He Crawls!

Here is a video I took today of H crawling! He is quite the mover these days. Today he crawled under the dining room table, over to my make up bag where he dumped it out, and then he crawled over to his bag of dirty diapers and tried to take them out ... ewww. It is fun to see how determined he is and how much he loves to be able to get what it is that he wants.



Enjoy Papa Bill & JoJo and Aunt Elyse & Uncle Stephen. Notice H is wearing his Aunt shirt and his red shorts for you both. Aunt Amy, H is sleeping with this spot dog every night now - he loves it!

Recent Projects

Here are my latest sewing creations. I'm going a little craft crazy right now. Currently, these are the projects I have in the works:

- refinishing a coffee table
- painting a weathered looking silhouette/fabric picture
- knitting a scarf
- making fabric flowers
- Christmas place mats with matching napkins
- Christmas bows for our tree
- aprons made out of kitchen towels
- beach bag
- new pincushion

That's all I have materials for right now. The project list in my head (and in my bookmarks on the computer) is endless!

After I made those cute beanbags for my friend's daughter, I decided to make some for H.





They turned out really cute and H really likes to chew on them. Maybe someday they will help with spelling... and maybe I'll get around the rest of the alphabet.

I also started making some reusable grocery bags. I was inspired by all of the crafty blogs I read where people go to Goodwill and find hum drum things and make them into awesome new things! So, a couple weeks ago I went and got some sheets, pillowcases and a kitchen valance and took the seams out to turn them into fabric for grocery bags! Here are the first two I made.





This bag is made out of a kitchen valance


This bag is made out of a sheet and a pillowcase.

I used this tutorial to make the bags. The directions were a little murky and I didn't follow them exactly, but I really like that this is basically a regular grocery bag but fabric instead of plastic.

I'll post the rest of my creations as I finish them. Happy crafting!

And we're back

After two trips to Austin and one to Waco we are back to Corpus just in time for Jeff to have 2 more job interviews! So, the job update is that we are most likely going to be staying in Corpus. Jeff has a pretty promising lead on a job and had a good interview yesterday so we'll see. I LOVE the job I interviewed for in Austin, it is basically my dream job - but, I think if Jeff gets this job in Corpus that saying here will be the best move for our family - in which case I will probably not go back to work right now.

Here are some pics of late:


H had so much fun with his favorite Sissy. As soon as he saw her he reached out of my arms for her! Thanks for playing with H Sissy, H loves you and I love this picture of you.


It was so fun to see Megan and meet baby Clara. I think H must be very empathetic because he cries anytime other babies are crying. I know it has only been 7 months, but I could hardly remember what it was like to have a baby that little sleeping on you.


H got behind the wheel with me on our road trip and LOVED it!


Here was our Father's Day celebration. The DAD banner was my first sewing project!



Here is a close up of the bunting. It is made out of 3 deconstructed ties from Goodwill. I found this project over at my new favorite blog - Dollar Store Crafts.

That's what we've been up to lately!

Prayer Update

I call this a prayer update because that is where we are right now, just praying and believing God for his provision. I really believed that by the time we should have gotten our next paycheck that Jeff would have a job and we wouldn't "go without" so to speak, but it hasn't turned out that way. God has certainly been faithful, and we have seen his provision in very real ways as we are entering 7 months of unemployment ... but honestly, I had very different expectations of what God was going to provide.

So, here we are now at a cross roads of sorts. We just returned from a trip to Austin where Jeff & I both had job interviews and we will be returning on Sunday for Jeff's second round of interviews with this company. It is an all day interview - it makes me tired just thinking about that. When we first decided to remain stateside, we wanted to be in Waco and when that didn't work out we started looking at jobs in Corpus, and now that hasn't really panned out we began to look in Austin. I think I just expected to have some strong sense of what was next, and instead I feel like the more time that passes the more questions I have.

The job I interviewed for is basically my dream job. It is at a pregnancy center in Austin doing what I love. The big decision for me is whether I should go back to work full or part time. This job is a part time position with the hopes that it will be full time by January, but I could go full time immediately if I job shared the receptionist position. I feel so torn as I know for our family right now I really need to go back to work and am excited about beginning a career that I know I will love, but at the same time I am going to miss being with H SOOOOOOO much! It would be great to start out part time and work my way up to full time, but if Jeff doesn't end up liking this job (he's pretty unsure about it right now) or needs more time to find something else, moving to Austin on a part time salary seems kind of crazy! On top of all this I found out on our way back yesterday that I'm one of the top 3 candidates for a full time job I interviewed for in Corpus last week. I had basically dismissed it because I didn't think I got it and now I know that I'm still in the running and really, I just don't know what to do. I haven't been offered either job yet, but If I do - I don't know what I'm going to say.

