Review Thursday – Seeing Squares
It’s my first review Thursday! I’m not exactly sure what all I’ll be reviewing on Thursday but you can likely bet it will either be craft or baby related more often than not. That’s essentially all I ever think about. And food…maybe food will find its way into that list too.
For my inaugural review Thursday I figured I’d start right smack dab in the middle of craft AND baby!
Seeing Squares Quilt Pattern by Empty Bobbins
I’ve seen this quilt everywhere on Pinterest. I’ve had it pinned for a really long time. Wherever I run across it online I just stare and drool, it’s that gorgeous.
We decided on a robot theme for Henry’s nursery. Searching for robot themed bedding was a bust. What little selection there was typically included black or grey (we have brown walls), or was really not my style. I picked fabric first (Cute Bots in Blue from Rashida Coleman Hale) and then debated on what style quilt I wanted. I went from a simple 9 block to a funky round, I ran the whole gamut. While looking through my quilt board on pinterest (if you’re so inclined check it out here) I found the seeing squares pattern. I was crazy intimidated but I was bound and determined that that would be my pattern.
I promptly ordered it from Pink Chalk Fabrics and had it within a few days. The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was I had to actually wait for the pattern to arrive. We are much too dependent on the internet and instant gratification, I do admit that. It was absolutely worth the wait though!
It was a small booklet pattern with nice, colorful pictures as well as detailed instructions for cutting and piecing. I was intimidated by this quilt, as I said earlier, but after searching for reviews of the pattern online I found the Empty Bobbins blog and the post about this pattern when it first came out. Shea Henderson says this about the pattern:
‘At first glance, it looks like it would be difficult to piece it, but I promise I have a nifty way to assemble the top.’
It piqued my interest and I was set. I was amazed at how easy she really made it! It is quite cutting heavy, but so simple once all the cutting is done. Even the cutting she made easy, she must be a miracle worker. I hate cutting, hate it, hate it, hate it. Now, of course, I would have been happier just having the pieces magically appear all perfect for me to sew together, but I didn’t really hate the cutting of this quilt.
The pattern is set up for 2 different sizes, a small quilt (48”x56”) and a larger size (60”x84”). I made the small quilt, which she calls a generous sized baby quilt and that it is. It breaks it down very nicely that you need this many of each size for the small and this many for the large. It also has a diagram of how to lay it out that shows both sizes but distinguishes the small from the large.
There are included instructions on how to put together a pieced back. I believe the pieces for the back are included in the initial cutting stage. I fudged on the pieces since I had some large print and didn’t want that print in the smaller pieces. I did not do the pieced back, but it’s just the same as the quilt but in a smaller section. I made my own robot backing, which I’ll discuss and have photos of later.
I cannot rave about this pattern enough! I’m so proud of my quilt and any time I show it off I give them the pattern name and tell them they should make it.
The quilt on the pattern has a gorgeous quilting of each square that I so wanted to duplicate, but I’m just not that fancy. Instead of that I did a simple diagonal and the quilt still looks amazing.
My finished beauty:
(Cute Bots in Blue – Rashida Coleman Hale, Green Gears – Rashida Coleman Hale, Orange Gears – Rashida Coleman Hale. The rest are solids and I honestly don’t know their names!)
Go buy it now, I promise you won’t regret it!
Revamp and Update
It’s been quite a while since the last update….12 weeks to be more precise! Lots have changed and nothing has changed at the same time. I’m in my 29th week of pregnancy and I just realized that I never alerted the interwebz the sex of the baby! This is how we broke the news to everyone else!
It was such a great day. Both Jeremy and myself took off work to just relish the day we find out exactly how our lives will change. We both thought ruffles and bows were in our future. Instead we have peepee teepees and baseball hats! We would have been thrilled either way.
Jeremy was kind of dumb-founded at the first announcement by our ultrasound tech. He was so certain it was a girl. It did not take him long to realize how awesome our son was going to be. We went full robot on the nursery (more on that next week) and Jeremy geeked out hard! He is in full Power Rangers mode. He has a tutorial on how to make a Power Rangers onesie. There are none to buy, trust me I looked. Now just to decide on the color…
We had an awesome time on our babymoon in San Diego. I’ll share some pictures from that on Friday.
