What fun! What fun! E is one!

This year flew by.  I mean at Mach 3 speed.  I can't believe E's First Birthday has come and gone.  I'm a little ashamed to admit it but I started planning his party as early as December!  (I have issues, I know!)

The party was Dr. Seuss themed.  I ordered decorations from Birthday Express - they sell great Dr. Seuss party sets, with plates, cups, cutlery and table clothes.  They also sell adorable window decals and wall cut outs. 

E's Dr. Seuss collection is quite respectable and made for easy décor.  I placed several of his books around the living room.

I couldn't find a banner that I liked, so I used the basic Paint application on the computer and created a banner saying Happy Birthday, spelled out on Cat in the Hat hats, sewn together with bias tape.  I made a similar banner for E's highchair saying "I am 1".

Food-wise, I kept it simple.  I made:
fruit salad - called "Beezle Nut Fruit Salad";

• potato salad - lamely called "Tangy Pangy Potato Salad";
• green eggs;
• ham (and turkey) sandwiches;
• "cat"prese skewers;
• doughnuts - because "D is for doughnuts";
• cheese trees; and
• Birthday Cake with Jerry Jordan's Jelly!

For the cake, I tried to style it like the birthday cake from "Happy Birthday to You"!  The cake itself was a plain white cake, with raspberry jam filling and lemon frosting:

Lemon Frosting

1 box lemon pudding
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tub thawed cool whip

Mix pudding, icing sugar and milk with electric mixer for 2 minutes at medium or high speed.  Allow mixture to sit for 1 minute.  Fold in cool whip until frosting is consistently mixed. 

I also ordered custom "green egg" cookies from a local baker.  They were AMAZING!!!  Cake Expectations totally exceeded my expectations.

All-in-all, it was a good day!

Two posts in a month...what?!?!?

I might as well try to stick with the blogging again for a little while, especially since I have so much on the go right now.  With E's First Birthday approaching, I went through the mounds of onesies and sleepers he has grown out of over the course of a year.  It is mindboggling (a) how quickly he has grown and (b) just how much stuff a baby can have.

Both my husband and I are a little sentimental about some of the onesies.  Rather than donate them or hand them down, I selected between 50 and 60 of our favourites and made a quilt.  Admittedly, not my finest quilt job (there is definitely a reason I prefer the "rustic" nature of rag quilts to traditional quilts), but it means a lot to us and it is something that we can hang on to for years to come, without starting down the dangerous path towards hoarding.

Painted Pumpkins - Fall Edition

Oh I have so many posts to get around to.  I have been baking up a storm during my maternity leave and have tried a variety of recipes I found on (or as a result of) Pinterest.  But I will start with the painted pumpkins I did for the front porch.  I wanted something quick and simple to distract from the hideous excuse for my garden, which I have not attended to this year for rather obvious reasons.  Previously, I have made more than a dozen painted pumpkins for Hallowe'en.  This year, I decided to paint a few for fall decor.

I wasn't sure how much crafting or baking I would get done during maternity leave.  Honestly, I find it easier to bake or cook because it naturally fits into most days.  However, painted pumpkins take very little time and with the baby wrap I was able to have little E with me for most of it (being very careful not to get paint on him, of course).  (Apparently he was camera shy here.)

I wanted rough lines for a more rustic look.  I only used tape on one of the smaller pumpkins but otherwise this was all free-hand.  I used gold and dark red for a nice autumn feel.  Here is a shot of the pumpkins after they were dry.

Here are a couple shots out on the front porch.  The floral arrangement is something I threw together last year with faux flowers from the dollar store and Michaels.

I should probably also show a close up of our current centrepiece on the kitchen table.  I switched it up for fall and used two types of dry beans to fill three square/angular vases of differing heights and finished it off with candles and a little bit of twine on the two smaller vases.

 

My next post will be the first to get on the with business of updating on the baking (chocolate cake, apple cake, pear cake, pumpkin pie, pudding cookies) and cooking (Philly Chicken Cheese Sandwiches, Chicken Pot Pie) that I have been doing lately.

Baby sewing projects - Soft Blocks

I'm a binge seamstress.  I won't sew for long periods, sometimes years, and then once I start I binge big time.  I had not sewed anything since Christmas when I decided that I would be able to sew a couple things while also managing lil' E.  As previously posted, suddenly that meant making headbands, a car seat cover and I also made soft blocks that E will be able to play with over time.

I was inspired by this website (Smile and Wave).  Her's are gorgeous and I loved the material.  For E, I went with simple black and white checker board and two different colours of baseball patterns in basic cottons.

When E gets bigger he will be able to grab them and throw them without causing any damage.  For now, he stares at the checker board pattern during Tummy Time.

Baby sewing projects - Car Seat Cover

 
Hubby is very protective of anyone trying to touch Little E, even more so than I am.  Whenever we have gone out, we tend to keep a muslin blanket draped over the car seat.  However, it was light and whenever there was a breeze, it would be havoc.  We started using office clips to hold it on, but it was a sorry solution.

(Said office clip)

I kept seeing car seat cover instructions every time I looked for sewing projects and initially I didn't think they were necessary.  Now I know better.  One of the best sites for instructions is here - I particularly like her reference to the cover being a "greeter deterrent".  Exactly what I was going for.

