Gavin's Quilt

Every baby should have a quilt.  If your baby doesn't have one, I highly recommend getting one.  My grandma's tradition was that all babies got one.  The baby quilt she made me was yellow and blue floral prints in the shape of butterflies.  It's bound and backed in a cute blue heart print.  It's so special to me, and now when Gavin spends the night at my parents' house, he sleeps with it.  The blue and yellow make it manly.  All that to say, I made my first quilt for my boy Gavin.  I bought a book and fabric at Hobby Lobby.  Then I came home and channeled my Grandma Dalene and made this little baby:

I'm in love with this collection of fabrics from Hobby Lobby.  I think it's their Brothers and Sisters line. The teal fabric and the sheep fabric were both additions from my grandma's collection.  I think it's always fun to have one fabric that doesn't quite fit.  Somehow it always makes the quilt look co-ordinated, and keeps it from looking too "matchy".  

It used to be on the wall above his bed, because I was worried that he would get baby stuff on it.  But I caved.

Now it fits perfectly on his crib.  The first thing he does when he's in his crib is pull it off the side.  He's rolled all over it, and I no longer care if anything gets on it.  It's beautiful, but it's his to use.

It matches his crib skirt perfectly!

Now my boy plays on that quilt.  It makes me so happy : )

Capturing even this was tricky.  He's a moving target.

Our Tiny First Apartment

On Facebook today, I was looking at some old pictures, when I came across the pictures of our first apartment.  It was campus married housing.  Small. And $475 a month.  Did I mention that it was small?

Our "kitchen" had a table that tripled as a table, desk, and microwave holder.  We didn't even have enough space to hold our microwave!  Everything looked so shiny and new (well, it was).  Plus, it looks a lot less cluttered than our current apartment.  Maybe having a baby changes how cluttered things are/look.

The highlights:

The magnetic calendar on the fridge ruined my laptop in that apartment~  whoops!

It might sound strange, but I loved that tiny kitchen.  Putting away our wedding gifts as a new bride in that tiny room was so fun.  Everything was new, and we loved it.  That sign "I kiss better than I cook" still hangs above my stove now.  I still love the red.

Yep.  Only enough counter space for a bottle of soap!

When I told my brother that I had been in bathroom stalls that were larger than our bathroom floor space, he doubted me!  I have proof!  Plus, he came to visit and laughed for a few minutes at our tiny bathroom.

This one reminds me of all those times on HGTV when they suggest putting a water heater in the MIDDLE of an apartment.  Such a conversation piece.  Also, it's an eyesore.  We ended up getting a folding screen to cover it up a little bit.  Please note that there was also no linen closet.  Thank you Target for selling us garage shelving to make a hall closet.

Dash Dolls

All nail polishes are not created equal (ly.  It needs the ly, but it has more of a grammatically incorrect sounds good kinda vibe.  I digress.)  Feeling like the thrifty missy that I want to be, I would stock up on the cheapest dollar-a-piece nail polishes. Target, drug stores, whatever.  If it was cheap, I figured style on a budget.  Until I splurged on these babies.

  I happen to love anything Kardashian.  Except Rob.  Why don't I feel like I like him?  Is it because he's a boy?  Who knows.  My sister and I both, however, agree that LAMAR is our FAV Kardashian.  The only thing I don't really love is how they mis-spell words to be cutesy.  Not a fan of mis-spelled kitschy words, but I get that it's about the branding.  So far I have five of them.  They go on pretty thick, but they dry very nicely.  My current favorite is Khloe had a Little Lam Lam.  But we do love the Odom-Kardashians best. : )

Don't you love how Kris is the only one showing her nails.  Plus she's SHOVED into the BACK!  LOL!

You know it's good when...

You know that you've picked out a great kind of soap when your husband comes out of the bathroom smelling his hands.  Then you curiously ask, "What are you doing?"  He then replies, "What's this soap? It smells good."  If I can get my husband to like a product that's pretty much all natural, but a little girly looking and vintage...then it's a win.

