Hello Fall!

"THE cookies! Bake. Eat. Love. Repeat :-)" ~Lauren

Photo by Lauren @ Sunshine In My Soul

I have been reading about yummy recipes and looking at decorated homes and I want to curl up under a blanket with Carmel Apple Cider from Starbucks and pumpkin cookies. Check out Sunshine In My Soul's blog for these amazing looking Pumpkin Spice Cookies. I don't think they could be any simpler and sound absolutely Divine! I can't wait for more of her recipes!!!

Me Sew Crazy: Gathered CosmoCup Tutorial

Me Sew Crazy: Gathered CosmoCup Tutorial: "Woot Woot! You have all been so patient with me, head cold and all. So, what do we get when we cross the ButterCup Bag by Made by Rae, the..."

This is such an adorable and creative bag! I can't wait to try it!!! Head over to Me Sew Crazy's blog and check it out.

Where has the time gone?

My softie is 'due' tomorrow for the swap! Eeeek!!! I have spent the last 2 weeks completely moving my in-laws who lived in their house for over 20 years. I am so happy that they are starting a new, clean chapter in their lives, but man that was a lot of moving and purging! Of course the move was the week before Olivia's birthday party. Just the thought of having 60+ people at my house is cause enough for panic, but with much planning and preparation, we were able to successfully pull off an amazing party that was compared by many to a wedding. I am so proud to be able to celebrate my little girl's first year of life with (almost) all of our family and friends. The party went off without a hitch. The rain waited until Sunday so we all stayed dry and warm. Yesterday I didn't know what to do with myself... I didn't have any moving, unpacking, party planning or errands to run! I enjoyed the morning visit with my in-laws watching Olivia play in her new playhouse thanks to her favorite Auntie. We watched the football game and Beauty and the Beast. I haven't watched that much TV combined in the last month :) I now feel rested and recuperated. Tonight I will finish cleaning my house from the madness of everyone being at my house and finishing my softie. I will post pictures of the party after I upload the pictures (another thing on my to-do list for tonight) and of my softie before I send it out. Well a sneak peak at least. I would hate to spoil the surprise for my partner!

Nolan's Quilt

Last weekend we were honored to go to little Nolan's baby shower. Jason and Katey are such a fun loving couple.

Jason and Steve grew up down the street from each other. They have been long time school friends to both of us and we are so happy they continue to be our friends into adulthood! Katey was Olivia's 2nd mom while I worked until she was put on bedrest to keep Nolan safe and happy in her belly until it is time for him to come! I knew when I got the invite to the shower that I had to do something special for them! I struggled with MAJOR creative block. I was sleeping in one Saturday (which is very rare!) and could not go back to sleep because I was having a flood of ideas! I of course had to get out of bed at 7am, dig through my stash and made the adorable little owl. In the end he became worth the few extra hours of sleep.

My goal was to have a very cute yet contemporary baby quilt. I quilted a tree and the background in pebbles. The border is silky. Hopefully little Nolan will spend many cuddling with his quilt!

I loved the way the owl turned out on the back of the quilt!

Back of the quilt.

Welcome October!

Here we are, October has finally arrived! I welcome fall bitter-sweetly. Today's high is 94... 94 degrees in October. Where is our fall weather?!? We are also on the countdown for Olivia's birthday! Less than 2 weeks away. Has it really been a year? Where did my dependant baby go? She is now a walking, chatting, teeth cutting, almost one year old! She loves to play and laugh. Her newest thing is pretending to give you something and when you go to take it she pulls it away and runs off laughing. She is also becoming our little climber! I turned around yesterday and she was standing on her piano, of course she falls off backwards pulling the little piano on top of her. It scared her more than it hurt her, but she cried none the less. I picked her up and hugged her telling her that's what happens when you stand on your toys... Not sure if I got through to her :) I am ready for sweatshirts, warm coca, walks in the park with leaves falling and cool, crisp mornings. Here is to a new season and new blessings!

Quilt for Sue

"Quilters around the world supporting a quilter" I am inspired by Elizabeth from A House in the Country who is putting together a quilt for a fellow quilter who is terminally ill. As I'm sure with most quilters we make quilts for others but seldom receive them. The quilt will comprise of blocks from people who read her blog. These blocks will probably come from all around the world, in every size, shape and color. I feel very fortunate to have happened upon her blog by chance and am very excited at the potential of becoming apart of something much bigger than myself. This will take very little out of my time and stash, but I will forever be stitched and quilted with other woman from many walks of life to give one woman comfort to rest under our comprised love and support.

Sold!

I sold my first quilt! It is the most adorable ABC block. The back and binding is lime green that matched the panel perfectly! I quilted with invisible thread which was so difficult to work with, but gave me the effect I wanted.

It was bought for a baby shower gift. I can't wait to see what the mom-to-thinks about it!

Quilting Bees...

