Life's Little Pieces

So I'm taking on a new endeavor. My cousin's wife is a quilter. When I say a quilter, I mean a quilter; she attends weekend quilting "camps." Much similar to those people who scrapbook and attend scrapbooking "retreats," yes, now some of you may be able to relate. Over about the past year, she has been teaching me how to quilt. Since then, I've made 4 quilts for gifts and just LOVE the feeling of finishing one and seeing how all of the fabrics work together and the expression on people's faces when they open up their gift of a hand-made quilt! So, cousin's wife wanted to start doing something called t-shirt quilts and memory quilts. She asked me if I wanted to be her "partner." Well hello, of course I do! So on Sunday I am going over to her house, with some of Evelyn's old baby clothes and blankets in hand, and we are going to experiment with patterns and figure out pricing and I am so excited to try something new! She has a regular quilt shop she likes to get her fabrics from and we will hopefully be able to post what we do at their store for anyone who has someone's old t-shirts or baby clothes they want to be able to pull out of their storage boxes and actually be able to enjoy. Along with posting on Craigslist and probably even starting our own little blog, we are hoping to get some "clients." We are thinking of calling our new little ditty "Life's Little Pieces" because we're taking sentimental items and turning them into blankets or bedspreads or whatever. Cute, right? I'll post pics of what we come up with next week, but I was just too excited I had to write about it now! (We didn't make the quilt in the picture, but it's an example of a quilt made from old baby clothes - how cute is that ruffle skirt!?)

Camping.

Okay, we did it. We took Evelyn camping in a tent on Sunday night, and it actually went really, really well! We loaded up the truck and made our way to Ham Lake Campgrounds.

We checked in and got to our camp site at about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon and the adventure began. Our spot, which had a nice view of the lake, was not specifically a "tent" spot, but rather a camper spot, which had it's good things and bad things. Good: Water spout. Bad: Rocky, uneven ground (Remember Andy and I are sleeping on the ground, in a tent.) We made the mistake of assuming the blow up mattress was not needed and just packed some thick blankets. Let's just say I did not sleep so well, on rocks and a hill..... Anyways, we got to our site and set up the tent.

Thank goodness I grabbed a bag of popcorn on the way out the door because Evelyn sat in her carseat, eating popcorn watching us set the darn tent up the entire 20-30 minutes in the blazing

hot sun it took us to do it, all the while the empty, completely shaded site sat empty next to us, but I'm not bitter....

Our adventure began by checking out the beach. The water was really low and the sand on the bottom was like mush and gross on our feet, so we decided to play on shore and the docks instead. (Neighbor's Shady Site Pictured Above)

Beach time didn't last very long, so we decided to go for a walk to the petting zoo. Yes, the Petting Zoo - what campground is complete without one? We went into the office and bought 2 ziploc baggies of corn and went back to "zoo" which consisted of llamas, emus and little goats. Evelyn was so brave and LOVED feeding the goats the corn right from her hand! The emus wouldn't come over, but Evelyn really wanted them to. After the zoo, we went back to camp, grilled some hot dogs and had some dinner, Evelyn was doing so great, not even trying to run away! By 9:00, Evelyn was ready for bed, so the true adventure began. I went in and tucked her in her pack and play and she waved bye-bye like she always does at bedtime. With about 10 seconds of whining, she was quiet, I was so worried she would be afraid and put up a fuss and the whole campground would be so mad because of the screaming baby and they'd kick us out and we'd have to go home. But, obviously, that did not happen. She actually slept through the night! Even with it being cold out and her constantly kicking off her blankets, even with the loons making noise throughout the entire night, even with the insanely bright street light right at the end of our campsite, blaring into our tent, and even with the 12 year old's birthday party at the other end of the camp with 5 screaming girls until 11:45 when Andy finally marched down there and told the dad to shut their kids up (but much nicer, I'm sure.) Who knew night time while camping would be so obnoxious!

The next day, we all got up about 7:00 (once again, neighbors being VERY loud, opening and shutting all types of doors, starting at 6:30, what the heck were they doing??) Breakfast consisted of bananas for Evelyn, pancakes, hashbrowns and eggs! Just because we're outside doesn't mean we can't eat fun food!

