Spastic Babble

Baby blanket

2012-02-13T21:19:00.001-06:00

I made it up! Not bad for a random project in a week.

Lamberts

2012-02-05T23:53:00.001-06:00

Em can say she's been to the "home of the thrower rolls".

She had an excellent time with me and Nana and even played with a balloon! (when she wasn't trying to eat it)

Beach in January?

2012-02-05T23:51:00.001-06:00

The weather was perfect. Emily loved it.

She walks!!

2012-02-05T23:50:00.001-06:00

Emily is walking nonstop. Rarely falling, but always pushing her limits. So prod of her. No more baby, we have a toddler!!

Emily turns 1

2011-12-31T19:21:00.000-06:00

Bath time after...

here's what the set up looked like...

Big Girl

2011-12-17T22:01:00.001-06:00

Today this kid took her first step.

Two days ago she learned to sign please.

The day before that I swear I heard her first word. I said "say cheese!" as I held up the phone/ camera and she said it. I was giddy.

Today we also took her first birthday photos but those will not debut until her bday on the 27th. :)

Finally

2011-12-09T22:12:00.001-06:00

Sitting in our new house. :)

Maybe

2011-12-08T22:10:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow we could be in our new house. :)

Shopping

2011-12-02T23:31:00.001-06:00

It's amazing what a friend can do to lift your spirits. A friend and a little retail therapy.

😊

Hair funk

2011-12-02T23:30:00.001-06:00

This is what Emily's pigtails look like after the elastics are out

Before and after photos

Rant

2011-12-02T10:39:00.000-06:00

We are in a hotel. It's a very nice place with free laundry.
There are 4 washers and 8! dryers because the washers are so fast.
Over an hour ago someone had taken all 4 washers. Which I understand, you've got laundry to do, and so you do it.
But these people did not move there stuff to the dryer. And it was done for over an hour.
So I was a bad person. I piled their wet white clothes onto another one of their washers and filled it with my ONE load of laundry.
I need clean jeans to wear to meet David's unit today.

I don't even feel bad.
Because in a public place, you need to be considerate of others.
(and I was as considerate as time allowed- we have to be there at 2!)

Happy December

2011-12-02T09:14:00.000-06:00

Pending the inspection, we'll be in our new house by next week!
(As renters so that we can get out of this hotel while closing paperwork goes through.)

Peek a boo

2011-11-29T22:35:00.001-06:00

Emily was sweet today playing peekaboo and insisting on sitting in my lap to play blocks and read books.

Also, it seems we may be homeowners in the very near future.

11 Months, yesterday

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-06:00

Updates:
We moved to Florida.
Emily is 11 Months old.
Maybe I'll blog again. Thanks Court.
We're living in a hotel.
We put in an offer on a house.
I'll keep that info updated.

Today was an adventure. I did all the laundry down the hall (free laundry yay!) and hauled it all back in one basket with Emily on top. Very safe. Em took a nap and then we headed to base (a different one) to the hospital to get a flu shot for each of us. After a ridiculous amount of paperwork we FINALLY were taken back. Emily's shot was in her thigh, and she looked at the guy like "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? I SMILED AT YOU!!!" She let out a pathetic cry of betrayal and whimpered some but I was proud of her not screaming her head off. Poor baby. Then she got a short (late) nap, we ran to sign papers to put in an offer on a house here (home owners in the possible future), and had Pizza Hut for dinner. Yes, my 11 month old ate pepperoni pizza FOR DINNER and then had a bottle of FORMULA and went to bed at 645pm. BAM.

My Little Chef

2011-05-29T19:44:00.001-05:00

Today I got an inkling to make chocolate chip cookies. This was because of my Aunt-in-law Laree's post about the best chocolate chip cookies.

Now, I believe that I have one of the best recipes for chocolate chip cookies, given to me by my father. He's famous among our family for them, and I am now famous among friends here for them as well.

You can find my recipe at the end of this post.

Now, my little helper was ready for our kitchen adventure- minus one aspect. She needed a chef's hat. So I sat upstairs next to my craft stuff and tried to think of a way to create one. Either I needed white paper or white cloth. And then my gaze traveled to some tube socks from a tie-dye experiment last year. I measured Emily's head, and determined that I needed three socks. I sliced them up their side, stitched around the bottom band, and turned the top into wedges. It was about ten minutes of making things up. My result?

I even impressed myself.

My little helper was happy to model her new hat:

And of course, she wanted to help me cook.

Dad's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter

1/2 c White Sugar

3/4 c Brown Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

2 Large Eggs

1 bag chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Blend together dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

In your mixer put the butter and sugars together. Blend until creamy.

Then add the eggs and vanilla, blend well again.

Slowly add the dry ingredients now, making sure to scrape the bowl occasionally.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Each cookie should be 1/4 cup of dough. On my biggest pan I only fit 8 cookies.

Cook about 14 minutes or until the bottom edges are just brown.

Tips:

* The butter must be at room temperature- OR! if you're a last minute planner like me, nuke it for 15 seconds on power level 5 (out of ten). Soft, not cold, but not melted either.

* Use REAL vanilla. We like to stock up when we travel to Mexico- or when we have a friend doing so. Also, I always add extra.

*For the chocolate, I always use semi sweet. I find milk chocolate to be too rich. Also, I use about 3/4 of a bag.

* Yes, each cookie should be big- 1/4 cup of dough. Leave plenty of room between them.

* Line the baking sheet with parchment or foil, its a quick clean up

* I put my cookies to cool on brown bags from my groceries (my dad's trick).

* Don't forget the glass of milk when enjoying these!

Crafty

2011-05-29T19:20:00.000-05:00

I've been fairly crafty lately, and I'd love to share a few projects.

I've been making hair bows for Emily. Hot glue, ribbon and clips from Sally's (100 for $6!).

To display these, I realized that Em needs a hair bow holder.
I didn't want to pay any money and found an adorable frame upstairs to fill with ribbon and more hot glue.

Here is my result:

Now, it's obvious that she needs another or bigger display. Especially since I intend to make more bows for her!

Here is Emily modeling a couple that I made:

Easy fun cheap projects are my specialty!

I've also been sewing small monsters out of scrap fabric. If I ever finish any of them, I'll post photos!

5 Month Photos

2011-05-28T07:57:00.001-05:00

These are Emily's first photos by a photographer other than her mom.

This dress was mine, and my mother's before that.

This outfit and matching hat was mine as well.

Drool

2011-05-28T07:39:00.000-05:00

Teething.

It's quite the dreaded word for moms.

Emily has unfortunately hit this stage a little early. Small buds can be felt under her gums.

Of course, if that wasn't proof enough, she drools like a fiend. Everything goes into this kid's mouth, and is coated with baby spit within seconds. (She licked my knee again. Weirdest feeling EVER!)

Emily goes through about four outfits a day. Mainly to keep her dry.

I let her gum a vanilla wafer yesterday. It was funny to see her expression. It was probably the first thing she's chewed on with a yummy taste. Mind you, I doubt she sees it as food. Since she enjoyed it so much, I bought her some baby cookies yesterday at Walmart (I swear that store should just reserve me a parking spot). It will be messy to hold while she gums them, but I think she'll like the new experience.

So far she's tried carrots, bananas, and peas. It's hard to tell if she likes them or not, mostly she just looks at me as if to say "Um... where's my bottle?"

And speaking of bottles!! BREASTFEEDING IS OVER. Hallelujah! It's been days since I've pumped and I'm relishing every minute. I put away my ugly nursing bras. I packed up the pumping parts and gazillion bottles that go along with it. Emily had breastmilk until she was 4 months and 3 weeks. I'm proud of making it that far (exclusively pumping!!) but I'm super happy to be done.

One big reason to stop was a new prescription for shoulder pain. Tendinitis (spell check says this is spelled right, I think it looks wrong) in my shoulder was what made me quit my job back in 2009 and apparently carrying around a baby brings it back. My new meds are incompatible with breastfeeding, and I'm not sad about it.

An even bigger reason to stop is a trip we have coming up in two weeks. We are travelling literally across the country. One coast to the next for Emily's uncle's wedding. Over ten hours of travelling each way with no access to a breast pump just sounded terribly painful.

That trip will be fantastic because Emily will get to meet her aunt, new uncle, uncle and soon to be new aunt. Can't wait to see you all!

Miniatures

2011-05-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, I cannot wait until Emily is old enough for me to stock her a dollhouse.

Miniature stuff is SO CUTE!!!

Like the things on Etsy here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Tinyzone

and here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bethsittybitties

and here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Mycraftgarden

Time Flies!

2011-05-18T07:29:00.001-05:00

It amazes me daily how big Emily has gotten. She's learned so much and continues to show me something new each day.

She can roll over both ways (when she remembers that she knows how), she holds her head up perfectly, and puts weight on her legs- she much prefers to stand (with help of course). Em will reach for toys (and almost always makes contact) and pull them to her mouth to gnaw on.

Her noises have definitely become playful and communicative. She has a different yell for "where are you" verses "mr. toy i need to EAT YOU" She's so funny to watch. We heard her first giggles this week. It made my heart melt. I love to hear her babble to herself when she plays alone, but she's quiet when she's out in the world.

Emily currently sits in my lap, pushing out a very smell poop. When she poops she holds her breath and lets out a long grunt. Then does it over again until the room stinks. Gotta love this kid, she never fails to entertain.

If the tv is on, this girl cannot tear her eyes away from it. She will wiggle around to position herself so that she can watch it more comfortably. Notice in this photo that she is nowhere near her toys anymore. Yesterday she was playing with my iphone, hitting the "baby piano" keys that play music and animal noises.

Bed head after yesterdays pigtails...

My little hoochie mama, she loves to play with loose tops and EAT THEM!

Here Em is skyping with her Nana.

Emily is currently cutting her first tooth. Everything she owns is now wet with drool, and even a few things she doesn't (like yesterday when she decided to gnaw on my knee). When I give her tylenol she is in a much better mood, so I know that something's happening in those little gums. She smacks her lips, and sticks her tongue out and even started blowing spit bubbles. All of it must help her mouth feel a tiny bit better. I continue to refrigerate her teething rings (I call them chew toys) and she ATTACKS them when they are cold. The little booger cracks me up.

A friend and I took Emily on a walk a couple of days ago. She had these on, a blanket canopy and spf gazillion. While she was unbothered by the sun, I ended up with a sunburn. =)

On May 27th she will be five months old.

Confession

2011-05-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

Today I was outsmarted by a playpen.

I had to kick it to get it to fully collapse.

I had to SIT ON the wrap around part to get it to close fully.

Once the velcro met itself around again I realized I didn't take the sheet off.

By that point I was laughing and laying on the ground next to it in defeat.

Playpen 1
Jess 0

(David conquered it)

Sucky

2011-04-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Life sure sucks when the entire family is sick.

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You

2011-04-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

A Work in Progress

2011-04-08T13:02:00.002-05:00

Bed Head

2011-04-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

Mommy's a photographer

2011-04-06T20:22:00.002-05:00

Emily and I were sitting on the couch yesterday and the lighting was so beautiful that I had to grab my camera.

Here are the results.

(EDIT: Only the ones on the blue blanket have been edited. I'll add more/ cleaner ones tomorrow)

Liars at the Doctor's office

2011-04-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

The military medical system is one giant FAILURE.

