Berrylicious Baby Shower

If I had to be honest and pick my ultimate dream job, I don't know whether it would be photographing beautiful food on beautiful dishes or planning baby showers/kid parties.  Not that my kids EVER get great parties, let's be honest here, but I'd do it as a dream job.  {I think my first two kids got a couple of rockin' parties, but after a while, they just become painful}

SO...Kadie and I have been working on a shower theme for my beautiful, ADORABLE sister-in-law and what could be more perfect right now than strawberries?!  {gasp!!!}  No pink rubber duckies or diaper pins here - we're going straight-up classy, sophisticated, and sweet! {oh, and no weird, miniature naked babies swimming in the punch, either...???...who does that?!}

Here's some of my inspiration so far!  The cute napkin below is something Kadie brought back from her vacay.  {she was gone so long I almost died}  It's the inspiration that spurred on this baby shower idea. 

...mmmmm....how beautiful is a basket of berries?!

The invites are almost done!  I took my file to Staples and had them printed - I TOTALLY pushed the easy button and it worked!!!  haha.  They look much better laser printed than on my home printer.

Yes, ladies, that is machine stitched.  AND...the name tag/jam jar stickers are from Wal-Mart!  ???  Who would have thought?!  They match my invites perfectly.  I'll  have to take back some of the horrible things I've said about Wal-Mart.

The best part?!  I went to one of many of our antique stores here and LOOK at the eye candy I found!  I'm in love with all of it - I haven't even put it away yet because I just want to look at it.  I have an illness, I know.

...mmmm....berries again.  I could never tire of them.  In a pink dish even?!  It's all so overwhelming.

SO - the planning will continue but here's a little taste of the fun so far.  I don't know what I'm more excited about - the baby shower or getting to snuggle a new little family member!!!  Ahh--life really is good.

**For my strawberry invitations, I used a digital scrapbooking mini kit called "Strawberry Patch" from Designer Digitals.

Clipped Fleece Blankey Gift Set

{humor me, if you will, while I ramble on about "Blankey"...}

When I was about 12 months pregnant with that little guy up there {or so it seemed like}, I decided that he needed some of his very own blankeys instead of the crap hand-me-downs he was getting from his older brother.  I got this wild, crazy "nesting" syndrome and made about 6 blankets in one day!!!  I was a crazed, over-pregnant blanket making machine!!!  Some were beautiful chenille-backed vintage cotton prints, some were warm, cozy flannel - and this one was just a random piece of fleece that I clipped.   You can guess which one quickly became his favorite.  What the?!  Go figure.  The simple clipped fleece blankey was his favorite from the moment he was born and it's still his special "friend".    The same thing happened with another girlfriend of mine - I gave her baby a clipped fleece blanket the baby also got attached to the soft fleece and little fringies.  Interesting, wouldn't you say?!

SO...it's anyone's guess as to what a baby is going to attach themselves to, but I'm telling you that these clipped blankeys have a very high success rate regardless of how simple they are.  They're SO easy, very inexpensive, and perfect for snuggling a baby with because they're warm without being too heavy.

On with it now...

Fleece Baby Gift Set

This little gift set is going to my very own, very first, flesh-and-blood niece who is my only sibling's first baby.  (did you get all that?)  My brother and his wife had their first baby and I'm ecstatic beyond belief! I'm also getting another little niece this summer who will live around the corner from me, so I'm going girl crazy with baby stuff!!!  Girl stuff is SO adorable!    

Here's how to make that little gift set:

You'll need a fairly large piece of fleece cut - about 1.5 yards.  If you are going to cut out a motif from the blanket, make sure the designs on your fleece are large enough to cut out.  

Then:  with pinking shears or plain scissors, cut your blanket size however large you want it.  With the remaining fleece left over, cut out a motif or even strips to stitch onto your onesie.  You could also save some for burpies, booties, or whatever else you want to make.

You can clip your corners however you'd like, but below is a photo of the way I did mine.  Corners can be tricky and this is my favorite way to do them.  (Rounded corners would be cute, too)

That's it!  Very simple.  You cut a rectangle and clip the edges.  Does it get any easier?!

On to the Onesie:

Before you do anything, make sure you wash, dry, and press your onesie.  I also prefer to use a lightweight iron-on fabric stabilizer on the underneath part of the shirt - just a rectangular piece that covers the upper half of the shirt.  It helps keep your stitching from puckering, it helps prevent large holes forming in the shirt where you stitch, and it's soft so it won't irritate a baby.

For the motif, use a teeny, tiny amount of fabric glue in the middle and outer areas that you DON'T plan on stitching on.  It's SO hard to stitch through dried fabric glue, so try to be careful, but tack it down nicely.  This will prevent you from having to fuss with pins.  If I don't have to use pins, I try not to. 

Then, using my handy-dandy stitch guide here, create something cute on your cut-out!  

I used pinking shears to clip out my flowers, so that added a little more detail to the flowers and I just stitched in-between the triangles.

It IS possible to over-decorate something like this.  Keep it simple without distracting from the fleece motif too much.  You want to add detail without overdoing it.

That's it!  What a GREAT gift!!  Wal-Mart had some cute solid colored infant pants for $2.00, so I grabbed some in every color in order to pair them with hand made tops.  If you ever see solid colored pants or skirs for cheap, get them and keep them in your gift-giving stash!

... I also did a quick little lollipop onesie {gasp!!!}  Simple, scrumptious, and hand-made.  

