Spoon Ninja

Here's a few updated pictures from Little Man, now one year old and getting ear tubes next week so hopefully help him feel better. 

Little Almost Naked Man

Here's all of our animals basking in the sun. 

Who knew flour could be so exciting?

Happy Birthday Colby!

Well, our little man was born a year ago today a week late and after three days of intense labor We're amazed at how quickly the year has flown by.  I made him a little cake in a pyrex dish and made some frosting using yogurt and powdered sugar because I ran out of butter or any other tasty subsitiute.  I even got my frosting gear out from a Wilton cake decorating class I took several years ago, unfortunately the frosting was too runny so it just poured down the sides, Colby didn't mind though.  He dug right into the cake, then squished it all around his high chair.  Happy Birthday Little Man!

DIY Rugs

Well, I've been accumulating a ton of old clothes that aren't even up to Goodwill's standards so my stash has been building downstairs of t-shirts, dress shirts, and jeans.  One prime spot for a rug would be for in Colby's room since the dog can't go in there the room stays much cleaner.  My favorite rug is this one from xoelle.com.  She cut all of her t-shirts into strips and then dyed them a dark gray.  I think I'd like to dye the shirts all different shades of blue, green, and gray so it gives the rug a watery appearance. Here's a few of the best ones I've seen.

Picture found here at xoelle.com

Lovely braids.  Found here at craftpassion.com

 

 

Loving the different colors, found here at creativejewishmom.com

I love these braided rugs-the colors are great.  Found here at moddish.blog.com

I'm not so into the pink but this website has good directions. 

Yes, yes more baby rooms

Okay, I apologize for all of the baby rooms, I'm sure those of you that are reading this, yes I know readership is limited (hello Maggie, Chelsea, and Tyler) I will soon be getting back to actually doing things, but for now here are more inspirations for Colby's room.  By the time I get his room done he'll be a teenager and probably won't let me in to paint a cute little bunny mural. 

This is probably something more doable for Colby's room.  Link here.

Maybe just some stripes?  Link here.

This is a super stylish room, a girl can dream, right?  Link here.

Loving the tent! Here's the link.

Wall Murals

Well, I'm still on this decorating kick for Colby's room and pretty soon I'm just going to have to start into it and let it work itself out, but for now I'm trying to accumulate all of my options before I decide.  So far he's got all different wood tone furniture and light green walls-other than that it is a blank slate.  So here's some murals I'm debating about:

This is one of my favorites-a bit retro it came from here.

Perfect for Minnesota, eh?  Came from here.

I love this book, but monsters may be a bit too scary for Colby...it came from here

Or possibly I should go for something more simple.  From here

Nursery Wall Art Ideas

Yesterday I went into a cleaning frenzy-it was one of those fits where everything in my eyes was cluttered, mismatched, and out of place.  Usually when I get in one of these moods my husband will return from work to find the living room furniture moved into wacky configurations and the wall clock in a new spot, which really bugs him.  I managed not to move any living room furniture; but I did move a bookshelf up to Colby's room since we had previously been storing books in diaper boxes under the crib.  So now I have a refound desire to make Colby's room a more cheerful place so I've been looking for some ideas for wall decor so here's some of my favorites so far. 

The first three pictures are great and come from weandthebean.com, looks like it's time to get my paint brushes out:

Found here

Found here

Making Wallet Sized Pics from 4x6 Photos

 With our Christmas cards I wanted to put in small pictures of Colby but I didn't want to pay a ton for it.  Through Shutterfly wallets are almost 90 cents each where as 4x6's are only 15 cents each.  After some quick math, I decided that I needed to somehow make wallets out of the 4x6's.   After many trials I managed to figure out how to do this.  Before working in Paint I cropped the pictures to a 4x6 ratios.  I pretty much just opened one of the pictures I wanted to use in paint then zoomed out so the picture was small and then expanded the white area around the picture.  I then pasted another picture in and moved it butted up against the other one on the right side.  And whalla, for 7.5 cents I have some wallet sized pictures.