Check-out was supposed to be at 1:00, but Andy actually had to go to work, and we were all exhausted so we ended up leaving around 10:30. Evelyn fell asleep in the car (pic of Ev sleeping) and even took a 4 hour nap later, when we got home! Which means I got to take a nap as well! All-in-all, it was a great experience, but the most important lesson here, I think, is that if/when we go camping again with Evelyn, we need to buy a camper! lol

15 Month Check-up.

It's the one day I dread every 3 months, for the past 15 months....Evelyn's well check-ups. Well check-ups = shots = holding a baby down = tears for baby (and sometimes almost mommy, almost.) We had Evelyn's 15 month check up and shots this morning and I made daddy come with this time. Please note I do not do shot check-ups alone. If daddy cannot get off of work, then grandma comes, seriously I do not do well knowing she is going to get shots. I was considering bringing my camera so I could have some pics of the experience to post along with this posting, but decided against it because how would I take a picture of Evelyn getting her shots when I have to hold her arms down, not really possible, and you really need the shot picture to make the story complete. So, I went without. She got measured and weighed and comes in at a whopping 27.7 pounds and 33 inches tall. She has always been a big girl, but her height finally out-did her weight. For anyone who knows about percentiles out there, she is in 95 percentile for weight and 98 percentile for height now. For anyone who doesn't know, this means that only 5% of girls her age are heavier than her and only 2% of girls her age are taller than her. Daddy says she will be a basketball player since she is so stinking tall. I say she might be a sumo wrestler, since she is heavy. lol, just kidding, but it could go either way.

The main reason I wanted to post this today was that at her next check-up, the doctor said it is flu shot time again, which is fine, I do plan on getting Evelyn vaccinated against the regular flu, but then he said 2 flu shots - one like normal, and one for swine flu! I told him I didn't know how I felt about her getting the swine flu shot because it's so new, and who knows the side effects of it yet really. He told me that nobody would look badly at us if we didn't get her either one of the flu shots and to just think about it. I think we will do the one regular flu shot (thank goodness only one round of that this year. Babies' first year of flu shots has to be done in 2 separate rounds, which means extra trip to the doctor just to get a shot....) but I just don't know about the swine flu shot quite yet.....maybe we'll have daddy get it first.....

Pillowcase Apron.

I have started thinking Christmas - more specifically, starting my Christmas lists....I always try to do something crafty and cute each year for the women at my work and in my family. The other day, I came across this tutorial which was absolutely perfect! It's an apron, made out of a pillowcase - brilliant! You don't need any extra materials, no measuring, and the best thing is that you don' t have to do the hems of the apron because since it's a pillowcase, they're all already done! What could be better. I began to search online for the perfect pillowcases, and found 3 on Etsy I just had to have. At about $5 each (plus shipping) these are a very affordable project (even if you mess up on your first one...) I had put in my order, and waited as patiently as I could over the weekend in anticipation for that glorious first pillowcase. And finally, after 3 whole days of waiting, it arrived!

The pillowcase in all it's glory. I wanted a detailed, lace pillowcase so that I didn't have to add any rick rack at the bottom!

Here are all of the supplies I used, after I cut up the pillowcase into the different parts. If you are planning on sewing anything that requires cutting, I highly recommend a rolling cutter, a long straight edge that has a little lip on it to keep it straight, and a cutting map. These are my quilting tools, but very multi-functioning and worth the money.

This is how moms sew.......

Wah-lah! The final product. I would have taken a picture of it actually ON me, but it was late and I was in my pajamas. I am going to the store today to look for cute buttons to keep the pocket flaps down.

Now comes the hard part to decide who gets this wonderful creation I have spent the better part of an hour creating...? Hmmmm. I'll have to start my next Christmas list, who's Naughty & Nice!

Lists.

