Christmas 2009

It was a very handmade Christmas on my part this year. Easy for me, since I already had the resources on hand. My wallet isn't complaining either! ;)

I made a card for my husband, using paper from our wedding invitations and acrylic paint that I had around.

You can't really see it, but the red and white paint shimmer - which also makes it hard to photograph! I used a pencil to outline what I wanted to paint (the words, circle and bow) and free-hand the ornament's center design.

For my father-in-law, I made a collage of his dog, Angel. I've been snapping photos of her all year long so I would have a nice variety.

Angel is now 10 years old, and since my dog died at 11, I'm very personally aware how little time she might have left. I really wished I had done something like this with my dog... but instead of living in regret over that, I opted to make sure others won't regret a chance to remember their pet! Of course, it helped that I see Angel almost every week. :)


For my mother-in-law, I made some potholders.

Pooh fabric on one side, Christmas on the other. I'll say I learned the hard way to keep the quilting simple! It distorts too much otherwise, due to the special heat-resistant batting.


For my husband's brother and wife, I gave them a quilt. It's one that I had around for several years, but never had a reason to finish it.

It's also one of the few boy-ish quilts I have - good thing, since they're expecting a son in February.

And here you can see them opening the quilt. Christmas is always a great time to use up Christmas fabric. How did I get so much of it?!

Kenya's about 7 months pregnant in this photo. All I can really remember is that she's 14 weeks ahead of me, and I'm 19 weeks today.

Kenya's daughter hugging her pillow and pillowcase that I made.

I wasn't aware of it, but apparently Starla LOVES to surround herself with pillows in her bed. Couldn't have given her a better gift I tried! :D

For Chris's expecting sister, I made a quilt to match their theme for the baby.

I made an uneven 9-patch, diced it into fourths and mixed it up. I really wanted to use the green for the sashing and blue for the cornerstones... but I didn't have enough green.

I had finished the quilt on the 22nd, and she found out the gender on the 23rd. I did tell Chris to pray hard that she's having a boy, I didn't have time to make a new quilt! :P Lucky me, no remakes needed.

Hopefully there'll be many happy hours of snuggling.


I've also discovered that I only like making handmade gifts if I can SEE you open it. I want to see people's reactions over something I've put many hours of work and care into. Hence why there was a lot of homemade gifts for my family last year, but I'm not planning the same this year. Can't see them!

Leah

Never tire of snow!

A week ago I awoke, put my contacts on and turned on the computer. There was some ladies talking about snow on a forum, and I was about to write a pouting reply (because I want snow!), and I took a peek out the window to see if it was still windy... and I saw snow!!!

Let me just say it's a very good thing the baby isn't born yet, my squealing would have woken it up for sure. :P

I tromped all around the apartment complex with my camera, snapping shots of whatever made my heart sing.

The snow is gone now, but lucky me, I can still look up to the mountains for some white.


Since Chris had an early doctor's appointment that morning, I decided it would be a nice treat for him if I cleared off his truck.

When he came out to leave, I rewarded him with two snowballs from the powder on the hood. :D Of course, I missed him by several feet! I don't have a lot of practice throwing snowballs...

Anybody care to send me some more snow? I've got plenty of quilts and cider to stay warm. :)

Leah

I'm not panicking!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm not panicking at all over Christmas this year. Ok, yeah, I totally missed the boat with my side of the family and I'm just going to have to deal with it in 2010. Hey, they got Christmas on time last year for them. ;)

We had another midwife visit last Wednesday, and it's all good. Baby's heartbeat was 153, my blood pressure was 113/78. No weight gain! That one made me happy. :) And I'm not really showing yet. Yes, I'm 17 weeks and 1 day in picture.

The baby is still hanging below my belly button right now. My upper tummy is a lot of mushy parts and flab, my lower is almost rock hard. I can't go very far when I poke down there. The baby won't listen to me though, I keep telling it to stay off of my bladder!


Lots of sewing going on... and I told myself I wouldn't put that kind of pressure on me this year! Well, I didn't know people were going to be having babies left and right in the family. :)

Pillowcase for my... step-niece? Does that term exist? I'll buy a pillow for it and it'll be a nice fluffy gift to wrap.


