Libby Log

Libby had the first half of her first Thanksgiving this past Sunday at my sister’s house. She will have the second half today my mother-in-law’s house. As you can see, she entered into the spirit of the day spendidly.

Yep, that’s the cable cord…and my iphone. Sassy little kitten.

We just had a great weekend! Friday was same old same old, but starting from Saturday evening we had nothing but fun. My brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews came into town Saturday evening and we hung out with them at the house. Super awesome-ness ensued as my nephews are a riot and my brother and s-i-l aren’t too shabby either.

Sunday morning we had another fantastic time because our old friends Dave and Erin B were in town to visit family and we wrangled them into coming over for an early breakfast. It was wonderful seeing them again and we loved introducing Libby to them. Libby definitely took a shine to Erin or at least to Erin’s camera (she is such a ham). I am in love with the pics Erin took (below). I love my Canon, but I totally covet those Nikons…and a Flip…and a Mac… I think I have a technology problem.

Later on Sunday Unka Scott and I took Libby and my two nephews to the Indianapolis Childrens’s Museum so that the other grownups could go to a Colts game. Frankly, I think we had the better end of the bargain. The kids were great and we will definitely be doing it again. The Colts won so I guess the others probably had a good time too.

I will save the museum pics for another post as they haven’t been downloaded or resized yet, but in the meantime here are Erin’s pics from the morning. Feel free to swoon.

(Sorry about the stretching on some of the pics. Stupid style sheet on the Wordpress page is giving me grief again. Also, it’s not my unders in the pics of me. That’s a tanktop worn on purpose so my unders didn’t peak out. )

And just to show that Erin doesn’t just take incredible pics of my adorable kid, here is a stunning pic of the two of them from the airport. I am in awe of her talent. Erin, thank you for these wonderful photos!

Afternoon nap in September…does it get any sweeter?

Even though Libby is only 10 months old we really wanted her to experience Halloween. It is by far one of our favorite holidays. The only problem is that she isn’t so super mobile. She doesn’t walk yet and even if she did she certainly wouldn’t be fast enough to keep up with her 10 and 6 year old cousins. So, after exploring some options for doing a stroller costume we finalliy settled on trying to something based on our baby front-pack. It’s not a baby backpack, it’s a frontpack…get it?

So, this is it….Libby as a potted plant.

Needless to say she was a total hit everywhere she went. It was too cold to stay out for long, but she is so social that she loved every minute of it. Can’t wait till next year!

Hi Internet!

I was working on a lamp project for Libby’s room this week when it occured to me that her nursery has changed so much over time that it deserves some new pics.

When Libby was a newborn we really wanted her nursery to be peaceful and serene. The decor was simple and the colors were soft and soothing. We don’t keep toys in her room because we want it to be a place she most strongly associates with sleeping, but we do want her space to be as playful and interesting as she is. As Libby had developed and her curiosity has increased her room has been developing too. Little bits and pieces have been added periodically accross the last 10 months to keep her engaged.

So, here is a little peak into Libby’s World. Enjoy!

Just in case anyone is interested in the origin of some of the DIY objects in the room I am providing some explanation as to where things came from or the inspiration for things in the room.

2 items in this pic were created and 2 were altered. Let’s start with the altered items. The glider was a hand-me-down from my sister. I recovered it in a fabric that coordinated better with the colors in the room. I had never created a slip cover before and did it with no instructions. I am still amazed that it has held together. The lamp was a repurposed lamp that Clay and I have had since we first got married. It was painted green when we first set up the nursery, but it got a lampshade upgrade (closeup below) this week thanks to this tutorial: http://rufflesandstuff.blogspot.com/2009/09/shabby-chic-pleated-shade.html. I love the way it turned out and since I already had the fabric in my stash it was a free upgrade. Perfect. 

The two things that were made in this pic are the birds on the wall and the ottoman. The ottoman used some of the same fabric from the chair recover. Starting to get pretty squashy so a restuffing would be good soon, but still hanging on. I used this Amy Butler pattern: http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_display.php?id=31. Libby has another one this same size and two more that are 3 times bigger in other parts of the house. They have been great to help Libby cruise around as she learns to walk.

The birds were made from a tutorial found here: http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/.

The tutorial recommended hand sewing and they weren’t kidding. I tried this on a machine and it botched in a big way. So, did I patiently and lovingly stitch all 10 birds? Heck no. I scaled up the pattern so I could use my sewing machine. Now that’s crafty. The branch came from one of our trees and the whole thing is hung by fishing line from two hooks near the ceiling. It still catches Libby’s attention even though it has been there at least 6 months.

Wish I had made the owls on the wall plaque. Someone did and I scored it at the Goodwill for $1.50.

The dresser was a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law. It went through a major resalvage as it was super contrified. It has some weird extra cubbies on the top that had to be whacked off. The whole thing got a new finish and new draw pulls.

The Owl lamp was hard hard hard to make. It was a lawn ornament that I painted then drilled holes in and ran lamp equipment through. Sounds easy, but getting the lamp parts to go through the owl innards was tricky. The shade also got the upgrade mentioned above. Big improvement on the dingy shades.

I didn’t make either the cuckoo clock or the Peace artwork, but I like them a lot. The clock came from a yard sale for $.50 and the Peace art came as a gift from Libby’s aunt Jill to celebrate her adoption finalization day last May.

Libby’s room doesn’t have a ceiling fixture so I thought I would put a little something up there to draw the eye. If you are interested in doing something similar then here is a tutorial I found:  http://www.marthastewart.com/article/kids-paper-flowers , but I think I made these in my Brownie troop so I am not giving Martha any credit this time.

Hope you all enjoyed this tour of Libby’s abode. And just because she is cuter than anything in her room here are a couple recent pics of her as a bonus. I just can’t help dressing that kid like Punky Brewster.

It was bound to happen. The smartest baby in the universe has grown a sense of humor!!

I recently upgraded my cell to an iPhone 3GS. I am super in love with almost everything about the iPhone. However, I feel a little duped. I was going to just get the regular 3G rather than the 3GS, but my brother-in-law sold me on the 3GS based on the added feature of being able to take video. What he actually did was play a video of Libby that he had taken with his iPhone. It was footage I had never even seen so of course I was completely smitten. What he didn’t tell me was that the video quality sucks if you aren’t in a brightly sunlit room. Sucky!

In order to fully illustrate my dilemma I have added two videos of the cutest baby ever! One was taken on our way out the door so it was before 8am on a darkish and rainy morning. The other was around 6pm and Libby was sitting right next to our glass patio doors. As you can see there is a huge difference. When viewed on the actual iPhone both videos look normal. Crud. I will just have to keep the Flip camera on my wish list. So much for trying to reduce the number of gadgets I carry.

Normalish looking daytime video:

Cruddy too dark video…Sadness

Someday she will grow into those pants….I hope.