(Except for the free part)

Emily had three immunizations today- two shots and one oral.

That's right, three. That means that the stupid nurse on the phone that said, "The two month appointment is a big one, they get seven shots!" was a BIG FAT LIAR.

Way to freak me out over nothing people. Thanks.

Our appointment was at 9 at the pediatrician on base. David was able to meet me there, yay! The woman we see is very nice and actually seems to know her stuff. She even gave me a prescription for baby Tylenol to have ready when Emily got her shots.

So we walked down to immunizations (yes, it's a separate office- same hallway) and I realized I forgot her immunization card. But they've got to have it on record right?

So the ~~kid~~ corpsman at the desk asks me if she's had both Hep B shots. I say, I don't know. I remember one a few days before we left the hospital. He says that they get one at birth and a month later, did she have both? I tell him that I have no idea, can they just do it again as a bonus shot? He says that no, they can't do that and that I should go home and find it because they have to know that.

I searched our house for an hour trying to find this thing. I remember the nurse handing it to me, and I knew I put it somewhere safe. Safe but hidden I guess. It's amazing how stuff gets put away (or not) after you get home from a long hospital stay. While I was looking I talked to a nurse where she was born who told me she had an immunization in January. But not that she had two. THEN I found the card, which also only said January.

So we go BACK to base (minus David this time who can only leave work so many times in a day) and I get to the desk and hand over her card and tell him that this is the info that I have. I was damn proud of my finding skills- and he didn't even care.

Once we get back in the room and the other (different) corpsman pulls out Emily's paperwork, I tell him that I'm not sure about her Hep B but that she had at least one.

He holds up a piece of paper with BOTH FREAKING SHOTS DOCUMENTED ON IT.

WHAT THE FRICK PEOPLE? Someone dropped the freaking ball here. Thanks for wasting my time.

I hate doctors, I hate the military, and I hate that damn kid at the immunization desk.

Tears

2011-04-06T07:37:00.000-05:00

I had three different dreams last night where I cried.

They were very dramatic.

Once I broke seashells that were bright orange and very important to a pregnant lady.
That was a sad cry.

Another time someone was holding Emily and decided to go swimming underwater with her.
That was an angry cry.
Mom you were there.

And anther time I saw the Little Mermaid as a play with swimmers.
That was a happy cry.
Lisa you were there.

I wonder if maybe I was unconsciously crying over this morning's doctor's appointment? Em is about to get seven shots. Wish us luck....

Bath Time

2011-04-04T20:30:00.001-05:00

This one's for you mom. Love you!

A Trip Home

2011-04-04T13:34:00.002-05:00

We spent last week visiting family- everyone met Emily for the first time!

It's a 16 hour drive halfway across the country. I was apprehensive as Emily is not a fan of her car seat, but she did so well! We rented a Toyota Highlander to take with us since we were supposed to be receiving presents at a party for the baby. We totally filled that thing up on the way back, we couldn't have taken our own cars.

I sat in the back with Em while David drove up front. It gave me the privacy I needed to pump (yup, every two hours I whipped the ladies out to get the baby her milk. It was amusing), while allowing me to feed Emily when she needed it.

She did so AMAZING, sleeping most of the time and calmly watching me when she was awake.

David did well too... I rented Harry Potter 4 and 7 from the library on a CD to listen to during the drive. We made it through all of 7 and then a few CDs into 4. I couldn't believe how much faster the drive went when we were listening.

The only car trouble we had was on our way back. After over ten hours on the first day of our return drive, Emily got car sick and projectiled onto me twice. We quickly decided that we were finished driving and stopped for the night.

While home, we were insanely busy. Every meal of every day was planned out to allow everyone maximum time to spend with the baby. We got home on a Thursday afternoon and managed to see both of our immediate families that night. The next day Emily was a three different meals with three sets of family and Saturday was our big party. Five hours of people holding her made her so tired that she refused to fall asleep and I had to nurse her that night to get her to finally pass out. Soon after I got a gall bladder attack, it was so horrendous that I had to take TWO percocet to make the pain go away. I was so out of it that when I pumped at 2 am (about three hours after I took the medicine), I fell asleep sitting up in bed.

On Sunday was Emily's blessing. She did so well and stayed so quiet all through the blessing and then the rest of church. I on the other hand was having a percocet hangover and was BARELY able to stay awake for a lot of the day. Then we headed over to the in-laws where they hosted my family as well as theirs for lunch and baby time.

Monday and Tuesday were both busy. We took time to get photos of everyone with Emily, including a few big family shots. Tuesday morning I photographed a friend's new baby, Micah was only 9 days old. He was such a sweet baby, easy to work with. Afterward I bought David lunch. We both marveled at the fact that we used money that I had just earned. (It's been awhile since I've made any income for us.)

It was good to come back home where we could slow down again and get Emily back into a routine. She can't figure out why people aren't holding her 24/7 anymore. I think she's sad.

Photos from the trip:

These are from Sunday when Emily was blessed-

There were a lot of people coming to the party, so we had to make a lot of sandwiches.

Emily playing with her Uncle Mike-

Four generations of women-

Mawmaw and Pawpaw with their Great Granddaughter-

Emily and her Aunt A-

Emily and her uncle M-

Emily and her Aunt S, Aunt S made that adorable hat for her!

David's family-

Emily and Grandpa Mark

Emily and her Nana

Bonus Photo: My mom made this AWESOME diaper cake!

Mommy and Daddy can't take a normal photo-

Tummy Time

2011-04-04T11:55:00.000-05:00

One of my mom's fur babies, Buddy

2011-04-02T15:15:00.001-05:00

I think we need an exorcism.

2011-03-18T20:17:00.001-05:00

When my mom was here visiting she asked me if Emily had ever thrown up, or if it was all spit up.

I told her I had no idea, and I wondered to myself if there was even much of a difference? She's definitely spit up a ton at certain times, and at others it's just a little.

But today was different. She went through six outfits today.

Today was a learning experience. If her normal spit up amount is a lizard then today's was GODZILLA.

The story:

She's laying on a pillow in front of me and had just finished her bottle. All of a sudden she made some fussy noises and then it EXPLODED OUT OF HER. As if she was possessed. Seriously people. She soaked herself, she soaked me, she soaked through the blankets on the bed. It was a fountain of milk. It was not pretty.

So yeah Mom, she's thrown up. Projectile. On me.

Where bugs go to die

2011-03-18T09:50:00.001-05:00

This morning when I woke up I was AWAKE!

Emily was too. She spit up on me 5 times. If there's anything left of her breakfast I'd be surprised.

Anyway. I decided to do all the laundry and clean up. Part of cleaning was airing out the house! It's a beautiful day today- going to be 80 degrees- and my house smells stale. When opening all the windows I found the bug graveyard of my house.

Here's two views of the front windowsill. Those black dots? Probably 100 bugs or more.

Eww I know. But it's behind the back of the couch, so it's not like I've ever thought about it. Yes, that is my excuse. Last week my kitchen was sanitary. I make no such claim for the rest of my house.

Just so you know, I did clean them up.

Mostly.

Internet reads

2011-03-18T09:02:00.001-05:00

When I'm up at 3 am (or 1 am, or 230, or 5 or EVERY TWO HOURS) I tend to reach for my phone for something to read while I pump/ feed Emily.

These two sites have been my favorites lately.

FML.com

This site is full of posts of issues people have had in life. "F my life"
It's sometimes hysterical. Makes me glad I'm not them.

Dooce.com

Warning- this blog is not really mormon friendly
This mom is a former mormon living in Salt Lake City. I think she's absolutely hysterical. She's not ranting in anti mormon ways, she just has a potty mouth. She has two kids, a husband and two dogs and the stories she writes are so much fun. This blog has been online for years and years so there's a lot for me to go back and read.

What are your favorite sites/blogs? I'm always looking for something new.

Her Own Agenda

2011-03-14T22:24:00.001-05:00

Tonight was bath night for Emily.

David was in charge of it as I'm kind of sick.

So he gets her in the bath and she gets all cleaned. I hand him her towel and as ge exits the bathroom with her she pees on him.

So back in the tub she went.

This next time they made it to her changing table where she spit up all over her bare neck and chest - it got into fat rolls. Once clean fat rolls.

This time she was baby wiped.

After a clean outfit was on, David picked her up and she promptly spit up again all over them both. I guess she didn't like being clean.

Emily has her own agenda.

Sunday Grunts

2011-03-13T21:36:00.001-05:00

Fair Warning- this is another loopy post due to the effects of Percocet in my system.

Today is Sunday.

And what a Sunday it was!!

Last night David offered to take Emily for the whole night! I was very happy to oblige him. I'm not sure I even fake protested.... When that happens my night goes like this: I go to bed at 10. I play on my phone for an hour just because I can, then I sleep until one when I wake up and pump. I sleep again until 4 when I wake up and pump, and again at 7. Then by 9 am David has come in to drop off Emily so he can get a solid block of sleep.

To a lot of people that isn't a happy night. Waking up 3 times for 45 minutes each time when the baby is being taken care of by someone else? Crazy I know. But the ladies just don't let me go longer, they wake me up and are ready to pop by then. (Normally I pump every 2 hours but I allow myself the extra bit at night).

Now, the stipulation for a whole night alone is that David can ask for help at any time. Last night I fell asleep at 1030, woke up at 1230, woke up at 430 and then again at 515 when David came in, unceremoniously put Emily on my pillow and gave me a pleading look that said "Help me my wonderful wife because our child has kept me awake too much." Being the gracious wife that I am I smiled and told him to go get some rest. And thus began my day.

Emily was given to me because she was grunting. Now, I'm not sure if I've said this yet but she is not a cooing baby- she's a grunting baby. She grunts and growls (and if she started barking I wouldn't even blink) and yells and occasionally cries but she's only ever coo'ed a handful of times. She coos all day long and sometimes even when she sleeps. Which was the case. She grunted as David handed her to me and proceeded to grunt loudly enough to keep me awake for the next two hours. At 615 my alarm went off. Which was wrong because it was set for 715. And I thought, maybe that's because it was daylight savings today? Nope. Couldn't be that reason because of two things: 1. My iPhone updated itself to the right time all on its own and 2. We went forward an hour. Which means that my head said it was 515 and my phone was just stupid. =)

Anyway, I pumped, fed the baby, took a shower (which she mercifully slept through), got dressed and then woke David at 745 for church. While he "hit the snooze" (because yes I am that nice) I picked up Em to wash her hair at the sink so she wouldn't be greasy for her adoring fans. She slept as I picked her up, slept as I wet down her hair, slept as I washed and dried it and only woke when I changed her diaper with a cold wipe. And then she grunted/whined at me.

We made it to church on time. 9 am. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for half the congregation. There were quite a few empty seats that filled slowly throughout the service. Emily spent the entire time grunting loudly- everyone around us kept turning to her and giggling at us. David tried to stifle her a bit with the binky but the grunting comes from her throat and she just grunts anyway with the bink in.

During Sunday school she grunted. A lot. One of the ladies named her the "grunty baby." It is both funny and mildly embarrassing. But hey, what can you do? No guilt here. (Guilt- that's my next post someday).

