First of all, I gotta show you some of my fabric stash from my trip!

Lots of designer prints, flannel, a few zippers, linens, and even some knits (although I don’t know if I dare)

I bought my first PDF pattern online from the Butterfly Tree shop at Etsy. I’ve been wanting to make little boy ties for a long time, but couldn’t find the right skinny tie style.  This pattern rocked! There are several patterns included from age 0-12 yrs.  The ones I made are adjustable from age 0 to 2 yrs. Velcro and reversible!

I got my hands on Anna Maria Horner’s book, Handmade Beginnings

That quilt in the background…that’s why I wanted this book in the first place.  I started that project this weekend. Lets just say it’s a lot of cutting.

The book has adorable pictures.  I don’t know what’s cuter, that baby’s face or the jacket?

I attempted my own Baby-in-the-Hood Jacket. Size fits 3-6 months.

It’s lined with soft yellow polka dot flannel.

Remember those hexagons my MIL busted out during conference? Guess who got hand stitched potholders for Christmas?

Pardon my use of cell phone pictures.

Here’s a reversible toddler apron I made for my new niece. I also have an adult hostess apron I made a few months ago in the same fabric.

It’s been a while since I’ve made baby kimono shoes.

I almost forgot how.

Perfect for Valentines Day don’t ya think?

While in California, Diane and I were strolling through the Shops at Mission Viejo when I stumbled upon this art exhibit in the middle of the mall. Since having a home, I have been more interested in purchasing artwork. However, I am one who shies away from poster-style prints that are put into frames. Rather, I am interested in purchasing canvas–or something that can be put in a really awesome frame. Well, Copia sells stretched canvas triptych artwork. It didn’t take long for me to find a piece or two that I wanted. The first piece is entitled “Game of Chess.” It so happens that I love chess as well as the rich, dark colors. The only problem was that it was a little too masculine and we don’t have a separate game room for it. So, Diane and I agreed upon something a little more suiting for our family room. It happens to go well with our color scheme.

Well, the hardest part for somebody as unskilled as me was the hanging of the 3 frames. Getting them to be perfectly level and spaced out did not seem like an easy task. In addition, perfectly lining up all the holes was a major pain — I was off by 1/8″ on some, which prevented the pictures from hanging properly. It wasn’t until my friend (who happens to be an interior designer) told me to lay out the pictures on the ground and take a long piece of wax paper to use as a template. I poked holes in the paper and then used a laser level and was finally able to get them installed.

Game of Chess – Maybe for a game room or the office?

Gondolas of Venice

This year we spend two full weeks in California for Christmas and New Years Main Beach Laguna

Fernando’s parents along with our niece and nephew, went to the beach (Mladineo tradition) on Christmas day, even though the weather was pretty chilly.

We took the kids for a stroll around RSM Lake

We met up with my college roommate Melissa at one of my favorite places in California, Balboa!

Our favorite pastime is Skeeball. But I totally scored the jackpot on that game where you have to push the button to catch the light.  Skillz baby skillz.

The banana’s were so heavenly, next time I have to get the x-large one.

I love this picture of my hubby in his aviators

We took a road trip to San Diego to visit some friends and go through the temple. It was so amazing! Definitely one of my favorites.

Carlos wanted to take the kids sledding at Bear Mountain. Unfortunately it took 3.5 hours to get there since one of the freeways was closed.

Beautiful views

I finally got my hair done (since I don’t know of any good places in Houston)

It was so cold, the kids weren’t too happy.

Carolina and I.

I don’t think I could feel my chin in this picture

We took advantage of having someone else take our picture of the two of us together.  That doesn’t happen very often.

One thing I had to do was go fabric shopping at the LA Fashion District

I scored huge at this store. Unfortunately we went on New Years Eve and I only had 20 minutes to shop.

Fresh mango and pineapples to go.  Such great street food!

