Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween

Fall is officially here and today is Halloween.  I love the fall.  Love it!!  Love the colors, the weather, the smells, the food, and the holidays.  I just love the way it makes you feel.  But with this fall I have been super super busy.  I have had the kiddos costumes planned for months and since they were not difficult I have put them off.  Well I put them off till this morning, yeah just a tad bit late.  Well I managed to finish my big guys without any problem and will have 10 minute tute for you later this week but I did not get my littlest man's finished.  In all honestly I could have made it in time but it turned out a bit small so I was going to have to cut a slit up the back and add snaps and well it just wasn't worth it.  But I will tell you all about my busy day later, right now I just wanted to share the cuteness of my kiddos. 





My oldest wanted to be a Builder (Bob the Builder) Here is a pic of him in his tool belt but without his hat. 







And my baby is one of the cutest pumpkins out there.  Well in my opinion at least.





Aren't they sweet together?


Here is the whole crew.  My hubby was not much for dressing up this year but I tried to have some Halloween spirit with my shirt.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Traveling with Little Ones

photo from http://cherylsalvador.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/mothers-err-babys-day-post/

Who doesn't love a 6 hour car trip with screaming whining little people.  I don't that is for sure!   This was our first trip with our 8 month old and well he is not a rider.  He can get cranky just being placed in the car seat.   So as we were planning for our vacation I was not looking forward to the traveling part and knew I needed to plan for it. 

We don't have a DVD player in the car and don't really plan on getting one.  I survived trips without a television and I feel like my kids should be able to also.  And seeing how my biggest guy is only 3 he doesn't have hand held games either. 

I knew the traditional packing a few toys thing but I wanted to avoid the constant are we there mommy questions that I knew would come.  So I set out to find as many tips as I could on some of my favorite blogs.   There are hundreds of great ideas out there but I am only going to share 4 with you and give you some links. 


*ABC match up
This was one of Conner's favorite games.  I printed off capital letters A to Z from here and then taped the paper to a cookie sheet.   He had to match his magnetic letters to the ones on the page.  He loved using the magnets and I think it would have been great to have cut/printed out some pictures of animals/people and different back grounds for him to have played with.

*Hidden puzzle book
I have told you before how much my big guy likes trains so anything involving them keeps him pretty happy.  I brought with him a look and find Thomas the train book.  Now he has had this book for a while and can find all the pictures it has you search for pretty easy but you can also play I spy with it and have them find new things. 

*Maze book/dry erase marker
Conner has just begun really liking mazes so for about 2 bucks I got him a dry erase book from Walmart, filled with different mazes and dot to dot activities.  He loved drawing and then erasing his lines.  And I suggest the markers with the little erasers on the tops so you don't have to worry with paper towels.

*Look and find bottles
You can make these with either water or sand.  Fill them with different little items around your house: shells, letters, noodles, tiny toys.  Then fill with dirt or water and seal the lid on with hot glue.  Your little one will have a blast looking at all the different things in the bottle.  You can play I spy with them too.
Here are some great links that I used and some that I didn't but had wonderful ideas. Check them out be inspired!
Road trip list from kids activities
Shape I Spy
ABC printable
Cherrios and Lattes

There are tons of other ideas out there.  Just make sure you plan in advance so you will have time to get the supplies or make them.  I also packed crayons, coloring books, regular books, puzzles, and some small toys and trains.  He made it fine and watching a Veggie Tales movie on my lap top the last hour worked out great too.  (That was the only time we watched something on the drive though)  My littlest man was a  little harder to please but I made sure to bring plenty of toys to switch out and plenty of pacis.  With any trip make sure you stop for breaks and let them stretch their little legs and pray for long naps during the drive.  ;)  We are on our way back now and have about 2 hours left.  Thankfully both are sleeping especially since little man has been super grumpy.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Bumble bee onesie

I saw the cutest little onesie at the store a few months ago.  It had a bee on it and was just adorable but it cost around $20.  Way too much for a onesie, especially when I figure I can make my own for much cheaper.  I have not been blessed with little girls yet so this is for a friend (and hopefully she will not check my blog before I have time to give it to her) and maybe in a year or two we will be able to swap out clothing so I can put bows in a baby's hair and she can dress up a little man.  :)


sorry I don't know how to make the pictures rotate if someone does please inform me but cute huh?

