Another Tote

So, it has been quite a while since I have done any sewing/crafting. Mainly it's because I just didn't have the motivation.

Claire had regressed to waking 3 or 4 times a night and it was really wearing on me. I think it was because she was getting one of her first molars.

Now she is back to waking once or twice a night. It is better but not great.

Anyhoo -

A friends birthday was the motivation I needed to make something and I had mentioned to her a while back that I might make her a shopping tote for her birthday. I couldn't not follow through.

So, a week and a half past her birthday I gave her this:



I did the straps a little differently than on the last tote and I actually wasn't that happy with them. The fabric ended up bunching up a little bit so there is a little gather in one of the seams that really bothers me.

So, if I make another I think I will go back to the first way of doing the handles.

Tote Bag

I have a friend who is an amazing photographer. She has done pics of Claire a couple of times now and they are always so wonderful.

See some of her work on her blog.

She recently did some one year pics of Claire. So I decided to make her a tote bag as a little thank you.



My thinking was that she could use it for a reusable grocery/shopping tote. I'm all about the reusable tote now. I hate those plastic bags. The only problem is that I feel a little silly carrying one into Target with 'Kroger' emblazoned on the front. Hence the need for a pretty green 'green' bag!

I didn't use a tutorial or pattern but I had read a bunch of different tote techniques online and then kind of made my own pattern.

I hope she likes it.

Baby Shower Cards

It seems like everyone I know is having a baby!

Well, not really but several friends are having babies soon. Hence the need for a couple of baby shower cards.

I had a gift bag that kind of had this square motif so I used that as inspiration for a card design.

They turned out pretty good. On the first one I didn't print out the IS FOR ahead of time so I wrote it with a marker. I'm pretty unhappy with my pathetic handwriting.



For some reason I wasn't as happy with the color combination on the second card. I don't know what it is but something seems off.

Baby Shoes

Ever since I saw this tutorial on Stardust Shoes, I have been wanting to make my own pair of baby shoes.

Claire is pretty much beyond the stage of wearing shoes like this. And, let's be honest, she is barefoot most of the time anyway now that it is summer.

So now is the perfect occasion since I am attending a baby shower. I have to say I love making baby stuff and these shoes are no exception.





These were not too hard to make. The directions were very clear. I couldn't find any bonded fleece though so I used two pieces of craft felt since I have a ton of it from when I went on a felt shopping spree earlier this year.

The hardest part was sewing around the edges when attaching the front and back to the sole. But, I managed to get it done and the results were pretty cute.

These just might become my standard baby gift.

Baby Gifts

I have a baby shower to attend next Saturday so I've been trying to make up a couple of things for the new baby.

I don't think the mom-to-be is going to read this before the shower because, well, I'm pretty sure nobody is reading this.

The baby is of an unknown gender which was a little difficult for me to find a fabric that I was happy with. I had this ABC flannel in my stash so I decided it would work.

First a bib, the front is the ABC flannel and the back is a very light blue terry cloth.





Then I found a tutorial linked from Sew, Mama, Sew for a little diaper and wipe case. Here is the tutorial.






I made it a little different from the tutorial in that I added batting inside all the pieces so it is a little fluffier and has a little more weight that way. I used fabric from my stash for this as well.

I did have to make each of these items twice before I got them right. The bib had a way way too small neck opening. It wouldn't fit around Claire at all. I tried to modify it, but it just wasn't working out so I made it again.

The diaper case I had almost finished when I went to rip open the button hole and ended up riping all the way through the fabric. I had used a red piece of fabric for the pocket the first time which I actually thought was cuter but I just didn't have enough left to make the pocket the second time. I tried to fix the thing but it was just not happening. Oh well.

It seems like I'm always having to do things a couple of times before I get them right.

Something Healthy

This carrot is a little more healthy than the other felt food I've been making.



But, it's still pretty darn cute.

Baby Quilt

Here is a little baby quilt I made a while ago for a friend at work. It's a jungle print fabric that I thought was pretty cute for his little boy.

Father's day card

Here's a little card I made to give to Ryan from Claire for Father's day.


He said he really liked it.

It originally had another tool in the big pocket but I'm not sure what happened to it. When I went to scan the card just now it was missing.

Birthday Dress

Claire needed a special outfit for her birthday. I just assumed at first I would buy her something. I looked all over online for something cute with ladybugs on it. I found something on ebay that was pretty cute and I thought about buying it.

Then Ryan mentioned that I should make her a dress. I was a little leery because I have never actually sewn any baby clothes or really very many clothes at all. But, I found a cute pattern and some cute fabric and decided to go for it.


The pattern sizes were listed as 12M and 18-24M. I decided that I should make the 18-24M so it would fit Claire all summer.

After spending quite a bit of time putting it together and sewing the skirt to the bodice 3 times before I finally got it on right I tried it on Claire. The dress was huge. I had to make it all over again in the 12M size. And hey, I only had to sew the skirt on twice on the second dress!


Then there was a big internal debate about the color of the contrast band at the bottom of the skirt. I had originally bought a black and white polka dot print for this since they had no red and white at the store. But when I got home, I realized I had a scrap of red and white polka dot that would work for the band but not nearly enough to do the pantie. I eventually decided to go with the red & white but at the last minute add a black & white ribbon trim. Then I did black & white panties. It turned out really cute.


