Brett & Amy Update

Hmmmm...what to blog about? It seems as though Brett & I have been stuck in the doldrums of Winter lately...but I'll try to scrape together a few things for this post. ;)

First...I cut my hair!! I cut about four or five inches off. I really really like having it short again. It makes me feel ready for spring.


Brett cut his hair super short, too. Not on purpose. There was an incident. He got fed up with his hair so rather than go get it cut, or wait for me to do it like I sometimes do, he decided to cut it himself. He has done this before without a problem, but this time the guard fell off of the clippers while he was cutting, resulting in an extremely short strip being carved right down the middle of Brett's head. The only remedy of course was to make all of his hair the same length. So he was walking around with very short hair there for a while. I unfortunately don't have a picture of that, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Last week was my mom's birthday, which was kind of sad, but Brett made it fun by sending me beautiful flowers at work and then taking me out to dinner, because he's awesome like that.

I made another skirt out of some adorable fabric that I am in love with. It's just a simple drawstring skirt, but I can't wait for it to be warm enough to wear it.


Brett is studying for Part 3 national boards. His test is on Sunday, so he has been holed up at the library a LOT lately. You know your husband is in grad school when the big spring-break decision with his friends is "should we go to the Bettendorf or Fairmount library today?" This has been the view around the house for a while now:


He takes the test on Sunday, then he takes Part 4 in a few weeks, then he is DONE WITH BOARDS. Hallelujah.

Meanwhile, Moose has been up to his usual antics:

More Crafty-Goodness

I have to brag. I'm so excited. I actually made my own skirt. I have been toying with the idea of making my own clothes for a while now, but I wasn't sure I could do it. It turned out that it was much easier than I thought, and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Weekend Update

Nothing too terribly exciting has happened here recently. Just the usual. Brett finished his 8th trimester last week. 8 of 10 down. That means he is 80% doctor. We both are having a hard time believing that our Palmer experience has gone by so quickly.

I wish I could tell you that we are jetting off to Tahiti for Spring Break, but sadly that is not the case. We will be staying here in Iowa, working (me) seeing patients (Brett) and shoveling snow (booo!). We got an inch or so Friday night, but nothing to get too excited about.

My relentless crafting continues. I was inspired by this fabric to make an apron. I think it turned out quite adorable. It's springy and fun and I love it. <3

Now I have begun to work on those previously mentioned place mats for our sun room.

Last night we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner with some friends and our friend Amber's parents who are in town. If you have never been to Cracker Barrel you need to find one (they're around) and go. Seriously, yum. Funny Story: We were running out of room for plates, so we decided to consolidate our two plates of bread into one plate. I was trying to be polite by not touching the food with my fingers. Here's what happened:

Brett: Why are you using your fork to move the bread?
Amy (In a frustrated voice): Because I'm TRYING to be POLITE and not use my fingers!
Clay: Isn't that the fork you used to eat your salad?

OOPS. Oh yeah. Forgot about that. I felt like a retard.

Yesterday Brett & I made the extra effort to get all of our errands done so that we could stay home and do absolutely nothing today. So that is the plan. This house needs to be cleaned, but we'll see about that. ;)

Fabric Love!

Let me just say that if it were possible to be genuinely in love with a fabric, this fabric would be the one for me.

As a general rule, fabric has to be dirt cheap-like, they practically have to be giving it away- to be added to my fabric stash. This fabric was a recent exception to that rule, but if there were ever a fabric that says "Amy" this would be it.

To make up for the rule-breaking, I found this juicy little number for $.79! No projects planned just yet, but if you know me you know that won't be an issue.

 

I was shocked to learn today that Wal Mart is eliminating their fabric department!!!! Sad day. :( Now what? Oh well. Due to total fabric liquidation, two yards of this textile loveliness came home with me for under $3!!!! I am having visions of pillows for our sun room and coordinating place mats...

It was a good fabric day. ;)

I Finally Did It!

I have been quilting for a little over a year now, mostly baby blankets and other baby stuff for friends and family. I finally decided to channel my quilting skills into making a real grown-up sized quilt. I made this one for Brett's mom for Christmas. I'm quite proud of it. ;-)

Last Weekend

I figure that since this weekend is pretty much over, I should probably blog about last weekend before time gets away from me.

Thursday was bowling night, as usual. Brett was on fire that night and bowled five consecutive strikes! We have since learned that this feat is called a "five-bagger" in bowling lingo.


Brett's look of pride after bowling five strikes:


Friday night was the much-anticipated Christmas Craft night at my house. My friends Meggan..:


...and Kelly..:


...came over for some food, wine and Christmas crafts. If that sounds to you like a winning combination, let me tell you- it is.

We made all kinds of ornaments, including these cool round ornaments made out of scrapbook paper:


and reindeer magnets made out of Christmas light bulbs:

Then Meggan had the idea to make boy & girl reindeer, so we added bows to some of them:


We also made more of these ornaments from Homemade by Jill that I previously blogged about.


On Saturday we wrapped some Christmas presents...

...and I made Moose a stocking. He had been needing one for some time now:


Saturday night we went with our friends Kelly (above) and her husband, Matt to Clinton, IA (about 45 minutes away if you don't get lost) to check out the Symphony of Lights. We sipped hot cocoa, ate some yummy gingerbread, and looked at all the pretty lights in the snow. It all felt very festive and Christmas-y.




...Then on Sunday I finally finished this adorable baby quilt for my friend Tara who is expecting a baby boy any time now:

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year for Thanksgiving we headed over to our friends Keven & Tiff's house. We had a really great time just hanging out and relaxing with good friends. After our delicious Thanksgiving feast, we all kicked back for some board games: Apples to Apples and a rather heated round of Battle of the Sexes.


On Friday morning we got up and made the annual pilgrimage out to Milan, IL to Jack Frost Pines tree farm to chop down our very own Christmas tree. I had a total Clark Griswold moment when I saw this tree:


But since we don't have 20 foot ceilings, we opted for this more practical tree next to it:


We then went home and trimmed our tree and decked our halls for Christmas. Later that day our friend Kelly dropped by so we had her take our picture in front of our Christmas tree.


For dinner on Friday we cooked our very own Thanksgiving dinner, that way Brett can enjoy his leftover turkey sandwiches for a few days.

This extra-long weekend has allowed me some time to work more on my Christmas crafts. I made some glittered snowflake ornaments (inspired by Homemade by Jill). I think they turned out quite nicely.


[Let me tell you, if there were a list of things that I never thought I would spend $10 on, at the top of it would be a single tube of Martha Stewart extra-fine Antique Silver glitter. But, what's a girl to do? If there was a list of things I'm glad I didn't spend $10 on, on it would be the Martha Stewart make your own tissue paper flower kit (found next to the glitter)... I think I handled that one pretty well on my own.]

Today we headed to Coralville, IA to check out the Coral Ridge mall. It is much larger and nicer than any malls we have here in the Quad Cities. We successfully managed to get the vast majority of our Christmas shopping done, which is a relief.

Now our evening plans involve watching Wall-E and wrapping some Christmas gifts. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow, so I think we will stay in and avoid the crowds and the cold. :-)