Can't believe that next week is Christmas! Where did this year go?!?! I've been super busy getting everything ready for the big day and even preparing for the next year. I've really never been big on New Year's Resolutions, but I have a great idea for how to make our lives a little better and maybe even save some money in the coming year. I have discovered Pinterest, and am totally addicted. I saw an amazing idea, a menu board, and decided that we needed one! I have spent all week creating, and I still have some fine tuning to do, but it is up and I now know what we're going to have for dinner the rest of the month!

The
number one question of every day was always "What's for dinner?" and I grew tired of trying to scramble and figure something out at the last minute. It will also hopefully aid in the weekly shopping trips. By knowing what we're making for dinner every day we will also know exactly what to get at the store, so I hope we'll save some money by getting what we need and not just a bunch of random crap. I know that there are days where we both are at work and it gets crazy at night, so those nights I've deemed either leftover nights or a very easy meal night.

I've also kinda said enough with our buying lunches everyday! I am making him get a lunch box and we're both going to start taking our lunch the majority of the time. It just adds up, even $5 a day for lunch. But know if we're cooking real dinners, we'll have plenty of leftovers for the week!

I have also been spending some time sewing, not as much as I would like, but I get to it when I can :) I just finished making my parents smallest dog a little coat, and I'm happy to say she seems to like it better than my puppy likes his (he acts like he's frozen as soon as I put it on him). It even has a little 'fur' on the 'collar' and it has a hood! Now she can stay warm in the cold weather outside, when she actually goes out there!

Well I've been saying that I recently got into digital scrapbooking and its super easy and so great! Its helped me so much to catch up! I went from being 1 1/2 years behind to just being little over 6 months behind in just a few months. And I would probably be totally up to date if I wasn't spending some of my free time at my sewing table.

The software that I've been using is Making Memories and if you are interested in trying it out I highly recommend it! I have a great coupon that will give you $10 off the software and an additional $10 to spend in the store!

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Just use that when you check out and you'll be getting not only a discount on a wonderful software program but a little spending money to check out all the different digital kits they have to offer in the store. The really great thing about digital kits and packs is that it can be reused over and over again. Unlike my favorite papers in regular scrapbooking where once its used its gone forever (unless you buy a few of the pages), you can use the papers, elements and monograms available as many times as you'd like!

Happy Halloween!!

Well over the last few months I've been working on little man's costume. I made the costume in September but the top didn't really fit , it was already too small for him! So I bought the child pattern and made the new shirt 2 sizes bigger than the original.

I'm super happy with how it turned out, I think its much better than one of the costumes I'd of gotten from the store (unless I spent a small fortune on one) and I'm very proud that I was able to make it myself!

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday. My wonderful husband gave me some money that I was supposed to go shopping and get some new clothes (that I've been needing) but since we just started working out again and I hope to get preggo in the next year I really wanted to wait to get new clothes when I'm down to the size I want to be. So instead of clothes shopping I got myself something I've been wanting for a while, a serger!!! I 

love it. I haven't gotten to do too much with it yet, except for figure out how to thread it and I'm happy to say that its pretty easy to thread! My current project is a dress coat for my little man and I'm planning on finishing the edges off with my new toy! I will post some pictures of the finished product ASAP! I'll be working on it more today during naptime!

And I've even got the material and patterns for my next project, matching hoodies for little man and hubby!

Still going strong with the digital scrapbook. I am so happy that I am now about to start March of this month!!! I still have some work to do in the middle, like my niece, but I'm real happy with my progress. At this rate I may actually be caught up by the end of the year.

Haven't really had time to sew lately, been spending a lot of time with the family :-) And this past weekend our son decided he had enough of the crib and made a jail break Saturday morning. No bang, thud or anything. Neither one of us even had any idea that he was out, until he was standing in our doorway. He was soooo proud of himself and had the biggest smile on his face. Just stood there for a second smiling and then just said "hi!". I can't say that I was really shocked, more shocked that we made it that far with him being in the crib. So before that morning I took the front part of the crib off, its one of those convertible ones, and made it into his 'new big boy' bed. Nap time was super rough, took 1 1/2 hours to get him to finally take a nap. But after that he's been taking to it really well. I'm real proud of him. I just shut the door and the past few nights/nap times he plays with some of his toys and then makes his way to the bed and goes to sleep. Tonight he cried for about 2 min and then crawled into bed. He is loving the pillow though! He's finally getting some use out of the pillow case I made for him a few months back, Seasame Street! So this weekend I'm going to go and try and find some Elmo toddler bedding for him to make it more like a big boy bed.

