Birthday Card ala Cricut

My aunt's birthday is coming up so I thought I would make her a card.
I was low on inspiration but my trusty bff helped me. She designed the
coffee background paper when I told her my aunt likes starbucks. I had
the cream colored cardstock on hand so it worked out great!

The bottom line kinda resembles a ransom note but I'm hoping she won't
notice!

Made with the Cricut Journey cartridge

My 1st Cricut project

Miss M's Christmas Dress

I decided to make Miss M a Christmas dress similar to the one I made her for Thanksgiving. I didn't quite get it hemmed before we left for my mom & dad's, so Mom finished it up for me. She also added the "bling" to the front pocket. I think it makes it even cuter and will work great for Valentine's Day! Of course, it will be more of a blouse on her by then, she's growing so fast!

It's made of a red cordouroy with sparkles that my friend had in her "stash." I also made the shoes to match out of a pattern I found on Etsy. Of course they didn't stay on her feet, but it was fun making them anyway. It helped that I had low expecations of her keeping them on her feet!

You can kindda sortta see the shoes in this shot:


Her Grandma (my mom) made her this adorable Sunbonnet Kids quilt. She worked on it a long time. Each of the blocks had an embroidered Sunbonnet kid.

We made a Mai Tei Wrap!

Miss M is getting to be quite a handfull! She's a little over 20 pounds now. Due to this fact, I was needing to do something to save my back and neck! I wasn't sure what type of carrier would work well for her (we were given a Snugli and it didn't go well when she was itty bitty), so I didn't want to invest a bunch of money into something I didn't know if we'd like.

We had tried a Mai Tei on in a store one time and she did OK in it. I decided to research and see if I could find a pattern online. Low and behold, there are quite a few! I found some of the directions to be a little confusing for me, so I ended up using bits and pieces of two or three different patterns.

I will probably use my infomapping/instructional design skills to create my own pattern/directions someday! Not with the holidays looming, though!

Anyway, the same home ec major helped me sort it all out and guided me through the parts that were confusing me.

Here is the end result!




By the way: The fabric was basically free too! I had the black stretch denim on hand, and my friend had the black floral from the stash she inherited from her grandmother!

Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes!

I cannot BELIEVE how fast Miss M's little feeties are growing! It hasn't been such an issue so far. All of that changed on Saturday! We were at a party and we got her walking back and forth between a young girl from our church and me.

Now that she's becoming more "upwardly mobile," Miss M needs some shoes! I've been perusing the 'net for some free patterns, of course, because FREE patterns are my latest addiction! I've found some but they all seem to need modification for her size. Plus, since she's starting to walk, she'll need a little "gription," which means leather bottoms. I've never sewn leather, so that makes me a little nervous.

In my quest to find the perfect pattern, I also found some pretty stinkin' adorable shoes all over Etsy for a fraction of the cost in stores. THEN! THEN! Are you sitting down? This next part is SO exciting! I found a site that is giving away these adorable shoes called Squeak-a-boo! They squeek when kiddo walks, so I'll always be able to hear where she is! I love it! There are SO many cute Squeek-a-doo shoes!

Plus, they are very affordable. AND if we win the giveaway, even better! So, cruise on over to the Squeak-a-boo giveaway and see for yourself!

Thanksgiving Dress

I didn't even realize I'd bid on this pattern on eBay until I got a notice that I'd won! So, the week OF Thanksgiving I decided to make Miss M a Thanksgiving dress! On of my BFFs (also my MOH in my wedding) happened to have leftover fabric from the fabric we used to make my bridesmaids' skirts for my wedding! I LOVE the color and it's perfect for Fall.

One of the gals who helps us out and watches Miss M while we work has a degree in home ec and vast sewing experience. She cut out the fabric for me while Miss M slept, which made putting it together go even faster!

I didn't have the right color bias tape, so I improvised. I don't think it's very noticeable.

I was up pretty late the night before we left for hubby's Grandma's house on the cost (a 6+ hour drive) when I finished it. Miss M was sleeping, so I tiptoed into her room and took a couple dresses out of her closet to determine the length. As a result, I nearly left the dress on the kitchen table (a.k.a. my sewing table these days!)!!! Thankfully I noticed it at the very last minute!

