I stumbled upon this project while I was perusing the blogs from my giveaway comments (thanks, Lisa!) and I thought it was such a cute idea. And since I um, have nothing but free time I decided to join in the fun. This is a picture of her progress so far. I know she'd love to have more squares if any of you out there are interested (it only took me about an hour to finish mine). And it will be super cool to see the finished product (which will be a quilt, I think). I love the internets.
...but it's raining babies now! Ok, maybe not raining babies. Just isolated baby showers (bu-dum-bump! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week). Sorry. Moving on. So, there is one little baby boy baby on the way, expected by my dear friend, Jennifer & her hubby, and I got to co-host the shower here at my house. It has been about 7 years since I last hosted a baby shower (that sweet little baby is in second grade now) so I was very excited to hang up the baby clothesline again (yes, I still have the 7 year old clothespins). And luckily, one of my co-hosts, Azure, went a little overboard with her buying so we had TONS of adorable clothes and stuff to hang. We pretty much decided to forgo a formal theme and just decorate with clothes, food and sweets. We did have a few flowers and balloons but the cupcakes stole the show (yum!)
I have also been wanting to make a reusable felt banner for years now to use for birthday parties and such so I decided this was a great excuse to finally get it done (plus, I was really trying to keep paper and plastic waste to a minimum). But then I started thinking that I should make the banner as a room decoration/gift for the baby instead of keeping it for myself (how unlike me!) And since the Daddy-to-be is a huge (rabid) Cubs fan I decided to go with that. (My own children are rabid Cubs un-fans so I got a lot of grief for hanging this up...Cubs?! Are you kidding? Mom! Take that down! I'm calling Papa & Sue right NOW!) The baby's name will be Maston, in case you couldn't figure that out from the photo...(in which case you might want to put the malt liquor down).
The last gift I made for baby Maston was a little embroidered onesie (done mostly in the stem stitch for those who care to know). I altered the traditional Cubs colors to make it look a little more babyish and sweet but I think the Dad-to-be will forgive me. It's hard to tell how small this 0-3 month onesie is from the photo but I'll post a picture of the little munchie inside it come November so y'all can see. I can't wait to hold him and kiss him and smell him and love him and call him George.
And that means it's time for my very first giveaway ever! One lucky commenter will win their very own super cute acorn-hat-wearing-squirrel embroidery kit. And when I say kit I mean everything you will need to get this project done! Ok, well, maybe not everything..for example, not scissors, a transfer pencil, an iron, a hoop, and not fabric nor free time. But everything else (one pattern, one color guide, 4 skeins of floss and a needle all packaged in a super cute envelope tied with a bow-that's right! A free bow! Wow!) All you have to do is leave a comment below and I will pick one comment at random by say, Friday the 25th of September. That gives y'all a whole week to think of something clever to say (but don't stress, cleverness is not required). So comment away and good luck! I hope you win!
And if you don't win (or you just can't wait until next Friday), don't be sad. The squirrel kit can still be yours. Just head on over to Etsy!
My friend here in town had a little baby girl about a week ago and I am hoping to get to meet her this week. She is a tiny little thing, only 6 lbs at birth! Can you imagine how small and yummy she will be? I can't wait to hold her and nuzzle her and smell her sweet little head...I'm actually drooling.
Anyway, I don't want to show up for my visit empty-handed so I embroidered her monogram on a little onesie and made a teeny tiny itty bitty little skirt to go with it (it looks like it's for a babydoll). I have no idea if the skirt will fit because I was totally winging it on the measurements...and the um, pattern for that matter. But I wrote down all of the raw measurements and seam allowances and took photos of the whole process (nothing is spontaneous anymore!) so I can make a little tutorial if it works out. And if it doesn't, I can send the skirt to Willa for her babydoll and I have lots of that cute pink fabric to try again. With the measurements this time...and maybe a pattern. Or wait, maybe I'll just do a tutorial for a doll skirt...
