Torin's quilt

Last weekend I got to meet our new sweet nephew Torin. Isn't he Adorable with a capital A?

I knew as soon as I found out they were expecting that I wanted to make a quilt for baby. I picked out fun and modern fabric from Home Ec Workshop, and made up a pattern that I thought would show off the graphic prints.


The quilt back was made up of my fabric leftovers, and I think it is neat that the back is interesting in addition to the front. 

On each black and white city bit, I embroidered a color around one building or car, just for fun. (Thanks to Bethany for holding the quilt for me)

I also took a few minutes to embroider a signature on the quilt top before I joined all the layers together.

I recently took a class at Home Ec about free motion quilting. Between my new knowledge on that subject, and my new awesome sewing machine, I knew I had to try quilting it myself. I opted for a square-ish design, to match the city prints.
 


I wish my binding had been a bit neater, but other than that I'm super happy with how it turned out. And even happier that I got to see him snuggled up in it before I headed home on Saturday.

2012 year in review

2012 year in review
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W
I wanted to share this here because I just love how it turned out. I'll be using this as the last page in my 2012 Project Life book. The template was designed by Jennifer Hignite and I put it together in Photoshop Elements. It took quite awhile to choose and add the photos, but I had a great time looking through our photos from the past year.

Welcome 2013!

I always feel drawn to blog around the first of the year. Everyone is thinking about goals/resolutions/changes for the new year and I'm no different. Although I have many areas that I'd like to improve in my life, I've decided to focus on one.

Resolution 2013 - Keep the house "guest ready"
Although I have no illusions of keeping a spotless house, especially with my two little people/mess-makers, I would like to have a house that is more tidy, and presentable on a daily basis. I'm thinking of it in terms of how I would feel if a friend decided to drop by on short notice. Would I be embarrased to let them in? A goal for myself is to put things in their place right away, instead of letting them pile up - and also to teach our kiddos to do the same. I think having a cleaner home will make a happier home for all of us.

Of course, I can't resist taking on a few daily projects...

Daily Project #1 - Keeping a daily/monthly journal - I plan to write a little bit of something that happened in each square, or something I'm thankful for, or even a little drawing about the day. Inspired here.

Daily Project #2 - Keeping a dinner journal. I think this is a cool idea (inspired here). Also hoping to do some weekly meal planning.

Weekly Project - digital Project Life 2013. So excited to start a new year with Elise's Seafoam Digital Kit. Also really looking forward to printing 2012 into a 12x12 book (still have to catch up on a few weeks!). I won't be sharing weekly here on the blog. Instead I will continue to update on Flickr. I even started a Flickr group for other scrappers who want to share digital project life inspiration.

Year long project - 2013 project list - I posted a list of projects I wanted to accomplish here last January, but three of the four got pushed down the priority list and were never completed this year. Which is fine. But I decided to write a list in my journal (same one where the monthly journal lives), so that I can add as I start a new project, or note when I finish one (I think I'll just highlight when complete). I'm hoping that by the end of the year it will be a fun record of all the things I made this year.

December Daily

I created a mini-album for our Decembers in 2008, 2010, and 2011, and they are some of my favorite projects to look back on. This year, I'm not sure if I will follow the "daily" format or just fill it with festive photos and memories from the month. I do know that having the base album ready-made makes the documenting so much easier. As I set out to make my album over the weekend, I decided to make three - one for our family, and two to sell at Craft and Fancy.

My supplies came from Studio Calico and Elle's Studio, and a few things from my holiday stash. I stuck with the traditional red and green color scheme, with a few neutrals as well.

The three books are very similar, with all the same background papers and embossed stamp designs. In some places I've used different embellishments when I didn't have three of the same (as pictured above).

I think this is my favorite page. I just love those polaroid cut-outs! I can't wait to pop a little Instagram print behind one!

Here are the back covers. Sparkly snowflakes!

I'm planning on making more 4x6" albums in different themes to bring to Craft and Fancy. I love these because you can easily hole punch 4x6" photos to add between pages. The rings look really big right now, but I know from experience that these get thick quickly as photos are added. They would also work to use as journals for writing memories of the season, even without photos. Let me know if you have any special requests!

Craft and Fancy 5

I'm very excited to be part of the Craft and Fancy event at Home Ec Workshop again this year. I'll be posting sneak peeks during the next couple weeks here on the blog, and you can find out more on our Facebook page!

my Instagram profile

Did you know that Instagram has new web profiles for users? It is a neat and different way to view and interact with the Instagram community. You can find mine at http://instagram.com/kirstenw

The photos on the header rotate around randomly. It’s pretty neat! Find yours (or others) by simply adding their username after : http://instagram.com/

Caeli's Baby Shower

I had the pleasure of making the decorations and party favors for my sister-in-law's baby shower this past weekend. Caeli and Thor are having a baby boy in January and we couldn't wait to shower her with gifts and baby advice.

Caeli's sister gave me some hints about the color scheme for the nursery, and that argyle is Caeli's favorite pattern. So I was pretty excited when I found a digital patterned paper with an argyle in those very colors! The gluten-free argyle cake was made by Cake Me I'm Yours in Des Moines.

The gorgeous barrel room at Jasper Winery in Des Moines really didn't need any help being lovely and festive, so I focused on decorating the tables and adding flower arrangements. I made "vases" for the flowers with recycled cans and glasses that I wrapped with patterned paper and twine.

I also made a "congrats" banner by machine-stitching felt letters to fabric triangles. I sewed binding tape across the top of the pennants, then tied coordinating fabric scraps between each letter.

The first table in the room held a tree with photos from Thor and Caeli's baby albums hanging from the branches. The second table had a bowl with cardstock cards for guests to write well-wishes and/or advice for the new parents. I've scanned these (and included photos from the shower) to make a Shutterfly book  for Caeli to keep. The third table had a banner hanging between two potted succulents, which invited guests to take home a favor. I found small glass jars at Hobby Lobby and filled them with honey from our local farmer's market. Then I hand-carved the little bee hive stamp, heat-embossed that image and circled punched them to glue on top of the jars. The tag hanging from the jar said, "You're so sweet - thanks for coming".

photo from my Instagram account: kirstenw 

cute superhero burp cloth made by my mom 

Each guest told a funny story from their own childhoods while Caeli opened their gift. It was a fun way to get to know each other and give Caeli some light-hearted advice on parenting.

I loved being part of the shower planning team and I can't wait to meet that sweet baby boy!