Last Saturday night I was trying to keep myself occupied while Chris was busy playing chess –he's an awesome chess player– so I decided to make a dress. I have a couple of dress patterns that I've found recently, but they don't particularly cater to a growing belly. So, I thought I would be creative and modify one of the patterns to make a dress of my own. Just like on Project runway, I had until midnight (or until I zonked out of sleepiness). Then, the next day I had a few hours to fit the garment to my model (me), and send it down the runway (aka church). I ran into a few issues which took me up until sacrament meeting to solve. We were a little late for church. It turned out great, though. Here's how it looks: Am I in, or am I out? Now that I'm looking at the picture, I think I should have ironed the dress before taking pictures. Oh, well. I'm particularly proud of the back of the dress, because the pattern called for a 19" zipper, and I didn't have one on hand, but I did have a bunch of matching buttons and some ribbon which I colored black with a sharpie marker (ghetto, but fabulous!). Here's a view of the back... I love how this dress turned out, but I think I'm going to make another one in some more exciting fabric. P.S. That fabric I have had for years, bought it from Wal*Mart for $1 a yard!! I know so many people boycott that store, but I won't hide that I love it!!

We don't have very many sitting options in our apartment, so I've been thinking of making floor pillows. I've thought about it a lot more since getting the Amy Butler's In Stitches book. My motivation increased when we had two couples over for a movie night. It was too bad that I only had time to make one by the time everyone came over. Since then I've finished my set of pillows, and I'm very happy with them!! I didn't really make them much like the pattern in the Amy Butler book. I didn't use buttons, and I used a combination of polyester fiber-fill and high density foam. I think the combination makes them more comfortable and gives them more structure.

The only reason why Valentine's day falls in February is because it's the bleakest month out of the year, and people need something to brighten it up. Although for those not fortunate to have someone to share it with, it's an even bleaker month. (is bleaker a word?) Valentine, or no Valentine, I do love the red candy. I was reading a friend-of-a-friend's blog, someone I don't know(is that weird?)... and she was talking about how she loved the cherry hearts. All while reading this, I was thinking, "yeah, YEAH! Me too!!!" Then I promptly went to Walgreens and picked up two bags. She should get a commission from Brach's if you ask me. I also got chocolate at Walgreens, dark chocolate. YUM. During Christmas we (my mom, sisters and me) made chocolate dipped cinnamon bears which were delish! I wanted to do the same, except use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and cherry flavored gummies, instead of cinnamon. Wednesday evening, Chris and I decided to try melting the Hershey's chocolate and see if it would work. I know, I know, Hershey's isn't my first choice in chocolate, but it was the cheapest at the store. I have to say... by melting the chocolate and adding just a little bit of milk, the chocolate transformed into something divine! I'm really happy that they worked out as well as they did. Now I've got to figure out what to do for Chris for Valentine's day.

Now that we have just 13 more weeks left until our little Nelly Pea is born, we've started thinking about all of the things that we need to do and get in order to be fully prepared for her blessed arrival. Carseat? Check. Stroller? Check. Blankets? Check. Crib? Crib?!? NOPE. There are a TON of things that we need to get, but it's the crib that has worried me most. We live in a one bedroom apartment that has limited space. The full sized cribs you can get at Ikea and similar stores are far too large for our apartment. We have a perfect sized closet that could hold a crib, but it's just 4 inches too narrow for the standard. So... being the crafty, DIY person that I am... I decided that we should just build the thing ourselves. My mother-in-law didn't give us a miter saw for nothing!! (Thanks Linda, again, BTW) So, with our limited carpentry skills, Chris and I are making Nelly Pea's crib. Saturday we spent about an hour and a half in Home Depot trying to get all of the measurements down to figure out how much wood we need. Just ask Chris how stressful it was. OH GOODNESS! I think I just about had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the hard wood section!! AK! Monday, we were hoping would be a bright enough day (much like Saturday), so we could just work hard all day, and get it all done, before Chris had to go back to work on Tuesday. NO, no, we weren't so fortunate. The weather has been frowning on all of the bay area for the last week. All we were able to do Monday was make the cuts and sand. It was far too cold and wet to paint the wood. DANG! So instead of a lovely photograph of a completed baby crib... here's a picture of Chris, sanding all of the pieces, he's pretty lovely, too. He did such a great job. (Thanks also to Uncle Steve and Aunt Karen for the sander--this project would not have been quite the same with out it.)

This last Saturday we decided since the weather was impeccable we needed to go out on an adventure. It was kind of a gamble to head up to San Francisco, but we did anyway. We drove up and parked by the Golden Gate Park, and got our bikes out and rode around the park, along the coast, up to the Legion of Honour and ALMOST to the Golden Gate bridge. I say almost because I pooped out about 1/2 mile away from the bridge. It was just so much uphill for me and my pregnant belly!! It didn't help that I was hauling up the hills on a 40lb 2-speed 1960s Schwinn. It was so worth it, though. I had such a great time exploring the nature and architecture that San Francisco has to offer. Many thanks to Chris for suggesting the excursion. [gallery=7] P.S. I've added a couple of pictures of me in there... my belly is getting bigger!! (Thanks for your comment, Lindsey!)

So the goal for Christmas 2007 was to hand make all of the gifts I gave. I was very successful. I admit, there were a few gifts that I couldn't make for one reason or another(Men's slacks?? No way!), so I ended up buying a couple. I think I like a homemade Christmas way much better, I'm thinking that (time permitting) I'm going to make it a personal Christmas tradition to make all of my gifts. Here are photos–and a few how-to links–of some of the gifts I made this year... Jake's Lunch Bag Jake mentioned that he was wanting a new lunch bag, since the one he made in high school has been missing for almost the past year. It's a manly enough gift, if I use manly fabric. The trick was to make it look like a lunch bag and not a purse. I used a bag tutorial (found here) and did a side loop for a carabiner instead of handles. I also found this really cool material (for free, of course) that makes it look like a brown paper bag. After Christmas I was thumbing through a Pottery barn magazine and came across this picture... does anything look familiar to you? I have to admit it looks much more polished than my version. I think I like the enclosure on this bag best. Now I know what to do for next time. Mom's Sewing Kit I've noticed that my mom has been sewing a lot recently. Mostly quilting (she made the awesomest quilt for dad for Christmas). I also noticed that her pincushion was looking very sad. It may be older than me! I found a pincushion pattern by Heather Bailey (here), and also a zipper bag tutorial (here), which worked perfectly. Lindsay and Linda's Stationery I was very happy to complete this project. Since I don't have a graphic design job, I haven't been doing very many digital projects. Not as many as I would like, anyway. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to create something a little different. I found the tutorial for making the leather envelopes (here) and I stretched the pattern to fit my stationery, since the pattern was for making a business card holder. I think it may be cool to use the same pattern to make a clutch. Just an idea. Brooke's Purse Nothing too exiting here, I used the same template for this bag as I used for Jake's lunch bag. The fabric was kind of a mess to work with, since it was so thin, and didn't like the iron much. Eric's iPhone case No picture here, too bad. I couldn't get one that wasn't fuzzy. Oh well. This project was a fabulous success! I downloaded the measurements of the iPhone off the web and made a pattern for it. I used black leather and a metal magnetic snap enclosure, it looked pretty sharp and ended up fitting flawlessly! If I had used a thin fabric it wouldn't have fit as well as it did.