Baby Oh Baby – Page 4

A Baby Shower

25 Comments / May 5, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Family

Hi there! Boy, my blogging sure has slowed down in the last few months. There’s always Just. So. Much. To. Do! I can’t keep up! And who stole April??? It zipped by in a haze and I can’t believe it’s May already. Another busy month with quilt market coming up! (Yipee!)

Anyway, MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a beautiful little baby shower for SweetiePie a week and a half ago. We were a small group but we had a good time and the shower lasted almost 2 hours longer than I thought it would!

MyDadLovesMeBestSister always does such a beautiful job decorating. And, of course, the theme of the day was PINK!!! Here’s a partial shot of the gift table – notice the little peek (in the bottom right-hand corner) of the adorable garland of baby socks that are hanging on the front of the table. Too Cute! And pretty pom poms lining the fireplace.

We ate first and the food was delicious. Hot chicken salad, a pear walnut salad, croissants, lots of fruit, cheese spread and crackers, chocolate dipped strawberries, and a beautiful little cake. After lunch, we dismantled the pretty table setting so that we could make baby headbands (and eat pink candy!). It was really fun to sit around and work with our hands while we were visiting. It was a fun surprise for SweetiePie and I think she liked it!

These are just a few of the finished headbands – I didn’t remember to take a picture until most of them were all packed up.

After we made headbands, we tied a few baby quilts, but we’re already picture heavy, so I’ll save that for another post. In the meantime, the chalkboard from the shower is now out of date – only 39 more days until the due date – Eeeep!

XOXO,
Anna

Boppy into Spring

21 Comments / April 24, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing

Ooooh, sorry about that post title. I couldn’t think of anything else. But, if you can get past it, I’ll show you this pretty picture of the phlox at the end of our driveway. Spring is finally here with the first little blooms, buds on all the trees, and a robin building her nest on top of one of our downspouts. I haven’t seen my favorite DuckCouple yet, but I’m holding out hope! Anyway, it was a stunning weekend here — perfect, sunny temps all weekend — just gorgeous!

MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. baby shower for SweetiePie yesterday, and as soon as I sift through the pictures, I’ll give you a peek. Think Pink! ;-D In the meantime, here are a few pictures of another present I gave SweetiePie last week at the Baby Shower that her family had for her. I purchased a Boppy and then made a few covers for it. For the first one, I used a pink polka-dotted Robert Kaufman cuddle fabric on the top side. Oh man, is that stuff ever soft and cozy!

On the bottom, I used a little pink and gray fox print. And a really long zipper. ;-D . For the pattern, I purchased a cheap little cover at our local Meijer and used it as a model. I discovered that the pre-made ones are made out of such cheap cotton, and they make them large so that they’ll still fit after they are washed. Therefore, I had to make mine a little smaller than the sample cover.

For a fun little touch, I inserted Riley Blake’s Mini Pom Poms. SweetiePie loves her some pom poms!

I also made a second cover (in more neutral colors in case there might be a little boy some day ;-D) because, well, in case of a spit-up (or worse!) emergency. I love that cute little alphabet cuddle print!

Boppys are a pretty cool idea — I wish we’d had them when we had babies. They’re great for the mother to use when nursing that new little babe, and later, they provide nice padding for a baby learning to sit. I pressed Teddy into demo service, but he’s pretty short waisted, so the boppy almost swallowed him.

So, another fun baby project completed. I should just apologize for drowning you in baby makes, but a) I’m having so much fun sewing for baby, and b) hopefully it won’t last too much longer (except for the occasional gift as the baby grows, of course ;-D!)

More to come — I know you’re waiting on the edge of your seat LOL. Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

Baby Swaddles

23 Comments / April 17, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing

SweetiePie and FinallyAGirl had their first baby shower yesterday and we had a lot of fun. SweetiePie’s family went all out on the baby shower decorations and food, and everything was just perfect! And now that she has received her gifts, I can show you a few of the things that I made for her.

I raided all the double gauze in my little etsy shop and made some baby swaddles. Back in the day, we used to wrap our babies up (but not as tightly as they do now) and we just called them receiving blankets. As far as I can tell, it’s pretty much the same thing, except that I made my little receiving blankets with two layers of fabric instead of one layer. Swaddles are so easy to make — I just cut big squares (50″ for the plaid swaddles and 43″ for the other two) and folded the edges in twice for a nice, neat edge.

The three plaid swaddles are from Riley Blake fabrics and the other two are Japanese fabrics. The Japanese double gauze is a little more expensive, but it’s thicker and a bit softer — it was interesting to compare the two types of gauze for quality — they’re both just great, but a little different.

After hemming the first swaddle with just a plain straight stitch, I got a little bored, so I decided to play around with some of the stitches on my sewing machine. I love the little pink hearts, but I really love the simplicity of the little wavy line on the gray plaid swaddle.

Since we don’t have any babies here yet, I asked Scruff if I could practice wrapping him in a swaddle. He retreated to his favorite cardboard box.

So, I decided to wrap up a teddy bear. This almost Grandma clearly needs swaddle wrapping instructions!

So, one fun little baby project all done and checked off the list. There are more to come and I better get crackin’ … sooo, see ya later Alligator!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy Spring!

