Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Baby Bow Factory

Yesterday I took my bff Amanda on her maiden voyage to Hobby Lobby, where we found these perfect little baby hats. I have been searching everywhere for these! It was like Hallelujah started playing over my head!
 And I pulled some of these crocheted headbands out of my stash...
And with a few spools of ribbon and a couple silk flowers...
We ended up with these...
A sweet lavender daisy...and a pretty pink peony...Mama's favorite flower.
Big, bouncy, colorful bows...
And a special camo bow...just for her Army serving daddy.
They attach to the headbands and hats with alligator clips...so they are totally interchangeable! {Kudos to Amanda for this ingenious tip!!}
I think a baby with a big old bow on her head is just irresistible.
Good thing this baby girl has one for every day of the week now. :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pardon the Interuption

If I'm a little MIA this week, it's because I'm very busy and important. No, no, I'm only kidding! But really, one of my bff's is in town visiting for the week!!! There's nothing like having a great friend around to chat & be yourself with.
{Is it sad that the last picture of us together was from her Bachelorette party over 3 years ago?! Maybe we need to add picture taking to our itinerary this week!}

 Yay for girl time, shopping, and yes, of course...crafting! More on the crafting later. :)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Nursery Inspiration

Hey all. We are having some crazy thunderstorms here in PA and I'm spending my Saturday night toasty and dry on the couch, searching for baby girl nursery inspiration. I thought I'd share what I'm currently swooning over for Baby G's nursery...

I'm in love with all this lavender...
















And I love the stenciling on the wall here...I just might have to try this.


I love the preppy argyle wall, and the cornice boxes paired with sweet bubble window treatments here... 


I love this idea...framing fabric for a simple, easy and inexpensive solution for wall decor.


And not a true nursery, but how darling is this room?


And what baby girl doesn't need a chandelier in her room?!


Thanks for sharing in this adorable cuteness with me! 
Now I'm off to convince my husband that a chandelier is completely practical and necessary for a newborn. :)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Pottery Barn Knock Off: Nursery Word Plaques

I have spent many a night searching the beloved internet for nursery decor for Baby G. Forever ago, I fell in love with these word plaques from Pottery Barn...

As usual, I didn't love the $150+ price tag...so like any good DIY gal, I made my own!
{Excuse the horrible backdrop. I was out of ideas on how to photograph them since I couldn't hang them on her nursery wall...it's not even close to being put together yet! The only space I found that was big enough was our glamorous cement patio...gorgeous right?!}

I loved them first for the simplicity of the idea...taking pretty colors easily pulled from the nursery..
And I also loved the idea of using simple words with a simple meaning. 
I changed the "laugh" to "dance"...(this mama has a soft spot for dance in her heart!)
And how appropriate was this one since her daddy's a pilot!
But all the words make me smile, since they're all things that I hope our baby grows up to do!

Pottery Barn's plaques are painted. I am by no means an artist, so I took an easier way out. 
Follow along and I'll show you how I made mine using:
 wood, craft paint, scrapbook paper, and Mod Podge.

I picked out a patterned scrapbook paper and a coordinating solid color for each plaque. Then I matched up a tube of craft paint to match each paper. Since I was making 5 plaques, I had 5 different designs of paper, 5 different solid colored papers, and 5 different colors of craft paint. You'll need a few pieces of each patterned paper, depending on how big each plaque is.

First, I bought a 10 foot piece of 8 inch wide pine at Lowes. It was around $8. I had my hubby cut out 5 lengths of board, according to the dimensions shown on the Pottery Barn website. {I decided to not use the name plaque since I plan to put her name into the room elsewhere.}
If you don't have power tools, you can have these cut FOR FREE right at Lowes or Home Depot when you buy the board! {We had our big long board cut into two sections so that it would fit into our vehicle.}

Next, I painted the edges and sides of each plaque.
Then, I cut the patterned scrapbook paper to fit each plaque, and used Mod Podge to glue it to the front of the board. I just used a foam brush and slathered the Mod Podge onto the board, and placed the paper carefully in place. Make sure to smooth it out quickly with your finger tips to get all the air bubbles and wrinkles out. I added Mod Podge on top of the seams and the edges to make sure they didn't peel up.
Then came the not-so-fun part. I printed off letters from Microsoft Word and cut them out...to use as a stencil to trace onto the solid colored paper, to then cut out again. Does this make sense? Probably not. And this was probably not the quickest way to do this. {The quickest way would have been to put myself out of my misery and buy a Silouette! Siigh.} But this seemed to be the easiest, and cheapest, way to me. However you want to arrive at it, you're going to need the letters of each word cut out of the solid scrapbook paper.

