blankets fo' ma' baybay...

i do realize that three is the magic number when it comes to kiddos. i realize that the life we know and love will be shaken up quite a bit with the arrival of this new little person in june. i also realize that i'll have to work twice as hard for matthew not to suffer hard-core from middle child syndrome, and david not to crater under the weight of our expectations for him as the perfect oldest kid. and bless his little heart, baby jeremiah will be born into a life of getting jipped if i don't start trying to thwart it off now. so, i am starting with two of my favorite pastimes: quilting and knitting. my goal: two blankets made by me for him BEFORE he's five years old. so far, one down, one in progress. not bad, since i have 3 months before he's scheduled to arrive to finish knitting the last third of his blanket. yehaw! and, of course, here's some pics :]

a quilt for ruthie...

so i have mastered something. above all other talents, one exceeds them all.... procrastination. i can make excuses all day long about how i'm pregnant and tired and blah, blah, blah- but it just boils down to this simple truth- i love to put things off. this phenomenon eludes me, as i'm also a super planner and strive to get so many things done ahead of time. weird. anyhooo, all that to say this- ruthie's birthday quilt (her birthday was december 6th) is finally finished. i LOVE it. in fact, i'll be honest and admit that i thought about keeping it about 10 times during it's completion. so, here's the story- start to finish, for all of you who wonder how my brain works. just a few disclaimers- i'm a lazy quilter. i refuse to use patterns, eyeball almost everything, and tend to like random cuts more than precise ones- see? lazy.

i start with a pile. basically, this is the product of my rummaging thru my scrap bins for pieces that i think will work well together. ruthie's flavor- blues, greens, and browns. a quilt after my own heart :]

then i come up with a plan and cut away. i wanted strips with lots of different prints, against a clean white background. and this is what i came up with. it is, of course, not set in stone till i sew it all together- always changing as it comes together.

and finally a finished quilt! i stippled it, because i find that crinkle absolutely irresistible, and backed it with a martha stewart sheet in an amazing shade of aqua blue. i hope she finds it atleast as half delicious as i do. honestly, i don't know if this picture does it justice. i could look this quilt for hours. 

super duper

i intended to quilt today, that was not a lie. in fact, i even have a pile of cute coordinating fabrics on my cutting mat, ready to be hacked into the picture in my mind, but... i detoured. i made these this morning, for a friend's birthday, and then i clocked out on the couch for a bit before i had to get in the car rider line at the school. not super productive, but these are pretty sweet :]

random

after last week's amazing productiveness, i'm proud to say that i do not know what to do with myself this week. i owe my sister a birthday quilt- it's embarassing how late it is, really. and so i think i might tackle that. and we took a trip to ikea today- awesome. we now have a baby crib set up... love it. so that means i can make little man a quilt too, or finish the blanket i'm knitting for him. i also bought some boucle traditions in pink mist today- a possible knitting project for a friend's baby. guess i have a few things i could work on. just an ounce of motivation would be nice :]

a week in photos

sometimes i laugh when people say that i'm a homebody, or when they assume that all i do is sit on my keester watching soaps all day. not so, friends. i tend to fight over-enthusiastic cleaning and creating on a regular basis. but either way, this week has been insane, so i'll log it for you in pics.

A QUILT. this one might count as puffery- since it's technically an end-of-last-week-feat, but who cares. as promised, i finished this quilt. green with envy, that's what i'm calling it- kind of a squirrely and random product of my love affair with circles and polka dots. but i like it :]

NO WAL-MART CARDS, MOM. LET'S MAKE 'EM. i made these for david's class... he personalized each one, with his favorites from a list of text messsages i printed for him. the keypads are made from old-fashioned candy buttons. genious. i stole this idea from family circle or something like that- i just opted not to hand-write each one, because i knew the perfectionist would take over and i'd be a mess for it. no lie- the kids loved these, i witnessed every single one of them running around the classroom having fake conversations with eachother. priceless.

MARSHMALLOWS ANYONE? in an effort to find an original solution for the ever-looming problem of teacher gifts, i scoured my pantry for usable items, and this amazingness is what i came up with. i had all of this: candy sticks, treat bags, marshmallows, wilton candy metls, and sprinkles.
seriously, these are so fast, and so cute. coupled with a homemade card from david- his teacher was raving over it. and i'll admit, i had a few bites of one of these- yum.

CUPCAKE LOVE. and... i made these for david's valentine's party. i resolved the latter part of last year that i would not keep making cakes if it meant that my kids never got have them. so, here's another installment to that. david came home from school last week and explained that he told his teacher that i would be upset if i didn't get to make the cupcakes for the party- because that's what i love to do. obviously, i couldn't disappoint :] i know i've said it before, but cupcakes trump cake decorating any day. i could make these tiny decorations for hours.

CAKE LOVE. and finally, i delivered this yesterday morn, before i headed off to david's school for a par-tay. two friends of mine got married last night, in a super small ceremony of mostly just close family. but seriously, a wedding without cake?! so, she didn't really care what i did- gave me full creative liberty, just said that she liked eclectic, bohemian, white and chocolate brown- and that she'd like a stripe of blue on there for the groom. this is what i came up with. i personally, wanted to paint this all over my living room walls after i was finished. i love the design.

soooo..... i have not been logging baby progress and photos in this post, because justin thinks that blogs are dangerous places to post all your personal laundry. i say hardy har to that, but i'll respect it all the same. but just so ya know... with all this craziness passing us by super quickly, i'm happy to say that i am ready. if baby arrived tomorrow, i'd have clean clothes, cloth diapers, and a sweet bassinet for him to sleep in. enough said.

spring fever

call me crazy, but one can only handle so much winter... dreary, cold, wet, ugly winter. and then you start to go a little nuts. i realize that in texas i don't experience an ounce of what my northern friends do- but thank God for that, cause i'm not cut out for long seasons of nastiness. i miss saltwater and the beach and my flowers and dirt and sunshine. so... this is what i've done as of late, to help bring a little "springiness" back into my life.

these are on my dining room table. $5 cannot be better spent at wal-mart... absolutely cannot. i smile every single time i walk around the corner :]

 

and i started these crazy creations, something about aqua and avocado green that really tickle my fancy. i can't wait to see how they both turn out, as i'm sort of clueless as to what the end result will be just yet. maybe i'll have some pictures to show you by the end of the week. i'm in full-fledged quilting mode these days, so it could happen.

and since spring always brings on the uncanny urge to spring clean and complete projects around the house.... i spent the day caulking baseboards, patching holes, and touching up paint in my boys' room. it is officially ready for a crib now :] and that means i'm brainstorming a crib quilt too. i LOVE that.