Pancake Molds

Aren't these so cool?! Ive seen pancake molds before that worked a lot like cookie cutters, but those are really hard to keep the batter inside the mold. These look so much easier! Now that I have a child, I can get away with silly purchases like these, lol.

Kids would love to have little animals and bugs on their pancakes! {shapes of course, not the real deal, lol ;)}

How about these for Christmas morning??

I think I need to make a run to Bed Bath and Beyond and use some of my hundreds of 20% off coupons that I have piling up!

Tote-able

I've had this book on how to make purses for FOREVER! Ive been wanting to get it out and make something since I got it but, alas, too many other projects have come first.

Well, this last weekend while Jeff and his dad went to an LSU football game, Barbara decided to go to Hobby Lobby. I took this chance to get out the dusty old book and make a tote.

I started it Sunday afternoon and couldn't put it down! I had all of the fabric cut, interfaced, and the zipper sewn in all before bed. It's Wednesday afternoon and I just finished it. I absolutely love it and cant wait to fill it up!!

Here's a front view. It was a little complicated because the sides taper in so they are triangular instead of just straight up and down. Also, the handles called for clear 1/4" tubing for stability but I have not been able to find it so I used some cording for now. It's already beginning to unravel so it will need to be replaced very soon.

Here's a pic of the lining and zipper. I haven't made anything that required a zipper in years, so Barbara had to give me a refresher over lunch, lol. I added a pocket on the inside for my keys, phone, ipod, etc.

The book suggests making a label/tag for yourself to put on your creations. So, I brainstormed a bit, and decided that I should do a Paisley since that is my current design element favorite. I made this one out of french knots. I really like it, but I need some work on making my knots more uniform in size. My mom knows a technique that she said works beautifully, so I might have to remake my label. {It also looks like I need to go back and erase my pencil marks, lol ;)}

All in all, mistakes aside, I think it turned out really cute and it wont be my last purse/bag to make!

Pillow Shams In Progress

I finally got my fabric out to make the pillow shams I talked about. This was fun! It was so quick and easy to do. I got the top done and then decided that I wanted to get them top quilted just like the quilt itself, so the rest of the progress will have to wait. I think I am going to have to wait until after Christmas to take everything into the quilter since it is SO expensive! Anyways, I can't wait to make the final post and show the completed project :)

I decided to go with 6 squares in the center instead of 4. This way they were more "square" than rectangle and I could use more fabrics.

Here, the sham is flat so you can see the colors and layout.

Here, I laid it over a pillow to show what it will look like finished.

Playing with PawPaw

Her new favorite toy is this table that sings and lights up. It will keep her entertained for a long time! She is starting to pull up on stuff now, so I can't leave her alone around this table since it is pretty unstable. She can pull up about half way but then gets stuck and I'll help her the rest of the way. She's getting strong!
I've been trying to post some videos but Blogger isn't cooperating... Maybe it will work later.

What If Facebook Was Around For Hundreds of Years?

Source

We're On The Move

I was able to capture Avery's first steps... crawling, that is.

We were at the lake house for Dad's birthday, so we can mark down September 9th as the day she first started crawling. At this point, she is getting better and better and moves herself across the room. It's weird getting used to your baby not staying put where you left her! lol

Our New Favorite Spot

She loves to look outside and watch the cars go by, the bushes and trees, and hopefully a dog or two will run by; that really makes her day! lol

September 9th

Is the day 2 very special people were born.

1. My Dad

2. Tisha

Happy Birthday to both of you!! Thankyou for being you and being such wonderful people

:)

Baby "A's" 6th Month Photos

I wanted to post a link to the site that has all of Avery's 6 Month photos. A bunch of family want to see them so it is just easiest to post them here.

Enjoy!

Click HERE to view the photos

**Photos curtesy Simply Joy Photography by Kelley Cook**

Avery 7 Months

Avery is 7 months old today! She is growing so fast and changing every day. (this picture is 3 days old, but she's in bed now and I forgot to get one of her today)
All I really have to report this month are a few things:

