Thanks

This Thanksgiving, I have an awful lot to be thankful for. For one, I have my beautiful daughter who lights up my life and brings so much joy and happiness to my pretty boring life. Secondly, my husband. He pours up with crazy ol' me and somehow manages to make me laugh when I don't want to. He truly is the best husband I could have asked for. Lastly, I am gratefully for the Lord's tender mercies in disguise. We were supposed to be in Utah for Thanksgiving, but due to some unexpected things at John's work, we had to cancel last minute. And boy was I mad. We decided to go up next week, instead of just canceling, and it is a huge blessing. This is the first Thanksgiving I will have with my family in 5 years, we'll be able to spend time with some of John's family who would have been out of town this weekend (and they'll get to meet Eloise), I'll be able to go to a pretty awesome woman's wedding next weekend, and the list continues. I was pretty excited to be in Utah this week, but I'm glad that the Lord had a different plan.

Overall, this Thanksgiving I am grateful for my family. And because I couldn't pick just one family picture, here are a few, or all of them :)

The 6 month old mom and baby

6 months ago, I was holding my daughter, or staring at my husband holding her while in the hospital. I just became a mom a few hours prior, and I had no clue what I was in for. Over the past 6 months, so many changes have happened to my little family, and so many lessons were learned.

First and foremost, I didn't know our bodies were capable of running on such little sleep. Eloise has always slept in her crib and slept fairly well from the beginning. As a newborn, she would sleep for up to 4 hour stretches. Then we left the "4th trimester" as my sister calls it, and by the time she was around 3 1/2-4 months, she decided to wake up every 2-2.5 hours to eat. And boy that sucked. She eventually got back to a 4 hour stretch schedule, and the last week or so has only been waking up once to eat, sometimes not at all. But our bodies really are remarkable!

Second, and a very close second at that, it is beyond my comprehension how you can love something so much. When I was pregnant, I knew that I loved our daughter because you just..do. After watching her grow over the last 6 months, my loves grows exponentially each day. I can't put it in words how much I love her.

Next, what baby wants, baby gets. Plain and simple, no real explanation necessary. 

Lastly, moms are bullies (not all moms are). I am not one to pick my child up a split second after she starts crying (unless she is obviously hurt). Nor do I rock her to sleep anymore. Sure, there are some nights where I have a hard time putting her in her crib because I just want to snuggle her all night long. But she goes to bed slightly awake, just like any other human being. And after voicing some of my parenting styles to other moms, a lot of shaming and bashing ensued. You can read more about it here.

Some fun facts about Eloise:

1. She loves her toes.

2. She definitely knows who her mom is, and will scream if a stranger holds her (or in the case of her doctor's appt this morning, if the stranger touches her face.)

3. She is really happy in the morning.

4. She has 2 teeth, and got the Allred genes, measuring in the 95th percentile for height (for the 6th consecutive month).

5. She loves when daddy tickles her with his beard.

6. She loves, and I mean LOVES our puppies, and will stare at them all the time.

7. She still hates being on her tummy.

8. She loves when you clap.

9. She will stick her hand and arm out toward you as if she is waving.

10. She is afraid of the dark, but only in the car.

Well enough about me babbling on about the last 6 months, enjoy some pictures of my Eloise :)

This is her normal, resting face. (98% of the time.)

 Until you bring out her favorite toy!

 A little orange cow.

"I have all the awesome things!"

 Every. Single. Time. we get in the car, she immediately stares up at the light for a few seconds and starts talking.

Nom nom nom.

I have absolutely loved these last 6 months. And I am so happy that I am privileged to be Eloise's mom. Until next time!

Triangle Quilt Tutorial

I'm totally going to cheat. I'm sitting here writing this tutorial, and it is not very different from the tutorial I used. at all. So here is the link to the tutorial I used. I pretty much did everything she did, with a few exceptions, which I'll list below.

1. Instead of doing the ruler method of measuring your triangles and cutting, then moving it again, making sure it is lined up correctly, I used one of these nifty things. It made my cutting life a lot easier.

2. Since using the cutter instead of a ruler, the triangles were cut with a little "dog ear" (see below). And to sew them, you need to line them up like so...

3. I'm sure the tutorial did this, but I'll just stress it even more. PIN EVERYTHING! There were a few times when I first started that I didn't feel like pinning. BIG mistake. Because you are sewing on the bias, your fabric will move leaps and bounds. What is the bias you ask? If you take a piece of fabric and pull it both ways the fabric is going, you won't get it to stretch very easily. But pull it diagonally, and it will move quite a bit. And because you are cutting on the bias to make the triangles, you will need to starch everything. If you do not starch, your fabric will move and you won't have a perfectly straight triangle.

4. I did add batting to my quilts. The first large quilt I made, I just used a single layer of regular batting. But for Eloise's little quilt, I used a double layer of very fluffy batting, to give it some cushion.

5. When quilting my top, batting, and back pieces together, I didn't just sew along the straight edges. I would recommend steering away from that and going all directions. The reason is because you aren't sewing down the bias pieces, and it can still move and stretch into funky shapes. My first quilt, I just sewed down one side of each triangle seam.

 While with Eloise's little one, I sewed down both sides of the seams. I wish I would have done this with the big quilt.

6. Lastly, I cut my binding on the bias. Here is a really good video explaining how to do that.

Other than those 6 points, everything else is pretty dead on with what the above tutorial did. And because I am 2 loads of laundry behind and have a few orders to work on for Wire on a Whim (check me out!!), and I didn't get pictures of every step, I decided to just lead you to her tutorial. And just for fun, here are a bunch of pictures of triangle quilts to give you some inspiration! I think the next one I make is going to be a pink, cream, and black one. Or maybe a purple and blue one...Nah. definitely an ombre teal quilt. Enjoy :)