Grandma's Quilt

 

My mom has made a quilt for each one of her grandkids...and Andrew's has finally arrived. I found the tutorial on Jaybirds Quilt Blog. It's called the Radio Way Quilt. Since I sewed Andrew's crib set and matching curtains and changing table cover, my mom used the same fabrics to make his quilt. I love how it turned out! She then handed the completed quilt to a "quilter" to stitch a fun design throughout the quilt...she even sewed his name in it. 

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Emily's Artwork For Dad

 One of the things on Craig's Christmas list this year is an art project from Emily. I wanted it to be something pretty cool that he could easily display on his desk at work. I saw a few examples of this style of art on pinterest and so I thought Emily would have a lot of fun with this.

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DIY Reward Chart

 

In addition to finding a need for a chore chart for Emily, I also that she was ready for a reward chart. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to go about doing this...so off to Pinterest I went. I found an amazing post from, "Life Sprinkled With Glitter" on a great reward system that I followed with just a couple of adjustments to match our chore chart. The post goes into great detail on how this works, but I'll just give you a brief summary. Basically, Emily starts each day with all of her "coins" (on our chart they are princesses) no matter how many "coins" were lost the day before, you start fresh each and every day. When Emily displays poor choices/behavior she has to give me a princess. I let her choose which princess she wants to give me (at the age of three she already has her favorites that are always the last to go...one word...Cinderella). When she makes good choices she can earn a "coin" back. The goal is to have ALL of her princesses by the end of the day. If she has all of them, then she earns a sticker. If she doesn't have all seven princesses then she doesn't get a sticker. Once she earns 10 stickers then we can go to the store and she can pick out a $10 toy. NOW, if she is really having an off day and happens to lose all of her coins before the end of the day then she can not earn her coins back. She will have to wait until the next day to get her princesses back. 

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DIY Chore Chart

Now that I am staying home full time, the need for these charts quickly presented itself. I'll begin with the chore chart. Honestly, this chart is more for me than it is for Emily. There are so many things that Emily can now do on her own but I kept doing them for her out of habit. I'm simply going through the house grabbing things as I go and constantly picking up...which is doing Emily a disservice. For example, Emily is absolutely capable of taking her dirty dishes to the sink all by herself. She is able to pick up all of her toys when she is done playing with them. She can get dressed and (for the most part) she can brush her teeth all by herself. These are all things that I was doing for her because I just get in that mindset of "do...do...do", I want to clean up, put things away, get her dressed and ready, etc.

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DIY Reindeer Ornaments

This is an oldie...but a goodie!! I made these ornaments with my mom when I was super young, and I had a blast making these with Emily this year.

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DIY Discovery Bottle

I have seen so many tutorials on how to make your own discovery bottles, I seen them in stores (whether in a bottle or in a bean bag)...and so I decided to try to make my own. They looked super easy.

MATERIALS:
~ Empty Plastic Bottle
~White Rice
~Variety of small recognizable objects (buttons, charms, etc)

I found all of my small items at a local craft store. They have a small jar with random buttons that I chose from. I also bought a couple of button sets to use as well. Before I placed the objects in the empty bottle, I put divided them up by similarities and took pictures of each of the sets. Then I put a few items in the bottle, followed by some rice...then a few more items, and little bit more rice. Repeat those easy steps until all of your items in are in the bottle. I left a few inches at the top of the bottle so that there would be plenty of room to shake the rice when searching for the different items. Once it was done, I hot glued the lid onto the bottle so that Emily couldn't open it up in all of her curiosity.

Preschool At Home

Emily's Preschool Board/Center

Now that I am a stay at home mom now, I wanted to try and provide Emily with some sort of a preschool education a few days a week. Since I teach middle school, I really have no clue as to what is appropriate for my 3 year old to learn...so Pinterest to the rescue. 

In the corner of our dining room, we already had an IKEA table set up where Emily does her art: playdo, finger painting, coloring, etc. The thing I love about this table is the drop leaf. It is easy to extend when Emily works on her art, and easy to close up when she's done. 

I decided to spice the corner up a little bit so that it could evolve into her little school corner. I added two drawer sets from Michaels to organize her art supplies, school supplies, writing aids, etc. I found the perfect link to great preschool board, along with free printables at, "A Day In The Life of a Classroom Teacher". It's no secret that I like things to look pretty, so I immediately fell in love with her preschool board and I was on cloud 9 when I saw she included free printables for the days of the week and the months of the year. I already had a classroom calendar, and I found the counting straws piece at JoAnn Fabrics. 

The board quickly came to together. I laminated the free printables, cut them out and used puffy stickers to attach them to the board...to give it a little fun dimension. On the bottom left side, I attached flash cards that can rotate as we learn them: Letters, Numbers, and Colors. I also found a set of cards that focuses on 3-Letter words, which is what you see at the far bottom of the board. The fourth set of cards (that you don't see on the board yet, but I plan on putting them below the calendar portion) focuses on sequencing. They are sets of three cards with pictures on them and Emily has to figure out the correct sequence that they are supposed to go in. For example, a set of cards would have a picture of a girl planting seeds, then watering the seeds, and then watching the flowers grow.

