Anniversary in DC

We went to Washington, DC yesterday to get in some good quality time and celebrate 3 years of marriage. We haven't gone since field trips in high school, so of course, Natalie had never been there either. We realized once again that we are not and will never be city slickers :) It is quite a nerve wracking adventure. I'd rather have my little home in the sticks of Northern Maryland than the big, flashy city any day of the week.

We had grand plans of doing a couple museums in the first part of the day and then maybe heading to the zoo for a few hours. It did not go as planned, does anything really go as planned anymore?
We started at the National Museum of American History. I didn't take any pictures inside because most of it was too dark for my flash-less camera. There were so many interesting exhibits! Robert spent forever in the Transportation exhibit and I was enthralled by the exhibit of the First Ladies and their fantastic dresses and accessories. We spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the National Museum of Natural History. It was mind blowing and definitely Natalie's favorite part of the trip. She got to see a tank ful of fish from the coral reef (aka Nemo & Dory from her favorite movie), a large stuffed bison, and the huge elephant in the Rotunda. I was captivated by the gems and minerals exhibit. It is so amazing to see how gems are created and the subtle differences in the structure of their atoms that makes diamonds so much harder than quartz.


Bug's quite serious "ouch!" face :)


Unfortunately, it was the kind of day where once Bug caught sight of the camera she became uncooperative and unreasonably grouchy. We have exactly zero nice pictures of us together.

Yeah, it was that kind of day for the camera. However, it was a great, long, exciting day our family.

A project 13 weeks in the making...

I know it's been rather quiet here again lately, but I promise I have a good reason this time! I've been working on creating a little miracle! The side effects of this project include extreme fatigue, mood swings, and last but definitely not least, all day long nausea. We are expecting to add baby #2 to our family in January! We got to see our little peanut about 4 weeks ago, and I am thrilled to say that baby was doing well and had a nice strong heartbeat and little wiggling arm and leg buds!
I am more or less terrified of adding baby #2 to our family, but I am ready to take on the challenge!

We wanted to be a little bit sneaky about telling our families this time, since they've been pestering me about adding to our family quite a bit :) If we outright told them, all we would have gotten is "It's about time!" Ha ha.

So I embellished one of Natalie's shirts with "Big Sister" and made these printable magnets with the "Miracle in the Making" image above. I shamelessly stole my inspiration from these frames. We sneakily put them on the refrigerator to see how long it would take to get them to notice. We've been waiting for Bug to give us away for the last few weeks. She's grown fond of saying "There's a baby in my belly!"

They noticed her shirt right away, but the magnet took them a while to catch! They are so happy and excited for us. We just can't wait for January to arrive so we can hold our little bean!

Sewing for ME!

I've been busy not feeling too hot for the last few weeks, and trying to get in some orders for my friends. Lots of reuseable snack bags, and a couple t-shirt quilts that will be graduation presents. In between all of that, I've managed to sew for myself!

I started with a pair of dress pants that I bought for work. They were ill-fitting, but inexpensive, and I bought them thinking that I would alter them. It didn't happen for a long time, and every now and then I'd have to pull out the ill fitting pants. Yesterday I got so fed up with them that I put them on inside out, pinned them up, and altered them before I went to work. It only took 20 minutes!! I can't believe I put it off for that long, I have a couple more pairs that I want to fix up now that I figured out exactly how easy it is! I looked and felt so much better that day :)

I also had a daughter and daddy free day on Sunday. My fabulous sister took Natalie for the day and the hubs had some side jobs planned. I hosted the first Sewing Group meeting for my mommies group. ( http://www.chesapeakemommies.com/ - for Haford and Cecil County, MD. There is most likely a chapter near you- you can check for locations near you at The Mommies Network home site) We had a blast sewing together! We decided to all do the same project this time- and started with an adorable Sash Bag made with a free pattern made by Aimee at Homespun Threads. She has a bunch of cute patterns, and they're all FREE!

Here is my bag! I used a home dec weight blue houndstooth for the outer, and an antique, french, sewing inspired print for the inside.

Also, Crafterhours started off their 2011 Skirt Week! I entered the Milkmaid Skirt I made for Natalie in August, and I'm planning to try and get some skirts for me in as well!

Un-frog-gettable

Yesterday we celebrated Bug's 2nd year of life :) I can't believe how much she's grown in the past year! We decided to have a frog theme for her party, because she has such a cute ribbit :D Here are some of the highlights of the decorations and things I made. I adore this little skirt. It's a simple circle skirt with ruffled tulle around the bottom edge. This fabric is fabulous- Girly Frogs!! A little clippie I shamelessly copied from a little hairbow shop. Hers is better, I couldn't quite figure out how she made his body.

Our little cake table, I highly recommend Touche Touchet if you're in the Maryland area. The bakery is in Columbia, and she has done my bridal shower, wedding cake and cupcakes, and this lily pad cake is PERFECT! My mom added the frog faces to the cupcakes with marshmellows and candy buttons.

This is one of those moments where I thought "to the CLOUD!" because in every single picture all 3 of us were looking different directions! It's sad that this one was the best!

We got some dress ups for my girl, she likes her Tinkerbell wings the best, she left a trail of glitter (and sticky handprints) as she fluttered dreamily through the house :)

Just a few pictures of the decorations. I see a photography class in my future this summer, so pardon the terrible photos until I learn what I'm doing.

There were two of these little guys hanging in the doorway, they were a definite hit!

Please pardon the deflated balloons, I didn't realize that I never snapped a picture of the scene in it's full glory!

I feel like I can finally breathe again! Hopefully I can get to some fun Easter activities with Bug this week!

sock monkey

I've been wanting to make a sock monkey for a while now- and when I saw some red heel socks at my new favorite store I just couldn't resist! It's probably a good thing that the nearest Hobby Lobby is still an hour away....

Here he is, with his little fez :) It makes me smile just to see him. Bug has hardly put him down since I finished him, she said "I lika my monkeeey" all day yesterday.

Baby Shower Gifts

This was a baby shower gift for one of my friends, if it wasn't pink, I don't think I would have been able to let it go! I definitly need to do a green one for Bug :) I followed Dana's fabulous Faux Chenille Blanket Tutorial. I love this shabby chic fabric with the ribbons, it matches my friend's style perfectly.

This dress was fun as well, I scaled up the Itty Bitty Baby Dress to a 3-6 month size and added a twirl skirt to the bottom- this baby is going to look ADORABLE this summer!

I think these shoes might be my favorite part! I used this Pleated Ballerina Slipper pattern.

I have some leftover fabric from the Jelly Roll I have of that collection featuring more blue and green- I'm still deciding what I might do with that

i spy quilt

Natalie's other Christmas present was an I-Spy quilt. I made 3 of them all together, two for my nephews, I didn't get pictures of them with working last minute and all.... :) I used the Disappearing Nine Patch tutorial on Obsessively Stitching. I loved how quick and easy they were to put together!

The orange denim backing is one of my favorite parts :)