During Relief Society she was finally in the arms of her adoring fans. She fell asleep in my lap and as another woman sat down she commented on how beautiful Em was and how much she loved her hair (that's Em's biggest compliment, her fantastic hair). I offered the let her hold the baby and she jumped at the chance. The moment Emily was in this woman's lap, she decided to fart.

Seriously.

We had just spent TWO hours annoying the world and the she just lets one rip right on a woman who has been very nice to us. This woman just laughed, as did BOTH rows around us. And everyone spent the first ten minutes of the lesson ignoring what was happening and smiling at Emily instead. That baby sure played it up. She showed off how she holds her head so well. She did her cute "I'm yawning" face and noises. She grunted and groaned and yelled for her admirers. She even spit up a little and had everyone remembering when their babies did that.

I'm telling you, this kid is a ham.

Speaking of, what in the world does that even mean? Does a ham purposefully attract attention?

So she grunted for three hours this morning. Grunted through three hours of church, and then grunted all afternoon at my friend S's house.

S hosted us and another couple over today for an adult/child/infant CPR and first aid class taught by her mother's husband. He is a very nice man named A. A is an EMT and teaches this class all the time, but never for free like he did for us. It was a lot of fun, and was nice and relaxed. So relaxed in fact that we were there from 2 until 7pm. The three hour class took five, but that was just fine. Except for Emily and her grunting. She grunted through the only two bottles that I brought. She grunted when anyone held her. She grunted in the swing. She grunted at the floor. She grunted at the couch. And when she was hungry again she grunted at my boob- and then spit up all over it.

She is currently in her bassinet downstairs with David, grunting in her sleep.

And I am upstairs. And about to have a lovely three hour sleep while he takes the first shift. Extra lovely from my medicine I had to take because all of those CPR chest compressions brought back my shoulder pain (tendonitis really really SUCKS and doesn't seem to ever go away). The shoulder has been flaring up the last couple weeks, probably from carrying the goober around all the time. Yesterday I cleaned the house (not only is my house clean, my kitchen is now SANITARY. that's right, eat your hearts out. No really, go for it because it's only going to stay this way for another week or so). That scrubbing made my shoulder sore but today really did me in. Speaking of, I need to let it rest and typing this very long post cannot be helping it.

So I shall say Adieu.

Or Achoo.

They're rather similar in my opinion.

I never can hear the word Adieu without thinking of the Sound of Music and that song the whole family sings- "So long, farewell.... Adieu Adieu to you and you and youuuuu..... Gooood byeeeee"

2011-02-25T22:17:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how fast time is going. Emily is bigger already. She is no longer able to fit in preemie clothes, and the newborn size actually fits. If she was a little fatter it would be a perfect fit.

Motherhood is a giant learning experience and I'm very far out on the learning curve- the last baby in my family is 16 (17?) and in High school. Thus my experience is limited. Through photography and friends I can handle kids ( also through stint at Disney world) but newborns round the clock are a different matter.

Recent discoveries:
- a baby might cry for no reason and getting upset helps no one.
- letting her cry is okay sometimes but...
- I can't handle her crying if we try to put her to sleep in a crib
- I like co-sleeping, it's a great feeling to cuddle the entire night. Plus...
- she's a little heater and it's cold downstairs. It's a bonus.
- pumping and giving her a bottle is totally fine. I am not a lesser mom for it. In fact, I commend myself for still trying. Because pumping is quite the time sucker
- I like my bigger boobs. It's just a fact. :)
- Watching her sleep is super fun, listening to her snore is even better
- Bath time is my favorite time. I get the best smelling fluffy haired baby in the whole world after her bath.
- When her hair is wet it's curly. I think she looks like my dad then.
- Emily hates it when I pick her nose. I'm obsessed and do it anyway. Crusty Boogers are not an option.
- I'll never have enough photos of her.
- Who knew I'd be so familiar with everything about her? I can practically draw her ears from memory.
- I have learned the difference between the lonely/tired/hungry/scared noises she makes.
- a few days ago she coughed milk up and shot it out her nose. That was a scared cry, it freaked her out but made me giggle.
- I can feed her in my sleep. With a bottle. I've woken up with an empty bottle in hand and a very faint recollection of feeding her. But the best sleep feed is breastfeeding. Just attach and fall back to sleep. She doesn't really need help with that one.

Emily's nicknames are a vast array of words.
There's...
Emily
Em
Emmabean - Davids name
Emmabear - mine
Sugar bear - mine
Little sugar
Goober
Goobey
Goobs
Sweetie
Honey
Honeybear
Baby
Baby girl
Little bit- her Hana
Peanut- her Grandpa D
Girly whirl- Grandma
Bambino- Great grandpa pawpaw
Sock hands- Uncle Mike
Pookie
Pookie bear
Stinky
Stinky butt
Poopy McPooperson
Snotty McSnoterson

I'm sure the list will continue to grow.
I'd add more photos but I'm using my phone to write this and blogger won't let me. :(

Another time then!

-

She has a lot of hair

2011-02-16T21:51:00.001-06:00

It's 3 am...

2011-02-16T02:47:00.001-06:00

You may ask yourself how motherhood is working out for me. You also may not, so this is not the post for you.

Let me describe my current situation. I'm typing this at 3 am after my longest sleep I'll get all night (a HUGE thank you to my amazing husband for taking the 1230 shift each night.)- about 4 hours. I'm typing one handed as Emily just fell asleep in my arms after a very eventful poop. I'm loopy after taking percocet (gotta love narcotics) to fend off a gallbladder attack (which didmt go away after pregnancy like I'd hoped) but I cant sleep it off thanks to the little pooping booger. I smell like milk and spit up. My living room looks like a laundry bomb went off- not the clean kind. The main thing I use is not the games, laptops, piano or craft items we have. Nope, its my breast pump. Scariest sounding machine ever. I miss the one at the hospital, it was quiet and pretty. And yes, I just referred to a breast pump as pretty because thats my life right now, haha.

Motherhood...
- sucks when the baby eats every two hours like clockwork. from me.
- only lets me sleep about 90 minutes at a time
- is full of poopy diapers. my daily entertainment is a diaper's fullness.
- is fun to talk about with other moms
- is like a special club of which I'm now a permanent member
- for me means breastfeeding. I don't like b.feeding. I have severe limits to patience for it- I like my pump better than Emily. It doesnt pull away, refuse to latch, OR fall asleep. I wonder if I can adopt it?
- is expensive. Things I never thought I needed are now necessary (and oddly exciting) to acquire. Example: I got a bottle brush today and was SO excited to finally get in the bottom bottle crevices!
- is sticky. Breastmilk is SO sticky and gets everywhere- especially when I overshoot... lol.
- is special. As Emily falls asleep she smiles a lot. It's sweet. She is even starting to smile when she is awake.
- is noisy. This baby is such a chatterbox. She grunts, growls, squeaks, snorts, snores, cries, coos, moans, and whines. Each in an hour.
- means laundry that WILL NEVER GO AWAY
- is full of creativity. Examples include ways to hold a bottle while doing other activities, finding ways to shower ever faster (Emily is perfectly happy until the moment I step into the water), learning ways to function one handed- she's a cuddle demander.
- requires more patience than I sometimes have.

I'm incredibly lucky to get to be a mom. I love every minute.

5 Weeks Old

2011-02-04T21:43:00.001-06:00

A Recipe:

One beautiful baby

One DSLR camera

One assistant /husband

One black $6 walmart sheet

One white $6 walmart sheet

One strobe light

One photographer/ mom

5 days later...

2011-01-25T14:58:00.002-06:00

5 days after my last post Emily was born.

Three days after my post I went into labor.

Christmas Day I woke up early full of energy. I cleaned, organized, made coffee, redid anything in the baby's room that wasn't perfectly aligned, and then I started having contractions. Five minutes apart and slowly building in strength. I assumed it was a false alarm (I'd had one 2 days before), so I took a photo of myself (just in case) and painted my toenails (because I wanted pretty toes for my labor). I impressed myself with my toenail painting! It took some acrobatics but I did it.

David woke up from a nap and found me in the bathroom painting. He asked why I was painting my toenails when it was obviously difficult, I told him I was having contractions and then asked what was for dinner. (I now look back and see that I was nesting)

While David cooked dinner I called the doctor who told me to drink a lot of water, lay down, wait an hour and call her back. The contractions continued slowly getting stronger, so we inhaled dinner and headed to the hospital. David had made a cake for Christmas, but it was left on the counter. Should have brought the thing with us, but who knew?

We'd had our stuff mostly packed and we assumed that this was another false alarm so for the VERY FIRST TIME we did not bring it all with us. Hindsight is 20/20.

They decided it might be labor but I was only 1cm dialated. So we waited. And I drank a lot more water again. This was at 830 or so.
I was 2-3 cm by midnight and the snow started falling as my contractions strengthened.

With our complications we knew I'd go into labor between 35 and 37 weeks (I was 36w4d- 3 days from full term), and that was true. But I needed a NICU and our local hospital (with my OB) didn't have that.

We've been working with another hospital three hours away for the last few months and it was decided that it was time to go there at midnight. But the ambulance didn't make it to the hospital for transport until 4 am. Which gave David plenty of time to go home and get our stuff, get gas, and make it back to me.

So with David following in our car, I was loaded into an ambulance. We said fairwell to my OB and headed to the big hospital. We didnt make it. Instead we made it halfway and had to turn off for a closer hospital with a NICU. This one was about 90 minutes away on a normal day. In 6 inches of snow, with more falling each second and no visibility we took over three hours to make the trip.

At this point it's 7 am. I'm at the WRONG hospital from what we planned and the doctor we need is on vacation (I kid you not) but is "in town and can come in if needed." BUT the stupid nurses and doctors see that I am 3 days from full term and decide not to help me along. In fact, they wanted to give me drugs to stop the contractions. I was SO DONE with that pregnancy that I told my husband, "do not even let them come into this room with drugs to stop this labor."

By that afternoon I'd exhausted every drug they could give me for the pain- Except an epidural. Because that's for people who are really in labor. Idiots. I slowly dialated more and more, and my contractions got worse and worse. At one point I was so exhausted and they were so bad that I fell asleep between each one and woke up to hold David's hand and tell him what I dreamed in the 2 minutes I was out- it was half sleep half hallucination.

Finally I asked for drugs to stop the contractions- anything to end the pain. Those failed, at midnight maybe? I'm not sure, it's all a big blur for me. So they decided it was real (how nice of them), they gave me an epidural, accidentally broke my water while checking my cervix and I was on my way.

Emily Katherine was born at 4 lb 14 oz at 3 pm on December 27 after 47 hours of contractions.

It was insane.
She is here, she is healthy, and my baby weight is mostly gone already.

Emily will be one month old in two days. What a crazy month it's been.

It's been awhile!

2010-12-22T16:42:00.001-06:00

Hello dear readers, I hope you haven't given up on me.
This pregnancy is taking all of my energy and then some!

This photo was at 34 Weeks

I'm 36 weeks along today, yay! And we're scheduled for induction on Jan 6th. That's two weeks from tomorrow. But I wouldn't complain if she made an early appearance as I'm rather done with being pregnant.

Anyway, I'll be updating everyone via this blog for the most part. One can only do so many phone calls to so many people once she's born.

