Loserville

Whoa folks! It's been awhile! I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted. Things are going very well here in my world. My baby girl is growing so fast and my dh and I are loving it! She just turned 9 months and is on the move and pulling herself up to stand. No words yet, but she loves a good babble!! 

I had some time home alone that I was able to just sit and stitch! I finished he first part of the BRD mystery sampler and got a good chunk into the second part. 

Fall is here and I'm looking forward to cooler weather and SNOW!! I said a bad word! But, I love winter. I love snuggling at home with my stitching. And this year we'll be snuggling our sweet lil baby! Maybe someday she'll even sleep through the night! 

In other stitchy stuff, have you SEEN the new Mirabilia design?!?! Who will watch my baby so I can stitch?! Lol 

Holiday

Yesterday, our family enjoyed a wonderful holiday! 

Dh and I both had off work and loved spending it together with our little chicken! Wednesday night we did some shopping and had dinner at chilis followed by yummy shakes at sonic. Half price after 8! I was worried about being out so late, but Marleigh did really well and saved her fussing for the car while we were in the drive thru at sonics, which took FOREVER. 

For July 4th, we went to my mother in laws community pool. Marleigh enjoyed her very first dip and took a nap in the great outdoors. After swimming, we enjoyed cooking out and spending time with family. 

One day of work and its time for the weekend! 

Nope

I won't be moving my blog. Ill be right here! 

I think some people had confusion over the whole google reader going away thing. It seems that people are moving their blogs needlessly. 

I use blogger to post my blogs and feedler to read them on my phone. Plus, there's the blogger dashboard. 

Hope you all are well and continue to be able to enjoy your favorite blogs! 

A Whole Month!

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post! 

There isn't a whole lot going on in my part of the world. My baby girl is almost six months and giving me joy everyday! She's sitting up almost all by herself and rolling over. She is such a happy little girl and we love seeing her smile. 

I've also been able to pick up my stitching a bit more since we have been able to establish a good bedtime routine. Also, my good friend, Danielle, and I were able to attend a lock in at In Stitches last Sunday. It was so fun! Ellen and the ladies always put on a good spread and show us a good time! 

I'm still working on BRD's mystery sampler. I'm almost done part one. I've started working on the motif above the squirrels but this is the most up to date picture I have. 

Here are a few pics of dd! 

Time

I have none. No time. None at all. Since Ms. Marleigh came it has been very difficult for me to find time. Time to clean, time to stitch, time to read, time to go to the friggin bathroom even! But that's ok, I love her to pieces and I knew that time would be a precious thing once she arrived. Precious because there is so little of it and precious because it is going by so fast. She is still so small but I miss when she was even smaller already. She is so incredibly alert now and interacting with the world around her, but I miss when she slept for the whole day. Lol.

Despite all this though I have managed to scrounge up some minutes here and there to let my mind rest enough to put in a few stitches. I truly do believe that it is so important for us to still find time for the things that make us happy. One kid, ten kids, whatever. Making time for ourselves is what makes us good people and helps us to be better parents. Don't worry, I won't get on my soapbox. Lol. I did sacrifice some good sleep for these stitches though! Worth it, SOOO worth it!

I stayed home from work yesterday as dd and I were feeling under the weather. We both enjoyed switching the tv back and forth between crappy bravo and Disney junior. We love our octonauts!

We are due for a rainy few days, hopefully the sun shines this weekend!

Framed

I picked up my first professionally framed piece from my LNS last week. It turned out great! I also met up with Danielle and we went to lunch at the pizza joint next door. Very tasty.

Not much else going on around these parts. Just more of my kid being crazy adorable!

New Stuff!

I just saw this new release from Little House Needleworks on Facebook. I love it so much. It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.


I got a call yesterday for my LNS. My first professionally framed finished is ready for pick up!! Danielle and I are meeting up for lunch on Saturday and to pick up our goodies. So excited!!

Alittle Bit More

Last night I was able to work a bit more on little girls birth announcement sampler. I have the tiara done!

Springing!

