Christmas

Merry Christmas! It flew by too fast as usual and is a bit of a blur. I don't know how much of that is going through the holidays for the first time with two babies and how much was my poor sick two year old who was up every few hours with a cough and fever every night leading up to Christmas.

This Christmas a cough, last Christmas pinkeye...

2012

2011

Poor little man was pretty miserable both years, but after a few doses of good medicine he was up and about and playing with Christmas toys again! I'm really grateful for antibiotics--it's a terrible, helpless feeling when your baby is sick. Next year I'm going to put him in isolation right after Thanksgiving. 

P was a really fun age this year! He loved the Christmas tree and Christmas cookies and Christmas music, we talked a lot about Jesus' birthday. I got some electric candles for an advent wreath, which he didn't fully understand, but he called them Jesus' birthday candles and carried them around the house. Santa was super exciting too, he wasn't terrified. 

He got really into the old clay-mation Rudolph, from the 70's/80's. This is his "very, shiny nose."

Me, mom, sis and sis-in-law did our annual Christmas lunch at a great little place out in the country. Baby V is swaddled up and lying on the floor behind us for the photo :).

We even had some snow this year (before Christmas). P said it was "yucky."

Baby V was baptized on Christmas Adam (Dec. 23). It was a really sweet celebration and covenant with our church family. The church was decorated beautifully!

V is starting to look so big and be really interested in what's going on around him. He grabs at toys and smiles and laughs constantly.

Christmas Eve!

V was a party animal on Christmas Eve, but...

...he slept through Christmas morning.

P had a ball (even with his cough)! This is the train board we made for him. I painted water and roads and trees and such, then we glued down the pieces. It's really fun and he seems to like it. I'll post some more info on how we did it in a later post.

It was a wonderful Christmas spent with family. We are blessed beyond belief and rejoice wholeheartedly in God's great mercy, Christ came to dwell with us and to restore us to the glorious presence of God! Though there is pain and sadness and broken relationships here on earth, He will wipe all that away when He comes again. Come soon, Lord Jesus!

"Tie-in'-It-Up" Tee

My blog has a new home, visit Toddler "Tie-in'-It-Up" Tee

Family Photos

I just finished up an Etsy order for a family (some of my extended family actually) who is having pictures made. Three boys and a girl. A GIRL! I got to do ruffles...

Lots of ruffles...

And use some fabrics with flowers and pinks thrown in there. It was so fun!

 I used Simplicity 2171, I think it's a little Matilda Jane'ish. Love it! I liked the pattern, I'll do a review soon and let you know what I changed.

My aunt also ordered a baby photo book (See others HERE and HERE). She requested that I add 'taggie' details, a great idea, I thought.

Fun textures, bright colors, faces they know and love...it's a baby's paradise!

Have a great day!!

Aden and Anais Swaddlers Tutorial

My blog has a new home! Come on over to see my Hand Stamped Swaddlers and Tutorial.

Hand Embroidered Baby Pants

My sweet friend C had her baby a couple of weeks ago, so I got busy working on a little gift for him. This Handcut Chenille Baby Blanket and little bitty pair of soft, gray, wide wale corduroy pants.

They have a comfy elastic waist and they're long in the rise so there is plenty of wiggle and diaper room. I used Made by Rae's Basic Baby Pants Pattern (free HERE), but I added a little to the length because she only calls for a 1/4" hem and I like a wider hem. I also topstitched the side seams and rise because I like the look and makes them a bit more sturdy.

I decided to personalize them, hand embroidering little man's name along the hem.

I added a little twill tag in the back. I've learned from experience that new dads do not appreciate having to guess which is the front and which is the back when dressing a squalling little one.

I used a disappearing marker to draw the letters, emroidered the main outline in white then added a little extra so that I would have some areas to fill in with color. These were just free hand for me, but you could play around with fonts on your computer or sketch them out until you have what you want. I was envisioning bright, vintagey circus posters when I did this. Boys clothes need some color too!

Can't wait to meet this little guy in person!

Chevron Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

I love a good chevron print! This one is home decor weight cotton from Hancocks (scored on sale!). After seeing a few great examples of these faux chenille baby blankets (HERE and HERE), I dcided to give it a try! Blankets are such a traditional gift for a baby, but this one seems to have just a little something different and special about it. I absolutely love the way it feels, kind of heavy like a quilt, but soft and fluffy because of the flannel. I will be making more and doing a couple of things differently, even though I am really happy with how this one turned out!

