I think it turned out pretty cute! I’m not the world’s *most* talented blanket-stitcher…but I don’t think it turned out half bad in the end. I also stitched a little fishbone on the first page.

You can never have too many needlebooks laying around, so I know this one will get put to good use. Spike likes it too, although naturally he thinks our world revolves around him, so he wasn’t too surprised I used him as a subject.

In other crafty news, I’ve been spending gobs of time with this baby:

My beautiful new-to-me Bernina! My mom gifted it to me last month after she bought herself a newer, better Bernina. It is a huge upgrade for me and I just can’t believe what a difference it makes in my sewing. I am in complete and total love with the presser feet more than anything - they’re so sturdy and lovely and easy to use…it’s just like magic. I spent the better part of last week sewing up a Colette Patterns Sencha blouse; I’ll try to take some pictures after I get the buttons sewn on the back. It turned out alright, but I want to try drafting a few changes and have another go at it. However, that’s for another post, another day.

But now to the biggest news of all - although I know full well that most people reading this already know - I’m pregnant! We’re expecting a little Baby Miller sometime in April! It is still very early (I’m only about 6 weeks and very nervous about everything going smoothly) but it was just too hard to keep it to ourselves, so we have told all of our family and friends. I have felt pretty good until this week, but the exhaustion and constant low-grade-yuck feeling are starting to wear on me. I’ve experienced my first few waves of nausea over the last few days, which just plain suck, let me tell you. I hope those don’t hang around long. I’m also having a headache issue that just isn’t going all-the-way-away. It was really, really bad on Sunday, not so good yesterday, and off and on today. It’s “just” tension headaches, from what I’m guessing are a number of things (hormones, the weather, caffeine withdrawal, stress?) but they are really treacherous at times. Ibuprofen is usually what knocks them out for me, but since I can’t take that and Tylenol isn’t really doing the trick, I’m just trying to think positive and hope they go away!

And so apparently, my little bean is the size of a lentil this week, is growing a nose, mouth and ears, and has a heartbeat of 100-160 BPM. WOW! It’s an amazing feeling. I just ask for your prayers and positive thoughts that everything continues as it’s supposed to over the next few weeks and months. I don’t go to the doctor for about 3 more weeks, which is killing me - I want to go TODAY, but all things in good time I suppose. Until next time…

Then, after a busy weekend, Nathan and I headed south for 3 free nights at The Grand Hotel in Point Clear. He is on the Supervisory Committee at our credit union and got sent to a conference there, so I took advantage of the perks and went along. It was drop dead gorgeous there…not to mention drop dead HOT and HUMID! But I survived nonetheless. How could you not enjoy yourself at a place like this:

The Grand sits right on Mobile Bay, which was gorgeous as always, but seeing the oil booms right off the cost gave me a bit of a reality check. I saw a few people playing in the water, but you couldn’t make me get in that water - yuck! Not when there were boats maintaining booms a few hundred feet away…I would have stayed in the pool. However, that didn’t stop us from enjoying the view every day. It was still lovely, and the breezes were much loved. Can you feel the heat in this picture?!

One of the coolest things they do is a march around the hotel at 4pm every day, followed by a canon blast to honor our armed forces.

On our last night in town, we went over to my sister’s house for supper — she just lives about a half hour away in Daphne. The food was delicious, and it was great to see the family with of course, my sweet, goofy nephews. Yes, this is Taplin riding his bicycle, in his diaper, wearing his baseball helmet:

I didn’t get to take too much advantage of the great shopping while we were down there (thank you Dave Ramsey!) but I did make two small purchases… I picked up a copy of a historical biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, at a secondhand book shop in Fairhope (it’s fascinating so far!) I also splurged 99 cents for this cute little red ceramic bowl from World Market. It’s home now on the glass shelf in our bathroom, and I’m sure I’ll use it all the time to keep jewelry and whatnot. I so wish we had a World Market in Huntsville…or maybe not, because I know that’s where my paycheck would go.

