Taggie Monster

I had a lot of fun making this little guy for my friends new baby.

I have realized that Haley really like to chew on the tags of her toys. She also seems to favor the smaller toys that are easy to handle. When she first started picking toys up the small ones were the only one's she could grab and support. So my goal in making a toy for my friends little boy was to make it cute, small, and fun to chew.

In response to those needs I created a little taggie monster. He originally was going to have fabric arms and tags on his legs but the arms were at an upward angle (instead of straight out) so it wasn't working out. I cut his arms off and used the ribbons as arms instead. I'm pretty pleased with how this little guy turned out.

A not on this fabric, it is actually from an old pair of boxers (and by that I mean ones I wore to bed as shorts, not ones a boy wore as underpants) I had actually "borrowed" them from my friend after I was in a car accident and I slept at her house. They were super comfortable and I wore them until they developed holes. I ended up using pieces of the fabric (since it was so soft and so cute) in a blanket I made for her first son, and I have decided to find a way to use it in gifts for all of her kids. I imagine the pieces will get smaller and smaller as time goes by, but I am kind of excited about the challenge, and I hope each time she sees the fabric appear in a package it will make her smile.

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This guy was actually very simple to make. Here is what I did in 10 easy steps

1. Design your monster and draw a pattern on some card stock (I used the inside of an old cereal box). Cut your pattern out. I would keep it between 4-8 inches.

2. Fold over your fabric and cut out 2 pieces. Make sure that the back and front side of the fabric line up.

3. Stitch on the eyes and mouth to give your monster an expression.I used embroidery thread wrapped around itself an extra time for thickness. (You can use a button for an eye, just make sure it won't come off and be a choking hazard).

4. But your fabric together so the outsides are touching, Sew around the edges on a sewing machine leaving gaps for your ribbon and a gap to stuff. You probably want the stuffing gap either between the legs or on the side.

5. Sew in your ribbon. I suggest you double up to make sure it's durable.

6. Turn your monster inside out though the remaining hole. Check for any other holes in the stitching

7. Stuff with some fluffy stuff to the desired firmness. (You can use rice or beans for a bean bag texture)

8. Hand sew the opening in a way that hides the stitches as well as possible.

9. Admire your creation

10. Let that baby play and chew!

Pointy Hats

I am way behind on posting...

I owe you all (especially all the distant grandparents aunts, uncles, and cousins reading this) an update on Haley's latest milestones, and that will come eventually

but for now I have been spending my free time crafting, I have been racing to finish several projects for all of the impending babies in my life. Julip is here, Elijah's brother will be here by Friday, with Krewson and Imogen following close behind. As I get things in the mail I will post pictures of the other crafts I have been consuming my time with.

But for now here are pictures of a hat I made for Haley, and for one of her new friend.

I hope that I will be selling them on Etsy soon under the name desultory designs. Let me know what you think. (seriously, please leave a comment and let me know if you think these will sell, and how much you think I could charge)

enjoy!

Heart Headband

I really enjoyed this quick and easy crochet project. It's a simple headband made by adding a crochet heart to a band of rows dc.

The heart I made (which I messed up a little) is from geeky crochet. But, I also like the tutorial at skip to my lou.

Just 2 days before Valentines Day I was babysitting for a friend. I finished this quick project while both of the little ones were napping. After nap time was lunch, and I had a beautiful model slightly adorned with sweet potatoes.

just lovely!

Check out more crafts through these link parties:

Do It Yourself Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Get Your Craft On @ Todays Creative Blog

Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Designs

Make it Wear it @ The Train to Crazy

Craft Preview

Here are some things I have been working on lately. Mostly for all of the little ones scheduled to make their appearance over the course of the next month.

A Book for the Bean

I finally finished Haley's book. It has pictures of all of her immediate family (grandparents, almost grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, great grandparents) and a few good friends. Each one is compared to an animal, and it has that animal's sound. It's pretty cute even though some of the comparisons are a stretch.

This is probably my favorite page.

To make the book I just printed the pages as seen and glued them together front to back. (It might help to more the margins a little or the center looks a little off) Then I covered the outside with a page cut in half glued directly over the outside page. I did the binding with a strip from another page. As cover art and title and voila.

This book is not very durable, but it's certainly cute. And I hope Haley will love seeing pictures of her family even when they're far away.

Frisbee Baby goes to Nationals!

Haley's Dad is one of the best frisbee players in the country, he plays for Ring of Fire. These guys are great!

Haley went to her first tournament when she was two and a half weeks old. I decided that since she had three more tournaments to go to, she may as well dress the part. So I made her 2 onesies, one with the logo and another that says my daddy's #1 (because he is, in our hearts and on the field)

Before nationals I decided to make her a throwback fire jersey to watch the players, and a long sleeved ring jersey because it's November so it would make since for it to be cold, right?

