Three Peas in a Pod

Ema gave O this very special "big sister" gift when O came to see her in the hospital the day after she was born. I debated over whether to have Ema give O a gift, but when I saw this pea pod gift set I knew it would be perfect. I love the fact that it is handmade and so original. It is beautifully made and perfect for imaginative pretend play. O loves it, and I'm sure it will be an heirloom toy that she'll one day pass on to her own children.

A Crinkly Taggie Square for Baby

Last week I made several crinkly taggie squares for Little Kicker and our new cousin. (maybe she's making us wait so long because she knows we're making things for her...) These fabric squares were very easy and quick to make.

1) Cut out 2 squares of coordinating fabric. I made my squares 5 x 5. Cut a piece of crinkly paper to fit the squares. I used a cereal bag.

2) Pin the cereal bag square to the wrong side of one piece of fabric.


3) Sew around the edges.

4) Pin the two fabrics right side to right side with a ribbon sandwiched between them on each side. Sew around the edges, and don't forget to leave a small opening for turning.


5) Trim the corners, turn, and topstitch. My mom did the topstitching, since I still have trouble sewing a straight line :)


I'm REALLY happy with how these turned out! The idea for this project came from a link on a friend's facebook page. Her tutorial is much better than mine :)

Not So New Pillowcases

Guh-guh loves to make pillowcases for her grandaughters, and she had a little time to make a few last week while we waited (and continue to wait!) for Little Kicker.
She made a small pilllowcase using our old Strawberry Shortcake sheets and Holly Hobbie sheets.

Here's the Holly Hobbie side.

She also made a standard size pillowcase out of each material. The Holly Hobbie sheet was previously a curtain (about 27 years ago), and we also used both sheets on O's I Spy quilt.

Vacation Books

I've accomplished a lot of tasks while waiting for Little Kicker to arrive (I REALLY thought she'd be here by now). I finally finished these 5 vacation books for O that I started almost a year ago. I'm glad to finally cross this off my list! To make the books I used 8 x 8 cardstock and glued a picture to each page. I wrote captions on the computer, printed them, and glued them to the pages. Then I laminated each sheet, cut the extra lamination off, and bound the books together. This was really easy to do, and I don't know why I've let it sit around for so long.

On-the-Go Clothesline

After seeing this clothesline set on Etsy, I knew it was something I wanted to make for O (she needs to practice hanging her baby doll clothes since I'm expecting her to help me hang Little Kicker's diapers once she arrives :).

To make this set, I cut a piece of yarn and tied a wooden bead to each end. Done! I gave it to O with 9 (all that I could find) clothes pins and a bag for storage. I wouldn't recommend using yarn since it's already broken. Also, she is closely supervised when playing with this since the clothesline is a potential strangulation hazard.


O was thrilled to tie the clothesline between her chairs and hang her baby doll clothes on it. She has been playing "baby dolls" contantly these last few weeks, so this was perfect for her :)

Embroidered Dolls

My mom and I have accomplished many projects while waiting for Little Kicker to arrive. I was so happy that she made the dolls that I embroidered months ago into doll pillows for the girls. Thanks, Mom! The patterns for all 3 dolls came from Wee Wonderfuls. The patterns were much smaller than I imagined, but that was fine...I just enlarged them and traced over the enlargements with an iron-on transfer pencil, and we were good to go :)

A Baby Wrap for O

My mom made a wrap for me, and since we had lots of leftover fabric, she made one for O, too! O was very excited!

To make the wrap for me, mom cut 5 yards of cotton interlock fabric into a strip about 20 inches wide. Super simple! To make O's, we just wrapped it around her to get the correct length and cut off the excess. I'm REALLY looking forward to wearing Little Kicker in the wrap. With O, I used a ring sling, pouch sling, baby bjorn, and a beco, so this will be a new experience for me. I hope I can figure out how to do it...it seems a little complicated :)

O's Dance Bag

When we signed O up for tap/ballet classes last week her teacher told us she would need a dance bag. My first inclination was to make a drawstring bookbag with an embroidered ballerina or fairy on it. Then I remembered that I'm almost 38 weeks pregnant and feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and a little irritable. I decided to take the easy way out and applique DANCE onto a canvas bag from Hobby Lobby. This bag was quick and easy to make, and O was thrilled.

O now thinks that all bags should have words on them...she took her bag with a stethoscope and "shotmaker" (syringe) with us to my midwife appointment yesterday (for her baby dolls), and she said it should say "nurse" on it :)

See more on my applique obsession here, here, here, here, and here.

