my tree has a skirt

we set up our christmas tree on sunday night. it was a lot of fun. penelope is currently calling all of the ornaments "my toys." she has been really good at keeping them on the tree so far though. after we decorated the tree we laid on the floor with pillows and blankets, we turned out the lights (except the tree's lights) and just enjoyed it for a while. we then read the grinch who stole christmas. it was a fun night. 

this year i made a tree skirt to replace the piece of fabric that i used to wrap around the base of my christmas tree. i had a few different plans, but this is what i ended up with and i love it. i made a cream quilted skirt and then i sewed on the yo-yos, felt leaves and green trim.

thanksgiving and a weekend update

we are almost done decorating here at the sparks' house. i am loving my tree and i have made a few things for it, so of course i will need to show those off. my next couple of posts will be christmas tree related. yay!

 

we had a fabulous thanksgiving. bryan and i had my brother justin and his wife anna and their 2 cute boys to our house for the feast. we made our first turkey, it turned out great! i was pretty nervous about the whole situation...but i feel stronger having persevered (being sarcastic.) i made a rosemary rub and basted it with an apple juice/butter. we did have a mishap or 2...like my new tablecloth being way too short...so we used the one anna brought, which was also too short, and we put down brown paper for P and J to color on.next time i will work on having prettier table decorations...

we played cards, made food, watched modern family (after the kids went to sleep,) and just partied pretty hard. :) it was good times. it is so nice to have family close for occasions like this. i love thanksgiving, but it just wouldn't be the same without family. i am so grateful for family.

friday and saturday were also great. we mainly relaxed, but we did get to the new harry potter on saturday. the cliff hanger is STILL killing me. i have read the books, but i just can't wait for the next movie. i definitely wouldn't take a young child to this one...

it was anna's birthday on the 23rd, so i made her a necklace. here it is...

17 weeks

penelope wanted some pictures of her tummy as well. she is too cute. 

well, there's not a whole lot to update you all on.

1. i can't sleep. at. all.
2. penelope is calling the baby...baby girl. if it's a boy she may have to stop that.
3. baby is now 5 in from crown to rump and weighs about 5 oz.
4. i have felt the baby quite a lot this week...excitement.
5. i am waiting on making name lists until we find out the sex.
6. i am feeling way more emotionally stable, which is AMAZING. i don't think i ever was that bad, but i feel a lot happier and much less moody, which makes life much more pleasant for all involved.
7. i feel enormous, even though i may not look enormous yet.
8. i am definitely going to make the babe a granny square blanket. here are my 2 options.

#1 if i have a boy i would like to do a granny blanket with a green or blue base color like this beautiful afghan from mettes potteri
#2 if i have a girl i want to do a mainly yellow and white flower granny square blanket like this one from garn studio

today i am thankful for..

this is my last thankful list before thanksgiving. i am so excited for thanksgiving. i get to extra time with my sweetie and we get to have my brother and his family over for a couple of days. looking forward to good food and good times with good people. also, i think we might try to sneak to harry potter on saturday- eek!

1) food that i can put on my table...namely a turkey
2) a warm home...even though it doesn't get very cold here, i am grateful for our heater :)
3) family that lives close enough that we can spend special occasions together
4) my comfortable bed...i think i may go lay in it right now :)
5) oatmeal chocolate chip pie (recipe to follow)
6) my cell phone and the interweb, because they allow me to stay connected while away from loved ones
7) i am very grateful for my daughter's sleeping habits. she is such a good sleeper and it allows me to get the rest i need.
8) i know i have said this before, but bryan's hard work is something i am so grateful for. also, his compliments...even when i know i don't always deserve them.
9) my set of calphalon non-stick cookware. making my like so much easier.
10) i am so grateful for my savior and for His sacrifice.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!
may we all be so so grateful for what we are and what we have been blessed with.

xoxo/ emily

cobb salad a la emily

here is my version of a Cobb salad. almost anything with turkey and avocado has sounded great lately, so i thought i would try out a Cobb salad. i know this is not a thanksgiving recipe, but you might have a little extra turkey after tomorrow that you could make this salad with ;).

i did not put bacon in it...i really don't like bacon. i also didn't use blue cheese, but i substituted feta. i like blue, but the blue cheese at Trader Joe's was made with unpasteurized milk and that is a pregnancy no-no.

the stuff in the salad:

romaine lettuce (i was lazy and only used romaine lettuce, but it is good to use

tomato

turkey

feta

avocado

hard boiled egg

chop all items up so they are smallish

the stuff on the salad:

1/4 c. canola oil

1/4 c. olive oil

3 T. red wine vinegar

2 t. lemon juice (fresh is best)

1 1/2 t. Dijon  mustard

1/2 t Worcester sauce

1/4 t. sugar

a couple of dashes of salt & pepper

blend in blender or food processor 1 min.

