sweater overalls

just a quick pic of some sweater overalls i made for the little man. super easy and fun. just cut off the sleeves of an old sweater for the legs, sew a band around the top and make a couple of straps to keep them up. anybody up for a weekend at a swiss chalet?

warning: graphic

if you want to be whit's friend these days, you're going to have to put up with some uncomfortable moments. it starts off all sweetness and smiles, but things quickly go down a sloppy wet hill. just take a look at what i caught him doing to his penguin friend.


"a playdate with the penguin! won't this be fun? "



"yes!! lot's of fun! i wonder what we'll do?"
"hmm. this isn't going as well as i thought it would. maybe it would help if i got the penguin closer to my face."

"that's better, but something is still missing. maybe i'll try...."



"a penguin kiss."
"this seems to be going well."

"is it wrong to love a penguin so much?"

snuggly penguins

just another outfit i made for yet another person i know that's having a baby. a boy this time.

craft happenings

soft block for those budding teeth. lately i've been getting my face gnawed on whenever i get the little guy close enough to my cheek. i figure a nice soft toy would be nicer to chew on than me.



onesie remake. under the W is one of the many puppy dog choices offered in baby boys' clothing. i like puppies and all, but there are only so many i want to dress the boy in.




this is my favorite of all. it's a tiny christmas outfit for a new baby girl. aww. would it be wrong to dress whit in girl's clothing? alright... fine. i won't. but don't think it hasn't crossed my mind.

gratitude

warning: sappy

i have never considered myself an overly sentimental person but lately i'm such a sap. maybe it's all those folgers home-for-the-holidays commercials i've seen recently. maybe it's that i get to spend the holiday season at home this year relaxing and just enjoying my time. whatever the reason, i was so taken by a hallmark christmas commercial that today i bought whit one of their keepsake ornaments. it's so sweet and yes, so sappy.


i know a few girls who have known since they were small that what they really wanted to be in life was a mom. sure, they may have gotten an education and even pursued a career, but deep down they longed to be a mother. they just wanted babies and a life that involved endless wonderings and amazements at all things children related. i was never one of those girls. it's not that i never considered kids, it's just that i was having a lot of fun living a life full of other interests. at least i thought it was full... until this guy came. i never knew that i was missing something 'til now.

tiny tot

thanks to emma kate for letting us know that we're famous. okay, maybe not famous but whitaker and i did end up in a short video clip in our local newspaper. see if you can spot a baby elephant that you know...

autumn goodness

i've really loved having had time off this fall to enjoy life. autumn always makes me want to snuggle in and slow life down. i think it's the shorter days. time feels so fleeting this time of year especially when it's already dark by the time i get home. i'm feeling very thankful to have some time to enjoy the daylight during what would normally be my work time.


this is our kitchen table right now.

i think i'll go make a pumpkin pie...

growth spurts

i swear some days i look at this kid and he's grown overnight! if you read chris' blog you've seen some comparison pic's already. if not, take a look at what 3 1/2 months can do to a person.


oh, the moses basket... here it is when i first got it and was so excited to make new bedding for it. check out the changing table, too. i had it for a long time as a quilt rack. now it's home to a naked bootie more often than i'd like to think about.

here's the basket again, the first week we brought whitaker home. it's a perfect fit.


and again very recently filling up the whole thing. this week i did a very sad thing. i took the basket out to the garage for storage. whit's been sleeping in his crib for a while now, and as you can see he's too big to comfortably sleep in the basket any more. i hope he slows down a little because all this growing up is going way too fast for me.

snow day and gingerbread

today i wanted to pretend that i was at work. not because i'm missing it terribly or anything, but because it was a snow day. remember as a kid how you would wake up with sheer elation because school had been canceled? well, when you're a teacher, you experience that feeling each time you get a snow day! so today, i wanted to be back at work to have that absolution of any obligation and the only must is to enjoy the day.

this is our backyard about 20 minutes ago:

and these are the gingerbread cookies i made in celebration of chris getting a half day off of work:

here's the recipe if you want to make some yourself:

2 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup softened butter
1/4 cup hot water

mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. add molasses, butter and hot water. mix with electric mixer until smooth. refrigerate.

cut dough into thirds and work with one third while keeping the rest of the dough chilled. roll into 1/4" thickness on floured surface. cut with cookie cutters.

bake on ungreased cookie sheets for about 9 minutes at 375 degrees. cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to rack to finish cooking.

changin' it up

i had originally intended for this blog to only be about my crafting adventures, but i'm really itching for a more intimate space to record other things in my life. so this is it, and here we go!

