Faux Moby

So the faux moby was MUCH easier then expected. I didn’t even have to sew it, if I hadn’t wanted to. No pictures, yet. The spool inside my machine ran out of thread and I didn’t have the time to reload it, so I haven’t finished it yet. However, it turns out, if you just cut some stretchy fabric (I found some red jersey knit on clearance) to about 20″ wide by  5 or 6 yards, all you have to do is learn how to tie it. I trimmed in the ends on mine to make it easier to tie and less bulky, but it works wonderfully! I used this youtube video to teach myself how to tie it.

Last night I got a bit adventurous and made the girls hats, too. It took about an hour and they look ridiculous, but Ophelia seems to like hers.

Ophelia and Mira

toddler scarf

Whenever I sit down to make something of the crafty sort, B always comes and asks if it’s for her. As I’ve started making stuff for little Junebaby, I’ve been noticing her reactions when I tell her that no, it’s for Junebaby. She hasn’t shown any signs of jealousy yet, but I’m trying to avoid that for a while yet and so I’ve been diligently making things for her too. The other day a yarny fever overcame me and I rifled through my crocheting basket and found some grey wool yarn to make a little scarf with. B approved, so I took advantage of her naptime to put this scarf together.

The grey isn’t very girly, but I think it’ll go better with her green coat than the other colors I had to choose from would have. In an effort to “girl it up” a bit, I added this little crocheted flower which was a huge hit with the Little Chica.

Happy Birthday, Ophelia Grace!

You are my sunshine, Tootelpip!

Faux Moby

I’m going to attempt to make my own Moby style baby wrap. I bought a pattern off Etsy (I know, most seamstresses wouldn’t need a pattern, but I am no seamstress and it was only $4.50).  I’m sure it will take several attempts for me, but does anyone have words of wisdom before I start?

Pocketbook Friendly Meals

Kat and I were compiling a list of the most inexpensive dinners we could think of.  So far we’ve got:

• Nachos on flour tortillas (tortillas are  a nice economical substitute for chips)
  
• $5.00 pizza from Little Ceasars
• Hamburgers (Try  making the patties with just sea salt and fresh thyme)
• Spaghetti with salad (You can even put together the sauce in the afternoon and let it simmer it the crockpot until dinner time)
• Steak fajitas
• Beans in crock pot (I cook my beans with turkey broth I have frozen from Thanksgiving. Kat cooks her’s with a hambone.)
  
• Leftover beans with rice. (You could always add some sort of ham or chicken for extra protein.)
• Tuna salad sandwiches

What would you add on?

makes me want to squeal!

I am in love again. Well, again and again. First, we found out yesterday that we’re having another little girl, Miss Evangeline Audrey (Eva). So first of all I’m in love with her, and the idea of two girls. I am, however, a little scared of the idea of “sisters” because I never had sisters and the whole relationship just kind of freaks me out. I have no experience with the “sister dynamic” and all sorts of scenarios are running through my head along with a bunch of preggo emotions and making me want to faint. But hey, all that is a long way off and I’m sure that God will equip me for it when it shows up. So that’s taken care of. Sisters. Check.

Second, I just checked out Anna Maria Horner’s new fabric line, and it just makes me all giddy inside! This fabric, combined with a little girl due at the beginning of summer just brings to mind all sorts of lovely cheery things to be made. I want blankets, dresses, sheets, curtains (for our new house up in Spokane, have I mentioned that yet?), and tablecloths galore out of this stuff. These prints are just plain cheerful. Now I just have to get my hands on some….

“mocktails”

I’m not usually a huge fan of cocktails. I’ll enjoy an occasional cosmo and a really good dirty martini (with blue cheese stuffed olives…yummmmm), but beyond that I’m more likely to stick with a glass of wine or champagne. But I am human, and when there is something that I can’t have, I am naturally inclined to want it more. This applies to cocktails, and I’ve been craving cosmos, margaritas, and mojitos lately. I bought a mojito mix and added club soda and it was okay, but not good. I tried a “gentle sea breeze” that was just cranberry and grapefruit juice mixed with club soda, and that was also okay but not good. So I made up my own recipe involving lots of cranberry juice, a little lemon lime soda, and the pulp/juice from half a lime shaken well in a cocktail shaker. I put it in a margarita glass and garnished it with a lime and it hit the spot. Very tasty with a good balance of flavors that didn’t leave me thinking that it just wanted for a bit of alcohol.

review: IO wrap top

I’ve given up on trying to find non-maternity related things to post about here and I’m just going to start writing about all that is on my mind lately – maternity and babies! The first thing that I’m going to do is start a new category for the ol’ blog, and that is the “review” category. I plan to review things (probably mostly maternity/baby things) in an effort to smarten up all your buying for baby!