1. She is doing great with her baby food now. We are just eating twice a day, but will be moving to 3 very soon. She is a lot less sloppy and can actually keep her clothes on while she eats! lol
2. She is really trying to figure out how to hold her bottle by herself. She gets frustrated is I do it for her when she is trying. It's really funny to watch her personality come out. I think she gets that determination from her daddy ;)
3. She is starting to say "mama." I can't quite figure out if she is associating it with me, but I like to think she is, lol.
4. She wants to crawl so bad!! She falls a lot and there's lots of tears lately because of it, but I know that will just keep going as she learns to walk, too. She does this weird yoga-like pose where she sits Indian style and then pulls up to where all of her weight is on the sides of her feet and shins. Only a baby can be that limber...
5. Mirrors are the new means of entertainment. She's always thought they were fun, but now they are hilarious! I gave her my hand held mirror to play with and she will sit there and laugh at herself... with me laughing at her, of course ;)

6. We are quickly growing out of our car seat. I am not sure why, but the one we own does not adjust any higher, so I think I am going to have to buy this one:It's nice because it is for infants through toddlers and is convertible in that it sits backwards and frontwards. Graco seems to be the only one that offers 2 built in cup holders, too; That is a must for toddlers!

**That's a whole other post on the issues I am having with my car seat/stroller situation, anyways.**
7. We are taking our first flight to Houston tomorrow. I will be by myself so I am very nervous; I think she will do fine, though. She gets so incredibly squirmy that I know it will be exhausting trying to keep her occupied, but luckily it's a short flight.
8. She had her first stomach virus this month. That was so aweful! I won't go into the gruesome details, but she had me on edge for a whole week. I seriously dont know how moms do it with babies that are in the hospital. They are so strong! I will be a mess the day she gets something worse than what she had. Needless to say, I caught what she had and could quickly understand all of the tears, restless nights, and fussy days. She got over it, though and is healthier for it.

Other than those things, we are doing great and growing into a little girl... she's not a little tiny baby anymore :(

Pillow Shams

Remember this quilt?? Remember how I said it was going to take me a while to complete? Well, it is not taking me "a while"... It's taking me FOREVER! Actually, I have the top all pieced together. That's been done for a while now and is folded up in the corner of my room waiting to be worked on again. I still need to piece the backing and then take it to be top stitched (my machine can't sew that big of a quilt), and then the binding needs to be added.

Now that I am done with the top I have lots of left over fabric, so, I decided to make some matching pillow shams. I thought about going to buy a pattern but I'm cheap, so, true to my style, I made one up! lol This is my idea of a pattern:

I know what I want it to look like in the end, so i just basically am using this sketch to keep the measurements and numbers all in front of me so I don't cut anything wrong.
Here is the layout I am going to go for:


The borders and binding will be the exact same as the quilt. (You can't tell, but the green and white fabric that is going to go next to the cream and white has small dots of that blue that will be the binding) I just picked my favorite combination of the fabric I had left over to make 4 squares. Now, I just need to go find something simple to do the lining and back of the shames.
Hopefully I can make these soon. I don't think I will take me long at all, it's just a matter of getting it out and doing it!

Geez, I really hope Avery likes this bedding!!

One Deal A Day

So I have noticed a trend these days for sites to start offering deals on one item per day. Have you ever heard of Woot? This is one of those sites. Every day a new item is featured at a highly discounted rate. Once they are gone, they are gone. Woot features a new item every day at 12 am. They also have a Kid's Woot, T-shirt Woot, Wine Woot, and Sellout Woot.
Groupon is the other one that I know about. It's an app for the iPhone/iTouch that features great coupons for places in your area. I got one that was $15 for $35 worth of stakes at this meat market in our area. Pretty great deal if you ask me.
Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because I stumbled across another website of the sorts the other day. I am super excited about it! It's called Baby Steals.
It pretty much has the same idea as Woot, but it offers baby stuff at 50-80% off!!! Holy Cow!! So far I have seen some pretty cool things on there, but not anything that I really need. I was hesitant to share my cool discovery out of selfish reasons, because obviously the less people know about it, the more of a chance I have to get the item I may want... but it's too good of a site to not share. Baby Steals offers a new item everyday at 10am Central Time (9am Mountain Standard Time).
Apparently they have a sister site called Kid Steals and Scrapbook Steals. Those look pretty awesome, too!!
Good luck. I hope you find this kind of stuff as fun as I do :)

Dear Mr. Clean

Thank you for giving us your Magic Eraser!
Quite possibly the best cleaning agent out there.

You have made my life much happier (and cleaner)! :)

Holding Our Bottle

...just not too sure how to get the yummy stuff out! Tilting is the next lesson to be learned

Pigtails

Yes, my almost-7-month-old has hair long enough on top for pigtails... Its cute but when its down, it looks like a toupe. lol! I know it will fill in soon, so in the meantime, I do my best to keep it under control :)