Cookie Monster Extravaganza

Tonight was a fun filled evening with friends! We ate out at a Mexican restaurant, and had these little lovelies for dessert:



They were actually pretty easy to make. They're Pina Colada flavored... Mmmmm! That's the closest thing this pregnant lady has come to an alcoholic beverage in eons! It's simply a yellow cake mix, about half a 20 oz. can of pineapple with juice, a splash of rum, and two eggs. Mix and bake for just shy of 20 minutes at 375. I then used food coloring to dye the coconut blue. I iced the cupcakes and rolled the tops in the blue coconut. I then piped white icing for the eyes, placed an upside-down chocolate chip in each eyeball, and then a cookie in the mouth. Yum!

Here's T-3 opening her crafted gift from me. Too bad I didn't get a shot of the other Cookie Monster items. The wrapping paper was a Sesame Street design, and I also bought her a little notepad on Etsy that featured cookie monster on the front. I did get her a couple non-Cookie Monster themed items too. I bought her a dress pattern that was a remake of a 1949 dress. She's into costumes so I thought she'd enjoy it. And lastly, I sewed up one of these babies:


It's filled with corn and is a microwavable heating pad. I upcycled an OSU bandana for the front, and some linen pants that I had thrifted awhile ago for the back.

Happy Birthday T-3!

Finally got out of the House

Phew. The main roads were cleared enough that I ventured out this afternoon. The side roads were still terrible, but I can handle that. I just HAD to leave the house. I've been cooped up for three days.

We're celebrating my friend's birthday this weekend, and I needed to go out and pick her up a few more things. I ordered one thing on etsy already, and it arrived yesterday. I apparently was her first sale, and she sent me two of what I ordered as a special thank you. Wasn't that nice?!

I visited three thrift stores to try to find what I was looking for. Did I find it? No of course not; thrifting doesn't work that way. I should know that by now. I still can go out Saturday morning; maybe I'll find it then! I can't say what it is yet because she might read this.

I was really excited that one of the stores was having a 50% off sale on EVERYTHING today. Woohoo! I spent a whopping three or four dollars at that shop. So here's a quick list of what I did purchase today: three children's books for 50-60 cents apiece (two are about conductors and music, and the third is a firetrucks book); a bag of vintage buttons for 50c, a bunny picture frame for under a dollar, a photo album for $2, a "baby's first year" picture frame with slots for one picture per month- $2, a car roller shade still in the original packaging for a dollar; a dress pattern for 30 cents, a bag of Sesame street toys for 75c (one of which was crafted into something for my friend and the rest of which will be for Joel), a painted canvas to go with the Sesame street toy for $1.50.


This was a really quick craft. I simply used LocTite to adhere the foam puzzle pieces onto the canvas, and voila! Instant art work. I liked this so much that if I had more canvases, I would have liked to make several to use as wall art in the nursery. Oh well, Joel's room is done in rabbits anyway, not Sesame street characters.

Finally, I bought a "Guess How Much I Love You" poster for $3. It didn't have a frame, so I still need to search for one. That poster is absolutely perfect! I had found some "Guess How much I love you" wallpaper border for the nursery, however when push came to shove, I didn't feel like stripping the border that's in there now, paying for new border, and then going through the process of putting the new border up. Hell, we have border in the basement that we started to put up on our SECOND DATE, and we just finished it a month or two ago ("What? You put up wallpaper border on your second date?" Yes, my husband is a saint and agreed to help me hang wallpaper border as part of our second date)! So anyway, I never bought the "Guess How Much I Love You" border. But now Joel has the poster, and it was much cheaper than buying the border... not to mention easier to hang!

I also got some sewing done this evening. I finally finished the capes I was making for Joel and his cousin Brent. I upcycled an old orange sheet (free from an ex's uncle who wasn't using it anymore after he got sent to prison...) for the cape itself, and some scrap fabric for the appliqued lightening bolt and initial. I also used some orange bias tape that I thrifted a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a little tike to model the cape.



Joel and Brent, future fighters in crime


A closeup of Joel's cape

The other project I finished was the blue baby blanket binding. Say that five times fast. Actually, say "I butchered the blue baby blanket binding" five times fast. Yes, that's right. BUTCHERED. It took me forever, and I am not pleased with the results. I had some white satin that was purchased eight years ago on clearance when I was a Joann Fabrics employee (loved that discount...). I used some of it at our wedding, but I still had a lot left. So I carefully cut strips of the satin, sewed them together, and ironed them into a bias-tape-kind-of thing (except I didn't cut it on the bias, so it's really not bias tape at all...). Then I pinned it around the perimeter of the blanket, and tried to sew it on. Here's where things started to suck. Oh well, I don't think Joel will notice the chop-job that I did.



