Zia's 1st Birthday Present

Our sweet niece, Zia, turned one this month. We've felt so lucky to be so close to her, living just below them, and getting to watch her as she grows! She's really stolen our hearts! For her birthday, I made her a sweet doll inspired by her. She often wears adorable little tutus, so the doll had to have a tutu. She often has a sweet little flower in her hair, so her doll needed one too. And she has these little red shoes, picked out by her big brother, so her doll needed red shoes too. 

I'll post more photos from her birthday soon. I've been spending too much time researching baby things and not blogging from my computer, so I'm a little delayed! I can't wait to make more little dolls for other sweet girls I know :) Even with the imperfections on the doll, I was pretty excited that I actually created her!

A Monster Under the Bed

I have a pretty regular schedule of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and eat a snack (usually cottage cheese the first round and yogurt on the second round). Last night, at about midnight, I did my usual first snack in the dark. I try to keep my eyes only halfway open so I can "trick" myself into staying asleep ;) and I keep the lights off.

As I came back to bed, I came around my side of the bed, and I could have sworn I saw a tail go under the bed. I tried to convince myself I was seeing things - there's a dark rug at that end of the bed and the dark brown blanket was barely hanging on the bed - maybe it fell off as I walked past. I laid down and listened. And it kind of sounded like there might be something under the bed. I debated on waking Seth, but as I listened I was sure there was something there! Seth, who wakes up with a start, tries to listen for something under the bed... Of course every time he thinks he hears something, I talk. He turns on the light (as I stayed laying down trying to be safe in the bed - I was imagining a rat squirrel had crawled in through our window, which has been open for days and has no screen).

Sure enough, there WAS something under the bed. A cat. My first thought was one of the many neighborhood cats had gotten into our house (I have a habit of leaving doors open to let the air in). Then we realized... we know this cat! It was Danda, Jac and Ethan's cat! She had escaped from their side of the house, came through the basement and must have snuck in our room while I was snacking!

We giggled after I returned her to her own home through the basement. I don't think she was as happy about it... She meowed the whole way back! I'm just glad I saw her and she didn't wake us by jumping on the bed at night. We might have harmed her, not expecting a cat in our room!

Weekend Music

Love spending weekend mornings on the steps listening to Seth play his guitar. (We are really, really loving having our own front porch!!) He even had an audience for a while this morning! ;)

Today's Sewing Project: A Messenger Bag

I used the book Simple Sewing For Baby as inspiration for today's project, but I took the simple 4-piece project and made it even more! I added sides and a bottom for extra space. I also added 2 pockets on the inside for my phone and wallet and other small things. Finally, I added a flap cover like messenger bags have to help better keep the stuff inside the bag. I wonder when I am going to get to sew again after the baby comes :) I have to squeeze it all in now!!!

(a few projects I have left that I want to get done before the baby comes include: wet bags, a few gifts, and some snack bags)

Last Weekend

Seth was in Vegas last weekend with his siblings and father celebrating his older brother, Ethan's, 40th. I am happy he got a weekend away for the fun, but I did spend most of the weekend a little paranoid that the baby might come early (just because Seth was out of town). To take my mind off of it, I spent a lot of time hanging out with Jac, P, and Z. :)

Both Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed great live music completely unplanned. Our trip to play in Lauralhurst Parj brought us to a band set up under the trees playing for some get-together. We sat on the outskirts of the party enjoying to show as well :)

Sunday afternoon, I headed to the lock party on the next block over with J, P & Z. The basement band (remember them from a while back?) was playing in the street and later set up in the yard for a long evening of music.

Seth and Ethan got home late Sunday night/early Monday morning. I think Seth is still trying to catch up on sleep and recover from the fun of Vegas. :)

I Think I am Addicted

I have spent the last few months glancing at baby clothes in the stores, but I haven't bought much because, as a thrifter, some of those clothes cost more than what I spend on my own finds. And for the babe to only wear for a short time & on top of it all, I don't even love most baby clothes - at least not for those store prices!! So when a friend sent me a link to a huge consignment sale a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd check it out. I was a bit skeptical considering the state of the baby clothes I have seen at local thrift stores (stained and overpriced... And not all that great of selection). I was sure it would be the same at the consignment sale... But I was quite happily mistaken!!! The selection was HUGE and the prices were within what I would expect for second hand clothes! I got tons of clothes - which I wanted to lay out and take photos of to share with everyone but haven't done because they are completely gender specific!! I got socks and a sling and some other things for the little one. I spent hours at the sale and enjoyed every second of it!