I'm hoping that sometime this week, in between all the cleaning I really need to get to, I will be able to find some time for sewing. I have a project I need to start & finish before the end of the month! But if not I'll try working on it this weekend, if I don't get called into work!

WOW

Well WOW! Its been a long time since I've posted. I've been super busy with life. Working 2-3 days/nights (yup, putting my insomnia to good use and working night shifts and loving them!) a week and taking care of a very active almost 2 year old.

I've been very busy in my 'new' sewing room. I have a folding table in the guest bedroom that is now my temporary sewing room, I'll be moving it all into my bedroom eventually.

Since I'm so very far behind on my scrapbooking I thought I would try and new avenue of doing things. I'd been giving some serious consideration to digital scrapbooking, easier and faster way of doing things. So to help my decision out, I actually WON a digital scrapbook suite this past Sunday!! So I've been playing around with it and I love it!! Its super easy and much faster than the traditional route. Plus its something I can do at night in the living room and stay in the same room as my hubby! FYI: the scrapbook software is the MyMemories Suite . I really like it and it would of been worth every penny plus more if I

had paid for it! Another plus is that I don't get super messy while doing it, lol.

As far as my sewing projects go I've been pretty busy! I made my son his Halloween costume, will have to redo the shirt as its already getting a bit snug but I'll do that next month.

I also made a pretty cool looking purse for my mom for her b-day, pictures only after she gets it!

Plus this weekend I finished my first button down shirt, and the best part is that it totally fits the little man with some room to grow in!

So that's it for right now, hopefully I'll be a little better about keeping up with this. I'm planning on doing some more digital scrapping this long weekend and also playing around in the sewing room of course!!

My Craft Channel: 15th Host Revealed: Craft Tech with Ana Cabrera

My Craft Channel: 15th Host Revealed: Craft Tech with Ana Cabrera: "We're going to be announcing our Cricut winners for the next two days on Saturday, July 30th. So check back then to see if you win one of th..."

This looks awesome!! I know I've been MIA but I came across this and an looking forward to it! Anyway I can come up with new ideas from great people is great with me! I love finding new people that inspire my crafts!!

Just went out and got a whole bunch of new fabric!! I'm hoping I have enough to make little man a robe and two sets of jammies. The jammies will include a top, shorts and pants. I also found a super cute apparel fabric that I am hoping to use on myself, just not too sure for what yet. I was able to get 3 new patterns, all on sale! Two of the patterns are for me, some dresses and jammies for me! The other pattern is a super cute romper for little man, I'm thinking of doing a July 4th outfit for him with that pattern. I'm so excited!!!
I ran into my sewing teacher today and was able to show off pictures of my skirt, I was so happy that I could show it to her. The classes that I took from her have made it possible for me to create my skirt and hopefully soon some jammies for my little one! I'm hoping to be able to post some pictures soon of my progress soon. I'm washing the fabric right now, just have to wash the red fabric next. I'll update later.

I have finished my skirt!!! I can actually wear it too, which makes me so happy. Its not perfect, but I'm so proud of myself for finishing it and doing well enough to wear it. The picture is a little blurry, but the camera didn't like the mirror.
I guess I'm doing well enough, my sister asked me to make a purse for her! It was one that I made in my last class I took, I was hoping that she would take the class but I don't know if she'll end up taking it. Even if she does it'll be a while since they are busy with their new house being built. So I told her to get me the fabric and I would start working on it.

Today, since I have no new fabric to play with, I am going to play in my scrap room and work on my 2010 book. I miss playing in my scrap room so when H goes for his nap I'll go and play!

Sew-a-long time! I have become part of a zippered skirt sew a long on FB. I'm just starting out, and I'm really hopeful that I'll be able to pull it out. I am really loving the fabric that I picked out, I chose fabric that wasn't expensive but I would totally wear it. After my classes at Joanns I have gained a little more confidence in my sewing abilities!
I am doing view B, not too short but not a full length one either. If I can somewhat get making clothing down I would be super happy! I have my eyes on a few other patterns that I would love to add to my wardrobe. I did just pick up two more, a scrubs pattern and a pattern for PJs for H. He really needs some jammies that fit him better, his pants are looking a little short.

