Millions of Beanies, Beanies for Me

My friends Alyssa and Lyndee decided this summer to share their talents, and open a booth in the Farmer's Market here in Moscow. Alyssa makes these adorable bows (Bitty Bowtique) and Lyndee makes these awesome purses! Well, they successfully recruited me, though I've never done anything like this before, and am a bit lacking in the confidence to do it! I will be making baby beanines for them, so night and day everyday, I've been working my now-nimble fingers to try to get enough beanies to sell! It went pretty well for my first week, can't wait til next time!

Yes, another one.

What'd you expect when I have a little girl, a new little neice and friends who share all their bow-making secrets with me? This one happened to be for baby Sarah, who just left North Idaho last week! Boo hoo! She looked smashing in it though, though the bow was about the size of her head!

P.S. If you think you've seen a lot of bows, just wait 'til the next post when I over-do you on beanies!

Another Beanie

This one is the exact same one that I made for the auction that I mentioned a couple of months ago. The only thing that is different is the color of the button. If you know how to crochet you could pretty much figure it out.

Smocked Dress

This was something that was actually a test run for later, but I was so happy with the way it turned out, that I just continued to make it. I wanted to test out smocking material to make a little dress for Sienna. It's actually pretty easy, I didn't use a pattern, but you don't need one. All you need is measurements.
1. Measure around your little girl's chest. Take one inch away from that, and cute 4 peices of elastic to that length. (I used 1/4 inch elastic)
2. Cut a peice of fabric that is about twice the length of the elastic. Crop it wherever you want it to hit on her leg.
3. Hem the top BEFORE you start sewing on the elastic.
4. Sew the elastic to the fabric by stretching it as you sew it down, so that the elastic reaches the end of the fabric. Continue with all 4 pieces of elastic, and this will create the smocked look.
5. Hem the bottom.
6. Fold in half wrong side out so that elastic edges meet.
7. Hem and sew the sides together.
8. Turn right side out, and you pretty much have it, all you need are straps, if you like, which I just did by sewing strips of material each side (one below right shoulder in front, one below right shoulder in back, etc.) and tied them together in a bow where they meet.
9. I put ribbon around the bottom, but you can do whatever you want!
*You can buy fabric at most fabric stores that has already been smocked, which might make this a bit easier. However, doing it yourself allows you to have whatever fabric you want!

Itty Bitty Booties 2

Here's some more itty-bitty booties I made for a friend who just had a little girl. If you want a free pattern, refer to the previous itty-bitty booties post.

St. Patty's Hair Bow

Well, St. Patty's Day has yet again come and gone. We all decked out in our best green attire, ate green food, and relaxed. Sienna had a cute new little green shirt, and you can imagine my horror when I realized I had nothing to put in her hair! :) So I made her a little bow. It was just the typical nylon head band (cut both ends of a knee-high nylon, then glue them together in a band) then I did the same thing with the bows that I did in my bow post below, except I skewed them to the side to get a figure 8 AFTER they were glued into a loop. Then I just tied a knot and trimmed it for the top bow. Simple Simple!

Breck's Birthday Party

Breck's birthday theme this year was a "bee" theme. It was so much fun to do, I wish I could do it again! We had games like "Pin the Stinger on the Bee", Singing time (including some bee songs), a "who knows Breck best" game. We ended the fun by watching "Bee Movie".


The invitation




I made this cake with the Wilton's wondermold pan. It's the one that looks like a bottom of a dress, but I figured it kind of looked like a beehive too!


Deviled bees: Make regular deviled eggs, then dye some seperate mayonaise black, then pipe it through with regular frosting bags and tip(small round tip)


The pretzels were made by getting both white and milk chocolate melties, melting them, dying the chocolate black, and the white chocolate yellow, then dipping them in. I did some yellow, some black, then some yellow with black stripes.


You can see the pin the stinger in the background.


I stamped and colored this paper for the "who knows Breck" game


Sorry this is sideways, my computer was acting up when I tried to make it right, but this is the song sheet.


These are the party favors. You can get these boxes at Michaels, thay have all dorts of colors. I used black scrapbook paper for the top, with yellow ribbon, and a bee stamp in the corner. I filled them with "Bit o' Honey"s

Breck's Invites

Here are the invites for Breck's 2nd Birthday Party!

