Motivation? Inspiration? Something-ation?

So this pregnancy thing hasn't QUITE been as blissful and beautiful as the books claim. It's been tiring and painful and frustrating. I'm pretty sure that "blissful and beautiful" part comes in the last day or so of pregnancy vs the first 9 months... I've been doing my best not to complain - it's all worth it of course, but HARD.

Needless to say, I'm now 7 months pregnant, and the need to start accomplishing baby-related things has become next to neurotic. Of course, I haven't ACTUALLY completed anything other than that onesie the other day... which isn't helping ;). Why am I NOW getting all "prep crazy" and not the past, oh, 7 months? I've wanted a kiddo for a LONG time... but with hubby's schedule (disappearing for months at a time at the whim of the Marine Corps), it "wasn't time" for a while. Then it WAS time, but God wasn't in full agreement yet. So I've been avoiding becoming intolerably "baby crazy" for about... 3 years. Now, I know that BEING pregnant allows you to become "baby crazy" but with 3 years of non-pregnant baby-crazy avoidance... I still haven't fully dove in. I do believe it is time.

SO: because I've been a bad blogger... and because I don't want to move today and need to... a list of things I need to get accomplished in the next... month or so... and where I stand on them (which serves as an explanation as to why I haven't been blogging, and will hopefully get my butt moving on some of them):

Refinish the crib. I'm 1/4 of the way through painting it. (It's what I should be doing now instead of blogging)
Refinish the furniture: Completely un-started. Wishing someone LOVES to refinish and/or will refinish for baked goods and says "I got it Betsy!"
Make bumper: It's designed. I have fabric. That's it. Need to meet up with a friend for half... could do the other half on my own though...
Make Quilt: I have the basics of a plan. No materials, no pattern or final design.
Make Crib Sheets: Caved and put them on my registry. I'll make them if no one buys them.
Sew curtains: Decided to use curtains I had intended for OUR room before changing my mind. They need to be hemmed and black-out-curtains need to be made too. I also need to buy curtain rods to hang them with... and decide if they'll be embellished...
Wall decorations: Begged my sister to paint me some fairies.... tasked hubby with a wall lamp... hoping for a thumbprint tree as a shower-gift 0:-P... that's all I got so far.
Make porta-crib sheet: waiting on the porta crib to measure the mattress 0:-P
Make burp-cloths: waiting on the porta crib so I can use the leftover flannel for the burp cloth... should get a 1/4" rolled hem foot too...
Crochet Amigurimi Toys: I'm halfway through a hippo.
Make hubby a scarf: re-confirmed he really wanted one last night. I MIGHT have yarn? SO not started.
Crochet a baby blanket: I started a blanket like, 4 months ago? It doesn't have an owner yet, so it doesn't REALLY belong on this list... but it's in my "open projects" bucket.
Modify Maternity Pants: This is on TODAY'S task list. And hopefully I will blog about my variety of maternity pant projects sooner than later. I need one more done today... I have a nice STACK waiting for me though...
Make Tee-Shirt Maxi Dress: I have the knit for the skirt... need to find a sacrificial tee-shirt.
Make Thank You Cards: I have this masterful plan to use the design for the quilt as a thank-you card image... I think it'll be super sweet since I'm MAKING bedding instead of buying it... but I have to design the QUILT first (OK, the masterful plan was to use a PHOTO of the quilt, but that's pushing it. Especially since I already have received a few gifts...)
Make Bird Mobile: I have the "trial" sitting in my kitchen.
Make waterproof car seat canopy: Need to get materials still
I'm probably missing one or two or more or because this list is SO LONG my brain won't let me think of them so that I don't go into total shut-down mode. But in 15 minutes, this is what I came up with - OI! Oh, and...
Blog about all previous projects (well, almost all of them - I'll probably skip the curtains and crib sheets that are now on my registry, lol!)

