What Are You Looking At?

It's Wednesday!

So WHAT if... 

{*} I can't bear to get my maternity clothes down. I'm gonna squeeze into my skinny jeans until my legs start to turn blue.

{*} I haven't vacuumed my room in -probably- over a month. It's upstairs, you know. Besides, I'm scared all the dog hair will break the machine. It's happening today.

{*} You don't like my blog. Stop reading it.

{*} I can hear the baby talking with her giraffe in her crib. I'm not going to get her until I finish this blog. Oh, hush, she's having a ball in there. 


{*} I haven't bought one thing, thought of one name or planned the first move in the shared room for the new baby. It'll happen. Someday. I do feel 'him' moving around so I guess it's going to happen pretty soon...I should get on that. 


{*} I have drafts in my email writing people back. Why can't I finish an email?

{*} Sometimes I want to say to a person, face to face, in the most polite and kind way possible: "Shut. Up." or maybe just, "Stop. Talking." There. That sounds better. 

{*} I'm now obsessed with an expensive, waste of money drink. Starbucks' Decaf Iced Caramel Macchiato. Get in my belly.

{*} I never answer my phone. I usually have a baby on my heels and am on the hunt for whatever toy she is calling for. That she has hidden. On purpose. I'll call you back when she's asleep. Or I won't remember to. Sorry 'bout that. 


{*} I like time without my baby. I like shopping with two hands. I like getting a manicure. I like time with my husband sans baby talk and mouth-wiping. I like only carrying a purse. It's good for her to be without me, too. You know, independence and all. 


{*} My friends think I can really sew. Shhh... don't tell them. I can't. 


So what, who cares. 

Until Next Time,
The Guff

Snack Pack Tutorial

I want to say first that this is not my pattern! 
I got it from Pinterest, of course, but I just simplified her instructions. 

A few of my friends asked for this, so here it is:

1. Pick your fabric. Cut into 4 squares.  Two for the liner and two for the outside. You can cut the squares as big as you want, depending on how big of a snack bag you want. Mine are a little smaller than a sandwich-sized ziplock bag and I cut my squares 7"x6.5". 

2. Iron all of the fabric. I usually skip this step because I have a baby around my ankles, but it's really important that you do this to make sure the fabric lines up and doesn't shrink.

3. Next you're going to attach the velcro to the liner fabric (the purple one, for me). If you've got really steady hands and the patience for pinning, God bless you. I don't. I used Stitch Witchery. Have you heard of it? I'm sure you pro sewers haven't- it's cheating. I have it in my sewing closet, but I haven't ever used it before this project. It's the easiest thing for getting velcro straight and secure. For me, anyway. So. Whip out your stitch witchery and cut a piece the width of the top of the liner fabric. Same for your velcro strip. 

4. Place the stitch witchery (or pins, if you're awesome) & velcro about a quarter-inch from the top of the liner fabric. 

If you used stitch witchery, flip the fabric over carefully and iron-on the velcro. 

Make sure you keep it straight! 

 Ok. Your liners should look like this when you are done.

Make sure the velcro and fabric still line up! 

5. Even if you used SW, you still need to stitch the velcro on. If you don't it'll likely pull off after a few uses. It'll be easier now, though. SW will at least hold it into place for you. 

6. Now you will attach the outside fabric. Place the liner fabric on your workspace velcro side up and place the outside fabric right-side down on top of it. Like this: 

Make sure they all line up. You will need to pin where the top of the velcro is, and sew about a quarter inch from there. Depending where you want the seam on the inside. 

7. After you sew that straight across just flip the liner fabric out so you can see the seam. 

Iron out that seam as flat as you can. 

Flip the seam over and iron the seam again from the other side, too. 

***Repeat steps 1-7 with the other 2 pieces of liner fabric/outside fabric***

8. Put the two liner pieces together via the velcro. Make sure all the fabric still lines up (doesn't have to be perfect, but pretty close)

9. Separate the liner and outside fabrics on your workspace. Like this: 

10. Ok. Starting at the top where the velcro is, sew all the way around the liner fabric. (Duh. Do not sew the side with the velcro.) 

If you want to check and see that you did it right, this is what it should look like so far: 

You should be able to open the pouch and the liner of the bag is finished! 

