Frog Cupcakes

Jayden had treats at school and I wanted to do something fun instead of just a bag of pretzels.  They are talking about spring this week, since it is the first week of spring.  So I looked on Familyfun.com for some ideas.  Jayden really wanted to bring in cupcakes.  I had seen these cute frog cupcakes but I just didn't understand why the icing was blue instead of green.  Finally after like my 5th time looking for something I realized... it's blue because it's the water and the frog is peaking above the water.  So we decided to make these.

When I was shopping for some of the stuff and just groceries in general I wanted to get some blue food coloring because I didn't think we had enough at home.  Where I was you can only buy blue in the pack of 4 colors.  Well, I knew we had a big bottle of red and yellow at home so I didn't want to buy the blue in the pack and have more red and yellow.  So I grabbed the big bottle of green thinking "I can just make blue because I have yellow at home."  It wasn't until on my drive home that I realized, green and yellow do NOT make blue!  I couldn't believe I even thought that!  I blame it on the pregnancy hormones.  Luckily my sister in-law had some I could borrow and we were going to her house that night to celebrate my nephew's birthday, Rhett.

When I put the green food coloring away in my cabinet, I realized that I also had a big bottle of green too.  So now I have plenty of green food coloring.

Instead of making cupcakes, especially because a girl just brought them in yesterday for her birthday, I made Hershey's Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownies in cupcake wrappers.  My original thinking was that the brownies don't make as many crumbs as cake does, and they are yummy!

Jayden helped put the icing on about 3-4 brownies and then he was done.  He couldn't get it as smooth as he wanted too, so he was done after only a few.  I also think he just wanted to lick his knife and I told him he had to wait until he was done.

 But he came back to help me do the eyes.  He placed almost all of them on the brownies and then I added the black dots.  (The website tells you to buy a small tube of black icing.  I just saved some of the white icing and died it black with black food coloring, put it in a small baggie, cut a hole and squeezed it on.  No need to spend like $2.50 on a tube of icing when you spent half that on a jar of icing.)

Sports Burp Cloths

I made my cousin an Eagles and Phillies burp cloth.  He loves those teams and I had the fabric.  I put the light blue terry cloth on the back because I already had it.

Now he can be a cool dad burping his new baby boy (just born on 3-10-2011).

Girl Changing Pad

I finally finished the girl changing pad I made for myself.  Here it is...

Here is a better view of the back fabric...

Here it is all rolled up...

As I mentioned with the boy one I made, you can easily stack some diapers and wipes inside and then roll it up.  And for quick trips that would be all you'd need to bring.  I had thought it would be nice to put some pockets inside for the diapers and wipes, but then decided against doing it.  We'll see how it goes using it, maybe it will be nice to have the pockets.

The pattern says to use fleece, but I used terry cloth.  Since I was buying the terry cloth for the burp cloths I just got the extra needed for the changing pad too.

The pattern doesn't mention doing any extra quilting through the center of the changing pad.  I was worried that after several washings and what not, the terry cloth will stretch and just kind of be separated from the back fabric and not look so nice.  So I measured 4 inches in from the side panels (the one quilting line the directions tell you to make) on either side, and sewed a straight quilting down.  I was tempted to do it to the side panels too, but I think I'll see how it does after using it.  I can always go back and add some quilting lines if I feel like it's separating too much.  I had also wanted to add some to the burp cloths too.  Well, I did add some along the sides of the ribbon but I felt it wasn't enough.  So again, I'll just see how it does after using them.

Click here for the pattern on sew4home.com

Gifts for Sarah

A friend of mine is having a baby boy and so I really wanted to make her some burp cloths, travel changing pad and "binky leashes."  I just love this fabric!  It kind of made me wish I was having a boy.  I made this stuff first and so I'm not done with my changing pad yet.  When I post the changing pad I'm making for myself I will post the link to the pattern and stuff.  But it's from the same website as the other patterns.

 Here is the inside of the changing pad, there is terry cloth in the middle.

 And it rolls up quite nicely.  You can even put some diapers and wipes inside and still roll it up nicely.  I had thought about adding pockets for the diapers and wipes.  So when you're in a public bathroom using the changing stations one end will hang over and the diapers and wipes have a place to be.  But I figured giving that you'd need some room around the pockets or whatever, it might need to be like an inch or 2 bigger to have a pocket and fold nice when the pockets are full.  But you can just stack the wipes and diapers on top of each other and fold it nice.

 I did a train stitch on one of the burp cloths.  And that too gave me problems and so I just did a straight stitch on the other 2.

 Here are the "binky leashes."

I followed the instructions to hammer the snaps on (the instructions come on the back of the pearl snaps you buy at Joanns).  Becky, my mother in-law had the tool, but the pearl snaps didn't fit in it.  Well I must have hammered too hard.  On one for Sarah and one for myself I cracked them.  I'm not sure what to do about it, so I'm just leaving it.  You can't feel the crack on the top, so it's totally underneath and I'm thinking other than the look, it's fine.  So if you use a hammer to attach the snaps, be careful.  On this one it was fine but I thought I'd give it one more hit to make sure it was on tight, and that cracked it.

"Binky Leashes"

Pacifiers, Binkies, Nuk's... there are so many different names for them...  I personally call it a Nuk, because that is what Gerber calls them.  But where I got the pattern they call them "Binky Leashes."

We used these with the boys and so I figured we would with the girl and so I made some of these too.

Go here for the pattern on sew4home.com
There is also a carrying bag pattern for the binkies with the pattern for the leashes.  I chose not to make one.  We have some hard plastic cases that came with the Nuks that I like better than a cloth case.  But I'm thinking of making one out of oil cloth, similar to one I've seen sold in stores.  Only time will tell if I actually make one or not.

Burp Cloths

A few months ago I had found some patterns for some cute baby stuff on www.sew4home.com and I copied and pasted them into a word document.  I actually remembered I had them and made myself some cute burp cloths!  I'm so excited to use them!  There is terry cloth on one side and 100% cotton fabric on the other.

 I am a very frugal person and so I bought myself the cheapest fabric I could find.  There were some more expensive (double the price) fabrics that I liked better.  But I'm so cheap, I just couldn't get the expensive stuff for myself.

 I attempted a decorative stitch but it turned out to actually be a pain.  I had to rip out lots of stitches and try to line it up and start over, so I only did it on one of the burp cloths.

 I'm also making a cute changing pad too, and so I decided to make a burp cloth with the fabric I will be using inside the changing pad.  After all, I really am a blue, green and brown kind of girl.  So I really like this one.  I have the same pink terry cloth on the back of it.

Go here for the pattern on sew4home.com

Hooter Hiders - AKA Modest Nursing Cover

I made a Hooter Hider (modest nursing cover) for a friend of mine who happens to be due the day after me.  She doesn't find out what she's having, but she said she's the one wearing it so it really doesn't matter what sex the baby is.  She likes purple and purple I think is a hard fabric to find, at least in our tiny Joann's store.  She works with flowers and plants and so I chose this fabric.  I hope she likes it.

And I made another HH for myself.  A dear friend, Natalie, made me one with Tanner and I loved it!  And she is the one who then gave me the pattern to make them.  I had bought this fabric for a college friend of mine and then found out someone else had already made her one.  So, since I'm having a girl I thought I'd use it for myself.  I still have the one Natalie made me, so now I have 2.  I can keep one at home for when company is over and one in the diaper bag for when we're away, or what have you.