baby feet!

I am at the age now(mid-thirties) where many of my single professional friends who did not marry right after college are now settling down...lots of celebrations involved in the settling down. I love celebrating weddings (I think I have achieved the rank of professional bridesmaid) and I love welcoming new babies! We recently visited the newborn son of my husband's great friend Josh. He was so tiny! Could my child have been that small? It seems like a lifetime of sleepless nights ago...I took a few photos with the fancy schmancy camera. This is my favorite shot. Adult feet are generally gross, but baby feet are just so precious.

spring is here!!!

Finally getting a chance to enjoy some spring weather around here. I went for a nice walk with the fam the other day and photographed this tree in my neighborhood. I think this tree is happy to see spring! The house next to it is being renovated. Always interesting to watch properties around you being drastically changed.
Anyway, one project I recently completely was prepping and mailing some care packages for the family up North. My two younger siblings are currently living in much colder climates...in NY and CT. We mailed some love their way with sweet treats and recent photos of the baby. Hopefully they will be excited to get some real mail. It has been years and years and I still vividly remember how excited I was to get a random care package while I was in college. Who can you send some spring sunshine to this week?

Knitting Shopping Adventures

I went on a wonderful knitting/yarn adventure last weekend. My friend Addie turned me on to the knitting books and blog of Susan Anderson (listed in my blog roll to the right). Itty-Bitty Hats is such a great little treasury of hat projects. Too, too cute!! Anyway, I have been wanting to try out the Spud and Chloe line of yarn she often uses and blogs about. I am still a little leery of buying yarn online without feeling it and seeing the colors firsthand. None of the yarn shops in the Tidewater area currently carry it, so naturally I took my husband and daughter on a yarn expedition to the Black Mountain Yarn Shop in Black Mountain, NC. 

This yarn shop also carries Debbie Bliss yarn, another great designer associated with a yarn line, so it was a double win for knitting/yarn shopping. We were visiting my in-laws in NC and taking in some of a nephew's travel soccer action in Asheville, NC. We stopped in Black Mountain, shopped, and then had a delicious handmade pizza lunch before taking in the soccer action. The owners of the knitting shop were very nice and wound the yarn for me. I love the colors I selected. Now I just have to figure out exactly what I am going to to do with them. I am thinking hats...or a sweater...or who-knows. It was a beautiful day for an adventure! Hope your arts and crafting adventures are in full swing this spring!

look at all this beautiful yarn!

sunshine and soccer!

Birthdays and Babies

I recently celebrated another great year...in the usual ways. Cake! Red velvet cake with cake batter ice cream from Coldstone Creamery to be exact. If you haven't tried it...get in the car, drive there, and purchase this delicious treat. Presents! Birthday Packages! Cards! I got two musical cards from my baby girl and husband. I got two handmade cards from dear crafty friends. I love getting handmade gifts and cards!!!

I also sent a baby gift package to NC to welcome the beautiful baby girl of a college friend. I did not make the gifts, as you can tell from the photo, but I did make the little card with the rubber duck. Baby cards are really fun to make. So much joy!

Another blanket story

As I stated earlier, I did not accomplish much in 2010 on the creative front. I did manage to knit 12 blocks to make a blanket for my sweet baby girl.  I made them in various shades of green, blue, and gray using plain old garter stich knitting. It took forever, but I didn't want to try any complicated knitting while getting no sleep. There is nothing worse than being halfway into a knitting project, realizing you made a huge mistake, and having to tear it out and start over. Now I just need to block the squares and knit them together. This is the current state of my latest blanket project...I will post an update with the finished product soon. (I hope). In the meantime, I am also posting some photos of blankets that we got as baby gifts. People love to give winter babies blankets. She received a beautiful variety of blankets to keep warm and snuggly.

house divided t-shirt blanket

beautiful blanket from Paster Trudy

her gorgeous flower garden quilt by Linda Reynolds

grammy crocheted this blanket with super soft yarn i picked out

MWC (mom with a camera..or two..or three)

A few weeks ago I attended a photography workshop after work...it is rare for me to attend anything after work, but this workshop was worth a little exhaustion the next day. While the baby was still cooking in my belly, I started researching local children's photographers. I came across the website for Norfolk photographer Kelly Willette www.willettedesigns.com and loved her photos. She captures sweet moments with babies, toddlers, and kids. I want to capture my child's first years with amazing photographs and video. We purchased a Kodak Zi8 high def pocket video camera to take videos. Once the baby did more than just sleep all day, I got frustrated with the shutter speed of our canon point and shoot. The image quality was great, but I could never capture the quick smiles and laughing moments. After doing some product research my husband and I bought a fancy schmancy canon digital slr camera. Now I just have to figure out all the ins and outs. It seems like life is full of so much new technology to learn. Anyway, back to the workshop. She gave posing tips, shooting advice, and fielded questions from a room full of parents and grandparents. She recommended learning how to use all the manual functions of the camera instead of using the automatic settings. What? You want me to actually do it myself? I have pondered her advice and realized that she may be on to something. I want to capture my sweet baby smiling in beautiful soft outdoor and indoor light. I want to take photos of her that we will look at 30 years from now cherish. I am a mom on a camera mission. Watch out.

Baked

While I was very pregnant and waiting for baby to join us last year, I was laying on the couch channel surfing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, oooooooh, Martha Stewart show segment involving baking. She was featuring a co-owner from a Brooklyn based bakery (one of the few times I wished I lived in my brother's NYC neighborhood...) making a brownie/cookie pie treat. It looked so good. I decided to investigate the bakery online (www.bakednyc.com) and found out they had their own cookbook, Baked. I snapped it up on amazon and have tried several recipes out of the cookbook and have a personal favorite, Banana Chocolate Chip Espresso Muffins. Such a good way to start the day. Coffee and some delicious baked goods. One of my Christmas gifts from my sweet husband was their second cookbook, Baked: Explorations. I haven't tested any of the recipes yet...but how do these sound? Pumpkin cheddar muffins, Nutella scones, Peaches and Dream Pie, Sweet and Salty Brownie. Good, oh yeah. I am expecting that they will be eat 'em up tasty.

whoopie pie cookies made from recipe found in Baked