Details, details...

I love planning details for events, and I am really enjoying getting things together for Norah's first birthday party! I decided to go with a somewhat "vintage ABC" theme, because she loves the alphabet song so much when we sing it to her, and I figured all of the ABC details could be things that she would use in play later anyway, plus they would be educational! Win :) But, because the special lady is only going to be one, and not likely to remember this event at all other than the photos from it, I didn't want to spend a ton of money on details, but still wanted it to be adorable and memorable for us!

I am going to keep some of the details under wraps until after the party, but here are a few things I've got planned:

Using these free alphabet flash card printables as a garland over the main food table.

Using classic ABC blocks as table top decor (these are by Melissa and Doug, picked ours up at Joann's for $9 after a 40% off coupon!) 

Mini chalkboard plant markers similar to these - I picked ours up at Target's Dollar section for $1.00 a piece.  I also picked up 3 tiny galvanized tin pails in the Dollar section as well for $1.00 each.  The place markers will be labeled with different menu items.  

I worked on a design for the invitations by combining a few ideas I found online (primary layout inspiration from Sarah at Pewter and Sage, free graphic at the top from Pretty Little Studio), and this is what I came up with:

I've finished making her birthday girl outfit, but that will have to wait until the party to debut. I will say she has one cutie little booty in a tutu! 

More details to come later, but I am getting excited for someone's first birthday party, can't you tell?

DIY Crib Railing Cover

Many of my friends with children had warned me about their sweet little ones destroying their beautiful solid wood convertible crib that was supposed to last until they went to college by chewing it to slivers the second their first two teeth escaped their gums.  We were lucky enough to be given a crib in perfect condition from a friend we trusted, and painted it white to suit our nursery.  What I didn't consider was that when my darling offspring started to gnaw on it, the paint would peel off, leaving it looking rather, uh, not cute. 

So I've been meaning for a while to make something to cover the rails of Norah's crib, because all those little rodent teeth have made the painted surface look like this: 

I know there are plastic covers you can buy, but those only fit over the front rail, and by this point the paint is so chipped that I didn't want to be able to see it through a clear plastic cover.  And, that would not solve the problem with the side rails, which she seems to prefer to scrape those little teeth on over the front rail anyway. 

I had leftover fabric from her nursery projects, and decided to make a cover using those.  I don't have step by step photos of the process (late night sewing without anyone else in the house awake to take photos) but the project was really simple for anyone with basic sewing skills.  

First, I measured the length of the long side of the crib to get my desired finished length for the cover.  I added 1/2" seam allowances for each section of fabric.  For the underside, I just used one long piece of microfleece I had lying around in my stash. 

I decided on a pattern I wanted and cut the fabric sections, allowing for 1/2" seams.  I stitched the top pieces together one section at a time, and then repeated for the back side, so I had two strips of fabric.  I joined them with one long seam across the top, so that when it was folded in half the patterns would be facing the right direction on either side.  

Next, I cut about 10" lengths of ribbon for each tie, finished the raw ends by running a lighter over them quickly to seal the ribbon, and pinned them onto right side of the fabric, pointing inwards towards the middle (looks backwards from how you want them to end up facing at this point).  On top of that, I pinned the fleece with the right side facing in, so the ribbons were sandwiched in between, and stitched around the entire thing, leaving a small opening to turn it right side out.  Carefully, since there were still pins inside, I turned it out, removed the pins and then I finished the opening with a small hidden stitch, and that is that! 

You might notice the teeth marks remaining on the end rails...yeah, still need to make two shorter covers for those! 

Progress! Now I just need to hang the curtains, photo collage, and hooks back up and her "new" room will be complete following the move.  It was finally looking so great at my mom's, and then we had to go and move everything into total disarray...it's only been 2 months since we moved, so it's not like I'm totally delinquent with setting her room up again, right?

DIY Valentine's Day leg warmers

Here's a quickie little tutorial for a craft for the little lady this V-day.  I found these knee high women's socks on pre-Valentine's Day clearance (why are they already clearing out the Vday stuff for St. Patrick's Day before the actual date passes?) for $2.99.  I'd been wanting to try and take a stab at making girlie some leg warmers for a while, since brand name Babylegs are at least $10 a pair! 

