A little R&R...

Friends... I will be spending the next week in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH with my family. I hope that you all don't miss me too much while I'm gone! I'll be back next week with a yummy recipe to share, a baby bump update and my favorite sewing essentials! Meanwhile... enjoy a little of the view I will be enjoying!!

If you'd like some good reading material while I'm gone, be sure to check out my Blogroll for all of the blogs I like to read!!

How-To: Birdie Plush

I knew instantly that I wanted to make this adorable little plush birdie toy I saw somewhere in my blog/pinterest/etsy travels for Everleigh's nursery. There isn't really a "theme" however, one of the fabrics I used for her quilt has these adorable little love birds on it, so that is somewhat the theme I guess!

Anyway, as usual, I just kind of flew-by-the-seat-of-my-pants (what kind of an expression is that anyway?!) There is no pattern for this, however, if you'd like to make your own, I'd be happy to make something up for you...

1) I simply made a rectangle for the body,  a half circle for the head and wings, and long feet. You can see all my pieces below (I had already sewn the head onto the body and cut out the beak). You will need two pieces of fabric for each body part. Make sure when you cut them, you have right sides facing together.

2) The next step was to sew on the eyes and the beak. I simply used embroidery thread for the eyes, and outlined in pencil the shape that I wanted, then used that as my pattern.

3) The next step is to sew the wings and feet, right sides together, then turned them right side out and press them.

Coppa Cafe

I am usually not a huge fan of coffee desserts. Seeing as I don't like coffee to drink, I don't find that surprising. However, my MIL and FIL frequent a restaurant called "Villagio" in Peddler's Village, where once upon a time they had these delicious little desserts called Coppa Cafe. They consisted of a chocolate and coffee syrup that was poured into the bottom of a tall, but little, iced glass and then swirled up the sides... then they added soft serve vanilla ice cream... and some more chocolate/coffee syrup... AND chocolate covered coffee beans... and more soft serve vanilla... topped off with whipped cream... and more chocolate covered coffee beans.

THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!

However, I did say once upon a time... that is because they have been replaced by some strawberry version monstrosity.

So, for father's day, I decided to concoct my own. They were similar, and good, but still not quite as good as the original. I have no coffee in my house... nor a coffee maker. So rather than vanilla ice cream, I used coffee to incorporate that flavor. I also couldn't find chocolate covered coffee beans in a pinch, so I used mini M&Ms.

Here's what you'll need to make your own:

Etsy Treasury- Vintage Purple

For those of you familiar with Etsy, you may have heard about their "treasuries". Treasuries are basically a collection of items put together by "Etsians" (people that buy and sell on Etsy). Treasuries can be used as a fun search tool to find items, as well as great advertising for the items that are featured. I made a treasury last night inspired by these amazing vintage knobs (which have unfortunately been sold).

TheLiquidationPlace

Nursery Tour- Part I

Hey Everyone,
 I wanted to give you a little sneak peak of what we have been working on for Everleigh's nursery! I had posted the inspiration picture a few weeks ago in this post:

http://elizabethlouandco.blogspot.com/2012/07/bump-update-22-weeks.html

I have videoed (is that a word!?) a little tour to show you our progress so far. We have been working on it pretty much since the day we found out what we would be having! I originally wanted to go with a bright poppy red and lighter shades of pink, but daddy wasn't a fan, he liked the lighter vintage colors, which surprisingly were what I had wanted before we were even pregnant! In fact, Last summer I came across this collection of fabrics:

from Dena Designs, called Leanika, and fell in love! I decided they were perfect for a little girl's nursery and called Kyle asking if I could spend close to $100 in fabric for a nursery... for a baby who wasn't conceived yet... and there was no guarantee would be a girl! I guess everything does work out in the end!

Please enjoy this little tour below!

**Please excuse the smallness of the video... my husband informed me I have to hold my camera horizontally for it to record in widescreen. Ooops!

Southwest Chicken and Rice Burritos

My husband tends to like Mexican food much more than I, so when he wanted to make this recipe- which I had flagged on Pinterest with him in mind, I was a little skeptical about the beans. I have a texture-thing with beans. I don't like the mushy mush they become after you bite into them. However, we had them a few months ago in chili and didn't really mind them. So, we decided to give this recipe a try. They are delicious! I love the crispiness of the wrap from using the griddle press (it's a Cuisinart all in one griddle and grill we got for our wedding- I LOVE IT!). We made our own little tweaks from the original recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

Southwest Chicken and Rice Burritos

Bump update- CrAVinGs

 My bump is getting larger by the week! I am also finally starting to have cravings... like pizza. We actually had to stop on the way home from work and pick one up last week! That's the first REAL craving I've actually had. I mean the kind where it's an inconvenience to obtain the food. I also am starting to crave blue box mac again... sounds like a great prenatal diet, right?! However, I am starting to get sick of cinnamon toast crunch... so that's some good news!

 I also am getting a little more hormonal (aka "bitchy"). Luckily it's short lived and my husband is pretty understanding! Just a general grumpiness that lasts for a few hours. I must say, I feel very blessed for how easy this pregnancy has been so far... hopefully the rest goes just as well, and I don't have to bite my tongue later!

We've started to work on the nursery and it's coming along nicely. The inspiration room is pictured below... I just love it!!

ontobaby.com

And next... a new bump picture! This was taken on Saturday, I was 22 weeks and 4 days. I'm finally starting to be able to fit into some maternity shirts!

Bump update

Well, I finally feel pregnant. It was very apparent when I went to paint my toes this evening and realized that it was much more difficult than it used to be!

Also most exciting to note is that I can now feel the baby move! We discovered this as I was lying in bed on our trip to Disney world a couple of weeks ago... I was resting a book on my belly as I was reading, and I felt a kick, and saw my book move... I thought I was going crazy... until I felt it again, and then Kyle felt it! Now the little one is moving about a bit, but unfortunately daddy has only got to feel it a couple of times... I'm sure that will change very soon!

Disney pics:

Our hotel: The Dolphin... the fact that we can walk to Epcot and the boardwalk and can take a ferry to multiple places, is AMAZING. I hear the pool is awesome too... but we wouldn't know because Hurricane Beryl decided to visit while we were there!

Prego at Snow White's cottage

A Beverage in Germany

Epcot

MATER!!! I love Cars :)

Tom Sawyer's Tree House

So... this amazing dragon in Downtown Disney is made out of LEGOS!

OK... back to pregnancy talk!

Some cravings I have had since my last post have been: ice cream sandwiches, hot dogs and I still am having a love affair with cinnamon toast crunch. It's such a versatile food... it's delish for breakfast, but can double as dessert. Who doesn't love that?!

My bump... it really started to show when I hit 18 weeks. We had our 20 week ultrasound today (I'm not quite 20 weeks) and the baby is measuring 12oz and is in the 85th percentile! That was a little shocking... I REALLY hope the little one is not huge!!! I'm also measuring two days ahead of what they projected my due date to be. Other than that, everything looks great and we'll find out Saturday if it's a little boy or girl! 

16 weeks

18 weeks

and last, and most importantly... Baby W! (this is a profile shot)