Here are some pics!
In this first one, she's sitting in a rocking chair that her Great-Grandma Mary gave her. Mary was quite the crafter in her day. She used to sell these chairs with dolls she made. Due to its age and duration of its life in her garage, we needed to apply wood glue to all of the points where it comes together. She didn't stay in it long, just long enough to pose for this pic! I was so afraid it was going to collapse under her!

My Intro to Cloth Dipes!

I find this story quite amusing so I thought I'd share.

I knew when I got pregnant that I wanted to at least give cloth diapers a try. I knew it would save a lot of money. Plus, the environmental impact of the estimated number of diapers one kid goes through makes me cringe. I knew I probably wouldn't be a full time cloth diaperin' mama, but I wanted to at least use cloth the majority of the time at home.

I soon became dizzy with all of the options available. A few people gave us some good old fashioned Gerber Birdseye pre-folds. I figured I could figure this out! So, being well versed in the ways of the web, I proceeded to search out videos on how to put a cloth diaper on a baby. I figured I could practice on my Cabbage Patch Kids til the real thing got here.

I found a video on YouTube. The gal had a pre-school teacher look about her. I opened her website in a separate tab. I then got interrupted or side tracked and left it for the night. The next morning, I sat down at my computer, anxious to learn all I needed to know about putting on old fashioned (and wayyy cheaper) cloth diapers. I was surpised that the preschool teacher's website had an "Adult Content" warning! Upon closer inspection, this fact was due to the content related to...are you ready for this? Adult Diaper Fettish!

I had no idea such a thing really existed. I mean I think I saw it on CSI once...

I had to laugh! I ended up seeing what the gal's video was all about and it turned out to be quite informative and beneficial. The benefit to her demo of ADULT diapers is that they were large so they showed up good on the video and I could see what she was doing. No, there wasn't an actual "adult baby" in the video. She just showed varios ways of folding and pinning the dipes.

Anyway, it was a real eye opener!

As it has turned out, we have had pretty good luck with the basic, dozen dipes for like $10 at Wal-Mart Gerbers and plastic covers. I am venturing into some other options and will share those in upcoming posts.

I had alluded to this experience to someone on Twitter and wanted to get the full story down.

My "Bucket List"

Here's my bucket list, a.k.a. "Things I Really Want to Do Before I Leave the Planet:"

1. See the Lion King on Broadway (check! circa January ______ I'll get back to you on the year)
2. Get Married (check! Accomplished 11/4/06)
3. Have a baby (check!) (Accomplished 1/19/09)
4. Go back to London as an adult (I went as a kid, somewhat against my will, and didn't appreciate it)
5. Own a home (we are SO close, yet so far!)
6. Go to a Billy Joel & Elton John concert (I was so close...there's a show this weekend in Oakland but I'll be at my Grandpa's memorial service - finally- in Brentwood that day). I'm not giving up! Maybe they'll tour ONE more time!
7. Get awesome seats at a George Strait concert with my mom and daughter! Three generations of Strait fans! Yeah!
8. Finish my wedding scrapbook
9. Make a log cabin quilt
10. Go to New York City in December for about a week: Take a carriage ride through central park, ice skate outside, see a show at Radio City Music Hall, eat yummy street vendor food!

More to come! Please share your bucket list with me!

Bringing You Up to Date!!

I am so excited because I finally finished a quilt top I started this summer (pic to follow soon). Well, actually my mom finished it. Anyway, it's DONE! I don't think I'll jump right back into this pattern (Disappearing 9 Patch) any time soon. I just think it is just a little too advanced for me.

Did I tell you I FOUND my missing binder FULL of patterns! YEP! I got my Yellow Brick Road, Rusty block, and many more back! I'm SO excited!

I remembered that our Mennonite friends had their baby a couple months ago now. Only I don't remember if it's a boy or a girl! If it's a boy, YAYY! I already have a Crazy 8s baby quilt in BLUE all cut out and ready to be put back together again!

Hugs!