First step - cut the feet of the socks off right above the heel part, making the cut parallel to the top of the sock. 

Second step-

Set your machine to a tight zigzag stitch (for those of us without fancy sergers or overlock machines, that is).  I set my tension to about a 4 and my stitch length to between 1-2.  Stretch the material slightly and stitch over the raw edge, with one part of the stitch catching the material and the other going off the outer edge. Zigzag all the way around. 

 I used matching thread, but contrasting colors would be fun too! 

Your edges will end up slightly ruffled and girly looking in about 1 minute flat!  (Well, or two minutes if you are like me and get the material stuck in the guides under the presser foot rather than letting the machine do the work...patience, Grasshopper). 

Seriously, one of the fastest and easiest sewing projects I've tackled to date, and I think they turned out super cute! Would make a fun little birthday or shower gift for that special little girl. I'm keeping my eyes peeled at JoAnn's for clearance holiday socks from now on! 

 Pictures of them in action on our little Valentine:

34 Weeks (and 3 days...yes I'm counting)

Wwell, we're getting down to the final month of this business...hopefully! This week will mark 35 and 35 - 35 weeks down and 35 days to go.  I think I've reached the point that whenever the end comes it will be welcomed.  Of course I want to make sure she's developed enough and don't want her to have any complications with growth or lung development...but if I could deliver in 3 weeks I'd be most pleased to be honest with you!  I know my body can and will accommodate more growth, but geez it feels like I'm close to max capacity now! And, discouragingly, I noticed two small purple-y stretch marks forming on the underside of the belly today...which means I'm sure there are more to come :( I was hoping to make it through without any, but doesn't look like that is going to happen. I know 50% of pregnant women get at least some, and it's a badge of motherhood and all that, but I could have done without them nonetheless. At least our professional maternity photos are this Thursday at 35 weeks on the dot, and hopefully I won't get any more before then, so the belly will still look good in pics! (Oh vanity, how I love thee).   Here she is covered up for the week: 

34 weeks + 3 days

I think we are more or less getting down to the last vital things we need to have and do before she arrives.  The nursery is coming together, and I'll give it its very own post for the big reveal once all the components are in place soon.  Our chair should be scheduled to arrive in the next 2 weeks or so, and the wall projects are just about complete.  The crib skirt is the last big sewing project, and I just didn't have the gusto to do it by myself this weekend.  I did work on these, though:

The collage of frames will go on the wall above the crib.  So springy and bright, and yet sophisticated, charming and still clean lines! 

I also finished the DIY altered lampshade project using the Cricut: 

I made the ruffle trim using 1 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and pleating it by hand, fixing each pleat with hot glue in between.  Then just hot glued it around the top and bottom of the shade, overlapping the seam at the back.   For the inside, I used the Cricut cartridges "A Child's Year" and "Give a Hoot" and cut out silhouettes of children at play and a whimsical butterfly border.  Then, using spray adhesive on one side of each cut-out, I fixed them to the inside of the shade! You see them mostly when the lamp is on, and when it's off you just pretty much see the ribbon ruffle :) So cute, if I do say so myself! 

And, apparently the animals approve of this space...as long as it is all for them! It is just for them, right?

Winnie has since been banished from claiming the co-sleeper, because that's really a habit I do not want to encourage.  In fact, it kind of freaks me out and I'm not sure what to do to keep her out of the baby's sleeping spaces.  Cat owners, any suggestions?  Right now I just have it loaded with some bags of hand-me-downs, but that's obviously a temporary solution.  The co-sleeper will be moved into our room beside the bed, but the bedroom needs major cleaning and reorganizing first...see below. 