Some yummy tacos

bacon wrapped hot dog

and taquitos

While in LA, we met baby Matthew, the newest Mladineo at the NICU at the UCLA Hospital who was born two weeks before Christmas

Seriously such a cute baby. He has the most gorgeous hair. We hope he can go home soon!

The waiting room at the hospital…gotta love smart phones

New Years Eve, Ferd’s mom made delicious empanadas

Delicious chocolate cookies

Grandma Gloria was ready to get the show on

We went to this really good donut shop in Mission Viejo called Donut World, unfortunately they didn’t have any Crullers left. But they did have really good buttermilk bars.

Fernando is the greatest husband to go fabric shopping with. I know most men can’t stand these stores.

M&L Fabrics discount store in Orange County.

This store was absolutely amazing though. Piles and piles of clearance fabrics and tons of flannel. The designer prices were very reasonable as well.

We dropped off our luggage at the airport and headed to the beach (Manhattan Beach) for one last time

I thought this dog was sitting so cute

It was a beautiful day to have to leave.

We hosted a Christmas party on the first weekend of December. We were crazy stressed getting ready for it since we had spent the previous weekend in Austin with my brother for Thanksgiving. Thankfully having a party forces you to clean house and decorate early in the month. We had about 12 people over: old friends from church, new friends from our ward, and some of Fernando’s co-workers.

Unfortunately we didn’t take pictures, but one of our friends managed to snap a few!

The gingerbread station

Every body brought yummy food. Fernando bought this Oreo cake pan to make this cake with brownie mix. Unfortunately the peppermint ice cream melted.

That’s our Charlie Brown tree in the back

We ended up listening to Christmas music, eating good food, hanging out, and had a small gingerbread station for those who felt crafty.

All in all it was a fun night!

A friend of mine asked me to make her a small bag, something to hold a couple of diapers and wipes, since she has graduated from the diaper bag, and doesn’t want her diapers loose in her purse.  I did a little research.  The best way to find them online is by searching Diapee Wipee or diaper wipes bag on etsy. There are several styles out there. I preferred the clutch style.

There is a pin on the back of the flower, so it can be taken off.

This one was inspired by my buttercup bag I made a while ago, from Made by Rae, who has some new seriously cute tutorials. And I totally copied the fabric selection from a clutch I fell in love with on etsy.

Unfortunately I don’t have any diapers or wipes cases to model with these bags, but Google it and you’ll get the idea.

Look familiar? I used the gathered clutch tutorial from Noodlehead, only made it a bit bigger.

I had a five day weekend last week. Thanks to a scheduled hysteroscopy. I have a new love = general anesthesia. Fourth time this year. Best night sleep I ever had. Anyway, I’m now working with the Houston Fertility Institute to figure out why all the miscarriages. They took a camera to the inside of my uterus and had a look around, and good news, they found something! Supposedly, I was born with a big scar inside my uterus and it was giving me a 40-50% chance of miscarrying. So they removed it. Hopefully that was the ticket!

Okay, on to the bibs…I really, really needed to sew something; more importantly, use my scraps which were getting a little out of hand. I have a problem with keeping every itty bitty piece of fabric…thinking someday I may use it.

I realized that I really need to work on my purple stash

Here are my fav’s

I’m hoping they fit a baby.  I don’t even have a doll to try them out on…

I went to the Houston Quilt Festival yesterday. I have been looking forward to this event all year. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.  I was thinking more booths would have sold fabric.  And the prices increased this year too.  $2.69 for a fat quarter? What a strange price. I will stick to buying fabric online.

We didn’t even decorate pumpkins this year.  But when I read about this wreath from Woman’s Day magazine, we decided to go for it. Fernando was very excited about using a hot glue gun…until he burnt his fingers. Our wreath looked fabulous for a total of 2 days…

Sadly we never documented those 2 days.

This is how our porch looks now.  I’m sure our neighbors love us.

