Crinkle Teething Cloth

Aria is a teething machine. She will gnaw on anything and everything to satiate her teething urges. Tonight, she made a break for some shoes... luckily, her big brother intervened in time and put the shoes out of her reach.

I call her my little meow-meow also.. because she has a tendency to kitty scratch everything. We call it her scratch test before she attemps to put something in her mouth.... not so great for our leather couch :-/

Well, I was looking around online for tutorials on how to make a crinkle cloth. I've seen them in department stores but, call me cheap, I didn't want to fork over $15 for a 5"x5" piece of fabric with ribbon. I had enough supplies at home that I could make it myself. The thing is, I didn't know what to use as the crinkle 'material.'

I came across a great tutorial while searching some blogs (Crinkle Square Tutorial) and made it tonight.

Here's my take:

I can't wait to let Aria play with it tomorrow. She fell asleep for the night before I was able to complete it.

Also, I want to add.. I recommend using a teflon presser foot on the sewing machine because the plastic gets stuck under a metal presser foot.. as well as increasing your stitch length.

Dusted Off The Sewing Machine...

It has been way too long! Amiright or amiright?

Well, a few updates since my last post. My family relocated to the peninsula (San Francisco Bay Area). We've been here a tad over a month and are enjoying it--traffic, fog and all.

It was my first full-time semester at ASU and I will be graduating next semester! Woo-woo! Big celebrations are in order!

As you can imagine, I have not had time to devote to crafting because of the hectic pace things have been moving.

Though, I got to do some scrap pages between my last post and now. Some of the pages need a few minor additions before I'll declare them complete. But I am pretty sure that will be done in the next week or so. And when that happens, I'll blog about that then.

But, I got a chance to break out my sewing machine which has been sitting dormant for about a year. My first project was making pajama pants for Cassius. I didn't get around to photographing that yet. And, I tried to make some pajama pants for Aria but didn't really do a good job in measuring for diaper allowance... Once I finish my pj pants for Aria round 2, I'll add those.  But, I did happen to make a cute pair of shoes for her.

I got the pattern online for free and it was actually on the Michael Miller website.

She seems to like them :) They're made out of faux suede with a fabric lining (I think the fabric is MM... I forget).

Anyway, without further ado...

Little Miss - 4 months old

Little Miss Aria turned 4 months on August 29th. She saw her, new, pediatrician on Friday (Sept. 2).

So, her stats are as follows:
Height: 24" (29th percentile)
Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (88th percentile)

Basically, she's short and chubbs but we love her all the same.

Right now, she loves to kick and eat her hands. She's teething so there is a lot of drool just about every day. She also enjoys a little game we call "Super Miss" where we lift her in the air and sing a little silly song.. "Super Miss to save the dayyyy... Super Miss is on her wayyyy... " lol We get a lot of giggles from her when we play that game.

She's not so much a fan of hiking since she starts to fuss about a quarter way into our hikes.. I hope that she'll change her mind about that before it gets too cold.

Also, she seems to be "hongry" all the time and has been drinking about the max amount of milk intake daily and then some.... her new pediatrician said she can start on rice cereal to help keep her satiated. Normally, babies are supposed to wait until six months since studies show that starting solids early leads to an increased risk for diabetes or child obesity.. but since her brother was fine when he started early, she'll be ok too. So, we will probably start her on a little bit of rice later this week.

Aria's Laughing Party

Today, we had Aria's Laughing Party. I hosted the party since I was the person who really made her laugh or her first real laugh which happened on July 12.

The information that explains this came from my mom, who is a navajo language and culture teacher in New Mexico.

In my tribe (Navajo), its tradition to celebrate this occasion with an A’wee Chi’deedloh (Baby's first laugh ceremony). Traditionally taught, babies are from two worlds when they are born. From birth to their first laugh, they are a part of the "Holy People's" world and of ours, the "Earth People's" world. When a baby laughs, it means that they are ready to join the Earth People. In my tribe, we're taught that the baby inherits the qualities of the person who coaxes or makes the baby laugh. And the person who does this has to throw the party for them.

During this celebration, guests bring gifts for the baby.. and in turn, the baby hands out salt crystals from their right hand to symbolize the act of giving and being generous throughout their life. The salt is then consumed by the guest and their good qualities are said to be rejuvenated. According to tradition, Ashii Asdzaan (Salt Woman) set this example of giving and recieving salt as she is from the Grand Canyon salt mines.

Traditionally, the ceremony involves prayer. However, I'm not particularly religious or pray, so instead, we adapted the tradition to go as follows: baby hands out salt, guest speaks positivity into the baby's life and then the guest ingests the salt.

