Surprise... TinyKrue2

Surprise! One of the biggest things that happened in 2017 was the addition to our family. Little Eliza Mae joined our family on August 25. If you follow me on social media you know all about her and if you read my post on Monday, you saw my teasers. However, I did want to make a formal announcement here.

There is so much I could ramble on about with my pregnancy, her birth, and our decision to not share online and some day I might. For now though, I'll say that our surprise pregnancy and her birth was such a healing experience for me compared to all that we went through with Teddy. Also, Eliza is the perfect and completing piece to our family!

Fiesta Birthday Invitations

The last two months have been ridiculously crazy! I am finally getting around to posting things I meant to share in April and May. I plan on sharing more about his big party later on but today it is all about my favorite paper project thus far. If you have been here any amount of time, you know I love designing and creating invitations and paper products for various events (our wedding invitation suite and Save the Date,  and this past year's Christmas invites).

I love these so much! Fiestas are my favorite party theme. The food is great, and the colors are bright, and it provides the opportunity to have such a great but relaxed atmosphere. I wanted that reflected in our invitations. I think that I achieved that.

I had originally wanted a flat 5x7 invitation but when I couldn't find the right envelope, I decided to repurpose some leftover Thank You cards I've had for a long time. Not only am I busting through my stash but it was easier and more cost effective to do this than the 5x7's. I also had a lot more fun!

For all the information needed on these invites, I created images and then printed them at home on plain white card stock.

To add the fringe, I took an approach similar to those Pyramid Piñatas I made a few years back. I purchased a few rolls of colored crepe paper (party streamer rolls) to make the fringe. I also used these streamers for garlands for decorating as well. I used about 3 rows for each color layer so I made a 15 inch length of fringe in every color for each invitation.

To make the fringe take about 15 inch length of the crepe paper, add a thin line of glue or adhesive down the middle and fold in half top to bottom so the dimension is 15in by 1 inch (see image above). Then fold in half end to end a few times. This will make it easier and take less time to cut the fringed edge. For me, I ended up with piece roughly 2.5 inches by 1 inch. On the unfolded, unglued edge, cut upwards to make the fringe about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Then unfold to the original length of 15 inches.

Next comes the layering on the invite itself. I measured out 5 inches and used permanent adhesive and attached it to the paper so that the fringe was a smidge from the bottom of the invite. Cut another 5 inches and add so the fringe ends right above the fringe of the bottom layer. Add your third layer. Then repeat with the remaining colors. For these, I started with three layers of yellow, then three layers of red and finished with 3 layers of green. The front was finished by adhering the card stock piece.

For the inside, I covered the bottom piece with white crepe paper and then layered it with card stock that has the party information on it. Once it was all dried, I stuffed them in the envelopes and sent them on their way!

This was a really quick and inexpensive way to get birthday party invite out! Also, it is versatile for any type of fiesta. If you decide to try this kind of invite, let me know! I would love to see.

Day in the Life | May 12, 2015

Day in the Life is an in depth memory keeping project started by Ali Edwards that captures all the details of a single day in one's life. I have written about this project and participated in it several times in the past with mixed results. This time around I was hoping to capture a look at our last few days at just two and my only "plan" was to share via Instagram. Little did I know what this day would bring.

7:50am // As is normal for days off, I've been awake for 2 hours already and he is still happily sleeping.

8:05am // Still hanging out in bed while BK snoozes and Tiny Krueger is wiggling up a storm. 

9:30am // I'm "working" on the ball and he's "working" over the phone.

10:25am // Breakfast at Bookman's

11:00am // 20 millionth bathroom break of the day and a bump photo

11:45am // Since Tiny Krueger is refusing to come out we get to do fun tests!

Since I was overdue we needed to do a NonStress Test to check out the baby's heartbeat and movements to make sure everything was still going smoothly. This is a standard "test" once you reach 41 weeks and if you go beyond that. Our results from this test were normal. We left our appointment with instructions to relax, eat normally, and take some walks to encourage baby out. So we did just that with a walk downtown to pick up some tea and we returned home for lunch. 