Does anybody know how to make a candy wreath last? We sprayed it with Krylon Preserve It, and it obviously didn’t work.

Maybe ModgePodge?

We were off for the weekend with tickets to the BYU/TCU football game. Even though BYU was going to lose, we decided that it had been way too long since we had seen a college game, and we were still going to have fun.

But before we got there, we had to see what all the fuss was about and check out Buc-ee’s in Madisonville. I thought to myself: it must be quite the store if people are wearing their t-shirts and they have billboards over 100 miles away from the nearest store.

What did we think? It’s worth the hype. Holy mega convenience store! They have the most amazing snacks and food that anyone could ever want on a road trip.  Endless varieties of trail mix, beaver nuggets, candy, Icee’s, kolaches, homemade bread, fudge, chocolate covered nuts, you name it.  They have over 30 varieties of their own jerky which you can order by the pound, including deer and elk and other game.  Then they have a bakery with brownies, kolaches, and yummy sugar cookies.  They have real food like pulled pork sandwiches and fajitas, and other grilled options, banana cream pie, cheese and meat samplers, and you get the point.  The bathrooms are huge and super clean.  They sell Texas memorabilia, dutch ovens, smokers, and a building next door with outdoor cabin furniture. What a welcoming site on the road!

Once we made it to Dallas we ate downtown at a yummy Thai restaurant, right by House of Blues, and walked around to the American Airlines stadium.  Which was pretty fun since Dallas has a way better night life than Houston.  People are actually walking around downtown. And the AA stadium has mega huge TV’s in the courtyard.  We stayed at the Residence Inn in Dallas.  Close proximity to the yummy fabric store, City Craft!

Here’s the loot:

Enchino cameras and glasses! I’ve been dying to get my hands on this line for months but couldn’t justify paying $18/yd. I think half yards will do…for now.

Michael Miller and Alexander Henry

Castle Peeps

I finally started a collection of Kona solids

I was amazed that City Craft still had the whole collection of Hope Valley!

The owner of the store gave me some helpful info about starting a shop and said that there is a shop in the Heights called Sew Crafty! I drove halfway across town today only to find out that they are closed on Mondays. :(

Next door to City Craft is a shop called Paper & Chocolate. Intrigued by the combination, we decided to venture in. And found this:

Fran’s chocolate! My absolute favorite chocolate. Made in Seattle. Fran’s gray salt thins are the perfect end to a delicious meal. Unfortunately they melted in my purse at the football game…but they can still be salvaged!

The grey salt caramels are also heavenly

The store had some cute personalized stationary/ gift paper and cute journals.

Next up: Fort Worth

We loved Fort Worth and the cool architecture.

Every day they have a historical cattle drive and they walk the cattle through the street.  Unfortunately we missed it.

Kids could get pictures taken on longhorns, they had a mechanical bull, and yummy places to eat.  Plenty of saloons and  western stores. We ran into some friends from our ward who were also going to the game.

We wished we could have stayed longer, but the game was starting!!!

It took us FOREVER to find a place to park and we were very grumpy, but we made it.

There were BYU fans everywhere, in our fan section, and intermingled in the stands. Unfortunately we were facing the sun the whole game and got sunburned. We lost, but still had a fun time.

We went to the state fair in Dallas and met up with Fernando’s friends, Wynnter and Jason.  Jason was all about trying the fried concoctions. Ever wondered what deep fried butter, chocolate, coke, and cookie dough tastes like?

The winners: fried butter and fried cookie dough were yummy.  The coke was lame since it was all absorbed into the batter.

Of course we had to have roasted corn

We ventured into the car show where they had a giant foosball table.  Too bad it was taken over by kids.

The only ride we made it on was the ferris wheel. I got super scared at the top and had to gaze into Fernando’s eyes to distract myself.  I don’t like heights!

The next day we got to take the VIP tour of the Cowboy’s stadium

The building is so huge, we couldn’t fit it all within our lens. And we were parked across the street!

