The Big 28

In recent years my birthdays have usually brought with them fancy dinners out on the town, dressing up, and maybe even a few cocktails. By contrast, this year I didn't leave the house! In fact, I stayed home all day and told everyone that all I wanted was to get a few things done around the house. So I finished doing our taxes. Really. And it felt great to get it crossed off my list! It really was the most different birthday I've ever had. Of course, the reason for all this change is that this year I had a beautiful 13 day old baby to take care of! Definitely one of the most special and memorable birthdays to date. :)

Kate gave me a very thoughtful present the night before which was a great night's sleep so I was able to get up relatively early on my birthday feeling refreshed (the next night however was a totally different story...). Andy gave me awesome presents (new Rainbows, a massage AND facial at the Kura Door which I will be cashing in as soon as I can manage to get out of the house....AND...an Ipad!!! We wanted to wait for the latest version so it won't be arriving until next week but I'm super excited! Wooo hooo!!). Later my mom also came over to say hi and bring me over yet another present! Other than that I just lounged around all day and hung out with baby. Andy picked up lunch from my new favorite...the 9th South Deli. Also, I did take some time for myself with a nice long shower. I even shaved my legs!!! :) 

Andy of course wouldn't let me not celebrate at all so he coordinated with my family for a small party the Sunday before. So that i could get out of the house a little, Casey had everyone to his place for dinner (Buca di Beppo takeout and pie from Penny Ann's Cafe, per my request). He and Kelsey spoiled me with more presens (Lululemon!!) and we had a good time relaxing for a few hours. Then we darted on out of there pretty quickly to head back home and feed the baby (I'm still learning the art of nursing and don't yet feel very comfortable doing it anywhere but at home). It was a good time and I felt very loved.  

The day before my birthday Kali dropped by with many gifts...a beautiful handmade quilt for Kate's room, eclairs for everyone, and a newborn photo shoot! More of that to come later. ; ) And finally, Mel, Libby and I are also planning another mini celebration for me for next month in which we plan to check out the newly completed mall downtown. Looking forward to it!

Here are pics from the party at Casey's. 

Me, Kate, and Kelsey chillin'.

 What's left of the food...the chop salad was super yummy!

Decorations compliments of Kelsey.

Presents!!

Pie!!! Everybody LOVED the Berry Crumble...:)

Thanks everybody for wanting to celebrate with me and especially to Andy for being the most amazing person I know. Here's to the best year yet!

Mama Bear

Well, what an interesting week its been! I've got lots of stories (and pictures!) to share, and I've been struggling with my opinions on internet privacy/safety. So until I've made an official decision, Baby Godsey's blog is going private, effective immediately. In regards to this blog, I'm keeping it open for now...

If you'd like to be able to read Baby's blog, please leave the appropriate email address as a comment or send it to me however you prefer.

Now, I've got some writing to do!!! :)

PS. The official winner of the Baby Birth Day Guessing Game is the notorious Chris Weed! We haven't decided what to give him as a prize yet, but I assure you he will love it. It is also interesting to note, that Chris's guess was the EARLIEST of all the guesses! Shame on all you so called "friends" who guessed March dates!!! :)

Baby Birth Day Guessing Game!

Probably a little late to be getting this started, but we are now open to your guesses on Poppy's birth day. The person with the closest guess will get some sort of prize. Send in the date and approximate time (for example, Andy's guess is Feb. 29th at 2AM).

The official due date is 2/29/12.

Note: if you've already guess on Andy's blog or Facebook, no need to re-submit.

Good luck!

Weekend Report

With not many weekends left before Baby Godsey arrives, I've been trying to make the most of them. Even in my tiredness I've managed to get a lot of things crossed off my list and had a lot of fun. This weekend I was recovering from an annoying head cold, but in-between naps was still able to make it a great weekend!

Saturday I had a lunch date at Zupas with a few girlfriends and we had some good laughs, as usual. From there I ran some much needed errands that made me feel very productive, and then it was time to get ready to celebrate Melissa's big 28! We went to Bombay House for dinner (I can confirm that spicy Indian food is not enough - at least for me, at 37.5 weeks - to induce labor), and then back to Mel's place for presents and a specially ordered Raspberry White Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, per Mel's request.

We tried to arrange the candles in the shape of a 2-8, but I'm not convinced we (ok...I) did a very good job...

Then Sunday was devoted to some much needed relaxation and the ever-growing list of "nesting" chores. I was able to squeeze in one last pre-baby pedi with Kelsey, and she introduced me to a new spot which I will definitely revisit (but of course cannot remember the name...). Close to home, quality pedi, only $22!!

After lounging around much of the rest of the day I made a HUGE batch of my delicious spagetti sauce so that I could portion it out into individual dinner sizes and freeze it for use over the next couple months.  I love the 4-cup Pyrex glass bowls for this. Perfect size to fit enough for 1 or 2 meals (depending on what it is) for 2 people. And because they are glass they can go right from freeze to microwave and be ready to eat in 10 minutes. :) We also ate some of the spagetti for dinner tonight and it was YUMMY!! I love my sauce because it is so hearty and healthy! I use ground turkey, and tons of veggies. This batch had onion, garlic, carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and spinach. The only thing that could make it better is if some of these veggies (in particular, the actual tomato sauce...) had come from my own garden. Maybe this summer!