All you need for this project is a rectangle or square of home decor weight fabric in your chosen size (don't pre-shrink), 3 pieces of flannel in the same size (also, don't pre-shrink) and a piece of bias binding long enough to cover the edges of your blanket.

Layer the cotton and flannels together and pin every few inches so that they don't slip as you are quilting. I recommend a walking foot. If you use a patterned fabric, like I did, just stitch with the design, the rows need to be no more than an inch apart. This step takes a few hours to complete.

Next, put on a good movie, grab a really sharp pair of scissors and cut through the 3 layers of flannel between every row of stitches-be sure not to snip the home decor weight cotton.

(These next two pictures show rows that were much too far apart, I explain later that I had to go back and fix that. Still, it gives you an idea of what you're going for.)



Now bind the eges of your blanket. I used flannel, but I'll probably use cotton next time. I stitched over the binding 3 times just because I like the way it looks.

Next, you just wash it in the washing machine (I used those Shout "Color Catcher" sheets, since I had light, dark and bright red fabrics and it worked really well, no bleeding). Then throw it in the dryer on high heat. When you pull it out....ta da!! It's a miracle, soft, evenly frayed and ready for some baby love.

TIPS:

1) Next time, I will range my flannels from lightest on the outside to dark the closest to the cotton (I did gray, red, blue from the bottom up, but I wish I had done gray on the outside). The gray (which I love paired with the mustard yellow) got a little lost against the back of the cotton. I think that would also have given a little more depth to the overall look. I like the idea of neutrals with pops of bold color peeking out.

2) Flannel worked ok for the binding, but it didn't wash quite as well as I had hoped. It pills a bit.

3) I started out with my rows of stitches WAAAy too far apart, so after washing it looked ridiculous. I had to go back and sew two more lines for every row already there, holding the flannel down as I went. Miraculously it still turned out (flannel is very forgiving and the fraying covers a multitude of evils), but it was a pain in the you know what!!

This is by no means a perfect example of a faux-chenille blanket, but hopefully it gives you the basics and some food for thought. I know I would be ecstatic to get one of these as a gift, heck, I'm ecstatic to GIVE one of these as a gift!

Post Christmas: Wins and Fails

So I posted HERE about the Christmas PJ's I made for P and my little niece and the Santa suit for my nephew HERE.

P's PJ's turned out super cute and warm and comfy. I'm already thinking about what kind of PJ's I want to do for next year. Win! The fun slide from Grammy and Grampa was a win too, obviously.

I got to see my nephew in his Santa costume! He looked adorable, what a sweet face. Win!

Ouma and Oupa gave P a rockstar Elmo. Major win! I missed the picture of him giving Elmo a huge hug!

This is the nightie for my niece, made out of a beautiful, soft Moda flannel. Big, fat FAIL. The head/neck opening didn't open quite wide enough for her sweet baby head.  I'm going to see if I can add a snap closure somewhere, I guess maybe there's a reason why everything you buy for little ones have those built in. But, when you start experimenting with your own patterns sometimes things don't fit exactly right! Good thing I've got a really good, sharp stitch ripper :).

Trying to get P to sit in Santa's lap on Christmas Eve?

Priceless.

Ha! I mean fail! He gets so excited about seeing Santa in pictures and books, but real Santa is SCARY! He was completely terrified! We had a great Santa, by the way, so it was all P.

Seeing everyone in paper party popper hats (say that five times fast). Win!

               

Spending time with family...

Seeing this sweet face every day...

Win!

Cozy Hat for Chloe

A couple of weeks ago when my sister Chloe visited New Orleans, she saw a hat at Urban Outfitters that she really wanted. She ended up not going back for it so I decided I would make one for her Christmas gift. It's a really pretty green color (it looks a little washed out in this picture, it's super bulky, Lion brand yarn) and it was crocheted (10.0 mm hook) with a double strand. I came up with the pattern as I went, I'll work on writing it out and maybe post a pattern or a tutorial. 

I decided for a little something different that I would line it. I used a soft, stretchy jersey that I had picked up on the $1 table at Hancock's sometime oner the summer. 

I used a zig zag stitch so that it would stretch comfortably.

She likes it and I think it looks really cute. It's super warm and really comfy feeling, I also like that it keeps your ears warm. Merry Christmas, Chloe!