February 365 project

Here is my mosaic of daily photos from February. I'm really enjoying the project so far, partly because of how I've decided to document/display them in the Project Life album.

I have to say that I am really happy for February to be over, mainly because I've been sick for what feels like the whole month. I am finally coming out of all the yuck, and feeling better every day, even as baby girl is growing bigger. A few things I'm looking forward to in the next couple months: warmer spring weather, spring break, Lachlan and I's birthdays in April, a trip to IKEA, a trip to Decorah to visit Bethany, and getting outside to play and work in the garden.

new scrapbooking

I made a 4x6" mini-album during my pregnancy with Lachlan. I managed to document lots of little moments and information about my first pregnancy. With less spare time and energy this time around, I probably won't scrapbook as much, but I decided to make an 8 1/2" x 11" album for my pregnancy/birth/newborn days with our little girl. These are the first two pages I've finished. Hoping to go back and add a few more pages from the early days.

This is one of my favorite photos from our photoshoot with Joy. I don't usually have this much 'white space' on my layouts, but I was inspired by the most recent Scrapjacked challenge page.

I've started putting together my Project Life album. I really like the design and I think it will keep me more accountable to taking a daily photo. Also looking forward to being able to flip through actual prints of our daily memories from 2010, too.

a new collection

I've started a small collection of clothes for our baby girl, due to make her appearance in June. I loved shopping for baby L, but of course shopping for girly things is irresistible. I bought a couple things right after we found out she's a girl, and I've picked up a few things from sale racks. The hand-knit hats, cream sweater, and the little frog onesie are souvenirs from our trip to Florida. It's very fun to think about dressing our little girl in all these sweet things! I'm sure my collection will grow before she arrives!

weekend getaway

This past weekend we took a trip to Florida to visit Bill's parents, who've been renting a condo by the beach. We knew it was going to be a quick trip to Florida, but it seemed even shorter when we had to contend with lots of flight cancellations and delays on the way down and back. It felt even shorter to me, since I was in bed with a stomach bug all day Sunday. ugh.
But seeing the beach and digging in the sand made it all worth it. Although it was too chilly for swimming - mid 50's most of the time - Lachlan loved digging and checking out the beach. He kept saying "beach" and didn't want to come inside.
Check out this awesome collection of beach treasures that my inlaws had on their porch.
We also got to visit a great art festival where I saw some unique and inspiring art techniques, bought a few baby & toddler goodies, and even ran into my sister-in-law's dad & stepmom (they're artists)!
So, although it was not the smoothest trip ever, we did come back with some great memories and got to escape the ice and snow for a few days!

giveaway winner

"end"
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

Thanks for all the sweet comments! Kimi is the winner of the giveaway, so I'll be sending her some v-day love soon. And just for fun, here's a video of L from our snow day yesterday. :)

Valentine love (& a giveaway!)

I was browsing Etsy a couple weeks ago and came upon this adorable heart pillow. It inspired me to sew my own, using some corduroy I had left over from a project and little felt hearts. I do like how it turned out, although I wish I had gone out and gotten some nice wool felt to use for the hearts (and I still like the original better, although this color scheme fits our decor better).
Once I took down the handmade Christmas wreath that I made to hang in our bathroom, the poor wall looked empty without something festive. So I whipped up this Valentine wreath using a wreath I had, some ribbon, felt, tiny paper hearts, and embroidery floss.

Last Sunday I got to make Valentine cards with my friend Codi for a couple hours and we had so much fun cutting up pretty paper, stitching on the cards and ironing on fabric shapes backed with heat-bond (it's like magic!).
I've been working on a cd mix of love songs to share with a few friends this Valentine's week. Did you know I've been blogging since August 2005? Neither did I, LOL! I've been blogging for all these years and I don't think I've done a giveaway before, so today is the day! Leave me a comment before Tuesday afternoon and I'll choose one person to receive a happy envelope with a copy of the love songs mix, a box of heart-shaped junior mints, and a handmade valentine card. Thanks for reading my blog!

10 things I love right now

1.Pandora - free radio that I can customize to whatever I am in the mood for? And hear new music and listen to what my friends are listening to? Yes, please! Can't believe it took me so long to try it!
2. Tumblr - as if I need another website to post things to and suck up my time. But... the way I see Tumblr is between a blog and posting Twitter updates. I'm going to use it as a place to collect all the links and photos I love, and see how it goes.
3. this alphabet embroidery pattern set - I just love her animal designs. I don't know what I would do with them all, but it would be adorable!
4. crochet food - I'm having so much fun making food from the patterns in my Tasty Crochet book. They're relatively easy and quick to crochet. And SO cute, don't you think?

5. Valentine love - the internet is fulll of hearts and crafty valentine projects right now. It's so lovely and I made a couple heart decorations of my own for our home. Will share those soon! (photo via Ohdeeoh)
6. baking - I always love to bake, but it seems like pregnancy has made me even more eager to do so. In the past week, I've made Pear Bread (pictured above by Smitten Kitchen), pumpkin bread, and chocolate chip cookies. Helps me pacify my sweet tooth a bit. Also, I have a great helper.
7. new tv - we are major t.v. couch potatoes in the evening after L goes to bed (although I do like to multi-task with crocheting or some other crafty activity) so it's exciting that there's all sorts of fresh t.v. loading up our DVR - Lost (I thought the premiere was just ok, but I'm excited for the final season), Bachelor, Idol, and Project Runway are our current favorites.

8. new music - Pomplamoose, Lisa Hannigan, Norah Jones' newest, Renee and Jeremy's sweet children's music, and I've jumped on the Owl City bandwagon.

9.Prudent Baby blog - just recently added Prudent Baby to my google reader and I love all the DIY projects they have! Simple, cute, and useful. Definitely bookmarking lots of projects I want to try!
10.Becky Higgins' Project Life Kit - I was going to pass on this in favor of making my own 365 scrapbook - but then Deb brought her over and I fell in love with the clean design and organization of it. I'm excited to start putting my January photos into it this weekend!

January photo-a-day

I successfully took a photo every day in January, and I'm happy to be on board with Project 365 again this year. I'm also very excited about printing and collecting the photos using the Project Life kit that I just ordered, after seeing Deb's kit in person. I think it will help keep me accountable to taking the photos, and I'll enjoy them more if I can look at them and remember the stories from each photo.