16 week update and some sewing i may have to do

one more week down. i am now 16 weeks and feeling good. i am really liking the energy that i've been having the last couple of weeks. the most exciting thing this week is that i've started to feel the baby move! i have felt the baby move a few times a day for the past few days and i am so in love with the feeling. after Penelope was born, my ribs were sore for weeks, because of all her kicking.  i probably would have paid her to cut it out. maybe in a few months i won't be as excited about this, but right now i am over the moon. i went to Dr. B on Thursday. our baby's heat beat is 140 (old wives tales say that if the heat beat is  above 140, it's a girl and below it is a boy... i guess the baby doesn't want to give me any hints.) we did an ultrasound, but it was just to check on some measurements on me (i have a strange uterus and so they are keeping an eye on me and the baby to make sure things are the way they should be.) i DID get to see the babe...briefly. i saw the head and the spine and i just can't believe how fast a baby grows from a little jumping bean into a little person. it was fantastic.

also, i found out that i no longer have ANY desire to eat bbqued ANYTHING...especially if it is from phil's bbq! i went to phil's a couple of times very early in the pregnancy and it must not have sat well with my tum. now even the smell of barbecue sauce shuts me down. hopefully this passes.

i didn't take a belly shot this week, but i am going to show you a sneak peek of some out takes for out Christmas cards. i am excited to see this project take shape.

here are a couple of tutorials i am thinking about doing. i doubt i will get around to these before christmas, but we will see. i feel pretty good about my current wardrobe, but i am interested in making a few fun items and doing things to make my current wardrobe last as long as possible. i am not very interested in slicing and dicing my regular pants and turning them into maternity pants, but there are a lot of great tutorials for this. maybe as a get bigger, this option will be more appealing to me. i am also interested in making/ purchasing things that can be good pregnant or not, so tunics with more body get two thumbs up! also, knits. i will be sure to give you updates on any projects i've done and tips i have found useful.

this cute maternity...or not frock by presserfoot.blogspot.com. i am thinking i could make two, one the length shown and one knee length.

i might just need another belly band. here is a great tutorial for this.

today i am thankful for...

when this week started i had intended on blogging so much more, but here we are at thursday and i have posted one time. this has been a good week, albeit busy. i am very excited for the weekend & the relaxation that comes along with the weekend. i am also very excited to have a craft night with some friends, where i will hopefully be able to pound out some christmas gifts. i am planning on adding my bow necklaces and new ear warmers to the shop, so keep your eye out for that. 

today i am thankful for:

1. kisses from miss p
2. a girl who loves to help me cook and dances whenever she hears music
3. a girl who loves to build forts and watch astroboy with her dad
4. etsy sales
5. family, family, family
6. in 'n' out cheeseburgers, animal style please....don't judge.
7. president dieter uchtdorf and the conference issue of the ensign
8. josie's seedless clementines from TJ's & orange season! yum!
9. the library. i don't know what we would do if we couldn't checkout library books frequently, not to mention the preschool story time they offer. we love it
10. recipes online for anything i might be craving (cobb salad)

P.S. did i mention that bryan got a summons for jury service...which reminds me again of this:

may you all have a crafty and beautiful weekend!

queen bee and our weekend

we've had my brother and his wife visiting san diego this week, which has been great, but i haven't been too good about blogging.

