"She works with her hands in delight" Proverbs 31:13

What I've Been Working On...

 

I am excited to say that I am beginning my very first project for Baby! I haven't sewn anything in such a long time it feels like, and it's about time I get something crafty going! I have always wanted to make my baby its own quilt one day, and now that I have one "cooking" and know that she's a girl, I am going to make her a quilt.

The other day, I found these little packs of fabric that were very inexpensive in a really expensive fabric store. They each had 40 squares in them that were already measured and cut out. At first, Eli's mom and I looked at the many bolts of fabric, and as soon as I saw bolts of this fabric lining the wall, I thought "that's it"! I knew I definitely couldn't afford buying the fabric off the bolt for almost $9 a yard so I just thought I would search for that fabric in another store perhaps for cheaper. Well, I saw that they had these already cut out squares in a pack with all of the fabrics that I loved for only $8! We grabbed two without hesitation along with a little extra of one of the fabrics that I really liked.

Today I am laying out all of the squares and am trying to figure out the best way to arrange them. I'm not making a little baby quilt right now but decided instead to make a pretty good sized (toddler sized) quilt to use as decoration in the crib, to hold Baby in, and to use on the floor to play on since I bought too many squares for a little itty bitty quilt. It will probably be used more that way. I've heard that little infants don't really need a large heavy quilt to sleep in anyway. I can't wait to start sewing!

Oh...I am also excited because I just ordered myself my very first maternity skirt online! Yay! I thought that I could maybe keep making my drawstring skirts during my pregnancy and that they would be sufficiant. Well...they are getting really tight! Haha! I thought about just making the size bigger...but all that's getting bigger is my stomach really, and I'm afraid that I will look like a "tank" in a bigger skirt. :) Yesterday, Mom and I were at a thrift store, and I tried a maternity skirt on (it turned out to be really short) and it was sooooo comfortable. :) I can't wait to get mine in the mail!

Oh one more thing that I'm excited about...I can feel her move a lot! I thought she was in a kick-boxing match this morning. :)

Our Living Room...

Hi Everyone! I thought I'd post some pictures of my latest project...our living room! The above picture is the "before", and as you can see, it looks a little feminine with the really floral rug, pink heart pillow on the chair, and other rather "feminine" furniture from my old room. Since I had never decorated my own house before, I have been finding myself decorating all of it like I would my bedroom...poor Eli. :) Well, lately I have been convicted to change that! Yes, a woman's decorating haven is the house, but the house should also reflect the man of the house and be his place of refuge and comfort after a long day at work. So I took down the flowers and pinkness and "manned" the room up a bit. I will tell you, this room was a lot more girly when we first moved in and before this picture was taken. Just imagine my frilly rag swag hanging over the couch. :)

And this is the "after" shot of the living room after its makeover! I tried to warm things up a bit with our many books and then "manifying" the room with a lot of Eli's things. He had a lot of really beautiful dark wood bookshelves, pictures, and a dark desk that I moved into the room. It really warmed this space up a lot and makes it look more like a living room somehow. We also moved my floral rug out and replaced it with a beautiful neutral rug that really makes the space comfortable and lovely. After adding the curtains from Eli's old room, my piano, a rocking chair that was graciously given to us, and some pillows on the couch, I have to say that I love the end result. Eli loves it because it brings him comfort by reminding him of his old room and some familiarity in our new house. 

I really enjoyed pleasing my husband with the new look of the living room. I want to make our home a place of refuge for him, and my goal is to keep that in mind from now on while I decorate our house!

Sweet Baby _________?

 

Are you curious?

Well, it looks as if I'm going to be making a lot of little frilly baby dresses because...

IT'S A SWEET BABY GIRL!!!!

I am so excited and Daddy is tickled "pink". :) The ultrasound went beautifully this morning, and we got to see the baby hiccup and kick around! She is so sweet and is perfectly healthy. No wonder I had always gravitated to the little girl dresses in the store and could only think of baby girl names. We are so excited to be having a baby girl!!! Now I get to decorate her room with my favorite colors... pink and green :) Yay! Praise the LORD!!!

Here Chick Chick!

