New sewing projects

I am excited to announce my etsy shop is up and running again after a very long hiatus. When I got pregnant I stopped making things. I was super excited to have a baby, but it was such a stressful and unsure time in my life I just couldn't think of creating. Now that my baby is a toddler I feel in the swing of things and am back to sewing.
Mainly I am doing small projects that are quick since my little toddler has a very small window of allowing me to do my own thing!
I am making burp cloths, which I love how pretty they have turned out! When I was using burp cloths I just had the plain ones. I think it would be so nice to have pretty cloths to keep your baby clean!

New lovely necklace!

I am so excited about the new necklace coming my way! I really cannot have too many necklaces with my daughters name on them!




This beautiful handmade necklace was made by Michelle over at Designs by MRS. Run, hurry now and check out her other designs by going to her her etsy shop.
Be sure to also stop by her awesome blog!


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Yo Gabba Gabba birthday dress.

Thankfully I finished the birthday girl's dress in time for her big first birthday. Thought I would share some pictures of miss M in her dress.










Turned out pretty cute and fit her perfectly!

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Doing the mommy thing with CHD.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to me being a mom with a Congenital Heart Defect or CHD for short. Something happened in Target today that prompted me to finally write about being a mom with CHD.

I was in the baby food aisle looking for munchies for little M because it feels like a constant struggle to feed her lately (which is a whole other post in itself!).
Baby girl was totally DONE, even though we had been in the store for only about 10 minutes! Here comes the meltdown.
I couldn't calm her down so I started to push the shopping cart back and forth, with her in it of course, hoping that would help. Nope! Maybe she wants to hold
something.Oh no, so not having that!
So I grabbed a few things, threw them in the cart and began making our way to the cold food section. I didn't realize she had turned herself sideways and that's when she banged her head on the back part of the cart seat. OH NO! Here comes my first experience of the total baby meltdown in Target! It's gotta happen sometime, right?
She starts doing that cry where she doesn't breath forever, and then the super loud wail.
I take her out of the cart to hold her and hopefully calm her down. I of course am wearing my shirt that is loose at the top and when I am holding my squirmy kid, my huge scars show.
Not a big deal to me but this mom who was shopping in the same aisle, saw the meltdown coming, and was now talking to me about her daughter who is a few months older. I love talking to other moms, but the moment she sees my scar is when things become awkward. She begins to look away, look down, slowly backs away. I wrap up the conversation and run to get some milk so we can get out of there.
I don't blame the other mom for her reaction, my scars are very noticeable and not something people like to see. I consciously choose to cover them up, but sometimes I get tired of hiding them. Partly because it's very hard to find cute shirts with high necklines and also because I have nice boobs, why can't I show those off?!
Seriously though I have worked really hard to hide my heart condition, and part of hiding it is not showing my scars. I don't want to hide my CHD because I am ashamed of it, but because for so long it dominated my life. It's all I thought about, all I dealt with, I couldn't get away from my heart condition.
When little things like this happen, someone sees my scars and reacts, it reminds me of my CHD.
As a mom this is so heart wrenching for me. I try to keep the thoughts from my mind of how long do I have to live, will I make it long enough to see baby live her life. I pray everyday with all of my might that I make it to see baby girl grow up, get married, have kids. I am so acutely aware how lucky I am to have her, to have each day with her. I treasure every day, I really do because I know deep down to my core that anything can happen and I may not always be here.
I try to do my best, enjoy it all, even the meltdowns and tantrums! Having CHD gives me a different perspective on life and for that I am truly grateful.



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Spring cleaning in the middle of summer.

We have been planning for awhile to spring clean our home, my man and I. Finally the weekend came where the stars aligned just right and we could leave our baby girl with her grandparents's and get some stuff done!
We have three closets and a huge dresser in our bedroom full of stuff needing a good sorting. Mainly we wanted to go through baby girl's stuff, since she is a "big girl" now and doesn't need her swing, activity center or bouncy chair.

I had a hard time getting rid of her things, even though we have no reason to keep them. I got especially sad when the Boppy was packed up, I remember just staring at my newborn little girl in that thing for hours, using it to prop her up on the couch with me, putting it behind her when she first started sitting up in case she fell back.

Time goes by so fast! Now our closets are beautiful and clutter free, we got to sit down for a long dinner out for Thai food and come home to watch "Downton Abby" until 2:00 in the morning. I forgot what it's like without a baby in the house, it was a nice break, but I missed her every second she was at her grandparents house. She had a good time though, she got worn out!

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Birthday Dress

In yesterday's post I talked about, for me, the dreaded Single Fold Bias Tape (or sfbt). It won't be so dreaded eventually, because I will learn how to use it properly!