Lastly, here's the felt applique that I've decided to go with for the little sweater Nan made eons ago. I think it will spruce it up nicely. The only problem is attaching it. I tried yesterday with a scottie dog applique, however it wasn't looking right. I am decent at the basic whip stitch, but what I really want to use is a blanket stitch. I suck at it, quite frankly. I'm going to need to practice some before I actually get this sweet little applique onto the sweater.

Pregnancy, Nesting, and Sewing

I'm almost 36 weeks! Hooray for making it to the under-a-month mark until my due date! I was reading an old post from Sep. where I had measured myself and posted it. I measured myself a couple weeks ago, and at that point I was 41-43-45. I measured myself again yesterday, and I was 42-47-46. How depressing is that? Last week I tipped the scales at 204 pounds. Eek.

Anyway, I've been busy at work sewing this past week. I made some beanbags and heating pads from scrap fabric and leftover feed corn that I had in the garage. I am going to make a tic-tac-toe mat for Joel to play with the beanbags. I'm simply sewing large nine patches together, separated with strips of black fabric in between to make the tic tac toe lines. I wasn't sure how the heating pad would work, but I microwaved it for two minutes, and it stayed hot for quite a while. It's coming in handy with all the aches and pains this pregnant body has been having! Just remember when making it to use 100% cotton. I was able to repurpose an old green shirt of mine that no longer fits to make a heating pad for the neck, and some thrifted curtains to make a rectangular one for my knees, back, etc. I also will be making my friend one whose birthday is coming up this week. I'll probably work on that tomorrow since I just found out we're having a snow day, so no work for me!



Corn for the stuffing


The finished product

Over the weekend I also created a memory game for Joel using iron-on transfer paper, white cotton from the above repurposed curtains, and some scrap blue and white fabric for the backing. I'm not totally happy with how this turned out, however Joel will be young and won't notice the imperfections! This task was a pain in the butt, by the way. If I had known how much of a pain it was, I wouldn't have made so many pieces. Jason's family is huge, and I made one (well two actually) for each person in his family and mine until I ran out of iron-on transfer paper. I still have three more people to go, so six more tiles to create. When completed, there will 38 tiles. We'll have to pull out only a few family members at a time because Joel would never be able to handle 38 tiles as a little tot. I should have just done Mommy, Daddy, the four grandparents, and the two great-grandmas. That would have been 16 tiles and would have been much more doable! I'm also not thrilled with how the colors came out. Maybe it's my printer, but most of them turned out very bland :(


The great-grandmas


Jason, his sister, and parents


My parents and me


Five of the nine pieces for the tic tac toe mat.


I love me a good Spam Fabric! If this doesn't say "class," I don't know what does!

Advent Calendar Finished

Happy New Year!

I realize that I am a little late in completing my Advent Calendar, however to my credit, I didn't even START it until after Christmas.

I had been thinking about making an advent calendar, however I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go. I had been thinking about making mini stockings to hang over the fireplace, but when I saw these little mitten ornaments, I knew that this was it. I was also very happy that I had everything that I needed in order to make these little sweeties: felt (I just got some more for a baby blocks project at Michael's for 50% off), buttons, thread, and ribbon.

Here's a little peek at some of the buttons I pulled out to complete this project.


Here are some of the stockings mid-completion.










I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. Now I am going to pack them away today with the rest of the Christmas stuff and definitely use them next year!

In the Nesting Phase

Well I think the morning sickness has passed, and I am back to sewing, and hopefully, blogging about sewing. I think I'm in now what they call the "nesting" phase. I am sewing things up for baby like crazy. I made several pairs of pants for little Joel (yes, he's a boy, and his name will be Joel!). Photos will follow. I also made a little drawstring bag so he can tote around his toys with him when we hit the road, a dust ruffle for the crib and a matching baby quilt that should fit his toddler bed when he gets to that point (and a baby quilt for my brand new nephew), some iron-on transfers to some plain onesies, some fitted cradle mattress covers, and most recently am working on some felt and foam baby blocks.