Here she is back in October

And here's our most recent, from Dec 14th.

Hyperbole and a Half

2010-07-23T19:33:00.001-05:00

I've been reading the blogs on this site today and some of them are so funny to me that they caused laughing tears.

This one especially.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog.html

Babies! AHHHHHHH

2010-07-21T20:31:00.001-05:00

This blog has two parts. No, let's make it three.

Part One:
I'm tired of my job and looking forward to the day when I don't work there anymore.

Part Two:
That day is coming up in a few months because as most of you know already, we're going to have a baby! YAY! today was day #1 of my 2nd trimester, I'm now 14 weeks and due January 19.

I was laying on my back today and felt the giant baby lump for the first time. It's like a big rock just under my belly button, and it makes me feel like I finally have proof! Yes, we have ultrasound photos and heard the heartbeat again yesterday, but I can find this myself! Only when I'm laying all the way back though. One step at a time I guess!

David says I can't put ultrasound photos on facebook because it's creepy when people do so. And while I agree, I make exceptions for blogs...

My baby's first photo shoot, and trust me, there are hundreds in it's future.

(I say it, but my family says "she." As if they "know")

Part Three:

For Mother's Day (which I know was awhile ago) I made my mom the most awesome sheep ever! The pattern is by Delicious Crochet I bought a pack of their patterns on Etsy. The Llama I gave to my mother in law because she enjoys making them and has been admiring him for awhile (don't you just love his sherpa hat?). And the Sheep I decided to craft myself for my mom.

I learned a few things: 1. Their patterns make HUGE dolls. They're a solid 15 inches high, and I had to go buy yarn THREE times. 2. Their patterns are very well written 3. I love love LOVE the look of the crochet loops. 4. I used almost an entire bag of stuffing for the sheep. But totally worth it.

I also made my own Granny with their pattern, but need to find photos of it to share. And next on my list is the Lion pattern. The last pattern in the group that I bought is Grandpa. I'll get to him at some point!

Family Visits!

2010-06-21T10:50:00.001-05:00

My Mom was here in March and I never did put those photos up, so here they are!

And about a week ago, David's family was here too! We all had a great time at the Aquarium and Beach. It's hard to beat good company and free food, thanks for buying us dinner Happy Mom!

They had the coolest giant tank full of fish and a sea turtle and 4 SHARKS!

My little Sisters in law watching all the fish go by.

"taking on the Jellies man..."

MY FAVORITE part of the visit were the baby sea turtles. it does NOT get any cuter than that.

And of course, the beach....

A great way to end a fun visit.

DRAGON PATTERN!!

2010-06-06T09:42:00.001-05:00

First let me apologize for not posting in almost a month an a half. My life is just ALL over the place lately, and I manage to make the internet my last priority. For that I am proud of myself! You know all those crazy people that never get anything done because they're stuck to their computers? I try to avoid that. What's extra helpful is the fact that my laptop gets super hot after about 30 minutes and starts to burn my legs. Now that's motivation to put it down.

Anyway! Here's a (rough) pattern for my dragon. I wrote it as I made it, and I hope it works. Please post questions, or even finished dragons! I'd love love love to see them.

Jess' Dragon:

note: the parentheses is the amount of stitches you should have at the end of the round

also, try to stuff this with fluff as you go

ch- chain

MR- magic ring

inc- increase

dec- decrease- i've started using the invisible decrease which is decreasing using the FLO (front loops only). Mind you, it's still a decrease so it's not exactly invisible. still looks different than the other stitches.

rep from * around- repeat the instructions in between the asterisks until you finish the round.

BLO- back loops only, the back loops are those on the inside of the dragon, those that are closest to you as you work (assuming that you work with the front out- does anyone not do that?)

hdc- half double crochet

hook size: I used an F

head

start with a magic ring

ch 2, 8 sc in 2nd ch from hook

*inc, sc*, rep from * around(12)

*inc, sc, sc*, rep from * around (16)

inc, sc 7, inc, sc 7 (18)

inc, sc 8, inc, sc 8 (20)

sc (20)

dec, sc 8, dec, sc 8 (18)

dec, sc 7, dec, sc 7 (16)

dec, sc 6, dec, sc 6 (14)

BODY

MR- 6 sc in MR

inc 6 times- (12)

*inc, sc*, rep from * around (18)

*inc, sc, sc*, rep from * around (24)

*inc, sc 3*, rep from * around (30)

*inc, sc 4*, rep from * around (36)

*inc, sc 5*, rep from * around (42)

sc around for 8 more rows

*dec, sc 12*, rep from * around (39)

*dec, sc 11*, rep from * around (36)

*dec, sc 8*, rep from * around (30)

sc around (30)

*dec, 3*, rep from * around (24)

*dec, 2*, rep from * around (18)

sc around

sc- stuff

*dec, 1*,rep from * around (12)

sc 8 rows

*dec, 2*, rep from * around (9)

sc around

fasten off

ARM- make 2

MR, sc 8

inc around, (16)

BLO sc around (16)

*dec, 2* , rep from * around (12)

*dec, 1*, rep from * around (8)

sc around, & stuff

sc 5 more rows

FOOT- make 2

MR- 6 sc

inc around, (12)

*inc, sc*, rep from * around (18)

BLO- 6 sc, 6 hdc, 6 sc (18)

dec, sc, dec, sc, 6 hdc, dec, sc, dec, sc (14)

4 sc, 3 dec, 4 sc (11)

sc around (11)

4 sc, dec, 5 sc (10)

sc four more rows (10)

EAR- make 2

ch 4

3 hdc

HORN- make 2

ch 3

sc, hdc

WINGS- make 2

ch 16

sc 15

ch 1, sc 14

turn, skip 1st stitch, sc 13

ch 1, sc 12

ch 1, sc 11

turn, skip 1st st, sc 10

ch 1, sc 9

edging- with opposing color, stitch in and out along the outer edges from outside in. when you reach the middle stitches, go up and down the rows in between stitch posts.

and voila!

I hope this makes sense.

ASSEMBLY:

Embroider head. Add the horns to the top, and the ears down and to the side of the horns on either side of the head.

Attach head to body.

Attach arms, then legs

Decorate wings however you wish, then attach those as well. I think they'd look great with sequins.

For the stomach piece I cut a bright piece of felt in a tear drop shape, but with a thick top to go up the neck. Then, I embroidered back and forth with a thick piece of embroidery floss to make the stripes. But I think you could use any fabric, or even a colored pencil.

Make it your own! And post a link so I can see it when you're done!

It's a DRAGON!

2010-04-20T16:19:00.001-05:00

A really cute dragon. He's lacking one thing- a name! Can you help me come up with one?

The inspiration drawing...

Here he is before wings:

And here he is complete! Better photos and free pattern to come soon!

Guess!

2010-04-18T12:38:00.000-05:00

My incredibly unbusy life has given me the free time to try designing my own pattern.

Can you guess what it's going to be?

(You can almost see the inspiration drawing in the background)

Bunnies and Blankets (and mini-Pigs)

2010-04-04T23:08:00.001-05:00

In the words of my Pawpaw: "Hoppy Easter to you all!"
Or if you're my other Grandpa, "Happy Passover!"

Two things are up for discussion today:
1. Blankets
2. Mini pigs

I know, they can seem unrelated. Alas, that's how most of my life seems to go. We're a random household.

First, the blanket. I started one about a month ago. The pattern is from Lion Brand and the link is here.
Now, I'm not using their colors. In fact, about half the colors in it so far are from what I already have stashed. The other half are colors I bought at walmart to brighten it up! I'm enjoying using Caron Soft Brites yarn.
It's great for a few reasons.
1. It's Acrylic- so it's easily washable.
2. Acrylic is perfect for Amigurumi since it doesn't stretch which avoids over stuffing
3. It has a fun array of colors
4. It really is super soft. And feels a lot less cheap that others
5. But, it actually IS cheap! About $2.50 for a big skein.

Anyway, here it is so far. I'd say I'm about 1/3 done with squares:

I'm trying to do two of each color. And it lacks serious color coordination- which I'm perfectly fine with.

I feel I must point out a flaw in my blanket plan.

You see, we don't need this blanket. And I truly don't say this lightly.

We have:

1. comforter with burn marks (apparently our new dryer is just THAT awesome)

2. a great quilt currently on the bed

3. a beautiful white down comforter on the guest bed

4. my favorite blue and green and purple throw

5. my other favorite purple throw (it's so heavy, my college friends called it my sweater blanket)

6. two cheap blankets from mexico

7. one green queen size cotton throw that had a small catch in it. once washed, it grew to a hole the size of texas- it is now Eli's favorite play blanket. That hole makes a convenient place for his head to poke out when he and David are playing.

8. one soft ivory blanket that my mom knitted me for college

9. one soft blue and white crochet blanket from my mother in law

10. a very fun tshirt quilt my mom made me out of all my sorority tshirts.

11. a small two by three foot blanket that I made for Eli- granny squares!

12. a green fuzzy felt blanket

13. a red fuzzy felt St Louis Cardinals blanket that I got free at a game last year

13. a small grey felt blanket that I made for David before he went to Iraq (assumed it would get too dirty to come home, but it's lasted!)

14. a larger version of that blanket for him to have when he got home to Iraq (this one is still basted together. I'm waiting for a day when I'm SUPER duper bored)

15. the one I'm making now.

Now, half of these blankets are totally worthless. But the quilts, white comforter, throws, and two handmade blankets are worth keeping. I'm a blanket hoarder. Only the pretty ones get used anymore. And yet, here I am again. Oh well, it can't hurt to be extra warm can it?

Topic #2

Mini Pigs

Yes, real pigs. There's this new thing where people are breeding mini potbelly pigs. They are completely adorable. David and I have been saying that Eli needs a friend someday.... And maybe this will do?

Or maybe I'm just in love with these photos. Anyway, I can't see us actually getting one.

But aren't these photos the CUTEST EVER!?

Frog Princes and Aliens

2010-03-23T20:07:00.001-05:00

Now I know what you're all thinking:
"This woman hasn't posted in two months and in two days she puts up three posts!"

I'm obnoxious. It's true. It's something that everyone comes to accept at some point and it's time you got on board as well.

I'd like to introduce you to my new favorite ami. His name is Doug.
Doug was a free Lionbrand pattern, found here. I added my own hair and color combo. What do you think?

here's the inspiration:

And here's mine:

I'd also like to introduce my frog prince. The pattern for this frog prince is a really weird combination. I took the baby penguin pattern from Ana Paula's book Amigurumi World (here's her blog). I made it in green and came up with the eyes. Then I added the crown from this pattern. I find the frog to be not cute enough, but the crown to be perfect. And my result?

Eli

2010-03-23T19:57:00.001-05:00

Ah yes, my dear sweet obnoxious little Eli.
He's a Rat terrier. Of sorts. Not that he's ever had the opportunity to dig out any rats. He has, however, dug in my backyard. Leading to a very angry husband and a bath for both of them. Because when anyone gives Eli a bath they end up rather wet too.

Anyway, Elli has very little fur. It's short and thin and somehow still ends up ALL over my house, but that's another story entirely.
Due to his thin coat, he's cold a lot. So I made him a sweater. I looked up a ton of patterns for dog sweaters, and they all said basically the same thing. But they were all girly. So I grabbed a thick yarn left over from a hat for David (that it hasn't been quite cold enough to wear) and came up with this....