With all of my hoop talk lately, my friend, Pam, coined a new nickname for me: The Happy Hooper. Cute, no? Well, I liked it so much I decided to draw it up and make a shirt out of it. This Happy Hooper (clearly not modeled after me if you know me) is supposed to look like a retro pin-up girl (which is um, NOT my body type no matter how much padding I use...) She is done almost exclusively in the stem stitch. I have a few other versions of her that I like as well so I am working on some embroidery patterns/kits/shirts for the shop. They should be ready in the next couple of weeks...assuming I can stop hooping long enough to work on them...I'll keep you posted.
If you've been playing along at home then you know how much I love to make baby blankets, especially now that the opportunities are becoming fewer and farther between (and especially when they are for baby girls!) This one is for my college friend, Kristin, who just (ok, 6 months ago) had her second daughter, Olivia. She is about the sweetest little baby you have ever met and has a super girly pink room full of butterflies. Lucky girl (Kristin, I mean).
Anyway, many years ago, I read somewhere that people with initials that spell something cool actually live longer than people who have either boring initials or really bad ones (like my brother-in-law who is DUM). I'm not sure who paid for that study...or who even thought of it...but if there is any truth to the idea then I expect sweet little Olivia will live a good long time.
Funny, you don't look like one.
When Alana and I were little we had a book that we loved called Arm in Arm (you can read the whole book on that link!) by a wonderful author/illustrator named Remy Charlip. It is a book filled with little nonsense verses, endless stories, one act plays and the most wonderful line drawings with rainbow fill where everyone and everything is smiling. I could get lost in the book for hours just looking at the pictures and imagining myself warm and cozy in the big rainbow bed with the snow falling outside...*sigh*
So there is a 10 line play in Arm in Arm that Alana and I used to act out regularly (when we weren't driving people crazy with the story of Pete & Repete or Ask me If I'm A Boat) called Tea Party with Mrs. Haggarty and Lady Agatha. I always wanted to be Lady Agatha because even though she was kind of dim she was very pretty. Alana always let me, of course, because she loved me.
Hey...wait a minute.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I started thinking about Alana's birthday gifts (I needed to get an early start since her Christmas gifts were 3 weeks late...) so I was looking in my bookshelves and I came across Arm in Arm. Before I even got it off the shelf I knew exactly what I wanted to embroider for her. I only wish I had done it on a wall hanging instead of tea towels because I'm afraid she might not use them (or maybe I'm afraid she will use them and then I'll have to kill her). So finally the wait is over (a real drawback of early/on-time gifts for sure). Today is Alana's birthday! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Alana...happy birthday to you! Would you like to join me in a cup of tea?
I can't believe I'm actually saying that. For several years there I could barely keep up with all of the babies. It seemed like I was making a blanket-a-week and embroidered onesies were coming out of my ears! But now, it's been at least a year since any of my local friends or family have had a baby shower. Or a baby for that matter. I have had to carefully and purposefully avoid the flannel aisle at the fabric shop forever (there is always so much cute blanket flannel when I don't need it!)
For actual baby showers, I prefer to give an embroidered onesie along with something practical. I wait to make the blankets until after the baby arrives. That way, if I have an opportunity to buy super girly and/or pink fabric I can take advantage of it. And more importantly, I can add the baby's monogram in order to comply with North Carolina statute 6413 (which states something along the lines of "anything that can be, shall be monogrammed, preferably in hot pink but other colors shall be permitted on a case-by-case basis such as when the item to be monogrammed is hot pink and then chartreuse shall be permitted").
Anyway, the new baby is a boy and his parents are big into sailing. You might not know this (I didn't until we moved here) but there is a nautical flag alphabet. Since the parents-to-be will not disclose the name of the baby-to-be I used the last name for this onesie. This was supposed to be a very simple and easy project but like most of my projects I found a way to make it incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. I'm not thrilled with the result but I am thankful that their last name is only 4 letters long.
No? Well. Here they are. For real. I decided this year I should start having a little fun with this. I mean, the little old ladies won't even get it so who am I really going to offend? I might catch a few people off guard...but that's funny! Right?
I also made this hat for her. Could you die? I came *this* close to asking Alana to open it early because I just couldn't wait to see it on...unfortunately Willa has the GIANT Reynolds noggin and the hat didn't even come close to fitting. Soooo, I guess I'll be making another one...
