It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Super Patrick!

Can't believe the little man is turning 4 in a couple days! We celebrated in true superhero style this weekend, starting with these yummy (who doesn't love good ol' rainbow chip??!) comic-book-caption-tastic-topped cupcakes. POW!

And in case you didn't know, I have a secret career designing costumes for the mighty defenders of truth, justice and little sisters everywhere! Mommy by day; cape-sewer by night.

Patrick, who? Captain P is here to defend!

And he's off to rescue a sister in distress! All in a day's work!

Nesting, Perhaps? Baby Crafting Craze

This little beauty is MY. NEW. FAVORITE!! I've sort of gone off on a crazy last-minute nesting spree, which involves a lot of baby crafting. I found this pattern here. It was a quick, one-day project, and it absolutely could not be any cuter! Love, love love!!!

  Aren't these sweet little bow buttons the cutest? Found these hiding in my stash. See, it's not hoarding if you do eventually use them one day, right?? Glad I kept them. This yarn, by the way is the SOFTEST, silkiest, most buttery bamboo/acrylic mix.

  This little hat/bloomer pair are super cute, too, but the bloomers seem big to me. The pattern called for elastic in the waist, but not the legs- I opted to throw some in there to scrunch them up and give them that bubble-butt look. I love the way it turned out and hope they fit her right away so we can maybe use them for newborn pictures. (BTW, looking forward to pics with the INCREDIBLE Alexandra Treat. Check her out if you've never seen her work.)

Here's another little hat with a fun flower embellishment. This one and the gray one are the same pattern.

This one I'm super excited about. I am so private and self-conscious when it comes to nursing. I had such a hard time nursing in public with both Patrick and Olivia. I usually ended up sitting in the car (in the middle of summer... in PHOENIX). And I nursed them each for about a year. It got old. I just could never find a nursing cover that really covered much of anything. And the kids always pulled a blanket off once they were a few months old. I found this pattern for a full-coverage nursing shawl and fell in love. It wraps all the way around (though I wish it had come out a little longer), has elastic around most of the top to draw it in around my shoulders and a strip of boning in front to give me a little window to see baby! Can't wait to try it out. Third time's the charm! I WILL learn to nurse in public if it kills me! LOL!

  It does also help that the fabric is gorgeous!

  And a little touch of ribbon to dress it up a bit.

I have a few more projects in the works and about 12 days to my due date, though I'm seriously hoping d-day comes early! So, you'll probably be seeing a few more of these before little one gets here.

Little Stitches

Long time, no see! Thought I'd pop in to share my latest projects. It's baby season and I've been busy! This blanket is a sweet patchwork that I put together for my sister-in-law who is expecting in March. It's their first girl!


I just love the vintage/contemporary feel of these sweet patterns next to each other.

 
The super-soft flannel in a bright blue helps balance out the "girliness" of the blanket, giving a more modern feel to it. And I LOVE the blue next to the bright pink edging.


And for my little one due in April, I decided to do something a little different. For our other two kids, I have made patchwork blankets (you can see Olivia's here. Alas, Patrick's blanket was before my blogging days). But after spending an evening teaching a friend how to crochet, I got a bit of a crochet bug under my skin and decided to go that route instead. I'm so happy I did. This is a large and heavy blanket, so she won't be able to use it much as a newborn, like she would a patchwork swaddling blanket, but it'll be a treasure for many of her little snuggly years to come!


I am in love with this yarn that I found for it! It's called SHEEP(ISH) by Vickie Howell for Caron. It's a super soft acrylic and wool mix that just feels so buttery to the touch. Plus it comes in so many fun colors. The ones I chose were just a few of the huge selection. Let's just say I stood in the yarn aisle at JoAnn's for a VERY long time trying to decide. I actually started it before I knew whether it was a boy or a girl, so I chose a more versatile palette and added more pink in once I knew it was a girl. I would love to go back and pick out a more feminine group of colors for another project sometime soon!


I hope my adventures in sewing and crafting, my own version of Proverbs 31:13, have inspired you to try something of your own! Happy creating everyone!

Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too!

My little man turns 3 on Monday, and we celebrated today with family... and Winnie the Pooh.




I used a box cake this year to make a four layer yellow pound cake with chocolate fudge frosting, drizzled honey and sliced strawberries between the layers.


And I tried my hand at fondant for the first time.




We had lots of yummy food.


Some fun with silly string.


And of course presents.


Which piqued the interest of little cousin Noah.


Sister got a little present too- some adorable new sunglasses.




Happy Birthday my sweet boy! Another year older! We love you!!

Mother's Day Crafting

What Mother's Day would be complete without flowers?


And what lovely bunch of flowers would be complete without a vase to rest in?


One for my mom.




And one for Luke's mom.




Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely moms out there!

Summer's Here!

With temperatures aiming for about 102º this weekend, it seemed like the appropriate time to break out the sprinklers. Plus, it gave me an excuse to dust off my camera... something I sadly haven't done since Christmas! Yikes! Happy Summer, folks!

Camp and a Camera

Over the New Year's weekend, we attended a family reunion with Luke's family. I took over 400 pictures :) Here are a few of my favorites for your photo viewing pleasure!