Boys and Boots

We went to the lake last weekend with some of our close friends. They have a little man a few months older than P, and these two boys are good buddies. That doesn't mean they don't scream at each other and grab toys and rocks and food out of each other's hands, cuz they do. We had a fun trip, very relaxing--even though none of us got quite enough sleep and the refrigerator/freezer went out while we were there. Nothing some coolers and a lot of ice (with beer on it) couldn't remedy! 

The boys thought it was great fun to knock heads with W and see his reaction.

Here I am with a very sleepy, P. You can sort of see how giant I am, P has to sit alongside my huge belly now.

Swimming feels great when you're pregnant. The wake up call comes when you start to climb the ladder out of the water, and you feel heavier and more clumsy with every step. I'm holding the life jacket down because I can only buckle into the men's extra-large now... in retrospect, maybe that should have been my wake-up call.

I made a baby boot this week. Yes, a single baby boot. I'm trying to get motivated to make the second one, but it's so warm here right now that it doesn't really seem necessary. I think it's cute! I also want to make some in a funkier color. How adorable would these be with little jeans and a plaid shirt or something?!

The pattern is from a shop that I like on Etsy called Two Girls Patterns. This is the second baby shoe pattern that I've bought from them. I like that they carry boy things too, although their little slippers and things for girls are darling. The patterns have great photos and if you've crocheted before, they should be easy for you to follow.  It's sort of hard to see them in my photos, but there are straight and braided cables up the sides (check out Two Girls pic below). So cute and fall-ish.

I love the gray and yellow, hopefully my second pair will look as great as those! Either way, these will keep chunky, baby feet all warm and cozy.

Vacation in Review

We had a really nice time visiting friends and family last week. I'm pretty sure P's face says it all! He literally went from truck to tractor to boat (which he calls "Bope") the whole time we visited and was completely spoiled by the grandparents and "Auntie Coco and Uncle Back."

We got to visit with friends and get the babies together, finally meeting C's Baby V, there's nothing I love better than a sweet smelling, solid chunk of baby boy! And guess what?! This group is going to increase by three before the year is over. There are three more babies due by the fall-two boys and one undecided :). I'm anticipating lots of trouble once all these boys are here and figure out they outnumber the mamas, good thing there is at least one sweet girl to keep them on the right side of civilized.

Oh, Curious George, we love you, especially at Chic-Fil-A...

And of course we love fried green tomato BLT's from Stella's...

And fun times with good friends...

And the best birthday cake in the world!! The same lady who made our wedding cake made this, it was amazing. Notice how Grammy is afraid P is going to burn his face on those candles.

I just realized half of my vacation memories are food related...but that's just the way it is I guess! Yours would be too if you had gotten any of this cake before we devoured it.

Christmas Weekend in KY

I always enjoy the gifts from my girlfriends, but this year everyone was extremely creative! C made her own sugared almonds and gave us these adorable vintagey, Christmas hand towels. S found cute Christmas oven mitts and stuffed them with Christmas goodies (and an awesome, owl handtowel). B ordered cool, fabric covered earrings from her sister (who owns an Etsy shop HERE) and Ashley gave us fun metallic make-up pouches with earrings, perfume and nailpolish.

I made these pouches from Noodlehead's Scrappy Make-up Pouch tutorial but I added zipper tabs (from HERE). I definitely recommend adding these, the finished product looks more polished. The hand embroidery was inspired by Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching.

This was a really great way to use up my little scraps, it's fun to find small pieces of patterns that I was crazy about but only have a teeny bit left. The back and sides are muslin-one of my favorite fabrics to work with--and everything is reinforced with fusible fleece. You can see I definitely gravitate toward the reds and teals. 

If you want to see more pictures, take a look at Ashley's post HERE!

