August 1, 2014 by Stephanie

The Terrific Twos!

This past year on the blog has been anything but terrible!

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Two years ago, I started out on this blogging adventure. Say what?!?

I still remember the conversation I had with my friend Carolyn when she popped the idea of blogging into my head since I said I was going to craft my way through Tom’s deployment.

I thought she was nuts. I don’t share my personal life that openly with people I haven’t taken the time to know, so really a blog? I wasn’t sure I was wanting to put myself out there like that.

After pondering on our conversation, I realize that she was not as nuts as I may have first thought. So I decided to jump in the blogging world exactly two years ago to be a distraction.

Here we are 24 months later, and I have to say that this blog has been such a great gift.

Since moving to KY a little more than a year ago, this space has been a go to place.

It was a place I could find support and give support.

It was a place to show my creativity and gain insight for new things.

It was a place that gave me a voice at times when I didn’t think I had it.

So here are some of my highlights from this last year:

I co-hosted a link up for the first time with my friend Elizabeth (who I met through blogging). And while Autumn on My Mind wasn’t a smashing success as we had hoped, it was a fun experience to learn through as we developed the series. Plus, I think it made a great platform for Elizabeth and I to create a great bond!
I was part of the Cara Box Exchange organization team for a couple of months. This was a great gift exchange for so many people! This gave me an opportunity to reach out to even more women in the blogging world. Plus it was a unique experience to work on that initiative purely through online formats.
I wrote about Tom and I’s love story in an 8-week series. You can start here. (They are listed in succession on my about me page.)
I started various other series on here such as Armucation, Talks With Tom, 35 for 35, and Friday Filters.
I shared more than I thought people would want to know and allowed myself to be vulnerable about things I couldn’t control. But doing so provided me with so much support from some of the most random places, which was such a Godsend at various times throughout this year.
I let Tom take over the blog once.
I posted our baby announcement on the blog and since have shared our journey to becoming first-time parents.
I participated in give-aways, link-ups, and sponsorships….I’m hip with the blogger lingo.
And I could go on an on…

Two years ago, I had no idea that I would enjoy it so much. It has been fun to have this documentation of our lives. As I stated Monday with my name change, this blog has evolved into something more than I would have ever imagined that day in the ISU dining center.

It’s been cathartic in so many ways.

So I wonder what’s up next in year 3?

My guess is lots and lots of baby onsies.

July 31, 2014 by Stephanie

Bumpdate Week 33

Week 33

How far along: 33 weeks…in the single digits of weeks left! Ahhhh!

Sex of Baby W: A boy is a noise with dirt on it.

Weight gain: I have gained 11 pounds, but it feels like so much more.

Size of Baby W: He should weigh around 4 pounds, or the size of a pineapple. It is hard to believe there is a pineapple hanging out in my stomach.

Maternity clothes: I am purely in either maternity tops or baggy/flowy items. I will say that I have been able to wear quite a few of my previously owned dresses because of their stretchy material. I can only wear my medium t-shirts (unless I want to try the crop top look) which has cut out about 85% of my t-shirt collection. Sad day, but on the flip side I am taking this opportunity to purge some shirts that I had been keeping for no reason. Donate! I have been getting self-conscious a lot because of the expanding belly and my image. I probably ask Tom at least a handful of times a day if I look OK. (I am pleased to report that he always says I look great.)

Baby items: We have really picked up our game this past month. With the help of our family, our registry doesn’t stress me out so much, and I am feeling a little more prepared with the things we need. There are only a few more things that we could use, but a lot of our bigger items have been taken care of. Now it is just those last little pieces, so if you are wanting to spoil or welcome George to the world our registries are still open at Target and Amazon! Tom and I (mostly Tom) worked on putting together the nursery furniture. We now have a crib and a couple bookshelves to add to our existing rocking chair!

Stretch marks: Not that I am aware of…

Belly button in or out: I have a flattie.

Sleep: This is getting more difficult. I flop around all night. I wake up probably every other hour because I ended up on my back or cannot get comfortable. But I haven’t had to get up to pee as often, so I guess there is a win there…

Best moment the past few weeks: Getting some more things done with the nursery

Worst moment the past few weeks: My step-grandmother had a stroke. It is hard to not be there for family. This week was also a big test in my effort to always look for the positives. Ugh sometimes life just throws you curve-balls…

I can’t help but smile with these two!

