Archive for November 2014
The harder it is to bend over, the more your first child will spill liquids and drop objects on the ground.
True story.
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
I love pregnancy
Posted on: November 29, 2014
Hubby asked me, despite everything that has been going on, if I still love being pregnant. Here’s my answer:
I love being pregnant. I love feeling the baby move around. I love knowing that I’m not alone at the moment, that there is always someone with me, even when I’m up at night while all of you are asleep. I love trying to figure out what body part is poking out of my tummy. I love trying to figure out what kind of personality this little person in me is going to have based on her movements and how she interacts when I rub my belly. I love imagining what she’s going to look like when she comes out.
I don’t like the constant aches and pains. I really don’t like the first trimester of constant nausea. I really don’t like the third trimester of constant discomfort. I don’t like that I waddle. I don’t like that I gain too much weight during each pregnancy. I don’t like that this pregnancy had way too many complications. I don’t like being confined to a wheelchair when we go places. I don’t like that I’m not allowed to do too much stuff. I don’t like the sore abdomen muscles. I don’t like the sore groin muscles. I don’t like it has to hurt to give birth. I don’t like the healing process after giving birth. I don’t like, even though labor is practically a routine thing, that there is always a chance of complication. I don’t like that I get so irritated so quickly when my hormones go all haywire.
Hubby says that it seems that the dislikes outnumber the likes.
While it may seem so, the truth of the matter is, I really do love being pregnant and all those dislikes are nothing comparent to the feeling of holding my sweet newborn when all is said and done.
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted on: November 27, 2014
I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Thanksgiving.
I’ll be taking today and tomorrow off the blog to spend with my family. I hope your holiday is filled with as much laughter and love as mine will be.
See you on the weekend!
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Bringing it back..
Posted on: November 26, 2014
I’ve been crafting. I’m sure you can tell.
Quilts. Pinterest projects. Scrapbooks. Cards. Ricebags.
I do have a craft blog, CutieQ Cards n Crafts. It’s a place where I concentrate soley on crafting, particular cards and scrapbooking. The goal of that blog is to feature cards that I put on Etsy and hope to sell.
That blog has been stagnant since May 2014.
It’s hard to keep up a craft blog. There is a lot of photography, watermarking, uploading.. technical stuff.
It got hard to balance this blog with that blog, then all the pregnancy issues came about… so my entire life was put on hold.
Now that things are relatively ok (modified bedrest allows me time to sit up and craft, type and actually do stuff), I’ve been thinking about that blog again.
I still have dreams and goals of selling my handmade cards and other goods, but I have to be realistic and put that on hold for awhile. A new baby will make it hard to keep up with inventory and orders.
I know starting up the crafting blog while pushing 8 months into a pregnancy is not the best idea. Things are going to get hectic again and I just might not be able to keep up with it all. But I want to do this. I need to do this.
So, I’m going to do it.
It’s going to be a once a week blog, updating every Monday. I’m going to try to keep up with holidays and seasons. I will try to make it a well-rounded blog about all the different methods of crafting that I am dabbling in. Eventually, I will start to feature items that I intend on selling and will reactivate the Etsy store with all the featured items.
The blog relaunches on December 1st. In the meantime, check out what I’ve done in the past by clicking the link, CutieQ Cards n Crafts.
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
The Unshower Shower
Posted on: November 25, 2014
When we found out we were pregnant, I contemplated whether or not we were going to have a baby shower.
This is my second child. We have all the big ticket baby items, stroller, playpen, carseat, high chair.. etc.
We didn’t NEED anything new.
However, most of the other smaller items we have are for a girl. If we were going to have a boy, we’d have to get a lot of new things in “boy.”
But then, we found out we were having a girl again, so I figured we didn’t need a shower at all anymore.
As the pregnancy progressed, we hit one scare after another. From the bleed that left us with a 50/50 chance of miscarriage, to the bedrest and daily progesterone due to a suddenly shrinking cervix…
I felt compelled to celebrate the pregnancy and this new little one.
So, I agreed to an “unshower shower.”
It’s not a shower. It’s a celebration. It’s a celebration that the pregnancy has lasted this long and that despite the hardships, the baby has been completed unaffected. By the grace of God, she’s been growing at a normal pace, and she moves around like she doesn’t have a care in the world.