Now, I DID make 2 preggers peasant skirts this weekend... and I WROTE the tutorial... and if I can manage it, photos will be taken of me IN one (or two) so I can POST that soon. At least I now have bottoms that fit. (Everyone says I'm all belly... there's definitely a lot of booty in there too though. I know, because I'm the one who squeezes it in to things! haha!)

I also have made a bunch of other maternity clothes: a cowl neck maxi dress, a tank-top dress, a kimono tunic, a "fake" ruched experimental shirt, and modified 3 pairs of pants. And I have PURCHASED a ton of clothes from the thrift shop for little-one and have a closet full of STUFF people have given/gifted me. I know in the end, I'll be fine... I just gotta get moving on that HUGE list of stuff... and remind myself that only SOME of it needs to be done by the end of September... some can wait till the end of October... and some can be forgone completely if it REALLY comes down to it.

I apologize for the lack of photos... but HOPEFULLY soon you'll be flooded with scheduled posts of all the fun things I've made. To be honest... it'll probably be closer to "title of thing, picture of thing, possible link to tutorial of thing, done" posts, but at least they'll be posts!!

-Betsy

I haven't abandoned you... I'm just a poor multi-tasker

So I haven't abandoned my blog here... I just haven't written in a long time. I have like, 6 projects (not an exact figure) going all at once right now, so obviously... none are completed ;). And who really wants to see a half-finished project?  Granted, there are about 4 (off the top of my head) posts I COULD do, but 2 require taking pictures... of me... which means I'd have to get myself looking decent. Which is why they aren't up already. I'll get to them... I swear... once all my half-finished projects are done.

I can share TWO little things with you though today!

(that brings my "top of the head post" count down to 2 though... sorry)

1) remember that old post about how I fell in love with raspberry snapple and just want to drink it ALL THE TIME, and so I made some??!? OK, well... I said I'd try making it again, and I haven't. When I want a snapple... I want a snapple NOW - not tomorrow like if you make the "real stuff". BUT, yesterday I had a hankering, and found THIS easy fix for my Snapple craving:

1 package Decaffinated (because that's just better for me) Crystal Light Iced Tea Lemon (made per directions) + 2 tbsp Raspberry Sauce = decent imitation that got me through last night.

(like my awful "pictures copied into paint" equation? fabulous... right?)

OK, so it's closer to Diet Snapple...  but that's just cause I couldn't find real sugar syrup when I found the Raspberry at the store, and Crystal Light is the go-to beverage cabinet for I'm not sure what reason.

There's fun thing #1

Fun thing #2 is that I have been addicted to Pinterest lately... and saw this cute little onesie that had embroidered flowers on it. And I thought to myself "I have no idea how to embroider... but I can do that!!" So I played with a onesie last night, and Embroidered 5 little flowers on it... and it's super cute. Here's a photo (from my phone, cause I'm doin REAL good with the "nice photos" today - can you tell?). It wasn't that hard either. The pink flowers are "lazy Daisy's", the blue are "stem stitch" in spirals, the orange one is... I'm sure there's a "name" for that stitch... but I have no idea what it would be. I found this cool website with all sorts of VIDEO's on how to sew stitches... which is what got me going. It probably took me about 2 hours to embroider it, and it could have been neater (and I could have put some tear-away or wash-away interfacing on the back... but I didn't).

So that was my most recent "quick project" so I could feel like I actually accomplished something :-P Now... off to do steps 7, 3, 5, 2 and 8 of my ongoing projects ;)

-Betsy

Spicy bruchetta with sausage

And THIS is my first post from my phone... With a photo from my camera! Lets see how this works.
This was just diced tomatoes, some (not as spicy as I thought) peppers, minced onion (about a quarter of a small one), a ton of minced garlic, and basil with a little olive oil and salt.
Then I grilled up some sausage, toasted some homemade bread on the grill, and made "mini pizzas" without cheese at the table. It was yummy (and I definitely got my veggie servings in!).  A simple "appetizer dinner" for a Saturday evening.

Bean's NEW room decor. For real this time.