Miss anything: Shaving my legs normally. It’s like doing acrobats trying to shave my legs comfortably, which is not really possible. I miss steaks cooked the way I want. I do not like them cooked all the way, but that is the best way until George comes out. I miss eating normally, meaning I can’t lean over my plate comfortably. I am a messy/clumsy eater so I like to be over my plate like a normal person, but it makes me feel like I am squishing George and it hurts a little. Although, I am perfecting balancing plates on my belly.

Cravings: Perry Fosters BBQ. Any people from the Burg know what I am talking about? There is no way to cure this craving seeing as I am in KY and not MO.

Movement: Um this child is either 100% on or I wonder if he is alive he is so still. (Not kidding, I almost went to the hospital this weekend because he was so quiet in there.)

For the most part he is a little like this…

or this…

He has taken to sticking his hand or foot in the same spot right above my hip like he is trying to give us a high five or break out out of there karate chop style. This is a daily occurrence and now you can not only feel it but you can see him trying to protrude out of there…

He has also started rolling around which you can see, and it feels like a wave in my tummy, which I have to say is pretty cool. He still will sit mainly on my right side causing a lopsided belly. It looks and feels really odd, but I guess that is where he is most comfortable.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: I have had some discharge issues that has had to be monitored. Gross I know. I also have been having some severe tailbone pain. I can’t sit for very long before my butt is throbbing from pain. After consulting my OB, she said this is normal. However, because I broke my tailbone years ago, I am going to feel this pain even more than most women. Awesomely excruciating. George is also growing a lot faster than I am so it constantly feels like I pulled a muscle all over my stomach. I also want a nap every day. I have noticed that I have started the preggo waddle just a little bit too (more often than not it comes out when I am running to the bathroom.)

Looking forward to: Weekends. It is a time for me to relax and do lots of purging and reorganizing. Next up kitchen! We are also going to be getting our maternity pictures done soon!

33 weeks

July 29, 2014 by Stephanie

Crochet Blanket Stitch

I finished a blanket for George. It’s been a long time since I made something for us, so this one was fun to figure out the pattern and colors that we would want.

When I saw this yarn though, I knew I had to have it for our future baby. Our wedding colors in ombre yarn-ugh yes please!

I bought this probably a year ago keeping it stowed until we were cooking a bun in this oven.

I will say, I will never ever buy this yarn again though. It does not go very far. One of these skeins did only 3-4 rows, which is not very much in the grand scheme of blanket making. I have no idea how many of these I used, but it was a lot, which means a lot of money. Thankfully, my trips to get them were far apart and I only bought a couple at a time, so in my head it didn’t seem as bad.

It sure is pretty though!

Grace was excited to blanket model again. She hopped on it the second I put it down.

And then she wanted me to leave her alone.

As you can see in that close up, the stitches are kind of puffed or bobbled. It is a really easy pattern that I have used before. You can find the pattern here.

This blanket took me a while to do only because I kept it in the car and only did it during our road trips over the past 6 months. This might be the reason it went a little overboard and is a little bigger than a baby needs.

For the edging, I used this website. I used pattern 243. It was pretty similar to the blanket stitch so it fit nicely with the pattern. I used yellow yarn that I already had in my stash.

I know that it doesn’t match his nursery, but especially since it is too large for baby sizing anyway, I didn’t care. This would be a great blanket to do tummy time on and travel with to put on the floor for him.

And I may or may not use it on the couch for my own personal use…

Speaking of the nursery, we have been working hard to put it all together. We will have some updates soon to share!

July 28, 2014 by Stephanie

Finding My Yellow

As I near another anniversary on this blog (2 years this Friday), I started to really think about the direction I wanted to go with this space.

I first started out just wanting to document the months that Tom was away on his first deployment. It was an avenue for me to share my experiences and anxiety that came along with being an Army spouse. I shared some joys too as I took the time to reflect on various things and shared the crafts that kept me preoccupied.

I have spent the last two years tweaking this space as Army Crafter. It has developed into something much more than I ever dreamed of. I remember thinking that I would not continue this blog after that deployment, and we see how well that plan worked out for me.

Things are changing rapidly in our lives. We are growing our family, and our jobs will be changing here in the future along with a move back to our homestate.

