Six Month Milestones

Last Thursday, January 19th, Lucy turned 6 months. 

I can honestly say that was the fastest six months of my life.

The Stats:

Weight: 15 pounds (30th percentile)

Length: 27.5 inches (97th percentile)

• Just after Christmas, we decided to start trying to give Lucy rice cereal to help her sleep through the night. She loves it and it has really helped. We also tried bananas and sweet potatoes neither of which she really cared for, yet.
• Can now sit up completely on her own
• Starting to learn that her actions have reactions i.e., pulling on the penguin in her playpen will make it play music
• Interacts with all her toys
• Will sit in her playpen and keep herself occupied with toys
• Loves her bouncer and jumps like crazy when in it
• Still squeals and shrieks loudly. Learning new sounds all the time
• Has started to kick her legs when excited
• Watches Yo Gabba Gabba. This is really the only TV she watches other than when I put Baby Einstein on. But as soon as YGG starts, she is mesmerized and Mommy can shower.
• Will now reach towards me or Jordan when she wants to be held or picked up.
• Has clingy, 'no stranger' moments where if anyone tries to hold her besides me, Jordan, my parents or his parents, she gets upset.
• Drooling seems to have slowed with no signs of teeth, yet
• She is starting to show signs of hunger by sucking on my chin, shoulder, etc
• Still exclusively fed by me, but when drinking pumped milk she will hold her own bottle

Our sweet girl.

Sweet potato face.

Sitting up in her bumbo watching Yo Gabba Gabba in a trance.

Look at those lashes

Happy 6 Months, Lucy Bug!

February Photo of the Day Challenge

You may remember that in early January I started to post a photo of the day that shows something I'm working on, something I find inspiring or just something that caught my eye each day.

While perusing my blogs on my lunch break, I saw that Shelley from House of Smiths is participating in a February Photo of the Day Challenge. I missed the boat to join in for January, but I'm excited at the idea of starting fresh for the month of February

It's pretty simple: using the below list as an inspiration take a picture each day. Then share your photo on Instagram, Twitter, your Blog and/or Facebook using the hash tag #FEBPHOTOADAY.

Here are the topics for the month of February:

I'm already getting inspired with all these fun ideas.

My biggest challenge will be remembering to do this on the weekends or not skipping a day, but I like the idea of a good challenge.

Anyone else want to join in??

Hello Monday

Hello Monday!

My girlfriends from college came down Saturday and we had great lunch date at Pizza By Elizabeths, followed by my first real night out since Lucy was born. After a busy Saturday spent with my girls, Sunday was very low-key catching up on some things around the house.

Sunday afternoon I worked on a new chevron canvas. I'll post a tutorial showing how to create a chevron pattern along with a reveal of my art piece. I'm still deciding where I want to put the finished piece.

I'm excited to say that some of my online shopping goodies came this weekend.

I purchased a new frame from Crate & Barrel (below). It's now (empty) in the master bedroom where I'm trying to update some of the pictures and decor. I'm have an obsessed-with-buying-frames moment. I have a number of frames in my "cart" on Pottery Barn, West Elm, Targets and Crate & Barrel's website. I'm going to revamp the living room gallery wall, too, but more on that later.

I bought this cute, canvas laptop case from West Elm.

In yellow, of course, my favorite color. I had been using a dark paisley patterned one that came with an old bag I purchased years ago. This one just seems cherrier and less dark and drab so I did a swap.

I also ordered this Hammam Stripe Hand Towel from West Elm to spruce up our vintage bar cart in the dining room. Now that I took this picture I realize it could use a quick iron..

I messed around with some neutral textiles on our couch.

The black and white striped pillow is new from Crate & Barrel.

I needed some fresh greens for the house, so I snagged a few small indoor plants and cactuses at Home Depot. Here's hoping I can keep them alive. I want to find some fun, pretty plant holders. I'm using mini drinking glasses I bought from Anthropologie for the two small cactuses.

The shower curtain for the master bathroom should be here this week.

I'm excited to get things a little more tied together in that room.

