happy birthday, grandma marilyn!

Credits: Tuesday Template 5.18.10 by Purple Tulip Designs (via Scrap Matters), Spring Mini Kit by Kevin&Amanda,

baby girl birth announcement

Credits: Photography by PhotographyByLi, papers from "Fall Scarf" by Kevin&Amanda, stitching from "Spring" by Kevin&Amanda, "Stamp Duty" alpha by Lisbonlioness, "Highland Perk" font by Kevin&Amanda

baby shower invite III

Credits: Ribbon from "Home Sweet Home" by Li. Everything else from "Playful Bundle BIGGIE Kit" by Corina Nielsen.

baby shower invite II

This is a potential invitation for my little sister's baby shower. She's having a boy. I think I like it better than mine! {I hate it when that happens!}

Credits: Papers from "1st and Park Way Add-On" by Alamama's Pressed Petals and "Reflections" by It's Jayedid; stitching from "A Touch of Winter" by Erica Zane

trouble

Credits: "Tuesday Template 01.19.10" by Linz, "Eat Your Veggies" by Erica Zane, "Alice Add-On" by Britt-ish Designs, "Plum Tuckered" by Polly & Rufus Designs, "Autumn Bliss" by Scrappin' Mint and "True Blue Alpha" by Stacy's Back Door Designs

a blankie for sister

James was blessed with a HUGE assortment of blankets when he was a baby. Really. Tons. Derek and I bought him a cute blue one when we found out he was a boy, and then he got a bunch for shower presents, etc. Anyway, I tried really hard to make the above-mentioned blue blanket his "lovey" {we don't say that, but you know what I mean, don't you?}. But no. He fell in love with another.

Grandma Julie had gotten him a simple, fleece blanket that was rectangular instead of the typical square and stretchy, which is fairly uncommon as well. It was perfect for burrito-wrapping our boy... which made for some wonderful sleeping for him. We used it pretty much every night... and as a result, it became "Blankie." He loves it. It's nappy and gross now {not to mention in need of a "bath" at the moment} after two and a half years of constant usage, but he still loves it... and so do we.

{Here is James burrito-ed in Blankie. The blue blanket beneath him is the one we tried so hard to make him love. P.S. Isn't this a hilarious picture? It was staged and taken in honor of a childhood memory of mine... trust me; you don't wanna know.}

As an homage to this love, I decided to make a similar blankie for our soon-to-be-here little girl. Mostly I don't care if she loves it as much as Jamesie loves his, but I wanted to make sure we had a blankie capable of excellent burrito-wrapping. So I went shopping {note: JoAnn's is really the only place to go for fleece; they had a HUGE selection full of fabulous prints- unlike anywhere else I looked in town} and bought one yard of fleece. Just one yard. I trimmed off some ugly parts {selvage, etc} and then hemmed it. That's all. It was uber-easy and turned out really nicely. It's slightly larger than James' blankie, but I figured a little bigger wouldn't really hurt. I think it will work well. And really, how can you go wrong with easy + adorable??

And again- here is James. This time he's modeling "sister's blankie." Looks cozy, don't you think? Yeah... I like it.

binkie clips

Our little girlie will be here soon, and I've been trying to get ready for her as much as possible. {We had a scare recently that made me realize how very unready we were... read more here.} I think we're pretty darned close. I have a couple more things to wash in Dreft and a few more things to pack in the hospital bag- then we're done! Woohoo!

One thing we bought but hope not to use super-immediately is a set of binkies {I hate seeing teeny babies with binkies as big as their faces... so hopefully she'll hold off a few weeks at least}. I looked at the binkie clips at the store but found nothing all that cute/useful, so I decided to make my own. I figured they couldn't be that hard... and truth be told, they weren't.

I bought: 1/2 yd. of ribbon {twice, as I bought two kinds... and 1/2 yd. of each is plenty}, suspender clips, and velcro. For each binkie clip: I melted one end of the ribbon {sealing it so it won't fray} with a lighter, looped the ribbon through the suspender clip's loop and sewed it tight {twice, to be extra secure}.

Then I measured about 8 1/2 inches of ribbon from that point, folded it over and decided where my velcro would go. I sewed the velcro on {there are two parts- the sticky and the fluffy- so this was really two steps}, cut the ribbon after the second velcro piece, and melted that end of the ribbon as well.

That's really it. They were easy, and I think they turned out well. Hooray for more-sanitary binkies... and crafts that start and stop in 15 minutes or less! :)

P.S. The ribbon I used was about 1" thick, and the ribbon of the assembled binkie clips measures about 8 1/2" long. You don't want it too long or it becomes a strangulation hazard. I looked at products online {like this one} to determine what length was safe.