Saturday, October 31, 2009

Adventures in Sewing



So lately I have had this bug to learn how to sew. I am sure it has something to do with the fact that I am going to have a baby. But either way, I think it is a great skill to have. So I did some thinking and called a local sewing store to see if they offered classes. It turns out they do! I start November 9th and I am so excited! I have a little sewing experience but not very much. Before I was in education, I was in apparel merchandising and I took a sewing class. But it has been so long since I have done it, I really don't remember anything. So I decided that I am going to give this a try. I wanted to start small, and get good at easier things and then progress forward. I began by purchasing a really inexpensive sewing machine Thursday night. It is a Singer Simple and I think it is going to be a great machine to learn on and practice with.


I decided that my first project was going to be a bib. I did some googleing and found a downloadable pattern and thought I would start with that. Wow, was that a disaster! It was extremely round and very hard for some reason. So then I thought with my handy dandy math-oriented husband's help, we could come up with our own pattern and go from there. So that is what we did. Daniel drew out the pattern and it seemed much easier to follow than the first one I tried. There were more straight edges on the one he made which made it easier. I got some old fabric from my grandmother and thought I would make a bib out of it first before I messed up any fabric that I had bought. That one turned out ok so I thought I would go ahead and make one from the fabric I wanted it made from. Here are the two side by side...


I wanted to make it reversible so the next picture shows the fabric on the other side...





I am really happy with the way it turned out. After running into several problems that had to be worked out and after being up until midnight last night (very unlike us) I am liking the finished product. I still have a lot of both fabrics left over so I am trying to decide what to tackle next. Any ideas??



Lastly, here are a couple of pictures from a get-together at some friends' house last night...



Happy Halloween everyone!!!



Monday, October 26, 2009

Fabric Ideas and Belly Picture

Ok, so here are the fabric samples that we are thinking about using for Maddox's bedding. I am pretty sure about the first 2, and am still thinking about the third. We'll see... I think we will decide by tomorrow. We are going over to Brooke's tomorrow night so that we can look at the fabric larger scale and hopefully see some samples of things made from this fabric. I am loving it!

I really love the touch of red in the third fabric and we have a bookcase that will be in the room that I was hoping to paint red, but I am still thinking about it. We still have plenty of time to figure it out! And I know it will turn out great because all of Brooke's things are wonderful!


Lastly, here is a 18 week belly picture. I have not been as good as I planned on about taking these pictures, but oh well. I have skipped a couple of weeks. So, here is 18 weeks, 3 days...


I am still feeling great and little Maddox is growing! I am beginning to feel him moving now, at least I think I am. It does not always feel like "flutters" or "bubbles" like most people describe. But I am pretty confident that it is him that I am feeling. Sometimes it feels like he is just poking me a few times. It is so hard to describe! But anyway, I look forward to these movements getting more and more recognizable and becoming more frequent. Well, I hope everyone has had a great Monday!






Sunday, October 25, 2009

Crazy Week/Weekend

This week got off to a busy start right from the beginning! At school this week, I had to have 16 conferences with parents so that I could give out the first 9 weeks' report cards. I really haven't written anything about my class, but I do have to say that I LOVE my class this year! They are the sweetest things and it really stinks that I will not get to be with them the whole year since I will be on maternity leave the last 2 months of school. Anyway, work was crazy this week. There was so much to get done! This upcoming week is Red Ribbon Week and we have to decorate our doors with a "Just Say No" slogan. Thanks to my friend Jamie I ended up with a cute slogan and a pretty cute door if I do say so myself. You can't see all of the details really well, but it turned out better than I thought it would considering the amount of time I had to do it...



On Monday night we went to eat dinner at Cock of the Walk for my brother's birthday and it was so yummy! I have not eaten there since the night of our rehearsal dinner, almost a year ago! My how time flies! Then on Tuesday night, a group of teachers came over for dinner and we had a blast! We try and have a dinner at someone's house at least once a month and this was my month to host it. I look forward to these nights so much because things get so crazy during the workday that we rarely get much time for all of us to talk! The rest of the week slowed down a little bit, but with so many conferences at school and different appoinements in the afternoons I was very much looking forward to the weekend!


A friend of mine that I graduated college with is getting married in December and there was a shower for her Saturday afternoon. I was really looking forward to going because I have not seen her since she came down a year ago for one of my showers. Another reason I was excited about the trip was I got to spend some good quality time with one of my very best friends, Courtney, who lives in Birmingham. We met at the Galleria and shopped and had lunch, and just hung out/caught up and had a blast. I had no idea that there were any actual Gap maternity stores. I was under the impression that you had to order online, so boy was I excited to find out that there is one in the Galleria! I got a great pair of jeans and 2 shirts that I am really excited about! Another thing I wanted to do while I was there was look at fabric for Maddox's bedding. But I ended up running out of time and needed to get back home. Here is one picture from the shower. I have more, but I will have to add them later because my camera is dying...

Then on Saturday night, Tucker got to spend the night with us! We had a great time and he was so much fun! I will have to add some more pictures from the weekend later today. And last, but not least, I think we have decided on a fabric for the bedding. At church this morning, Brooke brought us her fabric samples and we found a couple of prints that we loved. I think they are going to coordinate very well together and I am very excited about the "vision" of the room that is forming in my head. Daniel is sanding the final piece of the crib as we speak and then he'll only have one more piece to sand before it all gets stained. I am so thankful for all of the hard work he has put into this! I think it's going to turn out really nice! Stay tuned for more pictures coming later...

