Baby Quilt - Finally Finished!

This is the quilt that I started nine months ago…

This is the quilt I finished yesterday…

This is the quilt I made for Baby Love.

Good news:

She loves it!

Bad news:
Sweet potato spit-up stains pretty quilts.

Christmas Presents - Part 1

Christmas is over and the last of my homemade presents are finally completed. After a frantic rush to get them all done in time, I really am going to make all of my Christmas presents for 2012 in January this year. I already know what I'll be making…

I love making presents. I love giving handmade gifts.
Here's a few that I made this year.


1. Felt Flowers

I used this tutorial to make felt flowers. One became a pin for Mom, and the other made Rosemary's Christmas dress complete.

2. Polaroid Magnets

I saw some ideas for making Polaroid magnets on Pinterest, but they all seemed a little too complicated. For my magnets I printed a bunch of photos on cardstock and laminated the photos. Then I took big white magnet sheets and cut them into rectangles and glued the photos onto the magnets. It was incredibly easy, and they look absolutely adorable.

3. Paper Stars

My mom re-taught me how to fold beautiful German paper stars. My family has been making these stars for as long as I can remember, but it is one of those projects that require a refresher because it can be a little confusing at first. We dipped them in wax and added strings to create gorgeous ornaments. I found an online tutorial on how to make these here.

Cozy Car Seat Cover.

Now that it's freezing cold outside, we like to keep Rose cozy as we travel. At first we were just throwing a blanket over her car seat as we raced inside. But the wind kept blowing it around and our poor little dear would often end up with a gust of cold air disturbing her little cocoon of warmth.

And so our car seat blanket was invented. I bought some pretty fabric and gathered some pretty scraps and quickly assembled a quilt using 8.5 inch squares. I made it long enough to cover the length and width of the car seat. I used quilt batting for the middle, a pink sheet for the backing, and quilted it together using the "stitch in the ditch" technique of quilting in the seams. My favorite part is the white binding and rounded corners. 

And then I added the magic tabs. These clip onto the handles of the car seat, ensuring the blanket doesn't fly away with even the gustiest of breezes. 

According to Tim, this has revolutionized our lives.

I'm not sure about that, but it has made carrying her around outside less of a balancing act. And it comes off easily to become a quilt to lay her on when we're out and about.

Fun Random Fact: The pink floral fabric is from a house dress that the lady I was named after wore. Beatrice Curtis. She was like a grandma to me, and I think it is really special to have a part of her in my baby girl's quilt.

Our Autumn Mantle.

 

Since being home, I've enjoyed having more time to spend creating. Rosemary and I have a lot of fun making things together. She chills on the table and keeps me company while I get busy with arts and crafts. (I can't wait until she is old enough to help.) Nothing beats painting pretty pictures while your baby girl kicks her legs and coos beside you.

My mantle has remained mostly the same since I married Timmy and prettied up his former bachelor pad. But now, hours spent nursing on our couch, staring at the mantle, gave me great plans to switch things up. And so, our Autumn Mantle was created.

1. Autumn Canvas Painting

 After designing Hattie's wedding invitations, I realized that the illustration I used for those would make a perfect fall canvas painting. Using a projector, I transferred the illustration onto a large canvas and used black tea bags to stain the white canvas a pretty, natural off-white color. The rest of the painting is done with acrylics. I used to paint all the time in college and then I met Timmy and got completely distracted by his pretty blue eyes and I haven't really done much painting since. All it took was another pair of baby blue eyes giving me the ability to stay home, and my love for painting has been renewed.

2. Chalkboard Canvas

I got the idea to do a chalkboard canvas here. I decided to change it up a bit and give the chalkboard a decorative border. The edges are painted a pretty sparkly gold, and it's quite fun to switch up the chalky writing.

 

3. Feathered Friends

Timmy bought me a cute owl that he named Morpheus. Morpheus and little bluebird are besties and they add a lot of cuteness to our autumn mantle. (And I think they will fit in quite nicely with any future season mantles, too.)

4. Stacked Gourds

Stacked gourds on candlestick holders make me smile. I got the inspiration for these here. These cuties are stacked and held together with a LOT of hot glue. (I didn't hot glue them at first, but then I had the unfortunate experience of having a gourd topple off and land directly on my toes. No fun.)