11. Now, flip it back how it was and get ready to sew the outside part. Do the exact same thing you did with the liner except you'll need to leave a little gap in the bottom to pull the right-side through. 

I stopped it about here from both sides. 

12. Flip the whole deal inside-out through that little hole. 

Your snack pack should look like this:

13. Stitch up that little hole. I'm no good and middle stitches, so I just did a top stitch all the way across the bottom to close it up. 

All done! Your snack pack is awesome and ready to hold whatever little goodies you want it to. 

Hope this helps (the three of you who asked for it:) It takes about 20 minutes sans baby and picture taking. I am about to make one hundred of these. They're so easy and so efficient. 

Until Next Time, 

The Guff

Almost!

2 out of 5 ain't bad. Right?!

I only made 2 things on my list today. They were pretty easy but they just took more time than I thought they would. I guess having a little bunny for a helper might've slowed me down a bit...

She measured.

She pulled fabric.

I started off with the re-usable snack bags. The tutorial that I followed confused me a little- so I found myself reading and re-reading the step by step instructions. I'm planning on making a few more soon (because once I figured it all out, it's a cinch!) so I hope to get my own, too-many-details, tutorial up for those interested. Here's my final product:

Next I started work on the homemade Moby Wrap. Really all you need is 5.5-6 yards of jersey (or any stretch) fabric. You can make a no-sew one in minutes. Why you would pay $40 for one is insane to me. I got my fabric for $3.95 a yard/5.5 yards= $21.75. And that makes 3 wraps. So, for one "Moby Wrap" I essentially paid $7.25. Yowza! I followed this tutorial and it was awesome. I thought she did a great job explaining so I didn't take a lot of pictures... just check her blog out. Here are the pictures I did take: 

(sorry they are all crappy phone pictures)

No-Sew Version:

My baby loves her thumb

Then I decided to add a pattern panel to the front

This is a close up of the pattern

Wah-Lah! Finished!

(after the bunny went to bed... stand in cabbage patch kid)

This would have been a LOT easier if I had a cutting board and a rotary cutter. Alas, I do not, so it took a million minutes. One. Million. But it looks awesome. Right?

Thank you for my sewing machine, Mimi!!!

Speaking of 'almost'. I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant. Which means I'm almost half way. What happened to the time? Yike!

Until Next Time,

The Guff

Fabric Friday

Last night was a doozie. Cham woke up crying pretty much every hour and of course it woke me up too. I don't know what the deal was- dreams, tummy ache, more teeth or WHAT... but we were both pretty exhausted this morning. I had to go in and shake wake her up at 10. I think she would have slept until noon. We were, however, not too exhausted to hit up Hancock Fabrics and pick fabrics to get a start on some Pinterest projects I have been itchin' to create. Here's what my Friday night looks like:

gorgeous.

snack bags for Chamberoo.

for me.

i think my teething niece needs a pimp new bib. 

maybe not, but she's getting one.

for the new baby, of course. 

oh, I love baby wraps. 

What are y'all doing tonight?

Until Next Time,
The Guff

Drama of the Rodeo Clown

Of all the clothes we got before little Ophie was born from friends, co-workers, grandparents and consignment sales, these pants I remember. Specifically, I remember thinking, "She will never, ever wear these pants. Well, maybe for dress up one day."

Today was that day. And, I have to say, after letting her wear them all day, they might be my new favorite pants for her. They are silly at first, and they look like little girl bell bottoms. They fit her well and appear quite comfortable. Maybe she'll wear them again tomorrow.

Today was also the day that Chamblee watched a whole episode of Sesame Street while I made dinner. *gasp* She put up a good fight- flailing her legs and sending tears down her cheeks as I tried to sit her in the highchair to watch me. She usually loves to watch me cook while playing with boxes of ingredients as I empty them. Not. Today.

Today she was sensitive. Every day after nap time we toss Owlie back into the crib and say, "Bye Bye Owlie, see you later." And head on downstairs. Today she cried and cried until I let her bring Owlie downstairs with her. No biggie. Then the high chair episode. Then the "Mama Mama Mama" in between cries through the monitor after what I think was a bad dream. I hate when she has bad dreams, but I do love how she holds onto me and Owlie simultaneously as I sing her little song and rock her back to sleep. It's the bees knees. Sweet dreams, little Chamblee girl. 

