Tie Dye

We tie dyed t-shirts as a family last Monday night.  I had bought the stuff before Mackenzie was born and we finally made the shirts.  Jayden was so excited to finally make them.  We even did a onesie for Mackenzie and she has a cute little jean skirt on in the picture to go with her onesie.  We were headed to Granny's for swimming, that's why you see the boys in their swim suits.

Table Cloth and Little Picnic Table

Last summer when I was surfing some craft blogs I found this one with a table cloth made out of bandana's.  I thought it would be perfect for Becky and Ralph's picnic table (Dave made them the table 9 years ago for their birthdays.)  So the boys helped me pick out some colors and I sewed it together.
That's it, no hemming and not cutting!  Just sew the squares together.  Try to buy the same brand because they do vary in size a little.

Andrew and the birthday girl, Becky

I know I've seen some table cloth weights at TJ Maxx but who knew if they still had some and I didn't have time to go, so the boys and I made some.  The boys helped me paint some rocks and Dave and I put wire and beads around them finishing them off with a clip to attach to the table cloth.  Now the table cloth won't blow away.

This year Dave made his parents a smaller picnic table for their grandchildren to sit at...

Isn't it awesome?  Dave did a great job!!!

Happy 60th birthday to Ralph and Becky!!!!  My favorite in-laws!!!!!  We love you lots!!!!!

Headband

Liz had a friend of hers crochet a few headbands in different colors and Liz (my sister in-law) made some flower barrettes to go on the headbands.  So far I only got 2 flowers to along with her 4th of July outfit.  Isn't it adorable?

Granny and Mackenzie

Baby Sling

The wife of JJ's soccer coach had a home made baby sling that she used for her 1 year old.  She would hold him on her hip with the baby sling.  Watching her with it I decided that I'd make myself one.  I didn't have one with the boys, but I thought I'd try to make one for this baby.  So I looked up some instructions online and made one for myself and for my sister in-law.  If you use 2 different fabrics so it's reversible and your fabric is at least 44" wide you can make 2 slings at once.

I was pregnant when I made this and so when I first measured I measured wrong.  You're supposed to measure from your shoulder across your body to your hip bone, well I measured to my pelvic bone instead of my hip.  So the first one was too short.  However, thanks to a suggestion from Dave I was able to still use it.  Since I tapered it, I cut it in the middle and added a section that was just straight and I reversed the fabric and put a ribbon over the seams.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

And then the second one I cut correctly.  Well, I think I may want to take it in an inch or two, but it's easier to do that then to add to it.

Here I am using the baby sling...

Back on June 1st my sister in-law tried it out for me to make sure it wasn't too big.  She's in the picture below with her baby, Corban.

This sling has become very useful!!!!  Dave will even use it to hold and carry Mackenzie.  We have discovered it is one way that we can usually get Mackenzie to calm down and go to sleep.  She will normally fall asleep really well in it.  But then we have to keep her in it.  When we try to set her down she usually wakes up.

And it's pretty comfortable to carry her around in and get things done too.

The Headband

Here is Mackenzie wearing the headband my mom made.

I LOVE snuggling with my baby girl!!!!!!!!!!

Using the Changing Pad

Here is Mackenzie using the changing pad I made for her...

Car Seat Tent

One day last year while I was surfing some craft blogs I had found this car seat tent.  I copied and pasted the instructions (which really isn't much, mainly I did it for the idea so I wouldn't forget) and saved it in a word document on my computer.  Anyway, I did forget about it and then saw it on my hard drive, opened it to see what it was and decided to make it.

The ones I saw online are not pieced, just one big piece of fabric for the top and one for the bottom.  But I really wanted pieced butterflies, and so I pieced my mine.  I also quilted the layers together with NO batting in the middle.  You want it to be breathable, so it's just the fabric.

If I make another one, to give to someone, I think I would round the corners.  I thought about rounding the corners on this one, but it already took me longer then planned because I cut the fabric wrong, so I didn't want to mess with it anymore.

It's just a rectangle with the loops attached so it stays in place and off of baby's face.  I was thinking when she's out of this car seat I can un-stitch the loops with my seam ripper and she can use it as a blanket for her dolls or herself.

