Category Archives: Where Is This Crafting Coming From?

Who Needs A Clean House, Anyway?

Instead of doing laundry, cleaning, washing dishes, running errands, or anything else that needs to be done from the last two weeks of neglect, I’ve decided to spend some more me time doing what I want instead.

I finally put together Lucas’ shadow box and hung it on his nursery wall:

Then, I made some mugs to send one to Erica:

Embroidered a new burp cloth for Lucas:

And I did all of this instead of putting away mounds of laundry or cleaning up the mess in the room formerly known as my family room:

Domestic Goddess- Now With An Etsy Shop!

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I had a busy afternoon while Lucas was down for a long nap that I’m no doubt going to be paying for at 5am tomorrow.

First, I hung all of the photos and art that I’ve been stacking up in the Living Room:

Do your best to ignore the empty frames. I ordered prints the other day and they should hopefully be here soon.

Next, I made this awesome craft as inspired from Pinterest:

When I was done, I was so proud of myself, that I added it to the art/photo wall on the stairs that I started earlier:

And when I was done with that, i made dinner complete with fresh bread from the bread machine. Susie Homemaker? I believe so, today!

I posted a picture on Facebook of my Arizona artwork and so many people told me to open an Etsy shop between my crafts, baby shoes, embroidery, and diaper cakes… so I did! You can find it at: http://www.Etsy.com/shop/RavishingRivas

I mostly just decided to sell things so that I can continue to afford all of my crafts and sewing and am not planning on selling enough that I’m busy making things for other people instead of making them for my adorable baby boy.

Crafting, and Crafting, and Crafting- Oh, My!

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I am a domestic goddess.

The last two days I’ve finally broken into the embroidery machine that Angel got for me while we were living in our crap castle. Remember that place? Yeah, unfortunately so do I. So anyway, I spent a long evening trying to figure out how to use it, and from my first masterpiece, I was hooked!

Not bad for the first try

A few burp cloths later….

… And I was running out of things to embroider and colors of thread. So I ordered more thread from my beloved Amazon and moved on to another sewing project: more baby TOMS!!!

Seriously, I love these things! The bottom photo is the toddler version that has Velcro instead of elastic and are slightly larger than my fingernail so they are easier to sew. And the black ones I assembly lined and about 20 minutes into it I felt a little bit like I was working in a Nike sweat shop.

And then because I was running out of things to sew or people to sew them for, I moved back to my embroidery machine to make more designs for when my thread arrives tomorrow.

When I was done with that, I set myself loose on my house with my P-touch label maker.

When everything in the house was either embroidered or labeled, my brain told me that I should go for a run but then my ass was all like “dude, chill, this couch is really comfy.” So I sat down with my baby and his custom burp cloths and watched trashy TV until it was dinner time and I realized that there wasn’t anything to make because the food in the fridge had expired. So I just did my go-to of spaghetti and patted myself on the back for leaving the craft room long enough to make food. You go, me!

Aaaaaand then I unjammed the vacuum from all of the hair that it’s been sucking up. Maybe it’s the prenatal vitamins that I started taking again, or maybe it’s the 5 inches of hair that I cut off, or maybe it’s just that I stopped showering so my hair never comes out of a pony tail long enough for me to recognize that it’s still falling out, but I’m not shedding at a chemo patient pace anymore. Seeing that it cut waaaaaay back the second that I got home from my haircut, I’m just going to chalk it all up as my long, old, color damaged, hair telling me that it was totally time to pop a vitamin and cut it off.

I’m going to go embroider a pair of Angel’s underwear now (just because I can) so I’m done with the blog. But before I go, allow me to plaster my webpage with photos of my child.

Oh my goodness, I love this little dude!

“Did Daddy dress you this morning?”

The Michigan boys getting ready to watch the final four game

I don’t know why all of the Michigan photos. I guess it was theme week in our house

Dog: still boy’s best friend

I’ll be available to sign autographs in the Kalamazoo area Monday.

My Week

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Well, I’ve been sick for a little more than a week, and haven’t left the house very often as a result. In fact, the last time that I did leave was on Easter and only to go to Urgent Care. Yep, it’s been a great week and not really the memorable first Easter that I wanted to share with my little man. Obviously, he didn’t know any different but that’s not the point. Ugh. Mom fail.

