Giveaway!

If you're a fan of Pink Chalk Fabrics or Cloud 9 Organic Fabrics, check out the giveaway going on over at Progressive Pioneer!

In the Bag

I made myself a diaper bag! It didn't turn out quite how I'd expected, but I'm pretty proud of it nonetheless.

I found the pattern at A Mingled Yarn, and I think the pattern would be a breeze for anyone who has experience sewing bags or clothing. I personally have neither, but it still wasn't too difficult.

My problem with the bag (and it's entirely my problem, nothing to do with the pattern) is that I chose to use corduroy fabric instead of canvas. I thought that the corduroy would be heavy enough, particularly when coupled with the interfacing, but my bag is a bit droopy. I also used cotton, instead of a heavier fabric, for the lining, which I think is contributing to my problem.

I think it'll be a fine bag to use for short trips, when I only need to carry a few lighter things, and the pattern is simple enough that I think I could make a sturdier version for longer outings (if I finish all of the important things on my to-do list, obviously. I would never stray from the list... :-/) I love that this bag can be used for so many different things. Instead of the foofy, store-bought diaper bag look, it has a bit of maturity (so maybe gnomes aren't so mature, but I love them), and it can be used long after the need to carry around a supply of diapers has passed.

I can feel my list shrinking! Woo hoo!

So That Happened

This is the sight we woke up to this morning:



Ah, so familiar. Brings back memories of high school.



Except, this was the scene inside the house last night. At 9pm. When Corey insists he heard something outside, but did not investigate.



They could totally see my messy living room! We leave the curtains on that side of the room open, mostly because we're too lazy to climb over the mess to close them. Oh, geez. In addition, as if that weren't embarassing enough, sometime between 9 and 10 last night, I had an itch behind my knee. As it is quite difficult for me to bend forward these days, my only course of action was to stand up and stick my hand down my pants to scratch it! I distinctly remember saying to my husband, "I hope nobody can see me through the crack in the curtains!" I was absolutely kidding, but after discovering the TP this morning, I will forever be convinced that I was spotted.

Sigh.

Another One Bites the Dust

But only metaphorically speaking, of course.

I finally finished my Christmas quilt! This is the very first quilt I started (ahem, two years ago), and I'm so glad to finally have it off of my WIP pile.

I must admit, this quilt is not my best work. When I started on it, I was still figuring out my machine, including things like tension and which threads worked best, so I worry a bit that it's not as well put-together as it could be. The binding is also not my best, though for entirely different reasons. Were you aware that carpal tunnel syndrome is common during pregnancy? I was not, until I developed it. It's bad news, but thankfully I had some assistance in the binding department, which gave my hands a much-needed break (if only for a few minutes!).

On the whole, I'm just excited to have a fun little quilt to pull out at Christmastime for family snuggles or playtime on the floor or trips in the car during the holiday season.

And it feels so great to have one more item checked off of my to-do list! YEA!

One Down

Yea! I finished my changing pad!

It was really quite a simple project, but OH, a pain in the neck nonetheless! It's nothing more than a little quilt, though instead of batting I used a bath towel for a bit of absorbency.

My machine does not like to sew through bath towels. After several attempts and many gross thread-tangles on the back of the pad, I finally got the tension correct and was able to quilt my two corner-to-corner diagonal lines. I can't tell you how thankful I am that a towel doesn't truly need to be quilted the way batting does!

I actually did all of that work back in May; all that was left was to attach the binding to the back of the changing pad.

I'll tell you a little secret--I kind of love hand-sewing binding. Shhh. The thing is, I ALWAYS put it off until the absolute last minute. The curse of the procrastinator, I suppose--though, at the same time, it's a great feeling to come back to a project that I've neglected for a few months (or years...) and be able to finish it in a snap.

If I'm quite diligent, I may have photos of my completed Christmas quilt to show off tomorrow!

The List

Oh, my. I've been gone from this space for nearly four months. The absence certainly wasn't intended, and I thought often of coming here to write. I just...didn't. So much has happened in these last four months, and yet I was never really felt inspired to write about any of it. Maybe I just needed a break--one less thing to do during an incredibly busy time--but I've really missed it.

So, I'm back.

With a to-do list.

The last few months have been so busy, but the next two--and I'm just praying that I truly get two full months, because I'll need them!--will be full of activity as well. Baby is due in November, and I feel like I really need to get the show on the road if I'm going to be ready to welcome this new little person into our lives. So, to motivate myself to get going--hopefully, though self-motivation is not exactly my strong suit--I'm posting my TO-DO list. On top of that, I'm going to try to blog about all of my projects.

It'll be fascinating. Try to contain your excitement.

THE LIST, in no particular order, sort of:

1. Remove high chair to basement.
2. Finish washing old baby clothes--we dug a lot of my husband's baby clothes out of storage. This little one is going to look like it came straight out of 1982!
3. Swap out old computer monitor for new computer monitor
4. Remove towels from hall cabinets and put them in bathroom cabinets
5. Move games from bedroom closet to hall cabinet.
6. Move books from shelves in bedroom 2 to bedroom 1.
7. Paint bookshelves in bedroom 2
8. Possibly, maybe paint bedroom 2
9. Buy new twin mattress for baby's floor bed
10. Decide on and buy baby's co-sleeper
11. Finish hand-sewing binding on changing pad
12. Finish hand-sewing binding on the Christmas quilt I started two years ago
13. Sign up for childbirth classes.
14. Prepare birth kit
15. Decide: water birth or not?
16. Baby-proof outlets, cabinets and doors--it'll take me a while to figure out how to get around all that stuff myself!
17. Take car seat to hospital to make sure it's properly installed
18. Start working on a quilt for a friend's wedding in October. Or pick up something at Williams-Sonoma.
19. Buy wedding present for friends who were married three months ago. Oops.
20. Store fabric overflow in hall cabinets.
21. Organize sewing notions and store in hall cabinet.
22. Prepare cloth diapers for use
23. Organize and edit summer photos
24. Make curtains for bedroom 2
25. Prepare and freeze pumpkin puree
26. Plan, prepare and freeze some post-baby, mama's-too-tired-to-cook meals
27. Start working on 2010 family photo calendars
28. Make diaper bag
29. Order The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and The Diaper Free Baby
30. Take a nap

You see what I'm dealing with? I know there are things that I'm forgetting as well. I realize that not all of the things on this list--like making my own diaper bag or making new curtains--are MUST DO's, but they're things that I'd really like to do, and, as I expect it'll take a while to get into a rhythm with the baby and manage my time accordingly, it'll just be easier to do them before baby arrives. I'm defintely thankful that I was able to fit some stuff--like knitting the green and white baby mitts--before the morning sickness and the summer of busy took over my life.

Oh, there's lots to do in the coming weeks. Perhaps I'll start with number 30 and work my way up from there :).

Giveaway

If you like Moda charm packs, you'll love this little giveaway. Head over to Anina's blog, twiddletails, and enter!