Smock Pattern Review: Katy

I couldn't be more thrilled about this latest smock review.
It's from Katy Dill of No Big Dill. Katy is a seamstress extraordinaire, and is always whipping up some clever original design for her, or one of her 5 darling daughters and share's her ideas, and great tutorials. (Seriously, there are at least five things she's done lately that I am filing away to try later!)



She is currently celebrating September sewing month, and has included my smock in the festivities. Hooray!
And,

we are giving away 3 patterns on her blog .

Here is little Clover enjoying her new smock. (Could that name be any cuter? Could that face be any cuter?)

click on over and check it out! She has several other giveaways going on right now... so go! You're going to want to bookmark her I promise.

Thanks Katy!

Vanessa + David

A few weeks ago we had a little couple's wedding shower for Vanessa and David because we love them.

And despite the suggestion of the photos...there were lots of other people there beside Vanessa and David. I just didn't get many good pictures of the people (I'm blaming the lighting), so had to settle for posting pictures of food. So thanks to everyone who came and loved them and showered them with gifts.

And aren't they going to have darling babies?!



*And thanks to the Harmans who (whether they knew it or not) supplied every single recipe for the food I made. It was a hit!

*And also...thanks to my brother Ryan, who doesn't have a blog that I can link, but who provided us with the most freshly caught (by him), delicious salmon I have ever had. 

Flawed

I received this fancy white desk that I'd been eye-balling, for my birthday, about 2 1/2 years ago. Since we'd been students and nomads our entire marriage, we'd put off buying any real furniture till we got a real house (our someday house as we like to call it). This desk was my little tidbit of what that life might taste like, a pacifier. When we moved from our tiny one bedroom apartment to this townhouse, I was pregnant and couldn't do any lifting. I just barked at my helpful family members as they carried all my junk, "Just DO NOT SCRATCH MY DESK!" It was my prize-- my joy, the beacon that urged, "Someday...someday we'll be real people with real furniture".

We're still not. We mostly don't have any real furniture. I do little crafty what-nots here and there to make things livable, for the time being. I use what I have...make it work. TV's are propped on badly scratched yard sale night stands. Plastic Target lamps serve as our bed-side lights. A long-ago painted dresser is a make-shift hutch in our "dining room". None of fits my real vision, but it works for now.

I've had a bad case of house envy lately. Its an affliction that comes and goes. I watch as my friends make big plans to do remodel projects, or move, or garden, or install window treatments that don't involve plastic blinds, or have dinner on a table that they didn't also puff paint on when they were 7, and a tiny tingle of jealousy creeps up. "But I wanted to do that (fill in the blank...project, furniture idea, color scheme etc.) when I have a house". I know its immature and lame, and petty. And like I said, its just a tiny tingle.

Don't get me wrong...I am grateful that or heads are roofed, and that we are not facing any of the scary issues with the housing market that lots of people are. And the fact that we don't have a house...its 100% our own fault. Its a choice. We made it...as part of a bigger plan. And we will have one eventually.

I walked into my office a month ago to find that Avery had picked up a pencil and gone to work drawing on my treasured desk.

And when I saw it, I wasn't mad or annoyed at the mess. Honestly-- I was proud. I don't even know how she learned to draw. I'd never shown her. She just put together how to hold the pencil and that it put lines down by watching I guess? My little girl...growing up so much! Drawing? Can 15 month old babies draw?

I haven't washed it off. I don't know if I ever will. I love coming in and seeing that she's been there. That this is where our family lives, that tiny hands have been at work. She's real, and she's ours.

I'm so grateful for my little family. That we are safe. That we have love.

And I'm grateful for creative friends, who have all of that too-- and who have fabulous design ideas, and that our shared interests and ideas make us closer... and better together, and that our differences make us interesting.

And when the time comes, and its finally my turn to have a house, I know they'll be there to help me pick out paint.

