Nursery Decor

What better way to pass the day at home not-so-patiently waiting for the arrival of our now past-due little boy, than to share pictures of his nursery?  This may be the last time it looks this clean and organized, so take a good look.

We are so lucky to have this sitting room right off of our bedroom.  It has doors if we need them, but I can see the crib from our bed.  Doesn't get better than that!

Chris made this beautiful ruler using all of his favorite power tools, and thanks to our friends, we have a whole shelf of books waiting for story time.

We decided to decorate with an animal theme and picked out three prints to compliment a little turtle we found on our vacation in Bonaire.  A big thanks to our friend Diane for the quilt you see hanging on the crib.  It's a perfect fit for the room, and so SOFT!

Chris also made a shelf from some leftover redwood we had in the garage.  Decor items from our shower dress it up nicely.  Did you know, one queen size sheet set can be used to make a crib skirt, a chair slip cover, and two changing pad covers?  Well, now you do.

The dresser drawers are packed with cute little cloth diapers, tons of adorable outfits (not all grey, Mom), and lots of other baby goodies.  A local baby store rents the newborn size diapers in a variety pack so you can try them out with no commitment.  Don't worry... we have a few packs of disposables on hand just in case!

William is one lucky little guy!

Baby Quilt 3.0

Those of you who are long-time readers of the blog will know that I've been down the baby quilt road twice already for my brother's sons (first here and then here).  When Chris and I found out we were expecting our own little boy, I thought it was only appropriate that he get a quilt too.  Fortunately for me, Chris was more than excited to help out!

We decided to use a variety of animal prints and rainbow colors for the quilt.

As per usual, I decided on the most difficult and fabric-consuming pattern possible.  Anyone wanting to try a durnkards path pattern, it's not that hard, just make sure you use one that's actually reversible.  Unlike mine (notice awesome CAD drawing).

Once we had the pattern and the fabric, we cut out all the pieces (not pictured - awesome curved templates made out of beer boxes - always classy around here).  Then, Chris spent two nights pinning everything together while I was out of town for work.

I got everything sewed together; then, we worked through several layout options before settling on this one.

More sewing, and some piecing together for the back, because I never get the backing fabric quite big enough,

and we were ready for quilting.

We are both really happy with how everything turned out.  I'm sure you'll be seeing the quilt in action over the next few months and years!

(ignore my toes... just be glad there's no belly in the picture.  It was a challenge!)

Now, we just have to wait for our little William to make his grand entrance!

Merry Christmas 2014

It's been another wonderful year in the Bahrij household.  As we sit on our back porch and enjoy a beer in the sun, we'd like to take a minute to wish each and everyone one of you a very Merry Christmas!

Summer 2014

As summer comes to an end in most of the country (although not in Texas!), it's time to look back on a great summer!  All the pictures from the summer are in the Summer 2014 album.

We started things off with a going away night out in downtown San Antonio.  The Luxury is always a good time, and you can't go wrong with giant Jenga.

Lindsey came to town and we all enjoyed a haunted tour of downtown.  We got a special treat when we walked by San Fernando Cathedral. 

Next up was a trip to the top of the Tower of the Americas for one last night with deployer Eric.  We sure do miss having you around!

One of Eric's favorite places was the Beethoven Maennerchor.  They showed all the USA and Germany World Cup games on the big screen.  We joined in the fun for the USA-Portugal game.

While all of this was going on, Amy and I were drowning in our weekly veggie shipment.  We shared, but how do you put a dent in a haul like this?  I think some of those banana peppers are still in my freezer...

Next up was the 4th of July.  I spent the day with friends at the Missions baseball game, then enjoyed the fireworks after the game.  Another shot from this night featured as the P52 picture for Week 27.

Two days later, I was on a plane headed for Atlanta.  I spent most of the summer there.  You can read about my adventures in my post here.  While in Atlanta, I snuck away for a long weekend with Lindsey in Vancouver.  You can read about our fun here.  

I came back to San Antonio for a few weeks in August.  I spent one weekend at our office summer picnic at the river with my silly, water-hating dogs.  See that angry face Roxie has on?  That's because she got a teeny, tiny bit of river water on her ears.

  

I spent the next weekend with a group of ladies at what I hope will become an annual tradition.  You can read all about our Ladies Weekend in Austin here.

The very next weekend, I was on another plane headed for South Dakota.  I spent 10 wonderful days with my family before heading back to Atlanta.  I wrote about my trip to South Dakota here.

On my first day back in Atlanta, I was greeted by flowers from my husband.  How sweet is he?

My travels didn't end there.  I had the opportunity to travel to upstate New York for a project meeting.  It was beautiful!  I'm trying to figure out a way that I can go back while the leaves are changing.