I still feel like crap, but at one point I had a fever, the dog was throwing up, and Angel was suffering from food poisoning while Lucas was screaming and coughing. A family who shares everything. That’s what we’ve become.

In odd news, I’m losing hair by the handful over here. Seriously. By. The. Handful. Maybe I’m taking chemotherapy that I wasn’t aware of, because it’s scary the amount of hair that’s coming out of my head at the rate that it is. I should be bald by the end of the month. Secretly I’m hoping that it’s just the end of the drop in all of the crazy pregnancy stuff since they say that you stop losing hair when you’re pregnant because of the hormones and you lose it all after you have the baby. I mean, it’s bad enough over here that even the house cleaner made a comment about how worried she was about the amount of hair I was losing. Yeah. I’m not kidding.

And speaking of the end of all of these crazy pregnancy things, I’m happy to report that I finally put myself on the scale and I’m under my pre-pregnancy weight. Having never lifted a weight or started a diet. Go me! That doesn’t, however, mean that I don’t look like I’m carrying around a flotation device around my belly still and have boobs out to here. Why doesn’t anyone tell you these things? In my mom’s defense, she did try and I stupidly thought to myself “but I’ll be different” and I’m here to shout it to the blogging world: No. You won’t. What was flat will now be round, what was small will now stick out, and what was perky you will now trip over. “But you’ll have this little baby that makes it all worth it” or strongly suggest surrogacy to anyone who asks- which they don’t but they totally should.

Do you boobs hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?

Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?

Can you throw them over your shoulder and then feed your son a 7 course meal that will only hold him over for 3 hours before he starts screaming for more because he doesn’t know how much of a job this is?

Do your boobs hang low?

And since I’m already talking about my boobs, I’m going to throw out into the world that my son now BITES and PINCHES. Yep and yep. It doesn’t matter if I yell at him, flick him in the mouth, stop feeding him, or call him names (yes, I have done these all). Now I can tell when he’s about to and I look at him and say “don’t you even think about it!” and then he either smiles at me, or gets this devious look in his eyes, bites me, and then smiles while I’m yelling. He knows exactly what he’s doing. That little punk. But my 6 month goal of breastfeeding is in serious jeopardy over here unless he stops immediately because this is no longer enjoyable and I don’t want to hate my baby and we’re on that path when he bites me every few hours and then started pinching this afternoon.

As a result of being sick, I don’t have a ton of photos to share for my week, but I do have a few while I was feeling under the weather and before I was hit by the proverbial Mac Truck of sickness. I’ll type morewhen I feel like I’m not knocking on death’s door.

At the Chicago Bulls game with the family

The car ride home from Chicago. Molly has decided that Lucas is okay and can stay in the family

The car ride home from Chicago. Once again, proof that dogs take on the personality of their owners.

Morning play time

Morning nap in our (still) unfurnished family room with his butt up in the air. Sidenote: our new couches should be here the first week in may- FINALLY

we’re still working on sitting

Getting ready for Easter

Proof that there IS sun in Michigan. Even if it was only for a day. Angel took us to South Haven, which is a small beach town on Lake Michigan for the day. We walked around the shops, had lunch, and spent some time soaking up the vitamin D that we so miss from Arizona

Baby’s first Easter basket!

Sick Momma with her babies keeping her company on the couch

Look at all of these colors!

But MOM, are you SEEING these colors?!

My little Easter bunny with his little Easter basket (thanks for the outfit, Grandma!)

First Easter

Angel got me a desk for my craft room and it’s finally done!! So here is my craft room in all of its crafty perfection

The first output from my new craft room: baby TOMS (which are shoes) for a friend of mine who is expecting any minute now! Even made with custom tags for Liesel (what they will name her). Between these and my diaper cakes, I should open an Etsy shop

History Repeats Itself

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Hm…. Where to start?

First, my adorable baby apparently doesn’t want to be set down tonight, so I had to start this blog post 4 different times before I could actually get writing. And now I write this

I’m sorry, what was I saying?

Yes, that I’ve had to start this post 5 times because I keep stopping to try to make Lucas fall asleep.

Yep, 6th time’s the charm….

