my firefly is one!

My firefly is one!  For his birthday outfit I used Patty Young's Natalie&Nate pattern, the boy version.  The fabric is from Eric Carle's Very Lonely Firefly collection.  The lining fabric is Brown Bear or Very Hungry Caterpillar - I forgot which one.


I also embellished a romper for him with a firefly star.  We now have five people in our family - so a star seems just right as our family symbol.  His older brother requested a matching tshirt, so he got an orange one with the star appliqued in the middle as well.

american boy

We took a trip to the American Girl store in Chicago for a birthday lunch for my five year old daughter.  Luckily, she has a great brother who will do just about anything for his sister.  We wanted him to have something special to remember the day too.

I used a pre-made ringer tee, added my own Silhouette cut vinyl from a font I found online, and made this shirt for my American Girl's big brother.

Easter outfits

Here's another Addison and Mini-Addison set of dresses.

I found that the doll dress bodice lined up a little differently than the kid's version, so the buttons look off center in this picture.  I think that was my fault and I ironed the fold in the wrong direction.

The sash becomes a bow in the back.

The boys got matching gray tshirts with the geometric fabric appliqued on as ties.  Happy Easter!

Calvin & Hobbes party

A Calvin and Hobbes party with a snowman twist...perfect for my eight year old!


The friend party invitations were a simple orange card, with a hand colored (by my son) Hobbes glued on the front.
 
Inside were the party details(my identifying info is blurred out), complete with a gleeful Calvin enjoying a sled ride!


The family party invitations showed the family enjoying a special meal together.
Inside were the details for the family and the Calvin & Hobbes "party" shot.


On the party day, everyone was greeted at the door by Calvin's club sign - hand drawn by my son.


I made a banner for above the fireplace.  Using a Calvin&Hobbes font, I printed my son's name in large orange letters, cut them out, and glued them to photocopied pages from the comic books.  I used the page of Calvin & Hobbes dancing to music.  The pages were cut in a pennant shape and then glued onto thin rope.


We used Styrofoam balls to make some of the famous snowmen.  Puffy paint was the black buttons and eyes, the noses were made with Model Magic.  The blue car is my daughter's Olivia car.
 

These snowmen were by the front door.  Sled was made out of Legos by my son.  The M&Ms were the hit of the party - especially for my daughter and nieces who were found in the closet holding handfuls.  Little sneaks!
 
 Conner made a poster with photocopies of some of his favorite comic strips.  He did his best to replicate the font when he wrote the title on the top.
 

I made the goody bags out of tiger fabric, labels from the comic book strip, and twist tied them shut with pipe cleaners.  Each bag had a bag of "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs" (Cocoa Puffs), an orange gumball, a Calvinball mask (cut out of black fleece) and a colorful bouncy ball.
 

We weren't sure if it was going to snow, so we had to have a back up plan.  We had a good amount of snow outside for the boys to play in, but Conner still wanted to make the mess inside.  You can see we made newspaper hats for the boys, and then they made snowman jars.  They used tiger felt for scarves, glued on noses made from Model Magic, glued on eyes from buttons, and used pipe cleaners for hair, tails, arms, or whatever else they could think of.  The snow mess that went in the jar is shaving cream, cornstarch, and glitter.  Thank you Pinterest.  The boys said it was a little itchy, probably because of the glitter.  I think it was really cool stuff.  When they were done mixing it in disposable bowls, they put it in the jars, washed their hands off, and went outside to play in the real snow.  That gave me time to clean up the table for treats!!

Here's a closeup of the snowman jar parts.
 

We also had a little photo booth set up for the boys.  My husband turned the TV and made it like a monitor so they could see themselves.  PERFECT activity for the boys to start off the party.  We then watched all the pictures at the end of the party while they were having their treats.


After playing in the snow, they came in to have hot chocolate and cookies.  I made melted snowman cookies and can not find the picture anywhere.  I'll add it later if I find it.  For now - check out the inspiration on Pinterest.  Mine didn't have scarves, and the noses were orange TicTacs.  I also had chocolate chip, butterscotch chip, white chocolate chip, and triple chocolate chip cookies.  We also made "tiger tails" using pretzel rods drizzled with melted orange and brown chocolate.
 

The boys had a blast, and would definitely have enjoyed more time playing outside in the snow.  It's our first significant snowfall of the season so they were eager to play!  One of my favorite parts is that Conner was old enough to really help out with some of the details, and had definite ideas about how some of the activities should be set up.  Most of all, he had fun.  Happy birthday, Conner!

THREE!

Our family became a little bigger this summer!

Meet Braden.  He is about one month old in this picture.
Stars kind of became our family theme for the year.  There are now five of us, each a part of the star.  I used a star flannel fabric for his coming home blanket.  Not that he needed one - it was seriously the hottest part of the summer when he was born.  I think the high hit 100 on the day he was born.  The star on the shirt is yellow fabric with stars on it.