I promised pictures of a project I am working on where I have to use it around the neck and arm holes. I am making a dress for my daughter to wear when she eats her birthday cake. (Sorry Michelle and Katie, I am ruining this surprise).

I am using Simplicity pattern #3854. I am making the top left dress pictured below.

I bought some Yo Gabba Gabba fabric which I am using for this dress.  Here are parts of the dress cut out.

So let me show you my attempts at using sfbt.
First the neck:

Not as good as I would like, but that is why I am showing you, my wonderful blog followers. The next time a project calls for sfbt I would like to make my own and use matching fabric, which I think would look better.

Now for the arm holes. These are in progress, waiting for my sister to return my sewing machine. She is using it to embroider something, another birthday surprise!

I love this fabric and I know this dress will be super cute! I think sometimes we are our harshest critic! It's all part of the process though, which I love just as much as the end result. I will leave you with pictures of my daughter and doggie.

Thanks for stopping by!

My baby is one!

I cannot believe a whole year has flown by already! It's amazing watching my baby grow into a little girl. When she was a few months old I felt like she would be a tiny baby forever, but one day you look up and she's not so tiny anymore!




Little Miss didn't quite know what to think of the cake, or maybe it was all the people staring at her! She took a little nibble, but no cake smashing for her.

She also had her hair cut for the first time on her birthday. Here she is with her cousin DJ who she adores!










Madison with her cousin Cody, who she loves so much!


This little girl is the greatest blessing in my life. I can't help but think back on everything we went through to have this little miracle in our lives. It was such a stressful and nerve wracking journey, but so worth it.

Location:Walnut Creek,CA

Learning to sew.

I was thinking the other day about what was the first thing I ever made. I remember taking home economics class in junior high and making a simple two handle, heavy weight cotton bag. It was pink and maroon striped and could carry all my books. I loved that bag, I think partly because I made it, which was awesome!
I was also in 4-H and did some sewing for the county fair in Nebraska, where I grew up. I remember the best thing I learned in 4-H besides sewing was how to properly cook and prepare a hard boiled egg so that the yoke was yellow, not green. Very important for deviled eggs and has come in handy many times over the years!

My mom was always dragging my sister and I to Joann's and various other fabric stores. We were bored out of our minds! She could not be done fast enough! But then it clicked one day and I saw how amazing fabric was. The shapes, colors, the feel of each different type. Plus if I used my sewing machine I could actually make things! Now I understood why we always went to fabric stores.

This always makes me think of my own daughter. I am constantly going to craft and fabric stores. Someday she may think it is super boring too, but hopefully she will come around and see how awesome it is too.

 I am basically self taught at this point and I want to get better! I want to do this for a living! I have a Masters degree in Psychology but that is not what I want to do.

That is a huge thing to admit...but it's true! I should have listened to myself in high school when I decided I wanted to be a fashion designer. Well many, many years later, I am on a quest to do something like that!

I am working on a dress for my daughter's first birthday. The pattern calls for using single fold bias tape around the neck line and the arm holes. I have very little experience with s.f.b.t. but I found an amazing tutorial on making your very own! I absolutely love, love, love, this tutorial! Who knew all the possibilities!!!

Also french seams, another wow! Apparently my mom did. I was complaining to her that an outfit I made for Madison turned out,  but the seams showing on the inside made it look incomplete. FRENCH SEAMS PEOPLE! Can you tell I am easily amazed and excited!

I am totally willing to tell you what I don't know, show you my mistakes and how I then perfect these techniques. Join me won't you!

I will leave you with a picture of my beautiful little girl standing up. A new trick of hers.

Wordless Wednesday-Morning Walk

Quilt for Cody, part 1

I have two wonderful nephews who thankfully are young enough to like getting a quilt made for them by their favorite Aunt (that's me of course!). Since the older of the two already got his quilt a few years ago its time to make one for the younger one.
 The theme is "Finding Nemo" and I am doing a basic nine patch quilt square.

Fabric for Nemo quilt.

The Nemo fabric was purchased on ebay and came pre-cut. I am also using fat quarter sets from Joann's Fabric store. I spent some time at my sister/sister-in-law's house recently working on this quilt in their beautiful quilt/painting studio.

An outside view of the studio at night

Madison was there with us also, napping through part of the quilting!

I've decided that I am going to keep the quilt simple, mainly because it's really hard to find time to sew right now since I stay home with Madison. She doesn't have a lot of patience for my sewing!
I found this pattern in a quilt magazine my sister had. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the issue and name of the magazine!

