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.

Crocheted headband

This was a fun little project. I didn't come up with it myself, however, I got it from this great site. She has other really neat corcheted flower accessories on there too, all with patterns.

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!

Lunch Sack

I made Josten a lunch sack for Valentines Day. I didn't use a pattern, I just kind of made it up as I went. It's pretty easy to figure out.

Valentines

We just had a blast making Valentines this year! We made ones to send out to family, Breck and Sienna made Daddy a special one, and of course I made one for my special Valentine!

Pinned Ya Again

I've found yet another fabulous and free pattern from Heather Bailey, who is quickly becoming a close friend of mine (her website at least). I've been wanting a pin cushion for quite some time, but I didn't want the ordinary old tomato that comes standard at most stores. I wanted pop and pizzaz! Well, I got it here at good ol' Heather's site, where she has a free pattern for her "Square Deal" pin cushions. They're pretty easy, yet so fabulous! Here's the site. Look on the side bar for "Square Deal" pin cushion.

This one was my first one, not as cute, but it's still better than the tomato!

Modest Mommy

After 7 months of living without one, I finally decided to make myself a nursing cover. The blanket gets old quick when nursing in public due to the heat it traps in around the baby and the mommy's body. I also go sick of having to isolate myself so I didn't have to nurse in front of anyone. So here is the answer to my problems. I didn't use a pattern for this, although I know of plenty of sites that have them, if you are interested. All I did, was I measured around my Chest how big I would need it, and how long I wanted it, and cut it appropriatly. You can add trim if you like, just make sure you stick boning in the hem on the top before you sew it all up on the sides. You'll need about 1 foot of boning.

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.

Valentine's "Wreath"

This was pretty simple. All you need is a foam heart, glue, a pencil, and about 3/4 to 1 yard of valentine-ish fabric. (Also some ribbon to hang it), The instructions for this project I found at this website. It's pretty detailed with pictures, so that should help a lot.

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!

Baby Shower Invites

I finally finished the invites for my sister Mary's baby shower. I used recycled newspaper, and paper grocery bags. The rest is pretty self explanitory.

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!

Gift Wrapping

I decided to get creative this year with gift wrapping, and make it through without having to buy too many boxes. I ended up recycling cereal boxes, granola bar boxes, etc. to use for the presents. I used the grocery bag bows that I wrote about previously, and I used brown grocery bags for some of the wrapping paper. It was pretty fun coming up with different things I could do to make the presents look nice, without buying everything for it. Granted, I did buy wrapping paper and ribbon, but it was fun to not have to depend on it. Here are some of the things I did:

I also used regular string, and scrap from scrapbook paper that I had lying around, as you can see above.

Gift Bows

I found this cute idea from another website. Such a good way to recycle those grocery bags that stack up. Here's the website for instructions:

Gift Toppers