So far, Emily LOVES playing school. I found some great songs to help her learn the days of the week and the months of the year from: ABCTV123. Emily learned the days of the week super fast and she won't stop singing the song...even late in the night when she is in bed alone. (Craig and I randomly hear her singing this song from our video monitor. It's hilarious).

Days of the Week Song

Months of the Year Song

Now, just because Emily can sing the days of the week, does not mean she knows what any of it means. At her bedtime, we always talk about all of the things that we did "today" and she talks about things from previous days..."No, Emily...we did that yesterday." "Emily, we didn't do that today." So there are three labels on the board for the days of the week: "Yesterday was", "Today is", and "Tomorrow will be". It is finally starting to make sense to her. To attach the labels, and be able to move them each day, I stuck them to the front of cloth pins. It works perfectly.

 I found some personal white boards for Emily to practice her letters and numbers. Right now, she starts off trying to trace my letters and write her own, but after about 30 seconds (if that) it turns into writing a ton of circles. A new product that I just found are the new crayola white board crayons. I started with her using white board markers, but that just turned into a disaster with her pushing way too hard, but these crayons are great. They even have a crayon sharpener on the back of the box! PERFECT!!

It is so fun watching her learn. She loves going over the board, singing our new songs, and practicing her writing.

Emily's A Pro!!!

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Andrew's Completed Nursery

Andrew's Completed Nursery

Here is Andrew’s completed nursery. I am SO HAPPY with the end result. I was so nervous to do all of the sewing for the crib set, curtains, and changing pad…since my last project was a Christmas ornament that my Grandma taught me to sew…when I was 8 years old. Seriously though, I really want to get into sewing. I would love to be comfortable enough to sew Emily some super cute clothes, as well as some clothes for myself. If you want to find the links to the tutorials that I found and used for the crib set, check out my previous post: Andrew's Nursery Update.

Nursery Fabrics

Back to Andrew’s nursery. I bought a lot of the accessories from JoAnn Fabrics. The letters above the crib are all from JoAnn's. It is a mixture of wooden and cardboard letters that I painted myself to match the fabrics that I chose. I hung them all up with the 3M Command Strips so I didn't have to put a ton of holes in the wall. To guarantee that they don't fall down...I used a couple of the strips on each of the letters.  

 There really is no theme in the nursery. It is a mixture of fun ideas on each wall. I fell in love with the ABC wall which I found a picture of on pinterest. The picture that I found was attached to a link from Etsy...unfortunately the letters were way out of my price range and so I was able to copy the idea (using coupons for JoAnn's) for a fraction of the price on Etsy. There is also a slight Star Wars theme. Again, I found a picture of the crib mobile on Pinterest...and I couldn't resist! I HAD TO HAVE IT!!! The price was totally affordable and I am SO HAPPY with the finished look. Here is a link to the Etsy store: Salty and Sweet. To hang the mobile, I just bought a used crib mobile from a thrift store and then used that to hang my new mobile from Etsy.

Coolest Crib Mobile EVER!!!

For the other prints around the room, I just googled "star wars nursery prints" and I came across these ridiculously cute prints. 

C3PO Artwork

Look closely, that is not a Norman Rockwell...that is Princess Lea and Hans Solo

Hans Solo and Chewbacca

 There isn't much to say about the rest of the nursery. I'll just post the pictures...don't hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions at all.

Andrew's Toy Shelf

Toy Shelf and Star Wars Prints above

DIY ABC Wall

Andrew's Changing Table

Fun Artwork

Andrew's Nursery Udpate

Emily's Nursery

When we put Emily’s nursery together, we made the “base” of the nursery very neutral so that we wouldn’t have to make a lot of changes to the room if we had a boy in the future. Emily’s nursery was cute…we painted the walls a soft sage green and then on the wall behind the crib, we painted wide stripes with the same sage green color…only it was a different finish: flat/semi-gloss. In my opinion, it was the perfect subtle touch to the nursery. The furniture was a cherry finish and the crib set was a done with gender-neutral colors: greens, creams, and brown. To add the “girly” touches, we added hints of lavender color through accessories that could easily be changed out if we had a boy in the future.

Enter Andrew…and three years later…I became bored with the nursery and wanted to change a lot more than I needed to. In order to keep Craig happy, I had to make the changes in a budget friendly way…so off to my sewing machine to dust it off. 

I found a couple of great tutorials for making a new crib set as well as a super cute contoured changing pad cover. Here are the links along with pictures of my finished projects. 

This tutorial was very easy to follow for someone who is a "beginner" sewer. I found this on the "SEW4HOME" website, which offers many step-by-step tutorials. I completed my bumpers slightly differently. Instead of sewing each individual bumper, I made one super long tube for the bumpers. As I sewed it, I inserted each bumper, and then sewed the tube more, and then inserted another bumper. Between each bumper, I sewed a seam down the middle of the tube so that it could easily bend around the corners of the crib. I was SUPER happy with the end result. As for the ties...I simple hand stitched satin ribbons between each bumper. It turned out perfectly!!!

