new taggie ball

I love these things! Great go-to gift. And, isn't the cutest thing of all that little blur of a girl?

Carseat cover and carseat tent

We were originally scheduled to be induced on a Friday. The night before, there was a big snowstorm and the weather caused all of the pregnant women in Iowa city to go into labor. So, there was no room in the inn... hospital. They put us on the wait list, so that if there was room, they would call us. Well, while I was waiting that morning, I made this carseat tent. I didn't get a chance to make it earlier because I borrowed this carseat from my Brother's family and my Mom brought it with her.

Then the hospital still didn't call in the afternoon or evening. So, I made up this carseat cover. I figured, since I am borrowing the carseat, it would be nice to have a way to prevent my kids from spitting up all over it. I'm very pleased with it. And, it was my first time making my own bias tape! I was a little unnerved, so this was a good bit of sewing therapy.

nursery

I did a lot of nesting and decorating for this nursery. It gave me a new respect for all of those people who decorate their houses beautifully and all of those yummy blogs that I drool over... the decorating thing is hard. I finally decided a color scheme and got some stuff done, but the room still looks pretty bare. Oh, well! Let's celebrate what I did do:

I made a bedskirt and a crocheted blanket and a bird mobile (I've wanted to make one for a long time)! The wood for the mobile is driftwood that my husband and daughter collected from the Iowa River.

This dresser used to be green. I painted it green before I had my first daughter. By this time around, I was sick of that shade of green and decided to go with a neutral color so I wouldn't have to paint it every 4 years. Anyway, the planned painting day, we brought it downstairs and my daughter started bawling. She staged a full protest. She even made signs that said "Stop!" and taped them onto the dresser. I didn't realize that she was emotionally attached to the color of her dresser. But then I realized that she's had it all of her life and it was her favorite color, etc. Oh, my. Luckily, she is entrepenurially minded. By the evening, we'd settled on a deal. She sold it to me for $6. (in case you were wondering, we got the dresser for free from my brother back when we were in college.) I also very sneakily spray painted the knobs (which used to have ugly flowers painted on them) silver.

So, here it is in all of its not mint green glory against our boring beige walls. But what is that on the walls, you may say? A Sarah original painting? Yes. I can't decide if it's done or not. I also played with the idea of hot gluing flowers to it. Is it spooky or cute? I didn't want anything cutesy, but something that I would enjoy.

Oh, and my beloved snail pillow. Apparently, it wasn't really up to snuff, because it didn't get entered into the contest. Okay, so I can see how those experienced quilters spotted my poor craftsmanship right away. But I still love it!

(There aren't pictures of the rest of the room because it's mostly empty. A bookshelf. A rocking chair. Some white curtains.)

Black apple doll - Princess Wanda

I've finally made enough of these Black Apple Dolls that I feel like I can whip one out pretty fast, especially with my little helpers stuffing the limbs! I use the pattern, but lately, I always use fleece instead of felt. The felt ones I made for my girls looked ratty and pilled pretty fast. The fleece is also very soft and machine washable. WINNER!

This is my favorite black apple doll yet, and if I can manage to get it done, I will be making one exactly like this for this sweet little baby that could come any day now.  We made this little doll for a friend's birthday. It was a princess party, so we thought it was only fitting that she should have a nice crown and skirt.

The crown was pretty easy and is stretchy and removable. If you are dying to make one, too, post a comment  or send me an e-mail about it and I'll try to put up a pattern. (Wouldn't it be cute to make one matching for your big girl, too?)

Here she is without her accessories. Still lovely and demure!

Snail Pillow

This is another fun item I made for the baby's room. I'm trying to go with the color scheme of my favorite scarf- warm pink, peachy orange, yellow, and cream. In my nursery so far, I had pink things, orange things, yellow things, and cream things, but nothing that pulled it all together. I made this pillow in hopes of that, and I like how it turned out! When I finished it, I ran upstairs to find my husband asleep. So, I woke him up and showed it to him. His eyes cracked open and he said, "It's a snail." Then he went back to sleep.

Hopefully, whoever is reading this is slightly more enthusiastic about it.

If you're curious, the shell is made of cotton print scraps I had around. I sewed them all into one big tube, then ruffled them and pinned and sewed them onto the pillow. The sluggy body is made of fleece (very snuggly and easy to throw in the washing machine if anyone decides to spit up on it.) The antennae aren't sewn down, which makes him a little more 3-D. The body of the pillow is made from the

bottom of the curtain that was trimmed off. It has a folded closure in the back.

I know it's a longshot, but I'm entering this fun pillow in the pillow contest at Sew, Mama, Sew. Luckily, the photos don't show my less than perfect craftsmanship. They are having a pillow month, so if you're thinking of pillows, you can visit them and drool over the beautiful diversity of pillows showcased this month.

homemade toddler nightgown

 

My Daughter, Miriam, loves to dance. She is a ballet fanatic. The hilight of her week is her ballet class. When we go to the library, we go up to the non-fiction section and pick out a ballet on DVD. That is her favorite thing to watch at home! The above picture is her watching ballet.

Anyway, this girl loves ballet. I got this Angelina Ballerina Fabric for a nightgown and finally have gotten around to it in this super nesty phase I'm going through. I used the tutorial and pattern at gingercake. Hers was a pillowcase nightgown, but I just made a couple of adjustments to make it work for normal fabric. I made the sleeves longer because it's winter and COLD. (I still intend to gather the sleeves at the bottom when I get my hands on some really skinny elastic.)  I also did the back fasten with a tie instead of a button. I just had the bias tape go long in the back on each side.

 As you can tell from the picture above, she's thrilled about her new nightgown... (no, really, I just loved this picture- this is a classic pout from her. Why don't more people post pictures of their kids being grumpy? It's not like mine is the only kid who makes this face...)

 I'm especially glad to have made this for Miriam because her only other nightgown is really a hospital gown that the hospital let her keep when she got stitches this fall. It's kind of drafty.

I love my little girls and was really happy to take a break from baby stuff and sew something for this little princess.

Snow day punch party

All that deep, deep snow. All that snow had to go... Yea, we got a great blast of snow last week. My favorite part was having Alex work from home for 2 1/2 days. This may seem silly because he was still working a full day and we didn't see him while he was working. However, it was really awesome, because we got him to be home during the time he is normally commuting, giving us an extra 2+ hours each day.

 Bad news? Sometimes the kids get a little bored. So, we invited over some girl friends from the neighborhood and had a punch party! It was very fun!

 These are the cookies that they created. They dipped the dough in sprinkles and made the cookies really tiny.

 It was one of those moments when I was grateful for little girls.