Obsessed

I've been a little obsessed with this fabric combo lately. Denim chambray (Joann's) and red polka dots. (Dottie by Moda).

Last week I made another Noodlehead fabric basket for my sister in law and new nephew (who arrived on earth today!!).

I loved how it turned out. They are so fun to make. And this one didn't take too long to make either. Maybe 3-4ish hours over the course of the week? Mostly cutting and ironing, it seems.

The combo turned out so great I even decided to use it again this weekend for a little 1st birthday dress for our friends daughter.

It's based off of the Made by Rae geranium pattern. I just used the newborn pattern and self-drafted a 12 month sized based off of one of Mia's dresses. Once 20-month Mia outgrows her bazillion 12-18month old dresses, I'll probably buy the geranium pattern since I'd like to have the different sizes and sleeve options. How do you do a sleeve in a lined bodice?!? Agh?! Although it is fun making my own patterns--for free!

Anyways...I screwed up the button in the back pretty bad on this one. So someone else needs to have a baby girl so I can redeem myself a bit. Or Mia can just finally move on to a 2T already. She has zero dresses in 2T...hmmmm. Just realized that.

So moving on....I ended up jealous that I gifted away all the cute chambray and polka dots. So sometime during my 3am pregnancy insomnia this week, I decided I needed to make a little zipper pouch using the same fabrics. Thank gosh for Pinterest! I'm not sure what else I would do between the hours of 2am and 4am (oh and PS, 4am is a terrible time to finally fall back asleep when you wake up around 5:20am. Makes for a terribly groggy morning). Anyways...sorry to all my Pinterest friends for the millions of sewing related pins! Oops!

So here's that little zippered bag. I need to buy more cute zippers and make more.

I should probably take the time to take better pictures of the things I make. And trim all my stray threads, too.

Oh well.

I used a few different tutorials to briefly figure out the zipper. It's easy. Every sewing blogger on the planet seems to have a zippered pouch tutorial. So thank you for that!

I quickly put this pouch to good use too, holding little things I might need at the hospital when baby Henry arrives. Nursing pads, Chapstick, hair ties, bobby pins. That sort of stuff.

Now...to make a hospital bag. Guys. I'm getting a little carried away. I've got this duffle that I want to make and a shopping cart full of fabric on fabric.com. Luckily, the little dude will probably arrive before I spend all his budgeted baby fund money on fabric...

Any ideas on how to fund my sewing addiction?!

Posted with Blogsy

Read More

Little Henry's Nursery Loft

Over Winter Break we finally had time to convert our tiny upstairs loft into a mini nursery for our little guy. Amelia of course uses this space too for diaper changes and playing.

We really like how it turned out.

And for a pretty small nonexistent budget I think I did a good job of keeping to the theme/colors I wanted (mint, neutrals, yellow or a soft orange, natural wood and a contrast with some black). We painted the walls Dolphin Fin (Behr)....it's a little lighter and bluer than I wanted, but it changed the atmosphere of the room enough. And we repainted Amelia's changing table a nice minty green color (Mountain Mist - Behr).

[Etsy Mountain print] [Etsy Giraffe print]

[DIY changing pad cover...w/ a tutorial like this]

[Ikea Crib + Mattress]

[DIY sheet - tutorial]

Dan and my mom found this antique rocking chair at a local antique shop last year. Dan painted it yellow a while back and it's moved throughout our house. I made new envelope pillowcase covers (like these) to fit into the loft. I LOVE love the Michael Miller Bridgetown fabric. It showcases bridges here in Portland. I bought the fabric when Dan surprised me and took me to Cool Cottons, a really nice fabric store here in Portland for my birthday. It was so fun to pick out fancy fabric and I'm glad I finally found a good use for it! The changing pad cover and the fabric basket below also used fabric I bought then. Can't remember what the orange material is and I'm too lazy to look up the sciencey material....but the neutral linen is a Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed linen in flax. If I had an unlimited budget, I would buy yards of this linen in every shade!

Above is one of my favorite things I've EVER made! I bought a noodlehead pattern for this fabric basket and it was sooo fun and easy to make! I love it. For now it holds Henry's hospital clothes and other miscellaneous baby items we might need.

I so love this chemistry material that I used to line the basket!

And I think this will be his going home outfit, if it fits! We found it at Target and it was too cute to resist!

I also somehow managed to make a fitted bassinet liner all on my own! Dan used this bassinet when he was a baby and we are so happy to have it! Amelia used it in our bedroom too and it worked out great!

We really can't wait to meet this little dude!

It's been fun and exhausting celebrating him and giving him a special place in the house. I have a few other things that I made too, like a swaddle pouch, baby pants, and some fitted diapers. Plus, I've still got a couple things I'd like to make before he gets here...like a simple but soft baby blanket, and jazz up some baby things we already have (like burp cloths, etc).

Posted with Blogsy

Read More

Working our way to the terrible two's!

Look at this face.

Fruit smoothie mustache

And this face.

Not mine.

Living with a 1.5 year old can sometims feel like this....

All spinny and crazy and topsy-turvy.

You know, because every single second I turn around and there is a mess like this:

Or she's scaling the wall or something.

Or throwing my iPhone on the floor and screaming "Moh!" The newest version of "no."

But that's ok...she's still pretty darn cute.

And she's not too terrible all the time. :)

In fact, the two weeks I got to stay home during winter break were totally awesome.

We went to places like Ikea (we had some intense nesting going on over here!) and felt prickly aloe Vera plants...

We also visited our family and friends, played with new Christmas toys, and prepared for Henry's impending arrival.

 

Despite all the "Moh's!!!!!!!!!!!" we get these days, it's really fun to teach her things and show her new tricks.

At this age she is really into:

• Puzzles (she can rock a 26 piece ABC puzzle like nobody's business. We are super impressed!)
• Finding objects/animals in books (this is so fun!)
• Saying "Moh!"
• Her baby doll (a Christmas gift)
• Pretend play (she is just barely starting this!)
• Saying "Moh!"
• Snacks (oh she loves to ask for snacks...)
• Coloring
• Watching Curious George (she will watch 20mins in the morning in our bed while we try and wake up.)
• Petting or otherwise driving Lily insane.
• Saying "Moh!" (Did I mention that???)

We are so lucky to have her in our family!

A couple weeks ago Dan and I were both terribly sick with the stomach flu at the same time. Amelia was such a good, patient girl during the whole ordeal...you know as we tried to take care of her mid-puking and nauseously staggering around the house or completely falling asleep while one of us was "watching" her. It was amazing.

We love her so much.

I can't wait for her to meet her baby brother Henry.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Read More