Felt House-A-Long

If you follow my other blog, you may have seen that I'm participating in the Felt House-A-Long that Fireflies and Jellybeans is hosting. We're just starting week 1 (so if you want to do this with me, jump on the bandwagon!) which is Planning and Supplies. She has a great list of inspiration, but after starting my "sketches," I'm kind of at a loss. I'm wanting to do something fairly gender neutral so that any future female siblings aren't left out of the fun. Which means I want it to be easily modified, as well. For instance, I like the idea of window boxes, but right now they'll just have greenery - maybe later I'll add flowers.

So I've gotten this far, and now I'm stumped. It's kind of blah. Click on the image to see it enlarged if you need. Do you guys have any thoughts or advice? We're brainstorming here - no bad ideas. I don't know that I like having the SAME window on both sides, but I do like the idea of windows. I'll probably make fruit for the tree - It's just not on the sketch. And don't worry, the "leaves" on the tree will look MUCH better.

Does the portico over the front door look like a portico or just some random shape? Circular window on the front of the house - yes or no? One of the inspiration houses had a cute half-circle window in the door, so maybe a window in the door would be better? The back is BORING - what could I add that would reasonably be on a house? What else could I put on the sides? Does the grass look like it could be grass, or should I try for bushes or something?

I'm not wanting to make something super-intricate, so some general ideas to get the creative juices flowing would be MUCH appreciated.

WhimsiKel

I don't think I've mentioned on this blog that I started another blog as well. It's more dedicated to craftiness (sewing, quilting, decor, clothing, whatever) than this one. Despite some posts, I do try to keep this blog more about our family (and by "our family," I mean "Lincoln") than about me and my hobbies. I mention this because I get a LOT more hits on this blog than the other one, and I'd appreciate if some of you with crafty inclinations would blog-walk on over and give me some feedback (here or there or an email. whatever.). I'm still getting a feel for it, and trying to balance the crafting with the family and the full-time job, but I'd love some feedback on things you might like to see over there and any hints for how I might be able to break that blog out into the bigger crafty blogosphere. I really do appreciate you reading my ramblings - I feel so loved when I get comments. :)

Cake Decorating Class

As promised at the end of this post (though, admittedly, a little late), here are the cakes and cupcakes I produced in the three weeks of my class. It was actually four weeks, but the first week was more of a here's-the-plan and show-and-tell structure.
My first week, I was pretty frustrated because we spent the whole class practicing techniques, so I barely got any time to try to decorate my cake. By the time I got home, I was in no mood to elaborate on what I'd accomplished, so the first week is definitely the weakest (no pun intended) of my efforts. Observe! I know, it's sad.


Now, for the second week, we had learned from the first week, and my friend Rachel and I decided to decorate cupcakes instead of tackling an entire cake. As a result, I finished some nice, simple samples. Luckily I took pictures with my camera-phone before we left the class because they didn't handle the trip home well at all.





And finally, the piece de resistance. I'm quite proud of this. It's looks almost exactly the way I was planning and how it looks in the book. The colors are perhaps a tad off, but that's part of practicing.


So, I learned that the next time I take a cake decorating class, I'll buy a cake from the Target bakery and pre-made frosting/icing 30 minutes before class. It's not about how it tastes, it's about how it looks (just for the purposes of the class, I mean). I also learned that it's easier to do the flowing, swirly frosting for the main cake (like on the yellow cake) rather than trying to make it smooth (like the blue cake). But I also learned that a little bit of practice and experience goes a long way. Now I have a lot more confidence to make birthday cakes for Lincoln (and any other chillins who may follow).

Preggo pics, Random thoughts, and a query.

I really appreciate everyone's requests for me to post preggo pics. I've put it off for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that I've grown less and less fond of pictures of myself as the months have passed. C'est la vie. So, from the beginning to last month's, are my pregnancy progression pics...


I think the difference from month 5 to month 6 is the most drastic. But just wait a few days for the month 7 pic...

I know I still need to post pics of the baby's room, but that's still a work in progress, and a messy one at that.

On a completely unrelated note, is anyone else a blog-stalker? I like to refer to it as "blog walking," actually, because somehow that seems a little less invasive. But at the same time, I feel that if people DON'T want just any random person reading their blogs, they should make them private. Someone who posts funny Twilight commentaries on a public blog is just begging to be followed. That's just a random thought for you. It's late, and I can't sleep.

And speaking of blog walking, I'm a little bit obsessed with crafty tutorial/how-to blogs. I've been inspired to try a few projects of my own. Some car trash bags, some pyramid door stops, a quilt (or two) for the baby, a harvest pumpkin, a pin-cushion, some bags for myself (hmm, I've been more productive in the last few months than I realized. yay, me! But I digress...). I'm thinking about trying to do a quilt block exchange. I'm not sure how they usually work, but what I'm picturing is something like this:

I get 12 (or maybe just 9) girls (or guys, I guess) to participate. Each month, whoever is "it" gets to pick a quilt block that they want the other participants to make. They email the pattern to everyone, and everyone has a month to make the block and send it on (using material they choose themselves (within given guidelines), unless the one who is it wants to send material to everyone?). By the end of the 9 (or 12?) months, each person would then have enough quilt blocks to make a nice little throw. I'm thinking quilt blocks that are a beginner's level (my level. if they have pre-beginner, that might even be better). Is anyone at all interested in this?