Baby Things

 
This weekend I'm going to a baby shower for a friend who is having a little girl in January!  I wanted to make something for the new wee one but am kind of burned out on monster wraps at the moment.  Plus, I wanted something the baby could use right away this time rather than have to wait till they're considerably bigger.  Sooo?  How 'bout bibs!

I perused the baby prints at the fabric store, but nothing really struck my fancy.  And since I was using Purl Bee's pattern which used pretty swank materials, I decided to use some bright girly fabrics I already had in stash from some girly aprons I've made.

They were so easy to make and I was able to put them together fairly quickly, so with the extra time I had, I also made a burp cloth to go with them.  I looked for some dimension ideas on etsy to see how big burp cloths are supposed to be, but it was a friend in TX who saved the day with size suggestions.  Thanks, Jeff!

Top stitching traditionally makes me nervous because I worry I'll botch up the finished product somehow, but it went very smoothly.

The only thing I'm not very happy about is the quality of the terry cloth I bought for the backing, i.e. not very good.  It was literally the only terry in the store, AND it was in the baby section, so it's surprising it's not very soft and it's a bit shedd-y.

The pattern called for snaps which looked really pretty in the Purl Bee pictures, but turns out I'm miserable with snaps.  I went back to the store and bought some last night, then spent way too much time trying to attach one....after two attempts I gave up and put some velcro on instead.  The velcro was much easier and may be more functional anyway for a new mom in a hurry to get the bibs on and off.  Screw snaps!!

If I make them again, I think I'll attach the velcro first before top stitching the whole thing so that the lines will match up.  But other than that,,,,,,,voila! 

Leonard is about the size of a very big newborn (12 pounds) so I was pleased the neck hole fit him just fine.  These bibs are definitely made for brand new babies though, and my friend will probably only get a few months of use before they're too small.  But then she can save them for her daughter to use with her dolls down the line!  Back to Leonard----he's the perfect fuzzy baby and proves that Jeff was right on with the size of the burp cloth.  Thanks again, Jeff!

And thanks, Leonard!

BOO!

Happy Halloween!

Last Bits of Halloween Craftiness

I actually made these a while ago and they've been hanging happily above my kitchen sink for a couple of weeks now.  Felt eyeballs!

With yarn optic nerves!

When I finished them (at night) I hung them with regular scotch tape from the window in the kitchen:

It was so nice to be greeted by them the following morning :)

For other decorations, I tried to find just a classic cardboard skeleton to hang on my door like my mom always did when we were kids, but couldn't find a good one anywhere.  THEN I found a link to this awesome shop online where I found not only a great skeleton, but the exact same one my mom had from years ago and various other haunts...

I've also had success with my first use of those weird window/mirror goos.....this little ghostie has done just the trick:

And I can't get over the tissue boxes I found this year....the monster candy corn makes me laugh every single time I see it!!

Finally, I remembered from last year that a local bakery down the street from my office made these amazing Halloween cupcakes, and sure enough when I checked yesterday, they had them again.  I only really cared about the eyeball ones, but the others are cute too.  No nasty sugar frosting either, just some kind of stiff creamy goodness....mmmm....

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Shout Out

Our friend Jessie is taking a cake decorating class, and I was floored today when I saw this picture of her creation - she should be on Cake Boss! It's a beautiful arrangement of Fall flowers in a lovely basket, all fully edible and magically delicious, I have no doubt (tragically, I live much too far away to experience an actual mouthful of this masterpiece). Good job, Jessie! Let us know if it tastes as good as it looks - if you can ever bear to cut into it!

DIY Halloween Decorations

Oi, more pumpkins!!  This time smaller and only one panel, reminiscent of pincushions past.  I used the same base as the purlbee cushion, but tied off the gather and topped with a stem.  I think winding the thread around the cushion would still look awesome, creating the signature grooves of pumpkins, buuuuut, this looks fine too, and is less work :)

Aside from pumpkins, I spent last night tracing out Martha Stewart shapes and cutting them out of plain black construction paper.  The jack o'lantern is kind of a pain to cut out, but totally worth it.  I still have one cat to cut out but am putting it off because the millions of little spikes to cut out are wicked daunting.   

Anyhoo, back to pumpkins.  They aren't scented like the big ones, and these are stuffed with regular polyfil for guts, but the same tiny silca beads for weighted bottoms.

