My Favorite Hobby

Many of you know that I sew. I have made several of my own clothes since junior high. I have even made a little income from my craft - mostly alterations, but also some baby clothes and 18" doll clothes. However, sewing is not what I'm truly passionate about in the crafting and hobbies arena. I like it okay, but I can lose interest in it and not have any desire to sew for long stretches of time.

What I AM truly passionate about is cross-stitching. I have been cross-stitching since my grandma taught me stamped cross-stitch when I was in the second grade! Since then, I have grown in my technique, skill, and love of this wonderful pasttime. Granted, many people do not have the desire to spend hours working over tiny little x's of thread - and many throw in the towel when they mess up and have to tear out stitches (a very deflating occurance, I'm well aware!). But, for me, cross-stitching is like "curling up with a book in front of a warm fire on a snowy evening". :)

As the years go by, I have developed a love for the more intricate designs. "The more colors the better" is often my mantra! Almost everything I do now is counted cross-stitch. I have more projects started or planned than I will ever complete in several lifetimes - but it is the process that I enjoy the most. :) I DO complete projects though! Not as many for myself, but when I am making something for a friend or family member, I have a lot of motivation to complete them.

My ultimate "job" would be to cross-stitch "professionally". Then I could truly have fun and earn money at the same time! (And be able to stay home with my family) I'm not sure how many of these positions are actually available, but I once inquired at Leisure Arts (a cross-stitch publishing company) to ask how to become one of the people who stitches the finished products in the pictures for patterns. They told me that the people they had to stitch for them lived near their headquarters (Little Rock, AR I think). So, since I don't think I'll ever make it to Little Rock, I have resigned myself to simply stitch for the sheer pleasure of it. :) (If you would like me to stitch something for you or for a gift, let me know!)

Anyway, I currently have 3 projects going right now (meaning I am actively stitching on them - I probably have dozens of half-finished projects in my closet!). I'm trying to finish a baby sampler for Luke, and I have two projects that I'm making for gifts (Christmas might be too soon to be done with them now that I have Luke, but we'll see). I also have a cross-stitch advent calender that I would like to make for our family - again, it might be wishful thinking to try to get it done for this Christmas. I guess Luke won't remember it anyway this year (he'll be almost 6 months at Christmas). So, I've got "cross-stitching fever" right now! :)

And, since I've prattled on and on about this hobby of mine (just because I'm excited about it and wanted to share it with you!), I'll reward you with some pictures of a few things I've done. Enjoy!

Happy Boy!

Our delightful, little Luke is now 8 weeks old (as of yesterday)! His most notable achievement of late is lots and lots of smiling! He even looks like he's laughing silently sometimes! It's so cute!!! We regularly have "conversations" where he will smile at me and I can encourage him to smile and "laugh" more - even a few coos. :) Lots of things will make him smile: me, Daddy, the pictures on the wall, the clock above his changing table, his toys, etc. Here are some of his recent smiles:


He wore a very cute outfit on Sunday - too bad he soiled it during Sunday School and had to go with his alternate outfit for the rest of church. :(

We tried out the Baby Bjorn yesterday. Joanna suggested I try using it when I go get the mail so that I can have my hands free. I had been carrying a small shopping bag to carry the mail back in so that I could keep my hands on Luke. The carrier works pretty well! Today, we took a longer walk up our street before getting the mail and he actually fell asleep in it!

Irresistible

I'm sure I'm just partial, but this little guy is VERY cute!!! Luke is 7-1/2 weeks old and sleeping very well at night (7-9 hours pretty consistently)! Enjoy these latest pictures!

Loving Life with Luke!

I haven't forgotten to catalog the last few days of Luke's life - don't worry! :) I just haven't made the time to download the pictures off of my camera. Not that it would be the end of the world if I missed a day here or there, but there truly is a reason to take at least one picture every day. :) Most often, it's because he's wearing a different outfit.

Here he is wearing a new onesie and some booties that my mom knit for him - from my great-grandma's pattern! And Luke's lying on the afghan that my mom knit for him, too. :)

I think we're getting pretty good at multi-tasking around here...

Luke's lifting his head a little and moving it from side to side when on his tummy.

True "just had a bath" hair - all fine and fluffy! I think he's sneezing in this picture. :)

He's "conversing" more now - smiling and cooing at you! Just now, when I put him down for his nap, I let him watch his mobile for awhile, and he started talking to it! :) Very cute!