On the Go Dollhouse

Here's the rest of O's handmade Birthday gift! The on-the-go dollhouse is made from foam core board that Elliott painted with magnetic paint. I then painted the rooms different colors using leftover paint from our house. I wanted the walls to be magnetic because I took pictures of various art and pictures that are on our walls and printed them on magnetic paper for O to have to decorate her house. I bought the kitchen furniture when it was on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids. I'm not sure if I'll buy furniture for the other rooms, or if I'll make it...I'd really rather buy it :) The idea and directions for making the foam core board dollhouse came from here. O LOVES her dollhouse, and the magnetic walls have worked wonderfully. I also gave her magnetic decorations by Mary Englebriet for her house, and she has had a great time decorating the rooms. Everything fits nicely in her decoupaged suitcase.

A Taggie Giraffe Softie Tutorial

My mom and I made taggie giraffe softies for Little Kicker and a couple of our friends' babies about a month ago, and I'm finally blogging about it :) They were so easy to make that I decided to do a tutorial.

1) I drew a pattern on newspaper and cut it out. I then pinned the pattern to the wrong side of a piece of fabric and traced around it with disappearing ink. Then I cut the giraffe pattern out of the fabric.


2) I pinned the fabric giraffe to the wrong side of a coordinating piece of fabric, traced around it, and cut the giraffe from the other fabric.


3) I pinned the 2 fabric giraffes to each other- right side to right side with the ribbons pinned in between them.


4) Here's a better picture to show the ribbons pinned between the 2 pieces of fabric.


5) I handed the giraffe over to my mom, and she sewed all around it leaving a small hole for turning. She sewed over the ribbons 3 or 4 times to make sure they were securely sewn.

6) We turned and stuffed the giraffes, and my mom sewed the small hole closed.

7) Ta-da!


O was a little disturbed that the giraffes have only 2 legs :)

Big Sister/Baby Sister Shirts

My applique obsession continues! I told O that I was going to make a "big sister" shirt for her, and she said "and you need to make a baby sister shirt for my sister." I thought that was a SUPER idea, and it was so sweet of her to think of her sister :) It was a bit tedious to cut out the letters, but I like how they turned out. There are so many edges that I think it is likely that they will fray. However, I plan to wash them (inside out) on delicate and hang them to dry. Also, I may iron over the letters again after each wash in the hopes that they will last longer.

"I might be an artist one day!"

O has enjoyed painting unfinished wooden picture frames to give as birthday gifts. While she was painting she said "Mama, I might be an artist one day!" I love to watch her paint, especially when she is really into it :)

Miniature Bowling Game

I've wanted to make a mini bowling game for O since I saw a similar game on a blog around Christmastime. I can't find the blog that I saw this on, so I apologize for not linking :(
To make this game, I ordered 10 mini bowling pins from Casey's Wood Supply. I painted the pins using acrylic craft paint and used paint pins to make the dots. After the paint dried, I painted the pins with a layer of mod podge to give them a matte finish. The wooden ball is from Hobby Lobby. This game will be one of O's handmade Christmas gifts. I'm glad to have another item from my list completed!

What to do with stained onesies???

Tie-dye, of course!!! I have lots of stained hand me down onesies, so we decided to tie-dye them to make them beautiful :) I found a tie-dye kit at Michael's in the clearance section (it was normally 20 dollars, and I paid 5!), and we had a tie-dye party for Little Kicker on July 4th. It was fun to have Little Kicker's grandparents, aunt, cousin, and all of us (Elliott, O, and me) involved in making something for her. We tie-dyed 14 onesies, a t-shirt, 4 shirts for the girls (O & M), and 4 adult t-shirts, and we still have 5 packets of dye left!!!



Little Kicker is going to be a hip little kiddo :) After I took this picture, O said "I don't think 15 onesies are enough."

Alphabet & Number Crayons

O and I made alphabet and number crayons for party favors for her 3rd birthday party. She enjoyed breaking the crayons, but she wasn't much help with peeling the paper off the crayons :) After we filled the number and alphabet molds with crayons, I put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 275 degrees. I left the crayons in the oven to cool so that the colors wouldn't mix and become muddy. Now the hard part...removing the crayons without breaking them! The idea for this activity and the number and alphabet molds came from Let's Explore.

Magnetic Artwork

I always take pics of O's artwork since she gives most of it away to her grandparents. I made the artwork magnets by printing wallet sized pictures of her artwork on magnetic paper and cutting them out. O was excited to see her miniature artwork when she woke up from her nap today :) I think these magnets will make fun gifts for grandparents!

Our Family...In Miniature

Here's another one of O's handmade birthday gifts. I really did not enjoy painting these dolls, and I'm so glad to be finished! I painted the four of us (Elliott, O, Little Kicker, and me) and my niece, M. I'd love for O to have dolls representing the rest of our immediate family, but I'm not looking forward to painting them :)