I bought a couple meters of broadcloth and printed cotton and strips of velcro.  I followed the instructions linked above.  The trickiest part is getting the straps placed onto the cover.  You can either mark your material or attach the straps to the car seat handle where you want them and then pin them, loosely, to the cover.  I did the latter.

I did not iron the material before making the cover, but obviously that's a good idea (the cover has a pretty well defined crease in it, but that can be fixed).

I'm happy with the results and the Hubby was happy to have a greeter deterrent.  All in all, it was pretty quick to make, especially since Little E actually cooperated and decided to nap (you will note that he is not swaddled, since he has decided that swaddling is for sissies this week).

Baby sewing projects - Headbands

We are starting to get into a bit of a routine that works for us as Little E is 7 weeks old.  As a result, I have been able to work in some time to sew some simple projects.  Over the next few days I will post the results of a few recent projects, including in process photos where I remembered to take them.  Where applicable, I will also post links to great websites where I got the instructions from.

If you have seen other entries on the blog, it is clear that my baby is a boy.  However, my best friend was also pregnant this year and had a beautiful little girl.  On Pinterest I saw a link to instructions for very simple jersey headbands for babies.  Included in the instructions is a chart providing the approximate lengths of material that work for different ages, up to and including adult - and yes, I made a couple basic headbands for myself.

I bought a few pieces of solid t-shirt jersey material in light blue, navy blue and purple.  One of the benefits of using jersey is that you don't have to be perfect, since the material naturally rolls up so you don't have to hem the edges.

I followed the instructions in the link above, so I won't bore you by repeating them and there are really good pictures included.  Below are a few in process pictures. I did not however glue the rosettes on to the headband, rather I sewed them on.

The one on the right has a felt rosette.

A monthly celebration

Thanks to some ideas on Pinterest, I've decided to take monthly pictures of Little E for each month of his first year.

Each month I am making a large card that indicates which month it is and taking both a solo shot and a picture of our family.  I'm just using some of the card stock that I keep on hand and writing in the date as well.

Here is the first solo from one month.

I will post updates as the months fly by (sadly its true how fast time goes by with a lil' one).

First post since my world changed - follow up and new pictures

Wow, the last two months have flown by.  Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was busy finishing up with work and often too tired to bake or craft.  Then I went into labour a week early in early July and since then, for obvious reasons, I have been a little on the busy side with our lil' one.  Our son took his time (22 hour labour) but arrived on July 12th and has changed our world.

A while back I posted regarding the wall art I created with our baby's name but couldn't post the whole project because our family did not know the gender of our baby.  Now that its no longer a secret, I can post a picture of the finished project - albeit, not hung up on the wall yet.

 

I have also been taking a few pictures.  I am by no means a photographer, but these were done by laying a white towel down in his crib.  I did a few different looks but this was my original idea since he is such a "catch".  <insert groan here>

I have a bit more time most days, so hopefully I will have a few new projects or baked goods to post about in the near future.

Been a while - but I have been crafting (Spring Wreaths)

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything.  Its not that I haven't been crafting or baking (though definitely not as much as usual), its more that I'm swamped with tying up everything at work before mat leave and also being exhausted at the end of each day.  However, I did a couple spring wreaths recently and thought I would share some pictures.

These are the same style of wreath I usually make - faux flowers, ribbon and grapevine wreaths.  Oh, and the glue gun, can't forget that. 

 
I needed a pop of spring colour and definitely got that - one is bright yellow and white, the other is shades of purple and yellow.  Walmart's selection of flowers included some sprigs with silk butterflies that were quite cute, so I incorporated those into both wreaths.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures of the final products.

Nursery Update - Name/Initials Wall Art

I've made some wall art with the baby's name/initials for above the crib.

For this wall art, I purchased 8 by 8 (inch that is) canvases.

I taped each one using Frogtape (which we had left over from painting the nursery) to create stripes.  The stripes are about an inch or so each.

I painted the open spaces with a really great shade of blue/green from Americana - Bahama Blue.  On the canvas it looks very close to the Tiffany's teal.  Do as many coats as necessary to get the coverage you want.

I removed the tape before the paint is fully dry.  But for one small spot, the tape did its job beautifully.

For the name/initials, I found really great wooden letters in the craft section of a local Walmart.  I didn't want anything too big, so they are about 3-4 inches in height.  I painted these with Mink Pearl, a metallic shade from Americana.

Once the canvas and letters were dry, I attached them with a little wood glue and hot glue on the backs of each letter.

This was a relatively cheap project and works great for short names or initials (especially if the name is long-ish).

I'm just showing the first initial (both potential names start with "E" - Elizabeth and Euan).  Once we can put the entire piece up, I will post additional pictures.

Nursery Update - Animal Wall Art DIY

Last month, I posted about the animal shape wall art I made for the nursery.  At the time, I hadn't decided how I was going to hang the pictures on the nursery wall.

In the end, I decided to attach a simple piece of ribbon on the back of each picture frame.  I also decided to use 3M wall hooks.  I did this because I figure if I want to move the pictures around (especially if I ever change the theme inside the frames), the 3M wall hooks are great because they don't leave marks and are easy to reapply.

Here's a few pictures of the wall art arranged above the change table:

The giraffe is definitely my favourite.