Catching Up and Summer Vacation

 Our summer has been split between two things - working hard and having tons of fun.  Not the least of which was our two week trip back home to Utah over the 4th of July.  It was jam-packed with family, friends, and all kinds of fun including trips to the lake

 

hiking to Timpanogos Cave

 

riding horses (Kaitlyn did so at every opportunity - probably at least 5 times.  She's getting to be quite the horse-woman)

 

 BBQs, rodeos, collecting Brag Tags (fantastic program sponsored by Heber City - I'll talk about that more in another post), a night away for Sam and myself...
We've been madly scrambling  steadily and surely chipping away at the stack of orders and other To Dos that piled up while we were out having fun.  This past week, in particular, I put in a lot of hours out in the garage - way more than I want to think about when all I really want to be doing is splashing in the pool or having back yard BBQs with friends.  But the end result is that I have given myself enough breathing room to no longer feel stressed about getting orders out in the time frame promised.  And I can start working in a few smaller fun crafty projects like the neighborhood wreath-making day I have in the works, and this baby gift I just sent off.

I've cut back on the amount of crocheting I do, but I usually like to pull it out as one of my Go To gifts for new babies.  In this case I did a Baby Brother/Big Brother set of monster hats, with a matching applique onesie for the new little one.

 

 Kinda makes me wish my little ones were that size again, if only for a day.  Then I look at my quick-growing kiddos and am pretty happy with who they are right now.  And since it seems to be baby season again, it's not like I have a shortage of reasons to make cute little items or snag some cuddle time with a tiny one (without having to go through the sleep deprivation of having a newborn - hehe).  I just did newborn photos for a friend (still working on edits - that's a post for another day), have a baby shower in the works in a couple of weeks, and have at least two other friends due this fall.  I'd better get finding some new gift ideas and carving out craft time... :)

Baby Season (31 Days: Day 17)

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?  Not only am I finding that new babies seem to come in waves (the SEVEN that were born in my neighborhood last year are now coming up on their 1st birthdays!), but Fall also seems to have more than it's share of birthdays and new babies.  I have sent out at least two (long distance) baby shower gifts this month and have had a huge bump in sales on the pregnancy/new baby countdown blocks in my shop.  So I thought I'd share a few of my current favorite baby gift items, aside from my crochet hats, of course.

The first is a car seat tent.  I discovered this idea after both of my kids were too old for the infant seat, but oh how nice it would have been to use one of these instead of the blanket thrown over the handle that always fell off or got in the way.

Velcro straps hold it in place and don't get in the way of the carrying handle.

And I always add a strap with double clips so that the cover can also be turned into a nursing cover - you just put the strap around your neck and clip it to one side of the cover, giving yourself and the baby privacy for nursing and the security of knowing the blanket isn't going to be kicked off by a restless infant.  With the added benefit of being already attached to the carseat so no worrying about not having an extra blanket on hand.  Yup - I totally wish I had had one when my kids were babies and I make sure all of my pregnant friends have one.

Right now I have a stock pile of them - the pink/brown/green floral and this beautiful grey/teal argyle print for boys.  I'm so in love with the fabric.  But I can't figure out a single project for myself where I can utilize it yet...

And my other Go To gift is a set of countdown blocks.  I know you've seen these countdowns for holidays like Christmas, right?  So I was so proud of myself when the idea popped into my head to make a set for counting down to a due date.  Fun right?

I've done them in a number of fun colors and pattern variations, the most recent being this pastel combo with lots of greens and yellows.

So, what is your favorite baby gift to give/get?

Candy Corn! (31 Days: Day 12)

I am constantly amazed by the number of fun ways there are to recreate classic holiday items.  Who knew Candy Corn could be so cute?  But sure enough, I'm seeing all kinds of fun Halloween decorations and the like using the candy corn color scheme and I just can't help it - I wanted to make some too!  So far I've only had time to whip up a few candy corn crochet hats, but there are at least two more ideas I have on the back burner that I'm hoping to get to soon.

I'm not the only one with Candy Corn on the brain.  My friend Jessie made an adorable outfit for her toddler and we just had to grab a quick two minute photo session.  The little one wasn't in the mood to sit still, she just wanted to carry the pumpkin all over the place.  And my own children had just arrived home from school and needed homework supervision and dinner needed some attention too.  So it was quick and chaotic - but lucky for us, that worked!  Isn't she a cutie?!  I love the big blue eyes.
{I do believe Jessie has a pair of those adorable leggings listed in her shop if you're interested :) As for the beanie, it is in my shop too and I'm thinking about writing up the pattern.  If I ever get the time... }

Oh!  And let's not forget this little cutie!  He sleepily modelled all my new hats for me a few weeks ago :)  Aren't newborns just the best thing ever?!

 

 

 

A Little Show and Tell

I had the urge to blog today, but no idea what I wanted to blog about.  Does that happen to anyone else, or am I just a nut? :)

Anyway.  I realized that I probably haven't shared some of my more recent crochet projects.  I'm building up quite a collection of favorite patterns and ideas and it's getting hard to narrow it down to just a few to take to craft shows (well I haven't done any of those yet but I'm totally thinking about it!) or list on Etsy.  These are a few of not only my fav, but also some I think would still work well for summer wear.