Once you have all your letters cut out, glue them onto the boards with more Mod Podge!
Finally, apply a finish coat of Mod Podge (or you can use spray sealer) over the entire board. It will all dry clear & protect your hard work. Woohoo! You're done!
Now hang those pretty plaques on the wall and make your little one smile!

{Of course these could easily be changed up to go in a little boys room! The best part about making something yourself is that its 100% customizable!}

Linking to:
Blue Cricket Design




Photobucket


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Tulips and Cherry Blossoms

G and I spent the afternoon in DC soaking up the delicious aroma of those gorgeous cherry blossoms...
Don't you just want to eat them up?
Although I think we saw more of these beautiful blooms covering the ground than their trees...
{Couldn't you just crawl under that tree and take a nap?}
Either way, the air smelled oh so scrumptious.
And even Mr. Robin posed for a pic...
Guess there's no arguing that spring is officially here!

Hope you all had a great weekend soaking up the joys of Spring! 

Friday, April 8, 2011

Baby closet dividers

Happy Friday all! First, I wanted to say a big thank you to Rachel at One Pretty Thing and Anne from Craft Gossip for featuring my Baby Jean Jacket tutorial. Thank you ladies for sharing my tutorial! (And if you're stopping by from these links...welcome!)

Today was a rainy, dreary, cleaning house kind of day so there wasn't much time for sewing or crafting. But I DID manage to steal a few minutes today to craft up a quick solution to a disorganized closet...

She is over 4 months from being born, and Baby G is already getting quite a stash in her closet! I decided I needed a way to keep all those itty bitty outfits organized.
Closet organizers are a great way. These can be purchased online...and in stores, I'm sure, although I've never looked for them so I don't really know. Anyway, I didn't really want to spend the money since we wouldn't be using them long...just until she outgrows that size of clothing. (Is it sad that already makes me sniffle a little to think about?)

So I made my own with some supplies that I had on hand, and couple of cheap extras from the craft store.
I used 4 pieces of felt, a package of felt stick on numbers, ribbon I had on hand, and 4 plastic hangers that came with some outfits I had bought.
I snapped the long pieces off of each hanger, and then wrapped the neck in ribbon.
I cut two 4"x8" pieces of each color of felt, and stitched the sides and bottom with a zig-zag stitch.

Then I hot glued the hanger inside of the top opening in the felt, and added a strip of ribbon at the top and added the numbers according to the size.

I made some quick felt rosettes and hot glued them on for a pretty little touch.
It was a super simple project that took about 30 minutes and cost less than $3. 
And now I can keep her adorable wardrobe nice and organized! 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Project In Progress

Here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on this week...
Do you ever have a project that takes over your house? This is slowly becoming one of those projects! My poor husband! I'm a big fan of a "big reveal", so I wont tell you what it is...but I will tell you that it's a project for Baby G's nursery that I'm super excited about! I am hoping to finish by this weekend...so check back soon!
In the meantime...any guesses?!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Baby Jean Jacket! A Tutorial

At first I thought this was a ridiculous project. But anyone who knows me for longer then 5 minutes will know that I love the 80's. When I told my husband that I was making Baby G a jean jacket, he replied "The sooner we educate her about the 80's, the better!" {See why I married this man?!} 

So I quickly snapped out of it, realizing that a denim jacket for a newborn was a completely practical idea. 
And Baby G now has her very own denim jacket! 
Complete with cute little cuffs...
And itty bitty pockets {very practical for storing her hot pink lipstick or the keys to her Thunderbird.}


All made out of an old pair of jeans rescued from the Goodwill pile!
Does your baby need his or her own jean jacket? Of course they do.
Follow along, I'll show you how.