We invited our friends for this small party, Damon and Cortney. We all spoke positivity into Aria's life that she would be kind, funny, radiant, love life, be creative, successful, intelligent and be compassionate. As I was speaking goodness into her life, she looked at me with her sparkly eyes and big smile and I lost my train of thought. She is so easy to fall in love with, it melts your heart.

Anyway, I was caught up in the moment that I forgot to take photos. Thankfully, James popped out his phone and took some photos.

We got her some cute leggings and Damon & Cortney gave her the most adorable teddy bear. We all shared each other's company over a family recipe of spaghetti and meatballs with a side of proscuitto, wet mozzarella and tomatoes with salad and garlic bread. We finished off the evening with delicious canollis.

Big thanks to Damon and Cortney for sharing this special occassion with us!

32 Week Prenatal Appointment

I had my 32-week prenatal appointment today with my doctor here in Montana. She's so wonderful.

So far, things with this pregnancy are looking good. I gained four pounds since my last visit.. which I think is mostly a growth spurt on part of little miss in my tummy. She's moving around a lot and her heartbeat is still nice and strong. I didn't get the exact measurements but the bump is measuring just right.

The nurses took my vitals today and I am happy to say that there is no sign of high blood pressure and the rest of my vitals were good. Since I have a history if pre-eclampsia with my prior pregnancies, its important for me to keep on top of this stuff. Its scary sometimes because I'll freak out over any little thing. Like my dizzy spells this time around, which were later attributed to me inadvertently sleeping on my back. And the sometimes lower back pain or the sometimes upper stomach pain. But, I haven't had any swelling (yet) which is a good sign.

Before I get too gigantic, I will need to take another pregnancy bump photo. I picked up some cute ideas the last few weeks so I will be excited to share them once I get around to setting up my studio lights.

New 2011 Scrapbook Pages

Hi again,
Here's another round of scrapbook pages from the beginning of this year.

My favorite scrap site, Scrapbook Daisies, held an online Valentine crop and these creations were used as submissions. And guess what? I was one of the winners of the crop! As soon as I get my prize, I will have to share that in another post.

One of the challenges was to create an altered item. I chose to create a name ornament for Cassius since I had a ton of extra paper mache ornaments lying around. The paper line is an oldie but goodie from Cosmo Cricket. The ornament was painted off white with the paper decoupaged onto it. I had picked up some really cute glitter alpha stickers somewhere and figured that it would be a good match for this mini project.

Another challenge was to create a layout with 5 requirements: Use a song title as the page title, use paint, layout must have at least 5 hearts and use of bling... plus, we had to journal in strips. I finally created a layout about us finding out we were having a baby girl. In case you're wondering about the song, "Baby Mine" was originally from Dumbo.. but the version by Allison Krauss is SO pretty!

Having had a little boy for so long, its going to get some getting used to in creating girl pages. But the thing I love about boy layouts is that they're a bit of a challenge because the color palette can sometimes be limited and the variety of papers available for boys is pretty slim. Again, this layout is about Cassius' photo shoot compromise. He wouldn't sit for his passport photo unless I got a photo of him with Baby Doggie and Panda.

On a side note, scrapbooking is an addictive hobby. Sometimes, I give myself a budget and go to a scrap store with the intention of buying items outside of my comfort zone. I bought this acetate Celebrate page about two years ago and I finally put it to use in my New Year layout. The images are from the New Years Eve celebration at Big Mountain (here in Whitefish, MT). I'm actually happy I was able to capture some good fireworks images because its been something I've struggled with in the past. For the challenge, we had to follow a "page map" or sketch and this was my take.

Another part to the challenge was creating Valentine cards that used non-traditional colors. This is the project I made and Cassius and I gave these to James for Valentine's day.

Fall - Winter 2010 Scrapbook Pages

As promised, I mentioned that I would share some scrapbook projects that I completed within the last six months. For now, here is the first set from about August-December 2010.

As you can see, I've been playing some catch-up with my layouts. I finally created a layout of my son during our summer visit in 2009. We have been making it a habit to visit the park located behind Fayette Mall in Lexington, Ky. That visit was also unique because we made a trip to a local instant-print photography shop to get some "pro" photos done. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Last year, a good portion of my immediate family celebrated my mom's birthday at my brother's house. My mom got some great gifts.. especially one she's been hoping for.. forever - a KitchenAid heavy duty mixer. She was so excited she even hopped with glee! I think that was the best part of the day, seeing my mom so happy that she screamed and hopped when she opened the gift.