This is the Isabella Oliver Wrap Around top.

Background.
I first fell in love with these shirts when I was pregnant with B, but I couldn’t afford to splurge on them then. In fact, I still can’t afford to splurge on them, but eBay seems to be bursting with some IO products and I was able to get this shirt in the lovely red color at a nice discount, so it was doable. Nothing like indulging in a pricey but beautiful piece of clothing to make you really excited about that new baby bump!
The shirt is basically a little cropped top with really long ties that you end up wrapping all the way around and down your belly. Once you get the hang of wrapping it, it’s not too hard. The deep V neck necessitates a camisole for most occasions, but having the camisole underneath kind of helps hold the shirt in place so it’s not really a bad thing.

First, the good stuff.
This shirt is absolutely perfect for those first “tween” months when your normal shirts may be a bit small but the maternity shirts (unless you get an XS) look like potato sacks. You actually wrap it around your body to fit snugly and so it does a great job of showing off the beginnings of your baby bump. It’s basically made to fit. They come in beautiful colors that will go with just about anything, and it’s the sort of style that you can dress up with a black pencil skirt and stilettos or dress down with a pair of jeans and boots.

Now, the not good stuff.
For a regular retail price of $125, I expected this shirt to be made of some really fantastic fabric. I was a bit disappointed to see that it was a pretty run of the mill knit, and the stitching around the hems wasn’t very well done (but I did buy this shirt slightly used, so it could be a result of laundering and I’ll try not to hold that against the company).

I’m not a particularly long torso-ed person, but the wrap around ties on this shirt are barely long enough to cover my 4-month belly. The ties need to be at least 2′ longer to fully cover the belly and get any kind of nicely hanging bow at the side.

I’m not a fan of having to constantly ask my husband if “there are any holes”. Since the shirt is just wrapped around, you have to keep an eye out for gaps between the wraps, which can happen fairly easily if you do a lot of bending or turning. Wearing the camisole helps to lessen the gapping, but it’s still a little unnerving.

Final thoughts.
If I’d ordered this from the company, I probably would’ve sent it back because in my opinion it’s just not worth $125. But having gotten it at a decent price, I’m relatively satisfied and wear it maybe once every two weeks, mostly for occasions where I really want to look pregnant. So if you can get it on eBay for a good price (or make your own – wouldn’t be hard at all), I recommend it, but otherwise, use your $125 to buy 5 tops on sale at the Gap.

Your Shape

(and mine.) Recently I discovered MyShape.com and I have become a bit of an addict. It’s an online clothing store. The site offers free membership simply for completing your profile. This entails entering in all your body measurements and your style, fit and fabric preferences. Then they will create a “store” just for you with only clothes that meet your criteria (size and preferences). Basically, it takes all the guess work out of shopping on fit and style. They offer high quality and name brand clothing at a fair cost.  Also, they frequently have sales for an extra 30-40% off their sale and clearance products, which makes it possible to get fabulous clothes and unbelievably low prices. Did I mention that shipping is free both ways, too?

baby tag blanket

I think we’re finally back from our unannounced holiday hiatus. It wasn’t that we didn’t do anything blog worthy then, it was just that we didn’t have the time or energy to put it up on the blog when we got it done!

Here’s something that I worked on during our little vacation. It is a baby blanket and baby tag blanket (is there a better name for those?) that I made for Baby Mira as a baby gift, and I say that 2 months late is better than never! I’ll add that I had the privilege of giving these gifts to Mira in person and she is quite the little darling.

I tried for a wide variety of trims around the edges of the tag blanket, but was surprised how quickly one can exhaust the resources of a place like JoAnns for ribbons of the tactile variety. I did satins, weaves, velvet, lace, and then just more and more satins. And that only made it around three sides of the little blanket, so I grabbed some of this pom-pom-ish trim for the fourth side, and I just hope that it’s not a temptation for her to chew the pom-poms off! I think it turned out pretty well and I’ve got the pieces cut out for two more, one for our little Junebaby and one to use either as a gift or a giveaway (we’ll see).

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is diving into the joys of spring cleaning and organizing with gusto!