Updates

We've been surviving 3 kids under 5 for the past 6 weeks but not without some rough patches.  You may remember from this post some of the issues that Lula and Jane had as newborns.  We thought maybe things would be easier with Pearl, but she decided to follow right along in her big sisters' footsteps.

In addition to losing too much weight in the hospital, being jaundice and a failure to get up to her birth weight for the first 5 weeks..(oh, and being tongue tied, so we had to have that clipped...). Pearl also was diagnosed with hip dysplasia just like Lula and Jane.  2 weeks ago, she was fitted with her lovely hip harness.

We were told after Lula was diagnosed, that it is genetic and all of our children will have a 25% chance of having it. I guess since 100% of them have it, we have beat the odds! Pearl was fitted with her harness at only 4 weeks old as opposed to 8 weeks like the other girls. We were happy about this because it means she will get to take it off sooner and hopefully she won't be as delayed in things like rolling over and sitting up like the other 2.  You can read all about hip dysplasia and her pavlik harness here if you are clueless as to what I'm talking about. (I had never heard of it and still have yet to meet another child with it!)

Here is a fun picture of all 3 girls in their hip harnesses. Can you guess who is who?

It's funny how normal it is now...just a part of life.  The Orthapedic Dr. (who we love and has seen all three girls), told me that if I have another baby she is just going to hand me a harness in the delivery room. 

Pearl will most likely wear the harness for 3 months, just like her sisters.  She also had a big growth spurt and finally is catching up on weight.  OH, and she started sleeping through the night at FIVE WEEKS! She may revert back to waking up, but I'm praising the Lord for some restful nights.  We are so thankful that all three girls have had amazing Dr's that have caught their hip dysplasia and it's an easy fix. Lula and Jane's hips are perfect now and they will never remember those 3 uncomfortable months from babyhood.  In fact, sweet Lula has been asking if all the other babies are wearing their harnesses too. They just think it's normal.


I'm going to start posting some regular "photo dumps" now that I have Instagram. Here are some fun moments from the past few weeks:

Enjoy your day!

Introducing...

I'm finally back with a very exciting update!

I'd like to introduce you all to the newest member of our little family...miss Pearl Violet. She was born on April 8th, weighing in at 7lbs 14oz.

 

This sweet girl has been keeping me busy the past 2 weeks, so sorry for my absence!  Pearl was born 8 days late...here I am the day I had her at 8 days overdue and very ready!

I won't post a full birth story, sorry! I'm a little too private for that. But everything went great and she's just perfect. It was probably my favorite birth experience of my three girls. Very laid back and calm.  She is HUGE compared to my other two...almost a full 2lbs heavier.  She also has lots of dark brown hair which is totally different than what we were expecting! I wasn't sure if I was really holding my child when she came out, who knew I'd have a chunky brunette?

A lot of people are curious about her name. Pearl is actually a family name, it's my great great aunt. But, that's not necessarily why we chose it. We just thought it was a beautiful vintage name that went well with Lula and Jane's vintage names.  Lula and Jane actually came up with Violet. As soon as I found out I was having a girl, Lula decided she should be named Violet and the girls called her "baby Violet" the rest of my pregnancy. We thought it was so sweet and such a pretty name that they chose, so we picked it for the middle name. I love that Pearl's sisters took part in naming her.

She is such a sweetie and I almost can't believe it's only been 2 weeks. It feels like she's been a part of our family forever.

She has the classic "wide eyed" look that my other 2 had.

It's going to be an adjustment going from 2 to 3 little girls, but we are up for the challenge!

I'm currently thinking about how to balance this blog with my 3 little ones, so far I haven't done the best job. But I love blogging and I'm not ready to give it up. Thanks for bearing with me as I've been more absent throughout my pregnancy and birth of little Pearl. I hope to be more consistent once we get into our new rhythm of life.

Oh, and I now have Instagram! Feel free to follow me here!

DIY Basket Light Fixture & Ginger Jamboree Link Party!

 Hello! It's hard to keep up with this blogging thing when I'm 9 months pregnant and have been enduring snowstorms, power outages and the busyness of life. But, I'm back with another nursery project that I did a few weeks ago...as well as the Ginger Jamboree Link party!

I was thinking of an inexpensive way to bring in a cute light for the nursery and spotted this little basket that I had been using to throw away sewing scraps...

I started thinking about what it might look like flipped upside down and spray painted yellow for a fun pendant light. So, I went for it. I grabbed a can of Krylon yellow spray paint

After a few coats, I flipped that baby upside down and figured it wouldn't be too difficult to cut a hole in the top for the light.

Easy! I had picked up a white pendant light kit at Lowes and just used that as a guide on how big to cut the hole.

After hooking everything up, we were in business!

I love how cheap this project was! The light kit was around $10, we already had the round ceiling thingy and basket, and the spray paint was about $4!


When the light is turned on, it creates a little pattern on the ceiling which I actually like. 

Since it's only one bulb, I bought the highest wattage I could find and it's plenty of light.

I hope baby likes it!

And now for the link party!!


Here are the "rules" if you could so kindly abide by them.

1. Link up to your blog post, not your blog homepage.

2. Please visit a few other links and give them some comments and hopefully they will do the same for you!

3. Link back here in your blog post. It would be amazing if you could include the Ginger Jamboree button (code is below), but a text link works as well!

4. Only link up tutorials, DIY projects, recipes and those types of things. Other random blog posts that don't apply will be deleted.



Grab a button and link away!














<center> <br><br><a href="http://homemadeginger.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad340/mkapple/th_linkparty.jpg" /></a></center> <br><br>

DIY Stenciled Pillow Cover and a GIVEAWAY!!!

