I'll be MIA here for at least a week.

We're on a little vacation,

visiting my in-laws,

going to concerts (happy birthday to me!),

and doing fun stuff with the children.

little raw edged quilt

For a while I made flannel baby quilts

as gifts for all of our friends who had babies.

I am trying to phase this out,

combining my remaining flannel scraps into a few last quilts.

I decided to turn these pretty flannel scraps

into six inch squares

which I sewed wrong sides together

(talk about a weird feeling).

Then I clipped the exposed raw edges

and washed it,

creating a fuzzy, cozy, frayed-edged little blanket.

The clipping probably took as long as the sewing.

The back is made of a few green squares

and a lot of this vintage (?) pink print

featuring what appear to be tiny cat heads

sprouting from cotton plants.

(It's actually a little creepy.)

The colors worked, and I didn't have to spend money,

so I decided not to be too picky.

Cat head vegetation notwithstanding,

I love this little blanket enough that if the new baby is a girl,

I'm definitely keeping it!

blue and pink

I have been keeping my mom's sewing machine humming away busily the last few weeks! In addition to making my niece's Christmas skirt, I have put together three already-cut-out baby quilt tops (pictures to come when the quilts are actually done) and completed the blue-and-pink vintage fabric strip quilt for Sweet Pea.

The Front

The Back

(I bought the pink polka-dot fabric that I used for sashing

and the dark blue binding fabric

from my local quilt shop.)

In spite of a few math errors along the way, an extra trip to the quilt store, the inevitable issues with squareness from working with a variety of fabrics that were cut by hand, and needing to reinvent my quilting plan, I am delighted with how it turned out!  It is a comfortable lap quilt size which should be perfect for a toddler bed.  Sweet Pea already seems to like it and know it's for her.  I'm thinking about just giving it to her now instead of waiting until she's out of her crib.  We'll see. I love it when my projects are well loved.

caramel apples

While we were at the grocery store last week

Little Man requested that we make caramel apples together.

I was happy to agree!

We wasted no time and made a batch

of the gooey, crunchy, autumny goodness

last Monday.

Yum.

Handmade Christmas 2012

With a new baby due on January 1st, I decided that it would be wise to significantly scale back my handmade Christmas goals this year as well as to get an early start!  We drew my older niece's name for Christmas, and I couldn't resist making something frilly and pink.

I used a tutorial I saw a while ago to get me started, and made it my own by adding ombre ribbons to the layers of ruffles.

The little skirt goes equally well with both of the shirts I got for a steal off of the GAP Kids clearance rack. (My niece lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area, so light, summery clothes work for her almost year-round.)

I couldn't resist the addition of two coordinating hair bows.  I'm so pleased with how it all turned out that now I'm having a hard time waiting until Christmas to send it to her!

baby gift

a simple yet cozy two-sided flannel blanket

and one of the stash of crocheted baby hats

delivered along with dinner

to a new friend for her new baby girl

tiny, sweetly sleeping baby

makes it so hard to wait

until I can hold my own newest little one

letter P

fanciful monogram

to hang in the hallway

with our family photos

inspiration

brand new art journal

Inspired by Alisa Burke,

I began my very own art journal last month

I aim to do a little almost every day,

squeezed into the cracks of my busy-ness.

Really, it's more like play than serious art.

Perhaps that's one thing that makes it so refreshing.

Doodled while waiting for my

chicken gnocchi soup at Olive Garden.

Little Man's birthday

The boys were coloring and stickering,

and I was making sure

that Sweet Pea's experimentation with stickers and crayons

didn't head in the gastronomic direction.

She wasn't very pleased to share her crayons with me.

Autumnal musings with ink and colored pencils.

Sweet Pea's addition to my journal

frugal Cars themed party

When both of the boys enthusiastically insisted that what they really wanted was a Disney Cars themed birthday party, I heaved a heavy sigh.  I'm not against branded characters, but I do dislike the over-the-top craziness often exhibited at Character Parties.  Not to mention that anything with Lightning McQueen on it is likely to be at least twice as expensive as an equivalent Generic Race Car product.

After some careful thinking and planning, I was able to come up with a party that satisfied not only my frugality and preference for simple celebrations as well as the boys' love for Lighting McQueen, Mater, and the rest.  Here's what we did.

I used the generic Paint program on our computer to enlarge a racing checkers image I found online. I centered and printed the checkers and used my embellished paper to make these little favor boxes. (Free printable box template found here.) I customized them further by adding Cars stickers, and then filled them with sheets of stickers for our young guests.

We used another free printable that does not seem to be available anymore for the invitations.  They were cute, featuring Mater inviting you to a "tow-tally awesome party" or Lightning McQueen urging you to "race on over."

The cake was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I added still more racing checkers and some red frosting, and finished the decorations with a few clean Cars figurines and candles. (No, no one was turning fifty-three, it was simply a joint party for a five-year-old and a three-year-old, and I didn't have enough space to spread out the candles.)  I bought some Cars napkins to accent our red desert plates, and that was all!

The boys were both very pleased.  Everyone who we invited actually came to the party (a huge first for us as we usually have a very sad success rate with party attendees), and I think they even all had fun!

guest post from Little Man

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