little krupdates here and there: What I have been doing to beat the heat...

This summer I have been doing anything I can to keep cool. Summers in our city are pretty miserable and I had been warned adequately about them, but I don't think I could ever have been fully prepared. Of course, being 8 months pregnant doesn't help much either. The other day, Nate and I decided to go on a walk and wanted to get outside in the early morning, thinking it would be the cooler part of the day. We live on the 5th floor and do not have the luxury of an elevator, so I was already somewhat winded by the time we made it outside. We quickly learned that there is no "cooler part of the day" when we were greeted by 98 degree weather before 8:00 a.m. Not to mention the 75% humidity. However, I am daily reminded of how thankful I am that our apartment has some form of air-conditioning. Very few of the apartments or buildings here have central air, each room has its own wall or floor unit. This is all fine, until I need to leave the nice cool room I am in and travel to another section of the apartment, namely the bathrooms which I tend to visit a lot. These rooms get no airflow and have no units, so they get pretty hot and stuffy. Regardless, I am still thankful and opt to spend most of my day sitting in front of the lovely man-made cool breeze with a glass of ice water.

In addition to keeping cool, much of my time has been spent at my sewing machine. It was a Birthday gift this past year that I have put to great use. It has become a creative outlet for me and a way to relax. My newest source of inspiration has been our son, who will be wearing and enjoying many homemade goodies from me. One thing that I have loved exploring during our time here is the fabric market. It is a street filled with fabric vendors, buttons, thread, and many other sewing necessities for dirt cheap. Pretty much all of the fabric I use is from the fabric market. I will have to post pictures of the market itself on another day. It is quite the interesting place.

Here are a few of my most recent creations...

These are some fun blocks I made with scrap fabric, pieces of foam, and fabric paint and stencils. I hope he has as much fun playing with them as I had making them.

I was inspired to make these adorable elephants after window shopping at a really ritzy mall in our city. I came across some cute stuffed animals, but because of the all organic materials used, each animal cost around $80....so I thought..."I can do that" and I did!

I hear that babies drool and spit up a lot and so I have been busy making my own burp cloths. They have also become fun and easy baby shower gifts.

My newest talent has been learning to appliqué. Here are a few bibs that were the victim of my appliquéing obsession. The top two bibs I made, the bottom two I simply embellished.

I can't take credit for the adorable baby model, but my friend Ben is trying out this floor quilt that I made for playtime on our hardwood floors. I got the log cabin pattern from an old Martha Stewart magazine. It is my first quilt and I had a lot of fun making it. This is how I spent many of my bed rest days early on in my pregnancy.