Being Thankful for Babies

My mom told me about a trailer she saw last week for a movie called Babies, A Documentary, so I thought I'd share.

Makes me almost want another baby. I said ALMOST, people. No, we're done. Like DONE done. Although, my backup plan was to always to adopt an Asian baby girl. And now that we're done, I do feel a tiny bit of wistfulness that that will never happen. I am so very happy for Lisa over at Little Acorn! She and her husband and adopting a super sweet little girl, and I want to eat her up.

Believe me, I thank the powers that be every single day about how lucky we are and how much I love my family. And especially today! So Happy Thanksgiving all! Happy turkey/tofurkey/ham (?) eating day!!! Gobble gobble.

And I also am thankful for all of you. xo

Pink & Yellow

My friend just bought this little custom set to give to some friends who just had a baby. I'm so into the bright and sunny pink & yellow color combo (reminds me of lemonade)! So my friend decided to go with a lil' book tote and custom bookplates, and she'll add some books to the mix.

Hope Baby Katie and her mommies love it as much as I do!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm just coming off my Martha high! xo

Pinwheels & Party Hats!

Actually, no party hats. I just thought that sounded cute. Here are some images from today's birthday soiree for Viv:

Streamers and last minute sign made by yours truly

Delish cake from Louie's Bakery in Marshall (yes, even with the neon icing) and cake topper made by me and inspired by Sarah's post. Definitely came out more foldy, less ruffly.

Viburnum and Forget Me Nots from the yard

Hand pinwheel by Shana at Crossroads Cottage! I stuck them into a few hunks of oasis I had laying around and covered the bases with paper shreds to make them look like bouquets. Would have used styrofoam if I'd had any handy.

Of course you need favors...

These are glassine bags sealed with Shana's pinwheel clips and stuffed with these super easy Turtles! I added a magnet on the back of each clip so they could go on the fridge and hold stuff.

Rachel from Golden Shop made Viv's custom bib! So perfect!

Here's Miss V modeling. If we didn't already know she was my kid, her love of frosting certainly proves it!

All in all, a fun time was had by all!!! :) Hope you are all enjoying your weekends as well!

Happy Birthday, Miss Viv

I can't believe you're one today!!!

Here is just a tiny list of things you do now, and they make me smile:

1. When you eat something you like, you nod your head.

2. You can say "hi" and "kitty" which is actually "kee".

3. You like to put your face into Owen's fur. You giggle when he rubs his head on your head, and you are very gentle with him.

4. You point your tiny little finger at everything especially the birdies outside. You like the birdies vury vury much.

5. You pretend to drink tea with your sister out of her Hello Kitty teacups. Q and I can't stop laughing because we think it's so cute.

6. You try to copy whatever your big sis does like putting puzzles together or drawing and then you look at me for approval.

7. Every morning when you wake up and every evening when I pick you up from daycare, you are so happy to see me.

8. You like to pet my and daddy's hair when we feed you your bottle before bedtime. You think it's hilarious to stick your finger up my nose.

9. When you hear a song, you sway back and forth with a serious look on your face.

Happy first birthday, Vivian Jane. We sure are glad to have such a wonderful dollop of pudgy baby goodness in our lives. We love you so much!!! xo

Quickie No-Sew Appliqued Romper

I bought a bunch of blank shirts and rompers for Q & V for spring with the intention of appliqueing. Did one for Q last week to see how well the appliques hold up in the wash without being sewn down (very good!). Today I did an apple romper for Miss Viv with scraps of vintage fabrics.

If anyone wants to try, here is the apple pattern I used.

Viv's Nursery

Deanna from The Baby Gardner has perfect timing. I was literally *just* going through V's baby book making a mental note of all the pictures I had to add (including pics of her room). Then I read Deanna's call for pics of vintage spaces for her Eye Candy Giveaway. I emailed her off some pics, and V's nursery was featured today. And for participating, look at what I received in the mail Saturday! What a lovely surprise.

If you haven't seen The Baby Gardner blog or shop, click around. Such adorable stuff!!! Thanks, Deanna! We're honored. Mwah.

A Little Somethin' Extra

Since everyone was asked to bring a book to my cousin's baby shower, I got on a roll and whipped up some of these. Yes, I copied Michael Miller's Space Rocket fabric! Not like I'm selling them or anything...

Kinda goes with the whole star nursery theme too, I thought. There are like zillions of things I *should* be doing, but I spent tonight doing this. Oh well. I like how they turned out.

We Now Return to our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Wanted to show you some happy pics of another baby gift. My cousin is having her baby shower this weekend. Here is her baby bedding:

And here's what I made her. I came up witth the little starry man by myself and freehand (not like it was difficult, but I was happy with him):

Hope she likes it! She'd better not be reading this (JANA!).

Hope your Hump Day is going well! Have you used the potty today?? If so, you get two beans! Help yourself.

I'm Dyeing Here!