It's basically a giant long oval of double and half double crochet stitches. I'd provide a pattern, but I just made it up as I went. The strap under the belly is held on with buttons and it's still a little big. Thus, it tends to slide down Eli's side sometimes. Something to work on. Maybe I'll just move the buttons. In any case, it keeps him from shivering anymore. And that's the whole point.

And for a random photo moment, here's both David and Eli smushing me on the couch...

(Yes Google, insist if you must that smushing is not a word. I'm still using it.)

I love my family

2010-03-22T15:33:00.001-05:00

This post is dedicated to my parents who bought me and my husband and my brother and his girlfriend a cruise.

Here I am crocheting on deck! David is asleep behind me. My mom taught me a few things with knitting on the ship. I can now cast on and... something else. But I'm not gonna lie, I totally like the crochet hook better.

Our ship, the Carnival Fantasy!

Big family photo in New Orleans. (We stopped there on the way to Mobile where we shipped off)

Lunch in Cozumel.

Viva la Mexico and it's random photo stuff.

as my mother says, This is what happens when you have to wait too long for your food at dinner on the ship.

El Castillo, Mayan Ruins, SO COOL

At the ruins

I named him Sydney the Pirate Koala. He plays bingo.

Gotta LOVE LOVE LOVE good photos on board.

Young boy with good tiger friend- Updated

2010-03-22T15:18:00.002-05:00

Ok ya'll. I hesitate to post this, but it's free and I'm going to let everyone know that I'm not the creator of the theme, just the pattern. =)

Oh yeah, and again, it's FREE
This is my first pattern, so let me know what you think please.

Boy who's got a tiger friend

(Before I trimmed his hair)

Materials:

Crochet hook size F5

Worsted Weight Yarn: Red, Black, Yellow, Tan

Embroidery Thread and Needle

Yarn Needle

Stuffing

Note:

This pattern begins at the top of the head, working down through the shirt, pants, and splitting into two tubes to become the pant legs. It ends with the feet. Stuff the body as you go.

Abbreviations:

sc- single crochet

inc- increase

dec- decrease

hdc- half double crochet

(#)- total number of stitches in the row

Nose: Make 1

-tan yarn

R1: 3sc in magic ring (3)

R2: increase x 3 (6)

R3: 6 sc (6)

Leave a long tail for stitching later

Ears: Make 2

- tan yarn

R1: 4 sc in magic ring (4)

R2: 2 sc in each sc (8)

R3: 3 sc, inc, 3 sc, inc (10)

R4: 10 sc (10)

R5: 3 sc, dec, 3 sc, dec (8)

R6: dec x 4 (4)

Leave a long tail for stitching later

Arms: Make 2

- start with tan yarn

R1: 4 sc in magic ring (4)

R2: 2 sc in each sc (8)

R3: 3 sc, inc, 3 sc, inc (10)

R4: red yarn, 10 sc (10)

R5: black yarn, 10 sc (10)

R6: red yarn, 10 sc (10)

R7: black yarn, 10 sc (10)

R8: red yarn, 10 sc (10)

R9: black yarn, 10 sc (10)

R10: red yarn, 10 sc (10)

R11: black yarn, 10 sc(10)

Leave a long tail for stitching later.

Shoe soles: Make 2

R1: 4 sc in magic ring (4)

R2: 2 sc in each sc (8)

R3: 3 inc, 1 sc, 3 inc, 1 sc (14)

Head:

- begin with tan yarn

R1: 5 sc in magic ring (5)

R2: 2 sc in each sc (10)

R3: 2 sc in each sc (20)

R4: (Inc, sc) repeat around (30)

R5-9: sc around (30)

R10: (3 sc, inc) repeat 6 times, sc (36)

R11-12: sc around (36)

R13: (2 sc, dec) repeat to end (27)

R14: sc around (27)

R15: (7 sc, dec) repeat 3 times (24)

R16: (4 sc, dec) repeat 4 times (20)

R17: sc around (20)

- Embroider face, attach nose and ears

- Change to black yarn and begin the body

R18: 1 sc, inc x 10 (30)

R19: Red yarn, sc around (30)

R20: Black yarn, sc around (30)

R21: Red, sc around (30)

R22: Black, sc around (30)

R23: Red, sc around (30)

R24: Black yarn, sc around (30)

- Stay with black yarn to begin pants

R25-28: sc around (30)

- Begin Legs --black yarn

- A note on the legs: The legs are each half of the stitches of the pants, they form two tubes off the main body, each is 15 st total, begin the doll's right leg in the middle of the back of the body, the left leg begins in the stitch immediately next to the other leg. The red laces should be centered on the front middle of the leg.

R29: 14 st, skip 15, sc – you should have circle on half the stitches from the body (15)

R30-31: sc around (15)

- begin foot

R32: 4 sc white, 3 hdc Red, 8 sc white (15)

R33: 3 sc white, 1 hdc white, 4 hdc red, 7 sc white (15)

R34: with white yarn, 3 sc, 4 hdc, 8 sc (15)

R35: with white yarn, 1 dec, 1 sc, 4 hdc, 1 sc, 8 sc (14)

- begin doll's left leg at the back stitch immediately next to the other leg

R36- 38: same as R 29- 31 (15)

R39: 7 sc black, 3 sc white, 4 hdc red, 1 sc white (15)

R40: 10 sc white, 4 hdc red, 1 sc white (15)

R41: with white, 10 sc, 4 hdc, 1 sc (14)

R42: 7 sc, 1 dec, 1 sc, 4 hdc, 1 sc (14)

R43: 6 sc to even out the rows.

Finish stuffing. Attach the bottom of the shoes. Sew the top of the arms together, attach at the first black row of the shirt.

Hair:

Attach a strand of yellow yarn in each stitch on the top of the head. Cut to style at the end.

here's a post haircut photo:

Quick Link

2010-01-11T14:58:00.001-06:00

For those of you looking for a quick toy to make, I'd like to suggest the Grumpies.

They are way easy and way cute. Plus, it's hard to beat a free pattern.

Crochet Madness

2010-01-07T19:51:00.002-06:00

Crochet is a great way for me to do something mindless when I'm bored.
It also tends to yield cute, and thus enjoyable, results. Which I then give away to people. =)

So today's post is a lot of photos with a lot of links to their patterns.
I claim none of these patterns as my own, I just added spunk and a little charisma.

We begin with Sleepy Sarah.
I also made a pink version of this. Both have been given away.
The pattern is available on Ravelry here

Next is an adorable bunny from "Amigurumi Two!" by Ana Paula Rimoli

Third we have a vampire from "Creepy Cute Crochet" by Christen Haden.

It's an awesome amigurumi book full of vampires and zombies and monsters and such.

Fourth is Daisy the Cow from "Super Cute Crochet" by Nicki Trench.

(My book collection is growing fast)

Now this next animal is a little odd. The pattern is for a Lochness Monster in the book "Cute Little Animals" from Leisure Arts. Only, I found the tail too long. And by the time I made it to the face I was done with it. So I ended up with a dragon.

Thing.

This next one is the Amigurumi Guy from Lion Brand Yarn. Very fun and cute and easy to make. Mine got a bonus heart on it's rear end.

These cute little turtles and owls are from Ana Paula Rimoli's other book, "Amigurumi World, Seriously Cute Crochet"

These next two photos are of Lemmings from PlanetJune.com

Now, this next photo is not crochet. It's what happens when you (and by you I mean you, mother in law) let Tacky glue get super old. It becomes a very stinky semi solid.

And last, but probably my most recent favorite:

Gnomes.

Pattern available here on Ravlery or Here is the blog

For this post I'd like to thank those who have bought me Amigurumi books (thanks Mom and Mawmaw!) and those that donated their time and tacky glue (Thanks Mom in law!)

Who knows what creatures will next appear?

The holidays are over, but the work is not!

2010-01-05T21:13:00.001-06:00

Why hello there bloggers! It's been awhile since we've connected hasn't it? But that's okay! Because today is a day for photos and other creative moments.

First, Christmas. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. In my previous post you can see our $2 Christmas tree. We never did take a photo in front of it together, but we did roll it up to save for next year. We're thinking it's gonna work out as a fun tradition. That is, if we manage to have enough construction paper because, geez that used a lot of it.

Of course, what do you expect when you make it over 4 feet tall?

Christmas was a wonderful time to be thrifty, and I am excited about two present ideas this year. One, was not fully my idea. I was looking on Google to try and find a fun present to give that didn't cost a lot of money and I found a suggestion to give a 'movie night.' The person who suggested it said to put a blanket, some popcorn and candy, and a movie into a pretty basket (and any other things you might associate with a movie night). And I thought that was a super idea, so I went for it! A few family members received our thrifty gifts and they were well received. We picked movies from the Walmart bins (and had a GREAT time digging and picking them out), and I used fabric paint to decorate a fleece blanket. Then we split up a few boxes of popcorn, and BAM! Awesome non-expensive family-friendly present. It made me happy.

It wasn't until Christmas day that we had to come up with our second idea. It seems we were part of a cousin-exchange and my husband forgot. Whoops. With guilty hearts we used the new gift we recieved (Pyrex mixing bowls with lids! So very useful), and tried to find a gift to give.

Thus, when the stores were open again we were back at Walmart. And I had an Idea! (Yes, capital I. Idea!) I swear there was a lightbulb above my head that clicked on with a *Bing* and began shining away. The gift had to be shipped, and as I learned with the first presents (whose shipping was incredibly close to the actual gift cost) it needed to be light weight. We bought two throw pillows and another fleece blanket and took them home to personalize.

I crocheted a few coordinated colored flowers, sewed them on, and BAM! Custom made throw pillows and blanket. Shipping cost? Too much as always, but better than the cost of shipping a blender. And, the thought behind it made it shine that much better. Especially since it's going to show up two weeks late.

Here are photos!

David's job was to make the card, and this is the adorable one he made.

Less than a week later we had another plan. This time we were headed to Raleigh (a good 2.5 to 3 hour drive) to see the new movie Avatar at an IMAX theater. I'll admit, I thought David was over the top to come up with this idea. I mean, why not just watch it in a normal theater like normal people? But nope. Such is this man. The movie wasnt until 10pm and we arrived (two friends in tow) at about 5 pm. With time to kill we decided to eat out (Cheesecake Factory!) and then explore the local mall. Which was absolutely beautiful and had all of my favorite stores ( I miss you Victoria's Secret), including....

THE LEGO STORE!

That's right folks, an entire store of LEGOS! They had sets of PEOPLE, they had a whole wall of PIECES separated by type and color (my organizationally anal dream!!) and they had a cake mold. It was silicon and red and in the shape of a lego man. David's friend went to buy something at the front of the store for a family member and came back with the mold for us as well!

Now, if you knew my man and his family you would know that they can't do anything the easy way. David decided that not only must we make his friend a lego cake (which I am very much pro doing as a thank you), but he decided that all the parts must be the right color. Thus the trial and error ensued. There was icing everywhere. Bowls with blue, red, and yellow cake all over the place. And tape. Because it became my job to figure out how to block the colors from running all over.

