another retreat!

I am SO excited! I've signed up for another quilt retreat in April! You may remember my first one in November, taught by Amanda Jean of crazymomquilts. She talked about quilting with a free motion foot and a walking foot.

This one is being taught by Penny of sewtakeahike... she's also in the Quilt Guild I joined recently. She's going to talk about paper piecing blocks, basic block design, and advanced block design. Hop on over to her blog... she has so many fun blocks!

Of course, the retreat will be at the Inn at City Park... a lovely place! And, Tara's cooking! Mmmmm.

crocheted hexagons

I've brought my hexagon mania over from sewing and into crochet. I found a quick little pattern for hexies and am cranking them out as quickly as possible.

I decided to use them to make a blanket for my daughter-to-be... (Wow... I'm getting goosebumps typing that!)

What I need now is an invisible way to join them... since each hexagon is a different color, whipstitching them together will show too much. Any ideas?

{baby update} 21 weeks

Technically I won't be 21 weeks until Tuesday, but I really can't wait that long. Last Friday Hubby and I went in for our second trimester ultrasound, which proved very uncomfortable as I needed a full blader and the technician was pushing down on my abdomen pretty hard. Plus, Baby didn't enjoy the process at all and actually flipped over to avoid the tech! I think it was the fetal equivalent of giving the finger, haha!

What we saw was absolutely amazing. Remember what Baby looked like when I was 9 weeks along?

Well, this is what Baby looks like now...

It just blows me away.

But wait! I haven't told you the best part! We know what we're having! But, I can't tell you.

Just kidding. That's mean. I wouldn't yank your chain like that.

Well, maybe just a little. :)

Are you ready?

For the record, I would have been happy with either gender. What I really want is to be mommy to a healthy baby, and so far that appears to be the case! Yay!

Okay, I guess that's enough chain-yanking. You've probably scrolled down anyway.

Yay! It's such a relief to know... now I can commence further planning for the nursery and such. I'm already working on a crocheted baby blanket, and will definitely make a quilt for her!

{baby update} 19 weeks

I figured it was time to post a baby update! I'm sure you all are riveted. :)

Size of baby: a small chicken breast. All of the size comparisons in What to Expect When You're Expecting use food. Weird but true.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I've lost 4 pounds since December. Also weird, but true. Especially since my belly has definitely expanded.

Clothes: Maternity pants and shirts to maximize the belly!

Gender: Ultrasound is scheduled for March 25th. Ten days! (Not that I'm counting, lol.)

Movement: Flutters in the beginning of last week, more solid movements later on. Sometimes it feels like Baby is doing jumping jacks in my belly. Especially when I'm sitting down.

What I miss: Diet Coke. Deli meat. Bleu cheese. Ahhh, bleu cheese, how I miss you!

Cravings: Chocolate milkshakes. I've had six in the last week alone. Also, cereal. Doesn't matter what kind!

Interesting to note: I slipped and fell on the stairs on Saturday. I've got a huge purple bruise on my rear. Baby is okay... we went to the emergency room to make sure. I was pretty freaked out!

Also, if I think too hard about how Baby's moving in my tummy, I start to get a little weirded out and feel like an alien experiment. I mean, there's a HUMAN GROWING INSIDE ME!! Unreal. So I try not to think about it, just enjoy the feeling.*

*Sorry for the blurry photo.

cupcakes

I have a classroom aide this year, in the afternoons. She does small groups, interventions, and testing. She's a great person, and she does an awesome job. I love her!

Wednesday was her birthday, and I brought in cupcakes for the kids to celebrate her birthday. I also wanted to give her a little something, so I crocheted a cupcake.

Not useful or practical, but oh, so cute! And actually, it can be used as a pin cushion, so it can be practical if she wants!

cravings, hexagons and the nook

Hi friends! Sorry for the long absence. A lot has been going on, and precious little of it involves crafting. Growing a baby is HARD! Two more weeks until we find out what we're having. I'm sporting a small baby bump that I try to enhance as much as possible, so that I'll look pregnant and not just chunky. :)

Also, I think I've figured out my cravings... cereal (doesn't matter what kind) and chocolate milk shakes. Mmmmmm... I want a milk shake right now! I wonder if Hubby will stop and get me one on his way home from work?

A tiny bit of sewing has been happening... a couple of weeks ago we had a Modern Quilt Guild meeting, and Penny showed us how to piece hexagons. I made the cutest flower! I came home with  more hexagons, a bit of gorgeous fabric, and a hankering for MORE!

I finally tracked down an acrylic hex cutting template and I'm thinking I might do either a mug rug or a baby quilt with hexagons.

Switching to my third tangent of this post, (I can do that, I'm pregnant) (okay, I do that anyway) I got a nook last month and I LOVE IT! I was really nervous about buying an e-reader... I love the feel of holding a traditional book in my hand and was having a hard time with the idea of giving up the kinesthetic experience. Turns out it's really not that big of a deal... I also like that I don't have to connect the thing to my laptop to download my books, it's got wireless internet so I can do it automatically. Which is a good and bad thing, because I've already spent a ton of money on books. By the way, I'm not getting compensation for this, blah blah blah.

My only complaint is that in almost all of the e-books I've downloaded, there are a bunch of typos. It's so frustrating! I really think these things should be edited as well as a regular book and I hate seeing so many mistakes in the text.