At the end of September, I made my way back to San Antonio.  It was great to see my puppies and sleep in my bed for a change, but I still miss all my new Atlanta friends.

To close out the summer, our group of Air Force friends spent a day in Fredericksburg as a going away for one of the couples in the group.  They are successfully relocated to South Carolina.  Lucky duckies!

With such a crazy summer behind me, I'm really looking forward to a calmer fall.  Maybe...

SD Trip - Fall 2014

In between trips to Atlanta this summer, I squeezed in a 10-day trip back to South Dakota to see my family. And by family, I mean my nephew.  Because he's pretty much the coolest little kid ever.

See what I mean?

I did manage to see a few other people while I was home.  I made a trip to central South Dakota to spend a day with my Grandma.  Thanksgiving 2011 was the last time I'd made the trip to Colome, so it was nice to see the farm and the town again.

I helped Mom and Dad say goodbye to their fridge - an old family friend,

chased the turkey's off Mom and Dad's back porch,

went kayaking with my parents and brother on the mighty Sioux River (it was so mighty, we had to paddle just to make downstream progress),

and enjoyed a few South Dakota sunsets.

But, mostly I hung out with the cute little man and his Momma.

... And now there's two of them!  Hehe.  :)

Baby Quilt 2.0

Right up until the moment Holden was born and my brother finally revealed his real name, I referred to my newest little nephew as "2.0".  I found this much more entertaining than either my brother or his wife.  I suppose my vision of two little boys running around their house was funny to me and a little bit terrifying to them, so I'll forgive them for not laughing at my joke.

In what is now officially a tradition for my brother's kids, I finished up Holden's baby quilt today.  The construction of this quilt has taken the better part of the last four months because of my time in Atlanta.  It started out in the usual way, with a photo from the internet and an afternoon with CAD.

Then, came the shopping, cutting, and sewing.  

The good idea fairy said half square triangle blocks wouldn't be that hard... she's a liar.  I don't think a single block ended up square in the end - no thanks to seriously crooked fabric.  None-the-less, I managed to get all the blocks put together and arranged into this nifty pattern.

Only to have Jeeves (our robot vacuum) eat them for lunch one day when I forgot to close the door to the sitting room.

After some more arranging, and a three month cooling off period while went to Atlanta, I finally got the front pieced together.  Then, I made some super-cute little boat squares to help me make the backing fabric a little wider.  Nothing like having the quilt face end up 6" wider than you anticipated...

I stitched a message into the back (note to self - next time use 18pt font), quilted the front following the pattern and colors of the big diamonds on the front, then started on piecing together the binding.  

Now, I've never attempted to use real, big-girl quilt binding before.  You know, the bias cut kind.  And... now I know why.  What a pain.  I didn't have the option to roll over the edges like I did last time, but I will make sure I have that option on every quilt from here on out.

You're supposed to be all fancy and hand stitch it into place, but after the amount of folding and ironing that went into getting it ready to go, I wasn't really up for hand stitching.  Plus, a nice top stitch is sturdier.  And this quilt is going to a little boy.  Sturdy is good.

The finished product turned out great.  My favorite part is the little boat squares on the back.

Congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law, and welcome to the family Holden!!

Belated Christmas Visitors

Due to a summons for jury duty, my parents weren't able to come for a visit in November this year like they had originally planned.  They ended up here on New Years Day instead, ready for a slightly belated Christmas celebration.  This time, instead of us being the floating heads on the computer, my brother and his family got to play that role.  It was great to get to have an actual Christmas with the family even if it was a few days late.

Friday, we took advantage of the beautiful Texas winter weather to do some local sightseeing.  We spent a day in Fredericksburg browsing cute little shops up and down Main Street.

We stopped for fudge,

for beer tasting (I was they only person who actually liked the beer - more for me I guess!),

for several beautiful, historic buildings,

and for more than a few interesting home decor items (yes, they are real).

Then, we hit the road for a few wine tastings and the local wineries.  Again, I was a fan of nearly all the wines, while everyone else could have done without.

Saturday, we made a stop at Fort Sam Houston.  After a failed attempt at finding the location of the historic commanders' homes back in September, we made sure we had good directions before we got to the front gate.  This time, we found the houses with no problems, and they were every bit as beautiful as we expected.  Trust me, base housing only looks like this for a VERY select few.

We finished out our Saturday with a leisurely walk though the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

Sunday and Monday were spent inside watching football and sewing me a new pair of dress pants before Mom and Dad had to hit the road back to South Dakota on Tuesday morning.

There are lots more pictures from our weekend excursions here.