happy baby
not to get too sappy, but we feel incredibly lucky to have such a nice guy as an addition to our lives. here he is proving that mice really are more scared of people that people are of mice!


good friends
i'm feeling so grateful to have a group of ladies to join up with in "mom's group". next week we're even crafting together. it's my ideal situation: good friends, cute babes, and creative juice. here's the kids from the group lookin' all adorable. whit's in the plaid pants trying to hold hands with a cute girl.

pinwheels for peace

okay, so i'll be honest: i'm finding it hard to come up with fun craft/sewing projects for an infant boy. there. i said it. i feel a little lame admitting it. like i should have all kinds of great imagingings floating around in my mind just waiting for me to pick one and breathe life into it. but truth is that all the things that i am drawn to seem too girlish. maybe it's a lack of inspiring materials lately. or that i tend to have more girly tendencies, which is surprising even to me. perhaps i should subscribe to some more blogs or mags or something. maybe i should be browsing etsy shops for more ideas. i don't know what the answer is, but i'm in need of new, cute, and doable projects that i can handle while caring for a newborn. anyone?

here is an idea that i did steal yesterday. pinwheels. esther mentioned that the international day of peace is fast approaching and that she plans on helping out with our school's "pinwheels for peace" project again. that got me thinking about how fun and easy it was to make pinwheels. while i have no plans to take on a school project right now (sorry esther), perhaps i could still make my own pinwheels. since i also had plans to make new mobile toys for whitaker's crib, i combined the two ideas into this:



there are some that believe that the quest for peace begins at home. if that is true, whitaker added about twenty minutes of peace to the world yesterday by joyfully watching his new toy. oh, to be a seven-week-old.

foxy gets replaced

and the verdict is... boy!! compared to foxy from my last posting, he's only slightly trickier to clothe, but tons more fun to snuggle. whitaker amsey came last thursday in the middle of the afternoon. chris and i couldn't be happier, though we're admittedly a little delirious from sleep deprivation. he sure is a handsome little devil, even if i do say so myself. here he is in his coming home get-up.


we gave the girl outfit to a couple who was in our labor prep class. they had their little girl last sunday. she was born with pneumonia and had an unexpected stay in the hospital. she's doing better and is expected to go home this tuesday. we wish them well.

i'm a little tired right now to actually do any crafting, but i have all kinds of ideas rolling in with the best inspiration i've had in a long time.

foxy

i had trouble deciding if i would post these pictures or not. something seemed slightly... hmm... jinxy about posting pictures of coming home outfits without having the actual baby on whom they belong. the truth is, i am so ready to have this baby be its own separate person outside of my body right now that i thought looking at these outfits would perk me up a bit. well it did help at least for a little while, so i thought i'd share. lest you think i'm crazy, (which at this point i very well could be) i don't normally spend time dressing up stuffed animals. its just that the fox is the closest thing that i have that is roughly the size of an infant. let's just hope for a smaller snout.


this one is obviously for a girl.
and this one is for a boy. you can feel free to guess which one you think will be needed. if you have a strong inkling, you have more than me.



i posted a while back about a blanket and sling my good friend esther made for partini. the background in this picture is the blanket. it's so luscious with cozy knit as the backing. the sling matches the blanket. i would take a picture of it too, but then ya'll would really think i'm crazy wearing a fox in a sling.



this last picture is of an alcove in partini's room. the flash on the camera wouldn't allow a good shot of the lights, but the top is lined with christmas lights, and that's actually a bulletin board hanging in the back. foxy is back wearing one of those new fangled cloth diapers. they're so much cuter than the old rubber pants.

do-it-yourself after-school enrichment program

though i'm not actually a mother yet, chris got me this hilarious parenting book for mother's day. it's called the three martini playdate. it's this woman's perspective on how parenting has gotten out of whack and now there is a whole generation of children who have entitlement issues. in part of the book she talks about parents running their kids all over creation to all these after-school programs. she has her own ideas about what would be good for children to be doing afterschool:

do-it-yourself after-school enrichment program
1. care and cleaning of barware
2. fun foot rubs for mom and dad!
3. finding neat hiding places to build forts and hide from parents for hours on end
4. skeddadling for beginners
5. emptying the dishwasher
6. the meditative qualities of furniture polishing
7. hospital corners and the well-made bed
8. make yourself scarce!
9. weeding for fun
10. deilicious snacks for mom and dad
11. the magic of sock sorting and clothes folding
12. the art of walking on tiptoes
13. chemistry in action! the gin fizz
14. letting mommy nap 101

somehow, all of these sound a lot more inviting than marathon-soccer saturdays. a few of them even sound similar to my own childhood afterschool activities....

