The Chenille quilt I made this fall has found a new home. It is living with a cute little snuggler named Henry. He also received these letters I found a pattern for online (I can't find the original link - sorry!!)
I used scraps from the chenille quilt and a couple other coordinating fabrics, cut the edges to rag and washed them up. They are pretty cute. Next, I sewed them on a wide ribbon, vertically, to hang on a door or wall. So cute. Unfortunately, I did this last step in a hurry the morning of the shower, which I was hosting. Here's a blurry shot of the result:
Do you see what I didn't? ? ? ? Yeah, it says 'Herny', which is CLOSE to Henry, but not close enough. I had this hanging as a decoration to go home with the mom, and finally someone was nice enough to point out my spelling error. Bah. It was a good laugh, and now it's been fixed and is ready to go in the mail back to Henry. Embarrassing, but we had a good laugh.
Henry also got a couple rattles that I made. The first one, I saw Stephanie, a friend, post on
her blog 'built to last' a while ago (check her blog out - you'll like it!), and then when I saw one on Pinterest it reminded me how much I liked them. I totally free-handed mine and let's just call them an interpretation of the cute ones I've seen. Or maybe 'artictic'? He has a little bell in his nose so he makes a small noise, not too obnoxious.
Then I crocheted a wormmy kind of stacking-ring-ish rattle. (I may have called his back end slightly phallic shaped in the past. Don't judge, I just kind of made up the pattern as I looked at a picture.) This one has a cat toy in his head (a bell in a plastic ball) so he rattles a little louder. The rings come off and the yarn is all 100% cotton as are the tshirt strips I stuffed him with so he can be thrown right in the wash. The rings should be good sizes for baby hands.
Also, some fun paint chip garland was made. This was fun decoration, and almost free - just the cost of some thread, and time. Grace even helped punch these out, and I think the garland will live in her room now that the shower is over. I ended up with almost 15 feet of garland. We sprinkled some extra pieces on the bar where the shower treats were, very festive!
The baby shower concluded a couple weeks of lots of company. We had some good friends over a few times over the Christmas holiday, hosted a game night for our small group, and then the baby shower. My husband likes to have people over. I don't, not as much anyway. But I noticed something in myself as we were having company. I was enjoying it. I was relaxed and having fun. I wasn't worried about getting on to the next thing. It was even OK when I didn't get to play a single game with our small group and refereed kids instead so other parents could have fun.
I'm also in an accountability group with a couple other great ladies to encourage each other in the area of health. We would all like to lose weight, but want to not do a fad diet. We all feel like there is a spiritual component to this fight, so we are fighting. And most of all, we are praying for each other and trying to allow God to speak into this area of our lives. We're reading a book about this together, using the 'my fitness pal' app on our phones, and meeting weekly. I've lost 9 pounds so far (2 or three weeks? Three maybe.) by cutting out some extra eating and just being aware of how many calories are in the regular food I eat. I still need to add in exercise, throw out the McD's Mocha Frappe that I love, and commit to better meal planning, but it's a good start.
But the thing I'm noticing is that I feel better about myself. Typical of my experience of God, I'm asking Him to do one thing, and He's doing that and other stuff at the same time. He seems to be speaking to my identity, telling me I'm OK, and making me comfortable in my own skin. I think that's why I liked having people over and didn't have to worry overly much about the house being perfect. I think I could relax and have fun because God made me OK with myself. Crazy. Great. I jokingly told my husband that I am 41 and it feels like I'm just growing up in this area. I want to get healthy, but I can't wait to see what else God will do through my willingness to let Him in. Stay tuned!
