Baby Sunsuit

I finished another sewing project last night!  It involved my favorite sewing trick, shirring, of course. This sweet little baby sunsuit is for little Bess Mary, my coworker's 8 month old little girl.  I can't wait to see a picture of sweet Bess in her little sunsuit!

Source- Me

I saw come cute knit Zutano sunsuits just like this at a boutique for around $20-$30. This one on the Zutano website is $29. **kudos to Zutano because I think they have the CUTEST fabric prints ever!

Source- Zutano.com

I used cotton fabric that I found as a remnant piece.  It was less than $4 at JoAnn and I got a little over a yard.  I had no idea what I would use it for when I bought it, but I think it sure did make a cute little bubble suit!  I used a cotton ivory lace to make the shoulder ties.  Cost was about $1.50 for 2 yards of lace.  This was my first time sewing anything with leg holes or a button crotch (the technical term I'm sure). Not too bad for my first try!  I've got enough fabric and lace left over to make a top for Aubrey and also make some PJ pants for her.

I followed this awesome tutorial and pattern from Made by Rae for my sunsuit.  I found it on Pinterest of course.  Thanks for the great tutorial!

Link to source and tutorial-  Made by Rae 

I hope someone else will give this project a try and let me know how it goes!

Lindsay

We're back!

After an awesome 6 days off from work and a nice little vacation it's back to the daily grind.  But-- we had such a great time on our little trip!

As a born and raised West Texas girl, I had never stepped foot in Louisiana until I was 26 or so. This trip to New Orleans was my first visit to the Big Easy and I had no idea what to expect.  It was far nicer than I anticipated, the food was just as good as I had heard, and I was completely enamored by the fact that 80% of this city was under water just 6 or 7 years ago.  Then we ventured over to Mandeville, LA (just on the other side of the HUGE Lake Pontchartrain) on July 4th and stayed one final night there before heading home. Highlights from the trip at the bottom of this post- for those interested.

We left Aubrey behind with Weston's parents while we made our little trip.  We thought WE were on vacation, but the daily photos from Weston's mom (all below) clearly indicated that Aubrey was really the one on vacation.  She looked like she was having a blast.  I was scared she wouldn't want to come back home.

Snacking on raisins and crackers after swimming

More swimming

Eating corn on the cob in her swimmy suit

Happy 4th of July!
I made this shirt for her!! :)

Her very own Icee-- in the car.

Morning stroll

Helping Cookie make cup cakes

Riding in the Barbie Jeep with Eli

Whoa- too fast!

Luckily she was happy to see us when we got home and decided it would be okay to come back home with mom and dad!

----A few highlights of my favorite things from the trip----

NEW ORLEANS

Hotel: Loews New Orleans - Great location near the French Quarter, Riverwalk, and Warehouse District.  And apparently it's one of the few NOLA hotels with a spa.

Spa: Balance Spa at Loews- We got an 80 minute couples massage-- I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Restaurants:  Restaurant August-  AMAZING.  One of the best dining experiences I've ever had.  We both ordered the chef's prix-fixe menu and enjoyed 5 amazing courses of gourmet food.  Drooling again. 

Restaurants:  Brigtsen's- Located in a charming Victorian cottage in Uptown New Orleans, this family owned restaurant specializes in Creole/Acadian cuisine with all locally sourced produce and meat.  If you're under the age of 50 you might be the youngest people there-- but I didn't mind it a bit.  Stepping into Brigtsen's made me feel like I was in on a little New Orleans secret-- a place truly only frequented by locals.  The food was fantastic. 

Attractions:  Magazine Street- A 6 mile stretch of retail and restaurants stretching through Uptown and the Garden District.  A far cry from anything you'll find in the French Quarter, which I thought was super gross and crowded, Magazine Street has charming antique shops, modern design stores, coffee, pubs... you name it. 

We also did some of the touristy things like visit Cafe du Monde, the Aquarium, and the WWII Museum-- all of which were nice.  

MANDEVILLE and MADISONVILLE

Hotel: Marvilla Guest House- Marvilla is a fully restored 1870's guest house in Mandeville, 1 block from Lake Pontchartrain.  Second time we've stayed here- it's quaint and charming. 

Restaurants: Morton's Seafood Restaurant- Set on the bank of the Tchefuncte River- a great place to grab a cup of seafood gumbo and fresh blue crabs and watch the yachts float by.

Shopping: Coquille Cottage- Great place to find refinished and repurposed furniture and accessories.  The prices were awesome-- we loaded the car up!

Gender Reveal- It's a....

Today at my 15 week check-up we were able to find out the gender of tiny baby.  Only.... we didn't find out. We had the ultrasound technician write down tiny baby's gender on a card and place it in an envelope. We immediately dropped the sealed envelope off at a friends house who had agreed to help us with a gender reveal.

We had a gender reveal party tonight, bit into some cupcakes filled with either pink or blue icing and discovered that we're having a..... GIRL!!!!!!!

Video of the reveal



The cupcakes (courtesy of Ally B's Bakery in Shreveport)

We're excited to welcome another sweet little girl into our lives.  Bring on the pink!  I'm already thinking of the fun things I can sew for little sister and the cute things we can do to the girls' room. We go back to the doctor in another 4 weeks for the full anatomy ultrasound (checking the heart, arms, legs, kidneys, etc..). 

