Baby Girl Showers

Here are a few of the fun girly things I've made for some of my dear friends. My kids each have their own special blanket, (which they have recently started calling "nonnies" because that's what the youngest calls his...) all of which have super soft minky on them. So when making a blanket for a sweet baby girl, I knew it had to have this cuddly fabric too. I put minky on one side, cotton print on the other and a silky trim around the edges. And I'm happy to say that this blanket is getting lots of good use from the most adorable baby girl!

Click HERE for a link to the blanket tutorial.

I used some of the scrap fabric to embellish a burp cloth, and crocheted a little beanie for her too. I love that pink little flower.

Another one of my friends is expecting twin girls! I made her two coordinating carseat canopies. They have the same pink fabric on the back side and coordinating fabric for the front side. I added some cute little bows to make them even more girly. Sorry no tutorial, but there are tons of great tutorials across the internet. Now I just can't wait to meet the two cuties in a month or so.

It seems like the rest of us pregnant ladies are all expecting boys! So on to boy crafting we go!

Sister's BABY Shower

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am that my sister is having a baby! I will finally become an aunt, and I have already been enjoying spoiling the coming baby. What's even more fun, is that her and I are both expecting boys within months of each other. Best Friends & Cousins!! CANNOT WAIT!

So when a friend offered to throw my sister a baby shower, I was first on board to offer to help in any way I could.

First, I began by designing the invites:

It was held at the other host's home, so she did most of the decorations, I simply contributed at chalkboard bunting that I wrote BABY on- no pictures of that project...

We had some yummy food:

Played a few games:

We played the ever popular Points in Your Purse game. I created this little printable (which will be available soon) and some ladies came up with crazy high scores!

We also played a really funny game where you chew up some bubbly gum then sculpt the gum to look like babies. We then voted on our favorite.

Then we, or course, opened presents. Here's what I made for my sister, or rather for the BABY!

Hand-stamped onesies. I cut out some simple shapes from foam, then stamped. 

Crochet bear beanie.

Triangle pieced car seat canopy. (I had been wanting to try out this triangle quilt that I pinned on Pinterest a while ago, and I figured this little canopy would be a good place to start. I paired it with a black & white striped and trimmed it out with piping. So fun!)

Now I just have to wait a bit longer to hold that little guy! Can't wait!

Crochet Fun

After posting one of my other crochet posts, a flurry of orders came my way. Here are a few of the things I hooked up.

This stork pouch was made using this pattern: link.

After making a lady a gray ribbed beanie, she asked for two more in pink & cream.

A friend of mine is due to have her first baby, a little girl, any day now. Part of her shower gift was this little beanie. I love how the bow turned out.

Since making that bow beanie, I've been on a crocheting break. The warm and humid weather has me in the mood for anything but crocheting.

Crochet Crazy

I've been a bit crochet crazy the past little bit, and I've been having so much fun with it. It is amazing how much more fun a skill can be, when you really figure it out and then go to town using the skill. I've finally learned how to read and understand crochet patterns about a year ago, and now I love the chance to learn new stitches and new ways of doing things. Anyways, enough of my blabbering, here are just a few of the projects I've been making. Forgive me, the picture quality isn't so great, but the faces contained are irresistibly cute!

This is my latest kreation- baby booties. These baby booties keep his feet warm and are cuter than plain socks, plus they actually stay on his feet! (I die over those perfectly chunky thighs!)

Here are the kiddos putting their new beanies to use- granted it was 57 outside and the hats and coats got torn off after 30 minutes of playing outside. But they sure did look cute!

Here are links to the patterns I used:

Shell stitch beanie

Ribbed beanie

Baby booties

Christmas Wreath

This year I was struggling to come up with a Christmas wreath idea. It seems as though every idea has already been taken. I was drawing a blank. Then, it came to me while crocheting some other project. (There are always about 3 crochet projects going on at the same time. They always get partially done, I get bored of it and move onto another crochet project . . .) So as I was making a scarf, hot pad, or beanie of sorts, I decided that this year, my wreath would be crocheted. You are probably envisioning something very grandmotherly, though there is nothing wrong with being grandmotherly- my mom is a grandmother and quite stylish, young, and modern. This is what I ended up with:

I used two skeins of yarn, in two different shades of green, and crocheted them together- I love the heathered look it gave. I used my wreath from last year- it was wrapped in aqua nubby yarn. I was lazy and left the yarn on the wreath- that's why you see bits of aqua peeking through. I'm loving the texture of this wreath! 

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Here is a brief non-technical pattern. I used a 12" foam wreath. You will have to adjust to the size of your wreath. 

Chain 17, Turn, Skip first 2 chains, DC across, * Chain 2, Turn, DC across.* Repeat from * to * for 45 rows or until your rectangle is large enough to wrap the circumference of your wreath. Finish off, don't cut yarn.

Join short ends of your rectangle to form a big loop. I just threaded them on an embroidery needle and slip stitched through DCs and beginning chained row. Wrap rectangle around your wreath and now sew the long lengths of your rectangle together to connect around wreath. Knot and tie off, weaving in any yarn tails.

I then attached some felt flowers I made using this pattern: Not Martha's Felt Dahlia Flower

Now my door can MERRILY greet any Christmas time visitors!

Crafting for Baby | Part 1

With this baby's gender being a surprise until delivery day, crafting and planning was a bit limited. However, I'm an completely incapable of not crafting. So instead of sitting idle, I just made boy & girl versions of everything. It was rather fun and kept me busy when all I wanted to think about was getting this baby here so I could hold him or her. When this baby came (10 days early!) we welcomed another little boy into our home. Luckily all of the girl creations won't go to waste- I'll either use them as shower gifts or hoard them for any future girls in the family. Here are a few of the projects I worked on:

Baby bibs- here are the boy versions. The fronts are made of random boy fabrics I had on hand, and the backs are made of terry cloth. Snap closures since velcro isn't strong enough to withstand a two-year-old's powerful tugs.

Crochet beanies- I rediscovered my love of crocheting during this pregnancy. I made SIX hats, several flowers & headbands (now to be gifted!), and a few photo props. It was so fun learning new skills (check out YouTube for video tutorials.) Here are two of the boy ones:

Look how cute that owl one looks on my babe:

If you live in the Ft. Worth area I highly recommend our photographer- Pebblebrook Portraits.

It was so fun to make all of these baby things- more posts coming soon!

Shells

A year ago I was put in charge of helping teach how to do a shell crochet edge on baby layettes and flannel blankets. It was the first time I had done the stitch myself and I loved it. I knew that when I had another babe, I was going to put the stitch to use on something. So I made a flannel blanket for baby brother and did the stitch around the edge.

If you'd like to learn how to do this crochet stitch, here is a good tutorial that I found: MormonChic-Crochet Edge Blanket

Crochet Blanket

I started this blanket once I found out that I was having a girl and it took forever. I think I finally finished it a few weeks before K was born!