Christmas Cards Ordered!

Greetings!

I finally ordered our Christmas cards this morning. See, I did get our family photos taking in October so I could have the digital images back and design and order our cards so I would have them ready to go in the beginning of December. Baby girl #2 was due December 12. Her sister was three days late, so I was not going to hold out and hope for family of four photos because it just wouldn't be feasible to get them in time to send out before Christmas.

A month ago I designed three different cards and wanted to run them by my hubby to see which one he liked the best. Time slipped away and I missed the 50% off promo, which I knew would be back before Christmas. I had a feeling as soon as I ordered them, the next day the 50% off promo would run again so I waited. While I was waiting our beautiful baby was born. I couldn't order our cards without including our perfect little new pumpkin.

Granny Square Baby Blanket with Newborn

Well, I was reminded this morning that today is the last day for 50% off and so I finally took a few photos of Teagan to add to the card. Her official new born photo shoot is later this week. Above is a photo of her with a large granny square I made while pregnant with my older daughter. You see, the day before Teagan was born I started her baby blanket. It is still in progress.

I made a baby blanket a few years ago using the circle of friends pattern and really liked it. After pondering for months about the pattern I would use for Teagan's blanket, I decided to use Circle of Friends.

Circle of Friends for Baby Blanket

Circle of Friends Baby Blanket in the making

I am still deciding on the exact colors to use. I am not sure if the yellow will make it in there. Luckily, I have a friend with a baby on the way that I can use the yellow circle for if I decide not to use yellow in Teagan's. I am using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand. Since my crochet hiatus, I see that Vanna's Baby line is almost non-existent, many of the colors are now part of the regular Vanna's Choice. I am going to check A.C. Moore sometime this week to see if I can get some more of the old Vanna Baby colors.

Happy Hooking!

xo Susan

Toddler Rocking Chair Re-do

Hello Lovelies,

We are having a cloudy and humid Sunday here, perfect for napping babies and toddlers and mommy crochet and photo snapping time. Over the last few days we have had a new crew of big birds in our backyard, it must be good fish hunting in the pond behind our house because every time I look out, I see another one with a fish in its mouth.

Florida birds eating some fish

Florida birds

We typically have one or two blue herons that hang around, but these big white ones are not year round regulars. Now that you saw a glimpse of what is happening outside, I will show you what I was working on "inside".

My two year old Lauren loves our neighbor's little rocking chair so I have been wanting to get her a little rocking chair but didn't want to spend $40 or $50 dollars on one. When someone posted a little rocking chair on my local Buy/Sell/Trade facebook group, I snatched one up for $5. It was in rougher shape than I thought. I ended up having to take it apart and tighten all of the screws because it was quite shaky.

The chair originally had a Hello Kitty decal on the seat back. I immediately started peeling it off before thinking about taking a "Before" photo so this is the chair minus the Hello Kitty decal sticker. I am going to start with spray painting it a shade of white!

xo Susan

Crafty Things

Hello Friends,

I am currently on maternity leave with our second adorable baby girl and I don't know if it is the scent in the air, or the coziness of her little blanky, or finally having some time to stop and think, but it just makes me want to blog!

The temperature has finally dropped a little here in southwest FL and it reminds me of when I started this blog back in February of 2011. When I lived up north I would say it is the scent of Spring in the air, but since our seasons here are hot, HOT, and HOT we do not really experience that scent in springtime instead we have it in the winter.

Over the last few months I have been crocheting but I have also been working on other crafty things that I want to share with you too. Rather than start a new blog, I want to add to my crochet garden!

Be on the lookout for my crafty creations!

xo Susan

Crochet 15 minutes a day...

Hello Friends,

I have been missing from blog land for waaaaay too long. I have also been missing crocheting for way too long. I had a baby 22 months ago and have had very little time to crochet since then. We are expecting baby #2 and I am determine to crochet for 15 minutes a day 5 days a week to try to get back to some happy hooking time.

I have many WIPs stashed away and an embarrassing yarn stash patiently waiting for my return. I am happy to say, I am back at it and the first WIP I want to finish is the English Meadow blanket. You may remember when I started this blanket... well if you have a really good memory. It was February of 2011! Here was my first post about it and my initial inspiration in the color selection.

I have been able to do 14 more rows since picking it back up and have been very happy with the progress so far. 

Granny stripe

Granny stripe - beach

Granny stripe - beach

Granny stripe - beach

Granny stripe - beach

 I have about three hours worth of crocheting left to finish the number of rows I want for the length and then I need to do a small border. Hopefully I can finish this one and start making a new baby blanket... 

More soon, 

Susan xoxo

Just popping in to say Hello! We have been very busy but I am working on a little crochet project and will get some photos uploaded this weekend.

I hope everyone having a fabulous winter!

Lauren loves the weather here in Florida

xoxo Susan :)

Crochet Baby Santa

Hello Lovelies,

When I was strolling around Pinterest I found a lovely crocheted Santa themed hat and diaper cover that I stitched up for Lauren's Christmas photos. Squeezing in time to crochet with a new born is quite difficult. I am starting to have time to breath some more but I will admit getting this hat and diaper cover done was quite a challenge.

But the end result was well worth it:

 It appears as though I am at my maximum amount of photos for my blog without paying to upgrade. I need to look into this and see what my options are. I wish I could share some more of her christmas photos. Hopefully I will get them up shortly!

xoxo Susan

Lovely Lauren

Hello Lovelies,

I made two posts and somehow drafts were not saved and I could not find the time to get back on and re-write them. But, I must bring this blog up to date. I miss crocheting and crafting.... and blogging!

Our baby girl Lauren is so lovely I just spend my days starring at her, aaaaand taking care of her. She will be 8 weeks on Monday, so she is finally starting to eat more and go longer increments between feedings, which gives me some time to do stuff. Crochet kinds of stuff.

I will be heading back to work next week for a couple weeks of work and then I will be off for a couple weeks for the holidays. This weekend J and I are getting the house ready for Christmas, the outside lights are up and the Christmas tree is down from the attic. As soon as I finish this post I will be getting the tree up and decorated. Lauren will watch, or do some sleep watching.
I ordered our Christmas card photo and am waiting for that to arrive so things are sort of on track right now for the holiday season.

Here was Lauren's birth announcement:

First side

Other side

I took the photos with our new Nikon camera we purchased before Lauren arrived and then I sent them over to my friend Jillian over at Jillian Marie Imagery and she made them look like this! Completely marvelous! We could not be happier with the way they turned out. Since they were mailed out I have been getting phone calls and emails with squeals about how cute it looks. I highly recommend Jillian Marie Imagery, if I lived in Arizona I would have her take some photos of Lauren as she is primarily a photographer not just graphic artisty.

Well tomorrow I will share the photo for Lauren's Christmas card shoot. I was going to take photos of her sleeping but she is such a smiley and alert baby I figured I better do an awake photo of her smiling. So check back tomorrow for it!

xoxo Susan