Waistline Wednesday- 37 weeks

Time to reveal some baby projects! I completed most if not all of these before the other projects I've been posting lately, but I wanted to wait until they were all in the room and I could do one big reveal. Well, here's the thing: we moved the furniture in and could not find an arrangement I was happy with. It's just too much furniture, feels too crowded and cluttered. Daniel reminded me that's how I felt with Maggie's room- hers is smaller than Will's and we had more furniture- so maybe I'll get used to it. We'll see. I wanted to at least reveal the baby projects I have completed since I promised those awhile back (I know, you're on pins & needles, ha!) Without further adieu:

Bibs & Burps

I finished the burp cloths first and made a few minor changes when I moved onto the bibs, but they match for the most part. This was my first time using minky fabric and sewing my own bibs as opposed to buying bibs & embroidering them. Sewing the bibs was fine but I definitely prefer terry cloth to minky because it moves less. We'll see how the absorbency is, but the minky sure is cute and soft!

Diaper bag

I followed the same basic premise for making this as I did for the other bags I've made, but adjusted the size. This time I added a little band across the middle, bringing the fabric from the inside out and added a little clasp. This doesn't offer complete closure like a zipper would, but still serves its purpose. I really like how it turned out, it's a good size and seems to be sturdy, but we'll see how it holds to the wear and tear of baby items. :)

Wall letters

I wanted to make these just like I did for Will & Maggie only I painted theirs and decided on scrapbook paper this time. After I finished, they needed something a little more, so I added ribbon & buttons from my stash and really like how the finished product looks!

Piggy Bank

I actually bought this piggy bank as one of Maggie's Christmas gifts with the intention to decorate it to match her ladybug room. Well, shortly after Christmas I found an actual ladybug bank at Target that was so cute and had to get it! It's perfect- pink with white flowers and resting on a little green leaf. I resolved to return this piggy I purchased and then found out I was pregnant. So I decided to save it for baby 3- fast forward 9 months and here it is! Simple but cute- just what a little baby boy needs. I added his name and dots in the room colors- green, yellow & blue. I thought about adding frogs, ducks and/or turtles but decided the dots would be really cute. I used vinyl for this (cut with my Cricut)....I am not a painter!

Well, that's it for now! Originally I wanted to sew his bedding, make a mobile and a few other things, but once we decided to keep the froggy room, there was no point. It's sweet that he'll have his older brother's stuff and economical as well. Maybe I'll make his own room when he's older. Also, I will probably sew some outfits for him, but that will have to wait as well because I don't have any newborn patterns. Just as well since babies grow so fast! That and we have plenty of hand-me-downs!! 

Front Door Update

I've wanted to spruce up our front door for a long time but like many projects, it was put on the back burner while other things that 'needed' doing got done. My main idea for the front door was a wreath, a large B or a cross. I planned to embellish whichever I chose. I finally decided to do a wreath and a B but for awhile didn't have luck finding the wreath I wanted. Yes, I know, they're not hard to find. I love the yarn and fabric-wrapped wreaths but it seems like everyone is doing them and I didn't want to be a flat-out copycat. Well, until I ran across this post. Uhm, why have I never thought to do this? No idea. But I saw this and got to work with my Cricut and made a welcome sign for the front door with vinyl!

Sorry for the blurry pic. Mine looks almost just like hers, but I have only a few font cartridges and this color vinyl matches the trim on our house, so I didn't have much choice. A couple weeks later I finally found a diaper wreath at a thrift store I could re-purpose and it was under $7! I started with this (and saved the diapers for future use of course):

And ended with this:

Details for re-constructing the wreath are here. In the future

I'd like to make the whole front porch as pretty as my door,

but for now I'm happy with the progress I've made:

Gettin' my craft on

So I've been super busy during nap and bed times this last week and a half! I've been working on some things for our gender reveal party coming this weekend, but I won't show those until after the event. I also worked on some kitchen counter storage and decor for the entertainment center.
While shopping for this weekend's party supplies, I found these great glass jars at Hobby Lobby for half off! Who can pass that up? Ever since I made a few jars for Christmas gifts, I've wanted my own. But not until the HL moment, did I find the perfect ones. Daniel, my dear sweet husband, likes to keep his junk supplies on the counter, in plain view. Kinda drives me crazy. His trip to Vegas gave me to perfect opportunity to clean up the countertop! (Afterall, when one's husband is gone for 7 days, one needs projects to keep oneself busy so one does not start talking to walls.) Anyway, here's how it turned out:

Before, his huge bag (from Sam's Club) of Dunkin' Donuts coffee just sat on the counter. Ugh. He also keeps out whey protein powder and some other workout/diet supplement stuff. Of the other stuff, only the whey would look pretty in a jar, so I put everything else in the pantry and added stevia to the final jar. I love all the colors! Here's our happy family of three on our newly-organized countertop:

Last Christmas I also fell in love with my entertainment center display and decided to keep decor up there year round. Sometime before the holiday I found two great glass cylinders at Home Goods for like $8! Initally I wanted to fill them with fresh fruit, but didn't want to change them out that often so I considered homemade potpourri, but just wasn't coming up with my 'thing'. Finally a few weeks ago I found some fake fruit at the dollar store. My main pops of color in the family room are purple, burnt orange and red, so that's what I wanted to fill in the jars. Well, they only had a couple oranges and nothing purple. So I grabbed lemons...it's a brighter color for this time of year anyway. I also found a couple bags of these little red decor balls and went for it. I still needed some purple and orange so I kept looking. A week or so ago, I thought: why not make some blocks? So I did just that and almost made them purple, red & orange, but decided that was too fall-y. Kept the purple and added some spring pops of color. I'm pleased with the turnout and already plan to switch out colors with the seasons.

first, Will's turtles needed a swim path

Around Easter, I had subway art displayed in place of the blocks and may make some of these for each season as well, not sure yet. If I add anything else to the ent. center, I'm gonna have to do something with that picture. Well...we've needed to move it higher on the wall since we got the entertainment stand anyway, so maybe that will give us motivation. :)



Craft Corner

Every year we buy each family member a new Christmas ornament- a tradition we started our first year of marriage. Back then we each bought a couple ornaments and even some for the dogs- I would buy snowmen and gingerbread couples, Daniel would buy penguins and computer guys. Now we usually buy a family ornament and one for each child. It's a fun tradition because everyone is involved and I love Christmas decorations...those that trim the tree are no exception.
Sometime around Halloween, I found a fabric ornament at Cracker Barrel that I just loved and knew I could make one myself. Shortly after I ran across some do it yourself ornaments at Michael's for half off. My inspiration ornament looked to be made of ribbon but after some consideration, I decided to use fabric I already have on hand since ribbon can add up quickly and I would've needed a lot to cover them. So I got to work- mostly improvised- and here's what I came up with:

They're not perfect but I'm happy with how they turned out, Daniel liked them and Will really enjoyed having his W ornament! He even helped glue on some of his ric rac. This was a fun project and may be our new tradition!
My next project has been awhile in the works. I was first inspired last year while at the hospital with Maggie- I saw an adorable hand-made, possibly hand-painted, door sign hanging on the door of a room down the hall from NICU. I guess I logged it in the recesses of my mind 'cause when I started thinking about making one a couple months ago, I didn't even remember where I got the idea. In fact, Daniel was the one who reminded me. Anywho, the idea came to me but I thought about it and went to craft stores a couple times before I could really flesh it out. I don't paint so I knew had to approach mine differently (makes it more unique anyway). Once complete, I knew it needed something more, so I sewed some flowers and added them. I think I'll do more of these.

Currently, the sign is hanging on the wall of Maggie's bedroom, but I do plan to actually hang it on her door once I find my other door hanger or buy another one. I want to make one for Will as well, but not sure if he would like it or care....he is almost four. Lol.