I have had so much fun sewing the past two days!

But first of all....It's snowing! Yup, that's right.  We have had heavy wet snow coming down since first thing this morning.  As of right now, I'd say we have 5".  We are due for 6"-12".  Honestly, I don't mind...It is pretty and likely our last real snow of the season.  And it won't be here long....We are forecast to have highs of 69 in just a few days.

So, I have pictures today.  You remember the fabrics I got for the baby gifts?

Since I ditched the burp cloth idea, I decided to make bibs and baby shoes.  I got some PUL at Joann's to back the bibs and for backing pockets I put on the bibs. 

I found the sweetest ribbon at Joann's that matched the bibs perfectly.  I ran it along the top of the pockets and used the ribbon for ties.

I made five coordinating bibs.

I think they came out very cute and have a sort of "boutique" kind of look to them.  I love the fabrics.

I also have been working on baby shoes....But I'll save that for another day.

I have to say, I am feeling quite relaxed and recharged.  I have had five days off in a row and it has been delicious.  I have had time to sew, enjoy my family, draw, clean, putter.....It's been nice.  I do at times miss the whole sahm gig as I really enjoy keeping house and home. 

Oh! Speaking of which!!!! (Not really, but the polar opposite: being a working mom).  We got our commitment letter from our bank for our mortgage!!! Now, we can start house hunting in earnest. (Mind you, we already have a realtor and have driven past a dozen houses or so....)  We hope to be in a new home by late summer.

You thought I was lapsing again, didn't you?  Really, I just get busy and it stretches into days of busyness.  I didn't mean to let it go so long, I even uploaded pictures late last week to blog, but again...The busyness kicked in.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. It was mild and breezy and sunny.  We took our kites out after lunch and spent two hours flying them.  My kite went so high! (I have the longest kite string). Nature Boy's went high too.....I got him one of the cheapo plastic kites from the grocery store. My experience is that those cheap kites fly very well...And his sure did!  I used to fly kites a lot as a kid and have good luck with kites.  So much fun!

I also started sewing up the baby gifts as the shower is on Friday.  I gave up on the burp cloth idea because the Gerber diapers I got were just terrible quality and I didn't want to put time and effort into a project with cheap quality base fabric, iykwim!  So, instead I made bibs.  Which reminds me....

JOANN'S NOW SELLS PUL!!!!!! (Yes, it should be shouted from the rooftops so everyone knows!) I am so happy.....I wish they'd carried it sooner, but better late than never.  It is 58" wide, $10/yard (grab those 50% coupons!) and comes in a variety of pastels, blue, pink, green, aqua, as well as white.  I will say, it is fussy to sew with as it is both sticky and stretchy, but I am very happy with how the bibs came out.

Today, I am working on baby shoes and I must say, I have one done and it is tooooo cute!!!! Yes, I will have pictures, but they are on the camera and not on the computer yet.

I do however have pictures of Nature Boy's squabs.  So exciting!

Both the parents have been sitting on the nest.

We took one away and look.....Peeking out from under Mom, a squab!

Peel Mom away, and.......Squabs!

I believe I took those pics on Thursday. Yesterday, we peeked at the squabs again and they have doubled in size and have lots of feathers coming in.  I am always amazed at how fast birds grow.

You thought I was slipping back into the silence, didn't you? 

Truth be told, I just plain forgot to blog last night.  It was Monday after all, I will cut myself some slack.

Today is just going to be a quick post though......My wee friend in a sweater I made for her.

It's the five hour baby sweater knit up with big yarn and needles so it would be toddler sized.

Her mom knit her hat.  I love it! So cute!!!

I have been getting a lot of sleep this weekend.  On a usual work night, I get about 8 hours of sleep.  But this weekend, I have been plum tuckered out! Friday night, I slept for 11 hours and last night I slept for 12 hours! Hopefully, I am catching up on my apparent sleep deficit!!!

Yesterday, Nature Boy had some friends over and they played video games for the afternoon.  Dh and I holed up in our bedroom and set up Netflix on the tv so we could watch some shows.  We stumbled across the series Bones and are enjoying it a lot.  I think we've watched 4 or 5 episodes at this point....I love murder mystery shows and I really like this one because you don't actually have to see the murder or a reenactment of the murder.  It appeals to my puzzling brain (who dunnit) and my gentle nature (I don't like tv/movie violence). 

One thing we noted when watching tv upstairs is that our upstairs birds are a bit raucous! Normally, we don't mind, but it was hard to hear the tv sometimes over the chattering birds.

Speaking of those birds, I think I may have mentioned that we've got eggs all round here.....Our canary just laid an egg (she had laid some a few weeks back too...Hers aren't fertilized as we have no male.) and the finches are on eggs as well as NB's doves.  When we had our last batch of eggs going, I took some pictures to show how small the eggs are....The finch eggs are tiny! Tinier than those milk chocolate Cadbury eggs.  The canary eggs are a bit bigger than the Cadbury eggs.