Just took my little man for his shots last week and he took it like a champ...well afterward, he cried as he was getting them. But he recovered fast because we went out and played in the backyard as soon as we got home. And all was forgiven.

I have started my new job. I am scrubbing an L&D department at the local hospital, I am still adjusting but I really like it. I have kept my other job so I can keep up with my skills in other areas of surgery. L&D means 12 hour days so I don't get to see much of my baby on days I work, but it gives more hours in fewer days. So pros and cons to each. I love being closer to home!!! This job is only 5 min away and the other is at least 45 min from the house, so especially with gas prices going up, up, up and even higher it is much nicer not to fill up every other day.

Hope to post more pictures of my progress Thursday of my skirt! I am going to keep working!

What to do, what to do...

I am thinking about getting a new Cricut this year, I want one of the bigger ones! There's a brand new one coming out this week, the E2. There's also the Imagine, which cuts as well as prints!! I am leaning toward the Imagine, but right now there's a giveaway on Everyday Cricut (see link to the right, I follow them :-) ) for an E2!!! So, here's hoping that I can be a winner, I never get to win these things, but I'm remaining hopeful!

I was super excited about my sewing class and after the class I have been really let down with the class and what we learned. I really want to learn how to read a pattern so I can start doing more with it at home. Well the 'pattern' was a typed up piece of paper and we were ripping our fabric...not what I had pictured at all! I felt so bad because my mom had paid for my sister and I to go take this class and learn something. We've had these sewing machines for almost a year now and haven't done anything with it! So I think I'm going to sign up for Joann's sewing 101 class on Wednesday. They will teach me how to read a pattern and how to really use my machine. And if that doesn't work then I know a lady who'll come to my house and give a 1 on 1 lesson. But Joann's offers 6 different classes, 3 on the 101 level and 3 on the 201 level. So hopefully over the rest of the year I can work on building up my sewing skills. Depending on how I like the classes taught there I may even really branch out and take a knitting and/or crocheting class! I'll keep you posted!

Well I still haven't picked up the cross stitch project, and I'm so disapointed in myself for that but its been so crazy. I am watching the 'musical event' on Grey's tonight and at first it was ok, even had me crying. But now its just too much singing (oh great another song) its getting to be like watching the cheesiest corniest musical. I hope they don't do this ever again!!!

Long time, no blog...well I haven't really had any time to do my Santa cross stitch. I've been super inspired in my scrap room the last few weeks, so any spare crafting time has gone to play catch up with my 2010 album(s). I am now up to mid-June!!! I am super proud of myself and feel like I may actually get done with last year before the end of this year! My goal before the end of the year is at least to get to around May/June of this year before Jan. 1st hits.
I actually just got a new job last week. Its another PRN job but this promises at least 6 shifts a month and more if I want it! Its 12 hour shifts so that'll take some getting used to, but that means 3 shifts a week is full time which gives me 2 days off to be with my little man.
He is just a little ball of non stop energy! He's running all over the place and on Tuesday I brought the small plastic swimming pool out for the first time this year and he had a blast just splashing around in it! But it made me realize that we need a bigger pool, one that's bigger than he is! So hopefully with this new job I'll actually start getting semi-regular paychecks and have some extra money to get him a cool new pool!
I'm going to see tonight if I can get some work done on my Santa project! Grey's is new tonight so I'll see if I can stitch and watch at the same time. And today I'm taking my first sewing class!!! I'm super excited to finally learn how to use my sewing machine and would really like to make H some cute clothes and even some drapes for our house! I'll let you know how it goes!

Conan

I love watching this guy! He is so funny and I pretty much watch him every night. Puts me in a much better mood before bed than watching the news.
Well I'm about to head off to sleep but before I go, I have my update on my project! I really wasn't able to work on it much last week but I've been working on it over the weekend! I was able to find one of my mistakes and I hopefully corrected it, or else I'm going to be delayed even more. I was able to get some major scrapbooking done! I am now up to St. Patty's day of last year, so now less than a year behind!!

