Merry Christmas

Wow, what a fun filled Christmas this has been for us.  Sorry for the lack of posting- I blame my camera and the length of time to upload photos to blogger!

We had a great time at our church's Christmas service-they did such a fabulous job decorating and making everything fun, worshipful and accessible!  Here is one of the only family shots we got this season (it was way past her bedtime, so Miss C wasn't in the mood to smile).

Having Coraline made Christmas morning so much fun for us this year.  We started the morning with homemade cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting and then let Coraline enjoy her Christmas gifts.

Here she is with her gifts from Santa.  She got a few toys and some outfits.

She found that eating wrapping paper was much more fun than opening the gifts- be careful Grant your finger is almost in the way!

In addition to eating the paper, she found that eating the gifts was much more fun too!

We had so much fun with our families.  We ate like kings.  We got some neat stuff (I got a Kindle- woo hoo- reading has commenced again)!  

I would have uploaded more photos, but I don't have 30 extra minutes to sit and wait!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too.  I promise to be a better blogger this year!

Coraline Meets Santa's Beard

I love going back to my Alma mater, Peace College, any time I can.  That place houses so many good memories for me.  So, I jumped at the chance to take Coraline there for a fun, free event-- Christmas story time and a chance to meet Santa himself!  

I love Peace at Christmas!  This is the main building (I lived on the third floor my junior year).

Cute and sweet librarian, Anne, reading the kids two stories- can you spot me (Coraline got covered up by the book page)? 

And Miss C meets the jolly man himself, but was distracted by his beard, which she found quite entertaining! 

Peas and Carrots

Miss C has started solids.  According to her, her world will never be the same!  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably realize that I'm not very traditional.  Well, after reading this book--

I decided to skip the rice cereal route all together and just dive right in to real foods.  And so we did.  She's had bananas, yogurt and cinnamon, kefir, peas, carrots, green beans, pears, apples, white beans and turkey.  All with a little pat of butter or coconut oil and some mild spices.  One of the take home messages from the book that I've really taken to heart- babies like food to taste good too!  If it's bland to you, it will probably be bland for baby.  I haven't pureed the heck out of the food either- a little chunkiness is not harmful. 

(Yum, turkey, peas and carrots)



(She LOVES her food- she has yet to reject anything I've given her)

One of the things I've found extremely helpful in preparing her food is this little workhorse- the Beaba Babycook.  It steams, reheats and chops food.  Sure, you can make baby food without it, but it sure is easier to have one little machine do it all and within 15 minutes or so.

Christmas Cards

I love a good handmade Christmas card, but this year I’m going to do something different. I am going to break from tradition and send out photo cards. What can I say, you know all the relatives really just want to see a picture of Coraline’s cute face wishing them Christmas cheer.

I’m going to use Shutterfly because they have so many fantastic, fun, traditional, nontraditional, elegant and whimsy cards to choose from (click here to see them all) and because I used them for Coraline’s birth announcement and the cards turned out FABULOUS!  I love how easy it is to search for the perfect card (you can easily narrow your options) and the finished product is a high quality card.

There are so many amazing Christmas cards, but I love a good damask like this one or I may decide to be whimsy and go with this one.

There are so many things to choose from and although it is a little early to start thinking about first birthday invitations perhaps this one should be in the running? or this one?  Only time will tell my friends!

Check them out. You won’t be disappointed!

My little girl

I decided to bust out the nice camera and get some pictures of her this past week.  She is growing so fast and I want to make sure that I have some good pictures of her to remember this fun age (5 almost 6 months).

She's a very serious girl.  She's not quick to smile at strangers (or the camera), but will give them out once she gets to know you.

She's not a huge fan of tummy time.  She can roll over (both ways) and can sit up now.

She absolutely LOVES the cats and blowing raspberries.  She grabs those kitties' ears and won't let go.  The cats are absolute angels- they totally let her grab and yank on them.  Sadie especially likes her. 

I just can't get enough of her! 

Another Upcyle- Baby Skirt

I'm having too much fun- can you tell?  I love the idea of taking old clothes and remaking them into something else (preferably one my daughter can wear)!  I went to the goodwill to stock up on some womens' corduroys and other pants to transform into skirts for Coraline to use during the winter.

I did not take a picture of the pants, but it was a women's velvety gray pair of pants.  I was inspired by this pattern.  I needed more material than the pattern called for, so I thought a ruffle in the middle of the skirt would be cute.  I had some Moda fabric left over from a quilt and it had that perfect touch of gray in it.  I took a 2 1/4 inch strip (twice as long as the skirt) and created a double ruffle (my own term)- basically I just put a baste stitch on the top and bottom of the material and pulled the string to create a ruffle. 

I have decided that I love the way this waist is done- creating a space for the elastic so that it ruffles at the top.  It looks so much more "finished" to me then without it.  It will look much cuter with onesies too!

Here's a close up of the ruffle.

I would never pair the shirt with this skirt, but I wanted to get a picture of her in it for the blog.  I do like it with the leggings though!

It's a Hoot Baby Quilt

I love the new line by MoMo for Moda called It's a Hoot.  The colors are so lovely and bright.  I wanted to make a simple patchwork quilt to really showcase the charms.

I quilted using the free hand meandering style. 

I just love the bright colors!

