Item Swapping

I found this site yesterday via Obsessively Stitching. You list your handmade items and get Whoops. You redeem these Whoops for items that other people have listed. I already have 6 listings under the username MommyOfOne. Check it out!

And while you're at it, check out Obsessively Stitching for some great sewing projects.

Rice Cereal

We tried rice cereal for the first time today. It was super close to bedtime, so he was pretty sleepy and not very interested. I was probably more excited than he was. After a few spoons of it we waited about 5 minutes and tried again. This time he got very excited, banging his fist on the highchair tray and opening his eyes wide. But I couldn't get him to open his mouth! He would grab my hand with the spoon and bring it to his mouth, but then he kept his lips closed tight. Finally I caught him in a grin and dashed in with the spoon. He sucked on it for a few seconds and gave me another huge smile. After a few spoonfuls he got drowsy again, so I put him to bed with a bit of rice cereal in his bedtime bottle. I put another scoop in before putting it in the fridge to finish in the morning.
Here's to hoping it helps him sleep better. He gets 6 hours at once now, but I'm shooting for 8+

Busy Busy Busy

I have some pictures to share of the progress on my corset, but today is a cleaning/organizing day. My crafting stuff needs it desperately. I should have some pictures up tomorrow though.

Lessons Learned From Being A Mom

Babies do not conform to our schedules. We conform to theirs.
The difference to an infant between a 6 oz bottle and an 8 oz bottle? 2 oz on your shirt.
Some transit buses are not stroller friendly.
Everything changes when you have a baby. Absolutely everything.
Some days 2 hours is just not enough time to get ready to leave the house.
No matter how big the bib, the spit-up will end up on the outfit.
A tape recorder may come in handy when asked the usual questions about your baby. Or a sandwich-board sign.

From the Vaults

I found this hiding in the bottom of my fabric bin. It is completely handsewn, from about 3 or 4 years ago. There are only 6 of the blocks (4 blocks are shown here) so I think I'll dip into my scraps and see what I can find to finish it with. Very excited.

Birds, Elephants and the 100 Day Cough or The Picture Obese Post

I've been sick the past few days (I'm thinking its the 100 day cough the CDC has been talking about) but fortunately I've been able to do most of the things I normally do, just with soem caughing and a bit of diziness and light-headedness.





Last night I finished this:

I used the same pattern as for my son's elephant . I know the button eyes are a little wonky but I think it just gives her a bit more character.

I used a new way of closing the stuffing hole. I think it looks a lot better than whip-stitching/overcast stitch.

And today I whipped this up:

The first two were mock-ups. They actually didn't turn out too terrible. The first one was too small and the second one had a massive head so I just used the head from the first pattern and the rest from the second to make the third birdie, which came out just right.

You can see the differences in head size better here.

I did some stitching on the first one to make the tail look like it had feathers. It didn't turn out quite like I had wanted it to, but I think it's fairly cute anyhow.

No fancy tail stitching for the end product. The tail looked too cute to stitch over.

Since this is going to a baby, I had to do the toilet paper tube test. (We didn't have any empty rolls, so just bear with me)

And again, this time tail down. She doesn't squish into the tube without quite a bit of effort, so I give it my Crafty Mom seal of approval for babies.

After finishing the bird and having a lot of time left, I decided to make a bag to match it.

It's a drawstring bag. My very first! I've determined that I love drawstrings and will make many more bags like this in the future.

All cinched up.

Bird and bag together. As you can see, they were made from the same material so that they match perfectly.

The elephant was made from fabric my mom had, and the birds and bag were made from my stash.

Not Much to Report

It's been a long and boring day for the most part. I've been trying to get my homework done for my computer class and the subject matter is eluding me. The labs online have nothing to do with the textbook section we're in for this week, so I had to crack open the book we supposedly aren't going to need until next week.