1:30pm // tea drinking and ball bouncing in between today's appointments

3:15pm // The radiologists keyboard reminds me of something that would be on a spaceship.

Another standard "overdue" test is to measure the amniotic fluid via ultrasound. We headed to the local hospital for the scan. The radiologist said the fluids were a little low but sent us home. Within an hour our midwife was calling and encouraging us to head to the hospital for induction. It wasn't part of the plan but it was now necessary to get the baby to come. We arrived at the hospital around 5:30pm. 

6:45pm // After some normal late term testing the plans have changed and we are hanging out in Labor & Delivery

7:47pm // Signing paperwork for the impending arrival of Tiny Krueger

9:45pm // Getting this party started. Walking the halls and doing squats to encourage the little one out

11:43pm // Not exactly what I had in mind when I talked about a new piercing! Ending the day thinking it is highly ironic that the one time I choose to fully participate in Day in the Life is the day I end up in the hospital. Oh life!

So that is a peek into what our Tuesday looked like. It started out pretty normal but ended with being admitted to the hospital and starting our unplanned route of meeting our baby. It was far from a normal day. I am not sure if or how I will fit this day into a project but I am really glad I have the limited photos and captions from my IG posts. I am also unsure if I will be sharing a full on birth story any time soon simply because it was just so long and emotionally draining being in the hospital and laboring for nearly 40 hours. So for now, it is nice having this little look at where that journey started. 

He's Here!!

Theodore Mason arrived Thursday May 14, 2015 at 1:12pm weighing 6lbs 10oz and 19in long!

More details to come soon.

Baby's First Blanket

At some point between 11 and 12 weeks, I woke up at 4:30 am and informed Berkeley that "The baby needs a blanket!" and that I was going to be the one to make it. Naturally, his response was that unless I wanted Walmart fabrics for the blanket I needed to go back to sleep and wait until a more reasonable time to start this project. I fell back asleep dreaming about the blanket I was going to make for the baby. At 11am, we walked into the fabric store with a plan, and two and a half hours later we walked out with a handful of different fabrics and a whole different plan.

Backing up a little bit to August, right before we found out, I made the above simple snuggle blanket for our friends. It was a yard of flannel and a yard of cotton. I was planning to make the same kind of blanket for our little one. Then a funky polka dotted flannel entered my life! I love it but I couldn't find anything that matched well enough, thus a new plan took over.

What happens when you fall in love with a piece of polka dotted flannel? You buy it! What happens when you can't decide on a fabric to back it with? You quilt it! And that is just what ended up happening. Two and a half weeks, two more trips to the fabric store, and 255 square pieces of fabric later, I finally had the front and back for my blanket.

Here is where the two ideas merged. I used the same basic "technique" for both blankets.

1. Iron and layout your top and bottom pieces of fabric. Trim as needed. The first blanket I kept at approximately 36" x 42" which is what the two pieces measured coming off the bolt. For our baby's blanket, I pieced together the top part with 17 rows of 15 3-inch squares. The math with seam allowances came up to a top piece measuring approximately 38" x 43".  Since my flannel piece is right from the bolt, I trimmed the top piece to match in dimensions.

2. Lay the two pieces together with right sides facing each other and pin edges together. For this blanket, I used extra safety pins to hold everything together to make sure the lines on the top piece were as straight as possible. For just two solid pieces you might not need to place the extra safety pins.

3. Sew around the edge with a 5/8" seam allowance leaving a two to four inch opening on one side. You will flip the blanket right side out using this opening.

4. Turn blanket ride side out and push out the corners. Fold in open edge. For each blanket, I had added something to the top piece after having the blanket mostly made. On the first blanket I added an embroidered monogram and a tag (shown at the top of this post), and on my baby's blanket I embroidered one of the quilt squares. This is the point in which I added those things. I also repined the middle with safety pins to keep things straight.

5. Stitch through both layers of the blanket 1/2" from the edge with an accent thread. This will be a visible stitch. The large seam allowance in step 4 allows the top stitch in this step to secure the opening used to flip the blanket right side out. I also used this step to add a decorative stitch (shown on the brown edge square in the two photos above).