Well, At Least Their Heads Won't Get Cold

I've been crocheting hats like crazy lately, and I'm not sure why. It could be perhaps the cold weather, or maybe that I've been on a huge de-junking spree and I have TONS of yarn just laying around not being used, or it could be that maybe I just truly wanted to do it. Well, it could be a combo of the three. Whatever the reason, I've made three hats in the last week, one for Sienna, one for Breck, and one for a church service auction. They're all brown, so you can guess what color yarn was the surplus.

This is Sienna's Hat

These next three are Breck's hat, I just thought all these pictures were so cute, and I couldn't pick just one.

This is the hat for the auction

Bitty Booties

I found a free pattern for these on a website, and just HAD to make them! What I love about them is that you do it all by hand. No machienes, although you could probably use a machiene if you wanted, but the unique-ness of these is in the hand stitching. These are the first pair I have made (of many more to come, I'm sure) for little Vanceroo. To print off a free pattern, click here.

Mary's Baby Shower

This was fun to plan. It was a headline theme. Everything was pink and black with newspaper!

I know I already posted this, but it kinda goes with everything I'm posting about

These little "suckers" are rolled up baby washclothes, secured with a satin pin (flathead pins) and stuck into treat bags (or cellaphane) and tied tight with a ribbon to keep the stick in. I made the little sign under it, and taped it to the stick.

This is what the little tag at the end of the favors says

Those are Booties on the top of the cake

A little onesy I made Mary with an iron-on transfer.

Crib Bedding

Oh my goodness, this was by far the most challenging project I have ever taken on! I've learned a lot from it, so hopefully I'll still be motivated to do another set for Sienna when we move! I didn't use a pattern for this, I just took measurements of Breck's bedding, and worked off of that. For anyone's reference, the bumper is 13 feet for a standard crib, and it's just under a foot tall, depending on your height preference. The skirt is 54" on the long sides, and 29" on the shorter sides. It is 15" tall. The blanket can just be however big you want, or how much material you have left! I just bought a solid crib sheet for it. If you want the detailed instructions on this exact set, you can leave a comment and I'll post it. It just seems pretty long and detailed for right now. Hopefully Mary's little girl loves it!

The Boys' Ties

I made Josten and Breck matching ties. I used satin, though looking back, I would have used something a little thicker, and more forgiving! All you have to do for a man's tie is, take one of his ties, put it on the material, and cut it extra wide around the tie, so that each side around the tie is half the width of the prtion of the tie you are cutting at. Cut the ends with squared edges though, not pointy. Then, hem the ends just a bit. After that, fold both of the corners on either side, toward eachoher, making the pointy ends. Do this on both sides. Turn it inside out, so you pretty much just have the squared off end folded in half, and sew it together. then fold it back out, and it will be pointy! Then hem the length of the tie just a tad, and fold the two sides over to the middle. Iron them in place, so it makes it easier to see where they need to be. Then hand-stitch the sides together. Then you're done with that. The little boy's tie, I pretty much followed the same process, except for the length of the tie, I just measured where I wanted the tie to fall on him, then I added a little less than double to the length. After I finished all of the sewing, I cut a strip and hemmed it, and put velcrow on the ends. ( It is the circumfrance of his neck) I then, with the tie, tied a slipknot around the strip. There you go!

Sienna's Apron

I had originally planned to have oven mits with this apron, but making oven mits for 6-month-old hands was more difficult than I had imagined, let alone, pointless. So I decided to forget the mits, and just do the apron, which was the main part anyway. I didn't use a pattern for this, I just kind of eye-balled the shape and size I wanted, then I folded the material in half, length-wise, and cut half of the shape, so when you opened it up, you have the full shape, and it is symetrical. Then I just hemmed the edges, cut a strip of the material for the top loop and sewed it on, and put lace on the top and bottom. I sewed it, but it could be hot-glued too. For the pocket, I cut out the shape I wanted at a bias, so it would contrast the material of the rest of the apron. Then I hand-stitched it on with embroidery floss for a neat effect. Then I put lace on the top. Last of all, I just got 2 pieces of ribbon, and sewed them to the sides for the ties. Not too hard!

Hair Bows

My friend Alyssa makes these super-cute bows for her daughter, and she kindly let me know how. So last night, I decided to try some out, along with a design for little clips I've been eagar to try as well. The bows are pretty easy, you just cut 3 or 4 pieces of ribbon, and glue them into circles (separate), and you glue them flat into the flower-like design. Then you can add ribbon on top, add a button, or whatever you wish. The clips are somewhat of the same concept. Here I have two circles, one glued on top of the other, then you loop the ribbon around the middle for a faux knot, then add it to a clip!