To Live is to Learn

Okay all, the baby quilts are done! Yes! First off, baby girl... All the pieces laid out ( You'll notice in the final product, hubby encouraged me to switch around some animals for symmetry and I did)                                                                                                               All the pieces sewn together, ready for the borders The borders are all applied, now all that is left is to apply the backing and finish the quilt. Being that this is my first quilt. I opted to bind the quilt pillowcase style and then hand sew the small hole shut. Here it is, all finished. I used the minky fabric on the back, it is so soft and cuddly. Baby Boy Quilt: I have been...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Wow! We're 36 weeks this week. Crazy! It's hard to believe that this baby could be here within a month. Whoa, I still have so much to do, better get cracking! Baby is doing perfect as far as we know. Baby is measuring right on schedule and heartbeat always sounds good at office appointments. Newest thing, my vicious nausea is back. I'm back to eating every two hours or else I start feeling really really sick. Oh well. I'm also having bouts of heartburn. Sleeping is getting near impossible. I sleep but only in 2-3 hour increments, it's good practice right? :) People ask me if I'm miserable, I'm not. I'm uncomfortable but I'm in the final month of pregnancy. Is it supposed to be comfortable? I've never thought so. I'm very committed to not complaining about this pregnancy. Everything in this pregnancy is a gift from God and I'm so grateful for the privilege to carry this baby.

So, Sprouts had blackberries on sale for like .97 and I couldn't pass up the chance to make my fave, blackberry jam. Observe; Cheap berries :) Wash and pick out leaves and not good berries Heat up in sauce pan, mashing as they heat When fruit begins to boil, add sugar  and pectin Take fresh hot jars, fill to line, boil in water bath for 10 minutes and tah dah, blackberry jam!! I've decided that since I enjoy making jam so much and now my family and extended family are enjoying it too, the next time I make it; I will use big jars and I need to invest in an official water bath canning pot. I'll be keeping my eyes open for one  :) Until next time ;)

Hi Everybody, So I am finally finished with the embroidery animals for the baby girl quilt. It's been quite a jaunt and I'm glad it's done. Now for putting the quilts all together! Here are some pics of all the animals. They turned out okay. I'm TRYING very hard to give myself grace with these quilts, as I've never made one before and now I'm making two. Enjoy!

Praise God, we're 32 weeks, grow baby grow. I'm starting to get HUGE. HAHA! I knew it would happen eventually. Biggest concern/prayer request was baby is in a transverse position. Ramona (midwife) says baby has plenty of time to turn but I'm beginning to get scared and as you all know, I am prone to fear so I just need prayer for peace and that baby will turn head down and soon, just for mamas sanity! We're down to every two week appointments now, we're getting closer and it's getting exciting!

For the first year ever, we hosted thanksgiving for my side of the family at our house this year. I didn't take any pictures, oops. But we all had a great time and turkey tasted good. The turkey was my part and I was so scared it wouldn't taste good and I would ruin thanksgiving but no such thing happened. It tasted great and we had some awesome fellowship with family. Happy thanksgiving everyone!!!

Hey all, Been so much sewing talk lately, by the way, I'm still working on those embroider animals, they are tedious but turning out well so far! This week I tried, homemade granola. Mix dry ingredients Heat up wet ingredients Mix together Place on lined cookie sheet, bake for 45 minutes stirring frequently until done :) This recipe was easy, thought I will try again, the flavor was okay but it tasted slightly burned.

Hi Everybody, Woo hoo, we're 28 weeks, chugging along. The most noticeable thing is I'm beginning to get slower and beginning to feel down there pressure, so prayerfully baby is head down  :)  I was able to participate in and ultrasound class today, my belly was used to teach other nurses how to assess position, placenta placement, fetal heart tones and AFI (or how much fluid baby has around him/her). The ultrasound tech who was teaching the nurses finally got a good picture of our little one. Enjoy! Hi sweet baby!! 28 weeks, loving being pregnant!!