27 Comments / March 20, 2016 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Sewing, Store

Yipee! It’s the first day of spring! We love the first day of spring here in ThimbleannaLand because it’s the day our beloved little SecondChild was born and we LOVE him to pieces. (Except, we wish he lived closer {sniff}{sniff})

I’m hoping Spring will bring lots of energy around here and help me get some projects done. I have several on-the-go, but progress appears to be at a snail’s pace. We did complete one big project this week. On Friday, TheManoftheHouse and I went to visit TheFirstChild and SweetiePie, and SweetiePie and I made curtains for the new baby’s room. She’s almost ready for the baby — just a few baby showers and 12 weeks to go!

Here’s the nursery before curtains …

And after. I love that happy pop of pink!

SweetiePie has done such a beautiful job on this little room and she’s given a lot of thought to every little detail. I should have taken more pictures! There’s another window with the same pink curtains to the left of the picture (behind the glider) and some adorable little book shelves (that used to be spice racks — SweetiePie is SO clever!) The C on the wall is a hint as to the baby’s probable name. I was thinking they’d have an “F” on the wall — I’m happily naming her FinallyAGirl because, FINALLY, we have a girl on the way! I checked the family tree, and going back along the male side of the family, there hasn’t been a surviving girl for 150 years — the last one was born in 1865. So, needless to say, it’s going to be all about the PINK around here for awhile!

In other news, while I’ve been working on random projects, lots of fabric has arrived here in ThimbleannaLand. A few random bolts — the top two are from Sweetwater’s Mama Said Sew Volume II. I love the super cute little flowers and, of course, I had to have the text fabric. All my favorite Quilt Shops LOL! Then, there is a PINK bolt — just because. It’s from one of my all time favorite fabric collections — Fresh Cut by Basic Gray for Moda. And, the bottom bolt is just a great neutral, also by Basic Gray.

Then, a few little Easter chicks helped me welcome a few bolts from Blend Fabrics. This is Born Wild by Ana Davis. I love these sweet animal prints and I think they’ll make wonderful baby gifts.

And, finally, for more baby gifts, three new double gauze plaids. Baby Swaddles coming right up!

All these prints are available in my etsy shop and hopefully soon, I’ll be sewing with all of them. FinallyAGirl will be here before we know it!

XOXO,
Anna

Gingerbread Houses 2015

29 Comments / December 29, 2015 May 5, 2016 / Baby Oh Baby, Gingerbread Houses

Hello Hello! Thank you for all the happy comments about the new baby — you’re all so sweet! We’re super excited and looking forward to a fun new year!

So. How was it? Did you all (who celebrate!) have a good Christmas? We had a great time. All the kids were home for Christmas this year and everyone came to our house. There was lots of cooking, eating. visiting and playing games. And in the middle of it all, on Christmas Eve, we had our Annual (well, except for last year when we were on the road) Gingerbread Competition. It gets tougher every year to come up with new ideas, but somehow, this little family manages to surprise us every time. So, let’s get down to business!

We sort of had a tie for last place and for first place this year, with one in the middle. Sharing the spot for last place was the little house by TheManofTheHouse and me. We didn’t really have a theme, so we just did a traditional candy house and at the last minute, threw in a zip-lining guy because I went zip-lining for the first time last August in Montana. We built a rock chimney on the back of the house, put wreaths on the front and back, and had one lone pine tree to support the zip line.

Sharing the back-of-the-pack berth with us was CuteNiece2 and her boyfriend. She’s a certified yoga instructor and she came prepared with gingerbread people all cut out in yoga poses. So Darn Clever! There was a yoga person for Triangle, Three-Legged Dog, Down Dog, and Wheel. Check out the Three-Legged Dog guy with his little yoga block. They very cleverly had a stack of yoga mats and another stack of yoga blocks. I loved that CuteNiece2 gave her house so much thought and came prepared. The only reason this cute little house didn’t get some votes is because the competition was so stiff this year — in another year, this house would have been a winner!

CuteNiece1 and MyDadLovesMeBestSister came ready to win too! CuteNiece1 worked at a farm last summer and loved it, so they decided to make her farm. Their attention to detail was fantastic! They had chickens with a chicken coop, pigs, compost bins along the side of the farm, a tractor, and veggies in rows behind the barn (complete with veggies growing on a pretzel trellis running down the middle of the garden). Very, Very Cute!

CrazyBIL, CuteNephew, and TheSecondChild always get very creative and end up carving the gingerbread to suit whatever they’ve designed. This year they decided to go with a political theme (which was a bit risky — we’re a family divided along political lines, so we avoid politics at all costs!) and poke a bit of fun by creating a Trump Tower. At the beginning, it looked like they were going to have to withdraw when their tower collapsed, but they recovered and did a great job. Trump is welcoming all of his followers (complete with golden comb-overs LOL) to Trump Tower. There’s also a wall to keep aliens out, but they’re scaling the wall anyway. And, in keeping with their habit of somewhat gory houses, there’s an alien who fell to his death from the top of the wall, and Hillary is hanging from the side of Trump Tower. And, do notice the special cereal dollar signs on the side of the tower.

Trump Tower tied for the first place vote and we had to have a run-off vote. I think Trump Tower was winning for creativity, but the final winner was the ADORABLE little PINK house by SweetiePie and TheFirstChild. I knew they had a little girl house up their sleeves when SweetiePie produced piles of pink candy at the start of the competition. She’s mastered the art of decorative frosting — what a super cute house! And a perfect way to remember the exciting month we’ve had in finding out that the new baby will be a GIRL! Look at the cute little Mom, Dad and Baby, standing at the front door. Congratulations to SweetiePie and TheFirstChild!!!

So, there you go. Another fun year with the Gingerbread Houses. Thanks for sticking to the end and reading all the details.

And, btw, did we tell you? …

LOL!

XOXO,
Anna