I’m diving in head first into really getting my blog to take off. I would love this record to look back on and see what exactly it was that interested me in my 20s. I have to be honest, not sure how the whole blog thing works after you let a domain expire, something I’ll have to look into. But for now, I’m adopting a new schedule for my posts. Hopefully I’ll get really regular at this and you can stop in on any given day and find a fresh new post waiting for you!
Momma Monday
Crafty Tuesday
Fitness Wednesday
Review Thursday
Photo Friday
Of course, these are subject to change at any given time. There may be something amazingly awesome and I skip to photo Fridays on a crafty Tuesday. But bear with me, I’m going to make this work!
And, for the rest of the pregnancy, I will do weekly updates on me and baby on Momma Mondays! I’m really kicking myself for letting it go to the wayside. I bought a bump book so I could take pictures every week and watch the progress. Not a single picture has made it to the book…so frustrated with myself. Once the little guy gets here I’ll start project 365 and make it a picture of him every day. Life goes by way too fast and I definitely want to capture those priceless moments that might not matter to anyone else. The first time he pees in my face, the first time he has a diaper blow-out, and the list goes on and on. I’m so excited to be a mom…I simply can’t wait!
I’m a week behind on pictures…go figure. For now you get week 28 from last weekend and you’ll get 2 next week!
How far along? 29 weeks
Total weight gain: 13 shhh, don’t tell anyone. I’m being much more cautious with my weight now and working out is my friend again.
Maternity clothes? Every flippin day, thank whoever invented them!
Stretch marks? Sadly yes. I’m like a tiger, I earned my stripes.
Sleep: I’m still sleeping well. My hips are hurting more and more every night but it’s totally going to be worth it.
Best moment this week: Every moment when he kicks me, I’m so grateful.
Miss Anything? Not that I can really put a name to right now
Movement: TONS!
Food cravings: Nothing much right now.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, I’ve moved on to heartburn these days
Sex Prediction: Boy!
Labor Signs: None
Symptoms: Big ole bump out front and lots of heartburn
Belly Button in or out? Innie
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy with a little moodiness thrown in to make it interesting.
Looking forward to: Our next birthing class tomorrow night.
Week 17
It’s week 17 for me! Seems like just yesterday and forever ago at the same time. No need to babble on, my questionnaire answers everything I could possibly go over.
Week 16
I really do suck at this blogging thing…..I think all my posts start like that! Between grad school, feel like crap and work, I just didn’t feel like it. Hopefully I’ll get better the further along in the pregnancy I get.
Tomorrow is the end of week 16 for me! It goes by so fast! Which is sad and nice at the same time. With all day morning sickness and all the tiredness, the first trimester wasn’t a party. The second trimester, however, has been pretty nice!
I’ve taken one more photo that I haven’t posted so I’ll post both. So without further ado….
I just couldn’t get the white board to work. It was always hard to read. So I ditched that and switched to this lovely frame that used to sit on my desk. And yes, that is an ultrasound you see on the week 13 photo! Here’s our little moonpie
So far we have a healthy little booger. Hopefully we continue to get good news. At the time of the ultrasound baby had a heartbeat of 147.
Maternity clothes? Maternity clothes are a must now. The pants are fantastic and so comfy!
Stretch marks? none
Sleep: Sleeping well for now. I can no longer sleep on my belly, but my snoogle comes in handy!
Best moment this week: Not much happening this week
Miss Anything? I want booze whenever we’re out. It’s odd, I never wanted it until I couldn’t have it
Movement: Too early yet, unless you consider stretch pains movement, hehe
Food cravings: I crave something whenever anyone else talks about food, I always want what they are talking about
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, hopefully that stage of pregnancy is behind me
Sex Prediction: I’m not sure now, still a little bit girl
Labor Signs: Not even close
Symptoms: Stretching and pulling
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Our next appointment which will start with our anatomy scan! Friday the 13th! So excited!