Holiday Pictures

I unfortunately haven't gotten professional photos done yet, so Colby and I just did another photo shoot to suffice for the Christmas cards we just sent out...a bit late.  So here's some we took using a white comforter as a back drop.  Not too shabby for not having a fancy camera...I think...

Silly Picture

We were up all night last night.  Looks like an ear infection again...we're off to the doctor this afternoon and hopefully he can get some relief.  Until then keep Merry.

Homemade Diapers

It's about that time again to make some more diapers.  I'm working on making a diaper stash for one of my friends I used to live with in college.  I'm finding it harder to do than I thought it would be because I'm more concerned about the diapers actually looking pretty and not just functional.  Of course we just visited back home this last weekend and I waited until the morning we were leaving to start making the diapers-then my machine stopped working so I ended up with 5 fitted diapers and 3 hour glass diapers.  I also am finding it challenging to know what type of diapers to make because I didn't know what kind I wanted until I tried a few different styles out with Colby.  For the diapers I used some recieving blankets I got at a rummage sale for a few cents, an old pair of flannel pants, and some cute fabric from JoAnn when they had flannel super cheap.  I used the pattern Wee Weka from here.  Colby out grew these diapers at about 4 months but they are soooo cute. 

Homemade Gift Ideas for Babies

It seems now that I have a little one and I have 4 nephews and nieces I find myself drawn to the little handmade things.  I finally got a niece last March so I'm looking forward to trying my hand at frilly skirts and dresses. 

One thing that I don't leave the home without is my diaper pack in my purse.  Unfortunately I just have an ugly Pampers one I got for free, so I'm looking forward to trying this one out.  Tutorial Here

Colby tends to make a mess at every meal so I can imagine new parents would love some of these large 'baprons' these are a hybrid of an apron and a bib.  The fabric choices could be endless and I look forward to gifting some of these. Tutorial Here

Another necesity I have found when we are out and about is a changing pad.  Those fold down changing tables frighten me and I can't imagine how many germs are floating on its tan textured plastic, ick.  Tutorial Here

For the older toddlers some bathtub crayons would be a blast.  I tend to think that the time in the warm sudsy water is one of Colby's favorite time of day.Tutorial Here

Good old Martha, she's always got such great ideas, or at least her staff does.  What little kid couldn't use another stuffed animal.  I love the ears and contrasting fabric. Tutorial Here

Silly Pictures

So I've been working with Paint for some reason and am just starting to figure it out a bit.  This month I'm trying to send a picture a day to Colby's grandparents as a Christmas present.  I took these of Colby playing with a Cabbage Patch Doll and when I reviewed them I thought they would make a funny collage.  Happy Monday to you all!

Infant Sensory Wall

So I've been struggling with the feeling that I am some how failing as a mother and should be working harder to stimulate Colby's brain.  I suppose it is partially my fault since I read lots of parenting books and a brain enrichment book.  I know deep down that just the fact that I worry about him means that I am probably doing just fine.  I also have heard of a few people having their kids in Montessori preschools and day cares.  From what I can gather these basically just involve getting the kids involved outdoors, textures, tastes, and talking through your day with them.  I thought I would give my hand at stimulating his brain with sticky textures.  He seemed to like the wall and the dog also liked the challenge of pulling things off.  (I taped up contact paper sticky side up to the wall under a counter and then I taped some strips of clear tape on the other sheet.  Many different objects stick to these and I taped tape sticky side out onto a oatmeal lid and he was really perplexed by the lid getting stuck to his fingers)

Turkey Shirts

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is almost here already.  We got our first snow this weekend and managed to venture out in the blizzard to go to the fabric store-which proved to be the thing to do because we hardly had to wait in line to get our fabric cut when usually it takes up to thirty minutes to get fabric cut.  I orginally saw a version of these shirts on Pinterest and thought to that I could make something even more fantastic.  My first idea was going to be to sew felt on for the bird's beak, eyes, and feather; but then I just tried out painting free hand and it was much easier then sewing small pieces on.  I dyed the onesies brown using RIT dark brown dye on the stove top.  The dyeing part was the most fun so I'm looking forward to experimenting dye even more.