I was going to take a pic of the huge pot of sauce on the stove in all its glory...but of course I forgot. Instead this pic of all the frozen individual portions will have to do... :)

Baby Curtains!

Ok ok, so I don't really know what the term "baby curtains" means, but these curtains are for the nursery and I really wanted to keep up the recent blog post title tradition, so baby curtains they are. And you guessed it...I made them! Seriously, I am in love with my sewing machine. And this was another really easy project to to help build my confidence. I even lined them! 

The fabric is from Calico Corners and is a nice heavy curtain/upholstery fabric. These pics are a little dark but its a coral color with a light peach/pink design embroidered in. I followed this tutorial to complete the project. They were mostly done in two days, but then I let them hang in the nursery for a few weeks before I finally managed to sew up the length this weekend.

The plantation shutters are also new and I LOOOOOOOVE them (also purchased through Calico Corners). They are split into two halves (top and bottom) so you can just open the top half if you want to let light in and still maintain privacy. I already want them for the bathroom and master bedroom, but they were a bit of a splurge so those rooms will just have to wait. The best part for having them in the nursery is that they completely block out the light, and keep a lot more warmth in. It is very impressive. Anyway, this post is not supposed to be about the shutters, but I just love them so much!! 

I had to be careful when taking these pics because the nursery is not quite ready to be unveiled (and I'm not sure it will be until after baby is born). The main pieces are all in place (last big purchase made tonight!), I'm just still working on a few creative decor ideas. I picked a pretty bold color for the curtains because I'm hoping this window will act as the anchor of the room, and I'm trying to think of fun and creative ways to use the fabric scraps elsewhere in the room to pull it all together. We shall see!

Baby Hat!

I warn you that it is entirely possible that the next several posts on this blog will be titled "Baby ____". I'll try to get a little more creative but I make no guarantees...

Anyway, I have completed my next baby craft project! I'd really wanted to knit or crochet a little hat for baby to wear home from the hospital (hopefully sometime in February...). So I went to this super cute yarn boutique near my house (Blazing Needles), picked up some yarn and even bought a pattern. I made it oh, 30% of the way through the pattern and didn't like it so I pulled it apart and started again using the same measurements and shape, but just using some basic crochet stitches instead of the weird stich from the pattern. Well, I made it 100% through that time, didn't like it, so I pulled it apart and started again. The same week I happened to attend a beginner's knitting class at Blazing Needles to freshen up my long forgotten knitting skills and so I decided on my third attempt perhaps I would knit. 

I really like to crochet but I'm continually frustrated by a few things. A) I seem to crochet very tightly so that the end product is stiff instead of soft and cuddly, and B) I hate having to count stitches and keep track of different parts of stitches (front loop, back loop, etc.) and so I usually try to wing it and eventually end up with ragged edges. Knitting seems to give me neither of these problems...at least not as long as I stick with the basic knit, purl routine. One day I will try something a little more fancy.

Anyway...back to my hat. So the third time was a charm and I finally bring to you...baby hat! I'm mildly concerned that it will drown the child, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Baby Legs!

As I've already mentioned, I received a sewing machine for Christmas from my mom. She told me that she was really worried I wouldn't want one but decided to take a risk. She hit the jackpot!!! I absolutely love it. I sat down and read all the instructions and it really isn't as intimidating as I was expecting. It helps that now all of the controls are electronic and there are convenience features that my mom's really old machine just doesn't have. I'm really just so excited.

Here she is in all her glory. I haven't named her yet but feel confident it will become apparent in time.

Anyway, I wanted to start out with a ridiculously easy project to build my confidence. I knew just where to start. Baby Legs!!! I'd seen them on Pinterest and they are so ridiculously cute and so ridiculously easy. You basically just cut off the foot of an adult pair of knee socks and then hem up the raw edge.

Here is the original "pin" that piqued my interest:

Aren't they just adorable! I didn't want to spend much money on them, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to find any cute socks, but the other day I was at Shopko and decided to just drop by the sock section in case and it was my lucky day. Tons and tons of knee socks on sale for $2/each!!! I kind of got carried away and pretty much bought a pair in every single pattern. It didn't help that all the Valentine's socks were out too, and well, I'm pretty sure baby girls can wear Valentine's patterns all year round!

And here they are!! More Baby Legs than one baby could ever wish for!! Good thing I also have a pattern for bum covers because it is seeming like that combination is going to be a staple of my child's wardrobe. Let's hope she has chubby legs so she can hold them up!

Of course Lucy wanted to try them on to make sure they were up to par. She walked a little funny in them but ultimately decided they were worthy.

This is what Andy does while I sew. He was very nice about admiring each pair of Baby Legs as I completed them. He also wanted to make sure I point out that he does not approve of the term "Baby Legs". He thinks it sounds like something you make a soup out of and that's just wrong.

Now that the Baby Legs are complete I have new project to work on this weekend. Curtains for the nursery!! Still a very easy project but a little more work involved. I can do it!!!