t-shirt owl

gah! I gave in, again. I re-did my blog. just a wee bit.

I have this obsession with fonts lately, and it makes me wonder if I'd ever like the business of graphic design. My dad, along with a being a photographer/canoe&kayak builder/telescope crafter/gardener/puppy owner, is a graphic designer by profession. He would FREAK out if I told him it was something I was interested in. who knows....maybe someday...

well anyway I came across ^this^ fun font in my header on someone else's blog...that I do not know...that lives across the country....sooooo I hope it is okay that I tracked it down and used for my own blog. I hope? she doesn't know I exist. So I think it's okay :) I don't usually copy other people on purpose but it was such a GORGEOUS typeface. love it.

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and now the fun stuff! I enjoy writing up the occasional tutorial. I say occasional because it's a lot of work to document each step and not something I want to do very often, but I thought that this project was simple enough and Jonathan really wanted to take pictures of the whole process so...why not!

let me introduce you to yet another stuffed owl, this time made from an old t-shirt that was too frumpy on me. I got it at Gap for $3..and I think I only got it because it was cheap. it looks terrible on my body. So it was easy cutting it up into a bunch of pattern pieces!
 

Don't ask why I am so obsessed with owls lately...I'm just bored and trying to find projects that don't require spending money. And its fun to see Charlotte hug her stuffed animals. She really likes squeezing them these days and snuggling with them in bed. And she LOVES tags (like most babies) so I thought it would be fun to have a lovey with some ribbon tags for her to drool on.

I know owls are trendy right now but if you don't like them, you can make any other animal the same way.

So here was the frumpy shirt.

 

I folded it in half and used the v-neck as my outline for the pointy ears. You could just trace an outline for the ears too, but I was going with what would work best for this particular neck shape.

Then I drew a fat owl shape with a fabric marker...

 

                                                   and cut it out with a rotary blade.

 I removed the excess fabric, unfolded it, and had my two owl pieces. It was a very fat owl....

 With the extra t-shirt material I traced out some wings and little feet. There really is no art to this just make them the size and shape you want!

 

You don't have to do this, but I wanted some fun ribbon embellishments on this owl so I gathered a bunch of girly scrap ribbon and laid it out across the front in the way I wanted. It was a good use of my ribbon that I needed to use on something. I kept one long fat ribbon aside for "taggies" around the outside of my owl later.

If you don't have polyfill go get you some for $4 at Walmart. It comes in an enormous bag and will be useful for multiple projects. I sewed the wings and feet shut with one side open and stuffed them with fluff. The fluff stuffing is always fun.

So now that all the pieces are cut out and limbs stuffed, put that aside. I used a candle to burn the ends of my ribbon so they wouldn't fray. Just a little singe- nothing big. I admit I've caught lots of things on fire this way on accident...don't do that.

 Some ribbon I ruffled, some I pleated, and some I just sewed on. It doesn't matter how you do it, just whatever you think looks cute.

 After all the ribbon was sewed on I laid out everything the way I wanted it. My shirt had a breast pocket so I decided that would be one of the eyes closed shut.

 Sew the ribbon taggies inward, also the wings & feet. It all needs to face in so that when you turn it right side out they are showing.

 It took me a while to decide on how to do the eyes and beak, but I ended up making eyelashes with extra ribbon I had and sewing on fabric that had interfacing on the back.

 Turn everything inward and layer on the other owl piece. Pin around the egdes.

Leave a little opening for your hand to go through as you stuff. Turn it right side out and get to fluffing! I handstitched the opening shut because there was no way that thing was going on my sewing machine....

After it was done I decided this owl needed an eyeball...so I sewed on a button. If you couldn't tell, the one-eye-shut-one-open owl is winking...or peeping...or crazed. You pick :]

Now go stuff something with fluff! I promise you it's so gratifying. 

little devils

Teething has shown its ugly face today!

Never before has Charlotte shown any problems with teeth coming in till now, and her hands almost NEVER leave her mouth.

 

I really feel for her. She's had a ROUGH two weeks. In this order, she had:

strep

allergic rash to amox

cold

yeast infection

and now the worst teething ever...

Looking at her you'd think she was perfect but she's been SO miserable. And she's not the only one.

Oh, and the yeast infection. So she's had red bumps in her diaper area that I thought was from the rash before but these never went away. I made a same-day appt. and of course the pediatrician on call that day was one who I had only seen once before and had issues with. So she looks at her rash for .2 seconds and says its mrsa- which is a scary, highly contagious staph infection. She didn't even get a culture. Something didn't feel right at all and I did not trust anything she said. So I went behind her back and scheduled a second opinion appt. for the next morning. The dr. we saw the next time said "Oh no...it's just yeast. no worries." AHhhh...thank goodness! Boy was I mad about that.

an then there's Talmage. I just don't know what to do with that boy...lately he thinks its totally okay to charge at his sister like a football player and tackle her to the ground...and throw hard objects at her head at high speeds...and push her over when he feels like it. It's driving my crazy because she gets so pouty and sensitive and sticks out her bottom lip. It breaks my heart! I am so tired of punishing him with time-outs and taking things away and spanks...I am at a loss. He just won't listen to me and he has no shame about his behavior. I know he's only 2 almost 3 but there needs to be boundaries set and he's old enough to understand its not okay to trample over a baby.