The fabric below is the fabric on the other side, the stuff she looks at if she's awake.  I really wanted it to be fun and colorful!

Tanner's Birthday Cake

Tanner wanted a blue monster truck for his birthday cake.  We had some family over for cake and ice cream.  Dave hurried home from work and made this cake for Tanner before everyone came.  Isn't it awesome?

 When we sang "Happy Birthday" to him he hid his face and then popped up to blow out the candles.

Tag Ball

I have seen these "Taggie Balls" (and there are books, rattles and blankets) and such around for awhile.  One day I realized I had all this extra soft fabric that I used on the back of baby quilts and how fun to make a "Taggie Ball" with them.  A girl I visit teach is due the day after me and doesn't find out what she is having.  So I figured it would be perfect, because it could be for either a boy or a girl.  I needed like 15 different ribbons so a friend of mine cut some of hers and gave me some.  And I made one for me and for the girl I visit teach.

I had a pattern for a ball and added the ribbon.  At first I did the ribbon 5" long and it's folded in half and in the seam, but I thought that was too long.  So I did the other ball with ribbon cut to 4" and I thought that was a great length.

I also bought some cat balls and put one inside of each ball, so it would jingle.  I put the ball inside of some scrap batting and sewed the batting shut.  I originally did this thinking that if the ball worked it's way to the outside of the ball, I didn't want it to be really hard at that spot and to quiet the jingle a little.  Then I realized later that eventually the filling could work it's way into the ball, making it not jingle, so good thing it's in a pocket of batting and that won't happen.

And the ball is totally washable.

So here it is...

 Won't my precious little angel just love it?  I think it turned out great!

Baby Quilt

I finally finished the baby quilt I started 6 years ago when I was pregnant with Jayden and hoped he was a girl.  I saw this in the Fons and Porter magazine and loved it at the time.  It also had matching bumper pads, crib skirt and bed sheets.  I bought enough to make it all.  I had all the strips cut for the bumper pads, all the little 9 patch blocks sewn together and the 6" squares and triangles and binding all cut and ready to sew together when I found out I was having a boy.  So I packed it all up and didn't get it back out until now.  But I'm not going to make the bumper pads or crib skirt anymore.  However I do want to make some crib sheets simply because I do need some more and have the stuff to make them, and they are super easy to do.

If I didn't already have this one started, I probably would have done something totally different.  But I am very excited to have finished this one!  And I'm super excited to put my baby girl on it and in it!

Tutu

I want to make a tutu for my precious little baby girl for some pictures.  So I looked it up online.  Then I decided since Kara and Carolynn's birthdays are coming up I would also make them one.  I had posted Kara's a little earlier when I posted about her birthday party.  Below is Carolynn in her tutu with her doll also in her tutu.  Both my sister and Polly love purple so that worked out nice (that I could do them all with the same tulle.)

They are super easy to make!  Just about every website I went to said to cut the tulle in strips, I did 3 inches wide.  You make it double the length you want it because you tie it around the elastic.  I had a hard time sewing the elastic with my sewing machine, it just wouldn't do it.  So I finally just hand sewn the elastic together.  That's all the sewing you do, just the elastic band.  For the girls I used a 3/4" wide elastic and for the dolls I think it was 1/4" or 1/2" inch, sorry I don't remember.  I had 3 yards of the dark purple and 3 yards of the light purple and I got 2 tutu's for little girls and 2 matching tutu's for their dolls.  If you want to make it puffier, just double your strips of tulle when you tie them on.  This was the first time I made them, so I wasn't sure how puffy it would be with just a single layer.  If I make a longer one, I think I'd double it.  But for now I think it's puffy enough.  To tie the tulle on, I put the elastic over my leg, it made it very easy to tie the tulle on.  I didn't do a double knot, I put the ends of the tulle together, made a loop around the elastic and pulled the tulle through.  I think it lays nicer that way then making a double knot.

 The day I made them, March 14, 2011, Jayden wanted to try Carolynn's on.  So below are 2 pictures of him twirling in Carolynn's tutu back on March 14th.

Tanner didn't want to put Kara's on, but Jayden enjoyed twirling around in the tutu for a little bit.  How fun to have these pictures to show his future girlfriends!  :)