My yarn wreath

I know, I know... everyone has made one of these and blogged about it.  I won't give you a tutorial on how to do it but I do want to show off my yarn wreath.  A good friend from college came over yesterday and we had fun crafting together!  She got a little further than I did most likely due to my baby who woke up screaming about 3/4 of my way through wrapping my wreath with the brown yarn.  He was happy enough after a diaper change and nursing so I got to get my yarn done before she left yesterday.

Most of the wreaths I've seen add felt flowers that are handmade.  I didn't opt for that route for two reasons.  One, I don't have the patience and two, I was ready to be done with this project.  So I opted for some simple flowers I bought at Dollar Tree.  I like the way it turned out and cannot wait to decorate for fall so I can hang it! I mean, fall comes right after Labor Day, right?  As in September 6th...

He's a boating, swimming, eating kind of a boy

We started the month with a trip to IN to go camping and boating with Kurt's parents.  We had a lovely time and although, for me, it was doing basically the same thing I do everyday (feed Oliver, play with him, change him, feed him, change him, feed him, change him...) I still had a great time.  I figured if I'm going to be sitting and feeding Oliver somewhere it may as well be in the middle of a lake!  Here are a few shots from our visit.

We also had Oliver's pictures taken, technically at the very end of July.  Kelsey and Blaine Wright from Wright Photographs came to TN for vacation with Kelsey's family and were kind enough to fit us in for a family session.  I'm thrilled with our pictures.  Kelsey and Blaine shot our wedding and we couldn't say enough good things about them, we love them!  Here are some of their awesome shots.  I'm still deciding which ones I want for our home. 

Oliver had him 6 month check up this month as well and managed to pee on the nurse practitioner while she was doing his exam.  Her and I have become pretty good friends and she found it hilarious.  He didn't know what was so funny!  We also started solids this month as well.  This has been an adventure more for me than for him, I'm sure.  The first batch of baby food I made took me forever!  I was also compulsively paranoid about the strings in his sweet potatoes spending minutes upon minutes picking out the tiniest of strings.  The first day he did gag and refuse after about 3 bites, which I completely expected.  We tried again the next day and he did better, making a hilarious face and looking at me like, "is this normal!?" but managed to eat a little more than the day before.  By day three he was loving them and leaning forward for his next bite.  Since then he's had banana and today he tried cereal with banana mixed in.  We thin out his food with breast milk and it has worked really well so far.  Here are a few shots from his first bites of food.

Day 1----

Love these baby food containers.  Can freeze, microwave, serve, and dishwash these babies! 

That looks yummy, give me that!

Gag!

Day 2----

Day 4---Getting the hang of this!

This last picture was taken a few nights ago, he was falling asleep while scooting around on the floor.

 I think that pretty well sums up our month and again I'm shocked it has been another month.  Oliver will be 7 months old tomorrow and I absolutely cannot believe it.  It feels like he's always been here. 

I made a titty tent! I mean, a nursing cover.

I got a sewing machine for my birthday back in April and haven't used it a whole lot since getting it.  I'm definitely a beginner and have been trying to think of things to start out making.  I've made 2 aprons and thought I could make a nursing cover pretty easily. I had a lot of fun making it and will show you pictures of the process in just a minute...

A word about nursing covers- I do not think of a nursing cover to be totally necessary for a breastfeeding mother.  I think they are great for women who would be uncomfortable to nurse in public otherwise.  I always pictured myself as one of the women who would proudly nurse without a cover wherever I was.  However, when I had to start supplementing Oliver with the SNS, nursing in public became a whole new ballgame.  A nursing cover allows me to use the SNS in public since it is harder to stay covered while using it.  A friend of mine recently posted a link to a blog post that discussed the topic of nursing covers and I was blown away by the post.  It made me reconsider using a cover.  She ends her post with this, which totally blew me away,
    
              "Please, no more calls to "cover up". Anyone who cries for a cover over the beautiful sight       of a nursing mother and child is unwittingly and devastatingly calling for the destruction of womanly knowledge, and the handicap of the next generation of breastfeeders." 

Now back to my reason for this post, my sewing project!  

My supplies.

My old nursing cover I used as my pattern

Pinning

Reading about decorative stitches on my machine- with the help of little hands! 

Sewing the decorative stitch

Trying out our new cover.
And no, I normally do not use a cover at home! 

And just because he's so darn cute.

After some contemplation about what the blogger suggested I am still using a nursing cover.  I can only hope that my future babies will be better nursers, my milk will be more abundant, and I will not have to use the SNS.  Those will be the days of cover free nursing!  But for now, I'll stay covered up.