5. Yarn-Wrapped Vase

I have seen these yarn-wrapped vases all over the place on Pinterest, but don't really have a specific link that inspired me. To give my vase a more rustic feeling, I used natural jute. This project took way longer than I thought it would. Over an hour of wrapping and hot gluing and lots of burned fingers later… my pretty vase was done. I bought some pretty fake fall leaves to put in it. (I briefly considered bringing a real branch with real leaves inside but then I thought of bugs and spiders that might be living on real leaves and branches…)

 

 

Ta-da!

It's kind of funny that I posted this on the day we had our first winter snow. I guess I had better get started on our winter mantle…

Baby Projects.

Baby projects are so fun. They're small, so they're quick to complete, and I get a little giddy when I see Rose in some sweet treasure that I made her myself. Mom and I have been having a blast knitting and crocheting her lots of pretty accessories. My favorites are these tiny baby fingerless mittens:

Seriously. Too cute for words. She looks beyond adorable in them, and they really do keep her fingers warm. I wasn't sure if they would actually stay on her hands, but trust me – it's harder to get them OFF than it is to get them on. You can find the pattern for them here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10544220 

The pattern also includes instructions for some cute cute legwarmers:

 And this Chubbie Wubbie legwarmer pattern makes some flashy rainbow legwarmers:

http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10800220

I call them "Rainbow Brite" legs.

I also knit her a cute bonnet to keep her head warm in the winter months. She looks so sweet in it, and for some reason she doesn't hate her bonnet nearly as much as she dislikes all other hats.

You can get the pattern here:

http://www.leisurearts.com/sweet-layettes-to-knit.html

And finally, the completely adorable cap featured in our two month photos. She really can't stand wearing it, which is a shame since she looks like a flower fairy. You can find the free crochet pattern here:
http://www.aestheticnest.com/2010/07/crochet-best-baby-cloche-and-tutorial.html

Yeah, I kind of spend my days playing with a darling baby girl and knitting sweet projects. I'm officially done with my "real" job now, so "stay at home mom" is my new title. I'm really, really liking this life of mine.

"Girly" Boy Sweater

 

I recently found a navy blue baby sweater on clearance. It was obviously a boys sweater, but it was only $3, and I bought it with hopes of figuring out a way to girly it up. 

Which brings me to the "infant" headband I ordered online at Target clearance for $1.20. It arrived and was almost big enough to fit MY head. Since then I have realized that Rose wouldn't have worn it, even if it had fit her. So this very pretty but very useless headband has been sitting out for weeks, waiting for me to feel inspired and find a use for it. 

This morning I was inspired. 

Navy blue sweater. Headband with navy blue stripes. Perfect.

I cut the headband to size, pinned it on the sweater, and sewed along the seam.

It took me about ten minutes and totally transformed sweet Rose's little blue sweater. 

Adorable.

ABC's

A. age :: twenty-four

B. bed size :: queen (currently piled with seven pillows for me and one pillow for Tim)

C. chore you hate :: shaving my legs - does that count as a chore?

D. dogs :: no-thank-you

E. essential start to your day :: raspberry smoothie made by Timmy

F. favorite destination :: Hawaii!!!

G. gold or silver :: gold

H. height :: five feet, four and a half inches

I. instruments you play :: piano (kind of), flute (kind of)

J. job title :: wife, mom-to-be, graphic designer, support analyst

K. kids :: Baby Love! (yup, still pregnant)

L. least favorite :: DENTIST (just thinking about the dentist makes my skin crawl) 

O. overnight hospital stays :: once for tonsils

N. nickname :: Sweet Bea (my family), Little Darlin' (Timmy) M. maiden name :: Davison

P. pet peeve :: people who complain all the time

Q. quote :: "Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness." - Mother Teresa

R. righty or lefty :: righty

S. siblings :: older sister, younger sister

T. time you wake up :: 6:45 AM (weekdays), as late as possible (weekends)

U. useless information :: I love eating ice.

V. vegetables you dislike :: sweet potatoes, squash

W. what makes you run late :: the snooze button, being distracted by Timmy's kisses

X. x-rays you’ve had :: dentist x-rays

Y. yummy food :: fresh summer tomatoes

Z. zoo animal favorite :: penguins

 (ABC Banner made for Baby Love's nursery)

Stuffed Turtle.

Because I'm on a sewing kick these days, I decided to try out another pattern I found online for a sweet stuffed turtle. Using leftover fabric from decorating the nursery, I quickly stitched each piece together and the end result is this cutie.

There is something incredibly enjoyable about making a stuffed animal. It’s so fun to cut and sew each piece and watch it “become” something. My favorite part of this project was sewing in the little feet, tail, and head. The addition of those parts suddenly made my pieces of fabric a turtle.