Then I made two more pillowcases for our bed, to give to Chris. I had two sets of fabric that would work for the pillowcases, so I asked Chris which he liked better... and he was like "well, this one is more Christmas like. Is that what you want the baby quilt to be?" I pretended to ponder on it for a moment while I got my face under control. :P Then I told him babies aside, which pair does he like better?

Oh yeah... you can see a bit of my tummy at the bottom of the picture. Guess I'm showing a little more that I realized? I haven't needed to put any of the maternity clothes I have to work. Yet. ;)

Merry Christmas!

Leah

Tis the season of secrets

I've been quilting! But I've been quilting on Christmas gifts. And since both my family and Chris's family know about my blog, nothing is safe now. ;)

So very spur-of-the-moment (less than 12 hours ago), Chris decided he wanted to do a Christmas tree. This Christmas will mark our 6th one together, and we've never decorated in any way before. The baby changes a lot of our ways of thinking!

Well, there's no Christmas trees to be had. Apparently there was a fire at the place that supplies real trees to this town, so there's a big shortage? My in-laws had to get their living tree from Tucson, a couple weeks later than normal. With that in mind, we decided to go for a fake tree. There's hardly any fake trees left either! We finally found one at Walmart that could work, we'll find out when we set it up tomorrow. :)

The other thing we're sad about is that we could absolutely not find any color Christmas lights for the tree. Well, we found red and purple, but want the multi-set. I'm hoping I can borrow some from my mother-in-law. If not, we'll just have to get out sooner next year and snag some.


The baby is doing well, I've been feeling it move since last week. :) Just 3 or 4 times a day, but I can tell they're getting stronger. I have a midwife appointment on Wednesday, I always look forward to those because I learn a lot and feel much more peaceful about having a baby. Oh yeah... I can't seem to keep my hands off of pomegranates!

I snagged some really big ones from Costco for $1.25 each. I'll remove the seeds (30-45 minutes) and then spend the next hour nibbling them away. Don't be surprised if the baby is born scarlet red. ;)

Mmm... I'm off to have another pomegranate!

Leah

First Baby Purchase!

I've made my first official baby item purchase this weekend. I'm not counting the pregnancy tests I used, or the $500 check for the midwife. ;)

Yeah, baby wipes! I can't have too many of those, can I? Hopefully it'll last a couple of months at least. But I'm planning to buy a box every time I go to Costco. Clean bottoms are important 'round here. ;)


Another thing that I forked over some cash for was this lotion.

I'm trying to lotion up after every shower. I'm hoping to avoid stretch marks on my tummy with faithful moisturizing. I also make Chris do my back, it gets so itchy otherwise. Oh yeah, I like backrubs. :D This is the only lotion that hasn't made Chris rush off to the bathroom to wash his hands as soon as he's done rubbing me.

My sister-in-law that's due one week before me is WAY ahead of me in baby stuff. She's got a whole room dedicated to the baby, matching furniture set, and now says all she needs is a rug and the baby! I feel very behind compare to her. But Chris pointed out so long as the baby has clean clothes and diapers, plenty of boob time, a comfy spot to sleep, and plenty of lovin', it'll do just fine. My wallet thanks him. ;)


In other news, my baby sister went sky diving!! No, the picture is not upside down, her boyfriend is. :P

Sarah figured she better do this stuff before she starts having any kids! Good thinking.

In other family news, Pops is doing better! He's in rehab right now, and eagerly waiting to get home, I'm sure. Dad and Sarah cleaned up a couple rooms for him this weekend. I may or may not have had a moment of relief that people don't expect me to do heavy duty stuff now. ;) No filling up trash bags, no carrying full ice chests up the stairs, and no more carrying the laundry baskets. My tummy doesn't like the pressure of the basket. I've resorted to two Ikea bags for the clothes.

I'm at 15.5 weeks... and still in normal clothes! I did find a pair of maternity jeans at the thrift store for $10 and snatched them up. They fit well everywhere except on the tummy - too big. :)

Leah