West Photo Shoot

I recently went over to my cousin's house to practice with the new camera and take some pictures of her delightful one month old, Isaiah. Here are a few great shots that I thought I'd share:

This last picture is probably my favorite out of the bunch. I feel like the look on Matt's face says everything there is to be said about being a first time dad. I get a little misty-eyed just looking at it.

Live From The Philippines!

Guess who I got to talk to tonight...

My friend Charity is on the World Race, and this month she's in the Philippines. You can read about her adventures here on her blog.

I miss you friend and even though I know you're doing good stuff over there, Meade County isn't the same without you!

There's No Place Like Home?

I've heard many people say that if you don't like the weather here in the Ohio River valley, just wait five minutes...

Obviously they've never been to Missouri:

Happy first day of Spring Mom and Dad!

PS: It was 71 here today.

A Gospel Singin'

Last night Dusty and I went out to my grandparent's church in Mannsville, KY for a gospel singin'! my Uncle Ed, cousin Luke, a man named Charlie from our church here in Meade Co. came out in a trio to do some old time gospel songs.

I would have more pictures for your viewing pleasure except Dusty and I somehow found ourselves playing and singing with them (to songs we've never heard before, which was humorous.) Enjoy!

Baby Isaiah was the star of the show!

My Papa is singing in the middle, Uncle Ed the guitar player that's not Dusty. :)

This is one proud great grandma! They even got the memo to wear matching colors!

I Stole This Picture From My Cousin

Found this picture on my cousin's Facebook page and I just think it's the sweetest thing in the world! Isaiah and his parents are doing great. He'll be a month old next weekend and I get to take his 1 month pictures. I'm very excited about this!

Now if only I could pry him out of his mother's/ dad's/ grandpa's arms long enough to hold him some more!

An Appropriate Monday Post

This makes perfect sense to me today.

Do read, it is very, very short.

How many do you have? I scored a whopping 0 out of 3, and no I'm not being dramatic.

Happy Monday!

In Which I Make a Pillow

I want to become a semi-decent seamstress. My MIL (who is far more than just semi-decent)

has let me borrow her old sewing machine (last summer, still have it, sorry). In conjunction with that, one free Saturday Dusty and I decided to go to Cave City because we heard there was a wax museum (which, as it would turn out, was closed) and we were feeling random.

We then came across this HUGE antique store where many things were overpriced except bins full of old fabric. So, naturally, I bought some, thinking, "I still have Laura's old sewing machine, surely I can make a pillow out of this."

So I set up shop in my dining room, measuring, cutting, discovering I measured wrong, measuring again, cutting, I'm bad with numbers, etc.

I also quite often forget how to wind the bobbin or thread the machine, as is evidenced below:

After lugging the machine over to the MIL's house for some technichal malfunctions (I apparently bought quilting thread instead of pillow-making-thread) then lugging it back to my house, acquiring a new desk for the office and thus moving the old office desk in the spare room to make a sewing desk ,and avoiding the project for about two weeks because I was afraid I couldn't get the machine to work again, I finally FINALLY takcled it today.

About five painless minutes later, I wound up with my finished product:


It doesn't look totally awesome, the edges are a little lopsided, but I made it and I have a great story as to where the fabric came from! I think I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of this.

And it only took a little under a month! Maybe next one will only take a week. But I don't want to get my hopes up.

[Also, I feel I must mention I used this pattern, which I found to be very helpful and it had the bonus of having pictures!]

An Update, Are You Happy Mom?

You know it's bad when ever your own mother tells you to update your blog...

Truth be told, I don't have much to say. Nothing that I would feel comfortable exposing to the world at this point in my life at any rate.

So I'll do a shallow random things with links to them post. I like these. They are easy.

My cousin and her husband just had their first baby, Isaiah Matthew West. I haven't seen him since they brought him home, but holding him at the hospital was quite precious. Click here to see his birth picture. And for the record, Isaiah's dad is the same guy that I posted this about a while back.

I am co-captaining a Relay for Life team. Frankly, we have no idea what we are doing, but it's for a great cause so I think all the more serious teams will be more forgiving. Incidentally, what should the theme of our tent be?

Can't wait for this movie to *finally* be released this weekend!

Post coming soon about the throw pillow I'm attempting to make using some fabric I bought at a thrift store. Here's a teaser: I had a mini-breakdown and have already had to lug the sewing machine to the MIL's house to show me what I was doing wrong. But I won't tell you what it was.... HA!

I'm reading an absolutely fantastic book right now. It's called The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I feel pretty lame about how much I'm raving about it since it's been out for a long time, like someone who just discovered stone-washed jeans or Pop Rocks. But it's super good, believe me.

Some other books that are on my radar recently:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Aaaanyways, nothing else is new in my life, for the most part. I do have a busy few months ahead of me, so hopefully I'll get some better bloggage material real soon!