It's springtime here in Maryland, finally! This past weekend was so beautiful outside and this week is supposed to be even more wonderful. It's also supposed to rain but I will take my sun where I can get it!

Marleigh is doing great. Last Tuesday I did take her to the dr for a stuffy nose and cough, but she is fine. I wasn't worried about the stuffy nose, though the cough was worrisome as it can quickly become pneumonia and the rates of rsv have been pretty high this year. Plus, since we missed the ear infection I've become a bit worries one over illnesses. It's hard when they are so small and can't tell you what hurts and you have to guess!

She is growing so much and doing so well in daycare. I'm so grateful we found a place so close to home that takes such good care of her. She is such a happy baby. DH and I enjoyed the weekend sharing her smiles and listening to her attempts to laugh and coo.

I've also had some time to work on her birth sampler. I found the pattern at In Stitches and it's by Bent Creek. I changed some of colors and used all DMC threads. If I didn't have the called for color, I just picked one that I liked from my stash. Hopefully, I will have it done soon and can take it to get framed.

Off to work and maybe enjoy some sunshine!

Finish!!

I finished the poncho for my sweet girl! I love it so much! The yarn is wonderful to work with and the colors are so pretty! The poncho feels so soft to the touch and is cheerful.

The yarn is Sirdar snuggly crofter baby fair isle effect dk, shade 0165. It's a brand more familiar in England. I've only seen it at In Stitches in Virginia.

She is sleeping right. It's so hard not to wake her up and make her wear it. Lol!

Snow Day

Well, we got a bit of snow in Maryland yesterday. I woke up at zero dark thirty yesterday as usual for the tiny, hungry human and checked outside. Yay white stuff!! So, of course, I kept checking for info about having liberal leave from work. Nothing was posted by 6 am which is my dead end must get ready for work or be late time. DH had texted and said I should just stay home. Fine with me. I called in to take a personal day and let the daycare know we wouldnt be dropping off, then settled back in for snuggles with my girl.

She had been feeling a bit yucko over the weekend with a nasty stuffy nose. I became quite intimate with the blue sucky thing from the hospital and my daughters tiny nose. I'm still amazed by the size of the boogies that came out of that tiny little button nose!

I was happy to get to stay home with her yesterday! We had lots of snuggle time, catching up in the dvr, and working on her poncho. I also charted out her name on the birth announcement chart I picked up on Saturday. It only took me about 100 hundred attempts and thanking the good lord I had the foresight to use a pencil.

Have you seen the new Plum Street design, Spring Jack?! Love it!!

Treating Myself

Yesterday my friend, Danielle, and I went to the Woodlawn needlework exhibit in Virginia. We had a great time! Afterwards we visited in stitches for some stash goodness. I picked up a few things including some pretty yarn. The shop had the most adorable baby poncho knitted up and on display. I just had to make one for my girl!

Danielle and I had met that morning at the stitching post. Danielle was dropping off an item to be framed so I also brought something. Can't wait to see it! I took the opportunity while I was there to pick up the new Mirabilia chart and silks.

Two shops in one day AND a needlework show?! Makes for a great day!!

Workin on it

So I am back to work and all is going well. Marleigh is doing fantastic at daycare! All of the ladies love her there and it's a small class so she gets lots of one on one loving when she is there. The first day they did call to let me know she was having some issues with her ear. After taking her to the dr that evening we ended up in the ER for her to get some bloodwork done. She had an ear infection and we were given antibiotics for her. Everyone in the ER was wonderful to us and was very helpful and supportive while we were there.

She is doing much better since we cleared that up! At 8 weeks, Marleigh is awake and giving us smiles, showing interest and focusing on the world around her. I love taking pictures of her and ordered a new scrap poking system from amazon called Project Life. It's not the typical scrapbooking deal so I'm happy to try it. I hate scrapbooking, too many parts and it never looks like it does in my head. Lol. Project Life seems much more my speed.

Haven't been stitching much, snatching minutes here and there but nothing exciting. Nashville market was just recent and lots of pretties were released. My friend, Danielle and I will be visiting Woodlawn in a couple weeks! I'm so excited to see the exhibit and go shopping at In Stitches!

