Merry Christmas!

Well, certainly alot has happened since June, but I'll keep my first post in 6 months simple! Goody helped with the Christmas cards this year; she colored in the white dots on this green and white polka dot fabric from my stash, I cut the trees, and she applied (mostly) the glue.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Painting is fun but messy

One of Goody's birthday gifts from me was some watercolor paints and paper. I'm not exactly sure why we did not paint until now, but she really loves it. This was her first painting. She is really into mixing colors, layers, and painting circles. She does trianlges now, too.

Oh, and for whatever reason, she will NOT allow this to be posted for public viewing on the refrigerator. I've tried and she slides a chair over and takes it down every single time.

Invitations

These are the invitations I made for Goody's birthday party. Most have been distributed. I think they turned out pretty cute! In case you couldn't tell, the worm is a two!

One down, Hundreds (?) to go!

I finally finished Goody's quilt this morning. If you remember from this post, I purchased a set of fabrics to make her a quilt before she was born. I thought I didn't have time then (ha ha!). Anyway, this was completed in mostly one hour sessions. I'm not sure how many. I realized that I really wasn't in love with these fabrics any more, as I have since discovered the amazing world of fabrics online. At the time, I was limited to what I could find within driving distance. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty I like. But nothing like the dreaminess online. Anyway, I had a specific pattern in mind when I bought the fabrics, but I didn't feel like messing with a pattern, so I just decided to wing it. Here's what I came up with (this is pre-washed, by the way...it will get a lovely wrinkley look when I do wash it):

Sorry the picture's a little blurry; I'll try to get some better shots when I can put it on the bed. Goody's asleep right now. Everything is machine stitched and quilted, including the binding. The circles are hand-appliqued. Here's a detail of the quilting and applique:

Spring is for flowers!

Goody has learned about flowers; most of them she finds "pretty" or "cute". We can hardly walk past one without her saying "touch it". I always say yes and she does so very delicately. Such a little lady! She is always sure to mention the color of the flower as well. I hear about the purple and white crocus by our front stairs every day.



Today, I was searching online for the appropriate stitch for attaching rick rack by hand (I'm using some vintage rick rack sent from Mississippi for a work in progress, hopefully finished today and blogged asap) and I came across the amazing rick rack flowers. I've searched before about a million times for fabric flowers, but I never saw these.

The tutorial for these oh-so-springy rick rack flowers is blogged at Knick Knacks and Ric Rac , which is a behind-the-scenes blog for madewithlovebyhannah.com. They do have some lovely hand made clothing in their shop. I am going to add these flowers to my impossible to-do list.

Zoo!

We finally made it over to Seattle to take Goody to the Woodland Park Zoo. We were graciously hosted by our friend David, so we did not have to get a hotel room for the night. We even got to take the puppies along (not to the zoo, of course). Seattle's zoo is pretty good, definitely one of the best I've been to, not that I have seen many. It took us about 2 and a half to three hours to see everything (I take that back...we skipped the animal farm area, the butterfly exhibit, and missed the red panda). Goody had a great time, really no complaints at all other than she did cry a little when we left the gorilla exhibit (gorillillillas being her favorites and all). She talks about all the animals and what some of them were doing. Quite the memory on that one! I think her favorites were the giraffes, the gorillas, zebras, and the wild dog who was scratching his butt. Oh the things that amuse toddlers!

Fun was had by all; we definitely will visit the zoo again!

Tim, Goody, and Dave checking out the elephant:

Goody sitting under the bear (who, according to Goody, needed his toenails trimmed):

Reminder to Self

I must have a copy of the April issue of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine. There will be a free pattern printed with which I will not be able to continue living. Just a note: THIS IS NOT MY DESIGN and I did not make this quilt; I got this off Flickr, where the designer posted it.

If you have been shopping with me any time in the last year or so, you will know that I cannot resist any sort of fabric, art, clothing, functional (really, any) kind of item with bird(s) on it. I don't know why; I don't have a pet bird. I'm not a birdwatcher (officially, but I have pulled out the binoculars at home a couple of times, and I scan the trees for Bald Eagles when I am driving to Wenatchee). Here's a link to the designer's blog. Can't wait to make this beauty! And a stash buster at that!

See you in a year!

Or so that's the plan with our friends the McKee's. They are off to Thailand for a year. I am really hopeful that we remain in touch. So far my life experience has proven that as friends move on, it is very difficult to maintain that connection, at least at the level it previously was. The McKee's have been wonderful friends to us, and have shared in many of our family's greatest life moments, allowing us the same gracious welcome to their own family.

Goody has already started asking to meet Cyrus at the coffee shop. I've told her it will be a while before we see them.

Me: "Maybe we will go on an airplane to Thailand and see Cyrus and Andy and Alicia there."
Goody: "Soon."

With luck, maybe.

Have a wonderful time, McKee's. See you when you get back!

mckeelife.com

Back to "Work"

No, no, don't be confused; I did not get a new job. I just mean back to work on this blog and my hobbies. I picked up a couple of embroidery books this past fall, and finally have finished my first project. Goody calls it my "Circles". I'm kinda digging the embroidery and its portability. Most of this project was completed during Goody's bathtime (more than one, of course). Now, what to do with it...

Any ideas?

Another "Missed" Halloween

Halloweed used to be my favorite of all holiday. I loved to go over the top with my costumes, spending hundreds of hours and unbudgeted amounts of dollars on my costumes. However, this will mark the 3rd one in a row without a costume of festivities of any kind for me (I take that back, the wonderful husband did organize a pumpkin carving party, so we did have jack-o-lanterns). In 2006, I was pregnant and probably throwing up. Last year, Goody was too young and we just weren't up to it. And this year, Goody came home from her baby sitter throwing up. I gave her a bath and showed her the unicorn costume and she wanted to wear it, so I let her. She was awake for about 10 minutes after I put it on, but she would NOT allow me to remove it or even unzip it a little. Here she is, proof that unicorns are magical, indeed.