(Gratuitous shot of p'kins on the counter with my new smiley face mug I never knew I couldn't live without until today)

I'm not sure where to put them yet for the Halloween season.......maybe gathered in front of my boyfriend's cookbooks?  

For now they're in a sort of centerpiece on the kitchen table with some sprigs of berries I walked 40 minutes up the road for yesterday thinking they were going to be bittersweet.  Ah well...........I just ordered a couple packs of retro Halloween pictures that will be here soon, and tonight I'm going to work on felt eyeballs!

I just can't wait!!

Pumpkins!

  

Like a lot of people, it's very rare for me to get excited for upcoming holidays as early in the season as craft stores (and malls) do.  BUT, for whatever reason, this year I am SO in the mood, and am already gearing up for cold weather crafting!!

I had been feeling really crafting lazy for most of the second half of the summer...but the recent change in weather and the fact I can smell camp fires again on a regular basis has made me antsy to get back on the sewing machine. 

So I thought of making my mom some stuffed, scented pumpkins and wanted to get started early enough so she could decorate with them this year.  I knew I wanted Halloween prints, and I've always had good luck with holiday prints at Hancock fabrics.  I love how authentic my spider print turned out to be---check out the little fella who ran down my real pumpkin during the photo shoot:

I'm also not well versed on sewing spheres, so I used this AWEsome tutorial from the Purl Bee for the basic ball, then added my own doodads to the top.

Well it never occurred to me that my resident pumpkin patch was also ready for the Halloween season.  Since I didn't plant the vine, I had no idea what type of pumpkins I had, so I tried picking one up and it came right off in my hands.  Turns out my pumpkins are wee, but I love them.

Unlike the real ones, mine are stuffed with potpourri, tiny silica beads for weight, and bamboo stuffing.  The top is a piece of felt and the whole thing is finished with a pipe cleaner stem and curly-q's. 

Hope my mom likes them!

Girlguiding UK!

The Girlguiding UK Brownie Annual for 2012 came out recently. What in the world does this have to do with me? Well, said annual includes not one but two cute little stories featuring my illustrations! I was very pleased to receive a copy today. It is quite nice - nicer than I realized it would be - and the print quality is very good, very true to the original artwork. At other times in the past I have sometimes felt disappointed when I saw the printed versions of my work - distortions, poor color matching, et cetera - but the annual looks great, and I was very happy with the whole experience.

Blog love

I just discovered my piece "Tea Party" featured on this lovely crafting blog, along with several other adorable tea-themed illustrations and crafts. Run over there and check it out!

Summer plants!

Hi!  We are now knee deep in summer, and with it has come some fairly brutal hot days, but also some nice surprises.  Take this for example:

This huge plant-y thing stated growing spontaneously at the foot of my stairs about a month ago.  I thought from the leaves and orange fruit blossoms that I was the fortunate recipient of a free zucchini plant!  BUT, I could tell they weren't regular zucchinis, and only after picking these four helpless "squash" did I realize it's actually a pumpkin patch in full swing.

I was so sad when I realized what I had done, but thank goodness there are still plenty more orange blossoms in waiting,

And even more pumpkin babies on the way:

But just look at this thing, it's huge!

Next up is my poor potted plant that is a skeleton of what it was when I bought it in May.  Poor thing either hates the sun, or heat or all of the above.  I moved it out of the direct sun and am keeping my fingers crossed for the future.

Everyone else seems to be doing ok though, and make me so happy every time I go in or out of the house.

A nice box of orange and red things with tyme planted in the middle (sorry I have no idea what the flowers are...I bought them because they're orange).

Another nice box, crazily growing with oregano, basil, parsley and rosemary!!  Mmmm...

Aahhh, I just love fresh herbs and have already used the basil on pizza and the tyme in a summery white wine/lemon penne primavera lately.  So, so good!

These black eyed susans were an impulse buy because I walked by them and couldn't resist.  So hearty and doing well on their own which is awesome.  I totally dig plant independence.

Last but not least - my tomato plant!  I absolutely love cherry tomatoes, and though I couldn't figure out exactly what variety this was going to be, I went with it because it said it was good for pots on a patio.

They're wee, but definitely bigger than cherry, so who knows.  All I know is how excited I was when I spied the first RED one!

I haven't plucked it off yet, but I can't wait.  Ack!  Summer!  Home grown plants!  Yeah!!