Baby H

My bro and sis-in-law are having a wee little girl in January. During Leaflet naps, I managed to crank out a cocoon and hat for my niece. 

I used Homespun yarn in a warm brown for the cocoon and hat and in oatmeal for the flower. The button on the flower is from my late grandmother's button collection. Grammie loved to sew. I'm pretty sure she's the reason I love crafty things so much. Boy, did she LOVE Christmas.

The Leaflet is 5 months old now. We've been battling reflux and fighting sleep, but the smiles, coos, and laughs are the bee's knees. He's just plain awesome, and I want him to stay this age. No more growing. He has agreed to this...or at least I think he has. 


Hope you all enjoy your holiday season. See you in the new year! It should be a great 2012.


Leaf out.

Tour-ific!

First, Happy Fall!!!


Nursery tour! I know what you are thinking...finally, the kid is 2 months old, and she's just now posting pics of the nursery. Does this make it any better?

Now, that you've forgiven me, here are the pics. 


First, you meet this guy when you come through the door...

For some reason, I want to call him Raccoon Jack so that's what I'll do. 


The crib was a closeout item from JCPenney:

(If you look really closely at the crib, you'll see a raccoon behind bars.)


Look, above the crib, it's Owliver!

We got this changing table from Babies R Us, but they don't sell it anymore in this color. I love that it has a built-in hamper.

The quilt hung above it is from the Carter's Forest Friends crib set. I hand-sewed some tabs onto the back of it so we could suspend it from a curtain rod. The curtain rod (from Lowe's) has an acorn on each end. We didn't use the brackets that came with the curtain rod because it would stick out too far from the wall. Instead, I found some bronze-finish hooks at Target that worked perfectly.


The chair and a half nook (where I will be taking monthly photos of our little Leaflet):

There's Aggie! The cats all think this is their room. This picture and the next 2 were taken during our newborn photo shoot by Christine Martin Photography. She did such a great job with all the photos.

These two crafty projects hang above the dresser. The dresser was an abandoned piece of furniture in one of the Gnome's past apartments. It was painted brown and had sticker adhesive on it in several places. The Gnome, after many trips to Lowe's followed by many hours of sanding, refinished it to go with the rest of the furniture. He also removed the wooden bar drawer handles, and we replaced them with some cute knobs we found at Lowe's. It seems that this post is an advertisement for Lowe's. It's a good thing that Lowe's is so close to our house because we go there A LOT. Here's the finished dresser:

Well, that is the end of our tour. Sorry it took me so very long to post pics. If we ever get around to hanging the mobile, I'll post pics of that too.


Leaf out.

He's Here!

                                            *Photo by Christine Martin Photography

Baby G has arrived! He decided to show up 9 days early (much to the surprise of his parents). Everyone kept telling us that since he was our first that he would assuredly be late. He was 7 pounds 6 ounces and 18.5 inches at birth. We are all doing well and still trying to get into a good routine. Baby G is 7 weeks today...which means I took way too long to update the blog. Oops. Sorry about that. I've been kinda preoccupied though ;) He is now weighing in at 11+ pounds.


I have some pictures from the nursery coming your way. I was actually waiting until the mobile got hung, but that still hasn't happened so I'll just post pictures without it.


I'm trying to come up with a nickname for Baby G on the blog, but haven't settled on anything yet. After all, he won't be "Baby" G forever.


Leaf out.

Finishing Up

We have been busy bees around this house getting things in order for Baby G. Today, Baby G is considered full term!


We've put together a pack n play (which our orange, fluffy cat Aggie claimed as his own new bed right away), swing (our tabby Tweak tried to jump in and got the rude surprise that it moved), bouncer (no cats have tried to jump in there), and installed a ceiling fan. We still have the car seat to install and the mobile to hang. As soon as we get the mobile hung, I'll take pictures of the nursery and post 'em. I've been working on a knitting project and a crocheting project, but haven't finished them for pics and posting. Hopefully, I'll finish them up here soon because time is running short. 


We attended our last baby preparation class last night. It was 2.5 hours on Baby Care Basics. Sitting still in a chair for 3 hours while 8+ months is not fun for your back. It was informative, but I'm glad to have all the baby classes completed. 


Here is one pic from the nursery just to hold you over:

Leaf out.

Handmade

Baby G has had two baby showers thrown in his honor. The first shower was in my hometown with mostly family, and the second shower was in the town where we live with mostly friends.


Several people made us gifts for our little guy so I thought I'd showcase them here. Ready?!


