I’ve been feeling extra crafty lately. It also helps that I have a baby on the way so that I can focus my creativity into something useful

While in Omaha for a work-related program, I discovered Pottery Barn Kids. I LOVE this store! I can’t afford anything in it, but the patterns are all so vivid and have a “handmade” feel to them. Of course after that I went online and obsessed over all of the cute stuff they have for kids. One thing I really liked was how they used decorative wall letters to add to a room. Since I would much rather duplicate the idea rather than spend $8.00 per letter, I decided to dive right in and make some for Haley.

It was a really simple and affordable project, with the help of pre-cut and painted letters I found at Wal Mart I’m sure there are more stylish fonts to choose from at different craft stores, but unfortunately I live 30 minutes away from Michaels so I made do with what I had. I used white craft paint and filled in any spots that were too light. Then, I used masking tape and made different sizes of lines which I painted over in my nursery colors. I chose chocolate brown, green, baby pink, and white but there are so many color varities that would work. I’ve also seen some pretty creative designs out there, but I chose to keep it simple. After the letters had dried, I used a hot glue gun to attach lengths of chocolate brown ribbon to the back of the letters and tied bows. All that was left was to attach them to the wall with thumb tacks. Ta dah! They really do add to the room.

Close up of one of the letters. They’re not perfect, but I still like them!

We recently bought the Butterfly Meadow crib sheet set at Babies R Us and I absolutely love it. It came with the sheets, comforter and cover, bumper, diaper stacker, and valance.

We washed and put everything together, but because the baby room has 3 large windows, we really couldn’t use the valance. Of course, I hate to waste good crafting potential, so I decided to get creative and make it into something useful.

We are short on space in the room as it is, so I already had an idea to make some kind of hanging pockets for me to put baby essentials in like lotion, wipes, etc. since there’s no more room for shelves and storage containers. The valance presented the perfect opportunity to do just that. It was just the right size, and already came with an easy way to hang them–with curtain rods.

I cut the valance in half to make two pockets, then proceeded to fold and iron my edges where I would need to sew (~1/4 inches from the top.) When that was done, I measured the entire length and used disappearing marker to mark 5 pockets across each. Then, I sewed the pockets and voila! Instant storage solution for a small room! The only expensive part was buying the curtain rods…They were about $10/rod, which wasn’t too bad really. Here’s how they turned out!

Here’s a close-up of the pockets.

I think my next venture will be into the world of baby bibs. I went to Barnes and Noble and used my birthday gift card my mother in law gave me to buy a book called “Sweet Booties!” which has a lot of great baby projects, including cloth blocks, bibs, and clothing. I can’t wait to start!

After weeks of amassing all the things that tiny people need when they come into the world, I think we finally have the basics down. And when I say “down,” I mean we have this down to a science, or maybe a fine art.

My husband and I are all about the “combo’s.” What I mean is that we have discovered the joy of items that can be used for several purposes. Basically, these are items that save us money by being 40 things in one instead of having to buy those 40 things separately. Admit it. You love saving money too. Plus, who wouldn’t love a crib/pasta maker/swingset?

In the convertible items line, we have a Pack n’ Play, which converts from a bassinet to a playpen (which I’ve heard is a taboo word now because it implies imprisonment, but is probably still a better word choice than “kiddie jail thing that we throw you in so you can play with toys and stop screaming at us.”) We also have a dresser/changing table which is great for those short on space. Then there’s my personal favorite: the crib that turns from a crib to a toddler bed, then to a day bed, and finally into a twin bed. Wait, read that again. It’s 4 beds..in one! How great is that? When Haley grows up, she and her husband will have a bed to sleep in. Heck, it will be our wedding gift to her. For the $300 that we spent on this thing, you better believe Haley will be passing this bed down to my grandchildren’s grandchildren. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

That said, it’s been a lot of fun decorating the room with everything and waiting for Haley to make her appearance…which still can’t come soon enough for me, even though I know she has some cooking left to do.

Crib and crib sheets. We decided to go with a white/brown/pink/green kind of theme. Yeah, it’s a lot of colors but it looks good!

Dresser/changing table combo!

Getting creative with what little storage space we have.

I just love this little Willow figurine. My boss gave it to me and it’s one of my favorite things in the room! It even kind of looks like Pat and I.

The rocking chair we just got. It’s sooooo comfy! I sat in there for 4 hours the other day reading the Twilight series

Christmas present fromt he McCaffrey’s. I owe them my soul for this!

