Happy Birthday Lucas!

Today, I am celebrating the birth of my precious baby boy. One year ago, (at 8:34 in the morning) little Lucas made his debut into the world. That day changed my life, for better, and everyday I count the little blessing that come with having him. If you had asked me one year ago what I'd be doing on this day I probably would have tearfully mumbled something about being unsure if I'd even make it through the first month. Clearly, I did survive the first month...and the eleven more months to follow...emerging with an active, lively and adorable one year old.

We celebrated Lucas's birthday on Sunday with family and friends. Not only was this Lucas's birthday party, but it was the first time my husband and I were hosting a large family gathering in our home. My husband and I, along with Dada and Dadi worked hard for weeks weeding, cleaning and preparing for this special event. I couldn't have asked for better helpers. The end result was perfect. Everyone had a good time, the food was delicious and Lucas enjoyed playing with his little cousins.

I opted to make the cake myself. Lucas loves lions, so naturally he had to have a lion cake. Because of the number of guests, I chose to make cupcakes instead of one whole cake. This allowed our guests to serve themselves, and to come back for seconds if desired. I love how the little mini cake topper turned out. I dyed the frosting a yellow/orange color, used mini Reese's pieces  for the eyes and nose and twizzlers for the mane and mouth. Not only was the cake adorable, it was delicious too.

Lucas wasn't too sure about being in the spot light. He bravely sat in his high chair with a death grip on my arm.

The rest of the party went well. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. Thanks to all who helped make this a special day for Lucas! :)

Wednesday, April 24th is Lucas's actual birthday. To celebrate Dadi and Dada took us to have a photoshoot @ JCPenny's. Lucas was the perfect model. He posed, smiled and did everything the photographer asked. The pictures turned out perfectly. I'm excited to get some new frames and to start hanging them on the walls. Afterwards, we took Lucas to the park to get the wiggles out. He had such a blast on the swings and slide. It was a perfect way to end the day.

happy 1 year anniversary to thursday's child

Happy one year anniversary to Thursday's Child. This year has had its ups and downs. One year ago I was pregnant and anxiously awaiting the birth of my son. Now I'm preparing to celebrate his first birthday. One year ago I was living in a tiny apartment. Now I have a four bedroom home with a large backyard. I've been able to work part-time and still be a stay at home mom. I thank God for all of his blessings and I hope to have another wonderful and successful year. 

Busy Week...

This week we have been preparing for Lucas's first birthday party. This will be my first large family party, and it's been a bit overwhelming getting everything ready. Cooking has been low on my priority list, however this morning I woke up and was determined to use the veggies in my fridge for a yummy lasagna. A few weeks ago I found this delicious recipe on pinterest (of course). It is husband and husband's picky eater friend approved.

Lasagna recipe: Yummy Goodness

T-Shirt Quilt

I'm excited to finally post pictures of my latest project. I started this quilt in November, and finally finished it this week. It's been one of those projects that kept getting put on the back burner. Last fall, I decided that I had too many camp t-shirts. I never wear my old camp shirts, except to sleep in or to the gym. My collection of old shirts was clogging up the closet, and exploding out of the drawers. I couldn't bare to part with my t-shirts, too many good memories - meeting my husband, teaching campers to ride horses, spending time singing at camp outposts and watching my campers come forward to accept Christ as the savior and friend. So instead, I opted to cut up my old shirts and create this beautiful quilt.

As a beginner seamstress, I wasn't sure where to start. I turned to pintrest for help. I found several t-shirt quilt tutorials tutorial #1, tutorial #2. And now after several months, and a much wiser me on quilting I'm thrilled to show off the results. I used shirts from 2003 through 2013.

Before I started cutting out the squares, I made a template with cardboard. This ensured that the squares were approximately even. I decided to sew each patch to the back of an old black twin/full bed sheet. In hindsight, this was a mistake and made it difficult to use the sewing machine later on and created bunches on the corners of the patches. 

 I added black fleece to the back of the quilt and sewed around the edges using a sewing machine. This gave the quilt a nice finished boarder and soft backside. To hide my mistakes, I choose to add the purple fabric around each patch. I think it really added to the quilt and it covered up the bunched corners. Lastly, I sewed by hand a blanket stitch around the edges of the patches. Below is a close up of a finished patch with the blanket stitch.

Lucas was such a great helper. He loved walking on the colorful patches, pulling out the sewing pins and pointing at the words PSR and saying Dada.