Our first attempt?

Looked like this:

Notice the smiling face. And the awesome color separation!

Of course, there ended up being a catch.

As David proceeded to tell me, "Jess, we can't ice this"

"Why not?" I asked.

"You'll lose all the details! You wont see the face or anything."

Thus, dear reader, notice the little white dots along Lego man's feet? That's icing. Which was pushed into the cake using a giant needle syringe that we found in the cooking section at our favorite store. Well, it's basically our only store.... stupid empty little town. But that's neither here nor there.

Now, the best part of this Lego cake was eating it! AND we even had left over batter. Which I put together to make us a rainbow cake. It was beautiful.

Wanna see?

Unfortunately it wasn't exactly even. Lol. I blame the cake, and not my pouring skills.

Anyway, more soon. I have a lot of crochet projects to show off and link to! Hooray!
Until next time....

Our $2 Christmas Tree

2009-12-09T11:52:00.001-06:00

Because sometimes, you see no reason to spend money when all you need is $2 for a strand of lights....

No worries Noah, you can save The Ark for another day.

2009-11-16T19:29:00.003-06:00

It's been raining here. A lot. Thanks for the freaking hurricanes mother nature.
And with the rain comes cabin fever. I was bored. David was bored. The freaking dog was bored.
And with boredom comes irritants.
Stupid rain.
Stupid husband.
Stupid dog.
Stupid cold.
Stupid boredom.
Stupid everything.

Sunday brought change. Beautiful sunny warm change!
We've been waiting for a pretty day when David had off work- too bad his three days off for Veteran's day had RAIN. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous on Sunday and so we finally were able to go to the beach! It was beautiful. There were fun shells to pick up and toss back. There were happy families hanging out. Eli got to go with us and bark at other dogs to his little heart's content. It was a happy day.

That's all I have to say about that.

What's the point? It's just going to get dirty again.

2009-11-09T10:52:00.000-06:00

This post must start off with new background information. We got a dog! Hooray! His name is Eli, he's about two years old and the sweetest thing you'll ever meet. He doesn't bark (yet) he doesn't whine (unless you've stopped petting him) and he loves to cuddle (which is great until he sits on your yarn and refuses to budge).

So, Eli is a true sweetie. Unfortunately, dogs from animal shelters come with a whole list of things they need done, plus a few surprises. For example, today's vet bill will cost us well over $300 due to his needing all of his shots and heartworm treatments. Which is okay, because a few vets charge up to $1,000 for the heartworm treatment- luckily ours has pity on shelter dogs. And luckily, most of the costs today are one time deals, or yearly checkups. And that's just fine, we knew what was gonna happen when we chose him.

What we didn't expect was for him to get sick. Poor baby. We weren't 100% of the food they had him on at the shelter, but we did know it was Purina so we put him on Purina adult dog food and within day two he was refusing to eat. And vomiting. And having diarrhea. Poor Eli... poor carpet... poor couch.

Luckily, the moment he started to feel sick he ran for the door. Unluckily, it took us a full day to figure out that he was so smart. When the dog comes looking for you and then goes towards the door it doesn't mean he's interested in what you're doing. It means he needs outside, NOW.

So Eli woke up feeling great this morning. He ate his breakfast, dragged me all over for a walk, peed on like 19 different bushes and was super happy when David came home to take us to the vet. Where he was left for an overnight stay. I sure hope he doesn't think he's getting abandoned again.

Eli started life at a shelter when he was like 3 or 4 months old. Then he was adopted and a little over a year later he was found on the street and brought back into the same shelter. After a month stuck in a little cage there (the big dogs get moving room, the little ones get stuck in cages) we found him and brought him home. And now he's stuck at the vet's office.

Which worked out, because my house smells like sick dog. I know, it's as gross as it sounds.

So when we got home we attacked the house AGAIN (yesterday I cleaned downstairs) and the couch is now soaking in Oxyclean/Febreeze.

And I figured, well the bathrooms need to get done and I was going to do them anyway today so lets just get it over with and aim for a nap afterwards. So I grabbed my yellow gloves (because I'm not touching anyone's poopy toilet without them) and my Fantastick and went to work.

Toilets are gross.
Showers are difficult.

Floors are AWESOME thanks to my very handy and yummy smelling Swiffer Wet Jet.

No Mr Toilet, you'll never be as wonderful smelling as my Swiffered floors, but that's okay, it's something to aim for.

I cleaned in a tank top and a pair of David's pt shorts.
They're a lovely shade of military green.
They no longer smell (thank you to a good soaking oxyclean/ detergent/ and vinegar).
But they are ridiculously short.
Oh yeah, and they have underwear built in.
An icky tight mesh stuff that just totally grosses me out, but I'd rather get cleaner on one of his 18 pairs of ugly shorts than on any of my clothing (which is minimal since 80% of it still resides at my parent's house).

Anyway,
That's been my morning.

I owe much of it in part to today's sponsor: Dunkin' Donuts Coffee.

Thank you Dunkin' Donuts.

Yum.

I'm finally home.

2009-10-28T11:23:00.001-05:00

Hello good readers! How I have missed you. Especially since I've moved to a place where my only friends are available digitally. I don't know what I'd do without my phone and my laptop keeping me in touch back home.

So David is home! Score!
He's happy to be back, and we're happy to finally get this married thing underway. And I'd say we're doing a fairly good job of it. Nothing is perfect of course, but I'm proud of us for figuring it out. Also, he eats my cooking, and that's really a good basis for things. =)

I'm not really a bad cook, but I'm not a great one. Something to aspire to I guess. Also, hamburger from the *only* walmart in this town doesnt really rock. I wouldnt recommend it.

So we have a new place! YAY! It's a townhouse right outside of base. David's commute is only about 5 minutes and on a day when I'm SUPER bored I can totally walk places. ... I do mean SUPER bored though, let's be honest, I'm not a walker.

There are two downsides that I can see to living really close to base. One are the fly overs. I dont know what kind of plane, nor do I really care, but it's rather loud and goes over the house once or twice a day. Except for today. Who knows what the heck they're doing today, but the planes have gone by at LEAST ten times in the last three hours. Which isn't terribly annoying, it's just.... not normal! =) The other downside to living this close to base is the lack of a town. I'd barely refer to it in that way, maybe it's more of a village. And rather than tell you what we DON'T have here, it's a much shorter list to tell you what we have.
1. Marine base
2. Food lion (grocery store)
3. Super Walmart
4. Subway x2
5. Post office
6. Ham's (which I think is a restaurant)
7. Haircut places x10+ (the men get their haircut weekly. If I could learn how to do it I'd make some cash)
8. Strip clubs/ Topless bars x5 (Where there are men, there are dirty places)
9. ABC liquor
10. Holiday Inn (or some hotel, very small)
11. A baptist church at every turn (As David says, North Carolina thinks it's the south)
12. Rite Aid (drugstore, think Walgreens)
13. And of course a very minimal smattering of fast food places.

Thirty minutes in one direction I have a "mall" and a Target (!) and thirty the other way is a beach and a Michaels (!). The end.

If I live through this, it will be only through internet shopping.

So let's talk about our new place! Yay!
It's absolutely gorgeous, we signed the lease the day we walked through it. We have three bed rooms and 2.5 bathrooms. I know! It's so awesome! Some of the rooms are even PAINTED not white! Score! that's rare in a rental. The living room is green, the kitchen is red and yellow, the half bath is brown, and our master bath is blue! Colors make me happy.

Let me take you on a photo tour! Two things to keep in mind. 1. I used my iphone camera and it doesn't like low light, so some of the photos are blurry. 2. I didn't clean, because David's got stuff everywhere as he just emptied out his Iraq stuff to organize. And besides, if I keep waiting until this place is clean, the photos will never be taken. =)

So... Welcome!

The view from our porch

Master Bedroom and pretty new dresser!

Master Bath (Mine!)

Guest Bath (Davids)

An empty bedroom! Because all my crap is still back home!

And now we head downstairs...

The Living Room (Full of David's Iraq stuff)

Our kitchen is a thing of beauty...

New table!

This is the 'pretty' view outside our back door...

The end!

Oh! David's home from work, bye all!

Things are changing fast! Ahhh!!

2009-10-17T22:56:00.002-05:00

My world is all over the place lately! It's pure craziness.

As I type this my husband is ON HIS WAY HOME FROM IRAQ! The end of this stupid deployment has ARRIVED! Whoohoo! Who's excited? Me. Me. Me.

And with this homecoming comes panic and disorder. Where will we live? We need phones dont we? Do we want a puppy? What about cars? When and how do we move? When do we visit home? What holiday do we pick? Who what when where and why?

The answers to these questions were up in the air for weeks, and it was driving us both insane. Luckily, the man is on his way home and we have a plan! Yay for plans, I freaking love them.

He's on his way home. His brand new iphone (that I went and bought this past week) will be waiting for him at a UPS store in town Monday morning. He might even make it home by Sunday night.

My best friend has a vow renewal on Tuesday that I promised to photograph long before we knew when my hubby would be home, so I'm staying in town for two extra days. Which at the time was fine, but is now going to kill me. On Wednesday at 3pm in our new town we REUNITE! Hoorah! Then we'll stay on base for a week while we shop around for a house to rent and then spend lots of money on furniture.

Our lives have finally begun, and I'm so happy!

Along with this new beginning comes a new phone and old photos uploaded to the computer.
My old phone (Which I'm giving to my little brother as payment for hermit crab sitting for the next month) had over 120 photos on it.

Here are a few of my favorites....

me and my baby buddy

nick, one of my favorite babies

his sister mattie, my god daughter, my other favorite baby

me and my hubby =)

old roomie's cat modeling his winter sweater

me with giant snowcone at card's game

me and my grandpa at the same game

a double rainbow, can you see it?

only hours after our first fight hubby had these beautiful roses delivered

sisters in law with baby mattie

more nick, he's just adorable

Cami, my favorite old roomie and I with our build a bears

me and my mommy

KNITTED BRAS in a shop window!

one time, i wanted to be a farmer. this was my carrot.

dorie is stalking hermit crab tries #1 and #2, may they rest in peace

my favorite puppy buddy gets bed face a lot. the dog version of bed head.

i love my pawpaw

kindergarten class i subbed in. it was just adorable.

thought i'd end with a great photo of him.

LOVE YOU ALL!

HE'S ALMOST HERE!

And now i'll go pack instead of making more amigurumi....

Amigurumi Par-tay

2009-10-06T23:11:00.001-05:00

Been awhile hasn't it? Well HELLO there, I missed you dear reader.

That is, pretending that anyone actually reads this.

So I have a new 'thing,' yep. Another craft thing.

Amigurumi.

It came about like this:

I went with my mom to a couple of yarn stores to sell my stitch markers (which will soon be up for sale on Etsy) and I sold quite a few! We passed by a book display and I looked down to see this book with the most ADORABLE animals on the front cover. And my mom said they were crochet and that she had all the supplies, so I bought the book and I'm hooked!

There are all kinds of super cute things in that book, and so many cute patterns online for free! I've even gotten my favorite mother in law making them with me. It's so much fun and they're all SUPER cute.

So here are a few things I've made...

