Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts

Sunday, April 8, 2012

An Instagram Easter


 So I've had the Instagram app on my phone for who knows how long, but it wasn't until this past weekend that I became super addicted.  Come follow me, okay?  You'll get to see lots of behind the scenes action that doesn't make it to this blog - babies, cats, works in progress, my messy house, etc.  You can find me under Emmmylizzzy, of course!


My weekend started off with me getting super sick for a good 24 hours.  Thank goodness my parents were already here for the Easter weekend so they could watch the kiddos, since I pretty much didn't move from my bed for an entire day.  At one point, Phoebe brought me this daffodil and said "Here Momma, I brought you a present to make you feel better".  This cute moment was followed promptly by her grabbing it out of my hands and saying "Actually...., it's mine".


Thankfully I felt much better the next day for some Easter egg fun.


Due to being sick, I didn't end up making any fancy ones like in years past.....


.....but Phoebe rocked out some pretty awesome ones by mixing her own concoction of colors together.


Odin decided to keep an eye out for the Easter bunny all night.....


.....but must have missed him, because he had time to deliver waaaay too many goodies. (I think I get more excited about Easter than any other holiday)


After church and a lovely brunch in downtown Ann Arbor with the family, we headed home to hunt for eggs and relax the rest of the day.



Hope your holiday was just as great!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry, merry

Waiting for Santa

Happy holidays, dear friends!  Did everyone survive?  We kept Christmas pretty low-key this year since my husband had to work and I was (and still am) much too pregnant to go too crazy. 

Christmas Phoebe 2011
I simply love that little chipped tooth!
Phoebe had an absolute blast, got waaaaay too many presents, and made Christmas all the more exciting for every one of us here.

Christmas Tree

I was hoping to finally reveal all of the Christmas goodies I've been working on the past month, but I still have a few family members and friends to exchange gifts with, so it will have to wait a bit longer.  As for myself, I was surprised by my husband and parents who went together to get me a brand new, shiny camera that I've been coveting for the past year, as well as some gift certificates for, what else - fabric!   

For the birds

And as if I wasn't spoiled enough on Christmas morning, my family has taken Phoebe off my hands for the next couple of days so I can take it easy before all the chaos of a new baby takes over.  

Even though I usually like to keep the tree and decorations up until after New Years, I figured I'd better get everything back in order while I had an empty house and before baby arrives.  I hope the birds enjoy their Christmas treat!


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Project snippets, updates, and a giveaway!

**Giveaway is now closed!  Thanks for everyone who played along - winner will be announced once I get my act in gear and take some photos for my next blog post :)

Welcome Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway groupies - and of course my lovely friends and followers.  I'm finally getting over my never ending virus (knock on wood!), and I think my nesting is finally kicking back in - we're in the home stretch regarding all things Christmas and new baby.  Eeeks!

Here's what I've been up to.....

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Making my favorite Christmas recipe to package up for gifts - Salted Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Bark.  You can find a link to the recipe from last year's post.

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Remember this quilt top from waaaaaay back when?  Well I finally got it basted and ready for quilting.  I'm really hoping to get it done before new baby gets here because it will be great for the whole family to cuddle under since it's so ginormous.  Although I think my arm muscles keep chickening out at the thought of manuvering that monstrosity through my machine.

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Here's the progress I've made on new baby's crocheted afghan.  Two more strips to go, weaving in some ends, and possibly a border if I have time.  I'm finding it funny how much the color scheme from this blanket and the above quilt match each other - especially since I started both projects about eight months apart!

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I'm absolutely loving Dottie Angel's tutorial on joining the squares as you go - I think it looks amazing and it saves so much work in the end!

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In shop news, I had great luck picking up some simply gorgeous vintage sheets this weekend.  They've been washed, ironed, and are already for sale in my Etsy shop!

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I also found some simply stunning vintage baby quilts in pristine condition.  Each individual fabric is just more beautiful than the last.  I'm keeping this one for myself, but I've got one more in the shop that I'm forcing myself to part with.

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And as if I don't have enough projects going on right now, I finally completed my Folksy Flannel collection thanks to Pink Castle Fabrics (who currently have bundles of the entire line in stock!) and have something fantastic in the works.  More on that later....

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And because I couldn't resist, I also picked up these flannel prints from Anna Maria Horner's  Loulouthi line (from Pink Castle as well).  You know how luxurious her Folksy Flannels are?  Well, if it's possible, these are even softer and cozier! 

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Okay, giveaway time!  This giveaway is sponsored by none other than Pink Castle Fabrics!  I'm super in love with the Ruby line by Moda and these Sundae Stripe prints are my favorite.

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Just leave a comment telling me what you hope to get for Christmas this year, and you'll be in the running for a fat quarter from each of the colorways - six in total!  As for me, I'm hoping that this baby will arrive early, but I'm definitely not holding my breath :)  I guess I'd settle for a Liberty Mini Fabric Bundle - I've been pining after one of those for a long time!

Good luck everyone - the giveaway will stay open until Friday at 5pm EST and yes, I'm willing to ship internationally.  I'll be back in the next day or two with with a sneak peek of the new nursery!



Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tree cutting and christmas crafting

It's not even December yet and already our holiday festivities are in full swing.

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We cut down our Christmas tree, took obligatory 34 weeks pregnant photos (please disregard the look of exhaustion and no makeup on my face), and decorated every square inch of our house.  

It has been the most fun holiday season that I can remember because Phoebe is super into it this year.  I couldn't even count the number of times that Phoebe "ooooo'ed" and "aaaahhhhh'ed" and said "That is so so pretty/sparkly" while we got out our decorations.   And she tries her darndest to hug and kiss the Christmas tree about 20 times every day. "I LOVE my Christmas tree!"

