Secret Revealed!

Most everyone who reads this (hello Mom, Heather, Jackie) already knows but just in case someone else happens to be here who doesn't have Facebook or Twitter or who doesn't see me in person regularly... I'm pregnant!

I've actually been blogging secretly about it since the day I found out, but I was storing those elsewhere until the secret was officially revealed. Instead of keeping a fourth blog, I've just imported all those entries to this blog. You can in the future find them by the label "Sweet Baby James" below, or you can click HERE to see all the ones I have written thus far.

If you do nothing else, you have got to go to this post and watch the videos of the reveals to our families. Particularly Ben's mom, who wins the award for most awesome reaction ever. Turn your speakers down, there's lots of screaming.

They've all to this point been written as letters to baby. I may keep doing that or might switch on and off between that and my regular style. I also promise to keep blogging about things other than pregnancy and babies.

But not right now, because now I am crafting like a madwoman to get stuff done for a craft fair this Sunday. I got it in my head that this was totally doable, if I made about two baby books a day until Sunday. Yesterday I only did one, so today production must increase by 150%. Or something like that; we all know math is not my strong suit.

Off to craft!

Introducing... Baby Carrot Designs

Many of you know that, in addition to frequenting the pool and making lunch dates, I've also been busy this past month working on getting my official scrapbooking business in gear. I'm happy to finally announce the launch of Baby Carrot Designs!

I've officially opened my own Etsy store online, which is an exciting step! For those of you who aren't familiar, Etsy is a delightful online community of handmade arts and goods. It's also extremely, intensely addictive. The bounty of beautiful, creative, quirky stuff is overwhelming! You can see my store at http://amybethjames.etsy.com/.

I've also converted one of my old blogs into a site dedicated to my scrapbooking and Baby Carrot crafts. You can see this at http://babycarrotdesigns.blogspot.com/, and I also added it to the sidebar.

I owe a big thanks to the many friends (most of my small loyal readership here) who helped me brainstorm and gave me encouragement and challenges when I needed them most. Please please don't stop helping me! If something sucks, I'm counting on you to tell me about it. I take it from you all so much better than from Ben. (Sample conversation starting with Ben: "I just think maybe you might want to change..." Me: "You don't like what I maaaaaaaade!" Sobs.)

Besides the baby books on sale at Etsy, the other part of Baby Carrot Designs will be custom scrapbooks of any size and shape, so if you or someone you know has a project in mind, I'm game! Just let me know!

Time & Time-Travel

So far one of my favorite things about being unemployed has been all the time I seem to have! Time to sleep, time to eat, time to exercise, time to craft and scrap and be a friend. Time to clean and organize, that's been a big blessing! But apparently one thing I haven't had time to do is blog! I feel like I haven't been here in forever... my apologies, dear readers. All six or seven of you!

I'm working on something exciting, which is my own scrapping venture. I hope to have some of my stuff ready and in an online store at Etsy.com soon. If you need something to do while you wait, I suggest going to Etsy.com and just browsing, because oh. my. gosh. It's amazing and you could spend weeks there and still find adorable things to see!

Speaking of time, something else I'm excited about is the trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife, which I just found online today. I knew the movie was coming out, and I love Rachel McAdams and knew I'd want to see it, so I got the book and read it a couple months ago. The premise is (and I'm not really giving anything away here, you find out this part on the first page) that Claire and Henry are in love... and Henry inexplicably can time travel. It isn't something he can control; he just slips back and forth without warning. The story is about their relationship and how they survive their extraordinary circumstances. It was a good read, very inventive with lovely prose. I think the movie, at least from this trailer, looks like it will be faithful to the novel, and I can't wait to see it when it comes out in August!

Want.

This is the Epson Stylus Photo 1400. It can print borderless 12x12 pages. In other words, it can make all a scrapbooker's dreams come true. And I want one.

I haven't even had a working printer in my home for two years, because... I have no idea, just never got around to replacing my broken one and if I desperately needed something printed I just had to do it at work. Suffice to say, it would be a big jump, going from no printer to this sweet sweet piece of machinery. But you know what? I think I can handle it.

So, Santa Clause Claus*, if you're reading this, Amy wants to see this under the tree come Christmas morning. I promise I'll be good.

*Thanks Heather for the catch!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

Tomorrow Ben and I are headed home to St. Louis... yaaaaaaaaay! I am ecstatic about this, as I have not seen my family in many months. The last time I was in St. Louis was in September with Heather, and neither my parents nor Ben's were in town!

Here are a few things I am looking forward to doing...

• Hanging out with Cara & talking about wedding stuff! Maybe while cross-stitching and watching X-Files, who knows?
• Ben gets to see Cody and Rob and they can have guitar talk and possible guitar shopping (this is their favorite thing to do together... seriously, they went guitar shopping the morning of our wedding).
• Seeing my grandpa
• Loving on my sister, who after the holidays is heading to Italy for a semester. Jealous!
• Houses full of doggies... Scruffy is coming home with us to stay at Ben's parents' house in the basement, to sniff noses through the gate at Monk and Zoe. And at my parents' house, along with Elmo and Ernie is my sister's dog Buckwheat. Crazy but delightful!
• Christmas Eve church service
• Christmas morning with my family around the tree
• Christmas day with Ben's family and nephew Logan
• Maybe possibly please oh please seeing some snow... it snowed there last weekend so maybe some has stuck around!
• French fries from Kriegers. Oh sweet sweetness.
• Re-watching LOST season 3.
• Playing Wii with my parents.
• Shopping at mom's scrapbooking store... I've been waiting!
• Eating whatever sort of delectable meat my dad has smoked.
• Giving presents... I love this part! I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm no saint, I love getting presents too. But I really love to pick out specific things for people and watching them open everything!
• Playing a real (albeit slightly out of tune) piano

I can't wait! Just one more day and we'll be on our way through "scenic" Southern Illinois, headed home to our families and friends and celebrating Christmas!

I hope wherever you are and whoever you're with that you are as excited for your Christmas plans as I am!

A New Venture

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you all know that I have started a website for all the stuff I make, which I am starting to sell as custom made projects. So take a look here, at Sweet Things. If you are interested, you know where to find me!

Also, if I have ever made something for you, chances are I was not forward thinking enough to take a picture of it for my archives... soooo shoot me an email and we'll get in touch!