After your top stitch you are done. Obviously, this blanket for our baby is less than perfect but that doesn't matter to me. All that I wanted to do was get it done. Now I can't wait to have a baby to snuggle in it, to lay on it, to build forts with it.  I can not wait for our son or daughter to be here to (hopefully) love it! Next on my more crafty baby to do list is refinishing a chifforobe and a rocking chair.

Hello Baby!

So yeah, SURPRISE! It feels so good to be able to hit publish on Tuesday's post and on so many of the upcoming posts. Some of you may have seen it coming with my absence and various social media activities (or lack thereof), and some of you that know me in person have even noticed my growing midsection. Also, I am terrible at secrets! We are both incredibly excited, so after our parents and siblings found out immediately, we told a majority of our close friends between 8 and 11 weeks. The rest of our family received the news the last few weeks via a postcard (hopefully all the intended recipients received their mail) with the same photo I posted on Tuesday.

We are officially at 16 weeks and the baby is approximately avocado sized or dill pickle sized or something like that (all the apps and calendars say something different).   Overall, I am feeling good. I've gotten a lot of remarks from mama friends that have either absolutely loved being pregnant or absolutely hated it. I am in the middle. Some days are great, others not so great. Mainly, I am just sore and tired and boy was all that wedding traveling rough!

I find it totally ironic that as soon as I publicly bitch about not getting pregnant, we get pregnant. Also, around the same time we found out, I lost all creative drive and hit a huge writer's block. Nothing new or exciting was being cooked in our kitchen or made in the craft room for a few months. I don't want to ever force anything here so I just kept away for the most part. On top of everything, I still haven't gotten that 2nd trimester burst of energy everyone talks about, but instead I developed "morning sickness" at week 11 that is still lingering and a horribly stuffy nose.

Despite the lack of energy and the "morning sickness" at 11 weeks, now that I am in the second trimester, I have been feeling the need to finish a lot of my creative projects. I have been cranking through the last few months of Project Life that I have missed out on. I also made my first item for the baby. I made a quick patchwork snuggle blanket that I used in our announcement photo. Everyday, my to do list grows longer and longer as I think of all the projects (ya know, besides incubating the baby) and things that need to be done in the next 5 to 6 months. Some of the upcoming projects include sprucing up a chifforobe, refinishing a rocking chair, and converting the guest room/craft room into a baby room.

Also at 12 weeks, I had a really discouraging appointment. Nothing was wrong with the baby, but I had an overall rough time with failed blood draws and what not. I was also advised to try out an anti-inflammatory diet to help keep gestational diabetes and high blood pressure at bay. It has been touch and go, especially with the nausea/morning sickness. We are finding our footing with the changes and I am hoping to document some of that here as we get our bearings. More real time updates can be found on Instagram.

Our appointment this week more than made up for the craziness of that first appointment. We FINALLY got to hear the wee one's heartbeat! Baby was being a little shy the first time we went in and kept moving away from the doppler. This time, while still being a wiggly little thing, we were able to get the heartbeat loud and clear. The whole rest of the day I was so emotional. I just felt like I was going to burst into to tears at any moment. The heartbeat really just made everything so real! I can't imagine how we will feel in four weeks when we go for our anatomy scan.

Speaking of anatomy, let me take a moment to answer the inevitable question: We are currently planning on not finding out the gender of the baby. Gasp! I know. "That's so old-fashioned!" "You're such a hippie" and "You are going to regret not finding out" are all common responses we have gotten from friends and family. We have considered all sides of the argument but Berkeley and I decided that we want to wait until our son or daughter arrives. Man it is so weird to type "our son or daughter".

That being said, I think it is a boy! I've been having very vivid and bizarre dreams that include boy babies. However, Berkeley thinks girl. Either way, we are so very excited and looking forward to that additional element surprise come May.

This is getting really long and kinda rambling, but I guess you can say this is all the details I have been wanting to share since finding out almost 13 weeks ago. I am hoping to find a good balance between what this place was prior to baby and incorporating baby so bear with me while I figure it all out.

A Little Treat

We are so excited and so filled with joy that we finally get to announce that a little one will be joining us this coming Spring!