I shared the information with some other friends, and they told me about another similar consignment sale happening in Beaverton. I hadn't planned on going, having just spent money and not wanting to drive all the way to Beaverton. This morning I happened to be there meeting up with these friends for a mamas and mamas-to-be walk, when one of them mentioned that the sale was 50% off today. I figured I'd check it out, thinking it would be disappointing considering it has been going all week and today was one of the final days. Again, I was completely surprised. This one was even better! I will definitely make the drive to Beaverton every fall and spring for this sale, and I'll probably plan to do it on the last day for the 50% off! I purchased 43 items for a little over $80. I bought more baby clothes (hope I haven't bought too many...) 2 of the pieces were $3.00 and the rest were between $0.50 and $1.50! At least our little one has clothes (although I have a lot of laundry to do before the baby's arrival!)

I can't wait to shop these with friends. (Kelly came for a while but left about the time I wanted to look at clothes since it's very gender specific.) Next spring should be fun though!!! And I am pretty sure I have no desire to buy new baby clothes at the normal baby clothes price ever... I'll just try to time it so I buy for upcoming sizes during the fall and spring.

Folded Dreams

Today's Project: A Baby Snuggler Wrap

Today's sewing project was a sweet wrap to snuggle the baby up in! This, along with a few of my other projects (rattle, nursing pillow, tag blanket), have come from the book called "Simple Sewing for Baby" by Lotta Jansdotter. I am in love with this book and will keep renewing from the library for as long as I can ;) or until I finish all the projects I want to complete in it!!

This project isn't perfect (I have only been sewing for a month!!) And I have realized I don't know how to hand-sew. Instead of even trying, I just do a stitch with the sewing machine that is completely obvious. (But worth it for my own patience...) I do need to learn the art of hand sewing though - just not sure how... YouTube? Practicing? Having someone show me (who's willing!?)

Anyway, can't wait to give this thing a try and wrap our little one up in it. I made it pretty gender neutral in the hopes that our future little ones could be snuggled up in it too!

Baby's First Halloween Costume!

I just finished the baby's first Halloween costume (I know we are over a month away, but I also know that at some point between now and then things are gonna get a little busy ;) I had been thinking on this since we found out our due date. I always wanted the baby to be a pea pod, but I wasn't quite sure how to make that. (I knew I wanted a homemade costume - we did a lot of homemade costumes when we were growing up - I remember being an apple tree one year.) I then thought it would be fun to make a zombie costume (I love zombies!) But zombies need face paint and babies that are just a few weeks old do NOT need face paint. So a mummy it was!

The costume was quite cheap and easy to make. I bought a white sleeper (which has the option of having legs or being a sack) at a thrift store for $2. It had little bears on it, but I figured those would be covered. Then I bought 1/4 of a yard of a white fabric and 1/4 of a yard of another white fabric that had little white patterns on it (this was more than enough fabric). I also got fabric glue for gluing the pieces on the arms. The rest of the strips were sewn on.

I cannot wait for the end of next month when I can put our little bean into the costume!!

Today's Sewing Projects

The first project was a wool puddle pad to catch any leaks when the baby is in its bed or cuddled up in ours. I looked at buying these and they were a bit more than I saw fit to spend. My sister-in-law, Jac, suggested XL men's wool sweaters from Goodwill, and that's exactly what I did! This one is cashmere and a bit thinner (even though it's a double layer). I felted it though, so hopefully that will help! I have extra cashmere from the sweater. I think I will make a diaper cover with it.

The next project was a sweet little rattle from a sewing book I have. It's not the best quality of sewmanship (is that a word??), but it'll work for the little pea. :)

Horsetail Falls in the Columbia Gorge

As I mentioned last week, I spent a day with P, Z and Jac out at Horsetail falls hiking and exploring. I love, love, love being so close to them that we can go on day trips, and I absolutely cannot wait for our little one to be able to join us (have I mentioned this yet?? ;)

After a picnic, we hiked .4 miles up to Horsetail falls - a beautiful waterfall you can walk behind (that I'd love to actually swim in someday on a really HOT day). P, Jac and Z continued on another hike, which was on an unmaintained steep trail that I started to attempt and then decided sitting in the trees listening to the water fall wasn't such a bad place for me to be after all! Someday I will do that hike, but I'm realizing that I've definitely got a limit and it's getting a little bit smaller the more pregnant I get!