Of course, I leave you with a few pics of my little muffin!

All Good Things....

Well, it's that time. I went to the dr last week and am officially done with maternity leave. I return to work tomorrow and my sweet girl has to go to daycare. Thankfully, there is a daycare center minutes from our house. It is privately owned and very affordable for and infant. They don't have many infants and it looks like most days, Marleigh may be the only infant in the class. That makes me feel good that she won't be in a room with six babies everyday and will have lots of one on one care.

I do feel kind of bad for her teacher because ms. thing can be a bit high maintenance sometimes. Lol. She's still learning though so she is forgiven. Plus, she's super cute!

I was just getting used to this whole baby thing and now I have to get used to working with the whole baby thing. Lol. I am also breastfeeding so I have the added bonus of toting my breast pump to work and working it into my schedule. Breastfeeding is hard you guys! But I really want it to work and do it as long as a I can. It's best for my girl and have you SEEN the prices of formula?! Omg. When you have an infant who eats 8-10 times a day, it's outrageous!

Obviously, I haven't been able to stitch very much but I did manage to finish barnwood buttons! It was a great stitch and I love the buttons! I'm hoping to get it to my LNS soon for framing.

Since I have much less time to stitch, instead of pulling out something new, I got out a wip. I don't have a pic right now and baby girl is sleeping on me right now so ill have to snap it later. She has started taking a longer afternoon nap so I'm able to sneak some time in then.

Hope everyone is well and looking forward to those warm and sunny spring days ahead!

A Little Photoshoot

Before baby girl was born I had lots of plans of crocheting these cute little hats and such and then getting photographs done by a photographer. Well, I am quite the procrastinator and never quite got to it. Our hospital has photographers that come around and do great photos of newborns so we bought those, they were so cute!

The one thing I had to have though was a picture of my sweet girl as a mermaid! I found the best pattern on etsy and got right to work during nap times. Yesterday, I finally had time to take the pics while she was content after nursing. Since she's a bit older than newborn photos are usually taken, she was a bit squirmy and her cooperation lasted about ten minutes before she got sick of it. Lol.

My camera died in the middle of my shoot so most of the photos I took with my phone. For my "studio", I simply draped a white blanket on the couch and stuck a pillow underneath to use to prop her up.

Happy Saturday!

It's Saturday! Yay! Even though I haven't worked in almost two months I still feel the joy of the weekend probably because it means DH will be home with us. It does get kind of boring home alone with a baby all week. I'm just now healed enough that I can get back to doing cleaning around the house.

Baby and I are getting alone well. We have our good and bad days. Good when is sweet and cuddly, bad when she just wants to hang on the boob all day. Lol. She is growing so fast, I feel like she looks different everyday.

I am almost done the stitching on barnwood buttons! I'm so excited to finish this and put the buttons on. Sadly, I haven't taken an updated picture of how close I am to finishing.

Is anyone excited for nashville market?! I've seen so many sneak peeks and new items being released and I love alot of them. My most favorite so far is spring at hawks run hollow by carriage house samplings. I live the bright colors and all the blocks are great!

Zombiefied

This new baby stuff is hard folks. Not that I ever thought it would be easy, lol. My girl is super cute and I love her to pieces, but I can't wait until she gets herself straight and realizes that people are awake during the day and sleep all night. Right now, she is a party animal and enjoys the nightlife. I, on the other hand, just want to pull my hair out.

I've been living on our couch since she likes to be awake at all hours. DH has to be up for work and out of the house most days by 4am. He's no longer surprised to find us girls wide awake on the couch when he comes downstairs in the morning. God help me if she is still pulling the third shift when I have to go back to work next month.

The only benefit to baby sleeping all day is that I've had some time in the afternoons and evenings after napping to work on my stitching. I have barnwood buttons almost done! Last Sunday, I also met up with the ladies at our LNS for the superbowl sale. I picked up the threads and first chart for the BRD mystery sampler and Christmas at Hawks Run Hollow. I saw this piece last year at the Woodlawn show and have been thinking of it ever since.

