My Nephew Is Here!

Hooray, my nephew was born last week! He was a week overdue, but he came out handsome and perfect. I whipped up  this hat for him while my hubby and I watched a movie called Butter (I don't particularly recommend it, but it wasn't too terrible). But I'm super happy with how it turned out, and I already have another one almost done to start making a stash of baby hats and booties to donate to someone. Welcome to the world, Sammy Sam!

Miss C's Sweater Is Done!

..... well, almost. I need to block it and sew the buttons on. But, it's completely knitted and all of the (dreaded) ends are woven in. Woohoo! I really think this is the project I am the most proud of for knitting. I worked really, really hard to make sure it was right and I am SO PLEASED with the results. I want to block it before doing the final photo shoot, so here is a teaser for you....

On the Needles - Toe Up Socks

I'm telling you, it's not my fault! The yarn spoke to me. It said, "Buy me. I'm 25% off." How could I refuse?

Started a pair of toe-up socks yesterday. I tried using the "Magic Loop" method, but my circular needle just wasn't long enough. So double points it is for now! I take the in-progress pictures in black and white so you get to be surprised when you see the finished project. But trust me, this yarn is lovely!

Needle Goals 2013

I have a really bad habit. I find a pretty project. I buy all the stuff I need for it. I work on it for a few weeks. Then I get bored and I leave it in a bag or a box somewhere and never finish it, figuring it would be too stressful to pick it up again. I hate making New Year's resolutions (because I never keep them), but I really wanted to set a reasonable goal for craftiness in 2013. I currently have four projects on the needles I would like to finish up. At first my goal was to not buy any new supplies or try new patterns until all four are finished. Sadly, when picking up some buttons today at Joann some pretty sock yarn was literally calling my name,saying "I'm 25% off! You have to take me home!" and two skeins ended up in my cart. They will live in my purse to become a pair of socks as I shuttle kids to and from school and activities. The other projects are too big to be portable anyway.

I only pictures of two of the projects I want to finish, but this is only because my house looks like a tornado and I lost the other two. I will find them though. Non-resolution #2 - clean my house. Ha.

The first project I need to finish is a sweater for Little Miss C. I recently met an amazing artist in town who published three children's books with her husband. She so generously traded me all three of her books for some greeting cards! I am so blessed! Each of the book has the most adorable patterns in the back that I have ever seen for children. My favorite book is Pheobe's Sweater and I bought all the yarn and supplies back in October to make the sweet sweater for my sweet girl. Fast forward a few weeks with morning sickness, then add Christmas craziness on top of it and it didn't get done for her birthday or Christmas. Oh well. I am halfway done with the hood, then I just need to weave in the ends, block it, and sew on the buttons! I'm so excited, it's beautiful!

*******

The second project I want to finish is a blanket I started during our trip to Michigan. I needed something to keep my hands busy up there, so I bought some pretty yarn and found a cute pattern on Pinterest. It's going to be a blanket for my craft room. I like it just fine, it just gets a bit mundane doing the same things over and over again. I'm almost finished with my first set of skeins though, so I might as well keep going and see how far they take me. 

The other two projects are going to stay hidden for awhile, even if I find them, but you might find some black and white sneak peeks as they come along. Other projects I would like to do this year are: a) getting at least 5 more of the Christmas stockings done that I make for my dad's side of the family, b) at least one full pair of socks for myself, (instead of the normal get-one-sock-done-then-get-bored-cycle I do. I have a lot of unmatched socks), and c)at least 2 more sweaters, one for Baby J and one for my niece. Plus, if baby #4 is a girl, I need to make her a sweater too, right? I probably won't get all of these projects done, but hey, it's nice to write down your goals, right?

Enjoy the rest of the start to your new year! Blessings!

Headed Into 2013

It's been a little too long since I have updated my blog, so I thought I would sum up where we are at as we head into 2013.

