yellow baby shower gift

One of my best friends whom i've known since we were little girls is about to have her first baby. I got to go to her shower this weekend which meant i got to put together a little collection of happy gifts.

First of all, the baby's name is Lily, which is my most favorite baby name these days. If we ever have a surprise 5th baby [yikes], her name would be Lillian. But since i'm not counting on that happening, it makes me so happy that i'll get to know and love a little Lily anyway. :)

I knew i wanted to give her one of my dollies, and since this one had a cheery yellow skirt, i decided to find some fun little yellow additions to throw in.
So, in went some fresh lemon J.R. Watkins hand soap, Boudreaux's butt paste and these super easy baby head bands.

I followed the tutorial from Delia Creates. It's basically just a strip of knit sewn into a loop and then you can change out the clipped-on flowers. Delia has some beautiful variations- perfect for embellishing cute bald baby girl heads. :)

 The beautiful momma-to be (in yellow even!) along with a couple of other great friends. mmmm, girl times are the best. so happy for great excuses to be together.

baby shower gift fun

I got to celebrate 3 mommas and their new babies this weekend.One was a double surprise shower that was SO, SO fun.  Our church has now successfully pulled off at least 6 surprise baby showers. (one was for baby ben and me!) We're pretty proud of our achievements.
Anyway, I went with some basic go-to gifts: burp cloths, bow-ties and burt's bees. 3 B's. :)

I was pretty excited when i saw this "Extra Energizing" body wash. I knew it would be the perfect remedy for these exhausted moms with newborns! ha, If only sleep could come in a bottle! :)

Since the two mommas at the double shower both had boys, bow ties were, of course, in order . 

(Tutorial HERE)

Here's a detailed pic of the felt applique.

Felt is so easy and so wonderful to work with- no fraying or folding and comes in such beautiful colors

I got the terry cloth from towels that were on clearance at Target. The quality is SO much better than that which you find at a joanns or hobby lobby...
And the tan and blue linen are from old linen clothes of mine. I'm always happy to raid mine or my sister's "discard" pile for fun fabrics to use in projects.

Well, that's all. Baby showers are such wonderful excuses to get creative and enjoy celebrating an adorable new little life.

linking to somewhat simple

sad to say good-bye...

....to these 3 little ladies

 I was so very happy to hear that 3 little Canadian girls wanted to adopt them but now that they are all ready to ship out i'm kinda sad to see em go. :)

However, before i did, i thought i'd at least let you meet the newest one. In honor of the little girl she is being given to, her name is Lily-Rose. Isn't that such a sweet name?

She has a chambray body with 2 red vintage buttons, a sweet little yellow skirt with pockets, and long striped seer-sucker legs. oh and a little removable felt pin in her hair.

Her legs are my favorite part, they will be just perfect for chubby little baby hands to grab hold of and pull around the house.
Although when Handy Andy saw her for the first time, he looked at me with a face that kinda said, "ummm, sweetie, did you realize the legs were almost twice the doll's height?? cause, they are. hope you're ok with that." isn't it sweet that he even cares. :-) yep, i'm cool with it and i think the baby will be too.

 Well, anyway, i guess that's all except that i'm afraid my little dollie shop will probably be deserted for awhile now. oh well. :)

quick ruffled gift

I went to Target in search for a baby girl gift last week and found all 4 of these coordinating pieces on clearance and the perfect size for next spring. But....i thought the little white hoodie needing a little sprucing up...besides, all white is kind of an accident waiting to happen so i thought some ruffles in the front would make some nice camouflage. :)

I cut these strips out of some old knit t-shirts. Then i adjusted my tension to a loose basting type stitch that gathered it up all on its own. Then i stretched them out a bit and sewed them onto the jackets.

This quick little clippy to finished it off. This is super simple, but if you'd like a little how-to, you can look at this tutorial HERE.

a mama and baby gift

Last night i got to go to a surprise "Pampering" shower for a dear friend who just had her 5th little boy. If any mama deserves some pampering, it is she. Anyway, since she already has the essentials it was super fun to put together this little assortment of "extras".

Her nursery theme is orange, aqua and brown so i kinda started out with those colors in mind for the little monogrammed onesie and then it was just fun to keep the color theme going. I don't know about you, but putting gifts together doesn't always come easily for me, so when they do, it feels like big deal and i thought ya'll might like to see and maybe be inspired. :)

Here's the onesie- super easy, just felt sewed on top of  a purchased onesie. (It was nice that his initial was such a simple one!)

The little man definitely needed a bow-tie (made using this tutorial)

I was so excited to find this super cute orange necklace at a little boutique (AND for 50% off!). Being the only girl in her house, i thought a little "bling" was in order. :)

And lastly, Burt's Bees can quickly pamper any girl.

a quilt...err...blanket?

Well, i finished my first quiltish blanket. Up to this point i've steered clear from quilts as i knew they required some measure of precision and step-following, both of which i'm not very fond of. However, i really needed a "blanket time" blanket for baby ben that would be kinda hefty and big but also attractive enough to have out on the living room floor each day. So, i got this stripey color idea in my head and decided to see if i could "wing" it. Well,  as you might have guessed, quilters measure and follow logical steps for a reason. As much as i do love the colors and overall effect of the blanket, i'm glad the fabric i chose was cheap. It gave me freedom to experiment and therefore wasn't as disappointed with the (many) flaws as i would have been had it had been some designer fabric. 

My biggest problem came when i was trying to attach the back. Although, maybe my problem started with the top- those gray stripes are looking pretty wonky. Anyway, i sewed the top to the batting first but then i guess i just didn't straighten my sides or measure or sew straight or something because after i sewed the bottom fabric, flipped it right side out and then tried to quilt the whole thing, it started puckering and such. So i quit after one strip, top stitched around the outer edge and called it good.

No, that curvy line is not in your imagination- it really is that curvy...and puckered.

But aren't the colors and stripes fun?! i try to keep focused on the positive aspects

Besides, it serves it's purpose and Baby Ben's cuteness hides all its flaws, well mostly. :)

p.s.

-i got the fabric at JoAnns and it was cheap but i LOVE it. It was in the shirting section i think- it has a hefty feel without it being too canvas/duckclothish, and its soft. fyi  :)

[linking to  lollipops]

happy packages

There were two baby showers this weekend for two very dear friends. Since i was in the gift creating and packaging mode i thought i'd share what i came up with. i know letter cut-outs are anything but an original idea but with so much Silhoutte and cricut talk out there i kinda dismissed the good ol' fashion scissor route. (NOT that i wouldn't love one of those machines, but ya know...)  Each only took a few minutes to cut out and made for some happy little packages.

1) Here's the first one for a very sweet little 2 year old who is about to get her best present ever- a BABY SISTER!










Inside was my little "maddie" doll. She got a bit of new do with red bows and a fun pom-pom skirt to change into. :)

2) Next up was a gift for my sweet sister in law. 

You can see a couple pics of her shower here: http://everyday-lovely.blogspot.com/2011/05/sweet-anticipation-baby-shower.html . She is keeping the gender a surprise so i cut out a simple "baby" to decorate the front.

And inside was my newest and happiest little creation- Miss (or MR.) Monkey. Since the hair bow can be tied around Monkey's neck for a spiffy little bow tie, it can quickly accommodate a boy or girl!

I'm hoping to add a Monkey to my shop soon and maybe some other animals too. For now, if you'd like to take a look at a few dollies for sale. click HERE. As always, custom orders are quite welcome! :)

   (linking to Lollipops and SewMuchAdo)