Heee Heeee Hooooooooo

While some women might practice breathing exercises to calm their nerves before delivering a baby, I sew. I'm going in tomorrow to be started into labor (my babies don't like to come on their own), so rather than posting about the Christmas projects my husband and I finished up, I thought I would show you what is really on my mind.

I took a week and dedicated it to baby sewing. Now with some of those "to-do's" off my list, I am so ready for baby tomorrow (or any time today would be fine)!


I've always dreamed of having a pretty crib skirt, mostly to hide all the toys and such I stick under it. It was so easy and quick to make, especially since I bought fabric that did not need to be hemmed. I hate bumper pads, so I thought this added just the right amount of cuteness to the crib. And now no one will ever know all the crap I stick under there in this tiny baby's room. I have a picture tutorial I will post later when life has settled down a bit.


After 2 other girls before this one, I was in need of new changing pad covers.


With a spare.


I didn't have a car seat tent with the other kids, but they look so nice and handy especially during this germ infested season. I kind of made up my own pattern, but you can Google these and find a ton of great tutorials.


This beauty was found much uglier at a garage sale for 5 bucks. I still have intentions of staining it, but I think my husband did a great job inhaling all the paint fumes for me.


And finally, some blackout curtains. It's a small room with two big windows, and I just refuse to have another child who wakes when the tiniest amount of sunshine breaks through in the morning. This baby will sleep!


With great sales and coupon's to Joann's, I bought this blackout lining for so cheap! I sewed it together with some clearance fabric from Wal-Mart I bought a long time ago. Then I hung it up with tension rods. And if your looking way to close to this picture, you will notice I did in fact measure wrong, and the lining is longer that the overlay. I'll have to fix that, some other day:) How embarrassing! But at least it's very dark in this room now, any time of the day I want it to be.

Hope to be back soon, and I hope you all have a wonderful New Years! As for me, when midnight roles around on the 31st, I'll be home in my pajamas up with a new bundle of joy, no doubt!

Handmade Christmas- Project #4, My Man's Apron

You may be wondering why if this is a Christmas gift, my husband has it on already. Well, that is because his birthday is very close to Christmas and this is what he got. It's still a great Homemade Christmas gift idea for men, since it can be difficult to think of things to make for him. So I had to share. I also knew this year (being 38 weeks pregnant) he would be doing most the cooking for the holidays, so he needed something cute, I mean manly, to wear.

In my opinion, there is nothing more attractive (or dare I say "sexy" on my blog?) than a man in the kitchen. Okay, minus the hideous sweater that he refuses to get rid of, I love to watch him cook. However, when he does, I'm usually kicked out of the kitchen because of my inability to shut my mouth and stop being critical about everything he does in there. I just can't help it, I hope I'm not the only one with this problem. It's usually my kitchen, right?

So, I had to add the saying to remind me that it's wonderful that he is willing to help, even if he doesn't do things like I would. Looking back, maybe I should have freezer paper stenciled on "shut up and kiss me." Hmmm.

Wanna make one? Here's some brief details on how I changed this wonderful tutorial to fit my man. I did it also in a previous post to fit my little ones.

I followed her same instructions, but changed a few measurements. My husband has a long torso, so keep that in mind if you need to adapt.

Looking at her pattern piece, my measurements are as follows. Really the only change was the length.
Along the top: 5 1/2 inches
Along the fold: 36 inches
Along the bottom: 11 inches
Along the side: 18 inches

I changed some sizes on the straps.
2 waist straps: 4 x 36
1 Neck strap: 4 x 30
D ring strap: 4 x 4
2 pocket pieces: 8 x 13

I hope this helps someone.

You will have to come back to see what my husband is "cooking" up in his wood shop (hint hint) for our girls. It's pretty incredible. I hope to have it posted before Christmas, but who knows.

Thanks for reading!

Neighbor Gifts

We have a lot of really great neighbors that swarm us with Christmas gifts every year. It's always fun to see what they come up with. I thought I would share what I came up with this year. It had to meet the requirements of easy, cheap, fast, and cute.

My original plan was to cut snowflakes from felt, soak it in fabric stiffener and glitter, and hang with string. However, when I saw these cardboard snowflakes

for 5 for 1 dollar at a store closing down in my area, I knew it would be a whole lot easier. So with my trusty small helpers, we spread mod podge all over the snowflake, and sprinkled them with the best Martha Stewart Glitter, and WALLA!


Ugly snowflake tree ornament turned pretty.

Then I pulled out of my freezer the snowball cookies (as we call them) we bought from the Pepperidge Farm discount store.

With my two little helpers we bagged them up and made it all pretty.

They were a lot of help.


The kids had a great time passing them out with daddy. Now with a couple of things left on my to-do list, I think I'm almost ready for Christmas. Speaking of lists . . .

My oldest daughter has been busy at work writing all her letters to Santa. I might also mention half of them are intended for baby Jesus also :) Each rolled up paper has her name and D-A-D on it, because that is what she can write. Isn't Christmas so fun when you have kids!

Handmade Kids Christmas- Project #3, The Bean Bag

In this years family name drawing, I picked my 9 year old nephew. Not only is it a challenge for me to think of little boy gifts to make, but this beloved nephew of mine had only video game related items on his want list. I refuse to support such an expensive hobby :) So I had to be creative.


I ran into a tutorial for this bean bag, and thought it would be the perfect gift for a boy who would like to do nothing but play video games. Okay, so I guess I am supporting it a little. It was really a lot of fun to make. I would have done a tutorial but this one was so good, it would have been pointless. You should check out Stardust Shoes for more amazing tutorials.


I'm having a hard time keeping such a large thing away from my girls. I guess they will just be testing it out until Christmas.

Small tip if you so desire to make one of these yourself. Don't buy the bean bag pellets from Joann's. You'll spend about 100 bucks to fill it. I found a store in my area (called Shopko) and they sell bean bag covers and you buy the filler separate. The covers were way over priced, and of course it's funner to make your own any way, right? The pellets were only $12 on sale for one bag, and that is all I needed.

Hopefully the rest of my Handmade Kids Christmas will be wrapped up soon, and I'll show you the rest.