Here are some photos from my camera of our day:

This photo doesn't do it justice, but the lighting coming through the trees as we came around the bend to find Horsetail Falls was quite amazing.

One Last Weekend Away as 2

I'd read a few suggestions for couples to take trips before their little one arrives (in lots of articles it's called something similar to a honeymoon, but drop the honey and add another word... I'm not allowed to mention the word though, Seth's orders...). I'd been contemplating bringing it up for a while and wondering if it was in our budget or money we should be spending on all the baby stuff we need to get/saving since I'm no longer working. I decided to throw the idea out there and Seth thought it was a great idea. We agreed to head towards Mt. Hood since it's not too far from Portland, and he really loves the mountains! 

I found a perfect cabin - just inside Mt. Hood National Forest. It was a 1 bedroom, great for 2, and the price was impossible to beat! Here's a link if you are interested in seeing the cabin we stayed in! We quite enjoyed our weekend home and would probably go back again. 

We spent our evenings grilling dinner and eating on the porch. Then Seth would light a fire, and we'd spend a couple hours sitting (or in my case, lounging/laying/sitting - whichever was comfortable) by the fire, making smores, dreaming about our little one, talking about plans for our future, discussing our ideas about parenting and what we want/don't want. 

We spent both Saturday and Sunday exploring lakes around Mt. Hood. We didn't do much in the way of hiking (I've really started feeling the result of too much physical activity - and mostly it's been coming after the work is done... then it seems to take me out for at least an hour or so...) 

The first lake we visited was Trillium Lake. We found out about this lake from our car salesman last weekend. It was definitely a BEAUTIFUL lake to visit. You can drive right up to the lake, which makes it easily accessible to a lot of people. We didn't mind though, because the view was so magnificent. We found a quiet place to sit and watch the people fishing and take in the view. 

The next lake we visited was Clear Lake. It's a little farther from Mt. Hood and doesn't have any mountain backdrop views, but we still really enjoyed it. You can also drive right up to this lake, but despite that, it was surprisingly lacking in the people area (especially for such a nice day). We liked how there were camp sites just behind the line of trees going along the side of the lake we came in on. How fun it would be to be able to walk from you camp site right down to the water. And this water was a pleasant place to be on that HOT Saturday afternoon. (I wish I'd have brought my swimming suit and a tube to float on!)

Our last stop on Saturday was Mt. Hood Timberline. Although we'd been there before, I still wanted to return and check out the lodge that we didn't go into last summer. The views are amazing, and it's quite fantastic to be so far up on Mt. Hood. I cannot wait to see it in the winter time with all it's snow!!

 Seth is dreaming of the snowboarding he can do this winter (hopefully ;)!!

On Sunday, we spent the morning resting and watching the DNC speeches that we'd missed last week. Both mornings were a little rough for me, so taking it easy was an absolute must before we spent the afternoon exploring. Checkout was noon, and at that point, we headed towards Lost Lake (about an hour and a half and a scenic drive around the southern to eastern to northern parts of Mt. Hood).

Ethan, Jac and P had gone to Lost Lake last summer and had raved about it, so Seth was really wanting to check it out. Plus, you can rent boats and head out on the lake (I'm ALL about renting boats - the other two lakes lacked that option... you had to bring you own.)

The 12 mile road up to Lost Lake is quite something. It's INSANELY windy, and I was NOT feeling so great once we got on it! I was quite relieved to arrive and soon forgot about my queazy stomach with the views!

 It was love at first sight! We were amazed by the beauty of this lake! Mt. Hood can normally be seen in that blue area just to the left of the middle of the picture... but I didn't get any photos of it before the clouds rolled in.

 It was a bit cooler at this lake (I have two sweatshirts on :). It was also quite windy, but despite that, Seth rowed us all the way across the lake (the East and West way).

 I love love love this man. His child is so lucky to have him as a father, and I absolutely cannot wait to watch him grow into the amazing father I know he'll be!!! (Especially if he's anything like the absolutely amazing husband he is to me!)

We made one last stop before home. Huckleberry Milkshakes were a must! (This place is just on the South edge of Hood River, Oregon if you are wanting to try one yourself!!)

And the drive home couldn't have been anymore beautiful! The Columbia Gorge is really breathtaking!