Bundles of Joy!

The past couple of weeks I have been busy creating homemade keepsakes for one of my friends. She and her husband are expecting their first baby in December!  I really enjoy making gifts for friends and family, and there is no time that is more exciting than anticipating the arrival of a new bundle of joy.  I've always appreciated homemade gifts from my friends and family, and I love to return the favor.  My go to gift has always been making a blanket. Since my friends are going to be surprised, I went with the gender neutral colors of yellow, green and white.  Making a blanket is very calming for me.  I can just sit, relax, watch television and crochet till my hands are too tired.  Here is a close up view of the blanket.  It is not that large, but perfect for a baby.  

I was feeling ambitious and thought that I could make something using my sewing machine.  I realized that I had some puppy dog themed fabric and thought it would be perfect for some bibs and burp clothes.  Puppies are gender neutral and my friends have a dog, all I had to do was find a pattern!  Finding the pattern was simpler than I thought.  I went up into my son's room and picked out my favorite style bib, then I traced it, cut it out and my pattern was created.  To finish off the bib, I backed each one with beige terry cloth material.  I absolutely loved how the bibs came out, and I will make more in the future.    

To add to my special gift, I made burp clothes out of cloth baby diapers.  I had left over material from the bibs, and liked the idea of having some coordinating colors.  To switch it up just a bit, I also purchased some inexpensive ribbon and made two burp clothes.  

Here is the finished product!  

I can't wait to see the new bundle of joy enjoying these gifts!  

A Family of Superheroes (and one Villain)!

Halloween is sadly over and we had a blast decorating the house and creating our costumes.  This year Sean decided on his costume.  It was really simple since he has been playing with his Batman toys for last couple of months.  He was going to be Batman!  Luckily, I hit up the thrift store in early September and found the perfect Batman costume (cape and mask included) for the perfect price of $4.00!  Normally, I would try to make the outfit, but how could I pass that up?! For the past two months Sean has been Batman.  It wasn't just a Halloween thing, it was an every single day thing. But if you are three years old and have an awesome costume like this, wouldn't you want to dress up every day too?!Here is Sean in all his glory.

Not only did Sean decide on what he wanted to be for Halloween, he also decided for the whole family.  What is Batman without Robin?  Little brother Connor took on the role and quickly learned how to be his big brother's sidekick.  I had fun creating the Robin costume and Connor loved wearing it.  I was able to use Connor's green Buzz Lightyear Pajamas for the pants and the green undershirt.  I purchased a red shirt and cut off the sleeves to make it look like a vest.  For the decals I cut them out of fabric and felt that I had left over from last Halloween.  I'm all about recycling and reusing!  I even made a small cape that I attached with velcro so he can fly around like Batman.  Here is our Boy Wonder.

To top of the thematic Halloween, Sean wanted me to be Batgirl and wanted Chris to be Riddler.  For the Riddler costume, Chris brought home some green scrubs and all I had to do was cut out and attach question marks all over the place.  We topped it off with orange hair spray and cool green sunglasses.  Chris look awesome and wore the costume three different times!  I think he had more fun dressing up than Sean.  I wasn't going to let all these boys have fun playing dress up.  My Batgirl outfit looked pretty good too.  I had everything, batgirl cape , utility belt, symbol, and boots.  Sean loved having me dress up and kept on asking for me to wear my cape.  I must say it was fun being a superhero.  Here we are being a family of superheroes (and one villain).  I can't wait to see what we come up with for next year!