The Park, Decorations, and Playtime

At the end of last week, we had several days that the weather was just beautiful and perfect for spending the day outside (before our latest snow storm hit that is...). So on Thursday, the 3 of us went to our favorite duck pond and got to feed the geese while Bradley sat and watched:

We all had a very good time! Another thing I finished last week was a runner for the buffet table in my extra dining room that I am redoing. Here is the finished product:

I actually have enough fabric left to probably make 2 more! But I am going to use that for curtains and a valance to replace the dreadful tweed thing covering the window now.

Since I've been working every weekend, I always like to enjoy some quality time with my two favorite boys after I sleep for a bit on Sundays. Today I brought Bradley upstairs with us, and watched him play around on the floor. He isn't crawling yet, but is getting closer and closer. He is pretty good and scooting backwards now, and is started to rock back and forth on his hands and knees. Here is a video of him playing with our squeaky bedroom door!

To end with, I am excited about tomorrow because Bradley and I have our first mommy playgroup to go to! It is a meetup group I found online in Norman for moms, and this will be my first time to attend a meetup. This particular get-together is for babies 9 months and under, so I will be sure to take pictures! I'm sure we'll have a great time. Brad LOVES to see other babies. And then Thursday is his 9 month checkup, and Friday he will be 9 months old!! Wow. Check back later on!

Photo Thursday

Posting From Work...

Not too much new here, just the same old thing. Hubby is on spring break this week, so I am picking up MORE extra shifts...ugh. The paycheck will be nice though so I have to keep that in mind.

I recently got into Facebook after coming to terms with the death of Myspace (figuratively speaking of course). It's ok, but I preferred the personalization that Myspace offered. Facebook is just statuses and pictures. But I digress....I deleted my Myspace because I should only have one addiction at a time. Over the months I have slowly but surely found several people from my past that I had lost contact with. This includes people that I went to church with as a child, and just last week I found a bunch of people from the private school I went to from age 5 to 11! That was very interesting to look through all of their pictures and see how people turned out--some good, some not so good--and to look at pictures of my old school. It really is a good way to keep in contact with old friends.

My little boy is doing well, I won't accept that he is going to be NINE months old next week!!! Wow. I swear to you ever since I had him, time has sped up even faster than it was going before! Seriously, March is half over people! Geez. His top teeth have come down a little more, and ever since they broke through he started waking up at about 7am instead of his usual 8:30/9am. I didn't like that much but whatever. Well over this weekend evidently he is sleeping in a lot later for his daddy! That must be nice--hopefully he'll keep it up after Nick goes back to school.

He is getting more squirmy and active these days. Still no crawling, but he can scootch himself backwards pretty well, and of course pivot around in a circle. He has taken to flipping over onto his stomach at night and many times we find him that way when we check on him. Yesterday Nick left him on the floor downstairs with his toys and came up to see me before I went to work. When we both went down there to check him, he was somehow in his little bouncy chair! I'm not quite sure what he did or how he did it, but I know we missed something good!

Well as the title says, I am posting this from work. So I must bid you adieu and get back to my patient! Have a good night all, only 8 more hours until I can go to bed :)

What I've Been Up To...

These are also for sale in my shop kandyskrafts.blogspot.com :)

I am going to be doing my first craft show next month with a friend from work!! I am more than nervous because I can't even recall ever going to one, much less selling at one! I am going to have to do some major brainstorming to come up with things that people will actually want, haha. The good thing is that we are sharing a 6ft table, so I won't be pressured to fill up a lot of space for my first time. Wish me luck!

His Father's Son

^Nick w/his mom

^Nick w/his mom, and Brad w/his great grandpa

Sewing, Knitting Groups, and a Kitty!

I apologize for taking so long to post--I can't believe how fast the time flies!! Here we are already in March...*sigh*.

I have been a busy girl lately though, so don't fret. I am in the process of making 2 Easter bibs, 2 St. Patrick's Day bibs, 2 birthday bibs, and I just finished up all of Bradley's birthday invitations! They turned out soooo adorable and they are also my first foray into cardmaking. It's amazing what you can do with a little ribbon, paper, and some stamps! Pictures of those will come soon--there's no way I can wait until June though!

