Wall Stenciling

Right when we moved into the house we got the nursery painted right away.  My mom is here visiting so I'm finally able to get the stenciling done while she spends time cuddling the baby ....

Nursery Projects to Sew

6 more weeks to go until Baby Dennis arrives!  5 weeks to go until we're into the house!  I've got everything in my head for how I'd like to set up the nursery and it's killing me that I can't be setting everything up.  But at the same time, if we were in the house, I'd have everything done already and just sitting around driving myself crazy waiting.  Today I'm working on some things that to add to the boxes of ready to move baby items.

  

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 Crib Sheets

     

Looking at the options for crib sheets most are around $10 for one fitted sheet.  And they are not my style or very plain.  So I hit up Joann's for fabric to make my own and followed a tutorial from Dana Made It.  Each sheet requires 2 yards of fabric.  The stuff I got was around $6/yd but on sale was $4/yd, so it's even less to make them than buy them.  Plus there's a little bit of extra fabric left over to use for other projects.

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Curtains

 

This is what I bought to make curtains with.  Bought enough to make crib bumpers for later on too.
 

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Room Decor

 

 

The extra fabric from all my bigger projects is getting used to fill embroidery hoops that I painted dark grey and to make a bird mobile like this one.  Haven't picked them out yet, but also going to hang up some prints by Charley Harper.

 

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Play Blanket

  

  
Even though the carpet is pretty cushy, I'm working on a nice extra padded blanket to throw down on the floor to let her play (and spit up) on.

Nursery Projects

I am sooooooooooo excited!! I have been looking at nursery furniture and designing this baby's room in my head for the last 10 weeks and things are finally starting to come together.  The crib I've had my eye on is a Jenny Lind piece that you're able to buy new but has a little bit of that dated look to it.  After searching for dressers on craiglist it crossed my mind to see what was out there as far as cribs go and by sheer luck someone is selling the exact crib I want just miles away.  Hoping I'm not jinxing myself by posting about it early but we're going tomorrow to just make sure it's in okay shape and pay for/pick it up.

  

Also had an idea in mind for the kind of dresser/changing table I wanted to put in the room and have been browsing all outlets I could think of to find just the right thing.  I kept seeing an identical dresser to this one being posted and the price on it finally dropped but someone beat me to it.  Was pretty bummed and started to research and see what my other options are or if I could wait another month to see what else might get posted.  I ended up looking at another dresser on craiglist, which had a link to the guy's facebook page with the rest of the furniture he's got for sale and there's the same dresser and in much better shape (so also a little more, but no drawers or anything to repair!).

 

The plan for both is to refinish them.  I'll be painting them to bring some fun color into the room.  Right now thinking a darker aqua/teal on the dresser with bright or mustard yellow on the hardware and a dark peach/coral for the crib.  Definitely have some sanding to do the next week or two.  Will possibly have to enlist some help to paint if it gets too smelly.  

Yay for first major baby purchases and getting a great deal on both!!

Baby Project: Burp Cloths

I way overbought when I was picking out fabric for a baby blanket I'm sewing.  But I have plenty of other sewing projects for the baby to use it up on.  Making my own burp cloths was one of them using cloth diapers and sewing a strip of fabric down the center.  Glad to have gone with general colors so we can use them if baby #2 (someday!) is a boy.  And because they're all different I'll be able to tell between the one I've used all morning and picking out a clean one : )  The rest of the fabric will be turned into some onesie art, bibs and soft toys.

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On another note, or rant really ... I was picking up batting for my blanket today at Hobby Lobby and it's a total nightmare!  It always is.  Between them, Michael's and Joann's I'm not sure which is the worst.

Michael's doesn't carry fabric but has tons of yarn and other general craft things.  Things aren't always super organized when I go in, but they're very good about calling whatever help they need to up to the cash register to get people checked out.  Wish they carried everything I needed because I'd just stick with shopping here.

Joann's is a complete time suck if you go to buy any fabric because there's always 10 other people in line with several bolts to cut and only 1 person there to do it.  This was never done in MT, but with the ones I've been to here, they always announce each fabric's price per yard and if it's on sale or not to make sure you're aware.  Maybe they've had problems in the past with people cutting stuff cut and realizing later how much it was, but if I've got the same type of fabric and am asking for the same size cut of each each, I'm pretty sure just informing me on the price once will do.  And by the time you get things cut and head to the check out, the line repeats itself there plus all the other shoppers from the store and only one cashier.  Really? Where are all your employees??

Hobby Lobby is huge.  What can't you find there?  But the service is TERRIBLE.  Today I stood behind 2 other people to get some fabric cut while I watched the one lady actually cutting the fabric gingerly take her time doing so, while chatting to the other two employees in the department about I don't even know what.  And the lines at check out are the WORST.  Even if 5 cash registers are open there is always a line of 5+ customers at each one and they all move like molasses.  Lots of employees all around the store but no one seems to know what they're doing :/  I get that for most of the people that work there it's probably only a part time job, but really, can't you at least do your job well??

