Daily Craft - Up, Up & Away!

I mentioned that I'd be making a hot air balloon mobile, and wanted to share my progress as it's already just about the cutest thing ever and all I've done so far is cut out the pieces!  A shout out to Jess over at Craftiness is Not Optional (one of my favorite blog names) for this fantastic tutorial.

Deuce figured he'd be helping out if he tried to chew on the felt pieces while I put them out for a photo...

This is a proper preview. Adorable right?

I modified the baskets a little bit, and I'm not sure how I plan to hang it.  I don't really have the tools to fashion the top that the original tutorial uses, so considering other options once I have an idea of how much the clouds and balloons weigh.

I'm 98% done with my two knitting projects as well, so more info on those coming up soon!!  Hope your weekend is shaping up to be a great one.  :)

Daily Ramblings - Painting...check!

Here's a preview of the nursery, freshly painted in shades of blue!   We love the clean look of the blue with the white trim and the crib/dresser combo is going to be white as well.  We're still deciding on whether to get wall decals, but in the meantime I'm finally getting my Looney Tunes animation cels framed, which are going to look great against this backdrop.  I just love the darker blue that we're using for the accent wall.  I've actually been trying to figure out if there's another wall in the house that I can paint that color because it's gorgous (and we have a ton of paint left over). 

For any fellow preggos out there looking for a good paint - we used Behr Premium Plus (available at Home Depot), which ranks really well as far as low-VOC interior paints go.  I was able to help with the painting without worrying too much about fumes.  With an open window, the smell was pretty minimal.  Another handy tip, which I wish I'd realized earlier, is that Dollar Tree has a very decent selection of painting supplies.  I'll definitely be keeping that in mind for any future painting endeavors.  

Next step is the new carpet.  We picked it out and we're just waiting for delivery and installation.  The carpet we have now is beyond help and we were planning on getting it replaced at some point anyway, which would also serve to fix the annoyingly squeaky floorboards.  It'll be another couple of weeks before it arrives, and I can't wait!  Now that I know it's on it's way, the current carpet just annoys the crap out of me.  

Meanwhile, I convinced husband that we must have this hot air balloon mobile hanging in the room so used the 20% off everything coupon at Joann's to pick up the felt today.  More on that soon...  Can you tell I'm in full nesting mode?  ;)

Daily Ramblings - 23 weeks already!

Typing this, I realize I am 23 weeks and 3 days pregnant.  That puts me so close to being in my third trimester already and I have no idea how that happened!  So, in the second half of 2012, and the second half of this pregnancy, time to take a quick moment to breath and recap what's been going on.

Second blue for most of the walls, first blue as the accent.

Things are trucking along on the preparation front.  Our living room already has a small collection of hand-me-downs from family and friends who are trying to offload their own baby gear.  Meanwhile, the bedroom is in the midst of being painted.  Deuce spent all day Sunday playing watch-cat in the hallway (seeing as we wouldn't let him in the room for fear of him ending up with blue paint streaks, or decorating with blue paw prints).  The lighter color is all done, and this weekend we'll finish up the accent wall in the darker blue.  Next step is replacing the carpet (which looks like it was installed well over a decade ago and is in dire need of replacing anyway).  As husband's grandmother said - it's like buying a dress.  Next thing you end up needing new shoes, handbag and jewelry too.  Speaking of jewelry...pregnancy swelling, accompanied by sweltering heat outside, has resulted in having to take off my wedding bands for the time being.  It's been 2 days and I honestly miss them.  I'll be getting a cheap placeholder this weekend. 

The hospital tour has been done, complete with making husband carry around the pack of Huggies that we won in the raffle.  I was hoping it would help the concept of baby sink in for him seeing as he doesn't get the pleasure of having the little one bouncing around on his bladder.  Next step is to look through all the books my friend just gave me.  Husband gets a copy of "My Boys Can Swim" as some light bathroom reading, while I get the more serious task of formulating some kind of "birth plan" (a/k/a best laid plan most likely to go awry).   

I miss sushi.  While tempura rolls and baked scallops are still delicious, a fatty piece of yellowtail nigiri has never sounded so good.  It's so hard to resist the bacon wrapped hotdog vendor in the parking lot outside of Big Lots.  I want to dive face first into a venti iced (and Irish) coffee.  I could really go for a medium rare filet. 

In more crafty stuff, I'm making great progress on the cross stitch piece, and nearly done with the blanket that I've been working on.  For those of you who are knitters, I'm sure you can sympathize when I say that I hate seed stitch!!  Only 10 more rows and I'm done though...I can make it!  My sewing space is non-existent right now, but I am still formulating crafty plans (which I will likely never find the time to execute) in my head.  I want to sew blankets, and accessories, create wall art, make a mobile (airplanes or hot air balloons?), sew ridiculously cute baby pants out of ridiculously cute boy fabrics.  The list goes on...

As I look forward to the next couple of months, I realize that there just seems to be so much that I need to do - baby related and otherwise.  This year has been a whirlwind of a time, but a wonderful one where I'm truly excited about the next chapters to come. 

Daily Craft - Stitching away!

Husband and several of his guy friends were away this weekend on a "boy's trip", leaving me to my own devices.  Naturally, this ended up being a jam packed weekend having fun with my girlfriends - watched "Magic Mike" (eh), grabbed lunch at a tea house (yum), pedicures (divine), an impromptu sleepover too (hilarious!)  Unfortunately, all the fun I was having meant that I made absolutely zero progress on packing up all my craft supplies in the nursery so that we can make a start with painting.  Good thing there's a national holiday this week!

In the meantime, while I also didn't get any further with making stuff for the little one, I finally got around to snapping a quick photo of my cross-stitch in progress.  It's a zoo themed birth record, which is actually working up pretty quickly.  I think the blocks of color without complicated shading and color changes are helping that.  I actually bought it a couple of years ago on clearance at Joann for $3 and stashed it away...then promptly forgot about it.  The little guy doesn't have a name yet, but I'm looking forward to being able to stitch it on here eventually.