Diaper Cake for Baby Shower (#23)

I've done a diaper cake before that you can see here. I also was a guest blogger about it over at Home Based Parties where I gave a step by step tutorial.
Well, sadly, I haven't had the opportunity to make another diaper cake since then, but this weekend I helped with a shower for a new friend who is having a baby girl!

Yahoo! I get to do something girly! So I asked the hostess about color schemes, etc. she said that they weren't doing the traditional baby pink. I've also peeked at the nursery, which was mostly all white.
So, that left me wide open... the hostess suggested yellow, and I went with that, adding the turqouise and hot pink.
I have already been working on the hair bows (which I will tell you about in another post) so I knew I wanted to include them. The top cake layer has three baby headbands around it. The flowers all have hair clips on the back and clip right onto the headbands.

I embroidered the baby's name of one of the wide ribbons and it went around the bottom cake layer:

For the layer above that I embroidered "Welcome."The mommy-to-be told me that when she takes the cake apart she will use the ribbon to make a ribbon board to hold all the hair bows/flowers on.
The rubber duckies were the only only thing needed. I wished the little bubbly looking decor was blue instead of yellow- cause then it would look like bubbles!
(sigh) I have way too much fun making these, and I can't wait to do another one!
I love having that mirror there- you can see front and back at once!
My friend, Rosslyn made some yummy and cute cupcakes that color coordinated with the diaper cake:
Here you can see them together:
Here they are with the fun shower decorations:

Here is a picture of the mommy to be:
And just for fun, here is the cake once more:

Linked to: Blue Cricket Design

Easter Decorations

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Twice my birthday has fallen on Easter. Maybe that is why I like it so much. I love Easter decorations. I've always loved spring colors, and dyeing Easter eggs. We've been out of town for the past few Easters, so I haven't bothered to decorate for a long time. This year my 9 year old daughter helped. (She was really disappointed that the chocolate bunny wasn't edible!)
Please don't hate me for this, but in general, I hate stuffed animals. Those tacky little things can take over a bedroom or a playroom so fast, it's unbelievable. They sort of make a room look messy, I don't know, just never liked them.
But, I make an exception for bunnies. I haven't bought a single one of these, they have all been given to me.
Or they have been reproducing themselves in storage... you know how rabbits are!I almost threw them out during the move, but I thought they worked pretty good here on our massive piece of furniture.

We have bunnies hanging out all over the house:
But this one is definitely my favorite. Can you tell why? A hint: My Mother-n-law gave her to me when I was pregnant with my 2nd child. Ya, love that little tummy bump.
How ap-pro-po.
When I got out the boxes labeled: Easter, my 9-year old went through our hodge-podge collection of plastic Easter eggs and sorted them by color. (She does this with my sewing pins on my pin cushion, and her skittles before she eats them...) I found these little pails and put the same color eggs inside them. I liked how they turned out.
Almost as much as I like the little chicks I found...
So much so, that I hope they start reproducing in storage:
I've learned that for areas where things get knocked over easily, it's better not to go with glass. Baskets work better there.
Here are some pretty eggs hanging from the chandelier. My daughter was in the process of adding some carrots to it:
Here's my most recent holiday quilt: (It won an honorable mention at our last quilt show in Roswell)
And an older Spring Quilt I made: Usually it goes on the wall, but in this house it seems better folded over a quilt holder.
And the mantle: It could use some work, but it was fun... next year I'll make some things for it. Maybe a wreath...
Love these bunnies. My husbands uncle made these when we were first married. The one on the right has these huge jumper feet, wish you could see them.
And my all-time favorite Easter Decoration. So much so that I keep it up all year round to remind me...
Hope you and yours have a wonderful Easter this Sunday!

Hooded Towels, Project #21

So I had these towels and wash cloths in my fabric stash.... Because I planned on making matching hooded towels for my 2 kids. Back when I only had 2 kids (I have 4 now!)

So when my friend had her 2nd baby boy, I decided it was time to give these towels a life. I was originally going to make them primary colors, but I went with the citrus-y summer colors of orange and lime green.
So, a great new baby (and big brother) gift that cost me zero new dollars. Something I can cross off my project list, and look at how much room they are clearing out of my closet (that's a big gift bag, and I would rather take a picture of it, than my messy fabric/project closet!- plus you get to see my pretty baby in the background!)