-I haven't made any cards in a LONG time, only because I don't really have the room. We currently have ONE table in our house, and it serves as a dining table, game table, homework table, lego table, puzzle table, etc. It doesn't really have the time or energy to serve as a crafty table, so craftiness has been put on hold for awhile.

-I am currently 15 1/2 weeks pregnant with baby #4. This pregnancy has been HARD, full of TONS of morning sickness. I am very grateful for anti nausea medication, and praying my insurance will continue to cover it. We think this babe is definitely a boy. I never want sweets, I want FAT and PROTEIN. It's very similar to Big Man E's pregnancy, and very different from Little Miss C and Baby J. I don't have a real belly yet, just getting fat at this point.

-Basement Phase 1 is FINISHED! 100% of the framing is done, plumbing is done, electrical is done, mechanical is done, woohoo! We subbed out the electrical and the bathtub plumbing, but everything else we did ourselves! Not bad for the least handy people in the world. We had our first inspection and we "halfway" passed, we hadn't done the cold air return mechanical yet or fireblocked (forgot the first and didn't know how to do the second) but they are all done and we are ready to go. The inspector gave us the go-ahead to insulate once those projects were finished. We are currently working on insulation (an itchy job for sure) but it is making a HUGE difference already. Here is a walkthrough of everything we have finished so far:




-We had a good Christmas and spent most of it with my family. My hubby treated me with a bow and my family gave me the accessories, along with some new photography lighting gear! My new nephew is going to be born any day, and I can hardly wait to photograph the little guy.

-While there were some definite highs for 2012, there were some definite lows too. In fact, it was a really tough year for several people in my life. I am really hoping God moves in awesome ways this year, healing relationships and marriages around us as well as helping me out in so many ways. I would love to see my temper be greatly reduced (especially with my kiddos). I want to hear His voice much more clearly than my past and my own thoughts. I wouldn't really call these desires "resolutions" per se, more like hopes and dreams. I have so much to be thankful for and I hope those things stay at the forefront of my mind.

Blessings to all of you in 2013!

E Family Photo Shoot

butterflyemily's photostream on Flickr.

Gah! Stupid Blogger, I ran out of room for photos in my memory. So I'm attempting to use Flickr for posting my photos. We'll see how well THAT turns out. Anyways, here is another photo shoot I did for a friend of mine. Her inlaws were in town so we did a nice big shoot with all of them. The photo of all 8 is one of my faves I have ever taken of a group! The shadows were still harsher than I would have liked because of the uber bright sun (Colorado sun is FINICKY in the fall/winter!) but I still think they turned out great! Enjoy!

Project Life and Real Life Updates

Well, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but it's because I have been SUPER SICK. Why, you ask? Because we are having Baby #4! I have also been working on a couple projects, but still not done with any of them. Little Miss C's birthday present is coming along nicely, about 80% done and then need to block. It will look lovely on her....

I realized I haven't posted any pictures yet of my Project Life album from this year. My album from last year was featured on Miss Becky Higgins' website, and I felt extremely honored! This year I have been working at more of a slow pace, but it's been really good. I decided to focus more on getting my pictures in the album instead of worrying about a "Picture a Day." We have had so many events that have multiple pictures, and I want to have great layouts of my FAVORITE pictures, instead of only one to represent the whole day! Here are some snapshots of what I have done so far:

See what I mean? I get to have a whole page dedicated to my niece's first birthday! I love it!

Notice I'm not using the white block in the title square for dates this year. I decided to make it a header for each page, sometimes the month, sometimes just words. I found a great stack of stickers that match the Cobalt kit pretty well by Simple Stories "Snap!" collection.

I think the picture of big man E on the left is one of my ALL TIME FAVES of him.

Here is our trip to the museum. Again, PL is perfect for getting my faves scrapbooked!

This is when I started using Instagram ALL THE TIME. Unfortunately, the prints didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, so I am working on slowly not using it as much. In the meantime, I had to come up with some creative ways to display those photos!

I have more done, just not pictures of it yet. This week we all have the week off, so maybe I will get some scrapping done! Have a blessed Thanksgiving :)