And the winner is....commenter 9: Ajaire! (chosen via Random.org).  I will contact you with more info. Thanks eveyone who entered!

You may remember this little window seat/storage bench that we got for our office update.

I am loving it, but wasn't a fan of the "blah" seat pillow cover that it came with.  I decided to make a new one in a more cheery fabric.  And believe it or not, I stenciled the fabric...and it's actually not just fabric, it's a piece of painters canvas!

Who would have guessed? I used the Casablanca stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils in the medium size. (Cutting Edge sent me this stencil to try out and I decided this would be a fun and easy project to share!)

I picked out a yellow at Lowes and just got a sample of it. That was all I needed to paint the entire painters canvas.  I also bought some fabric medium to mix in with the paint.

I mixed about 1/3 medium with 2/3 paint and laid out the canvas on the floor.  Then, taking a small foam roller, I just stenciled away.

It was so much easier than I expected as I haven't tried stencils before. The fabric medium helped the paint be a little thinner and not so stiff once it was dry.

Once the entire thing was stenciled and dry, I just used the pillow as a guide and made my own new pillow cover.

I think it turned out pretty cute and was super thrifty as well!

I have a ton of fabric leftover (I had a larger project in mind before deciding on the pillow) so, I can make another coordinating pillow for a chair or even a small curtain someday.

Now for the good part....

Cutting Edge is kind enough to give away $50 worth of stencils to one lucky reader!!! The winner can choose the stencil or stencils of your choice and there will no shipping charges.

There are tons of different ones to choose from...wall stencils, craft stencils...big or small...you name it! They also have some great how to tutorials to check out. I watched a few before I began my project.

Here's how to enter:

1. Leave a comment letting me know which CE stencil is your favorite. (I MUST Have a way of contacting you if you win, so either leave your email or make sure you are NOT an anonymous commenter.)

2. For an additional entry, "like" Cutting Edge Stencils on Facebook, and then leave me another comment telling me so.

3. For a third bonus entry, follow the Cutting Edge Stencil Blog and leave me a comment telling me so.

I will choose the winner on Wed, March 6th!

Giveaway Winner and Ginger Jamboree #11

 Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway!  I chose a random entry via random.org and the winner is....commenter #4, Missy!  I will contact you with details!


And now for the Ginger Jamboree #11...




Here are the "rules" if you could so kindly abide by them.

1. Link up to your blog post, not your blog homepage.

2. Please visit a few other links and give them some comments and hopefully they will do the same for you!

3. Link back here in your blog post. It would be amazing if you could include the Ginger Jamboree button (code is below), but a text link works as well!

4. Only link up tutorials, DIY projects, recipes and those types of things. Other random blog posts that don't apply will be deleted.



Grab a button and link away!














<center> <br><br><a href="http://homemadeginger.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad340/mkapple/th_linkparty.jpg" /></a></center> <br><br>

Bookshelf Makeover and a GIVEAWAY!!

Hello Friends! I wanted to share a quick little mini-makeover that I did for the nursery. And at the end of the post, there is a great giveaway!

You may remember this little green shelf that was in Jane's room. I had bought it at antique store for $10 and spray painted it green.

It's such a cute little size. However, that center bar in the bottom portion made it a pain to get things in and out. I want to store books on it this time around. So, I took the bar off, painted it bright white and found some cheap chevron wrapping paper at target. Much like I did with the bookself dollhouse, I just cut the paper to size and mod podged it onto the back walls of the shelf. Here is the end result!

I think it turned out so fun and cheerful and a little more modern. I can't wait to put some little baby things on it and see how it looks in the room when everything comes together.

I just completed a very cheap light fixture project that I will share on Monday, so stay tuned for that!

And now for the giveaway! Laura from Heart of Gold Etsy shop sent me a beautiful emerald green headwarmer to try out and she is also giving one away to one of my lucky readers!

Before I show you my headwarmer, here are some other fun things from her shop:


Love this color block scarf

And how fun is the big bow on this headband?

She even has a few sweet baby things to choose from

I received this green cozy headwrap:

I so wish I could have taken pictures of myself wearing it, but my hubby wasn't available and my camera is super heavy!

You have the chance to win one for yourself in your choice of color! It's the Eponine Gathered Headwrap.


Simply just leave a comment below to be entered into the giveaway! I will choose a random winner on Monday. PLEASE make sure I have a way of contacting you and you may only enter once. Good luck!

DIY Mobile and Ginger Jamboree #10

It's time to link up your projects again, but first I wanted to share what I've been working on. More nursery updates! I really wanted to make a little mobile and wasn't quite sure how to go about it. After I found some adorable bird ornaments, I kind of threw the rest of it together. So far, I'm pleased with how it has turned out.

I found these bird ornaments at Ten Thousand Villages marked down after Christmas. I also had an embroidery hoop and some yarn already on hand. I simply covered the hoop in the yarn...

 I took off the original ornament hangers and sewed on some ribbon

I'm still not happy with how it hangs, I plan to do something different about the pink ribbon...but I couldn't wait to show it off so far!

Oh, I should mention that I tied and then hot glued the ribbon on. It's hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Aren't those birdies so sweet?

I hope baby girl loves laying in her crib and looking at it!


Ok, now it's YOUR turn!


Here are the "rules" if you could so kindly abide by them.
1. Link up to your blog post, not your blog homepage.
2. Please visit a few other links and give them some comments and hopefully they will do the same for you!
3. Link back here in your blog post. It would be amazing if you could include the Ginger Jamboree button (code is below), but a text link works as well!
4. Only link up tutorials, DIY projects, recipes and those types of things. Other random blog posts that don't apply will be deleted.

Grab a button and link away!






<center> <br><a href="http://homemadeginger.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad340/mkapple/th_linkparty.jpg" /></a></center> <br>