Sometimes it takes 7 starts to a

I digress…. And I also think I have at least 4 minutes to collect my thoughts this time

Nope, sure didn’t.

Okay then, so this week I think I finally got into the groove of being a stay at home mom.

Aww, that’s cute. There was a 20 minute pause between that last sentence and writing the rest of my blog because Lucas decided that he was hungry and I had to feed him. So let’s talk about nursing for a minute, shall we? It’s been going much better since we moved to Michigan. Mostly because I’m lazy, partially because I don’t have the resources readily available that I did in Arizona, but really mostly because I’m lazy, Lucas has been nursing 100% of the time. I haven’t gone near a pump or a bottle in about 2 weeks. In fact, I have no milk in the fridge because I had to put it all in the freezer or throw it out (and cry) because he hasn’t had a bottle in so long. Yay me! (And maybe a little bit Lucas). But I still call “BS” on books, people, and lactation specialists who make it sound like nursing feels like magical unicorns giving you hugs while you sip Mai Tais on the beach. It’s more like dangling it in a tank of piranhas who haven’t eaten in a week. What I wouldn’t give to be able to strap off my boobs, throw them in his crib, and get a good night’s sleep!!

Yesterday I took a shower (because I promised Angel that I would) and took Lucas to Target to get a sewing machine and then to the fabric store to get fabric for burp cloths and blankets. Why? BECAUSE I’M BORED! The fabric store was in the loveliest part of town: located between the Salvation Army and a couple of pawn shops (see: “Crap Castle”). The trip was even complete with two moms screaming at each other that the other was a “ho” in front of their children. Sweet, right? My mom apparently did the same thing when she moved a young family to California, so I have that in common with her, and that’s fine by me.

Sorry, another pause to read a Dr. Seuss favorite to Lucas and put him to bed, so don’t mind me if the next little bit of my blog post rhymes and has made up names that you’re not sure you’re pronouncing correctly but then it’s not like there’s an audience you’re reading to who knows any different, so feel free to skip a few pages to speed this bedtime up.

Anyway, what was I saying? Something about history repeating itself and I unknowingly did what my mom did when she was in my position.

Now that Lucas is in bed, I promise to have the rest of this post won’t be as scatter-brained as I think I’ve proved that I now live my life by.

So anyway, I was sewing these burp cloths all day yesterday just because it seemed more productive then watching more murder mystery shows on daytime TV:

I’ve gotten into the habit of not waking up until 10am, mostly because I don’t work and Lucas still lets me sleep. Last night I put Lucas to bed an hour late, so instead of eating at 7am and going back to sleep until 10, he ate at 8 and then daddy kept him awake while he was getting ready for work (grrrrrrr). So right after daddy left for work, I snuck another man into my bed. And by the grin on his face, he knew he didn’t belong there:

So after I decided that there was no sleeping through those giggles, I got out of bed to make coffee and run some errands but quickly changed those plans when I looked outside to find that my perfectly clean and snow free car looked like this this morning:

Angel was nice enough to clean off half of it when he left for work, but I secretly think he only did it to say “now you have no excuse for not changing out of sweat pants and leaving the house” but the joke it totally on him because I didn’t change out of sweats, and instead sat on the couch all morning with Lucas watching paternity test results on Maury:

Lucas gets very into finding out if the ho is telling the truth or not.

Angel probably knew the car stunt wouldn’t guarantee him that both Lucas and I would bathe today, so he sent me a text message about 10am saying “for dinner tonight do you want to” and then I honestly didn’t read the rest before I answered “yes!” I’m just glad he followed it up with “go to dinner in downtown Kalamazoo” and not “cook me a 7 course meal complete with lobster tail” So by 5 o’clock this evening, I was so excited at the idea of putting on jeans and going on a date that I had Lucas fed, bathed, and dressed and Molly pottied and in her cage, and I was in clothes that were clean and my hair was curled. Curled people! I don’t think you understand how excited that means I was.