Here is one of the sewing things I made (also listed in my store):

So I finally checked out the website Meetup.com and looked up some groups in my area. I found a neat knitting/crochet group that I joined, and tonight was my first get together with them! We met at Hastings in the cafe and we all knitted over coffee and chit chat--I of course crocheted because I prefer that a LOT more than knitting. My mother went with me (for moral support, lol) and we stayed about 2 hours. After that, we checked out Super Target then headed back to my house for some split pea and lentil soup over farkle. Fun times!!

To end with, I went into my closet to get dressed the other day, and look who I found sleeping on my shelves!

8 Months Old!

Yes the little guy is now 8 months old! Only 4 months away from turning ONE...yikes! It was a little harder to get him to sit still for these pictures, so they are not as nice as I was wanting. I imagine it will only get more difficult!

These days you:

• are wearing size 3 diapers still
• have outgrown several of your 6-9mo clothes but we are stretching it out
• are finally getting your top 2 teeth in
• go to bed around 8-9pm and usually sleep about 12 hours
• take two 1-2hr naps per day
• eat three meals a day, solids first then an 8oz bottle
• are doing very well with solids and chunkier foods
• can feed yourself cereal, crackers, and food chunks
  
• are getting better using a sippy cup once a day (for now)
• are not crawling yet, but won't sit still any more
• have attempted to pull yourself up
• say "babababa"
• instantly go for any necklace/earrings that I am wearing
  

That is about it for now! I have been very busy all day, and I have to go to work this whole weekend. I am almost doing embroidering some new holiday bibs for Bradley (and for sale) for St. Patrick's Day and Easter--I will put pics up as soon as I get done with them. Tata for now!

Working On a New Skill

Not me, but him! He may not be crawling yet, but he is starting to {attempt} pull up on things!

We will have to keep an eye on this little monkey! And now for some naked baby pics...don't worry, he's got a diaper on!

He is still working on his top two teeth coming down. He's a little cranky here and there, but nothing the occasional dose of Tylenol doesn't fix.

My mom got him a box of baby mum mums for her house, as well as a high chair. So he is loving it over there even more than before! And I love it too, because it is so much easier to feed and entertain him. And we all know that a full baby is a happy baby!

I made a onesie out of a youth t-shirt and appliqued a guitar on the front. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first one *almost* from scratch. Unfortunately when I rejoined the back panel after shortening the collar, I made it too tight and now the stupid thing is too narrow. Grr. Better luck next time huh.

Today is my stepdad's birthday, and I am embroidered a sweatshirt for him. We are celebrating it tomorrow with a cookout. I am also going to embroider a St. Patrick's Day bib for my little one, and possibly a cute Easter one too! Pictures will follow....

A Birthday and Biscuits

February 17th was my mother's birthday (I won't tell how old she is...) and I had a bunch of little presents up my sleeve to give her. I got her 4 fancy belts (beige, brown, red and turquoise), a photo album, a ring holder, 6 crocheted and knitted washcloths, and this lovely apron that I made from my fabric scrap pile!

Yes I freehand drew the rooster (her kitchen is roosters) and appliqued it onto the fabric, then for the tie I used bias tape and sewed lace around the edges. Very cute!

Some mornings my mumsy comes over while Nick is in class and we have coffee and chit chat or play farkle. One of those days last week I gave Bradley some biter biscuits that my friend Sara got for him, and he went to town! Those things are soooo messy, so I figured after eating one he may as well have another. He was a happy boy!

Today after I slept from working last night, we met my dad at Jason's Deli for dinner. We all got the salad bar and it was so delicious! They have such a good variety of healthy things to choose from. I got low fat honey mustard dressing and it was pretty tangy! I let Bradley gnaw on some broccoli florets.

And the big news is...while we were waiting for my dad to get there I was holding Bradley on my lap and bouncing him. I heard a new strange sound from his mouth, like grinding teeth. I thought maybe he had gotten something in his mouth? So I opened his mouth up and looked, and he WAS grinding his teeth--he new top teeth!! They have just barely broken the gumline and you have to look really close, but they are there! That explains why he hasn't been sleeping well the last few nights. I was wondering when he would finally get those because he has had his bottom teeth for 3 1/2 months. I am happy that now I can feed him more foods like toast and Cheerios since he will be able to chew.

Latest Craftings

Some of you have heard of Baby Legs...but who wants to pay that much?? Not me. So I found a way to make my own! They are made out of adult knee-high socks and I have had several pairs sitting around for months that I've been meaning to make. Well I finally got around to it, and was able to whip out 5 pairs in about 20 minutes! Bradley likes them too...

