I’ve Still Got It

We had our baby boy’s blessing at the beginning of the month. When I knew it was coming up, I thought about trying to make him something to wear, but I would always put that idea out of my head as quickly as it arrived. With a new baby to care for, I haven’t entertained the possibility of getting any sewing done; I figured it would be months before I took the cover off “Old Reliable” and had some quality time with her.

But I didn’t really have anything for my little guy to wear to his blessing. I had a white kimono, but I wanted something a little fancier for my first (maybe only?) boy. We went shopping on the Friday before the blessing. I didn’t know where to find a white blessing outfit for a boy, but I was more interested in putting him in some nice looking church clothes anyway. Well, we searched many stores with no results. They had handsome looking clothes, but the smallest size I could find was 12 months. Apparently, boys don’t like to dress up when only 0-3 months.

Getting desperate, I tried to settle for something that was close enough. That’s when my smart hubby put his foot down. He said we weren’t going to buy something when I could make something even better. I tried to point out to him that I would only have one day to make something when I previously gave up the idea of making something when I had 2 weeks. He promised me he would take care of the kids and give me as much time to work as possible. He figured it wouldn’t take me too long to throw together a neck tie onesie, but I wanted to take it a step further and try something new.

Here’s how it turned out:

I got this far, and my husband and I decided it was missing just one thing . . .

Elbow patches!

Now that made it perfect. I loved it so much, I decided to give it a name: The Dapper Onesie. And the family didn’t fall apart while I was making it. In the past, a project like this would have taken me several days and several nervous fits, but I think all the practice I’ve had lately has paid off. It still took me all day. But I had to make my own pattern for the vest (yikes!), and I had never tried either of the tutorials before. Cut out time for eating and nursing and taking over when baby only wanted mommy, and I think I managed pretty well. If I had had more time, I would have made some booties to match, but I consoled myself by saying they would have fallen off anyway.

I didn’t come up with this all on my own. I’m no creative genius. I have to glean creativity from all the other amazing people I find on the web. Here’s what I did. I combined this tutorial for the vest with this tutorial for the bow tie, and the elbow patches were all me. I love how it turned out, and it felt so good to actually get some sewing done.

And this is the part where I get to show off pictures of how handsome my little guy looked . . .with his two doting sistersI think he looks rather dapper, don’t you?

Oh, and just for fun, I thought I’d share my “repeat” song for my completed projects. I tend to listen to music while I work on things, and more often than not, one song dominates the others in frequency. I tend to pause what I’m doing to make my favorite song play again before I can get back to work. I thought it would be fun to share so we could compare tastes, and one day I can look back at what songs I liked at what time. For this project, my repeat song was “Come Around” by Rosi Golan:

I’m sharing this post with the following link parties:

What I’ve Been Working On

I know I’ve been rather absent around here lately, and I apologize. It’s been a rather busy summer. I just haven’t been able to keep up. And now I have an entirely new reason to fall behind . . .

My sweet little boy.

Weight: 7lbs 5oz

Height: 20in

Newborn smell: absolutely intoxicating

Parents: infatuated

Sisters: excited and proud

I am really proud of myself for accomplishing my third natural birth. I actually wondered whether I had it in me to do it again, but I pulled through. My husband was a wonderful support, and I had an awesome midwife who was there nearly the whole time. What an amazing experience.

I will try to get back to blogging sooner or later. For now, I’m just too busy snuggling my baby.

IHF: Let’s Hear it for the Boys!

I just love this picture of my husband and his girls. We had just finished a long hike. I wanted to get a picture of my girls in this pretty field next to the parking lot before we went home. The girls were worn out and wanted to be left alone to pick flowers rather than pose for a picture. I pleaded with my husband to try to get them to stand together for just a moment. He did what he does best: he played with them. This was the very first picture of the series, and I love it so much. I love my husband, and I’m grateful for the caring, attentive, and fun dad he has turned out to be.

This boy makes me feel like such a lucky girl!

To see more wonderful pictures of boys, young and old, click below to see all the entries at I Heart Faces this week.

Sisters

I just love to watch these two in their moments of peace.

When no one is pestering, pushing buttons, or being territorial.

The pleasant absence of screams.

When they actually look like they just might possibly be . . . friends.

A Little Pick-Me-Up

Today was just one of those days. The kids got up way too early. I tried parking them in front of the TV (because I’m such a good mommy) so I could get a little more rest, but I soon woke to screaming and fighting. The rest of my day, I  felt much like the mother pictured in this video. I’ve also been feeling sorry for myself today because it’s my 9 year anniversary with my sweetie, and I don’t get to see him until after 10pm because of grad school. Oh, how ready I am to be done with grad school! (And lets not talk about the doctorate program he will start next year or I might cry.)

So I thought I’d share this video in case any of you moms had a day like mine, or if you just need a little motivation. I can’t watch this without tearing up.

Gifts for My Sister

My beautiful sister had her baby boy last week. He was 11lbs 2oz (yes, you read that right) and 23 inches long. My mother flew out to Utah yesterday to be with her. I spent much of last week sewing so I could get things done to send with her. Here’s how things turned out.

First, I knew my sister had to have a nursing cover. This is her 4th baby, and she’s always used a blanket to cover up for nursing. I didn’t discover the joy of nursing covers until my second baby, and I can tell you, I’m never going back! I figured this would be the perfect way to spoil her during all that quality time she’ll be spending with baby.

I knew I wanted to make one with two layers of fabric. Last time I was nursing, I had two nursing covers, one with two layers and one with only one. I found that the cover with only one layer was too easy for baby to brush out of the way. One good kick would send that light weight cover floating off of all the parts I wanted hidden. I decided to make it reversible. Here’s the other side.