Crochet cowboy hat and boots - cute right?  I came up with the boots pattern all by myself.  (insert big self-satisfied grin here)

My other monster hat is by far the most popular, so I came up with a double pom pom version.

And a fun lacey-type version of a cloche hat.  I like that you can change the look of it by switching out the flower for a different color or type or a bow or a hair fascinator or...

There - just like Show and Tell in Kindergarten I'm keeping it short and simple :)  Happy Friday! Linking to:

My First Crochet Pattern! Ruffled Baby Legwarmers

Good morning!  I'm feeling all productive today because for the second morning in a row I manged to work out and shower (woohoo) before having to get the kids ready for school. It's amazing what you can cram into a couple of hours when the motivation and energy are flowing.

I thought I would share a crochet pattern today - my very first attempt at writing one!  I made up a set of these baby legwarmers with a matching hat a couple months ago and when I got a custom order (you can visit my etsy shop here) for them this past week I decided I'd take the time to actually sit down and write up the pattern (as opposed to my chicken scratch notes I kinda sorta remembered to take when making the originals) and let you be my ginuea pigs pattern testers, ok?  Please, please try them out for me and let me know what you think, share photos, etc.  Thanks! 


Ruffled Baby Legwarmers – **Pattern  was available for free for limited time only, and will shortly be posted for sale.  (I'll add the link for that when available)  Enjoy the photos!

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Making Monday Marvelous at CRAFT

Hello Baby

Babies, babies everywhere! (none of which belong to me!haha) This morning I was at the pool with a small group of ladies from the neighborhood, three of which are pregnant - THREE! I'm positively surrounded, I tell you. Not the first time this has happened, but it still amazes me how these things seem to go in cycles.

My next door neighbor just welcomed her new addition home last week and I finally had the chance to meet him in person yesterday. Aww, babies are SO sweet and tiny! I didn't want to go over there empty-handed so I whipped up a set of onesies. You like? I've done these before (previous post here) and always like how quickly and easily they come together.
The rocket ship one is made with scraps from my latest car seat tent for the shop and I am in love with that argyle fabric. As in wanting to rush back to the store and get more THEN think of some sort of project for Tyler using it because I really really want to keep some for myself! :) But what would I make...?
Linking to:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Quick Sewing Projects

Since we did finally manage to get my sewing machine up and running (thank goodness for handy husbands!), I thought I'd share some of the small projects I was able to finish. First up, and really the whole reason I drug out all the sewing stuff was a car seat tent/nursing cover for my cousin. She's due in a couple weeks with her first baby and I wanted to get this in the mail to her before the little one arrived. Don't you just love that fabric?! I could very easily become a fabric junkie. It's a good thing I have very little reason to enter the fabric section very often or I'd have a whole stack of fabric with no real purpose, just because I loved the colors.

After I finished the baby gift I set to work turning these trift store sweaters into pillows for the living room sofa. I saw this idea a few months ago here and have been waiting for the chance to whip them up.

The finished product. Don't mind the lighting - it was a nasty rainy day yesterday and the colors are a bit off. The red is much prettier in person. And those pillows are oh so soft.

I also took the time to hem some of Kaitlyn's jeans, alter the top of her new swimming suit so it won't fall off her in the pool, reattach the binding to a blanket (that really should be replaced here soon - it's the one that we use in the living room and it's obviously seen better days), and glued the clips to the flower rosettes I made when I went to visit my friend Audrey 2 months ago - yikes! Now Kaitlyn has some pretty new hairbows for spring. And I can happily cross a whole bunch of little things off my To Do List!

Car Seat Tents

My new favorite baby gift are these cute car seat tents. I've been seeing them on all kinds of blogs lately and think I would have loved one when my little ones were tiny. And since we needed 3 (yes THREE!) gifts for this week's baby shower/card night, my friend, Dari and I whipped up our own version.

I had originally been trying to decide between these and those great nursing covers. But thought maybe just the nursing cover wasn't such a good idea - too personal, assumed that they were going to breast feed, etc. So my solution was to combine the two ideas. We made these little straps with the clips on the ends (found the clips at JoAnne's, near the buttons) that can go around your neck and hold the blanket up when you nurse. And since the blanket is already attached to the car seat, there's very little chance you'll end up out in public with nothing to cover up with. Genious, no?! ;) I love them!

And here they are all ready to go!

*Update: I didn't want to include a tutorial because there are so many great ones out there for the tents already. However since some of you wanted details I will give you a few.
-I bought 2 yards of fabric for each tent, then cut 4" off the edge. I used the 4" for the straps (one fabric for the straps on the handle, one fabric for the neck strap) and sewed the larger pieces together for the tent itself (pillow style - sew around most of 4 edges, turn it inside out then topstitch around all the edges) so the finished tent is roughly 32" x 43"
-yes, I did use velcro on the straps over the handle. The buttons are just for looks :)
-placement of the straps over the handle: I drew an imaginary line about 4" to one side of the center of the tent (because the part that goes over the feet needs to be a bit longer than the part that covers the head), then placed the straps about 6" (sorry I can't remember exactly, it's been a few weeks since I made these) apart in the center of that imaginary line.

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