Please pray for us over the next week as we go back to Austin for Jeff's interview and I hear back about my interviews and we make important decisions about our future.

Beanbags!

I'm so excited about my 3rd sewing project! Never mind that my seams are a little out of control, my letters crooked and my bags different sizes... I love these bean bags! I found this tutorial over at Lil Blue Boo and had to try it!
She gives an awesome tutorial, so I'll just tell you the changes I made to mine and let her tutorial be your guide. You need to check out her blog - it is fabulous!



Here they are! They have uppercase letters on one side and lowercase on the other side. I couldn't find freezer paper so I just free handed my letters and used puff fabric paint and thinned it out with a paint brush. This is the biggest change to Ashley's tutorial. If you can find freezer paper, then your letters will turn out a lot more equal in size than mine did.


Here are the lower case letters


And the upper case letters

The other big change I made was that I did a zig zag stitch for the top stitch instead of a straight stitch. In hindsight, that was not the greatest idea. It is cute, but since you have to leave an opening to stick the beans in it is really hard to go back and match up your zig zags correctly. I ended up having to straight stitch over the zags (or the zigs) to close them securely ... and this ended up looking kind of messy instead of cute. But since I made these for my friend's daughter who is turning 2 - she probably won't notice.




Here is a close up my favorite letter


Yay for sewing! What should I make next?

headbands!

Sewing project number 2 (number 1 was for Father's Day, so that one will have to wait) was these awesome braided headbands I saw over at Cakies. I don't really have many original ideas because everyone else is making such awesome stuff already.



Seriously, this is like the ultimate instant gratification craft project. It takes like 20 minutes tops and then bam - awesome new headband!



H helped me model my headbands



Even Jeff got in on the action... but he insists they are sweatbands



You can check out the great and simple tutorial for these here

For Elyse

I made a present for my one and only twin sister. I saw it over at MaryJanes and Galoshes and knew that I had to make one. Since we are currently 'homeless' so to speak and Jeff has requested that I quit making/purchasing things for our future home, I thought this would look great in Elyse & Stephen's bedroom. Stephen probably isn't as wild about the butterflies as I am ... but he's a good sport.
This is made entirely out of paper! My mom is bringing it when she goes to visit next week but here are some pics until then.






It's a good thing I'm in love with this wreath, cause I might have given myself a few 2nd degree burns making this. Hope you like it Leesey.

Puff the magic cereal like substance

H has a new favorite food, Puffs

These magical little cereal puffs are a somewhat nutritious finger food that dissolve quickly in their mouths so they can feed themselves. H doesn't quite have the fine motor skills to feed himself yet, he can pick these up with his palm but rarely does he make it to his mouth. Anyway, he could eat these things all day long if we let him. I saw a movie trailer for a new Katherine Heigl movie coming out this summer about a baby that looks hilarious (the movie not the baby). Watch it below and notice the part where the guy pours the mountain of puffs in front of the baby and her face lights up - because it is so true!


Here are some pics of H eating his puffs yesterday

7 months

H will be 7 months old in just a couple days! Time sure flies! He is sitting up really well and beginning to army crawl. Gone are the days of leaving him in a room on the floor so I can go do something quickly and coming back to find him in the same place. This week I've found him under the coffee table twice, under his swing and against the entertainment center. He can sure move! Here are some recent pictures of him.


He's sitting up and sucking his thumb. I think he might be a lefty, he has been showing some left hand dominance lately.


Thanks Aunt Elyse for the cute outfit!


His new favorite place to sit - somewhere on Daddy's head or shoulders


Cuddling with Mommy after nap time.

In other news, I found out yesterday that I didn't get that job I interviewed for. I was pretty sure that I got it, so I was/am really disappointed. I just feel kind of confused now about where I should be looking, if now is the right time to go back to work, etc. Keep praying for Jeff & I in our job hunts - I know God has something for us, it is just hard to be patient right now.