Thus I present to you another way to go green, plus a product that is down-right wonderful (and husband approved!)

Yes, it's a little pricey.  But it smells amazing, and I have to give credit to a company that makes things that are designed to be natural and safe.  Especially since I have a very curious young man at my home who is into everything.  And I have a baby.  Besides, once school is out I'm going to try out a tutorial on how to make my own refills of Mrs. Meyers soaps on the cheap.  But more on that later.

Who left the mop running?

First I must include a picture from my FAVORITE Disney movie.  (Note the quote)

But anyway, this is about a new mop that I love!  It's one of my goals to become more environmentally friendly.  I think of it as all a part of being a good steward of what I have, and that includes taking steps to keep the Earth clean.  Plus, it's really embarrassing when you have tons of trash outside your house for garbage day.  I know.

Nobody is giving me any money to write this, though I could sure use it!  : )  But I love the O-Cedar spray mist mop.




It's great because you can refill it with any cleaner you want (just make sure to dilute it), and you can use whatever mop pads you want as well.  If you want to go disposable, you can.  If you want to use some reusable Shark mop pads or the O-Cedar ones, it's up to you!  Today I used the Shark one, and then two disposable.  I know the disposable isn't green, but I had them for a Swiffer mop that I had that I didn't like.  I just wanted to use them up.  I always pick up so much dirt on them that I immediately get concerned that my floor before was filthy!  Does anyone else do that?  But then I get distracted and I don't think about it anymore.

Check it out, it's amazing.  Plus, if you missed Celebrity Apprentice, you should see The Hulk dance with this mop.  So funny.

Hello, Gorgeous

What is this new thing of wonder?  Why, it's my new sewing machine.  By new, I mean that I got it for Christmas from my in-laws, but have yet to post anything about it.  But all that has changed.  It quilts without those tiny little annoying snags!  It adjusts tension!  I can chose the needle down feature!  All of these things are things the other machine didn't do.  Plus, I read the entire manual from cover to cover, so now I know what everything does and how to use it.  Did I mention that it came with a zipper foot and a walking foot?  Oh the joys of this machine.  The only down side is you have to choose which speed you want on a dial for slow, med, and fast.  But the nice thing is that if you accidentally push the pedal too hard which I always never do, then you don't have any accidents.  I have already used it to alter our high school's tin man costume.  This brings me to my next point.  


Person who made the costume in the first place:

WHY ON GOD'S GREAN EARTH DID YOU USE SILVER TISSUE LAME'?  DO YOU HATE ME?  IT'S EXACTLY LIKE SEWING TWO TISSUES TOGETHER!  ONE SNEEZE AND THE COSTUME IS IN PIECES!

I'm sorry to type in that tone of voice, but I really do feel better now.  Phew!  But seriously...never again with the tissue lame'.  I hate that junk.  NEVER!

Pintrest To Do List

Gotta love Pintrest.  Here is my Pintrest to-do list.  Hopefully it will soon be a done list!

 

Chevron Quilt

I love this quilt.  Chevrons are so popular right now, and this tutorial makes it seem pretty easy.  Love to do this for the boy!

Baseball Quilt

I'm thinking that this would be really cute for Gavin's first birthday party...But it needs to be backed in a Cubs fabric.  

Baby Shadow Box

 I have baby boy's going home from the hospital all clean and ready to put in here.  It was a very cute outfit...which he HATED. 

Adorable and unique baby pants

I've made these rugs before.  My grandma used to make them all the time for us.  Now those rugs have all seen better days.  It's been a pseudo goal for me to try and replace some of them.  I can't replace the memories with them, but I can carry on the tradition.

But I CANNOT do anything until school is over.  Right now my plate is full.  Maybe I'll get some stuff on Etsy as well, who knows?

To be continued...