My first quilt
I’ve had 2 baby quilts in my mind for a while. I bought the fabric shortly after that, afraid it would be discontinued. I’d already started the quilt I wanted for a boy, that is what I thought we’d have first. I’ve gotten most of the squares cut out and sewn together, I got too antsy to cut them all out. Ever since I learned I was pregnant, I just have a feeling it is a girl.
I put my 2D Zoo quilt on the back burner and started on my Water Bouquet quilt. Let me reminisce for a moment…..I first wrote about my baby quilting ideas here and had planned these fabrics

This was just too busy and I couldn’t fall in love with. I tweaked it a lot and came up with this combo:
I absolutely LOVE Amy Butler’s Water Bouquet. I couldn’t have the rest of the lovely (get it, it’s the love collection) fabrics steal water bouquet’s thunder. I pulled the colors from the fabric and found some coordinating fabrics. This is a collection I can fall in love with.
Here is a shot of my favorite fabric. I just don’t get tired of it.
Here is the sewn top. I love how it turned out. The pink stripe on the left side is the backing, obviously not sewn on yet. It’s a pink minky dot, it feels so nice! Now I’ve just go to figure out how I’m going to quilt it. I thought about a diagonal diamond pattern, but just haven’t acted on that yet. I’ve also just thought about stitch in the ditch but I love the look of the all over pattern. I’m also considering having someone else quilt it so it will actually look nice.
Any suggestions?
Update – Big News!
My last update at the beginning of January was that we were sick but still feeling fantastic from our new diet. Feeling better now, thank goodness, but still kind of congested.
Have I ever told you the story of our Baby’s first Christmas stocking?
Jeremy and I met the very beginning of January 2008. By the time Christmas rolled around we were pretty serious. We decorated together and also bought some decorations together. We went to Hobby Lobby, if you don’t have one I’m really sorry, to buy some stockings for each other. We picked out some really cute red and white velvet stockings with sequined snowflakes, our stockings were inverse colors of each other so we knew which one was which. I had the mostly white one and he had the mostly red one. We hung our stockings and filled them. We were just finishing opening up our stockings, getting ready to move on to the boxes. Jeremy says, ‘There’s one more thing in here.’ I’m thinking….ummm….no? That’s it, what else is still in there? He pulls out this little pink stocking and just stares at it. I look at it and my mouth just opens. I know I didn’t put it in there, but what a great ‘I’m pregnant!’ moment? Of course I wasn’t and Jeremy did not get that at all, thank goodness. He says ‘Where did this come from?” For some reason someone must have stuck it in the stocking we bought and we stole it on accident. We took it back to Hobby Lobby after the new year but they didn’t want to fool with it, they said to just keep it, odd… I know! So we carted it back home, stuck it back in Jeremy’s stocking a left it there. Every year we pull it out and giggle about our first Christmas together.
I made a mental note to use that stocking whenever I had to announce to Jeremy I was pregnant. I mentioned earlier that we started trying to conceive in the beginning of November. When we pulled all of our stuff out of the attic I very stealthily rummaged around in the stuff, while still in the attic, grabbed the stocking out of it’s storage place, aka Jeremy’s stocking, and stuffed in my coat pocket for safe keeping until I could officially use it.
Well, I finally got to use it!
Yes that is a Star Trek onesie. Jeremy saw it on Think Geek and said it was a ‘must have’ for baby. I folded the onesie and stuck it and the pee stick, in a plastic bag of course, and jammed it in the tiny stocking, that was a chore. I’m not sure why I tested that Tuesday night, but I’m glad I did. I waited patiently outside of the bathroom door, yes I went there, for Jeremy. He came out and I was sitting on the bed with a Christmas bag. I said that it was a late Christmas present that was just now ready. He was terribly confused, but he opened the bag like a good husband….and was still slightly confused. He pulled the onesie out and looked at it and said ‘What does this mean?” “I’m PREGNANT!” I used an internet cheapie and a digital. The digital wasn’t sensitive enough to pick up my HCG level. I said I needed to run to Wal-Mart to pick up some more tests. I’m a scientist, I completely understand how these types of enzyme tests work but there was a bad batch of the cheapies that I bought and while mine wasn’t that batch I couldn’t chance it. We did however buy 2 different test types, 5 in total. I still had 4 more cheapies left and I took 8 tests over the next 3 days…that one I have no excuse for.