This quilt is on sale at my Etsy shop.

I'm linking up to Tea Rose Home- check it out!

Hot Fudge Sundae . . . with Sprinkles

And here she is in her ensemble.   A hot fudge sundae (with sprinkles) indeed.

Miss C and her cousins decided to make the rounds in our neighborhood.  The kids racked up- I spotted a full size snickers bar and chips.

I love this picture of Cousin E giving Coraline a fist bump.  She looks very intent on doing it right.  Also, this is a good view of her skirt and leggings.

All in all, we had a great night with the family.  My dad and I made baklava so the adults were sufficiently sugared up as well as the kids!  Hope you all had a happy halloween!

Sweater Upcycle

I keep coming across the neatest blog posts about upcyling or reinventing things from other items.  I've done a few things in the past, but wanted to do something a bit more dramatic!  So, into my closet I went.  I found the softest sweater that just never fit right.  I thought this could be turned into a cute sweater for Coraline. 

(Super soft adult sweater)

I cut the sleeves and the sweater part below the bodice off.  I used the wrist part of the long sleeve and made it a short sleeve.  I put a box pleat in the back to make it fit a 5 month old.  I also finished the sweater with a ribbon on the hem and a button to close the sweater.  It turned out quite cute.  I get lots of compliments on it when Miss C wears it.

(the front)

(the back with the box pleat)

(the model)

I'm linking it up to Tea Rose Home- go and check it out!

A Sneak Peek

When I was growing up we always had to make our own Halloween costumes.  It was fun trying to be creative and finding things around the house to use.  I think I"m going to try to keep that tradition with Coraline.  So, in that spirit, here is a sneak peek at Coraline's costume.  So far the total cost has been $3.00 (for the tulle) and about 45 minutes worth of time. 

 (Can you guess what that is)

 (I've always wanted to make a tulle skirt)

(Just a few parts of the costume)

Our Afternoon Walks

I absolutely love walking around this lake.  Every part of the trail has a beautiful view.  Coraline loves it too.  She is always wide-eyed and observant as we walk.  We are taking advantage of the nice weather here and visiting it as often as we can.  We even had a family picnic last week. 

(Pretty view)

(She's closing her eyes, because the sun was in them)

(Family picnic time)

They have discovered each other

And it is quite cute.

T-Shirt into Dance Pants

I think this project is soooo cool.  I mean really, who thinks of these things?  I got this tutorial idea from my friend, Jan, who has the YouTube link on her blog post.  You've got to check out the YouTube tutorial to see how easy this really is.

    
I've done two pants.  For both, I've used an XL t-shirt.  It's a little big, but you can always tailor it to fit your body (large t-shirts are too small for me). 

Here are some of the things I discovered along the way:

* This is my great discovery- use a long sleeve t-shirt instead of a short sleeve t-shirt.  You can use the sleeve as your waistband instead of cutting up another t-shirt (like the tutorial suggests).  Fold the sleeve in half lengthwise and cut (the sleeve provides a natural tapering, just like the tutorial suggests).  You will have two pieces now.  Sew them together to create your waistband (sew it in a way that the two pieces create a tube, so you can pass your drawstring through).

(long sleeve folded in half- see the natural tapering of material)

(now cut the sleeve in half- you will have two pieces)

* I created a much smaller tube for my drawstring by sewing a 1/2 inch down the waistband.  This helped the drawstring stay in place and not bunch up so much.

(I put the pen at the place where I sewed)

* If you have a serger, serge your pants.  This will help keep the fray down. However, they are dance pants so if you don't have a serger you will be just fine.

Old T-Shirt

New Dance Pants

Awesome!

I'm posting this link to the Tea Rose Home Link Party, because although this is not my idea, I think it is too cool not too share!

Look at me!

I'm cute as can be!

So, here is a picture of some of the things I've been creating lately-- a denim skirt and birdie onesie.

I used a great tutorial by Homemade by Jill for her denim skirt.  Super easy to make.  I plan on making black and gray corduroy skirts for her to wear this winter.  Because she wears cloth diapers it is hard for her to wear pants that fit correctly.  But a skirt paired with some tights will work great and are pretty cute.

I was all set to do the much blogged about freezer paper stencil for her onesie- except halfway through I found out that wax paper is not the same as freezer paper (has to do with the wax being on one side with freezer paper)!  So, instead, I went old school and traced a stencil onto the onesie and then painted it free hand with fabric paint.  I think it turned out pretty cute, but it would have been sharper with the freezer paper.  Have no fear, I bought freezer paper on my next store outing and have enough to stencil my family's entire wardrobe.  If you want to try this project just type in "freezer paper stencil" and you'll get a million tutorials.

These are incredibly easy projects and can usually be accomplished during her nap time.

Oh, and her hair is growing so fast.  I can actually put a little bow in it now!  Despite the tights, dresses and pink people still ask if she's a boy or girl- the bow should help out with that, right?

Nom nom nom nom

 So, we went to Coraline's cousin's second birthday party a few weeks ago.  And we both had a great time except she realized she couldn't eat the cake or the hot dogs or swim in the pool, so she decided to take matters into her own hands-- by eating her own dress. . . the entire time we were there (despite the fact that she had toys).  

Here she is with her great-grandmother.  Maw-maw thought it was pretty funny too.

Yum.