Hope you all are well and getting the stitches in!

Getting Routine

We came home from the hospital last Sunday. Since then, we've been working on a new routine and getting used to having a baby at home. I'm already a bit sad that I will go back to work at the end of my maternity leave and will have to leave my sweet girl with someone else all day.

My own recovery is going very well. My incision isn't sore very much. Hopefully, the healing continues to go well. My belly is already much smaller but it's definitely going to take some getting used to my post pregnancy body. I don't even want to think about wearing regular clothes yet, like jeans. Right now, it's pj and yoga pants getting me through this time. I'm actually excited for the first nice day I can take a walk with the baby in the stroller!

I have been able to put some time into my current wip, barnwood buttons, during nap times. It's a nice, quick stitch and I'm not sick of stitching the same color quite yet.

Limbo

Well, we are still residents of the local hospital where Marleigh was born early Tuesday morning. I ended up having to deliver by csection so we knew we would be here at least four nights. Due to a multitude of factors, my sweet girl ended up having jaundice and is having a hard time kicking it out of her system. She spent Wednesday night in the hospitals special care nursery getting phototherapy treatment. She was with us Thursday and yesterday while they redid her blood tests. This morning the tests had elevated results which meant it was back under the lights for her this morning.

At this point, Matt and I were so ready to go home. I was in the process of being discharged when we found out we might have to go home without our girl. All my post partem hormone mess chose that moment to make itself known and it was not pretty. Thankfully, our hospital birth place isn't very busy at the moment and has plenty of open rooms so they have allowed us to stay an extra night in our room while baby girl gets her treatment. The only difference is now that I'm not a patient, we don't get waited on hand and foot so hubby had to go out and get all my pain med prescriptions filled and he will have to go out sometime later for dinner for us. But it will also be nice to not have someone coming in while my boobs are hanging out to take my temperature. Lol!

The hospital and staff where I delivered have been wonderful to us. They have supported my struggle with breast feeding and the sluggishness that comes with babies who have jaundice. The lactation consultants and nurses were amazing and always made sure to tell me that I was doing a great job and nothing I was doing was wrong when it came to feeding. Thank goodness my milk came in last night so nursing has gotten much better when I can wake her up!

During quiet times between feedings, when I wasnt napping, I've been working steadily on a blanket I'm knitting for Marleigh. It's so pretty and I love the soft yarn! I do miss stitching though and can't wait to get back to it! When I go home I also have some new stash waiting for me!! Yay stash!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Surprise!!

Marleigh Isabella arrived 01/15/2013 at 1:42 am. 6 lbs 11 oz.

Although a few weeks early, she is as perfect as can be! She has the most amazingly long eyelashes and a head full of gorgeous hair. Hubby and I are so in love with her!

New Year and Birthday!

So my birthday was Monday, the 31st. The plan for the day was to go see my mom after my own dr appointment. It did not go as planned. At the drs office my blood pressure was very high so I was sent to the birth place for monitoring and lab work. I was there for about two hours and everything was fine. I decided to treat myself to a chicken wrap at chik fil a and then headed over to Joann fabrics to check out the sale.

Since we got our new couch, I can no longer use an end table or the table light I had on it. I've been searching for a good deal on a floor model and I found it at Joann's. Since it was my birthday, I decided to treat myself to this $300 ott lite on sale for $99! Plus, I also got myself this super cute sewing box to keep in the living room to store my current project. With the arrival of the couch and soon to be baby all my stitching stuff now resides in a corner of our bedroom, nicely stored and sorted.

My wonderful husband treated me a prenatal massage at a lovely day spa, plus gave me some other delightful and thoughtful gifts that I LOVE!

After a birthday dinner at a local restaurant, we watched crazy people on tv at Times Square and I started a new stitching project. Barnwood Buttons by Rosewood Manor. I am using 32 ct fabric from Picture This Plus called Mystic. It's a lovely dark blue that will really show off the light colored thread and pretty buttons.

My mother is doing well even though she is still in the hospital. We are hoping she finally comes home today and again, I am very thankful for all the prayers and well wishes I have received for her on my blog.