Fabric Rosette Pins and a Visit with a Friend

My dear friend Sarah has been having some complications with her pregnancy and has been hospital bound for a little bit now. She was in major craft withdrawal so I went for a visit to give her a quick fix :) I needed a project that was fairly easy, didn't take too long, and didn't require a sewing machine. This is hard because Sarah and I both are very attached to our machines! So I searched and searched and found this tutorial at Little Lizard King. We had both been looking for how to make these rosettes so I was really excited to find the tutorial.

It was so much fun just talking and crafting away. Here's how her flower turned out. I took these pics with my phone because I forgot the camera, which is why they're not that great. Sorry about that. Let's all keep Sarah and little baby boy in our thoughts and prayers.

These rosettes are so super easy that I just couldn't stop. We had a friend over for dinner that night and I thought, why not have craft time with her as well?!?! So we did.
She's actually pregnant (due next week) as well so the most comfortable place for us both was on the floor! So, in 2 days, I made three rosettes! That's how easy and quick they are to make. I have currently "misplaced" the one I made in the hospital with Sarah so here are some pics of the other two I made. They are so cute and so versatile. I'm so glad I found this tutorial!!! I'm off to make another one!

My First Award

I can't believe it! My first award!!! Butterflies in my stomach and everything!

Thanks so much to Sunny over at Life in Rehab for giving me this award. I'm excited and apparently, pretty versatile :)

So here are the guidelines for accepting this award.

1. Thank the person/people who gave it to you

Sunny, thanks so much for noticing my little blog. I'm flattered that as you put it "you need to peer daily into my life " :)

2.Share 7 things about yourself.

1. The first language I ever learned was Spanish. I knew no English when I started school.
   
2. I can change the oil in my car, thanks to my Wito (my grandpa), though my husband won't let me.
   
3. I owe my craftiness and domesticity to my Wita (my grandma). She taught me how to sew, knit, crochet and cook among many other things.
   
4. Before I was a stay at home mom, I worked with kids with special needs and I loved it.
   
5. I was in the marching band all through high school and I'm not ashamed to admit it!
   
6. I love DC comics. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA FOREVER!!! (DC Comics are Batman, Superman, The Flash, etc....)
   
7. I love DC comics so much, that I have a Wonder Woman emblem tattoo on my ankle and my husband has The Flash emblem tattoo on his. We're just waiting for Isaac to come of age before we tattoo him! :)

3. Pass the award on to 15 bloggers,whom you have recently discovered, and think are fantastic.

Handmade Mommy
This Blessed Nest
The Blackberry Vine
A Crafty Escape
Naptime Crafts
Oopsey Daisy
Life as Lori
Craft Rookie
Frugal Life Project
Wipster
Sumos Sweet Stuff
Tatertots and Jello
Shannon Makes Stuff
Little Lizard King
Get Your Crap Together


These are blogs that I've run into recently and have really enjoyed. I've also gotten an TON of good ideas from them. I hope you like them as well!

A note to those on the list: Congrats! To accept this award and display it proudly on your sidebar, you must:

1. Thank the person who gave it to you
2. Share 7 little secrets about you
3. Introduce us to 15 blogs that you have discovered and think are fantastic.

I hope that this is fun for all the people that are on the list and also for all my followers as you discover 15 creative blogs you may or may not have heard about!

Go Get Crafty!

More Big Boy Room

I've been busy at work with some other finishing touches to Isaac's big boy room. I had a lot of fabric left over from the Quilted Duvet so this is what else I made.

First, the pillowcases. I was already planning on making these and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Some people have opted to make their pillowcases all from scratch but I chose Target. I sewed the pieces of fabric together then sewed that whole panel to the pillowcase and finished off one edge with ribbon. Here's a close-up. One of my serious pet-peeves is when a door won't stay open all the way, it slowly and gradually makes it was shut. Oh, it's just one of those things for me! Solution: a doorstop. I found this tutorial at Wipster and knew it would do the trick. I knocked this guy out in about an hour and a half. I love naptime! And here's one more picture to round it all out: My little man, loving his big boy bed! I still want to eat those chubby thighs up!!!

A New Look

So I had to change my background and banner because the one I was using was discontinued. I hate to give up the polka dots but once again, it's stretching my creativity though I did revert to my other passion: all things Blue & Brown. I just love that color combination!

I'd love to know what you all think of it!!

Hanging Bag for the Closet

I don't actually know what these bags are called, but I made one! We've been making a lot of furniture transitions lately for the nursery and the big boy room, and finally got a dresser for our bedroom. Now, I LOVE winter socks and have ENTIRELY too many. I just wasn't willing to sacrifice a whole drawer for them (yes, that's how many I have). So, I needed another inexpensive option. And here's what came of it. This picture shows the opening a little more clearly. Now, I know it's not super creative fabric but it's what I had in stock. And since it was all coming from my head (no pattern) I needed something that I was willing to sacrifice. But I think it turned out pretty good.

I'm planning on making another one so I'll do some tweaking and try to take some step by step pictures to share the tutorial.

Now, off to dump the socks in!

Wedding Presents

Four things I love

1) Weddings
2) Monograms
3) Freezer Paper Stenciling
4) Glass Etching

And here's what I made for some friends that incorporated all these things. Personalized aprons because they love cooking together, a monogrammed etched glass pitcher because who doesn't love those, and monogrammed dinner napkins because they're just awesome! Sorry it's so hard to see the pitcher in the back. I love how everything turned out. Though, it is times like these that I wish I had a Cricut. Cutting out 12 G's for the napkins was exceptionally tricky. But hey, labor of love right. Here's a picture of me and hubby with the happy couple just for fun.Congrats to the Gibbons!

Nursery Revamp and a New Technique

We are 8 weeks away from Baby #2 coming and we are in GO mode. Isaac's in his big boy bed and our whole upstairs is in transition. YAY!

When I was pregnant with Isaac, we intentionally planned the nursery to be as gender neutral as possible so that everything could be used for all our children.This is still true but I really wanted a revamp. And I just couldn't stop thinking about MONKEYS!!!! I found this set up at Babies R Us but the wall decals were $20!! I just couldn't justify spending that much on stickers basically. So here's what I did: I pasted fabric monkeys and polka dots (of course) on the walls using a new technique of mixing cornstarch with water . It's safe for the paint and walls and they are removable. Here are two websites I used to find out more about this technique:

Sugar Bee and How About Orange

If you can believe it, I still had a lot of fabric that we used for Isaac's crib set. So I looked for a cute monkey template online (which was alot harder than I thought it would be) and started cutting away. The cutting is what always takes the longest. Here is a close up of the monkeys and dots. I really like the way it turned and I went from $20 to ABSOLUTELY FREE!!

The only thing is, the possibilities are oh so endless and I might have to control myself to not paste fabric over EVERY WALL in the house!!!

So excited to meet our little monkey!

My Apologies....and a Quilt

First of all, I'm so very sorry for my blogging silence. Not that I haven't been busy doing things. Just super lazy about posting about them. Also, I've had a pretty big project that I've been working on.

My little man is in his bog boy bed now and after seeing this post on a quilted duvet at Handmade Mommy. It was so great and I knew I wanted to make one for Isaac. Here's how mine came out: Here are some detail pics: What's great is that it's a duvet and I already had a comforter to use. It was purple which is very not big boy. Here's a close up of the button closure for the duvet. I love the button-hole foot for my sewing machine. It made this step a breeze. Isaac really loved it. Here he is happily pointing at all the animals. What a little sweety.Thanks Kari for sharing the pattern with me!!