I really enjoy that I can shop at all these places and that I do have the option of where to go depending on my crafting needs, but sometimes I just wish it wouldn't take an hour for a trip that really could be made in 15-20 minutes.   

knit, purl, repeat: garter rib baby blanket

 

First baby project done!!  I found this pattern free on ravelry, by Orange Flower.  It was super easy to do since the only counting involved was k3, p3.  Between knitting at nap time (of kids I nanny), in the evenings while watching tv and a few coffee and knitting meetups it went by pretty quickly -- as far as knitting a blanket goes!  

I bought 4 skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn in mustard and used just over 3.  The finished size of the blanket is about 30x30.  The rest of it I'm using to making a smaller sized "lovey" blanket, which is ending up to be about 10x10 I think, that we can take along with us in the car if she decides it's a favorite thing.  For anyone else that wants to do this I took a stab in the dark and cast on 51 sts. I'm not quite finished with the leftover piece but can tell I will have little bit of yarn left to toss in the random bits of leftover yarn bin :)

 

 

Also have been working on a snuggle sleep sack and have yarn for a hat as well.  Madtosh had a great yarn sale on Black Friday so I splurged for myself and bought some GORGEOUS hand dyed yarn for a cardigan pattern by Jane Richmond.  I had planned on waiting to start that, but caved and have worked on that a little bit.  Contemplating the right pattern for some other Madtosh yarn that I have a little bit of, perhaps a new hat since I neglected to leave any out for this winter while packing things up in September when it was still 90something out.

Baby Blanket Love

Had a Sunday afternoon and no plans so I convinced Chad to come with me to Joann's to find some fabric for a baby blanket.  What I have in mind is just for a play blanket to throw on the floor with some toys or can take outside to enjoy some sunshine.  Very excited about the fun colors and patterns!

Also started knitting a blanket.  Not anything super special but easy to take along and throw in the wash when it needs cleaned.  And it's yellow : )  Here's the pattern from Ravelry.

Knitted Baby Love

I've had these pants finished for awhile.  As soon as I found out we were expecting I wanted to work on something to help pass the time.  I forget if I used the recommended size needles/yarn on this pair but felt like they turned out kind of big for the 3 month size that I followed, which is okay since it will be June then and too hot to wear them.  Maybe we'll get away with having a small baby that can wear them in the fall.  The pair I'm working on now I'm doing in a lighter weight yarn and smaller needles, so hopefully the little guy or girl can wear them right away.

[ SCD handmade with Kanoko Pants Pattern ]

This week won't go by fast enough!  On Friday we'll be at 18 weeks and have an ultrasound appointment to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. And then we can get started on narrowing down nursery ideas and I can finally shop for some yarn to start some knitting projects!!  I don't have all of these planned, but they all look wonderful to make.

 

 [ Garter Rib | Chevron ]

[ Knee High Socks | Boston Cowl | Big Heart Cowl | Snug as a Bug Sleep Sack ]

[ Crochet My Love | Raevyn Slouchy | Cable Baby | Simple Newborn ]

[ Barberry | Abernathy | Granny's Favorite | Binic | Odette | Maile ]

turquoise toes!!

As always I'm pinning more than actually doing, but these were a quick and easy DIY originally posted on one my favorite wedding blogs -- Green Wedding Shoes -- that I found on Pinterest.

 

(source: pinterest)

I found my shoes at Payless, they are wedges instead of pumps but I think they're more supportive anyways.  They also had some flats but sadly they didn't fit well enough.  And then off to Home Depot for some color -- I wasn't as bold to go with the fluorescent pink but picked out another color called "lagoon".  I don't think it too me more than 20 minutes from start to finish.  Haven't gotten a chance to wear them yet but if they hold up well I'm gonna try experiment with some other spray painting ideas!

(source: sarah christine design)

Bozeman Love

I really like Fort Worth. A lot. But there's lots of things I miss about Montana. And I wanted to represent that someway in our apartment. Saw this on pinterest and recreated my own on a canvas with some paint.

(source: pinterest)

(source: sarah christine design)

I may go back with another color and paint the rest of the canvas to soften it up a little bit. I'm not sure where it'll be hung yet but there's a spot in my craft room that it'd fit right into. And then while I'm in there working I can remember all the things about Bozeman I love so much.

:: cloudless, blue sky, cold winter days ::
:: mackenzie river pizza ::
:: music on main ::
:: floating the madison::
:: leaving 5 minutes before you have to be somewhere ::
:: having all our friends over for dinner ::
:: no sales tax ::
:: local shops ::
:: ale works flourless chocolate cake ::

There's more than that but it's just a few that came to mind.