finally some time for crafting...

I have finally had some time for crafting in the past few weeks... much needed crafting to be exact. At the beginning of the year, I began to reevaluate my etsy shop and decided that at this season in life, going full force with the etsy shop is not really an option. I have a long list of sewing projects I would love to complete, but (un)fortunately, I had tons of business in my etsy shop and I never had any time to complete them. I will still keep the etsy shop open, but I will only be listing ready made items and one custom listing at a time.



That being said, here was my first project I finished a few weeks ago. I bought Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me, 24 Reasons to Love Sewing last year and had earmarked this project. I loved the fact that it used so many different pieces of fabric, since I can never decide on ONE! Maybe that's why she named it the "I'll Have One of Everything Bag". While it was a fairly easy pattern to navigate, it did take me a total of 4 hours to finish - four, uninterrupted hours. I was certainly tired at the end, but so excited about the finished product! I think my favorite feature is the braided handles, but if I ever make another one, I will revise it so its not so pointy!




Hope you have a had a wonderful week - I'll be back this week with more pictures of Eden!

pirates...

So, apparently, in Tampa, every January they celebrate pirates. We decided to join in the celebration, along with our pastors families, of course! What can be better than a whole town dressing up like pirates? A real pirate ship? Fireworks over the water? 70 degree weather in the dead of winter? Need I go on?

Yesterday was the Gasparilla Children's Parade (I'm differentiating between the *real* Gasparilla Parade which is apparently is pretty scandalous!). It was such a great event in our city - a three hour parade down Bayshore Boulevard, complete with all kettle corn, plastic swords, beads, and fireworks! My only regret is that I didn't know in enough advance to make Eden a pirate costume... but I'm positive we will attend again next year and she will have quite the costume.





More than the pirates, I think Eden enjoyed her first ride in Abigail's wagon. As soon as Justin (our pastor) started pulling the wagon, she started laughing hysterically! She couldn't get enough.. and I think Abigail didn't know what to do with her! I tried to catch it on video, but by the time I got my phone our, she had slowed down on the laughing... but you can catch the tail end of it here.


And just for the record - we may have endured the worst heat this summer, but I'm totally LOVING this Florida winter weather - it really doesn't get any better!

Signing Time

If you spend any amount of time at our house, you're likely to catch an episode of "Signing Time". Ms. Alison, Eden's early interventionist here introduced us to this amazing little series of videos when she started working with us. They have been so instrumental in our WHOLE family learning ASL.... and when I say whole, I mean all of us - when we get a new video, we all sit down and watch it, learning a new set of words in our new found language.

We never really set out to learn ASL, just enough to get us by until Eden learned to talk. Our mindset changed this summer though when Eden started signing and we were able to communicate with her for the first time. We bought a book - teach yourself to sign, but it was pretty much useless as Signing is a hands on language, and really, how much "signing" can you learn from a book? A video though, now thats a grand idea! Nevermind that it was intended for children, it has taught Josh and I so much of the language!

I know there are many theories behind teaching hearing impaired children to sign - and I've even had an SLP (speech pathologists) tell me not to sign to her b/c I will impair her auditory skills and her ability to speak, but I've seen the benefits of signing to Eden and how much it has helped her communicate what she wants and needs, and Oh, you should see her face when "signing time" comes on - it really is the most adorable thing you've ever seen - and then to see her "sign babble" with Alex and Leah (the two kids on the program) - its hilarious! LOVE IT!

walking...

I know Eden, we are excited too:)

Eden has taken her first steps! I think a few tears of joy were shed after the first few steps were taken, but I still can't get over seeing her wabbling around! For a few weeks now, she has been crawling over the bottom step, climbing up to sit on it, then signing "help", eagerly looking for me or Josh to come stand in front of her to help her walk. Then one day, she got so excited, she went for it and walked all the way from the stairs to the door where I was sitting, clapping and coaxing her on! I'm sure most of you have already seen it, but in case you haven't - you can see a video of it here:) CLICK .

I'll be back blogging more next week with a few crafting projects hopefully:) I'm hoping to have some more crafting posts this year, along with more photos of Eden, of course!