We had a family dinner on Saturday to celebrate Nathan's dad's birthday. Uncle Gary got to hold Luke for the first time! Hannah is modeling the first pumpkin harvested from Nathan's parent's garden this year (the grandkids all got to help plant a garden in their backyard). It's a little early to be harvesting them, but there are a lot of them, and it was kind of just for a fun activity. :) Luke had many admirers!

Luke wore a cute outfit on Sunday and again was much sought after in Sunday School!

Here are a few more pictures of some outfits he wore:

Your Life in Song

A friend of mine shared this fun link on her blog: You enter in the day you were born, and/or any other significant day just for fun, and it tells you which song was Number 1 on the music charts that day! Here are our family's songs:

Me: Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
Nathan: Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
Wedding: Hot In Here - Nelly
Luke: Umbrella - Rihanna featuring Jay-Z

I know the song on my birthday, but the other ones... not so much. Anyway, I thought that was fun. :) Feel free to try it and leave me a comment for which songs you are!

Happy Birthday, Cinnamon!

It's kind of silly, but today is Cinnamon's 4th birthday! We got her on October 14th (4 years ago) and they told us she was 2 months old, so I just counted back two months in order to have a specific date to call her birthday. :) The first picture is the day we brought her home - she found a cozy spot to snuggle next to my stuffed animals. The second picture is of her today - still cute in my opinion! :)

I finally captured Luke's famous "coo" on video! This is something babies do when they think they're going to sneeze, only they don't end up needing to. It usually follows a sneeze, so you have that warning, but it's usually so quick, that there's no way to get in on film. He happened to sneeze during our photo shoot today, and I happened to be fast enough! Yeah! Enjoy! :)

And of course, a blog posting wouldn't be complete without pictures of Luke! Enjoy!

Precious

Just thought this was sweet...

5th Anniversary

Last night, we dropped Luke off at Nathan's parents house so that we could go out to dinner, just the two of us, for our anniversary. We had Nathan's mom take some family pictures for us - just the two of us to represent our anniversary, and a complete family picture because we don't get too many opportunities to get one. :)

We decided to go to Black Angus - that's where we went the night we got engaged, and we hadn't been there since! So, since we couldn't go away overnight this year, we decided to do something that at least had some sentimental value. :) After dinner, we walked over to the mall (a couple blocks from the restaurant) and went to the new Pinkberry frozen yogurt place they have there.

Nathan gave me a very nice necklace for a present. :) I'm wearing it in the picture. Since this is a major anniversary milestone and we just had a baby. He had been looking for just the right one for several months! I feel very special. :)

And, then, I got a really cute picture of Luke earlier in the day...

Anniversary Present!

Today, Nathan and I celebrate 5 wonderful years of marriage! Luke decided that he would surprise his parents with a very nice gift: he slept through the night!!! I fed him at 10:15pm last night and he didn't eat again until 7:00am this morning! 8.75 hours!

We woke up at 6am this morning (when our alarms go off for Nathan to go to work - although we usually push a few snoozes before getting out of bed!) and I realized that he hadn't woken up all night long! At first I was a little nervous - hoping he was still okay in the other room - but then he started to make little grunts and occasional mild whimpers around 6:15am or so. He didn't actually start crying until 6:50am, so Nathan and I still got to enjoy our morning together (breakfast and cuddling, etc.) before he had to leave for work at 7am - another wonderful anniversary present!

Yesterday was quite the crazy day for Luke. I went shopping with Joanna in the afternoon, and we ended up taking so long that his feeding interval was stretched to 4 hours instead of 2-1/2 or 3, like he's used to. Then, we had family dinner that evening, and his interval was stretched to 4 hours again! Poor thing - but he was a real trooper and as soon as he ate each time, he was a happy, content little boy again! So, I was wondering what all that would do to his night sleep - seemed to have wonderful results!

Now the question is whether he'll continue to sleep through the night after a day of his regular schedule, or if it was just because he might have been tired out from all the activities. We may not have an accurate picture of that till Monday, because tonight he'll be babysat while we go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, and the weekend always tends to be a little crazy. But, we'll see...

And now, all the pictures I'm sure you're all waiting for (I know I would be!). Over the past few days, I have been taking pictures of Luke in each new outfit I put him in - very fun playing dress-up. :) At least, at this age, he doesn't mind it yet!