Army Crafter just didn’t seem to fit what I wanted my little space in the Blogosphere to be anymore.

We are going to be transitioning out of the military here in the next year. And let’s be honest, I haven’t had a craft in every post for months. So it just isn’t really jiving with the way the blog has taken off for me. I wanted this blog to have a little more sustainability than I felt Army Crafter was allowing me.

I have thought about changing this for months now, and titles have been coming and going as I pondered what I wanted this blog to be.

I read a book a while back that had a saying about a yellow umbrella amongst the gray storms. It was a little more poetic than that, but hopefully you see that it meant that even if our life is chaotic and not how we thought it may be, there is always a positive outlook. Something bright and cheery, like a yellow umbrella in rain.

That yellow imagery really stuck with me. For one it is my favorite color, and two looking for positives in a mess was kind of the story of my life this last year.

With things continuously changing for us, I want to always be looking for positives and be ever thankful. No matter how gray or blah it may be with the storm, there is always a yellow umbrella. (I like this better than the silver lining garb.)

While I wanted a title with yellow umbrella in it initially, my quest for the perfect title came up empty thanks to “How I Met Your Mother.” Also, I didn’t want Rihanna’s voice to appear in your head every time you visited some variation of under my umbrella.

So I settled on “Finding My Yellow” as my new official domain.

This blog is for me to share pieces of my life with the world, but I also want it to be a constant reminder to me to keep searching for my “yellow.”

Army Crafter served me well for the past two years, but I am excited to see what life brings as I find my yellow.

So I hope you continue to follow along on this new journey!

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Now, it is going to take me a few days to change everything over and overhaul some areas of the blog, so just bare with me as I do so. In theory, armycrafter.wordpress.com should just redirect you to my new site, but in case it doesn’t you can start following me for good now on findingmyyellow.com.

July 24, 2014 by Stephanie

Confessions

I feel like all of my posts lately have been baby related, so I figured I would do something a little random and make some confessions to you.

Also I make no promises that a baby won’t be mentioned.

1. I confess that I have been struggling as a dog mom lately. We have been having some chewing issues lately when Tom and I are out. (Clarification: That is Grace and Crosby with the chewing problem, not Tom and I.) And I don’t know what else to do because our go tos are not working. We are on the struggle bus.

2. I confess that I am also tired of cleaning up Grace puke, which has been an all too common occurrence because she eats too fast and chokes herself.

3. I confess that Crosby has stolen my heart with how he follows me everywhere. He could be sound asleep on the couch but if I get up to do anything he jumps to be my sidekick and protector. I think he knows the baby is coming. (Maybe that’s why they have been nutso…)

4. I confess that I get sucked into TV shows (especially those that I binge watch) and sometimes forget that it is not real life. When I watched The West Wing, I was really confused that it wasn’t real news. Right now, I seriously think that the characters of Bones are my real life friends. I am totally a scientist…

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image via

5. I confess that stores bringing “back to school” items on the shelves makes me want to buy lots of pretty notebooks and planners.

6. I confess that it does not fully feel like summer to me because I have yet to be in a floating device in a lazy river (real river or swimming pool river). I have been to both a river and a swimming pool, but the floating device is clutch in my summeriness.

7. I confess that I have to set the alarm to account for a cushion because I will hit the snooze button. There have been periods of my life where I had to set it at least an hour ahead because I would hit it that many times…now it is just one. That’s what I call progress.

8. I confess that sometimes I forget what I write in the blog. Then when I am having face to face conversations and people reference something I said, I will think “How in the world did they know that about me??!?!? CREEPER!” Then I remember I am a blogger and am grateful that people actually read what I write.

9. I confess when someone says, “Smile” for pictures, even if I am not in it, I will smile for the camera that I am not in front of. I find myself cheesing up even when the staging is occurring on TV or I am behind a mask.

10. I confess that my favorite part of our prenatal class is making mental bets on which person wont make it to the break to use the bathroom.

11. I confess that this morning I put my contacts in the wrong eyes, so my eyes were attacking the contacts all the way to work this morning until I realized what I did and switched them. The prescription is drastically different in both eyes, so it is amazing that I made it to work alive on that blurry vision. You know it’s going to be a good day…

Can you relate to any of these? Any confessions you want to make?