As a reference, here I made a size 3 month jacket out of a pair of Old Navy size 4 jeans. This tutorial has lots of steps so is a little long, but I tried to use a lot of pictures and keep it as simple as possible!

Cutting out your pieces.
Start with an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, jacket or sweater the size you want the jacket to be. You'll use this as a guide when cutting out your pieces.
Using your sweatshirt as a guide, cut out the section of the pant leg that is the same length as your sweatshirt.
Now, open up the pant leg so you have a wide piece of denim.
Using your sweatshirt as a guide, cut out the back piece of the jacket out of the wide piece - centering the seam down the middle of the back. Cut out the front pieces as well, which I cut out of another section of the pant leg. As long as the pieces are symmetrical, they don't have to be perfect. You should end up with 3 pieces like this:
Next, using your sweatshirt sleeve as a guide, cut out the sleeves. (I wanted the detail of the jeans pant leg seam to show on the sleeve of the jacket, so I cut accordingly. You don't have to, but I think it adds a more "authentic" look!)
 You should have two sleeve pieces that look like this:
Next, cut off the waist band of the jeans. You'll want to leave a half inch of denim BELOW the thick waist band so that you can later sew it onto the jacket. (This will become the bottom edge & cuffs of the jacket.)
I didn't picture it, but you'll also want to use your seam ripper to remove any belt loops.

Next, you'll want to cut a long strip of denim out of the pant leg. I didn't measure this, but it was about 5 inches by 24 inches. Iron this in half, wrong sides together, like below.

Sewing it together. 
Take your two front pieces and iron the inside edge toward the wrong side 1/4 inch, then again a 1/2 inch. Pin, then stitch.
Place front pieces on top of back piece, right sides together. Pin at outer sides.
Stitch together. Do not stitch the arm holes though! (You may also want to zig-zag the edges to prevent future fraying.) Open up seams & press.
Next, with right sides together, stitch along the top of the jacket, from the arm holes to the neck hole, on each side. (Realized I forgot a picture of this part.)

Next, take your sleeve pieces and with right sides together, stitch up the open side. Turn right side out. Press.
Now pin the sleeve into the sleeve opening of the jacket, with right sides together.
Stitch together. Turn the jacket right side out, and press. Your jacket is starting to look like a jacket!
Take the jeans waist band you cut earlier. Cut a section long enough to fit along the bottom of your jacket, and two pieces for your sleeve cuffs. Turn the edges of each piece in and stitch.
Pin the long band to the bottom of the jacket, right sides together. Sew together.
Pin the cuff to each sleeve, right sides together. Stitch together. (This part was difficult, as the sleeve opening is itty-bitty. It might be easier to sew your cuffs on before you stitch your sleeve closed!)
Now we're going to sew on the collar. Take the long folded band of denim you cut earlier. Open up your jacket, right side facing down. Pin the band, raw edge side lined up with the top of the jacket. You'll want to leave about an inch overhang of the denim band on each side. Stitch together.
Turn your jacket wrong side down. Fold the collar up and over the back of the jacket. Press. It should look something like this from the back:
Now you'll want to finish the edges of the collar. I just folded the raw edge under and pinned, like below:
Top stitch along the outer edge of the collar. I did two lines of top stitching, just for looks.
Now let's add some pockets. I made one pocket for each side. Take the back pockets of your jeans, and cut into a teeny, tiny pocket to fit your jacket, using the finished top edge of the jeans pocket as the finished top edge of your jacket pocket. Pin onto jacket. Zig zag stitch around the sides and bottom to secure on.
Finally, I added some little buttons along the left side of the jacket. There are no button holes on the right side, so these are just for looks, but I didn't think it was necessary to actually button up the jacket. You could certainly add the button holes, or use snaps, or whatever you can dream up.

Hooray! We're done! If you're still following along, congrats. I hope that you aren't passed out on your sewing table or pulling your hair out. I really am NOT an expert sewer, so this project is not as scary as it may seem! I promise. 

Anyway, it's a totally customizable project for a boy or a girl...change the buttons, add some appliques, use a colored denim? The possibilities are endless! 

No need to spend big bucks at the mall. 
Go ahead and rescue an old pair of jeans from the trash, 
and make your little 80's child at heart their very own jean jacket for free!

Linking up to:

Photobucket