In other news-- Aubrey has learned to give mouth kisses.  They're so sweet.  We tried to get a picture, here's the camera roll--

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Music for the Soul

We've established that I love most things NPR.  Here's yet another reason- their Tiny Desk concert series is phenomenal.  Artists perform in the studio at the "tiny desk" of NPR's online music host Bob Boilen. It's a great way to see some awesome artists in a scaled back, intimate environment.

A few of my favorites- for your viewing pleasure.  You're welcome!

Glen Hansard Tiny Desk Concert (6/17/2012)

Wilco Tiny Desk Concert (10/18/2011)




The Civil Wars Tiny Desk Concert (6/27/2011)

Lazy Weekend

This past weekend was perfectly lazy!

1. I finished some sewing projects. Did I mention I'm in love with shirring?  It's so easy and makes for a cute outfit (dress, skirt, shirt, whatever). 

 Aubrey's festive 4th of July shirt! (shirred of course)  Excuse the crazy hair and grey sweatpants.  

We were just trying it on :)

Tee-hee! This just makes me smile.  Look at her hair and her elbow rolls.

4th of July Tank.  A good use of scrap fabric.  

I made a few flags for some of the other babies from my office. 

2.  Weston and I watched a LOT of Downton Abbey.  What a great show!  We just finished Season 1 and are getting into Season 2.  Thank you to Suzanne for recommending it!

3. We had a fun dinner with our LifeGroup.  I'm terrible at remembering to get everyone together for a photo!

We've been meeting for almost a year and have a really great core group of couples.  When you start a new small group from scratch it can take a while to really form those bonds that make you feel like family.  But we're getting there!  We have so much fun together and support eachother in prayer.  We've watched friends get married in this past year and our group will welcome a few new babies in the coming months.  That is what I call "doing life" together.  Last night, they surprised Weston and I with a sweet gift for leading and hosting the group.  We weren't expecting anything like that at all-- it was such a meaningful surprise!  Thank you guys!

Bag Toss Tourney

LifeGroup Dinner

LifeGroup ladies crafting 

Pulling Weeds

I've recently taken a liking to digging in the dirt and enjoy spending time working on our flower beds.  I don't have a green thumb by any means, but I can water the flowers and pull the weeds. Easy Peasy!   My neighbor saw me pulling weeds one day and said, "You know they'll just grow back!"  That got me to thinking and I began to notice some things.

Here is what I know about weeds:

• Pulling weeds is a messy job.  You should wear gloves.
• They grow wild and crazy if not treated, removed or kept under control.
• They can drain the water and nutrients from the plants around them-- thus sucking the life from what could be beautiful plants.
• Some weeds appear teeny tiny- they might even have cute flowers on them.  But they have REALLY deep and tangled root system.  They're hard to pull and might require the use of a digger or even some help from a buddy.
• Some weeds are really big and have teeny tiny roots.  They appear big on the surface, but they're easy to pull.
• Some weeds grow rapidly and others take their time to grow.
• No matter what you do- your work is never done.  If you want beautiful flower beds or a beautiful lawn, you need to treat the weeds

So- as I was pulling weeds I couldn't help but think about how these pesky little things can resemble sin in our lives.  Sin can't be ignored and if left untreated it will suck the life out of you-- God's beautiful creation.  Addressing sin can be a messy job.  Sin can appear small on the surface, but have a very deep root system and can be difficult to eliminate.  Other sin may be easier to eliminate but it, like those stupid weeds, just keeps growing back again and again. Either way- if you want to grow as a disciple of Christ you can't ignore your weeds. You must run from sin. It can be hard to even know where to start. So here's what I do--- I Pray. 

The bible teaches us in Psalm 130:23-24 (NIV)

"Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

When I get to thinking about my sin, I meditate on that scripture and ask God to search me and lead me more towards him. 

Gran's Visit and Fathers Day

This past week has been a lot of fun!  My mom (aka- Gran) came to visit for a few days, I visited my best friend, and we celebrated Father's Day.  Lots of pictures in this post!

Gran's visit:
My Mom doesn't get to spend much time with Aubrey since we live so far away.  While she was here, Gran was able to keep Aubrey for a couple of days while Weston and I worked and they had a big time snacking, exploring all of the toys, reading all of the books and singing songs.  I just know that Aubrey loved getting to spend some time with her Gran and we enjoyed it as well!

Picking Gran up in Dallas.  We had lunch with Matt, Christine and the kids.

Gran and Aubrey 

Father's Day:

It was Weston's second year to celebrate Father's day as a Dad.  He is the best husband and Dad in the world-- Aubrey and I (and tiny baby) are so very blessed.  We couldn't ask for more!

Happy Father's Day!

We visited Weston's parents for Sunday lunch and were able to spend some time with his parents, Paw Paw, Hodson, Tiphanie and Dustin and their sweet babies (Caroline and molly).  Aubrey and Caroline, who are both very close in age just played their little hearts out.  They were so cute.

I missed my "window of opportunity" for a really cute picture of them playing the piano together.
But this one cracks me up!

Aubrey and Caroline playing piano with their "Cookie"

They're saying "Weeee!"