So I've posted on here before about what I plan on doing for Bean's room.

Forget it all.

I found this quilt on Pinterest and fell in love. Like, majorly in love. Like, had nearly bought all the pink and aqua flannel for making a pieced quilt and bumper, and changed my mind completely fell in love.

 After much more struggling with "what to do" since I ALSO fell in major love with THIS fabric:

I've finally decided what to do. And it's gonna take me a bit... so I feel like I should post the PLAN before I post the PRODUCT.

SO: I'm going to use that tree quilt above as an "inspiration" for the front panel of a bumper. This means I will be learning not only how to quilt, but applique. Yuppers. Go big or go home friends! If that ends up working out... then we'll talk quilt. I'm not promising myself anything in the meantime, lol.

THEN, to add to that, I've decided that Aqua will be my "accent color" in the room. And by Aqua, I mean something similar to Glidden's True Turquoise or Walmart Brand's Pacific Monterey Bay or Bermuda Blue (which I can't find a link to... but that's probably because it's a) Walmart and b) a paint chip.) or in yarn options: Red Heart Turqua (turquoise and aqua?)

or Peaches & Creme Bright aqua

I know... you're thinking: those two yarns (cause paint chips don't get jpeg's apparently...) aren't the same color!  I know. I was so persnickity (such a good word) about the color of my bridesmaid dresses when I got married, I never fully recovered from getting "the perfect color" as a gift in almost every gadget known to man. I'm determined to be more flexible this time :-P. This time around, I'm going with "Aqua: aka, the girly blue" and leaving it at that :-P. But since "Aqua" is one of those "could go green" colors when you TALK about it... I stopped at the paint and yarn department at Walmart while running errands today. I think it was a pretty snappy idea!

And what will I do with that FABULOUS bird fabric? Play-pen crib sheet + swaddling cloth/burp rag. I love it, so I should get to see it all the time, right?!? Plus, a play pen, swaddling cloth and burp rag are all things that OTHER people see... and that pattern is "girlier" than "the girly blue" - which may reduce the number of "you're son is so handsome!" comments that will inevitably happen.

NOW: to pick out the particular fabrics that will become those sweet little leaves and trunk on that quilt... tomorrow... maybe... :-P
-Betsy

Might need to cloister myself soon...

I've been having a FABULOUS time lately. Trips to the pool, invites to jewelry parties and clothing parties and baby showers and having visitors! It's really been great! BUT, I'm falling behind on my crafty-ness!! (and therefore, my blogging). I really need to finish up a few more "Maternity Refashions" on pants (I THINK I might have figured out what type of waist-band will make me happy), fix a dress, and take photos of me in all the STUFF I've made (and have been wearing about lately). I definitely need another bottom or two, since only 2 of the ones I have are actually comfortable - I spend a lot of time in PJ's...

Hubby has also been pestering me since I haven't played with my "ruffler foot" that he got me for my birthday - so a new peasant skirt is in order there... I just need to dig out/buy fabric for it... something tells me my giant pile of knit isn't going to work as well on that... hmmmmm.

But now, it's time for fun-stuff, including an ACTUAL HAIR DO today! (I know... crazy for those who actually know me to think I'd go out in anything other than a fold-ed over pony-tail bun, a pony-tail, or a "fun bun" as I call it (That rat's nest that sits so cutely on my head).  I actually did my hair yesterday too!! (and photographed for proof)

 ( Quick self-shots in the mirror - not half bad!)

It was a quick twist-and-braid. I took strands from the side of my face and twisted them (then temporarily clipping the twisted strand to my head to do the other side) and combined them as the "center" of a regular braid. I think it looks pretty good! Definitely a step up from a ponytail. Not fabulous for lounging in recliners... about 2 hours into the baby shower I was headed to, I could FEEL the mass-of-fuzz and it went into a folded pony 0:-P.  Trying a "twist-and-pin" take on a french twist I found on a blog yesterday... we'll see how this goes...

Off to not be craft and EAT! :-P


-Betsy