See isn't that adorable.   Want to make your own?  Ok all you need is a plain onesie (it doesn't have to be white I think most any color would work), some yellow material (mine was an old scrap t-shirt), white material (again mine was a scrap t-shirt), tiny black buttons, small black buttons, 3/4 in black ribbon, 1/4 in black ribbon, sewing machine, gray/black embroidery thread  (Again with almost all my projects this is just what I used.  Play around with sizes and material.  I bet a bee would be cute with big buttons for eyes too.)

1st thing is to decide how big you want your bee to be.  Cut out the basic body shape, by folding your material in half so that it will be symmetrical.  Then lay out your material on your shirt to make your bee and see where you want everything and how you want to space it.  I used an erasable ink marker to put dots where I wanted the eyes, mouth, etc.  You also need to cut your ribbon to length and the right shape.  Lay your ribbon on the bee body and trim it just a bit larger than needed.  Then heat seal the edges with a lighter. 


Now sew on your eyes by hand and stitch your mouth on.  Look it is cute already.  ;)  Next are your stripes.  You can hand sew them on, use stitch witchery, your machine, etc.  My material is really small and thin so I decided to hand stitch them on.  It was a little more time consuming but I am happy with the result.



Now that you have your bee all put together pin it to your onesie and stitch it on with your sewing machine.  (you could sew it on by hand if you don't have a sewing machine) My machine wanted to fight with me for some reason but we made it around finally.  After the body is attached you will want to hand stitch the antenna down and add the buttons. 

You could stop here but I felt my bee needed wings.  I used my erasable ink to make the design of my wings and then just hand stitched them on using embroidery thread. 

I wasn't completely satisfied with my onesie and wanted to add some cuteness to the back.  I was going to make some ruffles across the bum but then decided that a bee needed flowers.  I made some super simple flowers out of the same yellow and put a little white in for contrast.  I just traced 3 different sized circles on my fabric, cut them out, and added a button in the middle.  Pretty cute huh? 

The bee went together fairly easy because all my fabric was knit and would not ravel so I did not have to work about frayed edges. 
You could do the same thing but use a more "manly" :) animal for a boy. 

Monday, June 4, 2012

John Deere Baby set - Lovey Blanket

Well today is part 3 of my baby set.  If you missed the burp cloth and the bib you can find them here and here.  OK so now on to the lovey blanket.  Like with the other two there are several different ways to make these.  I am only going to share one way today but if you have any questions feel free to ask.  Because I will apologize ahead of time that I did not take step by step pictures.

For my blanket I used flannel material because it is just softer.   So supplies you will need- 1/4 yard of two different materials (for your front), 1/2 yard of backing material, several different colors and textures of ribbon, a square (or object you can use of a square), and a sewing machine.

my square ;)
I made my lovey in a patchwork fashion, kinda like a quilt but with out the padding.  If you wanted the extra time you could definitely go back and add stuffing and quilt around the edges but I was fast and lazy.  :)  I only used two different colors of material for this blanket, the John Deere print and then a plain yellow for contrast and the backing.  You start by tracing out 9 squares.  I do not have a technical square so I use the top of a cd case.  :) Ok no laughing it works and it did not cost me a thing I just stole the top off of one of my cds.  Again you could make this blanket so many different ways.  You could make it bigger by adding more squares, or you could have several different patterns going on, or make it completely solid, etc.  I have made mine in a variety of patterns and styles, so this is only one way, feel free to experiment. 

Anyway to make this blanket, trace and cut out 5 squares from your 1st fabric and 4 squares from your second fabric.  Then you will need to serge/sew your squares together in rows of 3.  After you have your rows, sew them together to form your front.  Then lay your front layer on your backing fabric and trace out a large square to match it's size.  Again so sorry I do not have pictures but feel free to ask if you are confused.  I would add a drawing but that is something I have not learned how to do just yet, still super new to blogging.  I went back and took some pictures of a different blanket just for you!  Don't you feel loved now. :)
sewing squares together

cut out squares of fabric

Your 3 separate rows                                 2 rows sewed together


all sewn together


Now that you have both of your pieces, you need to decide how many ribbons you want on your blanket and how long you want each piece.  I chose 4 different colors with all the same texture but different widths.  Cut your ribbon to the length that you want and lay them out on your top piece to decide what kind of pattern you want.  Once you have decided on how you want it to look, you will want to pin your ribbon the the right side of the front piece.  I know that sounds funny but you will sew it tucked in so that when you turn your blanket the right side out your ribbon will be attached neatly on the inside.  So pin your ribbon so a little hangs over the edge of your material and the rest of the ribbon lays on your front piece.
(Here is a pic of another blanket I will show later)
I hope you can tell the ribbons have been pinned up with a little bit of over hang to catch when you sew.