They just slip on in place of pants, and that way you don't have to fuss with them when you change diapers....or when they pee through their diaper...

Other than that, things are buzzing along nicely here. I am working some extra shifts these days because there are several Mondays that Nick doesn't have classes. I am remembering how much I do not like working 3 shifts in a row. Ugh.

Nick had jury duty today and we were really excited about the whole thing, except that it only lasted 2 hours because after he was selected to be a juror the guy plead guilty and it was done with! Oh well, maybe next time.

There are several people in my family who have birthdays coming up, so I have mostly been busy making things for them. I am also working on a birthday bunting for Bradley and I am almost done with it. It is turning out very nice! I made it neutral colors so it can be used for anybody's birthday (good thing since we all have bdays in the summer).

"Before" Room Redo

Here is the post I promised with the "before" of my extra dining room. We used to have a pool table in there, but we got rid of it because we never used it. Our Duncan Phyfe table is in the other dining room and the rooms are all open with the living room and this room. So we really need to do something nice with it!

While we were temporarily living in the city, we bought a 6-drawer black dresser for our bedroom. But when we moved back, we didn't need it in our room because we each have our own closet with built in dressers. So with my mother's help I decided to keep it downstairs and use it as a buffet table in this room. I should probably finish getting our clothes out of it though...

First I had to pick a color scheme, and I decided to go with blue and cream since I have blue towels and washcloths in the kitchen. I went to Hobby Lobby and chose this for my dominant fabric and print.

This is wall art that I made with foam board. I simply glued the print fabric to the back, then the hard part was freehand drawing the P onto the cream fabric and cutting it out and gluing it on. I am also doing one for Bradley's room that will be animal print with a black B on it!

Next are the washcloths I've been making for presents. This first batch has a crocheted and a knitted cloth for each color.

And these are for a coworker and also listed in my shop if you want some!

Scrappers Unite

Sorry for the hiatus I've been on I really don't know what happens to my time. This past week I have been busy crocheting and knitting little things for some birthdays coming up, and I got three more orders for hats so that is always nice!! And I am proud to say that I have finally jumped back into scrapbooking since I am slightly behind...

The way I am doing pictures now that we have Bradley is a bit different. You know how mothers think every single picture of their baby is the cutest? Well I am guilty of that too, but I know that I can not clog up our regular albums with random pictures of cuteness. So what I am going to do is have an ongoing "family" album with holidays, birthdays, and vacations in it. Then I have an ongoing "growth" album for Bradley where his monthly pics and milestones (like sitting, eating solids, crawling, etc) will be, and THEN I have a regular slip-the-pics-in big fat album just for all his cute little stuff that I don't have to worry about fussing with! I think it should work out good.

Over the years I have played with all different sizes of albums to see what I like best, and what is more scrapper-friendly. I tend to do 8x8's for single events, like when I went to Jamaica, or when we went to Italy. Then our ongoing one is 8.5x11 because that is a bigger page to fit more pictures on. I have done a couple 12x12 and I can officially say I do not like them. It is too much room to fill up--I get overwhelmed just looking at each blank page! And the stupid things don't even fit in my bookcase so I do not do them anymore.

That is the funny thing about scrapbooking for so long--the different things that come out through the years. Back in the day, my mom and I used to scrapbook before scrapbooking was cool. You had VERY limited options. I'm talking construction paper, and some tacky stickers and stencils. We made do with what we had, but when I look back at it now, it looks very dated--kind of like when you look at a picture of yourself from the 90's....HAHA. So yeah, now days there is all kinds of fancy doodads and whatsits that you can buy to make your page as fancy or as elegant as you want. And man let me tell you those things can get expensive!!

I strictly stick to sales and refuse to buy anything full price. Everytime I go to the craft store, I peruse the scrapbooking aisles just to see if anything speaks to me, or to pick up stickers and embellishments for things that I know I will be doing in the future. Like recently I've been keeping my eye out for GRADUATION stuff since hubby will become a college graduate in December!! Yay! Also I'm looking for cute birthday/first birthday type stuff since you-know-who will be ONE in June...yikes.

Yep, so that's what I've been doing lately! Sorry I don't have any pics right now to show you, just a lot of reading! And if you read all of this, thank you :)