Big Sister Strikes Again

Eliza is always up to finding ways to terrorize myself or Nolan. I found her forcing this bowl on his head while he was peacefully content in the swing. Then earlier in the day, I had Nolan in the bouncer and I was adjusting the car seat straps while it sat on the table. I turn around and find my 22 mo toddler coming to me with 6 mo infant in her arms, bringing him to me. I just about had a heart attack as I quickly snatched him up and put big sister on a time out. We have wood floors, and I can only imagine what could have happened if she had dropped in to see if he indeed could bounce!

6 Week Check Up

Nolan had his wcc yesterday. Thus far he is 10 lbs. 9 oz and 22.5 long. He is a tall, average weight and smaller than average sized head baby...but I still love him.

We were enjoying some sister free time here while she napped

For the Boys

After making my own Big Sister shirt for Eliza, I had a friend of mine who is also expecting a boy and will be her second child. Since I've been so crafty lately, I wanted to take up the challenge of making a matching set of shirts for this family. The challenge being of what or how could I design a graphic that wasn't too girly to add to the text. Not to mention that the crown had to look masculine and not to be mistaken as a girls pageant crown.

Over all, I am pretty happy with the way these turned out and will save my applique tracing pattern for another time or gift for another family. The mommy to be again was very happy with these and I am touched to have them be her coming home outfits.   

For Nolan

Yep, I have been at it again, and surprisingly all while on maternity leave! I'll be sad to return to work and have less time with this stuff during nap times. Got to love getting both kids to sleep at the same time :)

Late Night Sewing

After struggling to find a Big Sister shirt that fit Eliza in stores, I felt I was going to have to just make my own. You can find one zillion little brother and sister shirts in stores, but doesn't that make one other a "big"? Not to mention the countless I <3 and="" at="" family="" member="" navy="" old="" other="" shirts="" stores.="" various="" whatever="">

I did some applique work after I tried on another one before hand. With the pattern of the fabric, I wanted to run around the letters in a heavy pink. Bad mistake! It ended up looking horrible and I ripped a hole in the shirt fabric after I attempted to take the seam ripper to it. Oi! All that time and effort only to be a ruined shirt.

After I took the iron to the letters, the thought of a tutu skirt to make it even more girly came to mind and I had some remnant pink tulle available. Over all, I am happy with the way it turned out despite that I had to do it on a 24 month onesie and not a 2T shirt. If I am going to go to all this effort, I better get all the more mileage out of it!    

Better Than Chocolate

Besides having to deal with Mastitis during my maternity leave and also having to go a second round of antibiotics with another follow up OB appointment...

I asked if the nurse could weigh me since they hadn't after the baby was born. She had initially said, "the scale is over there, feel free to use it." This would be all find and dandy if it weren't for the fact that I don't want to know my actual weight number. All I want to know is pounds gain/lost. They understood and humored me. 

Going by the weight taken before I delivered and subtracted by my weight today....

I lost 22 freaking pounds!

I only gained about 14 in this pregnancy, so this puts me at a bonus pounds under my starting pregnancy weight. I don't know what I've been doing to get this result besides having a baby to begin with as I haven't been all that concerned or watchful of what I've been eating since baby. So all I can maybe guess is that breast feeding is AWESOME!  

Sewing Before the New Baby

It had been quite a long time since I sewed a quilt for Eliza. and sewn one that had much of any real skill or advanced technique. I have a lot of girl fabrics and wanted to bust loose with them. When I had seen this pattern, it was more so a chevron and not broken up.

I tried my best to not duplicate any of the fabric, but trying to balance everything out became a real challenge with all the different details going on. I struggled to go with a solid to bring everything together, and I ended up seeking outside opinions from the ladies at Joann Fabrics at the cutting table.

The backing turned out to be a lucky find in the red tag clearance section, which was an additional 50% off. Originally, this was an expensive fabric with all the embroidery going on of flowers and leaves. But I like how it contrasts enough and compliments the aqua quilt binding I did myself.

Little Brother

Oh did I ever fight with this quilt! From trying to find a neat variety of fabrics to combine, and then the pattern itself...I had to take several breaks from this sucker until I hit a real break through and plowed through it. The green boarder and outside of the hour glass grey came from the Michael Miller collection, while the dark blue was from Walmart. The rest were on sale finds at Joann's. 

The grey squares were an afterthought to break up the light blue. With the help of an iron and Steam a Seam, I was able to applique them on as if I had meant to do so in the first place. 

I just love this no pill fleece fabric that I backed it with. It is fitting with Nolan being a winter baby, but not too girly with these sparrows.