Introducing...

Miss Amelia Jane!

I'm sorry I have been so silent.  I went on unexpected blogging maternity leave trying to get used to this complicated little girl.  I'll be adding my birth story soon.  She's six weeks right now.  I am loving being a mommy, but it is not without its trials!  We thank God for such an amazing blessing!

Here's one with her eyes open!

I hope many more blog posts are to come!

Nursery Tour

Welcome to the nursery!  The baby for which this nursery is designed has not made her appearance yet, but we are hoping that it will entice her to come out!

 The crib skirt, curtains, and some of the basket liner fabric is from "French Hatbox" by Tanya Whelan.  I did a LOT of fabric research before I settled on that one!  My mom did a decorative painting technique on the walls to make the stripes.  The paint color is a pale lavender (with a pinkish tint).

Here you can see the changing table.  The crib and armoire are in the same collection (Stanley Young America), but the changing table is from Target!

  I added some baskets and made new liners for them - easiest project in the whole room!

This curtain was not made without tears, but that is another story for another time and involves a serger and a very noticeable hole.  : (

The rocking chair will go in this corner.  As you can see, the closet is in an awkward spot for a door.  It is also shorter than a regular door.  When our house was built, "standard size" must not have been popular!  I made a fabric curtain instead. The fabric is a pale lavender pattern from Joanns and is SO soft!  The crib sheet is also made from this fabric.  I love it!

I love the wall hanging my aunt and grandmother got for the baby's room!  It goes so well!!!

Here is the lovely armoire!

We still need some more things, but the room is clean and mostly done and waiting for its little inhabitant (although she won't be spending time in there for a while!!).

I have the tutorial for this little lady about 85% finished.  Provided I don't go into labor, I will post it this week!

Sorry it has been so long!  I'm dying to post more projects and tutorials!
I must add - LOTS of hard work went into this room.  My husband and mom did SO much painting throughout the whole house.  My dad helped as well!  I am so thankful for them!

Baby's Room Inspiration

First of all, she had better be a girl!

Secondly, my baby's room is faaaaaar from ready.  She's due in less than 12 weeks, but you wouldn't know it by her room (which is currently the craft room, which needs to be moved down to what we call the "multipurpose room," which is next to our bedroom, which needs to be moved upstairs, next to the nursery, into the what is now called the "man room" and will later be referred to as "the study," which needs to be moved downstairs - catch all that?  Anyone like to paint?)

Thirdly, I thought I'd share the inspiration for her room.  The words I assigned to this project are: old-fashioned, yet whimsical (not stuffy).  I knew that I wanted vintage/antique art as the inspiration, so I started scouring ebay and etsy.  I found the perfect thing that I never knew existed - The Prize.

It's a nineteenth-century children's magazine which reminds me a lot of Godey's Ladies Book.  If you've never heard of Godey's Ladies Book, look it up.  It's *very* neat. 
The Prize came in monthly issues, but was also bundled into book form for an entire year's issue. It has hand colored illustrations as well as black and white illustrations inside.  Here are the three pieces that I'll be framing for the nursery:

The one on the left is the first one I found and I think it embodies "old-fashioned, yet whimsical!"  After I bought the individual covers off etsy, I found an entire bound book from 1890 on ebay!  It came in the mail today and it is soooo neat!  The cover is the first picture in the post.  Here is the back:

Some inside pages: 

I'm a bad person and I was going to take out one of the colored lithographs as my third piece to frame, but there was a colored lithograph in the front and I just used that instead with no harm to the book! ;)

The etsy seller has more covers here:  Prints and Paper

Much more blogging time with be devoted to setting up the nursery, but here's a preview of my next blog post! ;)

It's a .....

First of all, we are so grateful to God that our baby seems to have all perfect little working parts.  We got to see the wiggles and the kicks and the four chambers of the heart. It was such a fascinating, relieving, and moving experience.

I love the blowing a kiss one!
After, we celebrated by buying our baby its first outfit.  We hadn't bought anything up to this point.  We were waiting until we learned the gender.
So we stopped at the baby gap........

And bought.....

A dress!  For our little GIRL! 
I was totally surprised - I really thought it was a boy!  The pictures were pretty clear though and the ultrasound tech was quite certain! 

She has a name, but that will be a birthday surprise!! 

Let the sewing commence!

Recent happenings

I feel like I have disappeared for a while around here.  I've been up to something.  Something fun and new!

A while back, I started taking photography courses at JessicaSprague.com.  I really enjoyed it and decided it could be something that I wanted to explore further.

I really really love taking pictures of people.  I like capturing their personalities and their attitudes.  I like capturing moments between parents and children, or kids and dogs, or siblings.

So, I decided to start a little photography business.

I will be a stay-at-home mom starting this summer, so earning some extra income will be helpful too! Click on the logo to take you to the website.  Or go  HERE. Check it out and let me know what you think!  I still need to add content and fix some pictures, but you can get the main idea! 

In other news, Wednesday we go for our anatomy scan appointment to find out the gender of the baby!  I promise there will be much more sewing going on after that! ;)

Maddie's Birthday Outfit - and a small giveaway

My niece (really my husband's step-brother's daughter but who's counting?) turned two recently.  She's the baby I watched two summers ago.  Maddie needed a fresh, springy outfit to celebrate two-ness!

The fabrics are both from Joanns and the t-shirt is from Target.  I love Target.

The flower happened to match the outfit she was wearing!

If you would like to win one of the flower hair clips like Maddie is wearing (it is slightly lighter pink), leave a comment.  I'll pick a winner sometime on Sunday via some kind of randomness (I tend to like to give a human the number of entries and have them pick a number).  I will send it out early next week!  By the way, it looks cute in adult hair as well!

You All Were Right!

You smarties!  Thank you for all the congratulations!

Yes, we are having our first baby this September!  We are very excited!  We will find out the gender in about eight weeks, but we'll probably keep the name to ourselves (until he/she is born, of course!).  My husband has been busy reading "instruction manuals" as he calls them (a.k.a. parenting books).  We'd appreciate your prayers, if you would so oblige, for a healthy pregnancy and baby!  I'm sure this baby will be quirky, I wonder if it will be quaint as well!  ;)

Here is what my mom was looking at in the first picture that clued her in!

We got Levi to help a little bit! 

I've got some projects to add soon and I'm thinking about my next giveaway... hmmmm!