I didn’t register anywhere and am not obligating anyone to get me a gift or diapers or anything.
I just want us to all get together to celebrate this pregnancy and all the hardships we’ve gone through during this journey.
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Rag Quilt – Cutting the fabric
Posted on: November 24, 2014
I cut the fabric earlier this week.
It was my very first time cutting fabric and I have to tell you, Youtube makes it look easy.
It may have been my supplies.
I’m using a fairly small cutting mat. It’s the one that I use for my papercrafting. I’m not using one of those flat rulers that you can find in the fabric section of a craft store. That ruler used to be my brother’s, who used it during his college art days. The only thing “fabric crafting” that I purchased for this project was that rotary cutter.
My cuts weren’t perfect like they looked on YouTube, but once I realized that I would eventually be “ragging” the edges, I was ok with a little imperfection.
It took about two different days to get all the fabric cut into 9 inch squares.
I made 14 squares of these two colors. Sorry the color is off. It was evening when I cut them and I had to depend on the lamp in our house.
I made 16 squares of each of these patterns.
The next item I have to cut is batting.
Then, I start to sew!
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Peanut allergy…
Posted on: November 23, 2014
I think it started around Easter of this year.
She was given a Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg from Gymboree during their Easter Egg Hunt. We were in the car when she broke the wrapper open and, before I knew it, she ate almost the whole thing.
Almost immediately, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and whined a little like something was bothering her. Thinking it was just the grittiness of the peanut butter, I gave her water and some milk. She stopped complaining.
We had family over for a visit to our apartment. M ate some dinner, but she just wasn’t her peppy self. She was a little uneasy and a little clingy. I thought it was because she didn’t normally see these family members. Then, while she was sitting on my lap, she just vomitted. Projectile vomit. Everything in her stomach just out on the floor and the recliner. Immediately after that, she was fine.
I started to suspect a peanut allergy, so I made it a point to make sure she avoided peanuts in her foods.
Fast forward to September. Hubby purchased peanut butter m&ms, but kept them upstairs in his office.
M went upstairs before bed and went into Hubby’s office. Because they were m&ms, she thought they were ok and ate one. Almost immediately after eating it, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and whined like something was bothering her inside her mouth, similar to what she did at Easter. I gave her lots of water and we prepared ourselves for her to throw up again.
She was fine for about half an hour, when she started to act a little different again. We were prepared for the vomit, but it didn’t come. Because she was acting a bit off, I gave her a dose of Benadryl. Before the Benadryl kicked in, I noticed her smacking her lips and mouth together. I asked her if anything felt itchy and she said her mouth was itchy.
We stayed up until the Benadryl kicked in and she no longer smacked her lips together and was no longer complaining about anything feeling itchy.
A few weeks later, I talked to her pediatrician about it. They scheduled a skin test and a consultation with the allergy doctor.
At the skin test, the peanut allergy did NOT show up. However, the allergy doctor said that because of her reaction during the two times she ingested peanut butter, he wanted to do a blood test to confirm.
Blood test confirmed that she DOES have a peanut allergy. Category III, he called it. I think it had to do with the level of IgM detected. It’s pretty much the middle of the peanut allergy spectrum, which also meant that she has a very little chance of outgrowing it in the future.
We were issued epipens. I take the epipen and a bottle of Benadryl wherever we go now.
In a future blog post, I’ll talk about how our lives have slightly adjusted since her diagnosis..
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Her first Pinterest craft..
Posted on: November 22, 2014
Before bed, M and I sometimes browse Pinterest on my phone.
She LOVES looking through the Christmas pins, so we’ve been finding some toddler-friendly Christmas crafts to do.
One big shopping trip to Joann’s later, we had enough supplies to start working on these Christmas crafts.
M and I started with this pin. Clicking on the picture will take you directly to the pin. Clicking here will take you directly to the pin’s website.
These items were super easy to find at Joann’s AND they were reasonably priced. All these items costs less than $10 and we have enough to make about 10-15 candy canes. Perfect to hang around the Christmas tree this year.
M loved stringing the beads onto the pipe cleaners. She started off following a traditional candy cane pattern of alternating red and white, but after awhile I let her just do her own thing. After finishing the first candy cane, she was so proud of herself. She held it so carefully so she wouldn’t ruin the shape and would look at it many times.