The baby shower will be in 2 1/2 weeks, I can’t wait! While we have a lot, there’s so much we still need!

I know Christmas is already over, but because of the circumstances, I didn’t finish these until a couple of days after Christmas so you’ll have to excuse me.

I got on a crafting kick and decided to try my hand at sewing Christmas stockings (I’ve never done anything like it before, there’s a first time for everything!) I put a TON of work into these babies, and I’m actually really proud of how they turned out! Thanks to my wonderful sister in law who has her own amazing blog here I learned how to use my new Singer sewing machine which made the work 10000% easier than hand sewing the entire thing! I did hand sew all of the appliques and lettering though to give it a more “homemade” kind of feel. I even made Haley one so she can use it next year when she’s about 9 months old, I can’t wait!

Not too shabby for my first time huh??

Ever since I can remember, I have loved dabbling in the creative, from art to writing to needlework. You name it, I’ve done it. I took art classes from the day I could pick up a paintbrush, played handbells (as dorky as that sounds–I was 7!), tried embossing and needlework, taught myself guitar, wrote music and stories (including helping to publish an amateur newspaper in 6th grade), taught myself how to knit and crochet, worked with clay, filled sketch books with drawings and doodles, scrapbooked, made gift baskets, and currently I’m working on sewing (and blogging!) among other things. Phew!

 I’m always happiest when I’m creating. It’s always been an outlet to relieve stress and express myself. Now that I’m pregnant, I’ve gone over the edge I think. This little girl has given me even more motivation to expand my creative horizons, especially now that I have someone else to unleash my creativity on! While I was travelling, I got it into my head that I wanted to create designs to sew onto baby onesies and T-shirts. I had one idea for a shirt, then it just snowballed into more and more ideas, and now I’ve made 10 onesies in the course of 4 days.

Some I can’t post because they’re gifts, but here are some of the ones I’ve made so far! I’m thinking of selling them sometime soon, please let me know if you’re interested, I’d be happy to take requests! Each are designed and hand-sewn by me. (You’ll have to excuse the image quality, photography is one of those things that I’ll  be getting into in the future ) I don’t know why it’s cutting off part of the image either

Apple of My Eye

Close up

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Inchworm

Close up of the Inchworm

Daddy’s Little Cupcake

Flowers (this is the one that started it all)

Little Strawberry

Made in Pittsburgh- this one has sentimental value

Close up

Like I said, I’ve made more too, I just can’t reveal them just yet! On a dorkier note, I also made Haley and I matching candycane scarves Someone stop me.

Recently, while talking to friends, I realized how useless we’ve become as a whole. We have machines to cook our food, make our clothes, and babysit our kids. Today, we have machines that will do EVERYTHING for us besides tie our shoes, and I’m sure that’ll be next on the market. One of the girls I work with grew up in the country, and her family grew and canned all of their food. They also composted, and made some of their own clothes. And no, she’s not Amish.

This made me think about all the things I wish I could do. I don’t know how to can food, hunt, or make quilts, and I’m pretty sure life would end without electricity. With this and the fact that I have a baby on the way, I decided to bravely venture out and try to teach myself something new. I didn’t think our apartment complex would look kindly on me attempting to turn their little groomed patch of land outside our front door into a vegetable garden, so I went for something more attainable: crocheting.

I decided to go with this because I have knitted in the past and so I have somewhat of a foundation. The problem, though, is that for some reason all the scarves I started began looking like pizza slices after awhile, with each row gaining more and more stitches until they became triangles. Maybe someday this will be popular, but until Pizza Scarves become the next hottest thing, I decided to find a reliable training source. So of course, I turned to You Tube. I’ve decided that you can learn anything from You Tube. During my searching, I found that, while there are plenty of old ladies who know nothing about how to drive or how to work an iPod, there are plenty who know how to post an instructional video on crocheting on the internet.

These women are the Dale Earnhardt Jr. of crocheting! The old women were whipping them out in batches of a dozen every 10 minutes, but this will take years of practice. I had to watch the video 4 times until I got the basic stitch down, but after that I was off! I managed to bang out 2 scarves in under a month, and I consider this pretty good. After perfecting my skill, I got creative. I actually decided to put together a baby blanket. For those of you who think this looks easy, IT’S NOT. Good thing I’m stubborn. I was determined to get this thing done before the baby was born, so with 56 5-inch squares go go and LOTS of yarn, I amazingly completed the baby blanket in 3 months. And it actually looks good!! The baby will probably take one look at it, then fall asleep on it. Which I suppose is the point anyways

Finished blanket!