Well It wasn't cold, it was in the 90's all 3 days we were at Nationals, but at least we were able to stay in the shade and Haley didn't get sunburned again. Check her out in her shades.

She did however spend time with her uncle Josh and learn to hold a frisbee. Watch out folks, she'll have a hammer in no time.

Resting after a long day at the fields

Haley supports the team even in her sleep

Haley loved watching the guys in their fire jerseys

We played fantasy ultimate. Haley won it for me with this move right here.

Here is Haley with Uncle Josh and best friend (KP)

And with an uncle around, and Debbie, Christina, and Kara I actually got to take a few photos of the games. This one was probably the best. Whoever says ultimate is not a sport, just check out some more photos, these guys are ridiculously athletic.

Haley's first Halloween

Haley's first Halloween was a bit of a bust. We were in hot Serasota Florida (no fall feeling and leaves falling) for Zach's frisbee tournament. We didn't get to carve pumpkins or go trick or treating with friends. But there were some redeeming qualities. I did eat some candy corn and Haley looked adorable in her costumes.

I always though I'd dress my baby as a pea pod for halloween, because lets face it, when else in life is that cute? But, my mom got Haley an adorable witch costume instead. This was purchased before she was even born on one of our many Babies R Us outings. When we got it we all though there was no way she would be big enough for it, it looked huge on the hanger, but my long little baby filled it out quite nicely. It was nice because this may be Haley's only store bought costume, at least until she can save up to buy one herself.

We went to olive garden for dinner and it was quite entertaining. there was another baby there dressed as an imp (basically a devil with bat wings) and a cute little toddler dressed as a puppy. His mom was taking him to the bathroom a little too quickly and he kept slipping on his paws.

I was worried Haley would be uncomfortable in her outfit so I made her some onesies as well. These were made with simple fabric markers. (I messed up by filling in the ghost's moth too much and putting a line over the pumpkins tooth... but since i made these at 1 in the morning I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much)

I would have likes to just do black on an orange onesie for the pumpkin, but I thought this was a nice alternative. I copied the idea for the hat, and was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

I wanted the ghost to be friendly looking, so I'm not sure if it gets the point across. This one is a little too small too, but Haley is pretty tolerant. I wish I had made a pointy white hat to match.

If I had it to do over again, I would have taken Haley to a pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins with friends and done some cut Harry Potter character family costumes, starring Haley as a mandrake.

Haley Loves High Contrast

I realized that Haley absolutely loves the mobile over her changing table.

So I decided to paint her some pictures with the same black, white and red style. I found some pictures online that inspires these. Haley seems to like them. If I pt them on either side of her she tries to roll toward them, she can't get past her side yet.

Then I made some silhouettes of Zach and I from our wedding and from my pregnancy. I am pretty pleased with the way they turned out.

These are the pictures they came from.

The wedding picture is from James and Jenny of Visio photography

My friend Jessi (of Capture photography) too the pregnancy photo for us.

Nursery Art

Being a stay at home mom gives me lots of time to be crafty again. Well a little time at least.

I love to paint. I haven't done it much in the past few years but I have missed it. Rebecca and Jessi made Haley a beautiful alphabet painting for her nursery. They had the fun idea of doing a flower painting with the same colors at the baby shower. It was a great idea that didn't go so well. After the baby shower we re-painted it and Jessi started to create paintings more in line with her original vision. However, time want by and it just wasn't happening so I took the canvases home to finish on my own. I found some green and pink paint and painted the canvases solid colors. Then I spent hours looking for ideas online and trying to decide which ideas to pursue. i ended up using the design from stationary I found online for the first canvas, and mimicing the pattern for the second. I also decided to paint Haley's name on the canvases. I traced them in pencil first and painted over in opposite colors. I thin they turned out pretty well. My next project are some high contrast paintings since Haley loves the mobile over her changing table with all the black, white and red images.

Rebecca taught me to crochet, and by looking at videos online, and with more instruction from Rebecca I have improved my knitting skills beyond the basic stitch. It was been great to have a simple craft to do with my hands. We have been traveling a lot with Zach playing frisbee and I love having something to do while sitting in the passenger seat. Also crocheting is great because it is easy to do with Haley sleeping in my arms, and I can easily put it down at any point if she gets fussy. So far I have only made dish cloths and hats. I taught myself to make cute baby hats (that look slightly like witch hats) and after re-starting about 6 times I made a beanie for Zach. I am looking forward to creating blankets and other new things for all of the babies that are due soon.