getting closer

well, things here are getting more and more ready for baby partini. this weekend has been particularly productive. things kicked off with a baby shower on friday, courtesy of my workmates. special thanks to my bff for hosting too! everyone was very generous and we came away with lots of sweet things for the babe. then on saturday, chris patiently painted the room and we set up the crib. today, i got a few things to finish setting up the changing table. all in all things are shaping up nicely.


these are a couple of close-ups of artwork in the room. the first is from my mom. she found it at a thrift store. i had it mounted and reframed. i think it's a great piece. it's hard to tell here, but this is all cross stitched.


this one i got from etsy. the owls are so adorable.

at the baby shower, i got the best, best gifts from esther. i have to wait until daylight again so i can get good pics of them. she made a sweet little quilt and sling for partini. they really are perfect and even if i had hand-picked the fabrics myself, i wouldn't have gotten them as good as she did. thanks!!

rock a bye baby

spent some time today recovering a glider that i bought from craigslist. this is what it looked like when i brought it home:


okay not exactly like that, but you get the idea. it's made by dwell studios and i like that it ain't yo' granny's glider: overly stuffed and next to impossible to get out of. that said, it's not perfect either. it's a little squeaky and the gliding part is less than smooth, but i think a little lube should do the trick.i made the cover reversible and believe it or not, each cushion has a zipper. they aren't great zippers mind you, but they'll do when the covers need a wash.

the gray fabric came from my bff esther. you can see the curtains i made in the back. amy butler has such great fabric, it's hard to get it wrong.


this side is a soft chenille. the pillow i made from a thrifted sweater which came from the men's section. lest you think this sweater was misplaced by the thrift store staff, it even said "men's" on the tag that was sewn into the sweater. my apologies if your man is walking around in this sweater, but what man actually wears a sheep sweater? i can only imagine that this sweater was a gift given with the best intentions, but no actual clue about what men wear. this man probably kept the sweater for a few months out of obligation and then sneaked it to savers on a weekend when no one else was home.

there is really nothing special about this gown except that i wanted to share what fantastic color it has. i dyed it using dylon dye. i have never used it before, but will definitely be using it again. they have really good color selection and the dye takes really well.

Holy Moses!

today was a very domestic day filled with baking cookies and sewing. the cookies made for a welcome treat after a long day of using all my brain cells on this project. for those of you who sew, you're welcome to poke fun at me having to strain my brain on such a small endeavor, but i'll bet a few of you can relate to the seizure-inducing process of trying to create your own pattern for some hairbrained idea. this one was especially difficult because i couldn't find any premade patterns to reference, and it included an angling tube with a split in the middle.

i got this sweet little moses basket in the mail from my mom. when it came it looked like this:
it was cute as-is but i wanted to make it a little more personal, so i decided to recover it. the hood on the basket is detachable with velcro and i wanted to make the new cover so that it would hide the velcro part. ideally the cover would have fit over the foot of the basket in one piece, but the buttons work fine. i have to say that overall i am super pleased with the way it turned out.




i've also been busy sewing curtains and a crib bumper, but i'm waiting to post pictures until more of baby partini's room is done. tomorrow i'll start recovering the glider that we bought.

on another note, taking pictures of the moses basket reminded me of the story of moses and the bullrushers. no, it's not a typo. i'm not referring to moses and the bullrushes, i'm talking about moses and the bullrushers from huckleberry finn. if you aren't familiar with the story, here's a little quote from the mischevious adventurer : "After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people." oh, huck!

that's right, two days in a row!

just a quick posting here of a few onesies i made tonight for a certain little guy born very recently. chris says that if we have a boy he MUST also have a trout onesie.

keep your pants on

just a little bit of crafting here and there. i made some pants today for the wee one. i don't know if they'll qualify as pants as they seem a bit short. good thing he/she is coming in july or else its legs might get drafty.





i think the owls on these pants are just waiting for good times to happen. chris says they look like pac man ghosts. either way, babe is sure to have fun wearing them. it's a bit hard to tell from the pic, but these are made of thermal underwear material. it turns out it's much trickier to work with than i expected. in retrospect i should've done a better job at aligning the fabric pattern so that the owls match up. also the t is a much brighter green in real person. i dyed it today. i don't understand why there isn't a better selection of brightly colored baby clothes that are not covered in trucks, trains, baby animals, hearts, or whatever else that defines them as being for either a girl or boy.


i know you've seen this quilt in my previous post, but i'm just showing a couple more things that i'm putting together with it. none of the pictures show that it has a nice plum color in it, but the star matches color in the quilt.