The cradle we're using is an antique passed down for many generations in my family. My great-grandpa rocked in it, and my grandma thinks his dad may have rocked in it as well, so this dates back to late 1800s. Needless to say, the mattress that came with it was old and didn't meet today's standards. The mattress may have been new when my grandma was a baby, but that means the mattress is about 75 years old! I used it 30 years ago when I was born, however Joel needed something new. I had some foam that Jason had used as a boxspring before we were married (and how can I throw out good foam so of course I kept it!), so I was able to create a mattress from that. Then I sewed up four covers for it, for those times when little Joel needs his sheets changed in the middle of the night.


Here are the blocks close to being completed. All I have to do is sew the pieces of felt to each other, and they'll be done.


Here's a piece of the foam I used. Pay no mind to the cheezits in the background! (Hey, I'm pregnant!)


These are the cutest little pants I made. I made them from an old shirt of mine.


Check out the butt of those OSU pants- made from an iron-on transfer


Here are several pairs of pants that aren't done yet because I ran out of elastic. I figure I can wait until Joel is ready to wear these to put in the elastic and hem the bottoms so I can get the best fit possible. The best part is that I got these materials from our shed! I went outside and dug through the boxes of stuff we tried to sell two summers ago at a garage sale, and dragged it all back into the house to cut up and repurpose. The orange pants were an old sweater of mine that could not be felted, the plaid ones were short-sleeved shirts of mine, and the black pants were from a shirt of Jason's. The denim was from my great-grandma's stash of fabric. There was a ton of it to start with; I already re-slipcovered some cushions in the basement with it, and I still have lots left over.


Here's a tiny pair of dress pants made from the cut-off bottoms of a pair of men's slacks. They're so cute! Not perfect, but cute anyway :)


This is the drawstring bag I made. You can see the liner fabric around the little ducky's head. I used this tutorial from happythings' blog; it was really helpful and easy to follow!


Here's the exterior of the bag


Here's my old computer desk turned baby changing table, complete with handmade skirt to hide diaper storage.


Here's some pieces of decor for Joel's room. I bought a little bunny book at a thrift store very inexpensively so that I could cut it up and use the rabbit pictures. The mirror on the right was originally red and in the dining room; I painted it a soft green and decoupaged on the rabbit pictures.


Here's the toddler bed quilt for Joel... see the cute Thumper fabric in the corner


Another shot of the quilt.


Here are some onesies that I got as gifts. They were originally plain white, so I spruced them up. The first one is with a patch my friend gave me. The rest are all decorated with iron-on transfers.


More onesies with iron-on-transfers

Cloth Diapers, Diaper Covers, and a Sleep Sack

Woohoo! I'm pregnant! After seven months of trying, we finally got pregnant :) I have about eight months until the little one arrives, and so I am getting busy creating all the eco-friendly things baby will need once she (or he) arrives.

My husband and I both agree that cloth diapers are the way to go. His mom actually used cloth diapers with him, though it was because he was allergic to the disposable kind. She used a diaper service, however I am going to try to do without one and do it myself the old fashioned way. Well with the washer and dryer that is. Not quite so old fashioned I guess.

Before we get to the pics, here are some links that will help you (I know they sure have helped me!)
Sewing Wool Soakers at http://wheelerclothbaby.blogspot.com/

Another way to sew a wool diaper cover

DIY Prefold Diaper Tutorial

Sewing Prefolds http://fernandfaerie.com/

http://clothbaby.blogspot.com/

Tons of free patterns, including one on how to make a diaper from a t-shirt

How to sew a fitted cloth diaper for cheap

Katrina's Sew Quick Diaper Soaker Pattern at http://katrinassqs.blogspot.com/

Washing Cloth Diapers

A sleep sack tutorial

Another sleep sack tutorial



Here is my first wool soaker, made with two of my old sweaters that I felted.



Here's a not-quite-finished wool sleep sack, which can double as a wool soaker overnight. It isn't done yet because I haven't finished up the bottom. I can't decide how I want to finish it... velcro perhaps? I've seen some with snaps, some drawstring, some sewed shut, some zippered... decisions, decisions!


Some 100% cotton drapery panels that will soon be flat fold diapers

Some linen that will be good for something. How could I pass up good linen?

These are the cutest fabrics. (especially the bunnies!) I'm pretty sure the plain green one is snappi-able, but I don't know about the others. I ordered a snappi so I can test the fabrics out as I go.