Pouch #2

Here is my second try. It went much faster this time and I got a better handle on the zipper on this one. I also tried using some interfacing like the tutorial calls for and I really like the results. It makes it cushier, so it feels much nicer than two thin pieces of fabric. I am having so much fun making these! I need to visit the local sewing store in town to see if they have zippers in more fun colors. The zipper selection at our local wal-mart is woefully devoid of neon colors :) I am trying out different zipper colors and I like how the brown zipper on this one fades in instead of standing out like the white zipper on my first one.

Next I am going to try a cream, more understaded pattern of fabric with a red hot zipper! Seriously, if you want one of these, let me know your favorite colors/styles and I will go for it!

My First Sewing Project

I've been wanting to learn how to sew for the longest time and I finally bought my first sewing machine! It was surprisingly simple to learn how to use and after I got the hang of threading it and using the foot pedal I started looking around for a project to tackle. At first I was stumped...I wanted to do something that would be useful and pretty, but everything I found was either ugly, frumpy, or something I would just never use. All the cool things were way beyond my skill level as a beginner, so what's a girl to do?

While searching the web, I happened on a tutorial on this website, Gussy Sews, for making a zippered pouch. They are so cute!! It didn't seem that difficult, although I was intimidated by the zipper. Today I found a bunch of coordinating cute fabric in the clearance section of Wal-mart, so I decided to give it a try. I finished it in less than an hour and it turned out pretty well, if I say so myself :) Anthony was dully impressed and said that it looked like something you would buy from a store. Once I buy some more zippers, I will have enough fabric to make literally dozens of these things, so if you are a girl get ready to preview your future birthday/christmas presents :)

Yes, that's right, my pouch has coordinating lining!! The tutorial calls for adding interfacing or felt between the outside fabric and the lining fabric. I think I will have to figure out how to do that next to give it that extra soft, cushy feel.

Rolling Over!

Today James rolled over from back to front for the very first time!! He has been rolling onto his side pretty well the past few days and even though he doesn't really like to be on his stomach, he kept trying to roll onto it just to see if he could I guess :) I was watching him try and try and try and as soon as I looked away and then back, he was on his stomach! Luckily he did it again right away and I was able to catch it on camera. It is so exciting to see him grow and develop and hit milestones! He will be 5 months old this Friday. Can someone tell me how he got to be 5 months old already??

Who needs a dining room when you have an aquarium...or three.

I decided to take some pictures of what my dining room and garage look like currently so you can see the madness that is Anthony and his aquariums :) He has always wanted to get a bigger aquarium, no matter what size it was at the time. He currently has a 55 gallon in addition to the 20 gallon he had at our old apartment and was in the process of setting up a 75 gallon when someone down the street put their 90 gallon up for sale. What does that mean? A whole mess of aquariums in my house. Anthony says that he plans on selling a few of them. We will see...

 Yes, those are three of my dining room chairs holding up that tank.

 The new stand with the tank that goes underneath resting on top.

The left behind 75 gallon in the garage. The stand is farther out of the picture.

Visiting with the Family

A few weeks ago we got to go down to Port Saint Lucie to visit with Anthony's sister and her family for her birthday. It was a blast! Happy made an AMAZING crockpot chicken that Anthony requests at least once a week and James got to visit with his cousins.

I think this little boy is going to grow up thinking that you are supposed to hug, kiss, cuddle, and snuggle 24/7 because we just can't keep our hands off of him!! Of course, it helps to have such wonderful relatives who seem to love your child as much as you do :)

Happy was able to sneak in some more professional pictures towards the end of the day. I was so impressed that she was one: able to get such great pictures, and two: that he wasn't crying in most of them!

Oh yes, those blue eyes are here to stay!

I love his face in this one! What was he doing?? Does he do this every time we carry him somewhere? The things you find out when you have a camera behind you.

In the car seat on the way home. Fun times!

4 Month Check Up

Today we took James for his 4 month check up and it wasn't too bad! He was flirting with everyone and smiling for a lot of it and even though he started crying towards the end and DEFINITELY didn't like getting shots, he quieted right down afterwards and just cuddled in my arms. So sweet!

Stats:
Weight: 12.9 lbs
Height:  23.75 inches

Wordless Wednesday

I *heart* amazon and swagbucks!