Saturday, October 17, 2009

IT'S A BOY

I am a tad bit late posting this, but Daniel and I found out on Thursday that baby Mundie is a BOY!!! We are so excited that we can't stand it and we have decided to name him Maddox Jeffrey Mundie. We absolutely love the name. His first name is a name that we just both really liked. His middle name is after my oldest brother, Jeffrey, who died 7 years ago. I never knew how difficult it was to come up with a name. You would think as many names as there are in the world that it would be a little easier to choose one, but that was not the case with us. We are really pleased with it though. It makes it all so much more real!! Needless to say, we have spent the weekend being crazy busy making plans for the nursery. I wanted to start with picking out some fabric for the bedding and man is that hard, too. There are not too many places to choose from around here so I may have to venture out of town for the fabric. Also, our house only has 2 bedrooms, so we spent a lot of the weekend moving furniture out so that we can start moving baby stuff in. We cleaned out closets and got rid of some things to try and make room. It is all so much fun. I am trying to decide on a color for the nursery, but I will have to wait until I choose the fabric for the bedding. A friend of mine is making the bedding so I am super excited about that! All of the plans are coming together nicely. I just have to space things out so that I don't have everything done months before Maddox gets here. We will see about that though. I am sure there are plenty of things to do that I have not even thought about yet. I also need to get on some reading. A friend of mine let me borrow the book "What To Expect The First Year" so I am going to start reading that soon. I need to start doing less reading on the pregnancy and more on what to do after he is actually here. I will go ahead and post some of my favorite pictures from the ultrasound. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday b/c we were not able to meet with him after the ultrasound.

The last picture is one of my favorites because I think he was touching his toes! I have also spent quite a bit of time lately trying to choose a travel system. There are so many to pick from and there is one in particular that I have had my eye on since the beginning. No matter how much I look, I keep coming back to it. I think this is the one we have decided on...


It is by Chicco and I have just loved it ever since I first started looking. I love the colors and I feel like they are very gender neutral (keeping in mind future kids). So as of now, this is what we are going with. Also today, I finally broke down and bought a Belly Band. For those who may not know what it is, it is a band that goes around your belly and makes it so that you can wear your normal pants for longer. I am still able to wear my normal clothes, which I am thankful for, but my pants are getting a little tight in the waist. So you wear this band with your pants unzipped/unbuttoned and it makes it to where you can't even tell. I think I am going to like it. Here is what it looks like... (This is not my belly)...

Other things that happened this weekend... last night Daniel and I enjoyed a fun dinner and a movie night. We were going to go to dinner and then go bowling, but after doing so much earlier in the day, we decided to hang out at home after dinner. So we went to Cracker Barrel and we had not been there in forever. It was soooo good! I love going there when it gets close to the holidays because they have so much neat stuff to look at. Then we came home and watched a movie. It was a very fun/relaxing night! Well, I think that's all I have for this post for now. I hope everyone has had a great weekend!!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Door Pictures and Counting Down

This weekend Daniel was able to finish the door/front porch. He put the door in last weekend and painted it, but now everything is done. We have new trim, new numbers above the door, our wreath from our wedding, and a freshly painted porch. I think it is going to take me a little while to get used to the porch because I have been used to an old, clashy, reddish color. I really like the new color though. It is just going to have to grow on me a little. I absolutely LOVE the door! It turned out so good! Daniel really is quite the handy-man and I love that about him! Here is a before... I never got a full shot of the whole porch. This is the best I can do.

Here is another one of just the door once it was taken off...



And finally, the finished product...



I am really happy with the way that it turned out! Just in time to do some Fall decorating soon. I am planning on getting a Mum and a pumpkin and we are also going to plant some flowers in the flower box under the main window to the left of the porch. I just pray that I can keep flowers alive. I have not had good luck with that so far. It would help, though, if I could remember to water them! We will see how that goes!


As for the countdown part, only 5 more days until we find out the sex of baby Mundie. I can not believe that it is so close! The time really is flying by! My mom and I went to Columbus today on a spur of the moment trip and I did some browsing in Babies R Us. Oh my word! We are going to have some fun in there! I think on Thursday everything will seem so much more real! So stay tuned for the reveal! The last picture is my 16 week belly. I somehow forgot to do a 15 week one. Oh well. Have a great rest of the weekend!






Saturday, October 3, 2009

Sips N Strokes

Friday night a group of teachers that I work with went to Sips N Strokes. We had been planning on doing this for over a month now and we finally chose a date and a picture that we all wanted to paint. I have been wanting to do this ever since I heard about it and I am so glad that we did! It was soooo much fun and I know that I will be going back! I wish I had taken a group picture of all of us with our paintings, but I will have to get one from one of the other teachers. It was so neat because even though we were all doing the same painting, all of ours were a little bit different. If you have never been you should definitely check into it! Here are the pictures that I took from the night...










I am so happy with the finished product and we have the perfect spot to hang it! I can't wait to go back sometime soon! On another note, Daniel has been installing our new front door all day today so I will have some pictures of that coming soon! We still have to paint it, but at least it is in now! Yay! :)