We dug out my car, drove out of our crap castle, and went into town to a nice European restaurant. No idea what European food is? It’s like heaven when it means that I didn’t have to cook it. He even took me to grab a glass of wine before dinner where 2 ladies (one who works in OB) guessed that Lucas was either 2 weeks or 6 weeks old and were totally floored when we told them he was 3 months next week. Then came the famous follow up question that I get every time I leave the house: “Was he a preemie?” Nope, I fully baked my tiny baby. The manager at the restaurant mentioned that we had a “very well behaved baby” which is great to hear since he was being exceptionally fussy tonight at dinner and we were in an establishment that probably only had high chairs because they were legally required to and not because anyone brings children there. But “yeah, this one’s on the boob so he can pretty much go anywhere” (name that movie! *Sweet Home Alabama*).

When we got home, Angel and Lucas had a moment. When the two of them start smiling at each other, I hardly care that the guy living above us is running in place to bad techno music while he washes laundry at 11pm. I kid, I totally still care, but this is pretty adorable:

The first week of staying home was interesting. I may be the only person in this town who doesn’t shop at Goodwill and can afford to wash my jeans on a regular basis, and I get people whispering to each other when I grocery shop at my local Wal-Mart (that is seriously my only grocery store option around here. Fried food, anyone?) regarding my Coach diaper bag and clean hair. 9 days, 2 Kindle books, and 6 burp cloths later, I had a total melt down to Angel one evening about how I hated this place and he can’t move me out of here fast enough and I can’t stay in the house all day every day and I need to make friends.

To prove my point, I sent Angel a text message this afternoon that said “I just finished up sewing a baby blanket with matching burp cloth. I’m about to start sewing a new bedding set for our bedroom if you don’t help find me friends stat” He wrote back with a phone number and said “call this number immediately” for the phone number of a mom’s group leader.

Next week’s goal: adult interaction. I don’t care if it takes mom groups, extreme shopping, or jail. Mark my words that next week I’ll talk to someone who doesn’t speak 2 month old in a venue that requires me to put on pants.

Crazy going slowly am I.

Maternity Monday- Final Countdown!

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It’s the final countdown! I’m officially 9 weeks away from my “expected due date” and I went in to the doctor this morning for the first of my “every other week” visits. I always feel so great after talking to my doctor because he makes me feel like such an ideal, textbook, pregnancy case that he can do with his eyes closed. And you know what? That’s awesomely comforting to me that he seems so blase about my whole pregnancy. He doesn’t say much, but if I ask a question he’ll talk my ear off in response. At one point a few months ago I said “I assume that no news is good news?” and he laughed and said “yeah, I’ll let you know if there’s something to be concerned about, but it all looks great!” Music to me and my little kick-boxer’s ears. We’re doing it, Mini Me!

While I was walking into his office today, two old women walking in the office complex smiled at me and said “you look so cute!” which made me smile and feel awesome because “ugly days” seem to be so much more frequent when you’re pregnant and I’m glad that I don’t look like I’ve just given up. So you rock, sweet old ladies!!

Talking to the doctor today, he started discussing delivery and post delivery. I told him that I would like to do everything I can to avoid a c section, but at the same time I trust him and if he says that I need one I’m not going to argue or be disappointed. He talked to me about the pros and cons of each and told me to think about it and he’ll plan on whatever I want. He has very compelling arguments for each and now I don’t know what I want except for this kiddo to be out! Which he said to plan to deliver between 39 and 40 weeks and he’s not really going to let me go longer (one) because of my small size and (two) because complications arise and it gets much riskier after that. So apparently November 25th is really like the speed limit when a cop is present. After about 30 minutes of chatting about delivery and post delivery plans, he smiled and told me that I “certainly have the right attitude” because I just seem genuinely excited, able to laugh, and approaching decisions with the right attitude. Which isn’t the first time that I’ve heard this from someone, but it’s not like this is a conscious choice. I’m just not worried about some things while I’m terrified of others but at the end of the day I’m just so excited to meet his little man who’s been kicking me and stealing all of my energy, food, and air for the last 31 weeks. Who, speaking of, has his adorable little food lodged directly into my left rib at the moment.

My baby is over 3 pounds, blah blah bag of oranges, sock full of nickles, etc. You get the idea. He enjoys blinking, sucking his thumb, long walks on the beach, and kicking me in the ribs and dislikes when mom tries to sleep and loud noises. At this point, I just sit on the couch and play “guess that body part sticking out of my belly” with Angel, who always looses because I’m not only a contestant, but also the judge. Poor guy.