I think that I am single-handedly keeping amazon.com in business. Seriously. I order something from them almost every other day since we have a prime membership we get free shipping most of the time. I don't know how many times I have gone on there and found something cheaper than getting it in the store, plus I get it shipped to me for free! Example: James' swing that he takes naps in eats D batteries like they are candy, so I looked on amazon. Sure enough, I found a 12 pack of professional grade duracell batteries for $14 with free shipping! You can't get publix store brand batteries for that price. So I ordered it :)

Recently I've started using Swagbucks.com again as a way to support my amazon habit. In case you don't know what it is, it's a search engine/website were you can earn points for doing different things (searching the web, answering polls, surveys, etc...). Once you earn 450 points you can redeem it for a $5 amazon gift card! It is super easy and you don't get email spam or anything like that with it. I've already earned enough for $10 in amazon gift cards just this month! Anyways, I always like ways to get free stuff, so if you are interested feel free to check it out. I would definitely recommend it. Some people like to earn as much as they can throughout the year and then use it all to pay for Christmas presents. Can you imagine not paying anything for Christmas presents? Too cool! Except I can't wait that long :)

Swagbucks

Adventures with the new hat

Well, it finally happened. James has grown out out of his build-a-bear hat! Since we go out adventuring so often, he definitely needs a hat to keep the sun off of him so I started looking around to see if I could find a replacement for him. I friend of mine from church heard I was looking for one and offered to give us one she already had. Here he is modeling it right after she gave it to us:

Oh.my.word. This might be one of the cutest things I have seen to date :)

Since Anthony had off of work for Memorial day, my mom and brother came to visit and we all decided to go to the beach. It was so crowded!! We had to wait at least 30 minutes at the entrance to the park since they were only letting cars in as others left. After we parked, we grabbed our gear, started walking and realized that it was a half mile walk down a boardwalk to get to the beach. We were exhausted!! Once we got there, we just enjoyed sitting in the water and watching James dip his toes in. And of course, he got to use the hat for the first time:

Wordless Wednesday

My first room makeover

When we moved into our new place, we had so much more space! We have a front room that is right after you walk into the front door and I had almost no furniture for it. Just an antique desk that Anthony inheirited and an old loveseat that was given to us when we were first married (which I definitely was ready to get rid of!). I did a lot of planning and researching and trying to teach myself some decorating basics, since I am soo not good at that sort of thing. My ideal decorating situation: seeing a picture in a book or magazine and then duplicating it exactly. I have such a hard time thinking of what will look good right out of my head. However, I didn't get this out of a book and I think I did pretty good!!

Before:

After:

I tried to be as economical as possible and use as much as I could of what I already had. The damage? Here is the list:

• Used leather sleeper couch from craigslist: $275
• End tables from craigslist: $100
• Shag rug on clearance at Walmart: $50
• Lamps, curtain rod, and vase from dollar general: $37
• Tree vinyl art from target (sticks right on the wall, so cool!): $20
• Hanging mirror set and potpurri from Bealls Outlet: $14
• Hanging decorations from family dollar: $12
• Curtains from amazon.com: $10

Everything else I already had. Grand total for my room makeover: $518. Not bad for an entire room! I love that we got a sleeper couch so we now have that much more room for guests!

While I've been decorating, I finally got around to putting up all of our diplomas and certificates. Now that it is finished, I took a picture of our "wall of fame". I love that this wall is actually complete now!

4 Months Old

James is 4 months old today! He is such an adorable baby and we love having him in our family!! Here is his car seat growth comparison picture. As you can see, we had to take the padded insert out since he is growing like a weed!

Life with James has gotten so fun and exciting! It seems like he does something new or develops a new skill almost every day. I've had to move him up in sizes in clothes and put away all of the clothes that don't fit him anymore. Amazing! He has also started sleeping better and for the last few nights he has slept for 11 hours straight. It has been heaven! He used to wake up like clockwork around 1 or 2am for his night time bottle, but he has started getting two bottles a few hours apart around bedtime and it seems to help him last until morning. Hopefully this trend keeps up!

Things he loves at 4 months: anything new or colorful to look at, including people, being held, chewing on his hands or anything he can get into his mouth, taking a bath and splashing the water with his feet, funny or unusual noises, people making faces at him, being tickled, having someone carry him around, being outside, when I get him up from his nap or in the morning- he grins every time even if he was just screaming his head off!

Things he hates at 4 months: going to sleep (man does this kid hate to miss the action), having anyone but me rock him when he is tired (this is something that we are working on fixing!), being in his car seat (although he is getting much better about it), when you are in the room and he can see you but you aren't paying attention to him, loud sudden noises like our crazy dogs barking, when all the interesting people at church go still, like for a prayer...:)

Here are some videos I took today that show some of the fun things he has started to do this month: laugh and babble consonants. In the second one, I love the noise that he makes. He does this all the time now and it sounds so much like "Mama". Awesome!