Up for the rest of the week:

• Lucy's 6 month milestones. I cannot believe it's already been half a year since our little bug was born. 
• I'll show you how to make the perfect chevron pattern that you can use on anything - walls, canvases, painting a rug, etc. 
• I'll also share with you some tips to keep your house clutter-free. We have the Purple Heart veteran truck coming this week and will be packing up a tons of boxes tonight and tomorrow night to donate. 
• And finally, the time is here to get a move on painting the guest room! I'm starting with spackling up the walls followed by a coat of primer. I'll keep you updated as things progress.

Photo of the Day: 1.19.12

Projects in the works.

How To Make a No Sew Crib Skirt

This post is way, way overdue. Like 5 months overdue.

I did this project back in August when we were cooped up in the house due to Hurricane Irene.

It was nighttime when I did the project, which explains the dark, yellow-y color to the photos.

I've mentioned before that I'm not much of a seamstress. My sewing machine and I are not friends (although I'm really trying to fix that). So any way I can do a project like this and avoid sewing, I'm in. I'll admit that I do want to learn to use a sewing machine again as I'd love to make my own pillow covers, curtains, and all the amazing little sewing projects that are popping up all over Pinterest.

I originally wasn't going to use a crib skirt in Lucy's nursery, but because I had white sheets, a white bumper and a white crib, I decided I needed a little color in the mix. I lucked out that I had a good amount of fabric leftover from this failed DIY project (that I was going to attempt to redo, but nixed the idea since Lucy really doesn't sleep in her room during the day, plus I'm not a big fan of anything that block natural light.). 

The materials I used:

- Fabric

- Ruler/Tape Measure

- Scissors

- Iron

- Heat N Bond

- Velcro Squares 

To start, measure the crib along both the width of the mattress frame and height (floor to mattress frame). You want to take those measurements and add 3 inches each to the length and width (1.5 inches for each of four sides to use as a hem). That way you know how much fabric you need and can cut it down accordingly. I don't know if there is an easier way to cut fabric, but I lucked out that mine had a pattern that I could use as a guide to cut a straight line.

Repeat this to cut fabric for both sides of the crib as well.
If you'd like you can make a panel for the back side of the crib, but I chose not to.

Once the fabric is cut, the next step is to hem each side using that additional 1.5 inches you added to your measurements. Put a strip of Heat N Bond, paper side up, along the edge of the fabric and use the heat from the iron to attach. You want to hold the iron down for about 10 seconds and repeat this down the length of the fabric. 10 seconds should be plenty of time to seal the Heat N Bond. 

Using your ruler, measure 3 inches in from the edge of the fabric and make a few notches.
These notches will serve as your guide when folding the edge.

Peel the paper backing on the Heat N Bond, 

and fold your fabric up to the 3 inch mark, creating a 1.5 inch hem.

Again, use the iron to seal the hem.

You want to first repeat theses steps on the opposite side from your first hem,

then you will do the two remaining sides, resulting in a clean edge at all four corners.

One flipped over you will have a perfect rectangle for the front panel of the crib skirt.


Repeat this same process with the fabrics you cut for the side panels of the skirt.

Once all three sides (or four if you decided) are hemmed, you are ready to attach your fabric to the crib.
You want to make sure you remove the mattress and any bedding or bumper you have that will get in the way. 
The skirt wil be attached to the frame that the mattress rests on.

Along the frame, space out the velcro squares. You can let the number of velcro square you have to work with determine how far apart you can space them. The fabric is light and shouldn't need more thatn 4-6 squares on the long side to hold the fabric to the frame.

Peel back the paper, line up your fabric and press it into the sticky side of the velcro.

Velcro is best to use so that the skirt is both removeable and washable.

Once attached the skirt will look something like this.

You then repeat these steps on both sides of the crib.

Because of the mattress frame, the corner where the fabric meets won't be a seamless edge (at least it wasn't for me). You can see in the below pictures that the fabric hangs and sort of wraps around the frame piece.

Don't worry about this, though as the gap is mostly covered by the leg of the crib.

Once all three (or four if you did a back panel) sides are attached, the crib skirt it complete.

The last step is to put the mattress and bumper back in the crib.

This project was super easy and took me maybe two hours to complete.

I'm now a big fan of the Heat N Bond and plan to use it for curtains I bought from Ikea for our basement windows that are about a foot and a half too long.

Do you have any great no sew projects that you have used Heat N Bond to complete?