Sewing, More Sewing, and a Baby Shower

 This week was filled with more sewing, as I was getting presents ready for Stacey's (my brother's wife) baby shower. I had so much fun, and frustration, making receiving blankets, bibs, and finishing the baby quilt.
I love the fabric I found for the receiving blankets and bibs. I had started out with four bibs that were cut out. However, after messing up two of them, beyond the point of which I had the patience and presence of mind to fix, I tossed them out. The two remaining bibs were too thick for the pearl snaps I had, so I needed to purchase some heavy duty ones. I actually really like the look of the heavy duty ones over the pearl ones.

Receiving Blankets:

 The bibs that survived:

I spent a portion of Friday working on the binding for the baby quilt. I decided to forgo my usual method of binding and try out the technique my sister-in-law, Shanda, uses. She has a great tutorial on her YouTube channel. I did fairly well until I got to the end and tried joining the two tails. It looked relatively easy, but lets just say I totally flubbed up, and not just once but three times. I managed to somehow get it to look fairly decent despite my flubs. Afterwards, I realized that I started out sewing the binding on the wrong side to begin with. Next time I know to start on the quilt top side. It's all a learning process right? It's not a failure if it's made with a whole lot of love, and if I learned something in the process.

 Third time ripping out a seam:

The finished product:

We had two outings to Ikea this week. We had a family outing one evening, and then Rhaevyn, Meg, and I went one day to get a few kitchen items for the girls' dorms. I love Elsa in this outfit. She looked very retro to me in this picture.

 Meg and her best bud.
They always have some type of coordinating outfit every Sunday. It's so funny. The yellow of his shirts matched the yellow of the flowers on her dress.

 

 Aeva took three separate patterns and made this darling dress out of a bed sheet:

Activity Days had a daddy daughter picnic dinner. Elsa and Chris worked on decorating a box for their dinner. They had a great time down at the river at Daybreak Park.

Elsa had already done her part for decorating the box. Chris added his touch:

 

 On Saturday Rhaevyn, Aeva, Elsa, and I headed to the Seattle area for Stacey's baby shower. We left bright and early in order to look around a used bookstore in Tacoma. We had heard it was huge and had good prices. It was huge, and they had a great selection. However, the prices were outrageous. We left empty handed. This left us a lot of time before the shower started. We stopped in at Ben and Stacey's new place for a bit. The shower was really nice, and it was a lot of fun. One of Stacey's sisters had done a wonderful and beautiful job of decorating and coordinating it.

 

 

 

 

The kids had so much fun picking out items to give to Stacey for the baby. It was fun to see what they chose at the store. We also had found several brand new looking books at Goodwill, so each of the kids were able to give a book. Myles actually picked out one from the library prize shelf for the summer reading program. It was really neat that all of them gave a book that they have grown up reading and is a favorite of theirs. Amazing how that happened.

Aeva picked out a rubber ducky and baby soap.

The book she gave was:

 Myles gave this book for the baby:

Rhaevyn got a Little People airplane toy, but I don't have a picture of it and gave this book:
 

Elsa picked out an outfit for next summer, diapers, and wipes. Meg picked out pajamas and bath toys. They both gave this book:

 

I was so happy that both Ben and Stacey loved the quilt. The best compliment was that they thought my bibs had been store bought.

 

Once the shower ended we helped clean up, and then headed back to Ben and Stacey's. Elsa hung out and played a game with Stacey while Ben was sweet enough to take the girls to the Japanese Market in Seattle. I tagged along for fun. It's a bit bigger than the one here in Portland. Ben had fun picking things out to take home and try out. The custard buns were the best!!! The one in Portland no longer carries them anymore. We had a fun time!!!

 

 Just before we left to go home I got some cuddle time in with their kitten, Reuban. He is getting huge!! He is so cute, fluffy, and really sweet.

We left around 8pm and didn't get home until midnight. There was road work near Tacoma where four/five lanes merged down to one for several miles. I was so exhausted near the end of the drive.
We now have a new to us microwave. Ben and Stacey donated this microwave to us since their new place has one already. We are so thrilled because our current one blows the circuit all the time, and only the one and two minute numbers work on it now. We already love the new microwave!!

 

This week is about starting to pack, making some new friends, and getting the suburban ready for the drive to Utah. I can't believe we have such little time left before the girls go back to school. How is it we are at this point already???