The tour is a must if you get the chance.  We got to see the owners suite, various suites and lounges, all of the locker rooms, and you get to go on the field and throw the football around. The tour guide explains a lot of the symbols in the architecture and the art, and neat facts.

wow, what a gorgeous building. Over 3,000 flat screens! That’s a record.

pretending I’m a Cowboy fan

Two free pictures were included with our tour.  I had to include it since its the only one of us together. Our scanner won’t scan so I had to take a photo of the picture

The cheerleader’s locker room was a lot more interesting than the Cowboy’s.  Even I thought so.  I thought there would have been pictures of the players, but there wasn’t any.

He didn’t want to do it. Haha. Doesn’t he look awkward?

The mega Mitsubishi. Guess who took this one…well, it wasn’t me.

While in Arlington, we ate lunch at Piranha Killer Sushi. Such good food! Sadly we ate it all before we thought to take a picture. Amazing yakisoba chicken and Forget About It crawfish sushi rolls. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

We also checked out some sweet neighborhoods in a city called Highland Park, close to Dallas, designed by the guy who started Beverly Hills

This mansion is more like a palace. We Zillowed it at $28 million.

yet another picture of myself.  Can you tell who had the camera this weekend?

The surrounding houses were not quite so huge, but still very massive

I couldn’t fit the whole house in the picture with my iPhone camera

On our way back to Houston, we had to stop by Wahoo’s Fish Taco in the Woodlands.  The first one in the Houston area! (You people in Austin are lucky, you have 3!)

Good California memories, although Ferd said it wasn’t the same since he wasn’t by the beach and wearing board shorts.

When I saw this from my favorite quilt blog, Film in the Fridge, I knew I had to find me some of these Say Fruit Towels. And it wasn’t hard thanks to Ebay.

Now we can shop H-E-B with style

Three down four to go

I seam ripped the hems in the towels, and added stabilizer. Then I added white linen panels to the sides and bottom to make them bigger. I’m still on the search to find coordinating fabric for the cherry and apple towel.  Why is it so hard? Dang you Jo-Ann’s!

On another note. I’ve attempted my first clothing item. I copied a 6-12 month Restoration Hardware baby skirt from my stash.

The fabric isn’t exactly my style, and I think the skirt needs a letter applique’ on the front…maybe I’ll like it better then.

I made a diaper cover using Dana’s great tutorial.

Fernando’s mom stayed with us for General Conference this past weekend. Unfortunately for her, the plan was to paint our bedroom during the Saturday sessions. We already painted our powder room earlier in the week, because we feel like our house is too much tan and brown. And I’ve always wanted a blue room.

Now I just need a blue pillow or blanket to go on the bed.

My thoughts: the colors are growing on me. They are a little brighter than I was going for, but what can you do?

We took her to one of our favorite places for a quick bite: Ruggle’s Cafe in Rice Village. Oh, their sweet potato fries are deelish, and amazingly, I didn’t cave in and get my favorite bread pudding dessert. Instead, while Fernando was at the Priesthood session, we made more peach pies in jars!

Here’s what Fernando’s mom was doing while we painted:

Somebody caught the hexagon fever!

We went to Discovery Green in between sessions to check out the farmer’s market. Unfortunately they only hold it on Sunday, so we couldn’t buy any of the delicious Indian samosas :(

Sadly this is the only picture we got of Fernando’s mom (that’s us way down there)

We sat in on a free gardening class given by Urban Harvest

The colorful bathrooms at Discovery Green

This weekend was also full of delicious smoothies and breakfasts

We were lucky enough to find this on our porch. An early Christmas present from my padres! Thanks Mam and dad!

Unfortunately, last weekend we were sold by the demo at Costco for the Blendtec blender.

So I went to Costco and picked up a Blendtec (mom told us to)

We’re selling the Vitamix on Craigslist, because my parents bought it at the state fair, but if anyone is interested, please let us know.