The "Big Brother" (for the second time).  Same yellow star fabric.  Loving his role, just making a weird face because he is squinting in the sunlight.


The "One and Only Sister".  I really wanted a special title for her since she is a big and little sister.  This seemed fitting.  Same yellow fabric for her letters.


Here's all three of them.  I am so lucky!

turtle stuff for baby B

Besides the turtle quilt you saw yesterday, the new baby has a bunch of matching goodies coming his way.
This romper is a simple pattern with facing at the neckline.


The romper has snap tape at the crotch for ease with diapers.  This babe will be cloth diapered (I am told) and I don't quite know how that will affect the fit.  Hopefully it works out.


The romper buttons at the shoulder are a bright green.  They are not purely decorative, they can be used for ease of dressing as well.


I tried something new with this burp cloth - piping.  It feels a little silly to have such a fancy "puke rag" as they are sometimes called in our house, but I think it looks really nice and makes for a classy edging.  Who says you can't have a fancy puke rag? haha.


The lovey blanket is turtle fabric on one side and a light green minkee on the other side.  Even though there's not a lot of orange and yellow on the fabric, I included yellows and oranges in the grosgrain and satin ribbons to coordinate with the quilt and because I think they look great together!


This fuzzy cube has a few minkees, fleece, turtle fabric, and white dots mixed with a lot of grosgrain and satin ribbons.  It is full of textures for baby to enjoy and explore!


Here is the matching hat.  It is a fully lined bucket hat.  Now that it's done I kind of wish I'd tried to include some piping on it - maybe made out of the binding from the quilt.  Either way, I think their babe will look adorable in it!


So many goodies for Baby B to enjoy!

turtle quilt for baby B

This turtle quilt is for my cousin's baby, due in July.  My cousin and her husband have actually seen turtles headed to the ocean - pretty amazing, I'm sure.  Add that to my bucket list, please!  When she saw this quilt a few years ago, she told me then to keep it in mind for her someday.  I am so excited that I finally got to make it for her!!


The turtle tracks around the edge are actually three wavy lines meant to be the part where the turtle's body drags along, and the bumps on the edge are the "paddle" marks they make.


The turtle applique was zig-zagged around the edges, and then zig-zag quilted on the orange swirl.  The yellow "sand" underneath was tightly quilted for texture.


The squares around the turtle applique were quilted in wavy lines to imitate the ocean waves.  The "blue" squares turned out various shades of blue and teal because of variations in the fabric.  I lvoe how it looks!


The binding is so beautiful - I love how the greens, blues, and teals all change and evolve around the edge.  I just need to work on the corners.  They are not easy for me.


Best wishes to S&T on their new arrival...whenever he arrives!

wordle for boys

Have you ever heard of Wordle?  It's such a fun way to play with words.  When I taught, I used it a couple of times with kids.  I love how you can change fonts, colors, and the shape/design of the word layout.  Most importantly, you can change how big the words are according to how many times you use the words in the text.

The boys are going to share a bedroom, and I've been trying to incorporate a few touches for both of them, rather than just 7 year old boy stuff.  I wanted some wall art above the crib, so I decided to make my own Wordle.  I played around a little on the actual website, and then decided to just go for it myself with vinyl.  It's a little hard to tell, but I used light blue, dark blue, bright green, olive green and red.  The red is for "big" and "little" because I wanted them to stand out a little.  I asked Conner for a couple of words that meant boy and brother to him, and added some words that made me think of the boys too.  After giving my (sporty) brother a preview, I realized I forgot to cut one of my Silhouette files - so I'll be adding "sports" "baseball" and "soccer" another day.

I also added a little border above the yardstick chair rail on the crib side.  A few tools for the baby to dream of using when he gets older.  My Silhouette has been getting a workout!

I think the boy's room is officially done now - only seven more weeks until the due date.  Just in the nick of time!

let's hear it for the boys!

A couple goodies for boys!!!  I decided I needed a little something for boys besides just onesies.  And I really wanted to try making a piece of clothing with my serger.

First up - a pair of chambray overalls with a pocket on front, pockets on the back, elastic at the armhole, patches on the knees, and snaps on the legs.

My second project was the one that has beautifully serged seams and facing!  It's a sleeveless romper with snaps in the legs and buttons at the shoulder.

I only used my regular machine for the topstitching and buttons/ buttonholes.

 Have you ever used snap tape?  Ah.... so much better than sewing snaps on by hand!!!  I would have used it on the overalls, but I didn't have a piece that was quite long enough.

Which one is your favorite???


{and have you entered the giveaway?}

argyle

A few new onesies... aren't they cute?!  They were so simple - just three diamonds stitched in the middle, and two diamonds sewn in-between in a coordinating thread.