned in the middle.
Mom picked up this cute canvas basket from Target.  We use it as Eleanor's hamper.  
My sister picked up this cute owl sign at Kirklands.  It ended up matching her room perfectly!
Pink, pink, pink!
Another iron on!


I will have to do another post on the game we played.  I had never played it--which is saying a lot for shower games.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Repurposed embroidery hoops

So, I have been needing to do something with my entryway for forever.  For the longest time we had a large glass mirror that we had removed from our bathroom last year.  I broke it last week, and now it sits in the garage until we decide how to get rid of it.  I mean it is huge!

I love projects, but I really love projects that I can do start to finish by myself and it doesn't take forever.  This project is just that.


Last weekend my sweet father saved mes some frames and embroidery hoops to see if I wanted to use them in the house.  I took the hoops as I had seen several pics on Pinterest showing them with different pieces of fabric in each circle.  I like the hoops because they can take up a lot of wall space and make a big impact.

I decided to use maps instead of fabric.  Fortunately, Denton has this amazing store called Scrap.   A dream store for DIYers.  I snagged these maps for 50 cents each and was able to find a few more hoops for the same price as well.  Score!

A few tips: First map I cut in a circle a little larger than the hoop, planning on gluing it to the middle hoop before putting the larger hoop on.  What a pain.  Next one I cut in a square, placed over the smaller hoop and pressed the larger hoop on it.  No glue or tape involved!  I cut off the excess after the hoops were secure.

Start to finish this was done in an hour with a crawling baby trying to eat my maps!

Although not my original plan, I did end up choosing maps of most of the places Anthony and I have traveled together, so it was a little more personal. And I love how it turned out!


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Cloth Diapering Dilemma

Oh, cloth diaper.  I honestly can't remember why I initially wanted to do cloth diapering.  I am sure that living in hippie Denton had something to do with it, and of course, saving money, I am a big fan of that.

Right now I am in the midst of nasty poops from the little one and desperately needing a disposable liner that contains it all.  Any advice in that department would be great.  It was especially difficult during the intense first trimester nausea and vomiting.  I would have to, and still do, but peppermint oil on my nose, spray the room, and have everything prepped and ready to go.  Fingers crossed, I hope that the vomiting over poppy diapers is over because heaven knows the poopy diapers are not!!

Fortunately, I have given myself grace to not always have her in cloth diapers.  When we go out or when I know a gross one is coming, I just throw on a disposable.  The cloth diapers have already paid for themselves, so a disposable ever now and then is okay by me!

We use BumGenius because that was the only brand carried by a major store around here.  And even then, we had to order them online.  Despite that we have been very pleased with the diaper.  (Actually, now that I am looking back at the website, Target does carry several other brands, but I think we opted with BumGenius because I could buy several together for a discounted price.)

Overall, we have been very pleased with the diaper.  Initially, right after Eleanor was born, for probably a month or so, her legs were so skinny that stuff just slide right out the leg whole.  We did have some leakage problems at night once she got a little older, but we just added a newborn insert with a regular insert = problem solved.

Now if I could just find a liner that I am happy with...

Advice?

Thursday, October 9, 2014

My little weed collector

I am sitting by my front window in my very comfy lazy boy with a red warm blanket wrapped around my always freezing toes even though I think it is like 95 outside.  For reals, people.  It is a good thing I already got out for the day.  I always pictured in my house I would have a nice large window overlooking my kitchen sink with some picturesque view of a garden with roses or falling colored leaves or at least the visual opportunity to be a noisy neighbor under the guise of doing dishes.  Well, this days I do a lot more sitting than washing dishes, so the view out my front window from my comfy chair is a-mazing.


So, this last spring I planted a little raised bed and gathered some plants from the local nursery determined to grow produce for our little family and take cute pictures of my success and make strawberry jelly and take pictures of those to make people jealous and and...that basically did not happen.

There was this random freeze like in April.  I mean it is October and feels like summer, but we freeze in April.  That killed off 3 of my zucchini plants and both bean plants.  Good thing though because the remaining squash plants were huge.  Who know?  Certainly not me, the person who did absolutely zero research prior to gardening.  I did get some squash, and they looked great on the plant, albeit tiny.  But I am pretty sure they were not edible, and they looked nothing like the ones at the store-even the ugly ones at the store.

Currently, my little plot is collecting tall grass and maybe a snake or two. Does anyone have any tips for the newbie, lazy gardener??


Try, try again,