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happy little airplane

I attended a Baby Sprinkle over the weekend for Baby D2. It was like a Baby Shower, except when mom has a lot of what she needs from her first baby, you’re supposed to give things like diapers, lotion, baby shampoo, etc.

I didn’t follow directions very well. I believe every baby should have something new, especially when so much is being handed down from his big brother. Better yet, he should have something handmade especially for him.

amigurumi airplane

Isn’t this little guy the cutest thing ever? I especially love his smile.

amigurumi airplane

I also sewed him a lightweight blanket that coordinates with the quilt I made for his brother. I forgot to take a picture of that, but it’s a single layer of the same fleece trimmed with the Snoopy fabric. Maybe I’ll get a photo in a few weeks with a cute baby bundled inside? (Hint, hint, Lauren.)

stash: Everything came from my stash of thrifted yarn. The pattern is Happy Little Airplane from Amigurumi Two! by Ana Paula Rimoli.

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eggs in a basket + a candy strategy

crochet easter egg basket

The surprise eggs were finished with a few days to spare. I even had time to whip up a little basket for them. I just started with no plan in mind. The end result was a little flimsy, but a quick soak in some water followed by liberal amounts of spray starch got it right into shape.

My daughter loved the eggs. This was the first time she ever played along with one of our stories, though. She came running out of her room saying, “Mom crocheted me some yarn eggs!” We told her they were from Peter Cottontail and she’s all, yeah, sure, right, ok. If you ask her, she’ll tell you they’re from him, but she doesn’t sound convinced!

. . . . .

We don’t do a lot of candy at Easter, and this year I didn’t put any in her basket. Instead, I made candy part of our egg hunt. I filled little plastic bags (from the candy section of the craft store) with two chocolate kisses and ten jelly beans. Each bag was tied and labeled with a day of the week and hidden in a plastic egg. She found those special eggs along with the others.

So far this has worked great! She eats the whole bag at once, usually after breakfast, but when they’re gone, she has to wait until the next day for more. I can’t tell you how wonderful the holiday was without a sugar-crashing three-year old. Hope this works next year, too!

stash: Basket yarn and candy bags both from my stash.

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elephant blanket becomes a pillow

baby gund blanket pillow

When my daughter was born, we received a sweet elephant Baby Gund blanket as a gift. It’s super soft and cuddly. It’s also pretty small.

The other day I asked her what she wanted to do with it. She definitely wasn’t ready to part with it, so I suggested making it into something else. Something else that might get used, like a pillow.

baby gund blanket pillow

She loved the idea! Especially when I told her she could help. If you have one of these and are looking to turn it into something for a big girl or boy, it’s easy.

Step 1
Using a seam ripper, open up about 2-3 inches of stitches on the side.

Step 2
Stuff it with polyfil, starting with the legs first and working your way toward the middle. This is a great step for your child to help. My daughter LOVED doing the stuffing.

Step 3
Close up the side with a blind stitch.

baby gund blanket pillow

reshape: I love it when my daughter gets excited about working on a project with me. She adores the pillow and is proud to say she helped out. I think we just added a few more years to Ellie’s life with us.

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momi the mermaid amigurumi

My daughter is in love with Momi the Mermaid. My parents gave her Tropical Water Hide-and-Seek last year and I found Land of Delight at Neat Repeatz last week.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

A few weeks ago, she asked me to crochet a Momi. She opened to a specific page in her book and made sure I understood that Momi needed a “flower necklace” and a flower in her hair.

She was a tricky little mermaid with a multi-colored tail and that hair! Let’s just say, I’m not the best doll maker in the world. Hearts, flowers and hats I can do great, but arms with hands? (Yes, Mom, she needs hands!) The hardest part was her lei. I used an incredibly small hook (1.3 mm!) and embroidery thread.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

I think I did a pretty good job. My daughter is a little bummed that I didn’t crochet flowers all the way around her neck. (But Mom, she’s missing part of her necklace!) I guess I’ll be adding a few flowers to her lei. In the meantime, Momi has been released into the wild, i.e., my daughter’s bedroom. I think she likes her new home on the shelf next to Octopus and Orca.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

thrifted: I don’t have a lot of pastel yarn, especially pink. One day when I was running errands I felt a pull to the nearby Goodwill. I went in and followed The Force back to the craft section. There was a big bag of pastel yarn with everything I needed. I love crafty kismet!