All in all, it was a wonderful, relaxing trip. I napped every morning after breakfast and we took several walks around the grounds, both day and night. I feel spoiled! We are about to hit the ground running yet again, however, what with hosting a shower this Saturday night, and 2 wedding weekends back-to-back after that, in which Nathan is a groomsman both times. Does it ever end?! I’m ready for a few weekends of zero plans.

Finished making and mailed out the invitations for a wedding shower we are throwing with my girlfriend Jessica. Our husbands’ third amigo is getting married in August, so we are jointly hosting a citrus-themed Tool & Patio shower for them. Jessica and I are pretty excited about how cute the invites turned out. We’re going to be driving down to Tuscaloosa next weekend for their engagement party.

Made a simple little card to go with a Tool & Gadget shower gift for my husband and father-in-law. It matched the invitations I made, too. My husband’s cousin Len is also getting married in August, and Nathan is the best man. He hosted a guys-only tool shower for him last night. I hid in our bedroom with Spike and watched a Harry Connick, Jr. movie.

I had to get up early and go help set up for one of my company’s major events, the School of Art Fashion. My back is killing me from cleaning the house yesterday and then working at setup this morning. It is going to be a tight week with a major magazine deadline approaching plus all of the school events I need to be at, but I always enjoy the School.

This to That (Glue Advice)

The Most Flattering Shirt Dress @ Prudent Baby

Put a Lid on it @ Young House Love AND Summer Vacation Memories @ The Inspired Room

karen’s coffee can lanterns @ Design*Sponge

The Sweetest Sewing Shed @ Apartment Therapy

Making Mondays — and your week — more productive @ Unclutterer

freezer paper stenciled reverse applique hand stitched pillow @ artsy crafty babe

Chris & Liz’s Lodgey Loungey Living Quarters @ Apartment Therapy

Vintage Bird Embroidery Design @ doe-c-doe

Sewing Knits Without a Serger @ Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing

Magnetic Pin Dish Tutorial @ Diary of a Quilter

Charmed Living Runner @ Moda Bake Shop

Super Special DIY Sewing Kit from a Suitcase @ ohdeedoh

Mixed Media Embroidery Happiness @ iHanna

Tiered Terracotta Planter @ Positively Splendid

DIY: Crayon Initials! @ Frugal Life Project

Winners of the Red, White & Blue Challenge @ The CSI Project

Signs of a Fake @ Little Red Roost

Handmade Elephant Mobile @ jolie petite chose (no, I’m not pregnant)

Greek Pasta with Lamb, Zucchini, and Feta @ The Kitchn

Concrete Numbers @ Chez Larsson

sewing 101: piping @ Design*Sponge

The Key to Creating Remarkable Things @ 99%

Thrift Kitchen: Frappacheapo @ Craft Leftovers

But just because I didn’t get much at the mall today doesn’t mean I haven’t been shopping my tail off. Instead of having mountain adventures, my parents and I bummed around Denver and nearby towns and got in a ton of shop-hopping to local quilt/fabric shops. My favorites were Harriet’s Treadle Arts, High Prairie Quilts and Fancy Tiger. It’s been a blast - I’ve gotten an embarrassing stash of fabrics and more to take home with me. Good thing we will be shipping a box of our purchases home, because there is NO extra room in my suitcase!

We’ve also hit up a few other stores we just don’t have access to at home, like Tattered Cover bookstore and The Container Store (where I almost passed out from wanting things so badly). And yesterday, my dad drove us to see the house where he lived in the 60s and the school he attended, as well as his childhood haunts and other places he remembers.

Nathan will be flying out in the morning, and I can’t wait for him to get here. Mom and I will be making the trek to pick him up at the airport, since Dad is working this week. We’re planning on going over to Golden to do the Coors brewery tour, then let Nathan explore the downtown area while Mom and I hit up the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. Wednesday we think we’ll do Downtown Denver, and though we’re not sure what Thursday holds, dinner with my grandparents is on our schedule; then it’s camping in South Park and heading for the mountains for exploring on Saturday!

