Hello! Steve and I have been pretty busy lately. Last weekend was a crafty weekend for us. Steve started painting a wooden dollhouse he'd given me as a gift for last year's anniversary. (Don't judge... I have projects from 2 years ago I still haven't finished.) I made Katherine's birthday invitations. The invitations turned out pretty much how I envisioned them. I don't plan on making the invitations every year but this year I couldn't find invitations that I liked. Her birthday party theme is Teddy Bear Picnic and there is not a lot out there for that theme. Unless you want to spend an arm and a leg on the invitations alone but I knew I could do better on my own and save some money. I purchased gingham earlier in the year in anticipation of her party and a teddy bear rubber stamp when I realized I'd probably be making the invitations. I already had the blank note cards and the party info stamp. I got to work and the invitations were done that afternoon. I'm pretty excited for Katherine's birthday party. The menu is full of bear-themed food and there will be baskets with gingham and teddy bears everywhere. I think it will be a lot of fun.
On Sunday I also finished making a look-and-find bean bag I had been working on for quite some time. I needed to finish that bean bag before church today. I have a bag of toys only for church so Katherine has something to play with while we're there. She's grown tired of the current church bag so I need to switch things up. (I knew this would happen.) Months ago I had purchased two felt squares from Hobby Lobby (love that store!), some craft beads and some alphabet charms. I cut the felt squares down so the bean bag wouldn't be huge and cut a hole in the middle. We also reused the plastic covering that came on her car seat for the window. It was nearly impossible to find the bendable clear plastic anywhere! I sewed it all together, leaving one side open so I could pour in the beans, beads and alphabet charms. I didn't use all the letters. Instead I picked out letters to spell "Katherine", "Mommy" and "Daddy" 3 times. The bean bag turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
I also purchased some fabric at Hobby Lobby last Saturday. I will be making a quilt for the new baby. I've dug through my stash of fabric and picked out a few I liked. The fabric from my stash needs to be measured to ensure I have enough for the quilt. The 2 new fabrics compliment the stash fabric nicely. There are a couple of the stash fabrics that won't be used because they clash a little with the new stuff. I picked yellows, greens, tans and white for this quilt because we're not finding out the gender of the baby. Right now green is the dominant color so I might buy one more yellow and one more tan. I think the quilt will be beautiful when completed. I am deviating from the pattern a little bit with the number of different fabrics I'm using. The pattern is a nine patch so I don't think it will matter too much. The quilt will have a vintage feel to it which I love.
Yesterday Steve and I decided it was time to start the decluttering process, again. Steve worked evenings for the last 3 weeks and our house became even more cluttered than it already was. I went through a stack of a magazines, tore out recipes I wanted to keep and recycled the rest. It was a good feeling to get rid of that small piece of clutter. We also made our menu for the next 2 weeks and went grocery shopping. While shopping at Fareway, I saw a former Target coworker of mine. It was fun to catch up with him. I hadn't seen him in quite some time. Fareway's ad was really good this week so we stocked up on ground beef and pasta. We also bought the lemonade for Katherine's party because the sale was fantastic. We went to Target for a few things not available at Fareway. I went armed with a bunch of Target coupons and my Cartwheel bar code. This was my first experience using Cartwheel and I'm pretty pleased with it overall. We saved over $20 at Target using the coupons and cartwheel and also received a few gift cards (yay!). Saturday was also laundry day. All of the laundry was washed (with the exception of one quilt). All the laundry was folded except for the things on the drying rack and half of it was put away. The rest will be put away today. I might tackle our office today for the decluttering project. It's rather scary in here. I also need to put away clothes that no longer fit and pull out some of my maternity clothes.
Wish me luck with our decluttering and organizing endeavors!