To tell our families we wrapped this onesie and told them all it was a late Christmas gift that had just came in:
We were walking through Bally’s in Vegas and decided to stop in a little baby shop and inside was this onesie. I went straight to it. Jeremy decided that it was our month and we should get it. I couldn’t help but agree so we bought it hopefully. As luck would have it, it WAS our month! Everyone absolutely loved the onesie, vulgar as it may have been.
We decided to document our journey with a white board and super lose black shirt.
I look a lot bigger in the 6 week picture, it’s late, I’m tired and can’t suck it in!
I’ve also decided to keep a running log of all the fun things of pregnancy:
Maternity clothes? I’ve bought 2 sweaters and 2 henleys. I’m kind of in need of some pants, but I’m going to hold off. My rubber band and DIY bellyband are doing the trick on the pants so far.
Stretch marks? none
Sleep: Sleeping well for now. Every once in a while I wake up at 4:30 and can’t go back to sleep, that sucks
Best moment this week: The morning sickness! I’m ridiculous for wishing it upon myself, but it makes me feel a little better
Miss Anything? Nothing yet
Movement: Too early yet, unless you consider stretch pains movement, hehe
Food cravings: I’m craving everything, but it’s because I’ve cut out white sugar and white grains
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, just being awake some days
Sex Prediction: Girl
Labor Signs: Not even close
Symptoms: Nausea and headaches
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: our first appointment on Feb 6!
I’ll leave you with our first family picture:
Oh yea, this obviously isn’t facebook official, so if I know you in real life (I really don’t think I do) please be discreet! Thank you!
Day 5 Update
I’m sick
Jeremy started out sick and I soon followed after. Even 2 of our fur bags have runny noses. The Logsdon house was hit hard. Jeremy is getting better but I’m still SO congested. I’m super excited that I have a tiny little air hole in my left nostril as opposed to the complete blockage I’ve been feeling for the last day. Complete blockage really sucks, you can’t swallow! Ugh.
Enough complaining, on with the update. Even though I’m sick I still feel great. We did go to a late Christmas party last night and cheated on some snacky foods. We figured there is no point in going crazy and having to be unsocial with everyone else. We did make some of our own snacks and really did limit our unclean food. Today, I can definitely tell the difference between how I felt yesterday morning and this morning. We’ve also discovered that we can’t be as strict as we want to be because we can’t afford it! We clean out all our cabinets and had to restock. This week we spent close to $400 restocking everything. Granted, we probably won’t have to buy as much each week but we didn’t even buy any meat in that $400 either.
I think we’re going to have to go down to an 80/20 or 90/10, mostly clean but a little not so we can actually afford it! I don’t feel deprived at all, we even found clean chocolate at Kroger. It was like a little slice of heaven in my mouth.
I hate to jinx it, but if it’s there it’s already there….I really feel like this month is our month for baby! I’m not sure why, I’ve just had a few things that are making me think that. It’s probably all phantom symptoms and I’ll be tiffed when the dreaded aunt shows her ugly head, but we have time, I’m just anxious!
While I’ve been typing my nose has completely blocked again….am I done with this yet?
New Year, New Life(style)
I start entirely too many posts “I’m sorry, I suck!” It’s true, I do. I’m not a writer so I don’t stay on top of myself to write every day like a lot of people do. But, on to other things!