Then pin your backing piece right side down on the ribbon to your front.  (I feel like this sounds confusing)  Make sure you leave a 1 inch opening so that you can turn it inside out.  I like to put several little pins where I am not going to sew to remind myself to stop.  Cause once I get going well sometimes I just keep going.  ;)   Now you can serge it closed or sew it on a regular machine.  I have done both but since I have a serger now I just love it!

After it is sewn together, push/pull your blanket right side out.  Tuck your extra fabric in your opening and then you can top stitch it closed or hand stitch it.  Most people think top stitching all the way around is more professional looking but again it is your choice.

Well this is probably one of my longest posts but I felt it was a tad confusing.  Please come back later this week I have a chair redo that I am just so tickled with!  Have a great day!
Linking to some of these great parties:

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

John Deere Baby set - Snap bib

Hi!  So glad you came back ;)  Ok so yesterday (ok not yesterday, it has been awhile sorry) I showed you my John Deere Baby set and a tute for the burp cloth.  Remember? If not you can revisit it here.  Ok now to the bib. 


I have tons of bibs from my 1st little man but most of the closures gave out before the bib gave out.  Velcro- it looses its sticky, gets on everything, and can put unwanted snags on other fabrics.  So I am not a huge fan of velcro on baby items but you could definitely add velcro if you wanted, I just prefer snaps.  Snaps - fast, easy, and no snags.  :) 
Snap gun from Hancocks and a snap kit from Walmart.  I used the snap gun but either would work just fine.  If you are going to be putting snaps on a lot of items I would recommend the snap gun.  It can also add eyelets and decorative snaps.

So I wanted to make a bib that was absorbent and had snaps.  So I found a pack of 10 colorful wash cloths at Walmart that were $2.  Wash cloths are cheap and absorbent so that made a perfect base for my bib.

To get the basic shape, I found a bib that I loved and traced it onto my fabric.  I added some width around my pattern to make up for  seam allowance.  Then I pinned my fabric to my wash cloth and cut it out.  There are several ways to finish off the bib.  I am not going to explain all the different options right now but I promise a post in the future that will show a different way to close it up and finish it off with bias tape.  But for this project I went plain and simple.  {This bib could be reversible and if you had one or wanted to pay for it you could have a name embroidered before you sew it together.}

Front
Back











Pin the right sides of your fabric together. (it doesn't matter with the wash cloth it has no right side) Mark at least a 1 inch section to leave open so you can turn your bib right side out.  Then serge the edges together or use a zig zag stitch.  Make sure if you serge you go very easy around the curved tabs.   Carefully pull/push the bib through your opening to turn the right side out.  You may want to use a pencil or tip of your scissors to push the corners out of the tabs, but be careful!!  Then tuck your raw ends into the bib and make small stitches to hide the opening.  And now your bib is finished!  You might want to go around the bib with a top stitch but you don't have to, completely up to you.  Easy Peasy and you have an adorable cheap bib!


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

John Deere Baby Set- burp cloth

Today I thought I would share a baby set I made before we knew what our 2nd little bundle of joy was.  We live out in the country and my father in law is a farmer, so boy or girl our little one would need some John Deere. ;)


I love burp cloths made from cloth diapers, thick bibs with a snap (Velcro gets annoying), and these little ribbon blankets (which I will call lovey blankets).  And everyone little one needs each of these things or several of each.  haha It is so fun to sew for babies!


First up the burp cloths.  I know you have seen these every where but they really are great.  They are so much bigger than standard burp cloths, so absorbent, you can make them to your taste, and super easy and cheap, so what is not to love.  All you need is a pack of cloth diapers (You can get them almost anywhere Walmart, Target, craft stores, etc) and some strips of fabric that you love. 




I have made them with cotton, old cut up onesies, and flannel.  Find what you love, you could use anything.  They can be as expensive or as cheap as you want.  Ok once you have your fabric of choice then cut it 19in x 4in.  Next if it is needed serge around the sides of it or zig zag stitch if you don't have a serger.  Now if you serge it you can leave your edges the way they are or you can fold them under before you sew it down.  If you zig zag you will want to fold it under to protect your edges from raveling.  Then just pin your fabric to the middle of your cloth diaper and sew it down.  You straight stitch down both sides and whalah you have a personalized burp cloth.