Dutch Blitz!! We always go home from girls weekend with sore fingertips and hoarse voice from all the rounds of Dutch Blitz and charades. We have so much fun making up our own charades (lots of inside jokes and hilarious animal impressions--B pretending to be a grizzly bear might have been a highlight of the weekend). I highly recommend it. I will just give one disclaimer, red wine and blueberry beer do not help when it comes to games that require quick fingers.

Yes, we ate an entire 9 x 13 of B's famous bean dip for lunch. Along with some sharp cheddar, crackers and very small glasses of wine :).

It was a great weekend! Can't wait for our next one, I'm already thinking up some new charades.

Baby, Baby!

My dear friend, C, is having a baby! Last weekend, a bunch of friends and church family got together to throw her a shower. There wasn't really a theme, but there were lots of bright colors, sort of a vintage feeling and we used "clotheslines" and clothespins to decorate (along with some handmade tissue decorations).

The big poms on the windows were just simple tissue paper rounds, with two small slits cut in the center and a piece of wire run through them and twisted together securely. Then I just pinched the front few layers of tissue together to hide the wire and give them a pretty, round shape. We hung clotheline down from each pom and clothespinned a few cute baby items to them--tiny socks, hats, burp cloths, embroidered onesies. All the shower helpers brought things to contribute.

One of the ladies helping with the shower brought the gorgeous flowers, she used mason jars with three bright gerber daisies and colorful marbles. They were so fun and playful!

We used little school slates, toys and tissue paper toppers to liven up the table. If you'd like to make the tissue poms here's what you need.

 

These are my family's secret recipe sugar cookies. We dusted them with edible,pearly luster dust for a little glam :), you can find it at Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

Here's me with my sweet friends H and H and C (of course). H and H have little ones pretty close to Baby P's age, we always have lots to talk about and tons of fun together.

All the ladies in the picture above (except B on the far left, she was my college roommate), are high school friends! Can you believe that?! We are going on 12 years of friendship! After the shower we had a fun, girls weekend and exchanged Christmas gifts. More on that tomorrow!!


Last thing...just a closer look at some of the things on our clothesline.

H made some really adorable burp cloths, I did the appliqued onesies (the templates for the animals are on my "downloadables and printables" page). I also found a great pattern for crochet booties from "Two Girls Patterns" on Etsy: the Sailor Boot pattern.

NOLA

I haven't posted in a couple of days because I have been so busy! Two of my very dearest, old friends flew down to New Orleans to visit me. We have been friends for 12 years, I am so blessed to have them! We had a great time, and packed in the activities. We walked around the French Quarter, toured a plantation, ate some lovely food and did lots of talking.

Here we are having a great breakfast and celebrating S's birthday!

Lake Pontchartrain! Gorgeous.

Here we are by one of the Pontalba buildings, you can see that C is sporting an adorable baby bump!

Mardi Gras masks in the French Market. Look how C and S are smiling mysterious little smiles, but I didn't ge tthe memo.

We had a really nice dinner at one of Emeril's restaurants. "Tiny portions, weird sauces." That's a quote from Gilmore Girls, but it doesn't really apply here. I just wanted to say it. The food was really interesting and the sauces were decadent and delicious. My favorite thing of the night was an "Escargot and Yukon Gold Fondue." It was served with slices of toasted French Bread and you scooped up the escargot and the amazing creamy sauce with them.

After Emeril's we took a little trip to Pat O'Brien's for....

A Hurricane for S.

Fun!

S and I were smooched on the cheek by some passing, middle aged inebriated ladies, who also gave us the beads.  

Then S had her fortune told. She is apparently going to fall in love soon...she's been married for 5 years.

We started off the next day with fantastic crispy, sugary beignets at Cafe du Monde.

Then it was off to the plantations. Here C and S are posing for senior portraits.

We put the camera on some roots and I ran to get in the picture.

Yes, me and C posing in a Civil War tent. I'm trying to look menacing but I just look suspicious.

Gorgeous! The trees are so much more impressive than you can convey on camera.

So fun, it was over too soon!