May mosaic and June goal

May 2010
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

Here's my latest collection of daily photos. I did miss a day in May, but still feeling pretty good about keeping up with the photo project. I am, however, doing a terrible job keeping up with my Project Life album. I think I just need to spend a few minutes working on it every day, because all the unwritten journaling cards are overwhelming me too much to start right now!

My friend Rachel posted on her blog today a goal for the month of June. She's committing to do something crafty (or another kind of "me" time) for at least 20 minutes per day. I'm going to join in! It shouldn't be too difficult for me to do until baby decides to make her arrival - especially because my nesting instincts seem to be appearing in the form of sewing projects. But after baby arrives, life will certainly be more complicated (and more wonderful, of course!). I want to make sure I keep a few minutes of sanity and creativity for myself even in the midst of figuring out our new routines. I'll probably take a couple days off when I actually give birth. That's about as creative as it gets, after all. Ha!

Today I spent way more than 20 minutes sewing the binding onto a quilt for baby, and I also did a little sewing on the collaborative piece we started at my surprise baby shower. It's looking SUPER cute!

So consider joining us for the month and/or keep up with the daily progress on my Twitter page. Leave a comment here if you are going to join in!

The Perfect Spring Day

I posted about my surprise baby shower, but the whole day before the shower was special, too. I wanted to make a layout for my pregnancy album to remember the whole day. I was inspired by the spring layout challenge on the American Crafts blog (wow, those albums are so pretty, I would love to win one! They have great albums). Hoping to get a few more pregnancy pages finished before baby gets here! My due date is only 2 weeks away!

Here's what I used to make it (I've been trying to dig into my scrapbooking stash and mix it with a few new things to keep myself excited):
an American Crafts Li'l Tyke journaling sticker
American Crafts "Sunny Spot" paper and "Jungle Gym" paper
white Bazzill scallop edge paper
sticker letters by October Afternoon and My Little Shoebox

Thanks for stopping by!

new layout

Here's a layout I made with photos from a dinner party last week. My coworkers very sweetly treated me to dinner at Orchard Green and they all brought lovely gifts for baby girl! If you are in the I.C. area and you haven't been to Orchard Green, I highly recommend it! Both times I've been there the food has been delicious!

Surprise baby shower!

The last couple weeks have gone by in a blur! I have been busy with end of the year preschool projects, projects around the house, trying to get the garden in order, having a garage sale, 2 yr. old and pregnancy photo shoots (check out some of the photos at shaganman photography blog. She is SOOO great!), a baby shower with my friends from Preucil and a surprise baby shower with other friends and family. I have so many fun photos to share!

First up, the surprise shower - My mom and sister planned it along with my friends Wendy and Codi and they did a GREAT job pulling off the surprise. First of all, I wasn't expecting a shower/party for baby #2 at all, and the way they put together the date, location, and how I would get there worked out perfectly.
The party was at Home Ec Workshop in Iowa City. If you have never been there, you need to go! Especially if you are a sewer, knitter, crafter, but they also have lovely baked treats and drinks. We had yummy treats and punch and I got to open gifts for baby girl. Many of them were handmade, and all of them were absolutely adorable.

They also planned a collaborative crafty project for us to work on at the shower. Each guest made a fabric square featuring hearts (ironed on with fusible fabric) and buttons. I will be adding baby girl's name in the center square and sewing them all together to make a wall hanging for our nursery.
It was such a lovely surprise, and I can't thank them enough for making such a special night for me. I can't wait until we decide on a baby name so that I can finish the wall hanging! More photos are in my Flickr set.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day flowers
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

We had a nice Mother's Day today. Bill gave me this lovely plant and I spent the day relaxing and doing some organizing in the art loft.

Lachlan got to see both of his grandmas - one in person and one virtually via video chat. I made sure to give him lots of extra snuggles and kisses today. I'm so thankful to be mama to him and our baby girl-on-the-way. It is certainly the best, most challenging, and most rewarding job I've ever had.

April 2010

April 2010
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

I finally got all my April Project 365 photos uploaded to Flickr. Now I'm looking forward to printing them and putting them into my Project Life album.

So glad it's Friday. This has been a week full of ups and downs. Looking forward to a little R&R this weekend and some time to work on my projects. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Lachlan's 2nd birthday

Here are a few snapshots from Lachlan's 2nd birthday on Wednesday. We had such a fun day. We spaced out his gifts all day, from a couple right when he woke up until the last one before bath time. Bill took off part of the afternoon from work and we spent some time at the Iowa Children's Museum. Then we grilled out hot dogs and had a crazy cookie cake for dessert. L requested a walk with Sadie after dinner so we did that, too. There was even some video chatting with "ma" and "papa" in Des Moines.

modeling the "2" t-shirt I made for him the night before.


More photos and a few adorable video snippets are in the Flickr set.