Ok well that is enough for one post come back tomorrow for the post on how to make a bib out of a wash cloth.  :)  Have a great day!!

Linking to some of these wonderful parties!
           
            http://www.watchoutmartha.net/
            www.ladybug-blessings.com
            www.sugarbeecrafts.com
            www.creationsbykara.com
            www.733blog.com
            www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com
            www.sugaranddots.com
          http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/
            www.katiesnestingspot.com
         http://www.chickenscratchny.com/
            www.shabbynest.blogspot.com
            www.kojo-designs.com
            www.oneartmama.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Diaper Wreath

I have seen diaper wreaths and diaper cakes every where lately.  They are super and make an adorable gift but some are way over priced.  I can not even fathom how some people could be able or willing to put over $50 in a diaper wreath.  I am sorry I love cute, I love adorable, but I am practical. It has got to be affordable.  Ok I can hear some of you "she is just being cheap", not cheap but smart and crafty.  :)   I decided I could make one just as cute for a much more manageable price. 


Again let me apologize in advance I do not have tutorial pictures.  Sorry I was not a blogger when I made this wreath so I only have a picture of the finished product, but trust me you can follow it with out pictures.  Plus there are tons of tutorials out there.  I saw a very cute one tonight from http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/ and it made me decide to go ahead and post about mine. 

Materials you will need: (or at least that I used)
Foam wreath form (very cheap from JoAnns or Michaels)
Diapers
Thin ribbon
Flowers (or blocks or baby toys anything you want really)
1/2 inch ribbon for bows (again you could change it up to anything you would like to decorate with)

Then I took my diapers and turned them backwards so that all you could see was the white part.  I wrapped the diaper around the wreath and then pinched it tight at the top and secured it with a ribbon.  Most people tie bows or use wire but I liked it just knotted with the ribbon flowing down some.  As you add a new diaper just push the others close together.  I thought I had tied my last diaper about 3 times but then I could always push them closer for one more.  :) 

After you are happy with your diapers, you get to decorate.  This is where you can be as creative as you want.  You can add ribbon, toys, flowers, bows, towels, wash cloths, blocks, etc.  I have seen tons of different ways.  I liked cute and simple a little better than the ones that were filled with so much stuff.  I decided to stick with a few large flowers and some pretty bows. 

I tied up a few bows, pulled my flowers apart and got my hot glue gun heated up.  Then just arrange your decorations the way you would like and get ready to glue them on.  Try to pull the diapers apart where you want to stick things so you can glue to the form and not the diapers.  (That way the diapers can still be used later.)  If you do get some glue on a diaper you can always just give a few extra diapers to the recipient to use in place of the glued one.

Well that is the basic idea have fun, change it around and do what you think is adorable.  They make very cute gifts that don't wilt like flowers and that can be hung up even at a hospital. 

Linking to:
http://www.sugaranddots.com/
http://www.somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.733blog.com/
http://www.ladybug-blessings.com/
http://www.funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com/


Monday, April 30, 2012

Bath time photos


Sorry terrible picture
but I am trying to give you an idea of how I have them set up in the bathroom
Today I am showing some of the pictures that decorate my bathroom wall.  After my 1st little man was born I could not decided how to decorate his bathroom.  I wanted something cute but not so kiddish, since it is our guest bathroom also.  After a few failed ideas I was looking through some of the 100s of pictures I had taken of him. (every mommy knows what I mean about all those pics)  I came across the ones of him in the tub and that we had taken when he was wrapped in a towel. 



 
Well they were just too adorable to put in a album that no one might see but not really the types of photos you display in your living room.  (Which was already covered with photos, :)  I was one proud momma and well he is just adorable!) Since I had company coming and I was in a pinch to decorate, I decided to put his pictures up.  After I got them up I loved them.  What a great way to celebrate your little ones and decorate your bathroom with very related decor.  :)  

 

I got the idea for this post from a friend that was thinking about putting pictures of her little one in bubbles in her bathroom.  I had never thought that my pictures were a great idea but after several comments about how original that was, I decided well hey my readers might think so too.  So I guess my quick and cheap need for decorations and my craze with showing off my cute baby may have been an original idea worthy of blogging about.  ;)  Have a great one!