Well we had an awesome weekend!! The weather was beautiful and we were able to play outside most of the weekend, H LOVES playing outside, screams when we have to come inside unless he decides to come in to eat. But lucky for him it was beautiful all weekend and is supposed to continue to be wonderful outside during the week!

Well so far, no news on the job front. But I did talk to a friend that I have that works at the hospital so hopefully I'll hear something.

I know I haven't posted a new picture of my new project, but I haven't really had the time to work on it since last week. This week I have been playing in my scrapbook room a whole lot! I've been trying to play catch up, I'm now only 1 year behind in H's album/our 2010 album. I finally found an album that I really like, but when I started trying to fill it up, I found the pages I have and the expanders I have won't work with it. So I'm trying to find where I can find extra pages and expanders. If I can't find them or they're too expensive to have them shipped I'll have to take the album back and start again! I'd love to be able to keep the album, I just love it!

I also really need to find a place out in the open where I can display my albums. Right now they're in my bedroom between the wall and the nightstand. Something to think about! I'll be doing more during nap time and when H goes to sleep tonight. And if I don't work tomorrow then I'll be in my room most of the day!

But if I am working tomorrow, then I'll have to clean the carpets tonight too! I just got my new carpet cleaner yesterday! I can't wait to use it, my carpets are in pretty bad shape! So at least I'll know that my carpets are clean after I finish!

I win!

Well with a little help from some friends, the house lost the battle (except for my room). Even the garage is cleaned out! But the house is perfect and to top it all off I'll be getting a steam cleaner on Wednesday so I'm super excited! Our carpets have seen better days and that will soon be fixed!!

I haven't gotten any work done on my project yesterday or today but we had company and that took priority! We had so much fun, my hubby's brother came in with his wife and their 2 boys. H had so much fun playing with his cousins and is totally wiped out, its going to be hard waking him up for school tomorrow!

Also went out and totally splurged and got H almost a total new wardrobe. I noticed he had no shorts that fit him and just a handful of short sleeve shirts. So that had to be fixed ASAP. And now he has tons of new shirts, 2 shorts, and a pair of denim overalls that are also shorts. I love getting him new clothes, its now even more exciting and fun getting clothes for him than it is for myself.

I also just applied for a new job. This is a full time job, I'm not really sure about it but we'll see. If they call me I'll have to go in and talk to them, not too sure about doing call or working weekends. But this would bring in more money and be a lot more stable. We'd be able to do more but I would really miss my time with my baby. This really will require a lot of thought and prayers on our part, but I'm not going to think about it too much unless I get called.

Me vs House

Well its been a few days and I have totally been winning my war with the house. I've had a few setbacks, like a major headache yesterday. But I've totally made headway!!! Our friend came over today and now we have a garage again!! We are going to have to wait until April to really have it back, that's the next heavy trash pick up for us. But its amazing, I'm actually going to be able to put things out there and know where they are. I can walk out there without worrying about what I'm stepping on. So tomorrow morning I'm going to finish the second bedroom and have things where they should be!

Also today, thanks to my awesome dad, my TV is now mounted on the wall! We went out this morning and went to Fry's. Got a wall mount for the TV, which is done, and speaker mounts for the surround sound. The wires are all run through the attic for the speakers but we'll mount them up another day. I'm no longer going to have to get little fingerprints off the bottom of my TV! H was just amazed when I brought him home from school and he realized that he couldn't touch his TV anymore. But as long as Elmo came on he was happy!

I've been working on my project and just found out that somewhere along the way this week I've totally screwed up the count somewhere, and now I just have to find out where. This totally pisses me off but instead of just throwing it down and walking away from it I'm just slowly working my way in and trying to find out where the problem is. This is going to mean a few things: 1. there's going to be a lot of ripping out threads 2. my progress is going to be minimal this week and 3. I may have to start trying to match up certain colors that I got in the kit and trying to find a match in either the threads that I already have or from the store.

Oh, and I just got a new book for my Kindle that I just borrowed! So far, so good. I didn't get to read any last night due to my mind splitting headache. But hopefully I'll get some read tonight and this weekend!