I ended up putting a black & white band on the first dress I made and gave it to my niece to wear. It fit her just fine. I can't believe I actually thought it would fit Claire.

Here they are together in their matching dresses.

#1 cake

Claire's own personal individual cake was a #1.

The decorating of the cake wasn't too dramatic. I just bought some sugared ladybugs and stuck them all over after icing it white and outlining it in yellow.



Ryan seemed to think the sugared ladybugs were delicious. I thought they were nasty.

Claire liked the cake!



Claire is really starting to understand what we are saying. I discovered by accident that she would rub her hands though her hair when I told her to "fix her hair." This led to hours of amusement of telling her to fix her hair. I'm sure I'm creating a complex.

Well, after I told Ryan's parents about this trick his dad thought it would be super funny to tell her to fix her hair while she was eating her b-day cake. She proceeded to rub her hands through her hair.

He also thought it was funny to tell her to fix her hair while she was eating baked beans. Not funny!

Ladybug Birthday Cake

Claire turned one on Saturday. I can't believe my baby is all grown up. It's so sad.

I was a nervous wreck getting all of her party stuff done. My stomach was in knots starting on Friday afternoon and lasting most of the day on Saturday. Midway through the day on Saturday I was really feeling quite awful so I decided to take my temperature. It was 100.6 -- I guess I was really sick.

Anyhoo, the main attraction at the party were Claire's cakes. The main cake was a big daisy with a ladybug sitting on it. As I was making it, I wasn't really happy with how it was looking. But, once I got the ladybug on there I think it turned out pretty good.



The party guests (all 7 of them) thought it looked nice.

Now I just have to get started on those thank you notes.

Tote Bags

I had been frantically making felt food to give to my niece as a sort of favor for Claire's b-day party when I realized I needed to put said food into something.

Hence, the need for a tote bag!

I went through my fabric stash and found two cute prints that looked good together. One was fish from a quilt I made for my cousin's baby who had a fishy theme in his bedroom. I'm not exactly sure where the orange fabric came from but it matched really well to the fish.



The tote is reversible!



After I had finished the one for my niece I realized that Claire would need to have one too.

So I whipped up one for her in ladybug and black polka dot fabric that will match her party dress. I did decide that the handles on the first tote were a little long so I shortened those a bit for Claire's bag.

When Claire gets bigger I hope to make regular visits to the library and she can carry her books in her tote.

Too Cute!

Peanut Butter Things

So, I had this grand idea that for Claire's party I would make candies that looked like ladybugs.

I made peanut butter balls using a recipe for Buckeyes. That part turned out really well.

Then I tried decorating the ball like a ladybug. That part did not turn out so well.

I tried shaping it into an oval.

I tried leaving it a ball. This one doesn't look that bad in the picture but trust me -- it is ugly.


I tried just putting spots on top and even that looked awful.

Finally, I decided that they wouldn't be ladybugs just black and red to go with the color scheme of her party. I think these turned out pretty cute.

Then with the extra leftover candy coating I decided to use a technique that I saw on Bakerella. I drew the black part of the ladybug first and then filled in the red. I was thinking this was going to be so cute and maybe I would use them on her birthday cake.

Well, they turned out pretty ugly so I'm probably not going to use them anywhere because they are just not cute.

Oh, well. I tried!

Mmm... Donuts

I love donuts.



I love chocolate donuts.



I love stacks of donuts.



Even Homer loves donuts.



These donuts are super easy to make and turn out so cute. The hot pink one reminds me of the one you always see Homer Simpson with so I thought I'd let him pose with it. He didn't seem to mind. I made the sprinkles with embroidery floss but I've seen ones on the web with fancy beads as sprinkles which is super cute but not child safe.

Claire thinks it's hilarious when I pretend to eat one.

Ladybug Invitations

Claire's first birthday is coming up soon. I've decided we are having a ladybug theme!


Here are the ladybug invitations.

They were pretty simple to make with just red, black and white card stock.

I went old school and cut out the ovals for the body and circles for the head with the coluzzle.

I used black wire for the antennas. The spots are made with a stamp and black stickles. I used almost all stuff that I already had in my stash!! That's a first.

I think they turned out pretty cute.

Felt Ice Cream. Yum!

Recently I have become completely obsessed with felt food. I was bored one day and browsing various blogs and came across a felt food sandwich.

Immediately I had to know more about this felt food. An extensive search lead me to lots of different felt foods.

A flickr group devoted to felt food.

Craftster had all kinds of threads about felt food.

Thus began my journey into felt food.

Yesterday I found a little tutorial on a felt ice cream cone here.

So last night and today I worked on my ice cream cone.

I think it turned out delicious!

The chocolate side

The vanilla side




Yum!

A New Adventure

So, I started a blog. Why, I'm not really sure. But, I kept seeing all these cute blogs with people posting their crafty and cooking projects and I wanted to post about my crafty and cooking projects. So here we are.

I've been on a big crafty/sewing kick lately so I have lots to talk about. But, not much time to do it now.

Off to take care of some mothering business and maybe have a little crafty time.