I think the "Nesting" is kicking up a notch from just nursery prep and taking up 100% brain space occupied to thinking/list making about what needs to get purchased/done to actual housekeeping tasks that have been put off too long.  This is not news, but I'm a pretty terrible housekeeper.  I love clean, fresh spaces, but honestly I just prefer if someone else does it for me, and if not, then I don't mind living in various states of squalor that much (evidently). Gross. Well, those little things that I usually put off for months (the grody dust built up on the cold air return vent over our bed? yeah...all I had to do was wipe that with a damp cloth. 6 months ago) are finally irritating me enough to get themselves done.  Today I scrubbed the shower and tub (like even got the orange rust stains off), cleaned the grout around the base of the toilet, and washed the shower curtain liner.  Tasks which a normal person might do once a week, or perhaps twice a month, sure...but these are typically Mt. Everest proportion tasks that I feel quite accomplished about today, especially seeing as how they had me work up a sweat and become short of breath! (Let's be honest, getting out of a chair does about the same, but we'll just skim over that part).  Anyway, hopefully this house will still be spring clean by the time little girl arrives - particularly if she listens to the first paragraph and comes in 3 weeks - the shower might still be clean in 3 weeks, right?

DIY Butterfly Mobile

I spent some time yesterday finishing the mobile I had planned for the nursery.  I was inspired by Pottery Barn Kids' one, but couldn't really justify the $59 price tag.  

While I liked the look of the all white butterflies, but I really wanted to add more color since the walls will be tan, so I found mostly 2-sided scrapbooking paper or cardstock that coordinates with the fabrics I will be using in the room.  I spent about $8 on paper for this project, plus used some that I already had in my stash.  I busted out my brand new Cricut machine (a little Black Friday steal that was a total gift to myself!) and got to work cutting out approximately 100 little butterflies! They ranged from 1.5"-3" on the Cricut dial, and I used the Give a Hoot and Picturesque cartridges to get the different butterflies I liked.   I'm sure you could find die cuts already made at Joann's or Michael's, or you could go to a scrapbooking store and borrow/rent their Cricut machine for a few hours to cut out what you want.  

I didn't really take step-by-step photos after this, because stringing the butterflies and attaching them to the hoops kept both of my hands busy! But, the basics steps are that I used clear fishing line type wire and I cut 8 21" lengths of wire, and 6 18" lengths.  Then I used a needle to poke 2 little holes in the center of each butterfly, then threaded 4-6 butterflies on per strand (4 on the 18" lengths of wire, 6 on the 21" lengths), going from the bottom butterfly to the top.  I used a little hot glue to fix the bottom one on each strand so it didn't slide off, but the rest of the butterflies didn't really slide on the wire since the needle holes were small enough.   For the base of the mobile, I deconstructed a pre-fab wreath base from Michaels (about $1.79) that had 4 hoops connected by wires (like this):

At first I was going to paint it whole with all 4 hoops, but it ended up looking pretty sketchy and just home-made, so I took it apart with some pliers and wrapped 2 of the hoops in satin ribbon, fixing the ends with hot glue to make sure it won't unravel.  Using coordinating thread, I tied the 2 hoops back together at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions to form the 2-hoop base, similar to how the wires were holding it together to begin with.  

Then, using the hot glue gun, I put a little dab of glue at evenly spaced points around the hoops (one at a time, of course, or it wouldn't have been so hot), and attached the 6 18" strands around the outer hoop, and the 8 21" strands around the inner hoop. I cut 4 lengths of ribbon to hang the mobile from, and glued those in equal spacing around the outer hoop.   

Close view

Hanging over the changing table

Whole room perspective

"Babylegs" by Mama Tots

The baby craft bug has bitten, and I'm so into tiny little projects that we can put on our girl and have the satisfaction of knowing I made for her.  My current obsession regarding her future tiny parts to be adorned with handmade love happens to be "Babylegs" - the name is copyrighted I'm sure, but the concept is not.  For those who might wonder, "Babylegs" are little teeny legwarmers for baby's bare legs - why in the world does a baby need leg warmers, you ask?  Well, for newborns they are handy for keeping their legs covered and warm during diaper changes and so you don't have to mess with getting pant legs on and off.  As they grow, babylegs are helpful for covering and padding crawling knees and keeping legs warm during colder months even under pants (or little dresses OMG). So needless to say,  I thought I'd try my craft-loving hand at a pair, and here's what we've got. I think I'm going French with this one, and calling them "Bebe-Jambes" :)

Crocheted Bebe-Jambes by Mama tots:

These would be better pics if there were baby toes sticking out of the ends...but you get the idea. 

