My First Quilt

Yesterday I had a day of sewing with my mom and finally got to put my new sewing machine to use. For my first project, I've decided to make a baby quilt for a good friend. Ambitious you say? Absolutely. But when you have an amazing teacher like my mom, its easy!! We started by 'shopping' for material in my mom's craft room. All those years of buying material really came in handy. :) She had everything I needed (and then some!). I decided on a pallete of pinks and greens. After putting all the blocks together on the 'design wall', I moved to the sewing machine and began sewing. I was like a duck to water! After a few hours though, my eyes started getting tired so I stopped. I managed to get a lot done though and can't WAIT to go back and work on it some more. Besides a few seams not exactly matching up, I think I did a great job. Of course, mad props to my mom - she's a great teacher. For our next session, we'll add a border of cream, then a border of pink (as seen to the right in the picture). The pink we use for the border will also be used for the backing. Then we'll bind it with a pretty green fabric. After that, I'll do some machine quilting and quilt 'in the ditch' (i.e., along the seams). It'll probably take a few weeks (maybe even months) but thankfully, my friend isn't due to the summer. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A perfect pork chop!

I have finally achieved what I thought was impossible... I FINALLY cooked a perfect pork chop! (And the crowd goes wild!) Poor Bruin. For the last 2.5 yrs, he's had to endure burnt, dried out, terrible pork chops. But not tonight! Nope. Tonight, we had delicious, perfectly browned, JUICY pork chops. I mean, you could actually cut them with a knife! I feel like I accomplished my life's mission. Well, at least my wedding vows. For those that don't know, I 'vowed' to improve on my cooking... little did I know how long it would take me! LOL!

On other fronts, we have officially started looking for another Boston terrier. I know, I know - some of our fan base can't believe we'd be crazy enough to get another dog. But Bruin and I really have the heart to 'rescue' another Boston. We feel we've given Cricket a great life and would love to do it again (as well as give Cricket a playmate!). We actually thought we had found THE ONE last week but after the owner upped the price, we declined. So, we are in the process of submitting an application with Boston Terrier Rescue of North Carolina. We can't wait to meet our newest addition!

And for those keeping track, I've now attended my 4th Baby shower in 4 weeks... two more (that I know of!) to go!!!

Twenty fingers and twenty toes

No, we're not having twins. Yesterday, my neighbor and I threw a baby shower for two friends of ours. Let's back up for a second... Have a mentioned that Bruin and I know 12 couples that are pregnant right now?? Five couples at work, 4 in our small group (actually, that's a lie - one has already had her baby - so just 3 in our small group and 11 couples overall) and 3 other couples we just know. CRAZY, right?? We think so, too. We joke around and say we'll catch them when they are on their second kid. LOL! Anyway, back to the reason my neighbor (who is one of the small group pregos) threw a shower for our two friends... Well, that's because they are the other pregnant ladies in our small group and due within 4 weeks of each other!! Missy is having a little boy, who we affectionately call 'Catfish' cause they haven't decided on a name yet, and Traci is having a little girl named Caroline. We had a great time and laughed so much my cheeks still hurt! I'm really looking forward to being an aunt again, too :)


Me with my food... a cheese ball with crackers, mini chicken salad sandwiches, sausage balls, onion dip with chips and veggies and yummy cup cakes.



The proud hosts... check out those diaper cakes! Jaime did an amazing job on them.



The pregnant ladies... Missy and Traci, looking FANTASTIC!