Monday, April 27, 2009

1st Birthday Party

Yesterday was Lachlan's first birthday party. The day started out overcast and rainy, so we were lucky that it cleared up by lunchtime for our barbeque - we even saw some sunshine! The guests were family from both sides and L's special babysitters Amy & Deb. It was so great to have everyone together to celebrate with us.
The dessert spread. Yum! My mom and grandmother were here Saturday to help make the cupcakes, angel food cake and farm animal cookies. Grandma O. made the krumkake on Friday.
I decided to order his "smash" cake from Deluxe bakery. Isn't it cute? It was just a bit bigger than a cupcake with layers of vanilla cake and berries, and a whipped cream frosting.
At first he wasn't sure what to do with the cake, especially since we moved the high chair outside and he had a big audience. He poked at it with his finger and eventually took a few bites, but mostly just played with it.
The cake aftermath :)
We opened presents after cake and he did a good job helping me. He hasn't sat still for this long since he started walking a few weeks ago!
Finally, most of the guests tried to assist with putting together the playhouse that Lachlan got for a birthday gift. It was tough, requiring much brain & muscle power! Bill and I certainly couldn't have done it ourselves. I can already tell he is going to love playing in it!
The birthday boy (his real b-day is tomorrow) Lots more photos are on Flickr.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Happy Birthday garland tutorial

I didn't take many pictures of my process, but this was such an easy and satisfying project, I thought you might be interested in the steps. I had seen some similar ideas around the web and on Etsy, and I was inspired to come up with my own. We're looking forward to using this fabric garland for many family birthdays to come.
1. Create a cardstock triangle template (mine was about 8 1/2" long and 6 1/2" across the top edge)
2. Lay the template on wool felt and cut around it with pinking shears (14 triangles)
3. Cut another template a bit smaller (I just cut some off of my original template)
4. Use the smaller triangle template to cut out 7 triangles from one fabric and 7 from a coordinating fabric (1/4 yard of each was plenty). I bought my wool felt and the Heather Bailey fabric at our great local fabric store, Home Ec Workshop.
5. Pin the fabric triangles on the felt and sew a zig zag stitch around the edge of the fabric.
6. Type the desired letters into a Word document and print on cardstock., then cut out.
7. Place cardstock letters on wool felt and cut around to create felt letters.
8. Pin a felt letter on each triangle and hand sew it on with embroidery floss.



9. Lay out triangles in a row and pin single fold quilt binding along the top edges (I ironed the binding in half first to make it easier to fit the triangles into the fold), leaving at least a couple inches at each end. I used a 3 yd. package, and it was just enough.
10. Sew a zig zag stitch along the folded binding to attach it to the felt & fabric triangles.
11. Fold over the extra binding and sew it together to create a small loop for hooking over a nail to hang.
This was really fun to make and I love how it turned out. I have to say that the wool felt vs. cheap craft store felt was really worth it for this project. It's much sturdier and luxurious. I can't wait to pull this out every time we have a birthday in our home!

You can see I had a good little helper while I pounded in a couple small nails to hang the garland. This will be up for his party tomorrow afternoon and until his real first birthday on Tuesday!
Just leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

hello, twitter.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and join Twitter. Since the status updates are pretty much the only thing I enjoy about Facebook, I thought it might be for me. You can find me here.

Got a flat tire today on the way to work, had a kinda frustrating day at preschool, spent the *entire* afternoon trying to put together an early birthday gift playhouse for Lachlan. Which kept me from checking off anything else from the massive to-do list I have before his 1st birthday party this weekend. So, feeling kinda grumpy, but hopefully a relaxing evening ahead will help.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Easter mini album

We've been pretty busy around here with Easter, getting out to enjoy the Spring weather & work in the yard and getting ready for a few special April birthdays! Just popping in quick to share an Easter mini album. It was completely inspired by Elise Blaha - I'm taking her 2 week online class. I just love her style and this was so easy to put together. The egg background is a photo I took of some eggs I dyed & painted this year.









Friday, April 10, 2009

meet Mr. Sock Monkey

I made my first monkey over a year ago, but he's been sitting up in the loft without a face or anything for all that time. This week I finally sewed a face for him, and made him a pair of shorts. Unfortunately, the shorts were quite ill-fitting, so I made him some suspenders with ribbon. Just in time for him to make an appearance in a special boy's Easter basket this weekend!

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

We have walking!

It's official, our baby is now a toddler! He took his first solo steps yesterday morning while visiting Nana and Pop-po, and showed off a few for mommy and daddy too. Today he's getting braver and taking more steps all the time. I love how he loses his balance and then pops back up to try again. Notice in the video how I'm bribing him with carrying an iPod nano to get him walking - those little gadgets have always been of great interest to him. He seems to prefer walking with something in his hands. It's so amazing! I can tell we're going to be chasing him all around soon!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Fabric eggs

Last night I made this felt egg to hang on Lachlan's new Easter basket - all of the baskets at my family's house have name "tags" so I thought his should, too.
Friday afternoon Wendy and Codi came over for a sewing date. We decided to make eggs from this tutorial. Aren't they the cutest?! Very easy, too - and a great way to use up the special scraps I can't bear to get rid of. Here's Retro Mama's flickr group if you want to see more. I have to make a few more so that I can fill a little container with them.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

new layouts

Here's our more proper 11 month picture. :) And after weeks without scrapbooking, I got the itch to make some pages again (definitely helped out by the fact that I cleaned up my workspace).