 

 

yeah, he looks sweet but he's really like this most of the time...ha!

crazy kid. I love him to death but he seriously drives me insane.

So that's that.

Jonathan has had two job interviews this week, one of which he wants more than any job ever. We hope and pray he gets it, and I plead with those of you close to us to please pray for him, too. We've struggled with our situation for a long time and we feel that it's coming to a close, but prayers can't hurt :) To be honest, I'm so tired of living like this..not knowing how we're going to make it to the next month. It's really scary. We have been so blessed to have made it this far and so many tender mercies from the Lord. But having income is kind of necessary...you just can't go without it for very long. I know many of you worry about us and I promise we are fine but very, very stressed. thank you for all the support you've given us thus far.

till next time! hopefully I'll have some GOOD news!

flannel series: rag quilt for C

Holy crap yall I made a quilt.

Had I known it was so simple I wouldn't have waited till now to do this. In the past, whenever someone asked me if I sewed, the next question was always "Do you quilt?" So naturally I assumed that sewing and quilting were two different realms of skill. Sure, I can sew...but quilting you say? Umm no, I don't even go there.

Well, it turns out that to make a quilt, you cut a bunch of squares out of your fabric, sew them together in rows, then sew those rows together. It's actually doable! Who would have thought?

This is all slightly embarrassing since a lot of my friends are excellent quilters. I know I shouldn't be making such a big deal out of something they've known how to do for YEARS! But, I AM proud. This was a huge step for me :)

This blanket is my birthday present to Charlotte. I know...I made her a blanket for Christmas too. But you know, it's something that to me is sentimental, fun to do, and budget-friendly. Especially this one because I already had all the fabric I needed! I wanted it to be really big so it would grow with her. I didn't know it would be as big as it was, but it was a pleasant surprise!

*followed this tutorial.
*used approx. 12 yards of flannel for this project (2 yds of 6 different patterns)
*cut out lots and lots of squares with my rotary cutter. here you go.

yep. there's my squares. all 360 of them!
*sewed 12 rows of 15 squares, making it a total of 180 squares on the front and 180 on the back.
*snipped all the little hems then washed it to make it fluffy.

I LOVE how it turned out!

sewing X's through each square= so. time. consuming.

before I sewed it all together

WALLAH! sorry about the sun blare!

I love the owls the best :]

Be warned that making something like this in such a short amount of time can make you crazy. Like perhaps, you start to seam rip through your fingertips...stare at the endless amounts of squares for minutes at a time...pretend you're a housemaid from Downton Abbey sewing for the lady of the house...or you know, whatever. Of course none of those things happened to me. I was totally cool.

Yup, I was pretty much like this the whole time.

 With some of the flannel I had left I decided to go ahead and make something to go with the quilt. And what is more perfect than a stuffed owl?!

I left the heart open so we can use it as a tooth-fairy owl in the future :]

So there you go. My first ever quilt. And I must be insane because I'm making one just like it for Talmage in a month with more boyish fabric. WHY are their birthdays so close together? Oh right, cause that's what we thought would be a really great idea way back when we were making babies.

happy sewing! (and quilting)

11 months and growing...

Oh goodness. One month closer to a year! And one month away from a year. It's all happening so fast!!

A few days ago Charlotte broke out into a terrible rash, which we found out was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin she's been taking for her strep. It spread from her face down to her toes. Thankfully we were able to take her off the medication right away since she had cleared the strep completely. But I'll be honest...she looked awful. Worst rash I've ever seen on a baby and it happens to be my own. She isn't bothered my it but every time I look at her I can't help but wonder how on earth it doesn't hurt...

This was taken the morning we first noticed the rash. That night it got so bad I considered taking her straight to the ER. So I gave her a wee bit of Dimetap and it made ALL the difference. It's fading a little each day but not fast enough! poor girl :[

One good thing though- in the days before she got it we took lots of pictures of her. So at least I have some lovelier pictures to post... :]

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

at 11 months:
*she has a new nickname. we call her cha-cha cause she loves to dance to anything with a beat :]
*she can WALK! It's just plain crazy if you ask me.
*she still loves her binkies and I have no intention whatsoever of taking them away. not yet...
*says "mama" "dada" "hi" "yeah" and "ohhhhh" & signs for "eat"
*is intrigued by books more than ever.
*speaks out to her brother when she doesn't like what he's doing.
*loves grapes, cheese, corn, peas, yogurt, bananas & lots more!
*has the most random sleep pattern ever, but overall sleeps pretty good.
*follows her brother around everywhere. Everywhere. She thinks he is the bee's-knees.
*raises her eyebrows at strangers and anyone eating food in front of her.
*desperately needs clothes that fit her because she is growing so amazingly fast!

I know I post a lot about Charlotte. No, I haven't forgotten that I have a son : ] For every month he grew before he turned one year I did the same thing for him. It's nice to have a record of that first year because it goes by in a blink and its such a precious time.  His b-day is coming up in April, so we're going to be super busy with birthday stuff around here pretty soon! It's slightly overwhelming...plus there's all the other holidays. goodness! I wish I could just hit the "pause" button for a while.

Happy 11 months Charly Mae!