Until Next Time, 

The Guff

Oh, PS. I felt the baby move today. Just a little. Weeeeeeeee! 

The Whale vs. The Goldfish

I know I missed 'So What Wednesday' again last week, but can I just get one in for today?

So what if I was huge this time around with Cham. Look at the difference!

Click to see it bigger. If you must. 


No, we don't have a baby name yet.
We're working on that.

Until Next Time,
The Guff

Dream. On.

I'm excited about being pregnant in the winter. It's not winter yet, so I don't know how well it will work out for me, but I'm looking forward to it. Of course when I had Chamblee there were record high temps in the south. This time will be totally different. I'll get to wear sweaters and boots and wrap up in a blanket by the fire instead of wearing shorts and a tank top while laying on the couch with a bowl of ice cream cubes to cool me off.

Speaking of boots. I got some yesterday! I love them. I'm gonna wear them every day.

I need to get Cham a good winter coat. I was cleaning out her closet and dresser and I noticed that she doesn't have any fall or winter clothes. Not even a jacket that fits. It'll be so different with her walking around in a big jacket instead of me carrying her around in a little blanket. She's gotten to be such a big girl.

Speaking of clothes. I wish I had friends having girls. We were so incredibly blessed by friends and co-workers with bags and tupperwares full of clothes and cloth diapers when I was expecting Chamblee. And, while I hope to have another little girl one day, I have to get rid of some of the clothes and diapers she has accumulated. There are just too many! From newborn to 12 months, the girl has filled three 20-gallon tupperwares of clothes and one of cloth diapers. Whoa. So, in preparation for this little boy I have been doing some serious cleaning out.

Cham's room is the biggest in the house and just so happens has 2 closets- so the babies will be sharing a room for a while. I'm excited to decorate all over again - for a shared nursery! Now. How should I arrange their beds?

I do hope my friend will come down before she gets too pregnant:) and help me decorate this double nursery. I can't wait to see what her nursery will look like. She's got serious style. 

Style. I really don't have any. I dream about it, and I know it when I see it, but I can't seem to get it together for myself. Today I bought my first pair of platforms. I really love them, except that I feel like I am walking on double heels. I'm too much of a mom to be walking around wearing heels, but I have a bachelorette party in Tennessee this weekend and when outfit planning I realized I didn't own a pair of heels. seriously. Just wedges. Who have I become?! So I went all out and went for the pimp shoes. Here they are, the pretty little things: 

Don't you all wish you could see a video of me walking downtown in these all weekend? Dream. On. 

Until Next Time, 

The Guff

Thursday is the new Wednesday

So what if I am doing so-what-Wednesday on Thursday. 

So what if all of the meals I've made in the last month have come from Pinterest.

So what if bare belly maternity pictures totally gross me out. 

So what if I've never had a pumpin spice latte. Am I the only one in the world who hasn't? 

So what if I drove the car around the block to get Chamblee to sleep today. This has never happened before, and she was asleep -literally- before I got out of our neighborhood. Score. 

So what if I would rather put baby powder in my hair than wash and dry it some days. 

So what if I shop out of my friend's closet instead of retail. She styles me. 

So what if I have a sippy cup buying fetish.

So what if I don't feel like celebrating the holidays this year. 

So what if I make my husband bring home a side of mac and cheese every time he goes to a BBQ joint with work. I'm pregnant. 

What are you SO WHAT-ing today?

this post is in honor of kayla w. thanks for reminding me.

Until Next Time, 

The Guff

Chamblee's Quiet Book

Chamblee got so many gifts on her birthday, but I have to admit. I had a favorite. 

My sister-in-law made her a "quiet book" and she loves it. I was really hesitant to let her even play with it because it was so cool. But I gave in. And she adores it. See? 

She made a school bus with Owlie in the window... and Cham says "Hey Owlie!" 

Every time she sees him. It's the sweetest.

...And finger puppet farm animals. Her fave.

(sorry about the banging. new windows.) 

Thanks Aunt Jess! She loves it!!! 

Until Next Time, 

The Guff