First up is a baby blanket that my Aunt Sandra crocheted in pastel yarn:

My cousin Heather made Baby G this adorable little hat in blue and white:

My friend Alison over at Crafty Weeks made a neat diaper bag with an attached, fold-out changing pad. Here it is with the changing pad folded up and velcroed:

And here it is with the pad folded out:

Love this fabric! She also made a pacifier clip to match...it's sitting on the changing pad, but it's blending in because it's the same fabric. See if you can spot it...


One of the ?L's motorcycle friends (yes, the ?L is in a motorcycle gang) crocheted us a baby blanket in blue, yellow, and white:

My friend B* made us a cozy hooded towel with matching washcloth:

I'm not 100% positive how she made it (I forgot to find out her secrets), but it appears that she took a regular bath towel and sewed a hood made out of a matching hand towel onto it. The washcloth has a cute dinosaur fabric on one side and the matching terry on the other side.


And last, but certainly not least, my friend EG made us this awesome quilt using Moda fabrics:

You can see the reverse side here:

Check out those leafies and mushrooms! The colors are just great. I am always astounded by quilting. I've never attempted it myself. I should really quilt something. Perhaps that will be my next crafty endeavor.


Thanks to all you ladies for such wonderful, crafty gifts!


In non-crafty news, I found out that I don't have gestational diabetes! No pricking my fingers! That was a relief. The due date is getting close now!


Leaf out.

Inspired.

I don't have a whole lot to share from this week as the days have been filled with childbirth classes and doctor's visits. Don't you just love going to the dentist? I don't detest it like some people do, but I don't exactly look forward to it either. No cavities though! Hooray! I was instructed by my hygienist to either bring baby pics next time I am due for a cleaning OR bring Baby G himself ;) This morning I had to get up bright and early for a 3-hour glucose test (the test for gestational diabetes for those not in the know) because I failed the 1 hour test last week. It wasn't horrible, but getting stuck with a needle 4 times over the course of 3ish hours is not at the top of my list of fun things to do. I don't know my results yet, but hopefully they'll be results I want to hear. 


I did however do something fun last week. I drove to Charlotte on Tuesday to hang with my in-laws including my sister-in-law, her husband, and our two adorable nephews. The other reason I went to Charlotte was the Inspired. craft workshop. I was not one of the attendees (mainly due to the event fee), but Mom G and I got to peruse the vendor fair they had at the event. There were maybe 8 vendors so it wasn't very large, but they had some good stuff to check out. The highlight of the workshop was that we got to meet and chat with LOLLYCHOPS! LollyChops was one of the featured designers/instructors, and you can check out her account of the event here (and the super-awesome inspiration piece she made for her class). She's the sweetest, most inspiring, crafty person I know (I guess I can say I know her now that I've met her ;) ). Be sure to check out her blog if you haven't already!

Leaf out.

Nursing Cover

I couldn't think of a clever title for this post so I just went with the obvious. Pregnancy brain is in full effect. 


I found this tutorial online for making a breastfeeding cover. I had purchased some fabric (30% off!) at my LYS a while ago for some unknown project so I decided to use it for this. Here is a close-up of the fabric (please excuse the wrinkles; they refused to leave despite my pleading):

The cover:

The reverse side has a pocket and a rectangle of terry cloth:

Pocket:

Terry cloth:

It was pretty easy to put together with it being just a large rectangle. I started to line it, but didn't have enough of the fabric to do so. I suppose I could have used a different fabric to line it, but in the end, I just decided to follow the tutorial instructions. I've tried it on, but the true test will have to come after Baby G's arrival :)


Leaf out.

Cocoon

Happy Friday! I hope you have had a fantastic week! This week marks the last week of my second trimester so I'm in the home stretch now. That is a little scary, but also pretty exciting. We're halfway through our childbirth classes. I think we've both really enjoyed going to them and meeting some new people. Baby G has been moving A LOT. I think I experienced his first hiccups yesterday morning :)


Down to crafty business! Back when I found out I was pregnant, I found a pattern for a baby cocoon on Etsy here. I actually made the cocoon a while ago, but kept putting off crocheting up the hat. I can't believe I procrastinated for so long because the hat pattern has 10 rows. That's it! I finished it in about 45 minutes. Here's the set:

I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn in pesto. I have some blue/green yarn too so I might crochet up another one. The big wooden button is from Joann's. I have another pattern for a sleep sack/hat set from Bernat's website. It's a knitting pattern and is striped. I love me some stripes. So that's next in the knitting/crocheting queue.


Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!


Leaf out.

Spring Green

Alright people, the sweater is finished!!! I worked on the finishing touches last night and blocked it overnight. 