No, that wasn't a typo. Though I am really dying because Q and I have colds (don'tcha hate summer colds?). But last week I decided to dye a stash of Martha tea towels I've had for like forever and embroider them. For what, I have no idea.

I consulted my personal seamstress (just kidding, she's my friend), Karen, and she said the best dye to get is Dylon from Joann's. Of course, I loaded Vivi up, we headed into Joann's and no Dylon. Well, only in black and olive green. So I ended up getting one pack of Rit Rose Pink and one pack of Tulip Turquoise.

Ok, now to the dyes. First, the Rit. SU-HUCKED. Did not come out "Rose Pink", came out FUSCHIA-- nothing like the color of the box. Maybe my fault that I left them in too long, but the directions were really lengthy but not super clear to first time dyers. Also, said to disolve the powder in hot water which I swear I did. And had to put the stuff in a stockpot, etc. You can clearly see powder residue on here and there are white splotches on all of the 4 towels I did. I know I stirred them like crazy too!

Second, the Tulip. Super easy. Didn't have to heat the water. Did have to keep the towels in there longer (4 hrs vs. Rit's 30 min), but it went on evenly and no powder residue at all. A little pale-- not QUITE the perfect pale pastel shade of robin's egg blue. But far better than the Rit. So here's what I embroidered on the blue.

It's from a Japanese embroidery book. That's supposed to be a smiley face on the latte, but it came out weird. After filling in with the tan, I had a hard time making large enough stitches for the smile to show, and I kinda went haywire. And I can't make French knots. Ugh.


Next time, I will have to try the Dylon.

On a SYTYCD note, I'm so bummed Chelsea T. went home last week. BOO HOO. She was my favorite girl, and she was wronged. That damn quick step is the kiss of death! No fair. My man, Joshua, is still at the top of the heap though. This week, Jessica needs to GO HOME. I am afraid Thayne will be the next guy to go. I'm really becoming a Mark fan after last week's group dance! And speaking of the group dance, what's with Mia Michael's boner lately for Tim Burton? Though I admit I liked it. Except the weird Comfort baby thing. WTF?


Ooh, one more thing. There may be a big change in the Girl Land household. No, we're not having any more babies. I can't say anything else for now. Hopefully next week.

For Henri

Ok, since the gift was received, I will show you pictures. The squirrel pattern is one of Andrea's from Bad Bird. I guess I'm not such a horrible embroiderer after all. God bless the backstitch. Turns out much better for me than anything else. Pretty foolproof. I like this little guy.

And the banner is from Sublime Stitching. I almost forgot that I had the book! Jeez, for almost a year now and I'm just now cracking it open.

So I was "inspired" (ahem) by Danielle's wonderful baby gift and thought I'd modify it a bit and give it a whirl. I like the pockets on this organizer because you could actually use it as a diaper stacker if you wanted to. They are pretty wide and deep.

Naomi said his room will most likely be yellows and greens with a forest theme. I was happy to find these buttons because they looked like cross sections of a tree. I wish I'd had some appropriate vintage buttons to use, but I didn't.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I had to give her a disclaimer about a couple little flaws, but that's the charm of handmade, right?

Gifties!

Hadddddd to show you what the sweetheart Kat made for Baby V!!!!!!!!!! Can't you just DIE? It's the perfect size and you love the Girl Land signature colors, no?

It's so amazing how lovely and wonderful and generous my friends in this blogosphere of ours are. Here's a little peek at the Q donning the beautiful outfit lovingly created by Jessie that I previously mentioned.

The paper is Snow and Graham (my ab fave) and covered a super cute bird-themed gift from my bro, SIL, and niece. Of course, I neglected to take pics of the outfits which were sooooo adorable. Mental note to take pic and share. You will die when you see one of the outfits from Petit Bateau.

Thank you, everyone!!!

As If...

...banana bread weren't fattening enough already, I found this recipe for Fluffernutter Banana Bread from ljc! Ryan was completely disgusted as he doesn't care for marshmallows (what a freak), the only kind of peanut butter he likes is in the form of actual peanut butter OR inside Reese's cups. Yes, folks, he is that specific. About all of his food.

It's yummy, but truthfully, the idea of it was much better. The marshmallows pretty much disappeared (don't know what I expected them to do, duh), but the actual BREAD part is super delish. Pefectly moist and perfectly banana-y. Next time I'll prob just omit the fluffer and the nutter and make this my standard bb recipe. Anywho, Danielle, get ready to get your fluffernutter bread on because you're taking some home tonight!!! :)

So get this-- Baby V only woke up ONCE last night! Yippee. I'm acutely aware of the fact that I have now jinxed myself. And actually, it wasn't *perfect* anyway last night because while she only woke up once, she was up for 1.5 hrs.