Even though there are tons of useful tutorials online for making nursing covers, I went a different route this time and got instructions from my friend who made mine. I altered her instructions just a bit, but I still think it turned out really well, especially for my first time making one. I think I might have to make myself a new one for my next baby.

Next, I made her a car seat canopy, or “greeter deterrent,” as they have also appropriately been called. This was SUCH an easy project to throw together! Well, mostly easy. I did run into one major snag related to my sewing supplies, but I’ll get to that later.

I love how it turned out!Adorable buttons.And for a little extra decoration, I did two rows of topstitching: green and aqua on the top layer and aqua and dark blue on the bottom layer. I’ll have to branch out and try some fancy stitches on my sewing machine next time. I’ll have to experiment and see what “Old Reliable” even has to offer in that department.

There are all kinds of great tutorials on the web for car seat covers. Cluck Cluck Sew’s is the first one I found. And here are a couple more:

Sweet n’ Sassy Girls

Just Because I am Me

I kind of read through the instructions on all of them to learn the basics and winged it when I actually did it. Any one of these tutorials would be really helpful to anyone wanting to learn how to make one.

And just in case there was any question that my house is occupied by little girls, I’ll give you a peek at what was hiding underneath the car seat canopy:

My littlest is obsessed with small dolls she can carry around. She has quite a few Strawberry Shortcake figures, but she’s constantly stealing her sister’s Tinker Bell fairies. She thought the car seat seemed like the perfect place to stash her “girls.”

Oh, and I guess I was going to tell you about my velcro catastrophe. I had all my supplies for the canopy, but when I purchased things, I purposely didn’t buy velcro for the straps. I knew I had plenty at home from one of my Christmas projects. Well, when it came time to sew on the velcro Friday evening, I searched my house and all my disorganized crafts (I’ve got to do something about that). I couldn’t find my velcro anywhere! After all my searching, I only had a little time to swing by Joanne’s before I had to be at my friend’s house for a girls’ night. Joanne’s failed me! They only had black sew-on velcro, and I didn’t want to buy the no sew white velcro (even though I could still sew it on) because it was more expensive. (I was feeling stubborn.)

Saturday, the day I was supposed to get things to my mother before she left, I went across town where there were several stores I could try to find velcro. I started at Wal-mart because it was the nearest stop. They too only had no sew velcro in white, but it was at least a better price. I was feeling a little more flexible, so I decided to quit my search and just sew on the sticky back velcro. BAD IDEA! Once I got home and tried it, my needle on my machine got so gummed up by the glue that it wouldn’t pick up the bobbin thread. My mother was running errands and then she was going to come by my house to pick things up. I took a chance and called to ask where she was. She was at Fred Meyer, but I had her check for it on a long shot. Long story slightly shorter: my mother and Fred Meyer saved my car seat cover!!

So all my blathering aside, just let that be a lesson that you make sure you have the supplies before you get started!

And I guess I won’t waste any more of your time with a rant about how hard it is to find decent prints suitable for a boy locally. Even things that are the right color have flowers or hearts these days! Have any of you had that problem?

My sister called me on Sunday after my mother arrived. She loves everything I sent for her. I also made the little guy a hat, but I’ll share that later.

What projects have you been working on? Have you discovered the joy of nursing covers? Do you know any places I could find great prints for boys that don’t cost $16 a yard? Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for 5 patterns from LuvlyGurumi (see sidebar)!

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*Personal note: given to Beth/Nathan

Priceless

2 round-trip train tickets to Seattle: $159

Hotel stay: $130 per night

Leaving kids behind for a few days: 1 grandmother’s sanity (and grandpa helped)

Monorail to the Seattle Center: $2 per person

Adult admission to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum: $15 per person

Spilling the beans that there are 3 of us in this picture: Priceless

IHF: Anything but a Face

The theme at I Heart Faces is rather different this week. They usually ask that a human face be visible in every entry. This week, they want a human but not a face. I knew just what photo I wanted to enter. It may not be earth-shattering as far as photography goes, but it’s meaningful to me.

My hubby reads stories to the girls before bed. I love that time of night because everything calms down. Nothing is required of me. The kids are happy and spending quality time with their dad, who reads to them with all the voices, sound effects, and gusto a little girl could possibly hope for.

And I just feel so content.

Bedtime Stories

Favorite Photo from 2010

I was going to sit down tonight and glance through all my photos from 2010 to decide which one to enter in this photo challenge from I Heart Faces. But I already had a pretty good idea in my mind which photo I was going to choose. When I asked my husband what he thought, as I often do when I can’t make up my mind, he mentioned the same photo I had been considering. So I don’t think I’ll go through all the photos after all. Allow me to show you my favorite photo from 2010.

This is my father-in-law. He agreed to cooperate with me for one of my photography assignments while I was taking a class earlier last year. It was a photo journalism assignment, so I took pictures of him while he was in the process of making his pottery. I took a few portraits of him standing outside his studio before we got started. This was the first time I had ever tried taking portraits of someone other than my kids and husband. I was nervous, but he was being himself, kidding around the whole time. I really enjoyed taking this photo, and I love how it captured him. He is such a fun, kind man who has so much love for his family (especially his grandchildren—he even prods me when he hasn’t seen enough photos of them on the blog). I’m so glad to have this photo and to have been able to share it with the rest of our family.

Go check out the other favorite photos from 2010 at I Heart Faces by clicking the link below.

Family Photos 2010

All photos taken by Shonda Barlow Photography.