A Pre-Baby Party!

Also known as a baby shower! A really good friend of mine is having a baby in 5 weeks. I offered to throw her a shower with the help of her mom. It was held at my house (for my convenience with my kiddos). I loved making the invites using picnik.com:

I also got to make a diaper cake and another pair of baby booties from Amy Butler's Little Stitches book. This time the booties are made with the extra blue suede cloth from the lining of Hero's elephant hood. I loved the I-made-the-baby-blue-suede-shoes joke.

The party favors were also a lot of fun to make and so cute, using washed out baby food jars. I knew I was saving them for a reason! The lids were made into magnets, and that's what all the green M&M's where for. (Tutorial to come.)

After decorating, I had a moment of "is this going overboard?". But after looking at the pictures, it wasn't as overwhelming as I thought.

 I took advice from my sister and used crepe paper for an awesome but inexpensive effect.

I made a robot garland (tutorial from Made by Rae) and put it everywhere! There's so much of it, and I didn't want to throw it away, so after the shower, I moved it into my kids' room. It goes around their entire room and I still have more. . .

 I love the look of these pom-poms I made using this tutorial. It was so fast. 16 sheets of  tissue paper, small wire, 10 minutes, and I had 2 pretty accents for above the gift table.

My favorite part of the planning was that I didn't have to worry about the food. Shelly's mom and I both thought we were getting the better end of the deal when we decided to split the duties with her in charge of the food and me hosting. This is my tiny table loaded with her pretty serving dishes and delicious spread.

And if you aren't drooling now, you must be crazy!

The party was fun and I still have the crepe paper and pom-poms hanging from the ceiling. They might end up staying for a while...

Congrats, Shelly, on your impending parasite!

His and Hers

On Saturday, I went to a baby shower for my friend who is having twins. One boy and one girl. These are 2 of the adorable pairs of booties I've been working on.

Of course, blue for the boy:

And pink with a super pretty button for the girl:

Pair them with the sock monkeys and it's a pretty sweet gift.

She loved it!

And here's something interesting. See these shoes; the two styles are from different designers.

The boy pair is size 3-6 mo, the pink pair is 0-3 mo, and the last pair (made for Pretty) is 3-6 mo. Pretty is 8 1/2 months old and her pair is a bit big for her, even with socks.

I made the pair that are now Pretty's first and, when they were done, I realized they were a lot bigger than the boy pair. Luckily, I had time to make a second pair in the smaller size. And the pink 0-3 mo is still bigger than the wrap-around style in 6-9 mo. It's funny how much difference there can be  between designer's sizing...



PS: Thanks for the info on the web album. It turns out you can delete the individual photos (I was trying to delete an entire album), but it will remove them from your blog as well. I'm just going to stick with what I did. The $5 adds 20x the storage, so hopefully it will last for a while! Oh, and as you can see, it did not take 24 hours for the new storage to kick in.

Little Stitches' Cutie Booties

I made my first project from my new copy of Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. I told you that the reason I bought the book was for the adorable booties and I wasn't disappointed!

I decided to do a neutral brown with a cream/coral lining. I think they look good. They were pretty simple to assemble, but the final step is to completely hand stitch in the sole lining. I'll admit that I put them on Pretty without the lining to wear to church when I realized I wouldn't have enough time to do it. But I finished them after church!

It comes in the normal baby sizes: 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, and 9-12 mo. Because Pretty is 6 months, I decided to make the 6-9 size and they are just a bit to big for her. Now I'm debating the worth of making the smaller size for her. 

Because I didn't want to ruin the pattern pieces, I traced it onto tissue paper to cut out. Next time I'm going to be a bit more careful when transferring the Velcro markings, I feel like mine are a bit off. I also will use matching Velcro and thread. I don't like the way the white shows up so much. And even worse, I don't like the black thread ring holding it on!

Next on the list? This adorable outfit to match! (though I may change out the lining fabric for an autumn print).

Things I learned:

1. White Velcro isn't always the way to go!
2. I now love fusible fleece. Easy to use and adds nice cushion.
3. The more precise you are in the beginning, the better the end result will be. (I'm sure I've learned this already, but anxious to finish, I usually forget.)