Not long after we moved to Montana, the snow came down and it stuck. The first huge snowfall we received was a really cool experience. Cassius was super excited about winter being here that he and his dad did guy things outside like engage in snow ball fights and building a snowman.. who lasted up until the end of January. Now, the poor snowman is a sad mound of snow.

Here in Whitefish, we have immediate access to a ski mountain. It takes, maybe, 15 minutes to get to the top from our house. On opening weekend, Cassius got his first private ski lesson from his instructor, Mark. he learned the basics like how to ski in "pizza" formation so he doesn't go too fast and how to properly get on and off of the magic carpet. In the photos below, he is wearing the winter hat that our friend, Jennifer, knitted for him. Everyone loves that hat.

I finally got around to scrapping some of the photos from the May 2010 France trip. I totally goofed on my title with my thickers.. but corrected the spelling after I took this photo. I really should just break out my camera again to get the correct photo... but alas.. "D'Amoise" is actually "D'Amboise." In the wise words of Homer, "I am so smart. S-M-R-T!" lol

In 2010, I came to the realization that I hardly have scrapbook pages about some of the major milestones that Cassius lived through. So, to get some of those moments recorded, I give you "First Tooth." Isn't it so cute.. just a tiny little tooth nub that you can barely see.

I tell you, Cassius is one lucky kid. He pretty much got to live through a lot of experiences in his short little life than I got to experience in my first 25 years of life and then some! I think my first trip to the beach was when I was 8. Of course, we lived in NM and my parents were supporting a household of six kids - infant to college students. But seriously, you can't say that the boy isn't enriched.

A lot of these scrapbook pages are the result of me participating in online scrapbook crops at one of my favorite sites online, Scrapbook Deals 4 U which is now Scrapbook Daisies. The group of women who participate at the site are wonderful and inspiring. They help keep my hobby in check (by giving feed back, ideas and periodic challenges to scrapbooking). Anyway, enough being sentimental. Honestly, if it weren't for them, I would never scrapbook about myself. Its really hard to find a photo of myself, too, because I'm usually the one behind the lens. This layout is about my 29th birthday party.

Last summer, before we made the big decision to move to Montana, we came for a visit. Our first stop was in Missoula. We found this cool little park and carousel by checking out the "things to do" flyers in our hotel lobby. When we checked out the next morning, we decided to drive over for a visit. No regrets on that side trip.

Once we made it to Kalispell, we gave our friend, Damon, a call. He took us sight seeing and one of the highlights of his tour included a trip to Glacier National Park. This place is incredible. I can't wait until the weather warms up and we can go hiking here.

I realize that this is out of order.. but, on our family summer vacation, we camped in Yellowstone National Park. Here we are at Old Faithful.. enjoying the smell of "1,000 buffalo farts" of which that is geysers and hot springs. Ok, forgive me for the flatulence reference... I'm just quoting James and Cassius and their disapproval of the smell.

Again, another scrap page about me in Paris. I hope to go back again. ASU just announced that there will be another trip in 2012... I hope to go!! J'adore Paris!

Another from our family summer trip of 2010. We hopped by Seattle's famous Seattle Center and got to go to the top of the space needle. Afterward, we walked around and saw this incredible fountain. The boys couldn't resist and had to run amok through the sprays. You can't tell, but the boys are soaked in the photo of them with the Space Needle in the background.

There you have it.. most of what I completed in the fall-winter of 2010.

Time to dust off the ol' blog...

Geez, its been six months since my last post. I figure that now is as good a time as any to get back into the swing of things, blog wise.

A lot of changes have happened since my last post in August.

1. Our little family moved to NW Montana. We are enjoying the winter and sometimes the sub-zero temperatures that come along with it.
2. We are expecting a little girl due in April.
3. I'm taking it easy with my photography. I still have some clients in Arizona who I meet with every couple of months. Yet, I find that here, there is no real market for a commercial photographer. Thus, I am slowly re-marketing myself as a family/children/infant photographer.
4. I am still attending classes at ASU, albiet online - they are classes nonetheless.

So, in the meantime. I've also worked on a few crafting projects.

In the next post, I'll be sharing some new scrapbook layouts that were completed in the last six months.

But in this post, I wanted to share that we finally got around to reupholstering our dining room chairs. Upon moving to Montana, we had to leave the other set in Arizona, as it was way too large and heavy to transport. We brought with us a slightly smaller, more moveable dining set that has been in my partner's family awhile. Yet, considering its age, the chair seats were in pretty bad condition.

Luckily, Jo-Ann's had an incredible sale not long ago on home decor fabrics at 50% off and we got to recover our seats for less than $4 a chair.

The end result: