Sewing Machine Cover

So....yesterday I was sitting at my house without very much to do. I had finished my work for the day, and there are only so many blogs you can read before your baby starts kicking you to get up and do something.

Since I have about 40 bookmarks of things I want to make, I figured I should probably start making some of them instead of just adding to the list.

I've seen a couple of cute sewing machine covers, and I happened to have 1/2 a yard of material that I thought might be cute for it, so I dove in!

***My sewing machine is really small. It kind of folds in on itself too, so I doubt a 1/2 yard of fabric would work on ANY other sewing machine. I really should have had more for mine...I ended up piecing some pieces together to make big enough pieces of fabric to sew together.

And I found the tutorial here: http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/images/sewingmachinepattern.pdf

Really simple. I just changed the measurements so it fit my machine and BAM! Practically done.

I kind of wish I had used a thicker fabric; maybe something canvas-y...and I kind of wish I had something solid for the sides to break up all of that pattern...but all the other fabric I had was too baby-ish and didn't go.

This was actually really easy to do! The hardest part was figuring out what way to cut my fabric so I would have enough big pieces with the amount of fabric I had. So if you weren't stingy like me and actually bought a whole yard, you could probably do this in an hour or two. And if you're not distracted with watching Buffy, maybe less!

:)

Baby Pictures

Okay, so not exactly baby pictures. Unless you can see through my belly...in which case I hope you never look at me, because that would just be weird.

32 weeks!! And I am starting to feel REALLY uncomfortable...all the time. Poor Scott has to listen to me complain constantly. The other night we were watching 24 and I had to stand up because sitting just squished my guts even more and made everything worse...I'm pretty positive there will be a BIG gap between our babies...IF we have another one. This pregnancy thing is rough!

Anyway, here I am, getting huger and huger! Enjoy! :)

Why, yes. That is the pack and play and stroller in the background...Scott likes to have everything set up...? We're going to have to put some of it away eventually or the baby won't have room in his room!
And, yes...that is my new phone. I wish I had taken a picture of what happened to my old phone. Ha! Wow, there were chips and buttons hanging out all over the place!

Candy and Babies--anything better???

Have you ever heard of Oreo Balls? I think it's the worst name for a candy EVER. Oreo truffles might sound better. Or tuxedo truffles. Ooo that one is actually kind of good. Anyway, I found a recipe a few weeks ago that I really wanted to try, but I didn't have an excuse (or the time, really) to do it. It was a friend's birthday yesterday, so I decided I finally had an excuse, and this way I could give some away so I wouldn't have to eat them all.

Basically you take a package of Oreos, crush them up, mix that with a package of cream cheese, roll that mixture into ball shapes and then dip the balls into chocolate (I found an actual recipe online somewhere). Easy. So I gave it a try yesterday, and (for the most part) it worked. I should have added something to the chocolate because it was still really thick while I was trying to dip the candies, but about half the batch turned out pretty cute.

The end result:

Pretty fancy looking, right?!?

Yep. Pretty proud of myself. I've never dipped anything but pretzels, and to be honest--it's probably not my favorite thing ever. I'd rather just bake something tasty. But the finished result was really rewarding! They look kind of pro!

And they taste great! Anyone that comes to visit me soon can try one!! Who knows how long they'll last, though, so make it quick!! :)

My other proud accomplishment is this:

It's a patchwork baby blanket/sleeper. I got the pattern from a book called, Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. There are so many cute things in the book, but this was one of my favorites, and I didn't think it looked too hard. Wow!! I started this about two or three months ago and barely finished this morning...Luckily it had really detailed instructions, and I have a mom that could answer most of my questions over the phone. One day I called my mom probably 8 or 9 times asking about how to do something for this little project. I'm really glad I didn't give up, though. I think it turned out sooo cute!! And I just can't wait to snuggle our little guy in this!

This is just a close up of some of the fabrics I used. The inside is flannel so it will be nice and soft, and it opens up all the way to the bottom and snaps closed. I made the binding myself! for the first time ever. And the patchwork front brought back memories from when I tried to make my first quilt (I was five or six). I'm glad that this turned out better than that "quilt."

My next project--replacing our "Merry Christmas" wall collage........stay tuned!

VIVA Las Vegas!!

Well...As you may have been able to guess (or knew because we told you...) Scott and I went to Vegas for our anniversary this year! It was fun seeing some familiar things from our honeymoon, but we definitely got to see a lot more this time around. We discovered that all the hotels havefree parking!! (Just like Monopoly!--Minus the free cash :( ...) So instead of walking my pregnant self everywhere, we were able to see a lot more and we were all so much happier (especially my feet, although they were still killing me by the end of our trip).

I'll start with Sunday. We left our house at 8 (or so.....) and drove like crazy to Vegas.

I had to put this picture in. First, my camera-shooting skills are not the best. I seem to always be able to get everyone in the picture, but I usually miss half of my own face.......Second, Scott thinks it's so funny to make weird faces in pictures...especially if I take one while he's driving. Oh I love the boy.

We stopped in Beaver, UT at a gas station with the biggest, cleanest bathrooms I have ever seen in a gas station. I almost took a picture, but I think that may be illegal (bathrooms=privacy=no pictures?), so I didn't. We also learned from the "Welcome to Beaver" sign that they have the world's best tasting water. We forgot to try it :(

So our first stop in Vegas was the temple. It was really beautiful, and the weather was perfect, so it was really nice to be able to walk around the temple and enjoy the scenery.

This was our first view of the Vegas Strip! Sooooo excited!!!
After checking into our hotel, we just kind of walked down the strip and checked out some things.
Scott was laughing at me because i was having such a hard time getting on this ledge to sit on it...being short and pregnant are sometimes not as compatible as one would think...
After taking this picture, we saw this guy (see below) and had to take a picture. Maybe he really didn't want to stop playing the slot machines, I don't know!
Then we stopped and watched the water show at the Bellagio. One of my favorite things! But more on this later.
MONDAY!! We went on a tour of the Hoover Dam.

Side Story/Joke via my dad: What did the fish say when he ran into the wall? Dam. Lol. Thanks, dad. Couldn't stop thinking about that while we were here.

So here's the Fieber family (all three of us) at the Hoover Dam!
And after our tour our bus stopped at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory! Apparently this is the Mars company, but this factory makes lots of caramels and other old-fashioned candies. We got a free sample, so I'd say it was worth it!

When we got back into Vegas we went to the Mini Gran Prix something...and Scott got to drive some Go Karts. They wouldn't let me because of the baby (bummer), but Scott had fun. He even got the second best time for the day on the track.

Then we played miniature golf and they had everything lit with black light. They had cool murals all over the walls with pain that would light up and some random animal statues all over, too.

Please notice that I got two holes in one!!! Sometimes I'm able to amaze Scott with my putting skills.
Then we went back to the Strip. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower at Paris, Las Vegas. It felt sooo high! I looked up how high we were, and everything I find says about 460 feet.

At the top, we had the perfect view of the water show at the Bellagio! It was so cool because we could see everything, and we could still hear the music! This was one of my very favorite things.

TUESDAY!! We started off the day at Siegfried and Roy's Dolphin Habitat. They had about nine dolphins, and they were all really active! The trainers were there when we were, so we got to see them feeding the dolphins and doing tricks with them. It was really cool.
This one came up out of the water and stayed there for a couple of minutes. I guess she was just ready for her photo-op.
At the same place, they had a bunch of lions and tigers and (bears, oh my!--no bears, actually...) alpacas. I learned that tigers are actually bigger than lions. Just in case you wanted to know that. It was cool seeing all of these animals too, but they were pretty chill for the most part. Nothing too exciting happened for me to write about...
This is a "baby" tiger. I think the trainer said he was seven months old...

And here's a grown-up tiger.
After that we went to the Natural History Museum in Las Vegas where we found this little guy. We thought he was funny........They had some cool stuff, but our battery was low so we didn't take very many pictures here.
Then we headed over to the Las Vegas Zoo. Our brochure said it was a "shady" animal habitat. We took shady to mean lots of trees, but after we got there we realized it may have been a double meaning. At the entrance we saw this flamingo:

And the rest of our time there was pretty disappointing. All of the animals seemed lonely and cramped, and it just seemed really run down. We didn't spend very much time there because it was kind of depressing...

So, back in Vegas, at Circus Circus, we watched........a circus! This girl was doing some crazy stuff! I was seriously scared for her life. She had silk sheets that she was climbing up and doing tricks with. At one point she rolled herself down the sheets and I thought she was going to fall on her head (so glad she didn't). Sorry about the net, by the way. I didn't realize it was in the way of the picture...

The last thing we did in Las Vegas was go to the top of the Stratosphere. It's higher than the Eiffel Tower, Las Vegas, but it didn't really feel that way to Scott or I. They had a huge observation deck that was enclosed and maybe because it felt more secure it didn't feel as high. It was cool to see the whole Strip from there, though! Scott really wanted to bungee jump off the side of the Stratosphere (we saw a couple of people actually do it), but fortunately for my nerves he didn't.

Wednesday we spent the day driving. We were sad to leave Las Vegas, but also happy to get home to our relaxed life.

We stopped in Beaver again, and don't worry--this time we tried the water! It actually was really good. Scott said it tasted like chocolate (that may have been because he had just eaten a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone....but I wasn't about to burst his bubble).

Glider Re-Covered!!

So....Scott and I found a super slammin' deal on a glider on the KSL classifieds. $20 with the ottoman included! When we drove up to get it, it ended up being REALLY stained. Like, gross, nasty, don't even want to know what happened to the chair, stained. Oh! Here's a picture......

I don't think the picture really does it justice. I just could not imagine rocking a sweet, clean, little baby in this glider. But we still bought it (I mean, come on, it was only $20!). When I got home I started looking around blogland for ideas of what I could do with this. I saw a couple of people had covered their gliders, and it actually didn't look that hard! So I decided to give it a try.

One Saturday I completely covered the two main cushions and the ottoman....and then I got to the side pocket/arm cushion things........I decided there wasn't much to cover--I was going to have to make entirely new pockets....so............two weeks later I finally got everything together and was able to finish them! Wow they were a lot of work. But totally worth it! I think it turned out really cute. Kind of loud...but maybe with a blanket thrown over the back it won't be so bad!

So...are you ready for the "after" pictures?

\/(book not included)\/

I've got to say, I'm pretty proud of myself (understatement) for actually being able to do this!! It may not be exactly perfect, but for my sewing abilities (or basically the lack thereof) I feel like it looks really good! The chair is comfy and I can't wait to hold our little guy in it! I think he'll love it too :)