I follow a few quilting blogs and love seeing what others are doing and trying out some of their techniques and ideas. I feel like I gain a wealth of knowledge just browsing through their quilt journies. I'm sure most of them don't know how much I gain from them! I could only dream that I will one day have strangers follow me... but for now I'm happy to be in my own little world, quilting along :) A few of the bloggers are in quilting bees and post about them. I have been standing on the outside watching all the fun they have and I am now ready to jump in join! Almost like the first day of school... I have gained the courage to play with the big kids, in this case the experienced quilters! I am ready to put my skills to the test and gain new insight. There is nothing worse than working inside your own parameters and not challenging yourself! So wish me luck as I put myself out there and try to find some bees!

First Beach Trip

Olivia had her first beach trip! The weather was wonderful. Mom and Dad both got sick while we were there which was such a bummer. We did lots of swimming in the pool which was heated and overlooked the ocean. Olivia just wanted to lay back and hang out. I think she would have gone to sleep if there weren't so many other kids in the pool making a splash.

We finally made it down to the sand on Thursday for just a few minutes. Olivia didn't know what to think about the sand. She just kept touching it and staring at her hands. Amazing! :) I think Olivia's favorite part was going to the toy store with Grandpa and buying her first doll. Grandpa pulled it off the shelf to show Olivia and she started giggling and reaching for it. How could Grandpa say "no"?!? Overall it was a wonderful week! Can't wait to go back with Steve and hopefully spend some more time down on the sand.

Quilt tops

Blocks from the Stack and Whack layed out. They are now all sewn together.

Hungry Caterpillar all finished!

I have finished 2 quilt tops! The Hungry Caterpillar is all done and ready for quilting. The stack and whack I made for my mom needs borders, but she loved her Mother's Day present. Steve wasn't very happy about cutting and ironing while sewed for about 5 hours on Sunday to frantically finish in time for our Mother's Day dinner, but we got all the blocks sewn together and it turned out so much better than I was expecting! Not perfect, but it is my first big (queen) quilt that I have successfully completed. Many started, but not many finished ;)

Found some beautiful material at a little shop in Pismo Beach called Quilting Cousins. Can't wait to go back and get more :-D Once I finish Keira's Garden quilt I will start on a new project. I thought Steve would be much more accepting of me buying material if I finished a few tops. Not to mention buying the quilting machine I want. How can I justify buying the machine when I have no tops to quilt... not the case any more!!!

Bottle Feeding

So I spoke WAY too soon. This afternoons feeding was a huge FAIL! We had to leave Eli's baseball game early because she was so fussy. She's down for a nap right now. We'll try again when she wakes up. ***Fingers crossed***

SUCCESS!

It only took starving her for 1/2 a day to get Olivia to drink from a bottle. Well that and the attempt of 5 different bottles and nipples... Ok I didn't really starve her per say, but I didn't give her anything other than the bottle as food options. See, it's proof that you don't give kids options. They get what they get! (at least at 5 months old anyways :-D) She fussed for a good part of the morning. Only one major melt down, but it didn't last more than a minute or so. Grammy took her for a walk and she fell asleep. After her hour nap she was perfectly happy to drink about 4oz. Acted like it was no big deal and she's been doing it forever! Now we will just have to see if she will take it again... I shouldn't speak too soon!

Switching to the bottle - Day 1

Today is the first day of attempting to get Olivia to drink from a bottle. Key word is attempting! Didn't quite work as well as I had hoped. I guess I shouldn't expect much since I have exclusively breastfed for her entire 5 1/2 months outside of the womb. My biggest fear with continuing to breastfeed is that she will become even more attached to nursing and either 1. she will never stop or 2. it will be even harder down the road. Thank God for my mother! There should be no further explanation needed. She was a trooper today!

From what I've read if you want to successfully convert a baby to a bottle someone else needs to do the bottle feeding since the baby associates mom with nursing. I don't think it mattered who it was or where I was... there was no taking a bottle today! Olivia seems to not know how to suck anything other than my nipple, fingers, washcloths or frozen applesauce in mesh things. Funny how that works! My mom is convinced that by Wednesday Olivia will be drinking from a bottle like a pro. Me... I have my doubts. Major doubts!

Even though I am trying to get her to take a bottle I still want to breastfeed to put her down for the night and during middle of the night feedings. I still think the nutritional value of breast milk is very important and will be pumping for all bottle feedings.

Some things we tried today are:
- Just giving her a bottle
~With me in the room
~With me out of the room
~With me out of the house
~With me giving it to her
~With my mom giving it to her
~With Steve giving it to her
~Outside
~Inside
~Laying Down
~Sitting up
~In the bath (yes in the bath!)
~With lunch
-With a straw
- With a sippy cup
-With multiple different bottles and nipples


Here is hoping that tomorrow will bring us more success than today!

5 Month Pictures

Olivia was a champ for her 5 month pictures! We spent WAY too much $$$, but they turned out so good I could hardly resist.

Every time I look at these pictures my heart melts! I still can't believe I have such a beautiful and healthy baby girl. God is so amazing! It blows my mind that she grew in my belly and is made just from Steve and me. The two of us... no one else could have made her... she is ours. WOW!

Rosey Cheeks

Poor Olivia has red bumps on her face. We have no idea what caused them, but they don't seem to bother her and are slowly starting to fade. It makes me feel so incompetent to have something wrong with her and have no idea what caused it or how to fix it. People always say it's hard being a parent, but I had no clue...