This first photo is of a baby turtle and a little snail from Ana Paula's book:

And these are called Grumpies, the pattern is available free online. I added my own faces...

And my absolute favorite thing I've made so far, also from the book is this ADORABLE bear wearing pajamas....

Also on a side note,
If you ever make a bear in light pink with a nose that's a little too big, people will call it a pig.
My first bear was a pig, and then the dogs ripped it up. =) Welcome to my world...

Overkill

2009-09-09T20:14:00.001-05:00

First I must start with the story of how these photos came to be.

I made the animals. These are a culmination of a few days work. And I wanted to show them off, so naturally I decided to blog them. (Blog them. It's like ... ten years ago that would have made NO sense to anyone!)

So, I grabbed my point and shoot camera. A point and shoot camera is what you normal people (non photographers) use. It's automatic with a few extra options and probably takes video. It cost a few hundred dollars, takes a bajillion mega pixels, but you only make 4x6 inch photos or even just put them online. I have one of those and I love it. I also own a multi hundred dollar Canon 20D camera with battery grip, two expensive flashes, reflectors, diffusers, etc. etc. etc.

For some reason, I find it more convenient to use my smaller camera. But naturally I'm not happy with the results. You must get the camera close to fill up the frame, but then the flash is so close to the subject (or small beaded animals) that they get all blown out. So what do I do? I spend 5 minutes creating a diffuser which ends up being of an old receipt and masking tape. After I made it I realize I've attached it in front of the viewfinder and not the flash. So two minutes later it has been moved and is ready to go. In all of this time I could have been finished photographing and uploading with my expensive camera. But no worries! Because that feeling of accomplishment and genius was worth it. My diffuser? Worked great. Here are my results! Notice the more even lighting than from photos before.

Lion

Before: After:

Big Eyed Dragonfly

Before: After:

Bug (of some sort)

Elephant:

Owl:

Palm Tree (I made it up myself!):

Monkey

Peacock:

Crab! My fav!

Baby Penguin:

Whale! With water spout!

Flower, Flower, Ring:

Happy Mermaid:

(Happy expression must be imagined)

Super Cool Web Thing:

It covers my hand, it's super fun.

And on another sad note:

Lemon passed away today. I'm clueless as to why. I read all about it everywhere and I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. He's been hiding the last few days, but he was alive. And today he crawled out to the middle and then a few hours later he was dead. Grape is currently out of hiding and in the same spot, let's hope he lives. He might just be sad and looking for his friend. I guess we'll find out. =(

Butterflies Rock My Socks Off

2009-09-09T19:33:00.002-05:00

My friend Dith (yes, I do call her Dith. Let's play guess what name that's short for) is a photographer like myself. A few weeks ago she and I had made plans to photograph downtown, but it happened to be 95 degrees that day. Yesterday we finally had a free day together. Wait. Okay let's be honest, most of my days are free, but she happened to have a day off work. We met at her house in the morning and I brought a lot with me. The number one thing we wanted to try was my wedding dress in a non-wedding setting. I had an idea for the Zoo and she thought that sounded great...

I woke up at 715. Snoozed until 725 and then showered, did makeup and hair, and got all my stuff together to head to Dith's house. I stopped for coffee- mmmm "Mighty Mocha" at QT, and made it to Dith's house at 905, a full ten minutes early! My GPS was great, especially since it has been gay and not working the last two weeks which is UBER unhelpful when you'd like it to get you somewhere. I don't like the new Australian guy's voice that I downloaded the night before, I'm going to have to find a better one. So for now I resorted back to "John" or whatever the male US voice is. He still can't say "Manchester" or "1E". Ischester. Oneeee. So amusing.

Dith just moved in with a friend who's getting married next summer. The girl bought a beautiful and very big condo on Lindell. It's so pretty inside, she's a nice decorator. Dith says she's super sweet, I didn't get to meet her because she was out of town for the holiday weekend. After looking at all the clothes I brought with me (a full suitcase, two full hangers, and a bag of shoes) we chose a plan of action. I put on the wedding dress and assorted accessories with my red ruby slippers as shoes and we went to the zoo.

We took some pics in front of the monkeys, then in front of some flamingos and then we went to the Butterfly part of the Insectarium. And the guy working there saw us photographing and trying to get close to the butterflies, so he started bringing them to me. He'd catch them with their wings together, and bring them to me to see if they'd sit on my hand. But apparently the sunlight today made them extra active and we had a hard time getting them to sit on me. And then, he brought me two that had just come out of the cocoon so they were still drying out and were very calm. They sat on my hands and were so big!! Oh it was so neat. Their little bodies were super fuzzy and looked so wonderfully soft. Their wings are different patterns on each side, did you know that? I totally didn't. The bright colorful stuff is on top obviously, but they still had a pretty shimmer underneath.

We got photos of them on my shoulders, on my ring hand (gotta show off the ring) and even on the back of my dress on the buttons. It was so totally cool, and then the one on my shoulder began to crawl and it took all of my modeling skills to not giggle as it tickled my neck. We were photographing a serious pose with the other butterfly on my other shoulder/hand. So this one had to be ignored and I had a hard time pretending it wasn't happening. Eventually he crawled up into my hair and I'm pretty sure Dith got a photo of it hanging off the end like a barrette. Freaking awesome. I was sitting in sunlight with giant flowers behind me, plus my bright white dress, and eventually they were all around me. People kept staring at me. One little girl came up and asked quietly "Is that a wedding dress?" And when I responded, "Yes it is" she said, "I KNEW IT!" and then she ran off. The worker guy was such a good resource, I wish I knew his name and I'd send him a card to say thank you. He apparently just got married too, at the zoo (which is super expensive) and they had photographs in the Butterfly house as well.

After that, we changed (I into a black dress and Dith into a new shirt because by then we were both sweaty, silly warm butterfly house) and went to the Children's Zoo ($4 a person). Now here I knew there was an area of fountains that shoot up out of the ground and how fun is that to play in? So I did. Lol. I even sat in the middle of them. But it was still cuter to watch the babies play. They had more fun than I did.

We decided we were done with the zoo and I air dried as we walked to the car. The dress was two layers, the top one very thin, so it dried quickly which was nice for Dith's car. Carting that suitcase all the way up the hill to our free parallel parking spot totally sucked. And halfway we saw a wooden staircase put into the side of a hill, and Dith made me climb to the top to pose some more. I gave her attitude, and I didn't fake it. I was like, "Argh! I'm tired and hungry and you're making me model again"- this I said all with my eyes.

She bought me lunch. We went to Kayak (?) which is a hippie coffee joint across from Wash U, but the food was good and I didn't have to pay. And that part was great. Then we went back to Forest Park to another fountain that people play in, it's right across from the Boathouse. I changed in the car (I'm just not one for modesty, I moved fast and I had a bra on. Who's to see?) into jeans and a bright top with a hat and sunglasses and we photographed dry for a bit. Then she said, Okay well get in.

Hesitation.

I mean sure, there are kids playing in this fountain and the water is clear.... but still. I hesitated. So I stepped in and we photographed just kind of wet and then I went for it and sat right on top of one of the mini water fall things and from there it was over. I never did get too far in, but I did pour water up on the bottom of my shirt and made my hair wet. Which gave me great wet ugly hat hair. Let me tell you how pretty that was. -_-

By that point we were tired. The crowds were horrendous, the parking was nonexistent, and the traffic was slow as turtles. Eventually we did make it back to her place, and I made it back home with the help of my GPS. Which by the way is GREAT when you're like me and can't even turn when it tells you to. It readjusts very quickly and helpfully. I'm so directionally challenged. Of course, this is why my parent's bought me the GPS in the first place.

Anyway, kudos to the tomtom.

But the day didn't end there, oh no no no. Then i made it home for dinner with my family at 4, Showered, dressed, and went to my favorite in law's house and ate dinner again at 7, and eventually made it home about 10pm.

And while the day was super long, it was super fun.

I love you guys.

Craft Par-tay!

2009-09-03T22:32:00.007-05:00

First of all, let me say that my laptop erases my stuff a bazillion times faster than it manages to upload it.

Today was a crafty day.

Last night I saw the cutest little turtle of beads online so I decided I wanted to make a turtle too! (eventually I want to make a happy one, but that's besides today's point.) Thus, I grabbed my jewelry wire, some beads and got to work. The animals I saw online were made like the pony bead and ribbon animals that were super popular in the 90's (and are still seen on elementary kids today). Basically, both sides of wire run through each row, easy right? You would think. But my stupid turtle would have be the kid on the short bus. He was all scrunched up and 'tarded looking. And so I decided I needed to do some research, figure out what was wrong.

My retarded person... Notice that it does not sit flat.

So today I went to the library. It just so happened that my reserve of Inkdeath was available (sequel to Inkspell which was sequel to Inkheart), thus to the library I went! And I found books and books on beading! And one of those awesome books was pages and pages of photos and diagrams of little wire and bead animals/ people/ chairs/ tables/ bugs/ etc. Super cool.

And it mentioned a certain wire gauge. 28. So on the way home, it was to Michael's I went (again. I feel like I'm there twice a week lately). And I found the right gauge wire ON SALE for only 1.99!! Hooray! I also picked up some oven bake clay since I've been dying to try that out (thanks Festival of Little Hills for that inspiration) and it was on sale TOO! 4 for $5 and normally they were $2.50 each. It worked out great since I forgot my coupon. Go figure.

So we made it home and that wire was perfect! I think my bead wire is just made to not kink, where this stuff is made to stay in place. Anyway, these patterns aren't my idea. But the colors choices are!

Penguin!

Giraffe!

Turtle!

And, the most complicated but still my favorite,

The Fairy

She's totally cooler in person.

Then I broke out the clay. And I'm not so great with it as I am with kiln fired clay. Also, it would be nice to have those tools again and if I decded to do this a lot more I'd totally want better tools. And yet, I'm happy to use my hands and fingers, fingernails, a plastic fork, and a sharp corn holder (great for poking)

My Lizard was first!

And then I made a turtle! He has a hard time not leaning forward. His head's heavy.

(Full of brains, very smart little turtle)

Today I used white and blue. Things to note, blue stains your hands and thus your white.

I also bought black and red today. I think I'm going to try for some pirate themed stuff soon. Skulls look fun, as do skeletons! Yay! More photos to come I think!

Something else to note while we're on the craft moment:

Last week when my oldest sister in law was home from college she and I and Mom in Law decided to make SOAP! Now, this inspiration also came from the Festival of Little Hills. It's basically a giant craft fair with food and the occasional musician/ magician set up in the middle of the street. The things that I saw that I really wanted to try for myself were clay animals (some people made them into jewelry and magnets.. oh yeah! MAGNETS! woot! Now I know what I'm going to do with all these silly animals.), jewelry (the seed bead stuff), and most of all was soap!

The soap stalls were all selling expensive but pretty stuff. Sis-in-law's favorites (mine too) were the ones with rubber duckies sticking out of them. They had all kinds of ducks. Different occupations, different outfits (think cowboy hat and whip), etc. But they cost SO freaking much, and were so simple looking.