This morning as I went to start the bath, I found my little elf had been at work again:

Avery likes to throw things in the tub. If you're missing say... your cell phone, 12 bottles of shampoo, your keys, some fruit? Chances are...its in the tub.

I cleaned it all out, turned on the water, and we enjoyed our morning bath in our sunny bathroom,

while we shared an orange.

Pumpkin Patch

Because it just wouldn't be October with out a trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

We met the Butlers at this quaint little spot and picked a pumpkin for each of us. It was so cold and windy (!) that we didn't have time to take too many photos before our babies turned into icicles. We had to grab our pumpkins and run.

We paid for them first.

And since I didn't have a chance to get any photos with the actual pumpkins, I took a few this morning in the safety of our living room.

Mmmm...Can I eat you?

on blogging and best friends

Do you know why my friend Kate is the best? Because she does things like come to my house and spend about 6 hours helping me finally download the gift of Photoshop my husband bestowed when our darling babe was born. I may have an irrational fear of software, but that's beside the point. At any rate, she nudged me to do it, and after we finally found disk one (hiding it was!), sat through about two hours of downloading, and then proceeded to show me all her tricks...

Tricks, I might add, that took her hours and hours of work to figure out. She just shared them all, while patiently waiting for me to fumble through (Wait which key do I hit again?), while our babes slept (sort of).

Now that is true generosity.

Plus she didn't even care when I copied her and bought the exact same cardigan, and she even told me I looked cute in it, despite my enormous bosoms and roughly extra 20 lbs.

Now that is a true friend.

So getting back to my new photoshop fun.

Now I can edit my pictures more creatively...which makes me way more excited about blogging again (I have been in a small blogging funk).

(Avery on her blessing day)

Thanks again Kate!

More photos to come soon...

PS. I have started another blog that will only have photos of Avery...I know, it pretty much seems like that is what this blog is, but I wanted to have a place where family (and friends if so inclined) could look at lots of the pictures we take of her, and I wouldn't feel like I was boring anyone. Here is the link http://averyjanebird.blogspot.com/

help

We are FINALLY getting some of the getting ready for baby stuff done.

Like buying a crib.

So our very nice friends the Butlers gave us a hand at attempting to set it up, which you can read about here.

But alas one faulty part, and one broken crib later, with the Butlers on the road home again, I was left to do the job myself.

(and PS. they are my heroes for making the store give us new pieces...I am a wimp about that kind of stuff).

Well when I say " left to do it myself", I should say, I was too impatient to wait for anyone else to get home to help me do it.

So I improvised.

And I must say I am pretty proud of my very pregnant self.

Although I must admit, the heavy lifting might have contributed to the more-than-my-fair-share of contractions later that night. So as I soaked in the tub freaking out about premature labor and playing out rushing to the hospital scenarios in my head, I couldn't remember exactly how many days pregnant I was...which is vital information if you are going into premature labor...and then I remembered my countdown widget that tells me this very important info, and I said a prayer of gratitude for blogging.
And after a back rub, my contractions finally stopped.

And yes the walls are blue, and yes we are having a girl...they are really more periwinkle and pretty, but darn that cold northern facing light!

So stay tuned for more girlish touches to come.

Anyway, I am really wondering about crib mattresses. Any advice or help in this area would be greatly appreciated. What kind do you have? Do you love it? Hate it? Is it worth spending more on? Help!

Why the Cropper's are 3 1/2 of my favorite people

...because when you move they make you fabulous cupcakes, and deliver them in a really cute bakery box (which is a thing I really appreciate).



And not only are they like the best cupcakes I've ever had (of course they are)...they are injected with frosting...that's right...just like hostess, only waaaaay better.

plus they make really cute (and well behaved) babies. Why don't I have any pictures of Blaine?

Can't wait for number 2.

Oh and, they are the only one's who get my really vague references to obscure 90's Canadian reggae/rap artists, and old country singers.

and that's why I love them.