I can't wait to see her little cloth-diapered bum and chubby little thighs with these lovelies on! I have another color of yarn waiting for me to whip up another set, and it might just become a bit of an addiction, I'm afraid.  

I followed a pattern (here: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70440AD.html?noImages=)  but made some adjustments and used a self-striping sock weight yarn instead of alternating colors of worsted weight yarn, so I'll repost my pattern in case you want to have at it!

Newborn size baby leg warmers: 

Yarn used: Serenity Sock Weight (or "fingering" weight) yarn in Thyme, 1 skein (1.76 oz)

E-4 crochet hook

Yarn needle

Using larger hooks or a heavier weight yarn will result in larger leg warmers.  Test gauge to achieve desired size. Mine measure about 2 1/4" across and 11" long. 

Lower Ribbing
Begin with Ch 6.
Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch across - 5 sc.
Rows 2-36: Ch 1, turn, working in back loops only, sc in each sc across

Leg
Rnd 1: Pivot to work in ends of rows along edge, ch 2, work 38 hdc evenly spaced along edge; join with sl st in top of beginning ch.
Rnd 2-38 (or until 1 1/2 in. (4 cm) less than desired length): Ch 2, turn, hdc in each hdc around; join with sl st in top of turning ch. 

Top Ribbing
Note: Sc worked in rows and through the back loop only, forms the top ribbing. The rows are joined to the top (last rnd) of the Leg with sl sts as work proceeds. 

Begin with ch 6.
Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and each ch across, sl st in next hdc of last rnd of leg - 5 sc.
Row 2: Ch 1, turn, sc in back loop of each sc across.
Row 3: Ch 1, turn, sc in back loop of each sc across, skip next hdc of last rnd of leg, sl st in next hdc of last rnd of leg.
Rep last 2 rows until top ribbing has been worked around entire top edge of leg. Working through both thicknesses, sl st through ch-6 foundation ch and last row of top ribbing to close seam. Fasten off. 

FINISHING
Sew lower ribbing seam. Weave in ends.

I found the seam to look slightly cleaner by turning the finished leg inside out after weaving the ends in.  

Nursery Inspirations

Post Holidays, and a few days into the purging/organizing of the space at my Mom's that will be our little girl's first room, I'm starting to brainstorm decor ideas for the nursery.  I don't want to have a really specific theme (i.e Ladybugs! or Butterflies!), or have a migraine inducing throbbing pink explosion, but I want to have a space that feels relaxed, sophisticated, and put together.  After a reasonable amount of time weekend spent entirely searching for fabrics online, I thought I was totally settled on my choices, but then the bug bit a second time and I'm rethinking what I want.  I will be making the crib skirt and curtains at the very least, and most likely a few throw pillows and smaller accessories like possibly a diaper stacker (even though I want to use cloth diapers, I think it could come in handy for those or something else).  I'm planning to use this sewing pattern for the basics minus the bumper pad, which we aren't using for safety reasons:

For curtains, I don't think I'm going to need a pattern but I'm planning to do floor length panels (84") with a primary fabric and a contrasting band of fabric along the bottom for an accent.  I also plan to add a band of the contrast fabric along the bottom of the crib skirt to coordinate the two. 

Here are some of the fabrics I like at the moment:

For the main fabric in the crib skirt:

For the trim panel on the skirt and curtains:

 

 

 

For the main part of the curtains:

 

I'm also thinking of doing a very thin stripe of a pale lime between the primary and contrasting fabrics to tie them together, possibly something like this:

 

 

The walls will be painted in some shade of tan/sand/taupe/oyster/beige and the trim will be white.  I'm planning to paint the furniture white as well.  I really like Sherwin Williams Oyster bar for the walls:

 

 

 

So that is my current inspiration board :) I want to incorporate touches of "natural" elements like baby birdies/owls, a wall collage of vintage styled and modern prints (Matt got us some REALLY cute papers from Hollanders to play with), and a DIY fluttery mobile project similar to this:

Organizationally, we need a small bookshelf for all the books we already have (!) for this little girl, and something for the closet, and I'm thinking about one of these with color coordinating fabric bins:

Thoughts?