Brides To Be

At the end of April I helped host a bridal shower for two lovely ladies. I got to mentor one of the girls over the last year and a half. She is exceptional. She helped to watch Jude in his first six months when I went back to work, and did it for free! What a gift. Seriously.

I couldn't be happier for both of them. They are walking into beautiful and lasting marriages that are worth celebrating! I love that.

My friend, Angela, and I made gifts for the brides-to-be. It was a kitchen shower, so aprons were a no-brainer.

Ang found the tutorial online and I can't seem to find it again. We altered the size of it quite a bit, but what we loved about it were the box pleats at the bottom and the extra long tie that puts the bow in front.


Cute, right? We paired the aprons with some recipes and a few utensils that they registered for.

They loved them! And, they look great on them too!

One Year Old

Two days ago our little munchkin turned one. We celebrated at home just the three of us.  Next weekend we'll have the big party with our family and friends.

I got balloons for him earlier in the day.  I love how fascinating those are for children!  He stared at them and played with them all the way home.  We opened cards during dinner and then we brought out the cake.

I love that face for some reason.  He is so entranced by that candle.

Then, we started to sing and he threw a little mini fit.  This picture makes me laugh a lot.  Isn't it just classic?

And, just as quickly as the fit came on it was over.  Appeased by frosting, I guess.  I made a carrot cake that I got from the wholesome foods website.  It was so stinkin healthy that it just wasn't very good.  Jude ate it fine, but Jesse and I could only do a bite or two.  Tasted like a bran muffin with frosting on it.  Sometimes I try too hard and this was a perfect example.  At least we got a good laugh out of it!

This is the face of the Jude that we know and love.  It's like he always has a thousand things he would communicate if only he could talk!  He's been that way from the beginning.

And, just as we predicted, he meticulously picked at his cake - using the pincer grasp for every single bite.  He does this with all of his meals.  He eats a lot, but very very slowly.

Last but not least we opened the gift that Nana and Papa sent. 

He was immediately engaged in it.  Isn't that train so cute?

All in all, we had a very happy birthday.  Preparations have started for next weekend, and I'm looking forward to showing you what I've been up to.  Happy Birthday to Jude!

Kitchen Floor!

As you know, we are selling our house! We're hoping to make the big move across town this summer. We have our eye on a big yellow house and we're crossing our fingers that it will all work out. Only time will tell.

My wonderful Mom came out to visit in the middle of April. It was such a lovely trip. I was very happy to have her here. As usual, though, we put her to work. How come we can't seem to avoid doing that? Is it because there is not much else to do around here except read magazines and go for a walk? (Which sounds lovely actually)

Thankfully she is always up for a project - no matter how big or small. So, we tackled the kitchen floor.

This is what it has looked like for the last five years.


Ick. No one should have a white kitchen floor. Especially if it's the main entrance to the house and you own a dog. This floor looked dirty all the time. Eventually, I just had to stop caring or I would have made myself crazy obsessing over it.

So, we decided on the sticky, vinyl flooring system to solve our problem. And, after about 10 hours of hard work it now looks like this.


Isn't that fabulous? The project came together quite well. Miraculously it was one of those DIY projects that didn't get the best of us. The most time consuming part was cutting the edges of the exterior pieces. Thankfully we had knee pads and my Mom's company. Both were much needed and appreciated.

The house is officially on the market. And, now we just need a buyer.

Newsboy Hat

I love Easter. It's one of my favorite holidays - a week to remember the gift of grace our God has given us and to celebrate the hope that springs from that gift. It's fabulous.

I love to dress up on Easter and this year I got to dress up my little one too, and boy did I have fun. I was giddy about it at least three weeks before.

Isn't he precious?
The sweater vest was a garage sale score. I love it when that happens. The pants I made out of an old pair of corduroys that Jesse wore a hole through. And, the hat just seemed like the perfect addition.

I made it from this pattern.

Yes, this photo is from our actual egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. Jude clearly didn't get the point but loved it nonetheless.

I loved the hat so much that I actually made two. One is corduroy/blue. The other is khaki/orange.



We have several weddings to attend this summer so I'm looking forward to the frequent use of each. I'll be sure to post pictures of my dapper boy. I won't be able to help myself, I'm afraid.

Feeding the Baby

A few months ago when Jude began eating solid foods I started making my own baby food at home. I was inspired originally when my sister-in-law gave me the book, Super Baby Food. I hadn't thought much about it until then, but once I started reading I loved the idea of the variety of baby food options and that making baby food at home is relatively inexpensive.