My life revolves around lists. I use lists for EVERYTHING. Organized lists. My grocery list is typed up, in order of which aisle it is in at Cub. I put an indication next to it if I have a coupon for it, or if it is something that is on sale - which I find online every week by going to Cub's website. They have coupons you can print right online, how convenient! I fold the piece of paper up, staple it on one side, and put my coupons in the middle, so none of them get lost. Some say this is not normal, but I say it's genius.... This leads me to the reason I did this post; we are going camping....for just one night....in a tent.....with a 15 month old. We decided to try just one night, close to home, just in case Evelyn does not enjoy sleeping in a tent (or I don't enjoy sleeping in a tent, either way.) I started compiling my list and it just kept growing and growing and growing. It's almost a whole page long, with 2 columns. Most of the things under "General" column, I can put in a big rubbermaid container and keep for the next time (fingers crossed) that we go. I attached my list below for anyone to look over and please let me know if I am missing anything, or have added things that are not necessary. I have never been camping, so I'm not sure if I really need all of these things, or I'm just getting carried away with the joys of making a list....

(I don't have any idea how to upload the Word Document I have this list saved in, so I just cut and paste. Any advice as to how to do that would also be appreciated. lol)

General

q Tent

q Rubber Hammer

q Tarp

q 2 Blankets

q 2 Pillows

q 2 Chairs

q Ev’s Little Chair

q Lighter Fluid

q Matches/Fire Starter

q Paper Plates

q Napkins

q Plastic Silverware

q Paper Cups

q Camping Stove Cooktop

q Pan

q Spatula

q Wooden Spoon

q Lantern

q Mini Lantern/Nightlight

q Picnic Table Cover

q Card Table

q Bug Spray

q Extra Batteries

q Fishing Pole

q Tackle Box

q Camera

Food

q Cooler w/ Ice

q Lots of Bottled Water

q Chips

q Watermelon

q Hot Dogs

q Hot Dog Buns

q Ketchup

q Milk for Ev

q Bisquick

q Veg Oil

q Eggs

q Bananas

q Bread

q Cheese

q Butter

Evelyn

q Pack N Play

q Swim Suit

q 3 Swim Diapers

q 10 Regular Diapers

q Pack of Wipes

q Baby Powder – travel size

q Baby Soap – travel size

q Towel

q Baby

q Blankie

q Extra Thick Blanket

q Nuk

q Bottle

q Sippy Cup

q Stroller

q Travel High Chair

q Bedtime Music thing

q Pajamas – shorts and pants

q 2 Outfits

q Socks

q Shoes

q Lightweight Jacket

q Sunblock

q Folding Chair

q Beach Toys

q Shoes

Us

q Swimming Suits

q 2 Beach Towels

q Pajamas

q Change of Clothes Each

q T. Brush/T. Paste

q Brush

Happy Things.

Giant Chocolate Cupcakes! I made these giant cupcakes for Evelyn's first birthday party! I used this pan from Wilton. Greatest thing ever! Fun & Uncomplicated, of course! :)

Neat and Organized Craft Room! This is an older picture from before I (my husband) put up the shelves on the sides for more storage. I made the cute bulletin board with just a scrap piece of fabric, some paint, and a little bit of ribbon for a border! Love it!

Andy & Evelyn! We took Evelyn to a carnival on the 4th of July. This was her first ride, and surprisingly, she loved it! Andy walked around the carousel with her so she could pick just the right pony to ride. (I think she really wanted the giraffe, though!)

#1.

Here we are, my first ever blog. I never thought I would get to this point because I couldn't come up with a stinking name for the darn thing! It was probably about 2 months ago I actually created my blogspot account. I was thinking, why in the world is this name thing so complicated?? I wanted it to be about things to do to make life a little easier, being a full-time working mom and wife. Once I got the name down, I was suddenly faced with more challenges - you pick fonts, colors, sizes, styles, layouts. Since my name actually has the word "uncomplicated" in it, I decided to use that to my advantage and stick with black and white and whatever size font comes standard - talk about a life saver, people must spend hours just decorating and deciding on these things for their pages - not me.... And that is how Life Uncomplicated was born - on my way back from picking up some lunch at the always-pleasing Taco Bell. lol. I'm not totally sure as to how all of this stuff works, but I figure posting some pics of simple things that make me happy would be a good start!