   

Please meet my new little feathery pets! This is what they looked like a couple of weeks ago. I always loved to see other people's chickens scratching and flapping around in their yards and thought it was so sweet. I never thought I would actually have some of my own at my house! Mrs. J. was very thoughtful to give me four of her little baby Barred Rock laying hens to take care of as my own. I was really wanting a dog at the time because I had a need to have something to take care of.  I suppose my motherly instincts are kicking in because I need to take care of something. :) Anyway, she was so kind to give me these four little hens to get my own little "farmstead" going! I kept their living quarters (a box) inside the house for a few weeks until they were big enough to go outside. Because I was in need of a chicken pen, Mr. J. set his carpentry skills to work with building me a little chicken coop in our back yard.  

 

Here is what the chicken coop looked like as it was almost finished.

 

And here's what it looks like now. He added windows on the back, one on the side, and even a little flower box. He made sure that all sides of their pen were cemented underneath the dirt to keep any predators away. My chickens are happy. :)

Right away I went to buy some flowers for the window box. Thankfully, I had Mom there with me to help me coordinate the different flowers...she's has an "eye" for coordinating things. :) Iwas feeling quite overwhelmed with all of the different choices of plants myself! Next, we're hopefully going to paint the chicken coop, but I'm not quite sure what color. I may just stick with white because that looks "cottagy" and will match the house.

  

This is the back of the coop. Mr. J. also built a little box on the back that leads into the inside. When you lift the lid there are three boxes for the chickens to lay their eggs in. All I have to do when I collect the eggs is lift up the lid and grab them! That will be very nice and I can keep the bottoms of my shoes clean. :)

 

This is what they look like now after a couple of weeks of growing.

Do you see that one on the left? I think it may be a rooster. :) I hope he'll be nice to me if he is for sure a "he". :)

 

So this has been my new project! I am really enjoying my little chickens. Right now, I'm trying to train them to go into their pen when I call using  a hand full of scratch. I think I'm getting it down! I do have one chicken dilemma though...I haven't named them yet! I have had the hardest time thinking of cute chicken names. :) Right now, they're all named "chicken". Imagine when time comes to pick out a baby name! I can't keep calling it "Baby"! Haha!

Speaking of Baby...tomorrow is the big day!!!! In the morning we're finding out if Baby is a boy or a girl...and guess what...Eli got the morning off so he can come with me!!! That was a huge blessing! Please join us in praying that all goes well tomorrow. If you're interested, I'll be posting the news tomorrow evening so check back if you want!

Well, Husband will be home in a little bit and I have some laundry calling my name. :) Thankfully, we're having leftover chicken alfredo tonight so no cooking for me! Yay! I am going to make a cherry cobbler tonight though with some fresh cherries that were sitting in the fridge. I have my guy hooked on cobbler :) ...thanks Papa for the peach cobbler recipe that "hooked" him! Ah, I'm nervous about tomorrow!!!!

18 Weeks

 

 Getting bigger! I'll let y'all know how today's appointment goes!

 

Anybody Home?

Hello to all of my faithful friends! I am soooo very sorry for not being so very faithful myself with my blog writing lately. I can't believe I haven't posted in like a month! Well, I am still alive and am feeling very pregnant nowadays. :) Tomorrow or the next day I am going to post another preggy picture and also share with you some news about some new little feathered pets that I have. :) I have actually been sick these past couple of weeks because I think my new little "pets" have given me a mild case of salmonella. How nice. Can anyone guess what kind of pets I have? Haha! I am feeling much better though...it is just a stomach virus type thing that I can feel is diminishing.

Tomorrow, Mom and I are going to my 18 week appointment at the hospital! Boy...I hope there is no blood drawing. Ouch! I get to hear baby's heartbeat again which is always fun! Eli won't be able to make it though because he is going through a bit of a job change and can't get any time off. On the 25th, I am going with Mom and Mrs. J. to find out what the baby is! I'm hoping and praying Eli can get off for that! If he can't, I'm going to tell the doctor to write the gender down on a piece of paper so that we can find out together later in the day. Ah suspense. :)

Well anyways I am just rambling now and need to get off of here and eat something...I am about to starve! Pregnant women really do crave pickles and icecream! I thought that was just a joke. :) You know what I have been craving lately? Lots of french fries, chicken sandwiches from Chik-fil-a, seafood, turkey subs with ranch dressing and onions, dill pickles, and green apple liquorice. :) Two days ago I was really wanting hot chocolate and it was like 90 degrees outside! Y'all are going to think I'm crazy. :) It's funny how you like "have" to have those things or you feel like you're going to die! One good thing that I have to have all of the time is a glass of ice water. It must have ice or it is no good! At least it's healthy right?