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thrifty thursday

It’s that time of year again: Neat Repeatz. I feel like there was even more clothing to go through than years past. I’m so glad I went while my daughter was in school or I might have come home with a lot more dresses!

red white and blue dress

She loved everything I bought, but these are my two favorite. I almost put the red dress back on the rack, and she told me that it’s her favorite. So glad I decided to get it!

red strawberry dress

thrifting: This is such an overwhelming event, but I’m always glad I go. I looked at both 4T and 5T sizes. Hopefully, everything will fit my string bean!

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my daughter’s first necklace

Thank you to everyone who commented about their creative time of day. I’m encouraged that so many of you find the morning hours so productive. I’m definitely going to give it a try. I even went to bed early last night! Of course, that might have had something to do with the major destash and deep cleaning of my creative space. I was pretty exhausted the next day.

My parents also went home yesterday. The first few days after their visits are always an adjustment, especially getting my daughter back into her routine with some independent play time. Today I got some precious time alone while she strung beads. I helped her get started and then she just took off!

stringing beads

Excuse the jammies, but Fridays are usually our “stay at home” days. I did make her get dressed before lunch, and she spent the rest of her day wearing her new necklace. Here she is crafting at her special end of the kitchen table.

stringing beads

As for me, well, I’ve got a lot of projects that are almost finished. The weather has been kind of glum the past few days. Yesterday we even had snow! I’m hoping for sun this weekend so I can take some pictures for the blog. I’ve got some fun things to share!

stash: Beads are actually from my amigurumi stash. My daughter has been asking to play with them forever. I think they might become her jewelry stash.

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wardrobe refashion: pj pants to nightshirt

When I was at my craft weekend away, one of my friends was serging a nightshirt for her daughter. Another friend was making dresses out of t-shirt scraps. I blame them for this crazy idea: a nightshirt out of a pajama top and bottom scraps.

pajamas night shirt

This was a lot cuter in my head and my sketches than it turned out. I had hoped the skirt would be a bit more ruffled, but there really wasn’t a lot of fabric in the bottoms. I wound up piecing together the sleeves, too. (Sorry for the unstaged “before” photo, but I was really excited to dive into this project!)

pajamas night shirt

Thankfully, I tested this on the Mickey pajamas first. Although she loves Mickey, she loves her Minnie pajamas even more. I will probably use one of my old t-shirts for that refashion. I also might keep the sleeves at 3/4 length. Oh, speaking of the sleeves, check out this awesome rolled hem. Swoon!

pajamas night shirt

refashion: Even though the sleeves and legs of my daughter’s clothes are getting too small, the body still fits nicely. I’m getting lots of opportunities to be creative!

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wardrobe refashion: lollipop shirt

applique t-shirt

My daughter was absolutely devastated that her lollipop shirt had gotten too small. (Yes, devastated—three-year-old drama is so… dramatic!) So I did what any sewing mama would do: appliqué.

applique t-shirt

I used heat-n-bond and reinforced it with a zig zag stitch. My only mistake was leaving the extra heavy duty needle in the machine. I hope these holes don’t get any bigger!

applique t-shirt

refashion: Appliqué is a great way to give an old shirt new life. I can’t believe the new shirt is a size 5/6. My baby is getting so big!

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another garden scarf!

birthday garden scarf

This was a gift for one of my daughter’s friends. The colors are so beautiful, it was hard not to keep it for myself! I decided to make it out of cotton because Spring is right around the corner. (Really! It is!) I hope she gets a lot of wear out of it before the weather turns warm.

birthday garden scarf

I’m still addicted to crocheting flowers, so I went through my stash and put all of my odds and ends in one bag for easy access. There were some colors that looked beautiful together, but I didn’t have enough for the whole scarf. I grabbed some natural cotton to help stretch the colors a little further.

stash: Just like a white t-shirt is to your wardrobe, natural colored yarn is a stash staple. It goes with everything, and you can dress it up or down, depending on your project.

pattern: I’ve had so many requests for this pattern. Sorry I forgot the link! It’s the Garden Scarf from Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.