I love the color and the buttons :) I think it turned out quite nicely. I might start on another one in a larger size so I don't forget how to knit it up.


I can't wait to get the dresser finished so we can figure out where we are putting all the furniture in Baby G's room. Then, we can hang everything and sit back to wait for his arrival. Well, I guess we need to do a couple of other things like set up the monitor and get the car seat and bases installed.


Have a great weekend everyone! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful one :)


Leaf out.

Tower of Animals

I had another 11 x 14 canvas from the pack of 2 I bought to make the tree canvas. The Gnome likes animals stacked on top of animals so I figured I could do something along those lines. I started by painting the canvas with tan acrylic paint. Then, I searched my Cricut Give a Hoot cartridge for animals I could use. I cut some shapes out of patterned cardstock, but it looked too busy. So I decided to stick with solid, textured cardstock for our forest friends. I used some dimensional adhesives to pop the animals up off the canvas a bit. After adding some coordinating buttons from my grandmother's collection, I called it done!

Yes, that is Mr. Prickles again :)


I'm still working on the baby hoodie. I'm on the second sleeve though so I should be finishing it pretty soon. I just have to knit up the front bands for the buttons and buttonholes, and then I'll be finished with my very first sweater. Hooray!


Leaf out.

Mobile-ing

The mobile is complete! Let's meet the characters...


This is Gnomar:

Meet Owliver's mini me:

This is Mr. Prickles:

Hello Toadd Stool:

And finally, Tweet:

We found a relatively straight branch in the backyard so I cut it down and attached the two 14 inch pieces with some green yarn.

Then, I used embroidery thread to string up the woodland critters so they would be facing slightly downwards. They hang about 7-8 inches from the mobile "arms." I added some coordinating felt circles and some stitched felt leaves to tie the whole thing together.

That is the Gnome's hand holding the mobile as still as possible for the picture. I don't know how long the thread to hang the mobile needs to be to hang it from the ceiling so I don't have anything attached to the top yet. And to be quite honest, I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that. Oops. I'm sure the Gnome will help me figure out some method of hanging. 


I'm still working on the baby sweater. Hood's done so now I'm working on one of the sleeves.


The nursery is painted. The changing table and crib are assembled. We have a mattress. And childbirth classes start on Monday. We're gettin' ready!


In related baby news, we had an u/s today, and Baby G was not cooperating for pictures. Probably some foreshadowing there. Whenever the u/s techs would try to get me to roll over to get the shot they wanted, Baby G would roll right along with me. Synchronized rolling! And the u/s techs exclaimed at one point and pointed at the screen to show us that Baby G was sucking on the umbilical cord. My response: "stop that!"


Leaf out.

Baby Hoodie

I've mentioned before that I am taking a knitting class to make a baby hoodie (pattern: here). I'm halfway through the class. 2 more classes to go! I've finished the body, and the hood is done; I just have to do a three-needle bind-off (whatever that means). The class instructor is going to show me how to do that on Saturday. Then, it's on to the sleeves! The only thing left to do after that is knit a strip for the buttons and button holes on the front. It's a great first sweater pattern since there is no sewing. So here's what it looks like so far:

Front

Back 

(that spot is just the button I placed there)

Buttons!

I have been working on the mobile. I have made some woodland creatures, but now I need to put it all together. Maybe I'll have it done by next week!

Leaf out.

Finally! Anniversary Party Pics

I know I have taken a looooong time to post pictures from my parents' anniversary party last July. It took a while to get the photos from the photographer. Then, it took a while to get the cd from my parents. Then, I procrastinated. So I will get on with the pics!


Here is the best photo I could find that shows most (2/3) of the room:

If you look at the top of the photo, you can see the tissue paper pomander balls I made. Yeah, the room was bigger than I expected so they look very, very wee. Oh well, even though they were a bit small, I like 'em. And I kept them, simply because I spent hours and hours of my life making them :)


We had balloon trees placed throughout the room. My bro, SIB, and sister-in-law J, rented a helium tank, and we inflated a zillion balloons. J read online about how to make a balloon arch so she whipped one up, and we placed it behind the head table.

For the centerpieces, I bought different sizes of jars and candleholders from Goodwill and filled them with royal blue and clear glass pebbles. We scattered confetti and blue gems around the trios placed on each table.

Why hello ?L and Pops! That's a mighty fine cake you have there.

(note the water in the background; the water comes up to just outside the banquet room)

SIB and J did an awesome job putting together pictures both for a slideshow and for a table at the front of the room.

Dancing!

Everyone had a great time. We danced the night away. It was a memorable night for two fantastic people celebrating their 45 years together.

The day it all began...

Leaf out.