Well I didn't mean to make this a post just about pregnancy ramblings but that is what's going on right now in Alli-land! I hope y'all are doing well, and thank you so much for continuing to check in with me and read my blog. I'll be coming with another post hopefully tomorrow. God bless! 

Spring Cleaning: Proverbs 31-Style

"She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness."

Proverbs 31:27

As a new wife and homemaker, there are so many things I am trying to learn and so many areas in which I am trying to improve in. One of those areas is that of keeping a house clean. :) I  have had the hardest time being a good wife in this area because I can quite easily become a little overwhelmed... especially ever sincee I became pregnant and haven't been feeling my best. Recently, the LORD had brought to my mind the verse above regarding the Proverbs 31 woman. She "eats not the bread of idleness". This verse has really been convicting because, lately, I had been very idle and unproductive with my house-keeping duties. :) Now that I am starting to feel more like myself, I am really going to try to better myself in this area! I thought it was hard keeping my bedroom clean when I was living with my parents...now I have eight rooms to organize and keep tidy!

A long time ago, Mom and I came up with a system that I'm going to start implementing into my week. We wrote down a list of all of the days of the week, excluding Sunday our day of rest. Then under each day, we would assign a different room to be cleaned on that specific day (sometimes it would be two rooms on some days and one on others...just depending on how many rooms you have to clean). Under each room, we would write the different duties that needed to be done in order to really "deep clean".

I have to admit, it was very hard to stick to our list! But it was such a blessing though! When we stuck to our cleaning list, our house stayed clean all of the time, and when we had guests, there was always hardly any cleaning to be done. And with the cleaning spread out, we only had a little to do each day. Not to mention... you will feel like you've had such a productive and God-glorifying day by "looking well to the ways of your household"!

The other day, I made up my list as you can see above. I won't write down the whole list for you here because I'm sure that would be extremely boring to read...but I will write down an example for you so you know kind of what I'm talking about:

Wednesday

Guest Bathroom:

• wipe sink and cabinet

• organize underneath cabinet

• clean mirror

• wipe down toilet

• scrub inside of toilet

• scrub shower and glass around shower

• lay out fresh towels

• check for toilet paper

• change out bag in trash can

• wipe and sweep floor

 

Hallway:

 

• organize towel cabinet, dust

• organize shoe closet

• sweep and mop

So that is my game plan! I really want to be the wife and mother that God wants me to be, and He has given us such a perfect example of womanhood in the Proverbs 31 woman. I know that God never wants any of us to be idle in our lives whether we are single or married. I pray that I can do better in this area and "look well to the ways of my household" while glorifying God through the blessing of my husband.

11 Weeks

                                

Where oh where is my sewing machine?

                                

Well it's happening...I am having trouble fitting into my skirts! I am so excited to be starting a new sewing project. It will be the first sewing project that I have worked on since moving into our house. I am going to make me a denim drawstring skirt that will actually fit my growing stomach! Well in order to do so...I had a little bit of work ahead of me. In the picture aabove, you can see the sad state of my sewing desk. :) No wonder I felt too overwhelmed to begin any projects! Yesterday, I set to work and tried my hand at organizing my desk and making a little sewing area...at least to where I could actually get to my sewing machine! I wonder if it still works? I haven't used it in so long. :) 

                                

There's my sewing machine! Much better. :) Now I will actually be motivated to begin my skirt instead of being afraid that I will knock a huge tower of junk off into the floor in an effort to retrieve my sewing machine. :) 

                                 

I have invaded Eli's shelf for now. :)

                                 

This is the denim and the pattern that I will be using for my skirt. I am hoping to get the fabric all cut out today. I can't wait to start sewing it. Hopefully my sewing machine will hold up to the denim fabric. I've never sewn with denim before. :) I'll post the finished project!  I'm hoping to post a baby belly picture soon. :)

Guess What?

                                                          

We bought a new camera battery charger so I can start posting pictures! I have been having such a bad memory lately. Guess what else I lost? I also lost the cord that plugs into the camera for the computer! Thankfully my wonderful and very patient husband found it yesterday after about a week or so of looking. Guess what else I lost? I have also lost our NEW camera battery charger! Can you believe it? I have to look for that today. Ah pregnancy. :)