I flew out here yesterday morning on a direct flight from Huntsville with my mom, and we took a cab to my grandparents’ house in Aurora to catch up and wait on my dad to arrive (he had a later flight). I haven’t seen Grandma and Grandpa Frank in 6 years or so, so it was awesome to hug them and talk. They have the sweetest garden in their backyard, where I remember playing croquet with my sister and cousins when we were little.

We got to do one really cool thing yesterday — a friend of my grandparents’ from their previous home in Buena Vista was visiting with her granddaughter, who is paralyzed from the chest down and was attending a wheelchair sports camp at a local school. We got to go watch her ride around the track in her bicycle (several miles worth and super fast, in the burning heat) which was amazing. She is extremely athletic; she plays rugby, skis, water skis, plays basketball, races her bike…and she has excelled in competitions. It was amazing to see her in action. That girl has more strength and athletic talent in her 2 arms than I have in my whole body.

Anyway, after my dad arrived last night, we drove another 40 miles into Denver and had some delicious Mexican food - extremely spicy! We also popped into the nicest Wal-Mart I’ve ever seen in Highlands Ranch, where our hotel is, to get some necessities. After a glass of wine and some TV, I knocked out and slept hard after getting about 4 hours of sleep the night before.

This morning, we had a yummy hot breakfast downstairs here at the hotel (a nice Residence Inn; we have a 2-bedroom suite) and headed out for a little shopping, a drive over Squaw Pass on Mount Evans, some sightseeing, and lunch-then-coffee at Idaho Springs. Back in the Denver area, Dad dropped of Mom and me at a center that had an excellent quilt shop right next door to a Joann’s. Heaven! We spent a couple hours picking out lots of goodies before Dad came back to pick us up…I think he is pretty glad Mom has someone to do girl shopping with while we are here.

Tonight, my parents took me out for an amazing Italian dinner. We got back to the hotel awhile ago and are relaxing before bed. I got a new hand embroidery project transferred and in the hoop to work on in the downtime here. I’ll make an attempt to blog a few more times from the road. We’re planning on another short-ish day trip tomorrow, and I’m excited for Nathan to arrive on Tuesday!

NYC Rooftop Houses @ Apartment Therapy

Ana Ventura

Creative Craft Nook @ decor8

DIY {Anthropolgie Inspired Pendant Light} @ Ashley Ann - Under the Sycamore

Simple Summer Cherries @ Just Something I Made

How to Hem Jeans @ Love Stitched

Three Ways to Pin Down Your Style @ Young House Love

Summer Tent @ Craft Addictions

The drawstring bag went together super easily; the only part that was the slightest bit difficult was stitching around the casing, because you do that after the bag is sewn together, but I had made mine a little bit narrower than the directions. However, it was doable. I had more trouble with the padded pouch for my phone - no fault of the instructions at all, which were very easy to follow, but because my walking foot was acting up and making a mess of my topstitching. It came out alright though, and it will be great for throwing my phone in my purse. I need to keep it from getting any more dinged up from junk inside my bag than it already is, and this is perfect!

I have to say, I especially liked the drawstring bag tutorial. I think I will make it again for other things. It was super simple and I love that the lining creates a nice, neat inside. This picture is NOT good (sorry about that) but you can kind of see how the inside looks:

I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for actually DOING something. I listened to a podcast interview on CraftyPod yesterday with an author that was pretty inspiring, and I’m definitely going to order his book when I get back from our trip.

Before we go, I’m hoping to get a couple of small sewing projects done for my little electronics and whatnot that will be going with me everywhere, so that I don’t damage anything while we’re running around the mountains. First and foremost, I’d like to make a little protective pouch for my camera, but I’d also like to make a pouch for my sunglasses, cell phone and iPod. I’ve been collecting some tutorials for inspiration, so maybe they will help.

iPod/Camera Cozy Tutorial @ Sew, Mama, Sew!

Patchwork button pouch @ mairuru

Perfect Box Pouch Tutorial @ Indie House

Lined Drawstring Bag @ happythings

Scrappy Drawstring Bag @ sol da eira

Patchwork Pencil Pouch @ Little Big Girl Studio