At six months we started Jude with oatmeal, apples and pears, which he still loves very much. Little by little we kept adding new things. Now there is such a list that it would bore you to death to read it all. I've been surprised with how easy it is to prepare and store these foods at home.

The other day we made a large batches of food that included pears, peaches, white potatoes, sweet potatoes and pineapple. The pineapple is pictured here. I frequently use the Super Baby Food book to look up how I should prepare the foods. The author provides really great detail on just about any food you can think of.

I should say, however, that I don't follow all of the instructions in the book. In fact there is so much detail and instruction that it's completely overwhelming. I don't even recommend the book as a whole at all.

A simpler (and free) guide I've found is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They have a wonderful variety of lists appropriate for different ages and instructions on preparing foods. It's fabulous.

Once I steamed the pineapple I put it in my Cuisinart until chunky (since we're pretty well passed the smooth puree stage).

Then, I place it in ice cube trays to freeze. Once frozen I store it in freezer bags. And, when it comes to meal time, I warm up the right amount for each meal. Easy peasy.

One cube equals one ounce, and approximately three cubes equals one jar of baby food.

And, for those of you who need an updated picture of my little punkin, here he is. 10 months old now.

I captured that little grin on the same day I captured this little moment. It was a good day.

New Bedding In Progress

Over the last month I've been working on a big project for the bedroom. This project has been in my head for awhile and is finally coming into fruition - slowly but surely. Nothing like putting your house on the market that will catapult random projects like this to the top of the list. Why is that? No idea.

Our old duvet cover/bedding set was a nice classic khaki. It was one of those that we met in the middle on when we got married. I was quite surprised how opinionated my husband was when we were picking out things like bedding. It seemed like he had several stipulations - the main one being it couldn't be too feminine, which really meant any pattern whatsoever. So, we ended up with khaki.

The khaki was nice and for the most part I liked it. Unfortunately, however, the khaki didn't wear well. And, in the last year it started looking pretty shabby - and not in the "chic" sort of way.

I looked and looked and looked for new fabric - trying desperately to fit within the strict bedding stipulations. I finally picked up two pairs of gray curtains (a linen hopsack) at Ikea last year with the intention of sewing a new cover. Yes, it took me this long to actually sew something together.

I made up a pattern.

And, then crossed my fingers and started cutting and sewing.

For each "strip" across the width I topstitched with double stitching. Gives it a nice detail up close.

The end is closed with black buttons. Simple.

The whole plan is to add a king size blanket to drape over the bottom half of the bed during the winter and to use as a comforter during the summer. I'll also add king size pillows and small decorative pillows. The fabric is coming in this week. I wonder how long it will take me. We'll see.

So, out of 4 projects total for the bed. One is complete. Check.

Basement Face Lift

This is totally uninteresting to everyone but me. But, I will proceed anyway. Suckas. It's your own fault you're here reading this anyway.

Last weekend we did a little basement makeover.

You see, we're going to put the house on the market in May (no worries . . . we're not leaving the area), but the move is leading us to complete a few projects here around the house. One of them being a basement face lift.

Here's how it started . . .

Disclaimer: this is not Jude's normal play space. He was only in the basement with us while we were scraping the floor. He has a room of his own, remember?

Anyway, back to the project at hand. Yes, it's your typical unfinished basement. Not glamorous, but functional. Unfortunately, ours also had paint peeling off the floor. Nice. I should admit that there are other things we were addressing too, but none quite as significant as the floor.

So, last Friday, we brought the little boy with us to the basement and we scraped, scraped and scraped some more. Then, we swept, mopped and mopped some more. And, finally, after A LOT of prep work, we got to paint.

The end result looks like this . . .

Still not the most beautiful place in the house, but a big step up!

The epoxy paint kit came with these little paint chips that we spread around on the wet paint. It was like sprinkling seasoning all over the floor. My mother-in-law and I had a grand ol' time with this. Couldn't have had more fun, honestly.

Also, did you notice my new ironing board cover? I saw these polka dots at Hancock Fabrics recently and I had to have them. I knew immediately that the fabric was just right for an ironing board. Not sure why, but it sure was speaking to me. I'm glad I answered.

I got this project done during Jude's afternoon nap. It felt good for a project to come together that simply - I need more like that.