New Hat

I made Goody a new hat. I think I'll post a tutorial soon on craftster.

Oops. I'll have to fix that this afternoon. Sideways baby.

Little Dress for a Little Girl

Our long-time friend Brad was married back at the beginning of September. Tim was one of the best men (Brad wanted all three groomsmen to be called best men) and looked so handsome in his tuxedo. So, of course, I thought Goody should look extra cute in a special Mama-made dress. I used a pattern that Tim's mother so graciously let me have. I love, love these vintage patterns. I will sometimes just sit and look at them all (I think I posted about this before). I photo-copied this pattern before using; it was already cut out and seemed so delicate, I couldn't imagine sticking pins through it.







It turned out great! I joke that the dress was built around the shoes, but I guess it isn't much of a joke. I loved the little orange shoes Nicole helped me find (at Williamsville, of course) so much I shopped for fabric based on 2 criteria: must match the shoes, and must match the baby's blue eyes. Those shoes were a hit at the wedding; when people realized her shoes were squeaking they would go totally nuts over it; and it didn't take Goody long to realize it either!

I found this Tracy Porter fabric at Joann's, 40% off with my coupon of course. It looks much more baby blue in real life. Here's a super crappy picture of it (after it was worn, of course):


I didn't take my camera to the wedding. It was all I could do to get home from work, get me and the baby dressed, and get to the wedding before it started! The wedding photographer did get a couple of really nice shots of Goody at the wedding, which was held at the beautiful Ohme Gardens. I'll be ordering some of those prints--along with some shots of Tim in his tux (when will I see that again?) and will post them then.

Dear Rupert,

Our family will miss you terribly. Thank you so much for the love you gave in the short time you were with us. I can't count the number of times you made us laugh or smile when we otherwise might not have. You were a special part of our family, our sweet little buddy. Roo, Roopie, our Mister Bear, we will never forget you.

Come on, let's go!

We're making all the final arrangements for our trip to Mississippi! We're all excited to get a vacation. See you all soon!

Baby Girl Sized Furniture

Hmmm....what's this thing?

Is this how it works?

I think this is right!?

Update for the sake of update.

Not really much to report on these days. Just working and watching the baby. Now that Tim is back at an official job, the baby juggle has reached monumental levels. We also recently found out we are losing our baby sitter, who watches Goody for just 4 hours, twice per week. And since we live in such a small town, we still haven't been able to find a replacement. The trials of having a baby!

I've been diligently watching the price of airfare to JAN since December, and much to my dismay, it only keeps getting higher. We're still coming, even if it means we have to sell one of the dogs (jsut kidding...they're priceless). Especially since now, Misha lets Goody "ride" her. All I have to do is sing "Ride a little Misha down to town..." and Goody goes over and sits on her. So cute!

Little girl is walking all over the place now. On Tuesday, she decided "Hey, I can do this!" and now just motors around the house and yard and wherever!

Birthday!

Sure, it was over a week ago (Monday the 7th), but we're still celebrating being one!

Being one is almost like being a big girl...

But it still comes with its ups and downs...

Sleeping Babies

Not that I was happy for Goody to have been sick, but as I discussed with some other Moms, when babies are sick they revert to that super-cuddly or super-needy (depending on the caregiver's state of the mind at the moment) stage like when we still counted their ages in weeks. Here's one of Goody demonstrating the rare "asleep on Daddy's chest" technique.

Developmental Milestones

Okay, so these are probably not the milestones that your pediatrician is looking for, but they sure are cute ones. Goody has learned to 1)walk, 2)kiss, and 3)follow commands. The walking part she's been working on for a while now. She got a walker from her Mama and Papa at Christmas, and she loves to push it around the house. But last Wednesday, I was picking her up from the baby sitter, and while I gathered her things I put her down and she was standing there dancing (she loves music, by the way) and then just decided to go. She took about 10 steps before she fell down. SO CUTE!! I don't have a picture of her walking yet (and Daddy has the camera--he's in Haines, Alaska which I will post about next week) but here's a shot of her at her bookshelf. You can see she has no need to hold on to anything but the books!

For milestone number 2, last week she learned to give me a kiss. Daddy kisses took another couple of days. They are typically sort of open-mouth as we are still working on how to make kissy lips. Here she is kissing Spike (Snoopy's brother, part of the collection I had as a child).

And #3, following commands, is equally fun. I only just realized that she does for sure have language comprehension. You can tell her: give me a kiss, where's Rupert (she looks for him), come here, stand up, arms up, where's my nose (she touches it, sometimes not so gently), where's my lips, say bye or hi (comes with a wave and sometimes she says hi or bye), or throw it (either the ball or a toy for Rupert). She's learning so fast! Here she is waving Hi to Daddy while he was out trying to speed along spring in the back yard.

We've survived.

Well we are finally winding down a month of sickness. Tim is finally better, after having a string of illnesses ranging from sinus infections to norovirus back to a cold. Poor guy. And Goody didn't fare much better, as you see in the previous post. She's just winding up a cold now as well. I've still got a hacking cough, but I'm not totally debilitated.

I still can't get my camera to unload. What a pain. Most of my few spare "computer minutes" have been wasted trying to get the blasted thing to work. When you pay that much for a little plastic and trace metal box, you expect it to work properly for oh, I don't know, at least more the 3 months!!!

Anyway, Goody is awesome and has some new skills. I won't tell you more until I have pictures to prove it. I love her teeth. Although I think she may have an underbite. Nothing serious, it will probably go away when her top teeth come all the way in. Meanwhile, it is cute!