Some fun cupcakes

My son had his annual cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet a few weeks ago. Each of the boys was to make their own dessert. It was a contest, so we pulled out (stole from "Hello Cupcake") this great idea for spaghetti dinner and meatball cupcakes. Super easy. He could have done it all himself, if he wasn't such a busy kid, and trying to get out the door to soccer practice.
So, my 3-yr. old daughter helped me make the cupcakes, my son swirled all the "noodles" on with frosting, and then daughter helped me put on the candy "meatballs"
Wished I took better pictures so you could really see how much this looked like spaghetti and meatballs.

We grated on some Parmesaen cheese (white chocolate) and left the grater in case they wanted to add some more. There were 2 awards given. One went to the cub scout who made the whole dessert himself, the other went to my son.
He was thrilled.
This really is so easy you could just turn your kids loose on it.

Project #19 #20 Valentine's day boxes

Remember how we said that kids projects would count? Well, I helped my daughter sew this bag for her Valentine's Day box. She did all the sewing herself and was so pleased with it...
Until she saw what her brother came up with...

He, of course, didn't want to do anything remotely similar to his sisters. (Cause that would be too easy for mom, right?)
So, eventually we came up with this idea. He is an avid reader, so his box involved a book you could open. Through the plastic, you can see the book covers from some of his favorite books that we copied and put inside. We decided it needed some light, so I found some battery operated tea lights in my junk drawer. They were left over from Halloween, so they glowed orange, but they did the job.
There was an opening at the top to drop Valentine cards into. We are saving this (it was originally going to be made into a pinata. and we built it all out of cardboard) so we can make it over into something for my daughter for next year.

Project #18 Baby Blessing Dress

For my 3rd baby girl, I thought I would try my hand at making her blessing dress. In our faith, babies are not baptized or Christened, but can receive a priesthood blessing. While the white dress is not necessary, it does make the occasion special.
I recruited the help of my friend, Julie. (She's pictured below holding the baby for a fitting while we try the lining on her.) Julie already had a pattern, and talked me through the whole process.
This extra picture is just here because I think my baby looks so funny!
At the fabric store I fell in love with the beautiful beaded fabric. Then I saw that it was $24.99 a yard.
It was not on sale.
I did not have a coupon.
And the pattern called for 3 1/2 yards of it.
But, then, of course, I couldn't imagine using any other fabric. This is the curse of those of us with really, really good taste.
After looking at all the other options, we went back to this fabric, pulled out the pattern, and there in the store, figured out how to modify it so we could get by with 1 yard. Yes, 1 yard! That was in the budget!
I would have had loads of leftover fabric if I had bought that much!

I don't have very much experience sewing clothing, especially dresses, so this was a great learning opportunity for me. Julie is an expert, so I cut and sewed while she held the baby and told me what to do. (I am proud to say that I worked on some of this on my own, but figuring out a pattern is a lot harder than just listening to someone tell you what to do next!)
I didn't tell my husband I was working on this. With my huge collection of other unfinished projects, I knew it would be better to show him after it was finished... so I swore the kids to secrecy and went to work!
I think this was great experience also because with 3 daughters, I may be sewing a lot of prom/homecoming dresses. Because it will be less money, and it's hard these days to find a pretty, modest dress in the stores, it's a good skill to have!

And here it is all finished:!!! (Except the buttons- but you can't see those!)
And she's not crying because she doesn't like it, she's just hungry.... again.
What do you think? (Oh, my husband was really proud of me. It was all worth it)

Backpack's- Project #17

Last year for Christmas, I helped my daughter make these backpacks for her friends for Christmas. I was really proud of her. It was a good project for a girl her age to tackle. Not too hard, but enough of a challenge to give her a huge sense of pride and accomplishment!
Since we are in a new place, with new friends, it was the perfect gift to give again.
Again, the challenge was finding out how to correctly spell everyone's name (this one above, we weren't sure, so she just got an initial)
This one here was my favorite fabric.

While unpacking some boxes, I came across some notepads and pencils. We thought they would be perfect to fill the backpacks with.

I really liked doing this with my kids for several reasons:
1. By turning their focus to doing something for their friends, they took their focus off how many presents were under the tree for them. (At least for a little while)
2. It teaches them to be frugal: All the fabric and thread came from my stash, the only thing we had to buy was the cording. I made her buy it herself, but gave her a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby. (And yet, as cheap as these were, I think they were just as appreciated as any store bought gift!)
3. It teaches them some sewing skills.
4. It gives them a sense of accomplishment.
5. After all the effort they put into making gifts, they are more appreciate of the gifts they receive from others.
6. what better bonding than some mommy-time working on projects?