May Giveaway Day

It's giveaway day all over blogland - hosted by Sew Mama Sew (click the button below to find a link to all the giveaways going on!)

To join in on the fun, I'm offering up two fat quarters of your choice from my Jade in My Window line (check out the fabric in my shop here). Just leave a comment below telling me about your favorite window. I'll choose randomly on May 31st, and ship two fat quarters to one lucky winner by June 3rd. This is open to anyone, anywhere - be sure your email address is in your profile so I can contact you!

Rainbow

We were driving home this evening after a good visit with the midwife and saw the most beautiful rainbow. L couldn't see it in the car, which was a bummer. But as we got closer to home, it just got bigger and prettier. It was a double rainbow - and it stretched all the way to the horizon on both sides. It was just one of those perfect days, I guess. L was equally impressed with the "big doggie."

Birthday

We celebrated L's birthday this weekend, and I wanted to share one little gift I made for her: doll clothes. She already had this old plastic doll, so I made two new dresses and two diapers to fit. I also made a little baby sling, but it was way too small, so it was quickly turned into a little sleeping bag/pouch for the baby and clothes. I threw in a little diaper cloth as a blanket to complete the set. The diapers were a last minute idea - I am now a reluctant pro at sewing diapers since I spent months making L's. These were much simpler, of course.



The kangaroo pouch I made for L wasn't so successful, so I've been tickled to see [help] L give the baby a clean diaper and wrap her up and change her dresses over and over again.


Also, I finally got to give her the broom from Palumba. What a hit! She's been running around with her "special broom" ever since.

Air Fresheners

Our little house doesn't have air conditioning, so we have some areas of the house that get stuffy easily - especially in the summer. So, I bought a bunch of baking soda last week to place around the house.

I thought I would pour some in my vases and other pretties sitting around, but then I had the idea to put it in canning jars. I used a little square of fabric with the metal band and left the lid off so that it is breathable. An occasional shake will stir up fresh soda, so you don't need to stir. Makes a fun way to use pretty jars and fabric.

I'm sure people have been doing this forever, but I felt pretty clever for thinking of it.

Belgian Waffles

I helped John make Belgian Waffles last weekend for a party. This is one of John's specialties, although I've never had them before.

I'm sold. These are wonderful. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where the recipe came from, so I'm not going to share it (mine is photocopied from a Belgian food cookbook, and my recipe is called "Sugar Waffles from Liege"), but I'm sure you can find one at the library or online.

It's a pretty odd recipe, with two batters that you mix at the last minute. It doesn't feel anything like waffle batter, instead it makes a really sticky goo. But it bakes wonderfully, and tastes perfect. No syrup needed. The only unusual ingredient is pearl sugar, which John ordered online, but you might be able to find if you live in an urban area. Definitely worth a try.

Coming Home Dress(es)

I made a coming home dress for baby J (okay, and I had to make a matching one for L). I tried to make L a coming home dress, and it turned out awful - but I just sort of made up the pattern then with no idea what I was doing. So this time I went looking for an actual pattern.

I went with Made By Petchy's adjustable dress pattern - it's sweet and simple, and because it's adjustable it can be worn as a shirt as the baby grows bigger. I scaled it down to make sure it was small enough for a newborn. I also added a lining fabric because I used linen and it was a little scratchy. I love that little rosebud print, so I made the liner show about an inch below the hem.

I put these together during naptime - so easy! It could be easily dressed up or appliqued in lots of ways, too. So I definitely recommend this pattern.


I'll be sure to share "action shots" later on. I'm pretty much ready - anytime now.

Nesting

I'm in cleaning, rearranging, organizing, and decorating mode right now. I've got the nursery together now. We are living in a one bedroom house, so this is a challenge in many ways. Here's the final state of things.



Okay, maybe not final... But pretty good. It's a working solution.

I made this art quilt to fill the space on the wall. I love interiors (have I said this before?), and I originally intended to do a painting much like this. But it turns out switching back to painting from sewing isn't a seamless transition. when the painting turned out disastrous, I decided to try quilting it instead. The photograph next to it is by our friend Gerald Fulkerson, and the wire flowers were made by my grandfather.


I spruced up our side of the room a little, too with some new pillow cases. Did you see my spoonflower fabrics? The photograph here is also by Gerald.

Reusable Snack Bag branches out

We've been meaning to take away L's pacifier for awhile, but I keep forgetting. I finally decided we needed to do this in an organized way (for both of us). So I made this little binky pocket. It's just like the reusable snack bag, except without the PUL (just two cotton layers), and I added a little handle with a piece of bias tape. I thought of it when I realized she couldn't open her snack bags herself (that aplix tape is good!).

It hangs on her bed post, and the pacifier stays inside until naptime and bedtime, when she helps me put it away or get it out. Eventually, I guess we'll just take the pouch away all together. There were a few binky laments when we started, but it has become part of the routine and has been really successful.

Over on the ArtNest, she used the pattern to make a sweet little Crayon Pouch - which shamed me a little, since my crayons are in a plastic bag.

Swatch Frog

My Leap Frog print is in the Spoonflower contest of the week! (Head on over and vote if you haven't already.) So I thought I should make something from the swatch I have. Maybe its a little obvious to make a frog, but there it is. I think this would be a cute project for some little flowery prints too (of course, I would think that).

I think it's a fun challenge to make a pattern from a specific cut of fabric, like the Fat Quarter Purse. This pattern uses every square inch of your swatch - although it requires two swatches and a little scrap for the mouth. So if your Spoonflower swatches have been pinned to the wall for awhile and need a place to go - give this a try.


Here's the pattern, you can see how I fit the shapes into the square and wasted nothing:

I haven't written out step by step directions. It's kind of self-explanatory, but also because I really can't stand to sit at the computer long these days - but these two pictures show the two tricky parts: how you assemble the pieces after you cut them out, and how to attach the mouth piece. More directions are included with the pattern.

Backyard Birds

Another one of our "slower" activities these days has been bird watching. With all of the rain we've been having, in the mornings our backyard is full of birds gathering worms: cardinals, indigo buntings, and mourning doves - which makes for a pretty colorful yard. This week we saw a new kind of bird that turned out to be a rose-breasted grosbeak. We enjoy identifying them with some books like our Golden Guide books. I know these pictures are terrible, but I just love the bits of color flying around our yard.



The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has a pdf download of bird field list for Tennessee, along with a lot of other cool stuff (maybe other states have something similar?). I've printed this out and started a little checklist of what we see in our yard and nearby.