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We've also been doing some holiday crafting.  I have to keep Phoebe's projects a secret for right now since they're gifts for the family, but this is a little something that I whipped up for my Modern Quilt Guild's ornament swap that took place at tonight's meeting.

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I can't take credit for the adorable pattern - I spotted it on Pinterest (of course!) a couple weeks ago.  You can find the full tutorial and printable pattern here.

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Phoebe was pretty bummed when I had to wrap this one up to give away, so I think I'll be making a couple more of these sweet little cottages to grace our Christmas tree!


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Celebrating Thanksgiving

Anyone else out there celebrating Thanksgiving?  Or has everyone skipped ahead to Christmas?

Don't get me wrong, Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday of the year and I like to go all out with gingerbread houses, cutting down a fresh tree, and coating our house in multiple layers of tinsel and glitter, but I've always loved Thanksgiving and it makes me kind of sad that it gets the shaft - being stuck there in between Halloween and Christmas.

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When I was younger, Thanksgiving consisted of me sleeping in, and waking up in just enough time to watch the parade while helping my mom make pumpkin pies (she made the crust while I made the filling), going to my grandparent's for the absolute best meal of the year, then playing games and eating said pie the rest of the evening.  Such a low-key, cozy holiday.

Taking a day to give thanks became even more important to us three years ago when we discovered just a few days prior that our cycle of IVF was successful and we were expecting our first baby after two years of trying to conceive.  When we went around the table to say what we were thankful for, we passed out pictures of our precious little embryo.

So I've definitely been trying to make Thanksgiving meaningful in our house and talking with Phoebe about the first Thanksgiving (and as one of my friends said, "Without going into the whole Trail of Tears thing", lol) and what it means to be thankful for what we have. 

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The major bummer is that there really aren't a lot of decorations that scream "Thanksgiving",  and since I like to keep things festive around here, I've resorted to making a lot of my own.

Phoebe became really smitten with finding pretty leaves in October, so we ended up pressing a bunch of them and suspending them from our big picture window.  Of course my husband walked in and immediately questioned my sanity as to why there was a giant stick suspended in our living room (as I'm sure most of the other moms at playgroup were when I found it in the park and drug it back to my car a couple weeks ago). 

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I also took some inspiration from Pinterest and made a bunch of these simple garlands by cutting out random leaf shapes from some felt scraps and sewing them together with a basic running stitch.

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This little crocheted turkey and pumpkin pie have actually been around for quite awhile, as I went crazy during the early days of amigurumi and crocheted pretty much any free pattern I could find.  The turkey pattern can be found here, but I can't seem to find where the pie pattern came from.

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I hope all of you have just as much to be thankful for!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Costume sewing

Sorry for the week long absence - thanks for sticking around!  Let's just say that I have never been a happy pregnant person, to put it mildly, and I've been in some sort of pregnancy funk lately.  It doesn't help that I always end up getting a ridiculously huge and larger than normal pregnant belly (I didn't even leave the house my entire last month pregnant with Phoebe because people would seriously gawk at me), and I have been super uncomfortable, tired, and short tempered lately.  But I doubt you came to listen to me bitch about that - so onto more fun stuff!

So one thing that I churned out during this last week was Phoebe's Halloween costume.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?  When I was little, my grandma always made costumes for my sister and I, and when we got older, my parents kind of left it up to us to create something for ourselves.  Aside from some wigs and makeup, we never bought prepackaged costumes and I'm pretty sure that is what instilled my anti-manufactured Halloween costume beliefs.  

Halloween is such a great time for kids to be creative and help make something truly unique to wear on a day where anything goes.  I vowed before I even had kids that they would never wear one of those cheap, plastic, out of the bag costumes that promotes no imaginative thinking.  

*After rereading this I realized how harsh it sounds, and by no means am I trying to belittle parents who do purchase costumes from stores.  Not everyone knows how to sew, nor has the time - and who knows where I'll be next year when I've got two kiddos to sew costumes for.  Just my own personal thoughts regarding Halloween - and it's my blog and I can say whatever I want :)  Stepping off my soapbox now....* 

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So initially, I had wanted to dress Phoebe up as Rainbow Brite for Halloween.  However, Phoebe has made it well known to everyone that she has her own opinions and ideas now, and hence I was informed that I would be making a bunny costume this year.

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I bought a yard and a half of ultra cozy, micro-fleece at Joann's, and used two patterns that I already had in my stash.  The pants were made using the quick-change trousers pattern from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings, and the hoodie was made using Heidi and Finn's Urban Unisex Hoodie pattern - previously blogged about here.

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I free-handed the ears, whip-stitching them into place, and used a knit shirt from Target's clearance rack to line the hoodie and make the pink for the ears.

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The only part that I'm super bummed about is that I should have gone up a size when making the hoodie, because it's a little short in the arm and waist length.  This kid is just growing way too fast!  

But Phoebe absolutely adores her costume, and hops to her little hearts content when she has it on.

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Now we're working on the "trick or treat" part.  Phoebe absolutely refuses to say it, for some unknown reason, but would instead prefer to say "Booooooo!" followed by announcing "Phoebe's kinda scary!".

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers!  We spent our long weekend celebrating with friends and family at a lake in Southwest Michigan.
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We celebrated with a new skirt made by momma....

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homemade key lime pies,

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lots of swimming,

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our first fishing lesson with grandpa,

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bubbles,

Nobody loves anything as much as kids love bubbles.

BIG bubbles,

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boat rides,

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beautiful sunsets,

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.....and of course, fireworks - made all the more special by watching them on a boat in the middle of the lake.  

Hope you had an equally wonderful time!