On the crafty front, I'm easing my way back in slowly. If you're my mom, stop reading now (SPOILER ALERT). She and my dad are getting concert tickets for Mother's and Father's Day respectively, but I wanted to get her something else little to open. She wants a small photo album for Vivian pics, so I thought I'd make her one-- or rather cover one for her. So I'm using this fabric:

And this ribbon:

And the chipboard mushrooms in the background (from the dollar store!) are for a scrapbook for my MIL. She wanted a scrapbook of all Q pics, so that is what she shall get! It's not too inventive, but it's turning out to be pretty cute. Speaking of my MIL, she sent me MY Mother's Day gift. Um, have you read this????? I frigging started BAWLING on the first page!

EEK, I just remembered my cousin who is due in Oct is finding out girl or boy this afternoon!!!!

Newly Hatched

A robin has returned to build its nest on top of our front porch light.

And look who else has made her way into the world!

Miss Vivian Jane was born last Thursday, 8 lbs 15 oz. of chunky baby goodness! Thanks to everyone for their emails and comments. So nice to have such caring people out here in the blogosphere. We are both doing great! I was able to receive the spinal this time (after many PAINFUL attempts) for my c-section, so recovery was much easier. I was out of there in 2 days.

Leslie finished up my birth announcement for me. This woman was so great to work with. I thought she did such a great job capturing Quinn. Look at this graphic! The theme is "My baby sister's here" type of thing.

Q is doing a great job at being a big sister. Not too obnoxiously in V's face...yet. But she is always concerned with where her little sis is, why she's crying, and she always has to "pet her" fuzzy head and hug and kiss her. Which she does quite gently actually.

Now I need to get back in my craft groove. I'm thinking about stealing this idea for a new tee for Vivi. How cute!

The Impending Arrival

It's me. I promise that after next Sunday, I will try to post more frequently. Vivi is set to come out in 3 days! This last month has really dragged. Wanted to show you this sweet print I picked up on Etsy. My Q and V:

Got it from Sara's shop. She has different colors, kid styles, etc. to choose from. So sweet.

So I'm all disappointed in myself. Remember how I hinted about something a few weeks ago?? Well, I received an email from a woman who is producing a PBS pilot about DIY Crafting from a Recycling POV. She currently produces Knit & Crochet Today on PBS.

She said she liked my Etsy shop and asked if I would consider being on the show doing a step-by-step craft project on air. The show shot last Thursday, and I told her about my being PG but that I would be game. Also mentioned I didn't know how much recycling was involved in my craftin', but that I could come up with one to fit the bill. She said she'd get back to me.

Didn't hear back from her until last Sunday (4 days from the show). Sounded like they were kind of dropping the recycling aspect, and she definitely wanted me to make one of my door knockers or magnet sets. Sigh. It was just too much for me last minute. Trying to train an intern and tie up loose ends at work, AND coming up with a project and buying the supplies in 4 days (all with feeling pretty icky)-- too much. So now I'm bummed, but I did tell her to keep me in mind for future episodes if that's how it turns out. She said she would, so that was cool.

Anywho, that's that. I prob won't post until after Vivian arrives. So keep your fingers crossed for us!!!! Thanks so much for everyone's words of encouragement and emails. You guys are the best. I've still been a faithful blog reader, so thank you all for keeping the creativity alive in my HEAD at least. I'm thinking the juice will start flowing when I'm home for the next 3 months. XOXOXOXOXOXO x infinity!!!!!

Massive Shopping Spree

I'm all of a sudden freaking out and realizing what has to happen before this baby gets here. The biggest thing of which is renovating our bedroom into Quinn's toddler room. Seems easy enough-- but the logistics are killing me. And the fact that we have a 1,200 square foot space to work with isn't easy either. Moving furniture, painting, cleaning out just SCADS OF STUFF, and possibly having to get some more electrical work done is completely overwhelming me.

Today I went nuts spending $$ we don't have yet. I bought a twin bedframe, pop up trundle for underneath, and twin mattress set. Phew. I'm also going to need to buy another small table and chair set for her, another chest of drawers, and something else which is totally unnecessary for a 2 year old's room, therefore I am not telling you what it is (ahem).

My aunt is making a red/pink themed quilt as well. Can't wait to see what she comes up with as it will the focal point of the room. I'm hoping it comes out to be something like these sans the hearts:

And I've been holding onto this little ditty for quite awhile! Can't believe it's going to be displayed soon. I think I've had it for over a year.

Oh, and look what else I found on Etsy today!!! It would look perfect with the Black Apple prints and gnome mirror, but I think I need to cool it until everything is in place and I can see where there are holes:

But! A little progress towards the name. Ryan's "considering" a name I like. We had decided Vivian, but we are both a tad sick of it now. I really like Violet, but he said no way. His top choices: Fallon, Tate, Tatum. VETOES! It's hard because our last name is pronounced "Muh-LA-lee", so it doesn't sound great with names ending in an "ee" sound or starting with an L or M or with too many L's or M's in them. I really like Mia and Leila, but he has vetoed, and I think it's for the best anyway because of the aforementioned challenges. Hey, any suggestions, throw them my way!