Mental preperation

Tomorrow I will drop my little man off at day care, which he loves. Then I am coming straight back home and declaring war on my house! We have houseguests coming in this weekend and I need to finish the second bedroom so they actually have a place to sleep :) I should start doing it now, when H's sleeping, but I like to blast music really really loud and tend to make a lot of noise. So tonight is getting some rest, watching some TV, stitching and making a plan of attack in my head. I have a feeling Red Bull and coffee will be needed! Let's home I win!!

Valentines Day

This past weekend was a productive and great weekend. Everyone was happy and the weather was beautiful!! The nice weather was a very welcome change from all the freezing temperatures we've had the past few weeks. We played outside most of the day on Sunday.
I also got some work done, I finished four pages in my 2010 scrapbook and am now only 1 year and 1 day behind. One of these days I may catch up, but I doubt it! But I'll have fun trying!!

Today I spent Valentine's Day with my favorite little man! We had lots of fun playing outside and then I was surprised when there was a knock on the door and I had flowers from my 2 men! Beautiful flowers and chocolates!

I also have been working away on my current cross-stitch project and as its Monday night, I'll share with you my progress. I feel awesome about the progress and am now starting to think that I may even get this finished before Christmas, but we'll see what the rest of the year brings!

Tonight I continue working on it and watching a great movie, "Casablanca". I love old black & white movies, one of my weaknesses. I've been recording ones that I haven't seen before when I catch them on TCM so I can watch when I can't sleep. Just saw "Streetcar Named Desire" and liked that one too, just not what I was really expecting although I really don't know what I was thinking it was. I didn't know it was going to be as dark as it was. I have one on the DVR, "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" but I was told because I'm such a baby about scary movies that I shouldn't watch it until hubby comes home for at least a week so I can get over it. So I look forward to when I'll be able to watch! If anyone has any other great old movies they love please share! I always love to discover new favorites, and revisit old favorites!

Sleepy

I got off work early today and after my one stop that I had to make for my side business I came straight home. My little one was still at day care, I wasn't about to mess up nap time! I cleaned up my kitchen from yesterday's Superbowl pot roast. I even made myself some lunch as I started doing laundry. My dog tends to 'leak' when he's sleeping and it happened a little last night so as not to wake my husband up I just went and slept on the couch. This probably explains why I'm so super tired! Going to sleep around 11:30pm then hearing DH wake up and start getting ready at 4am. He left the house at 4:30-4:45am and my alarm went off at 5:15am.
But it was a great day, got a few hours at work and once I had my baby we had so much fun!!! We went out and played in the backyard for a while, which he loves!!! He rode around on his little motorized car from one end of the yard to the other at least 4 times! Then just got off again and started walking around following his puppy. Then came inside and was just a super cheesy little boy until it was really close to bedtime. Once he got put in the crib he fought it for about 5 seconds and just crashed! My little boy played hard today and now he's dreaming away, so peaceful.
And as much as I want to continue working on my current project, I'm just far too tired! Tomorrow during naptime I'll tackle some of it!! But this is a picture that was taken last night, this is my first full week back working on this! I'll post another picture next Sunday to see just how much I can get done in a week!

Superbowl

Not one for big parties, we just had one friend over for the big game (and he left right after halftime). This is not a real bad thing, hubby just installed some magnets to fix the door in the hallway so it'll stay shut and hopefully make it a little harder for baby boy to get into it! And DH is now getting his things ready to head back on the road again tomorrow. He's been going out of town so much the suitcase doesn't even make it into the bedroom, let alone get all unpacked. Just enough to get the dirty clothes out and washed, then right back in. It's hard to say good-bye to him every Monday, even harder that the good byes come at 4am, but I am very grateful that he has a good job!
Little boy is sleeping away, he was so upset about the fact that bedtime came that he threw all of his stuffed animals out of his crib. This makes no sense to me because this really just hurts him, nothing to play or talk to. But he didn't fight too long, and is now sleeping all crazy hanging onto his blanket!
And I'm working on my next project, a huge cross-stitch Christmas project. I just finished one this week. My new unofficial New Year's resolution is to finish the projects that I have started. I have almost 12 different cross-stitch projects that have been started but have just gone into a bag and forgotten about. Well hopefully that's going to all change! I'm planning on taking a picture of the current project once a week so I can see just how much work I've been able to get accomplished each week.