I hope everyone had a lovely and Merry Christmas. We spent the week before Christmas in Vegas! It was so much fun, but I was very excited to get home too. There was entirely too smokey for me to stay very long, Jeremy is thinking he is starting a sinus infection. My skin is ridiculously dry too, way too dry of a climate for me to be comfortable in! We saw some fantastic shows. My absolutely favorite was Cirque du Soliel’s KA, it was amazing. I spent the entire show with my mouth hanging open in aw. We also saw Phantom of the Opera, my second favorite, which is craziness. I love Phantom, one of my favorite movies, I haven’t see a regular stage performance so I’m not exactly sure how it compares, but it was fabulous. That is a pretty good gauge at how awesome Cirque was if Phantom, which I’d been dying to see, was only a second favorite! We also saw Crazyhorse, a burlesque show; Tournament of King, medieval show and dinner that you eat with your hands; Nathan Burton, comedic magician which lead to seeing Jeff Civilico, another comedian. We had such a great time and I can’t wait to go back to see more Cirque shows!
We made the decision shortly before going to Vegas that would be starting a new clean eating regimen right after Christmas. We’re getting all geared up to start tomorrow. We’ve made a stop at Whole Foods to get everything we can’t buy at home, the closest store is 45 minutes away in another state that charges tax on food…KY doesn’t. We cleaned out our cabinets last night and today, you wouldn’t believe all the crap that is in our foods for seemingly no reason what so ever. We donate about 8 grocery bags of food to a nearby food pantry. Everything has high fructose corn syrup in it! Why does corn have high fructose corn syrup in it? Same with beans! Everything! We got rid of anything that had something in it we couldn’t pronounce. Any type of chemical got thrown out, not preservatives, nada. We are being super strict, which might not work for everyone, but it’s the only way to go for us.
We tried the eat clean diet, Tosca Reno wrote the book on it, a few months back. We cleaned out our cabinets but we we didn’t want to get rid of our food so we stuck it in the garage so we’d have to really think about it before. We hit it hard and felt great, but after a week we got the nagging cravings and fell off the wagon. It was just too easy to slip. We have absolutely no ‘dirty’ food in our house so we have to go out to buy it if we want to eat it. We also are not planning to splurge for at least the first month, after that we can have 1 splurge meal a month. We have stipulations on our splurge meal too, it has to have some type of nutritional value so we can’t just go crazy.
Why did we make this decision? We’re trying to conceive our first child and want to do everything in our ability to bring a new little one into the world with every advantage possible. Another reason is for our own health. The benefits of eating clean are amazing. Obviously we haven’t really experienced them yet, but if they are anywhere as near as amazing as they are supposed to be I’m very excited. Weightloss, clearer skin, less sickness, a general wellbeing and the list goes on. Of course there is a ‘detox’ kind of period to be had in most people, but we’re still really excited to get started.
On the baby front, we’re in cycle 2. I believe I’m on 1 DPO (days post ovulation) but with all the traveling and lack of sleep I could potentially be 2 DPO, but most likely 1. I decided to hit the floor running and not leave this to chance, I’m too impatient. So I’m charting and temping and using OPKs (Ovulation Predictor Kit) to give us a good step forward. I had planned to ovulate in Vegas and we found the cutest onesie that says “I’m what happened in Vegas.” Hopefully this was just good luck and not bad juju on our part, but we won’t know for another 2 weeks, fingers crossed!
I’ll make sure to keep my blog as up-to-date about baby making, nothing too juciy though, and our clean eating as possible. Hopefully I’ll be able to mix some craftiness in there as well. We have the annual Humane Society charity event, The Fur Ball, coming up soon and I really want to make my dress, hopefully it’ll all pan our and I can do several posts on that, including making my own dress form, it really makes the most sense when you think about it. Not super sturdy or lasting I’m sure, but we’ll see.
Until next time!
Anniversary Breakfast
Things get crazy and I go M.I.A. Sorry…I really am! Between work and school, husband and the furry ankle bitters I get lost and can’t find my way back home. Today is a sick day for me. Feel sorry for me. I’m lying here on my amazingly comfortable chaise lounge covered in a super comfy and fluffy blanket with a cup of coffee and GMA. GMA is the only TV I miss now that I have a regular job, it’s just so fun and informative, I’m so happy I get to watch it today.