She wanted to make a second one. She started off ok, but being three years old, the lure of just playing with the beads was just too strong. So I finished the second one for her, and I let her continue to play with the beads. We counted them, lined them up on the ground, and sorted them by color. It was a great learning opportunity AND a super fun craft!
I can’t wait to work on more Pinterest Christmas projects with her!
Follow me on Pinterest by clicking here.
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Rag Quilt
Posted on: November 21, 2014
I have to admit, since I’ve been off of work, I’ve been itching to do something super crafty..
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to inherit a sewing machine from one of Hubby’s friends that were moving.
A sewing machine is a total foreign machine to me. I had NO idea what anything was. Luckily, my aunt was over for the week and she taught me all the basics. She even talked me through sewing a small pillow case!
After that brief lesson on basics, I’m pretty determined to tackle quilt making.
Yes. Quilt making.
I’ve been obsessed with this particular rag quilting Youtube video:
Seems pretty basic enough, right?
So, I dragged Hubby to Joann’s and we went to get the basics. Fabric, batting, rotary cutter, and thread. Everything else, I think I have or can make useful.
Those are the fabric patterns I plan to work with.
I also plan to record my progress on this blog. Hubby seems to think I may have a few meltdowns during the process. He’s probably right. I hope I can finish before the baby is born. If I finish this, I plan to make one for M too.
Have you made a rag quilt before? Please tell me it’s as easy as it looks!!!
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Jamberry – Jamicures
Posted on: November 20, 2014
Every 10th and 20th of the month will feature a Jamberry post. This is to help promote my business and get the word out. I appreciate your support of my new business venture and hope that if you order, you order from me. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
I’ve only been selling Jamberry since mid-September. I fell in love with the ease of the application and the price of each wrap. I could get a fancy nail design for less than what I pay for a basic mani/pedi!
When I signed on as a consultant, I was able to get a few free nail wraps to try out.
While the application wasn’t perfect, I was impressed by the ease and quickness. I did both hands and feet while M napped.
Another great thing about Jamberry is that they have wraps for the kiddos! M loves to put on the “nail stickers.” We mainly put them on her toes, but she’s had them on her hands once. The only problem we have with putting them on her hands is that she will physically pick them off. I will probably wait for her to get a little older to start placing them on her hands again, but she LOVES having them on her toes.
This was her first application:
Here is the application we did on her hands. Like I said earlier, they didn’t last very long only because she physically picked on some of them. The ones she left alone lasted the guaranteed two week period.
When I first put my set on, I wanted to see if they lasted the guaranteed two weeks. I also wanted to see how well they did under normal housework conditions (I wasn’t on bedrest anymore when I first got my wraps). They lasted so well during the guaranteed two weeks despite all the cooking, cleaning and dishwashing. I was super happy and was hooked on my wraps!
Here is my second application.
I love the pop of color on my accent nail! This second time around, the application was much better. It really does take practice. Each application gets easier and better.
I love this jamicure. It was fun and fiesty. I love the ombre pink with the animal print. Accent nails are super fun to coordinate. They can really show off a person’s personality!
When I did this jamicure, M wanted to do her nails. The great thing about the children’s wrap is that they come with two coordinating designs per sheet. So not only did we have the stripes, we had the flowers and we were able to mix and match them.
Jamberry nail wraps are a fun mommy and me activity! Super affordable and super easy to apply!
Visit my website, http://buggyjams.jamberrynails.net/, and browse the wide variety of nail designs!
I have a party going on right now. Click here to participate, My Holiday Party.
Join this FB Group, Rachel’s Jamberry Holiday Party, and leave a comment telling me you found it from this blog. Then invite your friends to join in on the fun! If you invite a friend, and you AND your friend place an order with me, I will send you a free half-sheet of wraps, designs will vary. Anyone that takes advantage of the Buy 3, Get 1 Free deal will be entered into a drawing to win a mini-heater ($19 value) or an application kit ($12.50 value).
If you have an questions, please feel free to contact me. Leave me a comment and I’ll be happy to answer any questions!
(Don’t forget to click these badges to rate my blog and vote for me. All you need to do is click!)
Living life in the carpool lane.. 