here is our weekend recap:

on friday we had queen bee madness at the sparks' house. i wasn't really stressed about the market until friday and then i was in a bit of a panic. i had to set up solo for the first time. i am grateful for friends who are willing to help me out with display and childcare. it all came together and i had a really great time. the market was well attended and had a lot of wonderful vendors. i bought a few of the goodies on my wish list :). on friday night i was there for about 3 hours. tira and ashlee came up and browsed/shopped with me and then we went out for dessert. i had a lot of fun! bryan's been working late quite a lot lately, so it was good to get some time out. sadly i didn't get any pictures of the event (i am a serious airhead when i get stressed.) there are a lot of good recaps with pictures on the market's website.

on saturday bryan and i had a leadership training meeting in the early A.M. and then we headed up to del mar (where the fair was.) we checked out the market again and then we went to a park by the ocean and relaxed.

 at the park p mainly wanted to run, jump and look at bugs...this was fine by me.

after we took down the booth we walked along the cliffs and watched the sunset. it was wonderful.

queen bee remains

we finished the day by going to dinner with chris and myleka (previously mentioned brother and his wifee) and her sister and her sister's husband. we went to an italian restaurant in del mar called el fornaio. it was good, but i am convinced there is better in little italy.

we have been partying straight for the last 2 days and i have made the decision that we would stay in our pjs/sweats all day tomorrow & only leave the house to do laundry ...and maybe take p to the playground.

15 weeks and my maternity must haves

i am 15 weeks pregnant today. i am really going to try to not turn my blog into a pregnancy centered blog for the next 25ish weeks, but i thought a once a week update would not be too excessive. i have very little to report this week. things have been going smoothly, so that is good. baby sparks is about 4 1/2 inches long and weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. we could probably find out the sex now, if we were to go in and check(this was how far along we were with p when we found out she was a girly.) we have an appointment/ultrasound this week, but dr. b assured me that we would not be checking out the babe...sad face. i will let you know how that goes. i am super excited to find out if this one is going to be a b or a g...but we won't find out for a few more weeks. in the meantime i am enjoying my new energy, keeping busy with p and the shop, bugging bryan about finding baby names we both like and trying to eat well.

i took very few pictures while pregnant with p and i regret it. so every few weeks i will do little bump update. here i am at 15 weeks. 

 

i wanted to share a few of my maternity must-haves. these are things that i loved during pregnancy #1 and i am finding them just as handy now. i may update this list in the future months... but here it is for the time being.

for my tummy
i was able to avoid stretch marks with penelope and i am hoping that i can this time around. these are the 2 products i use daily on the tum. i use the oil at night and the cocoa butter in the A.M..

for the P.M.

i don't like taking too many medications while pregnant, but unisom is one i cannot live with out. i have a SUPER hard time sleeping while pregnant. i am a big time stomach sleeper and sleeping on my side is never very successful. so, i use this once or twice a week to help catch up on the zs.

 

for the wardrobe

i love my belly bands. i used them through my first pregnancy and now they are even more essential, because i am...well..bigger. many of my pants are not fitting and the belly bands allow me to wear my favorite jeans even though i am too fat to button or zip them up all the way...yikes.

 

today i am thankful for...

in the spirit of thanksgiving i wanted to share a few things that i am grateful for. i know think about all the many things that i have to be thankful for as often as i should. i am hoping to make a number of these lists before thanksgiving comes around.

1. bryan and all his support and hard work 

2. my ward for making me feel like i belong  

3. days that feel like fall

4. able hands

5. a dishwasher, so i can tackle the pile of dishes i didn't feel like doing yesterday.

6. a vacuum

7. modern medicine 

8. vast amounts of inspiration i find on the interweb

9. my belly bands, so that i can still fit into my jeans

10. good friends

queen bee wish list

on friday and saturday i will be selling at the queen bee market. it will be at the del mar hilton from 4-9pm on friday and 9am-4pm on saturday. if you are in the area, you  should come! it will be awesome. i will be there most of friday night 530-830ish. here are a few of the items i will have my eye out for while shopping at the market

 i think a beautiful bar of handmade soap would be a great gift and i love pretty much all of fresh batch soap's shop.

 mommy holly has the cutest paper goods and i think i will pick up some dictionary snowflakes to stick in our christmas card envelopes. lovely.

 

i am in the very slow process of decorating penelope's room and i think this hook would look so cute in it.

 

 and aren't these reusable shopping totes to die for.

and i always get excited about pretties like:

 the above 2 necklaces by crystal B

these vintage beauties by erica leilani