Sis in law had never been to Hobby Lobby, a lovely craft store here in the great state of Misery that doesn't cost as much as Michael's and has more craft, less fine art. It's a super fun place to spend hours in. Hours Jess? Yep. I've spent hours there. Looking. =)

We found a kit with a full pound of soap, two mold trays, scent, and color dye! The scent seemed to be a surprise, so we grabbed a bottle of coconut scent too and then wandered around looking for rubber ducks. Which we FOUND! The soap was easy, you melt it in the microwave for like 30 seconds, pour in some smelly stuff and some color, pour it and let it cool. And then WHAM! You have soap you made yourself.

Sis in law and I learned a few things:

1. It's hard to add too much scent when you only add a drop at a time. Next time, do it in long squirts.

2. When you want multi - separate- colors in one bar, it has to cool between colors. This is a problem until the green and the blue mix to become this awesome turquoise.

3. Rubber ducks have air in them and thus float. Sis in law got to sit there for five minutes pushing the duck down into the mold until it set enough to hold the duck down. Future ducks were filled with the liquid soap before being put into the mold.

4. Patience is a key.

5. I'm impatient.

6. It's SO COOL to shower everyday and use the soap YOU made!

So we ended up with pink and green cucumber melon scented hearts. And bars with DUCKS in them ranging in colors. Here are a few pics of the ducks. The quality of these photos is appalling (even though I'm the one that snapped them), so I'm not going to 'focus' on that part. HA! A pun!

Horizontal Ducky... Vertical Ducky....

What's next?

Probably more beads, soap, and clay.

My budget is fully maxed out, not that I spent much. I love bargain shopping, especially at craft stores.

Take that Rachel Ray!

2009-09-02T18:52:00.001-05:00

Today was my mom's birthday, and for her birthday my aunt took her out to dinner.

This story has nothing to do with my mom though.

(Happy Birthday Mom!)

Because mom was gone, it was just my dad and I for dinner. Yesterday he'd mentioned how he loves stew but hasn't had it in awhile. I figured, well I do nothing else all day, so I'll make dinner! Yay!

In my family, my dad is the main cook. So it's not as if we were going to starve with mom gone. As the newly married one though, I figure maybe I'll get some cooking practice in. So before we went to lunch I pulled out two very old cookbooks, both at least older than I am.

One had a recipe for "Beef and Onion Stew," the other for "Old Fashioned Beef Stew." I decided to just combine the two and make it up as I went. The ingredients we lacked at home were stew meat, carrots, and all spice. Okay I lied, we did have carrots. Baby carrots. But I'm just not a fan of those slow cooked. I really don't like them a whole lot raw, and since I was the chef I bought the kind I liked.

After lunch (mom's birthday Red Lobster meal) we stopped at the store to pick up my ingredients (and happened to pass the craft stuff on the way so I came home with more seed beads and a really cool storage container for the tiny beads). I was VERY happy to find out that the meat was already cut up! Hooray!

I hate to cut raw meat. I had to handle raw meat. But I especially hate cutting it. It's flesh. Actual flesh. That you have to saw with a knife and then squish in your hands while you put it in the pan. Can we say "ew"?

Ew.

So we got home and I started cooking. I prefer to chop over cook. So I did the peeling and chopping first! Carrots (6), Potatoes (4), Garlic Clove (1), Onion (1). Three years ago I could have chopped an entire room full of onions with zero tears. Today, I had to take my glasses off and put a wet cold towel on my face. My eyes didn't tear as much as they BURNED. But dangit, my onion was CHOPPED!

I browned the meat- proceeding to get oil everywhere. Oh wait, stop. I must add a very important fact- I am an extremely messy cook. Extremely. Thus, oil is splattered on the stove top, the counter next to it, my arms/shirt, and even the microwave above it. Then I tossed in the onions and garlic, browned it all.

Next on the recipes was either 2 cups water or 2 cups dry red wine. I found a can of beef broth and a can of tomato paste. Those went in. An hour later, I tossed in the veggies and covered with water. 20 minutes later I remembered to turn the heat back up to make it all simmer. Lol.

At this point I have veggie pieces all over, oil all splattered, paper towels littering the counters, and the smell of allspice floating in the kitchen.

Allspice. What is it? Neither of my parents could answer this question. I used it, I still have no idea. But I do know that it costs $2.43 at Walmart for a very tiny bottle of it. Like maybe an ounce. Probably not even that.

Anyway, I put in my dash of allspice and then could only smell that in the air for the next hour. That was a problem. Luckily in the end it all tasted good, but for the future I'm thinking just to use half a dash of allspice.

Then, I was bored.

I'm not much of a patient person. (background laughter)
Okay fine, I'll be honest. I have no patient bone in my body.

So I made muffins. Peanut butter muffins, a new recipe. They're yummy but boring. Next time I'll add more peanut butter and chocolate chips. A nice touch was my melted butter/sugar mixture I brushed on right out of the oven. You can never have too much sugar.

So I got to serve my dad dinner at 6pm. We had Beef Stew (the Jess version) where the veggies were practically falling apart (mmmm) and the meat was tender (which dad told me since I'm not a beef person and didn't try it). Then for dessert, a peanut butter muffin.

Can we say SUCCESS?

Look out husband, delicious meals are on their way! =)

Self Portraits

2009-09-01T23:02:00.001-05:00

There's this really neat site that allows you to use your webcam to take photos. It requires no downloads, is easy to use, and doesn't give you viruses.

I might as well be a commercial for it.

Picanom.com

It's super fun. I get a little carried away sometimes though...

Coors

2009-08-30T19:58:00.001-05:00

My cousin and her fiance bought a new puppy about 6 weeks ago. It's amazing how fast he's grown, he's almost tripled in size. He's such a sweet puppy, getting into everything and exploring. He loves to irritate our own dogs, and they love to fight back.

Today we decided that Coors, that's his name, needed a photo shoot before he wasn't a puppy anymore.

Good thing I'm a professional.... lol.

Buddy and Dorie get a BATH!

2009-08-27T21:02:00.001-05:00

My Parents have two yorkies, who rolled in who knows what outside tonight.

So it was bathtime!!

Dutifully recorded by yours truly.

Dorie:

Buddy:

I have crabs...

2009-08-27T20:10:00.001-05:00

Two of them actually.

When the husband and I were on our honeymoon (in Gulf Shores) we were at this cute little seaside shop with hermit crabs in it. And after a day of talking about it, we decided to get one as our new pet. They're easy to take care of, they're funny to watch, and they are super creepy looking. Husband calls them Demons from Hell. Because seriously, crabs freak most everyone out.

As my best friend says, I digress. We named those crabs Jack Sparrow and Mullet Murray. Pirate themed, as are most of my ideas. Jack and Murray didn't last long. It may have been due to the not-so-great-for-crabs store we bought them at. It may have been the fact that they fell a lot- we didn't realize how quickly they move. Or maybe I just suck as a crab mom. But honestly, they never really at much and they were rarely active, so I think they had problems to begin with. Jack and Murray died about two weeks after we got them, Jack lived a few days past Murray. It was difficult to accept their deaths, but not as my close pets (let's face it, who can get an emotional attachment to a crab?) but as the fact that I couldn't keep freaking hermit crabs alive.

So I tossed them out (I was too creeped out by dead crab bodies to bury them) and put the stuff in the basement. And moved on with my life for a few weeks.

Or so I thought!

Mom and I were at the mall the other day and I went into Earthbound Trading Co. where I saw a giant tank of well cared for hermit crabs. And my heart lurched, I decided I might have to get another one. Or two, since they like to be social.

Unfortunately, my bad record of crabbies made me hesitate. So I left the store to think about it and had barely made it three more stores down before I had to have them. I went back and picked out two, both are very small with a yellow and a purple shell. I also grabbed 2 extra shells (they like to have options to move into) and food. Who knew I should have saved the old food?

Another cool thing about these guys is that their treats can basically be any food, just in a super small proportion. The size of a pinky nail will cover them for a few days, and that's pretty cheap if you ask me.

It's been a debate on what to name them.
I like the idea of coordinated names. Here's a list my mom came up with:
Scuttle and Scoot
Scuttle and Sebastian
Yellow and Purple
*Lemon and Grape
Daisy and Violet
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
*Fred and George
*Ursula and Sebastian
John and Kate
*Jack and Jill
*Pebbles and Bambam
Chris and Pat
Beauty and Beast
Cinder and Ella
Anastasia and Drizella (Ugly Stepsisters)
Dora and Diego
Frank.
Herman.
Jack 3 and Jack

The list continues on facebook with friends piping with more suggestions. The man suggested I keep it to Lemon and Grape to keep them dehumanized, so if they die it's less sad. Which totally makes sense, and I think Lemon and Grape are cute names anyway. My other favorites are Fred and George and Jack and Jill. I guess I'll just see what sticks.

They're incredibly active little buggers. The yellow one is always out of his shell exploring, the purple one buried himself UNDER their little shell cave (hot glue and free shells from the beach!) last night. They're super fun to watch. But a lot of people are freaked out by the idea of holding them. I don't mind letting them wander around next to me, they're really great climbers but fall over a lot- which helps my amusement.

Their tank on my bookshelf:

The yellow one crawling on the empty shells:

(see him on the top right?)

Who knew one could write an entire post on hermit crabs?

It begins!

2009-08-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wanted to jump on the bandwagon?

I must admit, I'm easily swayed into doing so. And when other people are blogging and talking to friends via blogs, it makes me want to join in to! Not to mention that I'm incredibly tired of using facebook to keep in touch. I love the idea of adding photos to ideas. I hate facebook's obsessiveness. They spam you with ads (which are incredibly repetitive) and people 'poke' you all the time. Let's not go into how much I hate 'poking.'

My mom has a blog. She's quite a knitter, and her blog is all about knitting. She's currently working on a pair of socks for my husband. And a tank top for herself. And a few other projects. Mom's always working on many knitting projects, not all of which get finished.

Even my mother-in-law is a blogger. She loves writing all about her family and their adventures. Nothing is ever quiet in that household, it's a very fun place to hang out.

So here I am blogging. Not my first time to do so, I had a website a long long time ago (okay, 8th grade. Which was in 1999, and is a long time ago for me) with a few friends from school. We weren't very good website creators, but it amused us enough.

Why am I blogging? Well, I'm all about not being left behind. Also, husband and I are headed into a brand new chapter of our lives (married) and we'll be leaving family behind soon. I think this is a great way to keep everyone back home updated. Plus, it's a neat way to keep a record of what's happening in our lives.

AND because I'm bored.
"But Jess, why I are you bored?" I can hear you asking.
So I'll tell you.
I'm here at home, not working due to tendonitis in my right shoulder. I'm a photographer who, up until a week ago, spent 40+ hours a week photographing portraits. This job requires me to hold a heavy camera (somewhere between 5 and 8 pounds) at eye level for hours on end. It's not easy on my body apparently, and now lifting said cameras gives me serious pain. So I had to quit my job to keep my shoulder from getting worse (which would create a need for surgery) and now it's able to rest.

Well, as much rest as I can let it while I find things to entertain myself with.
It's not easy to live at your parents house with no job. I like working, it keeps me busy, makes us money, lets me get out my creative obsessions.

It's not too bad though, the job was only temporary as I'm moving when the husband gets home. Did I mention he's in Iraq? A story for another day.

So for now here's post #1. I haven't really said anything yet, but like the blog title says, Spastic Babble is what I do best.