I am going to use this pattern as a reference guide, since I really don't like to use patterns for quilting! I have my reasons, which seems to boggle my sister, a much better quilter than me, but it seems to kind of work for me.
I will be using the Nemo squares as the flower square in this quilt and then using the fat quarters for the nine patch blocks.

I cut out the fat quarters into 2 1/2" strips. I started to sew them together, but please check back to see the progress!

New name, same great adventure!

I changed the name of my blog! I totally feel like it is way overdue.
The old name was great, but I want to talk about so much more and this new name will create a space for me to do just that.
First, I want to talk about my beautiful little girl and about being a new mom. My baby girl is now 10 months old, how time flies!
 I am planning her first birthday party which will be Yo Gabba Gabba themed, a show on Nick Jr.  I went to Beverly's craft store and picked up some Gabba Gabba fabric today to use for some part of her birthday outfit.

I love this fabric!

Not sure why she can't wear it now!

As always I have many craft projects going on which will still be the main focus of my blog. I love to quilt, sew and crochet, but now I have a little girl to make these things for!

Finally, I want to talk about my health and how it impacts my life. That is what I like about my new title. It allows me to show you all the things This Mommy has made, but also that I made it to this point in my life despite all the challenges I have because of my heart condition!

Well, this is all that two episodes of 'Yo Gabba Gabba' will buy me for today! See you soon and thanks for sticking with me, or looking at this blog for the first time!

Introducing Carrots!

One of the wonderful things about having Madison is seeing the world through her. So many new things! This week we introduced carrots, which I also love. I have to say that this is the only thing I have "made" over the last week.
I am using the Baby Bullet system, which is not just cute, but convenient. I ordered it when I was pregnant with Madison and so excited to finally use it!

I am also working on a new crochet stuffed animal. Not sure what it will be yet, but find it's something easy to work on while Madison plays.
My other project is to finish a quilt I started probably over a year ago, will take pictures of the progress and show it here.
I got rid of a ton of scraps. I decided I needed to get rid of fabric I will never use so that I can make room for the fabric I really want to use. Check back to see what I made room for, so cute!

Happy Crafty New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I want to start the New Year off right, with a blog post! One of my new year's resolution is to revitalize my blog.
Now that my baby girl Madison is six months old, I have a little more time to finally craft.

One of the things I made for Christmas was a wreath for our door. I wrapped a Styrofoam wreath in white yarn. I then accented it with red hydrangea petals.

The hydrangea was velvety, with sparkles dotted on its petals. I originally bought the hydrangea for Madison's headband that she wore for our family pictures.

The other project I started was making tutu's for Madison. A little girl can never have too many! When I visited my mom in Oregon recently she gave me a bunch of tulle she wasn't using. I just learned how to make the very simple tutu, and did a cute mix of peach, plum and cream colored tulle accented with a muted purple ribbon.

It was hard to get a picture of Madison not trying to eat the tutu, but here it is on her!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! Yeah 2012!

Feeling jumbled.

I really want to get back into my blog, but I keep finding excuses to not post something. Yesterday I was about to post and then my sweet baby began crying and I took care of her. Instead of putting her down once she was asleep, I held her for hours, which was great, but no blog post.

Well, today there is this post. I didn't totally want to post because I have to re-take pictures of the sewing I'm working on and the baby is sleeping in her carseat and I'm feeling jumbled. I finished most of Madison's Halloween costume, but now I want to remake part of it. Some days things don't come easy. Part of dealing with that is getting out of our own way.

Cherry Heart Designer becomes a Mommy!

I am excited to announce that I gave birth to this little miracle on July 1st of this year. She is now almost three months old, and I feel like I am just now coming out of the fog of pregnancy and new baby mode.

Madison Rose Marie, born 7-1-2011, 5lbs 9oz.

Madison Rose, two days old.

Madison Rose, 2 weeks old

Madison Rose, 2 months old

There is a big story behind this tiny miracle, and I am trying to figure out how to tell it. I hope in the days and weeks to come I can tell you more and by telling my story, I can help other woman who may be experiencing what I did. Cryptic enough?!

Plus, I am finally back to sewing and crafting again, so more quilting/crafting to come!

Also have you seen this awesome quilting tv series ? I live in northern California, so check you local station for this show. I have learned so much from this show, they break down quilting into doable steps, with great tips and tricks.

Belated Happy New Year...

I hope it has been wonderful for all of you so far! I haven't posted in awhile, as some of you may have noticed. We are currently having problems with our computer and I am typing this note to you on our tiny little netbook. Unfortunately I am not able to post pics from my camera onto this computer, so I may end up just describing what I am making!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to the many quilts we are all going to create during this year!