At this point in my pregnancy I totally round down to TWO MONTHS when people ask how long I have left, especially when smashy objects are within reach.

I filed for my maternity leave last week! That means that I’m free to mentally check out of work not that it’s been approved to let me leave on October 26th and not come back until February. Computer passwords, what?

And ohmygod how I can I forget to mention that we got our nursery furniture delivered last week!! We’re still missing a few pieces, but the dresser and crib are here, and that’s really the most important part anyway. So naturally, I spent hours getting everything set up and put away. I still have a little bit to do and organize before I move on to the baby’s bathroom (exchanging prescription medicine bottles for band-aids and infant shampoo). Still a work in progress, but here’s what adorable little Mini Me’s room looks like:

there’s a hutch that goes over the changing table that we’re still waiting on and the mobile over the rocker was my Friday night crafting project

The Crib ❤

The whole room (though dark). There’s great natural lighting in the room which really results in some crappy photos

Now because my beloved La-Z-Boy has been relocated to its rightful home, I’ve been reading my Kindle in the nursery and falling asleep almost daily. This weekend I woke up in the chair and found Molly sleeping on the floor right next to me guarding me and the baby. I’m guessing that she wouldn’t be nearly as protective if she knew what this little man is going to take from her in 8-9 weeks.

So there you have it. A delivery deadline, a nursery, and a protective dog. That about sums up my week!

Weekend Update

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So you know how I’ve been saying that I’m experimenting with all of these crafting projects? Well, I feel like I’ve completely fallen off of the wagon. I’m knee deep in a scrapbook, 2 diaper cakes (that I’ve sold!!), 200 hand made paper leaves for Marissa’s wedding, and Jessica is on her way over to make 30 valentine’s for her son’s class.

Meanwhile, Sunday’s usually suck because I know that I have to go to work tomorrow. HOWEVER, I have tomorrow OFF!!!!! I’m seriously loving this stay-at-home thing. I have a turkey breast defrosting to make honey mustard glazed turkey for dinner, a stack of coupons that I clipped out of today’s paper, and an afternoon of crafting ahead of me. I feel like I have grasped my domestic goddess title.

Holy Scrapbook

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I don’t mean to alarm anybody, but the scrapbook apocalypse has arrived and my office is ground zero.

I’ve been all about finding creative outlets for myself and since diaper cakes are on a small hiatus until I get past my stabby attitude towards babies, scrap books seemed like the next logical step. I mean, who really wants a diaper cake full of small, sharp objects and unlocked pill bottles? Nobody. But who wants a scrap book of our honeymoon? Well, Angel will eventually but he’s not allowed near the office so he doesn’t know it yet.

I have been hunting Cricut machines like they are elephant tusks for an ivory market, just waiting for one to go on sale because even I have my limits. Today I found one for half off and I damn near killed someone trying to get to my computer to order it before they went out of stock. Do you see what my quest for creativity is doing to me? It should be here by Tuesday at the latest. I would love to say that I’ll blog about it immediately, but given my current track record I’m going to call in sick to work so I can spend a full 18 hours using it before I tuck it in bed with me for the night so it may be a few days before you hear about it’s glory. Besides, this will allow me sufficient time to come up with a proper name. All amazing gadgets must be named (see: My Kitchen Aid mixer named Hello Kitchy. Trust me, once you use one of those naming it won’t sound so weird).

I’m too excited about my Cricut machine and scrapbook to sleep…. But such is the life of a starving artist (speaking of, I may have been too distracted to stop for dinner…. I can’t remember).

Diaper Cakes

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Like I said below, I have been enjoying finding creative outlets for myself lately. One of the more fun ones has been making diaper cakes for my seemingly endless supply of pregnant friends. Ladies- stop drinking the water.

One of my good friends is bidding farewell to Arizona so that she can go deliver her spawn closer to family. Since she’s been the most supportive of my diaper cake side business (aside from my awesome husband who finally convinced me to sell them), I naturally had to make her a cake for her going away.

"This was by far the best one you have done!"

Laura, you will be missed and I require you to bring Kyle and baby Hailey back at least once a year.

P.S. I packed extra baby caps inside the diaper cake so that you can cover your baby’s cone head before you start snapping away with the camera. You’ll thank me for that some day.