I love it.  Who wouldn't like something like this?!  (a wierdo, that's who)

Now go make something cute!!!

Crunchy Baby Tag Toy

Back when I had Brooke, my DEAR, dear, dearest friend Pam sent a package of baby goodies and within her box of creations was a cute baby tag blanket. It's soft, chewy, and Brooke loves it! {love ya, Pamsies!}

Lately, Brooke is obsessed with the crunchy, plastic baby wipe packaging and I can't change her diaper without {carefully} hiding it from her. So I'm making her a *crunchy* tag blanket toy and now we'll have one of each! One for quiet times and one for her to be loud with! Perfect!

This little project was simple - no special measurements, just eyeballing. You can eyeball, right? So go grab some fabric scraps, some ribbon scraps, and join me!

***Note: you don't have to make yours 'quilt style' like I did. You can just use one big piece of fabric, but I happened to like the busy fabrics together like this to add interest.
Now cut six squares of random pieces - five rectangles cut in half. I believe mine were 4 x 7 and then I cut them in half.

I also played with various colors of

trim on the square pieces and loved it! You'll want to sew those onto the squares before you piece them together.

Sew the squares together with right sides facing; press open

Then sew the rows together, right sides facing; press open.

Now I'm not a quilter, I don't have the nerves for it...and you can see why. Even though I measured everything, cut all of my squares perfectly square, they still didn't line up whilst sewing them together. WHY??? I don't know. But who cares, right?! It's still darn cute. (plus, babies don't care.)

Then you square up your lines with your rotary cutter & ruler after your pieces are all stitched together.

Now pin on your ribbons. Get creative, colorful, and have fun! Velvet textures are great, too, but I couldn't find any.

Now on to the crunchy part. This is a piece of the baby wipes packaging I cut up - I probably could have done a better job at getting a larger piece, but it isn't going to matter. The thing will crunch! But because it's smaller than my top and bottom piece, I'm going to sew it onto the wrong side of my fabric before I do anything else so it will stay put.

There! Now it's secure and not going to go anywhere. If you don't want this big of a piece, do strips, circles, or random patches on this bottom piece. That way you'll still get crunch without it being SO crunchy!

Next, you should baste your ribbons all the way around before you stitch the thing shut like I did, that way you can remove your pins. You don't want to turn this right-side-out with pins in it. {durh...wish I would have thought of that sooner...}

Then put right sides together, sew around leaving about 6 -8 inches opening in the side. Clip your corners and trim up the trimmin's - you know the drill.

Turn your fabric right-side-out; press flat.

Now you can put that last little ribbon in place while tucking the hole back into place.

Sew close to the edge all the way around, securing the opening and finishing the piece.

And that's it! Now go grab yourself a cute little baby and let 'em barf all over your hard work!

Brooke LOVES this, by the way!!! I even think it exceeded her low expectations. haha.

Baby Love!

"I'm in LOVE, I'm in LOVE, and I don't care who knows it!"--Buddy the Elf

I've been busy lately, to say the least. I found this vintage pattern at J0Ann's and the white cotton dress with embroidery caught my attention. I want to do an embroidered dress like that to match my cute booties! {aaak!} I'm dying from the cuteness!

So I bought the pattern, came home, and started my 'practice' dress and now that I have it figured out, I can make the white one without swearing up a storm. Sewing patterns are NOT fun for me and I have to go really slow...but CHECK IT OUT! I'm so in love with this little dress.

(the fabric is Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market...love it...yumm)

I've been making other stuff, too. Baby bibs, simple blankies, and even a little baby bling! I got the bib pattern from "Made by Petchy" and I tweaked it a little bit because I didn't like the perfectly round shape of it - and I love them! Now my child will have something pretty to barf all over!

Wellll, I think I've got enough crap for this baby!!! Maybe not. You can never have too many cute things, right?!

Until the big day, I'll stay busy and LOOK at what came in the mail!!! (last picture below) MORE yummy fabric!!! I screamed out loud when it came! I'm such a nerd!!! What else shall I make?!!!

Baby Booties Masterpiece

I love these shoes so much I can't even stand it. Think they would look cute on a necklace? Who knew making a little pair of baby shoes would be so darn fun?! I want a pair of these in my size - I wonder if I can make that happen???....prob'ly not.

A huge thanks to Heather Bailey for the UH-DORABLE pattern on her blog - and to my friends at the DMC Floss company for making the most beautiful thread. Seriously - it's all in the thread, girls. I used two different strands (see photo at bottom) - the green for the vine and the pink for the flowers....and I got this!!!! {aaak!}

Okay, so now all I can say is that these shoes better fit my child because...OH MY GOSH...I'll have a seizure.

Seriously folks - I stitched these shoes in an hour (and I just mean the hand-stitching, not the whole pinning and sewing thing) If you refer to my handy stitch guide, you could whip out a pair in no time for yourself. Just get some white felt, the shoe pattern, some floss and a needle and go at it, honey. (I got my felt at Jo-Ann's on the bolt.) The stitching is really, really, really easy. Play with it and see for yourself.


Of course, I couldn't just make the shoes - I had to have a onesie to go with them. A girl's gotta match, right?



If you do make a pair, I'm going to give one teensy pointer - (referring to the photo with the pins in the shoe) make sure you line up the top toes and the heel, secure, and then go around the edges. If you get puckering, don't worry, try to smooth them out the best you can without unpinning the toes and heel.

Up next: white on white. I'M DYING!!!