Here's the canary egg.

And here's the canary egg with a finch egg.

You can see that the white finch egg would easily fit inside the canary egg.  They are unbelievably small...Of course the finches themselves are tiny, so it makes sense, it's just amazing to see it in "real life."

A few weeks ago, we had an opportunity to leave our landlocked state and have a quick visit with the ocean.  Really, I had a conference, but it was on the coast.  It also took place at the end of the week and coincided with some half days at Nature Boy's school.  So, we all went and made it a mini vacation.

I was in the conference pretty much for the whole time, but the boys got out and had some fun.  They found a gaming store that they went to at least two times.  Nature Boy picked up some new dice and they found a new couple of games to buy.....If you think we have a lot of birds here, you should see how many games we have!!! <shakes head>

I've played neither game yet, but this is what they picked up:

Hive

And Mystery of the Abbey

The mystery game is very much like clue....We ought to sit down and play it soon! We've been so busy lately, we haven't had much time to play games.  The boys have however played Hive several times.  It is portable and quick, good for toting places.

But the best part of our trip was that I got to see the ocean.  I love the ocean.  I love the sound and feel of the rhythm of the waves as they break on the beach.  I could easily be lulled into a deep relaxed state by the waves. 

We only spent like a half hour at the beach.  The timing wasn't great, it was basically just past the peak of high tide, so really there wasn't even much beach to speak of.  We did walk along the rocky top of the beach.  it was also windy and cold....March, at the ocean, is not that hospitable.  Of course, Nature Boy got wet pretty much first thing, so it didn't take long for him to be freezing.  But I got to see and smell the ocean and feel the waves as they pounded the ground....It was very nice!

Nature Boy staring at the waves.

Maybe this summer, we'll make a trip to the beach when we can sit and really enjoy it!

So, what has been going on here lately?  Lots of the usual stuff.  Work, work, work and family, family, family.  Nothing really exciting is going on right now, but that's okay.  I like usual.

Our family has grown lately.  We have birds coming out our ears here. Nature Boy got a pair of doves about six weeks ago and he is so wonderful with him.  The kid has a real knack with animals and is using it with his doves, they respond really well to him and he to them.  I made a big deal about the doves being his responsibility and it was a commitment that  he was not going to bail out of.  He actually spent about three months deciding whether or not he was ready for the commitment.  He read and researched and thought a lot about it.  Finally, I had some baby finches that needed taking care of before they were re-homed (okay, they weren't so much babies at that point) and I put them in his room.  He loved taking care of them and having the company.  I think that's what turned him to decide to get the doves.

The doves themselves are beautiful.  For some reason, I only have one good picture of one of the doves...But here she is.

They are ring neck doves, the pet store sold them as pink, but we think that they are really apricot colored.  They are very docile and Nature Boy has tamed them up very well.  And most exciting of all, last week they laid a pair of eggs.  We have candled the eggs and they are indeed fertile and developing.  We should have squabs next week!

See what I mean about birds coming out our ears?  Six chickens, two doves and two on the way, eight finches and one blind canary......It's avian overload!!!!

Today has been a delightful day.  Dh has been away since Sunday at a conference in far away Seattle.  I took today off of work so that I could pick him up at the airport. He got in around 10:30 (his flight was early, even!) and he is now home with us.

So, the best treat of all has been having a non-work day.  I got to sleep in a bit, have a leisurely shower, do a quick run to Walmart when it was not mobbed...And after getting Dh at the airport and having some lunch, I took an hour and a half nap. 

I need to take days off more often!

My fat quarter bundle was in my post office box today. Squee!!!  It isn't the batch with the fabrics that I posted yesterday, it has some different fabrics.

And what did I quickly run into Walmart to buy?

The diapers to use for the burp cloths.

Used to be you could buy packs of those Gerber diapers at the grocery store, but not anymore. 

Now, I am waiting for the rest of the fabric to come.  I also need to wash the above fabrics so they are pre-shrunk. I suppose I need to wash the diapers too.

I can't wait until my sewing day!

I am not going to drink the water at work.  I think it is spiked!

Seriously, we are having a baby boom at work.  It started in October with baby #1, then baby #2 in February.  Next up is baby #3 in June and baby #4 in September.  I think it must be contagious!

I decided no not knit for the next baby due and try something different so I am going to make up some burp cloths and bibs and little baby shoes and see what else I can do that is cute.

I had an idea of what kind of fabric I wanted for this project and found some fat quarters on etsy that I will be using.  I am impatiently awaiting the yummy fabrics.  I think the first batch should be coming tomorrow. Squee! 

Here are some others that I ordered as individual fat quarters.