We went to DC over the weekend. Remember me talking about the 5K obstacle course we were going to do? That was this weekend. That’s a story for another time. Somehow over the weekend I either got crazy dehydrated or picked up some type of bug, I’m not sure which yet. So here I sit hydrating and resting, hoping to be 100% soon.
I just realized though that I did not share our anniversary with you. Another reason why I’ve been absent, that took a lot of time. Several months out I found pictures of a romantic picnic, I took that and ran with it. I originally wanted to do a romantic candlelit dinner, but we decided to go to Mariah’s for dinner. Mariah’s is one of our favorite restaurants here, that’s where we went on the morning we got engaged, we had our rehearsal dinner there, they catered our wedding, and I expect we’ll spend most of our anniversaries there. So breakfast it was. I fixed WAY too much, but that’s what I do.
I started out several weeks before hand by picking up 1.5” PVC pipe and 4 side outlet elbows. I was originally intimidated by cutting and putting it all together, but it was really easy. The hand saw I used just went right through it like butter. I probably spent no more than 1 hour sawing and putting together. I cut 4 pipes to 7′ and 4 pipes to 5′. How did I come to these measurements you ask? We’re both around 6′ tall so 7′ was a good choice. I used a 3′ square card table, added on 2 feet on each side for chairs, so 5′ it was. Once it came together I put a coat of spray paint it on it. I just used brown, I didn’t want that to be any type of focal point.
That was pretty much it. I bought curtains from Walmart to frame it and it was gorgeous. All the recipes I used of course came from pinterest…..as does everything in my life any more. I made Biscuit and Eggs, Angel Food Cake French Toast, Chocolate-Filled Brioche, Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls, a fruit platter, regular biscuits, and fresh whipped cream. I had mimosas for us to drink, but instead of orange juice we had passionfruit juice. Jeremy got his first passionfruit in Antigua on our honeymoon and absolutely loves them, not really native to Kentucky though. *Sidenote – has anyone else noticed that sometimes pinterest just seems to lose links? I had to go through and refind all these recipes because the links were gone….SO annoying.
So without further ado:
I did not take pictures of the whole process, it was a surprise for Jeremy so I did it as quickly as possible under the secret of a garage or night…. If anyone is interested I can whip up a quick tutorial, it’s amazing how easy it was!
The Perfect Recipe – Flat Bread Pizza
I did not take step-by-step pictures on this recipe because Jeremy said something that actually made a lot of sense. He decided to start cooking through a cookbook as well, but he is only taking pictures of how it turns out and express his review. He said he didn’t know how legal it is to basically reproduce a cookbook in a blog. I had every intention of not sharing the recipe, but it’s so flippin good, I can’t!
I made Fresh Tomato Flatbread with Arugula and Prosciutto, well, I switched out spinach for Arugula because it was too dern expensive! The flat bread was so quick and easy to make and so delicious, this is a new favorite in our house.
Quick Flatbread Dough
1 cup bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
Mix flour and salt in a food processor. Mix water and oil and pour over flour mixture; process to form a soft dough ball. If dough is too stiff (hard-clay texture), process in another tablespoon of warm water. Continue to process until dough is well kneaded, about 15 seconds.
With floured hands, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into quarters. Working with one quarter at a time, roll dough out oto about 12-by-4 inch rectangle, dusting with flour and turning as necessary to keep it from sticking.
Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. (All 4 flatbreads should fit crosswise on the same sheet.)
I made my flatbreads with White Whole-Wheat flour. Topped with tomato slices and sprinkled with salt and basil then drizzled with garlic and olive oil. Bake 10 minutes. The dough will come out crispy with bubbles and deliciousness.
When I took it out of the oven I topped it was prosciutto, spinach and Parmesan cheese. They were so delicious they all 4 were gobbled up in no time!
I am a breakfast person, I only eat breakfast for breakfast no sandwiches or anything of the sort, but at 8:30am, I’d kill for one of them! YUM
You must try this…..now.






