Hey all, so I'm in the process of embroidering all the animals onto quilt squares and it is quite the undertaking. I have been trying to work on the baby boy quilt. Here is a pic to hold you over until I finish the precious moments animals. This is the baby boy quilt, the squares aren't sewn just laid out the way I think I want them. Will update on both baby quilts, I hope soon! Until next time ;p

So as most of you know, I've changed my mind, as a typical woman, and decided to make both a baby girl and baby boy quilt, originally, I planned on making the baby boy and buying the baby girl but I found this precious moments jungle fabric and fell in love. So then I was on a mission to make this quilt.I found this quilt design. And could envision this in little girl colors with the precious moments fabric from above. My next mission was to find embroidery animals of precious moments. I spent hours and hours and hours searching online to no avail. Then so blessed, I found a precious moments color book with all these animals in it and figured I could trace the animal patterns to fabric and embroider them myself. I ordered the color book from amazon.com ASAP, only problem was, it said could take three weeks to get to me. I waited, impatiently for the next three weeks and the color book never came. I emailed the seller and he told me it must have gotten lost in the mail. UGH! So t...

Okay, so as promised though back blogged, ( I have this terrible habit of planning a great blog then never actually writing it), I have been working hard on the reversible fabric bins for the nursery. Here is the story in pictures!  First I cut all the pieces, I had made this pattern mostly myself and just made the box the size I wanted then cut the fabric accordingly. This is the pink, girl side. Green "boy" side, I am applying interfacing at this point. After ironing on all interfacing, I sewed all five pieces together to make the above shape, then continued to sew the sides together to make a box. One box inside the other box. All done, one problem though.... So as cute as this looks, it does not hold up worth a darn, I will be going to the store to find a more sturdy interfacing, will keep you updated!

Okay, so for those of you who have looked at my registry, I did register for a boppy pillow but I also wanted to make one myself. I used material from an old cotton sheet we don't use anymore and can't help but wonder if store bought is better than homemade when it comes to this. Anywho, I figure if my pillow is just as good as store bought the registry one can always be returned and if my homemade one fails then I have a genuine boppy as well. Here goes nothing.... I printed out the pattern on the computer and had to tape the pattern together to make this. I got the pattern  here Fold your fabric, or sheet, in half, place pattern along folded side and cut two of the pattern out. Pin the two pieces together with RIGHT sides facing each other. Sew around edges, leaving opening for stuffing, I left my opening right in the middle but you can do whatever you want. Turn right side out and press Stuff pillow to desired consistency Hand sew the opening shu...

Hey All, I know I'm way behind on updating my blog, there are many backdates coming soon. I just need to post them, I've been busy. Anywho, I have to express my frustration about work and no worries, I won't be passing judgment, I'll be talking about my own kind. First off, when did we as labor nurses become so closed to a woman wanting to birth naturally? By naturally, I mean without medication. I know it's not for everybody and if you want an epidural I completely support you and will do what I can to get you relief. So why in the world is it so criticized if you want to go natural. I don't talk about my birth "plans" at work for specific reasons but if ever I do, instead of being encouraged to go with what I want and what I'm comfortable with, all that is heard is criticism, why? I just don't understand. It's frustrating. Your desire to birth your baby how you want is your personal decision and I think of course in a perfect world th...

So, I've been trying to make my food prep a little easier, that being said, I've decided every month I will make some things in bulk to help reduce my food prep. At the beginning of the month, I buy a whole fryer chicken and cook it in the crock pot overnight then have three bags of precooked shredded chicken. I'm also making my own refried beans in the crockpot monthly. Also, this month I used my homemade whole week tortillas and made frozen breakfast burritos. I hope to keep this going and get some sort of system. That's it for now, until next time ;p. Shredded Chicken Refried beans, I freeze them. Frozen breakfast burritos

So, we had our anatomy scan today and everything looks great!! As most of you know, we've decided to wait and see what gender baby is until January. We informed the ultrasound tech of this immediately and she was very respectful and told us to look away when she was "down there" and we didn't see anything. Baby looks good. Growing perfectly. Weighs approximately 15 oz's. At 19 wks and 2 days I felt the baby full on punch me and so far those punches are becoming more and more frequent, it's so amazingly astounding to feel baby moving in there.  Here is the 20 week picture and that baby at 21 weeks. Enjoy! 20 weeks, Half way :) Hi Baby Jacks!!!

I love homemade tortillas, one problem though, I can't ever seem to get them into circular shape and it frustrates me! Oh well, I plug on, determined to get it right, will this be the time?? Mix ingredients, roll into jelly roll and cut into 8 equal parts Roll into balls and let rest. After resting, roll out into best circle you can, I was happy with this one And this one  :) Ha! Not so much with this one.   Finito! I got most of the 8 tortillas into round shapes. I was very pleased! I loved this recipe, I think the only difference in this recipe was I allowed the dough to rest for like 2 hours, it made all the difference in the world when rolling them out. So now I have a new whole wheat tortilla recipe. That's it for now. I got the recipe from  here.