 

As for the crib skirt, I didn't have a tutorial to follow, but I did have a couple of pictures that I wanted to model my skirt after.  This was the "look" that I was going for (minus the ruffles...after all it is for a boy's room). So, with my mother's help, we put the crib skirt together and I couldn't have been happier with the end result. We used a super big bowl to make the rounded edges in the front. Then I used a pre-made biased tape for the edges around the front, sides and back. As for the peek-a-boo portion, I used a small rope with the brown polk-a-dot fabric (the same that I used for the top of the bumpers) on the bottom.

Now, as for the window in the nursery. For Emily's room we had a short valence and baby-proof blinds to block the light out. Unfortunately, due to the position of the window...when the sun would set the light would pierce through the perimeter of the window and landed directly in the crib. Craig's solution to this problem...pin up a black bed sheet. It was so ugly, but as long as it was functional, Craig didn't care.
Fixing this problem was on the top of my to-do list for updating the nursery. I saw this picture on Pinterest, however it wasn't a tutorial. I liked how the window matched the style of the window in the nursery: tall and thin. I also liked how it gathered on one side of the window in order to let some light in.

Those were the major updates to Andrew's nursery. You can see that we switched out Emily's butterfly's above the crib for letters of the alphabet. Once we finish with the decorations, I'll post pictures of the completed nursery. I can't wait for it to come together.

Potty Training...SUCCESS!!!

My first attempt at potty training Emily was when she just turned 2 years old. She had shown some interest in using the potty and so we bought the princess potty seat that sings when it gets filled. The odd thing was that her first success “filling” was with a poo-poo. We were so excited…we grabed the camera and took those embarrassing pictures that we get hold over her as ransom when she gets older.

Now, at first, we just let her sit on the potty whenever she wanted and we didn’t force her to use it at all. However, once I officially attempted to potty train, then she put up a huge fight. She wanted no part of sitting on her princess potty, on the big potty…nothing. I tried the candy method, my mom had a present wrapped and ready to bring over once she went potty in the toilet…but Emily just didn’t care. I finally threw in the towel and just figured she wasn’t ready.

Fast forward one whole year. Emily has been showing a lot more interest in potty training…I just kept pushing back the actual training because I thought it would be easier to train when I started summer vacation…and then I pushed it back more because we decided to take a vacation to San Francisco and I didn’t want to have to hunt down toilets every hour. Finally, the “right time” arrived and potty training began.

Now, you can laugh all you want…BUT…potty training TERRIFIED me!!! I was afraid of all of messes that I was going to have clean up. I am a clean freak and I so did not want stinky stains on our nice living room rug, and I just envisioned having to clean up mess after mess all over the house. So, to aid our potty training adventure, I sought out the help of Jen Lovelady and her “Pro Potty Trainer” System. Jen is an amazing mother of 4 and has an abundance of great wisdom! She gaurantees that your child will be potty trained within 3 days or your money back. That was the selling point for me. I didn’t want to deal too much with potty training past 3 days.

I bought the program (It was pretty inexpensive…I want to say about $30. I can’t tell you about the program because I don’t want to give away the tricks…just know that we were 100% happy with it and it worked 100% for us) and after the first day, I was ready to throw in the towel. Emily never once made it “in” the potty. She had an accident right NEXT to the potty, in the hallway after sitting on the potty for a good amount of time, etc. Luckily, every single accident was on the bathroom floor or on our wood floors…never on the rug! It wasn’t until it was time for bed, that first day…we put her back in a diaper to sleep in and once we finished her bedtime routine, she started to cry and cry and cry. She was saying that she had to go potty and she didn’t want to go in her diaper. I thought for sure that this was Emily’s way of trying to extend her bedtime, BUT being the nice mother that I am…I decided to let her out and try to sit on her potty chair one last time. And BEHOLD…the chair sang it’s potty tune as she WENT POTTY FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! We did a potty dance…we high fived…we were so so excited for her!!! We then called Nana and Papa to tell them the good news. It was the cutest phone call ever!!

Day #2 of potty training was practically perfect. The only accidents that we had on day #2 were when she started to go potty in her panties…but she was able to stop herself and run to the bathroom, so there was no clean up involved…just putting on new panties. That was it!!!! By the third day, she was potty trained pro. I am so proud of Emily (and so thankful I didn’t throw in the towel after the first day).

Recovering Your Infant Carseat

Our infant carseat was a hand-me-down for our first baby. It was a super blessing for us...but for baby #2, on the way, I was really hoping for a way to give the carseat a face lift. The carseat's fabric was totally worn out and in desperate need of an update.
Once again...I find myself on Pinterest and I came across this DIY tutorial for recovering your infant carseat.

I have an amazing mother-in-law who knows every trick in the book for sewing. She is a major quilter and has been sewing forever! I am just learning to sew and so I was super nervous to attempt such an important project on my own for fear that I would mess it up and we would end up having to buy a brand new carseat...my husband would be FURIOUS!!!
Thankfully, my mother-in-law just went to town with this tutorial and was able to follow it very easily and get the project down. The tutorial is so well written and detailed with pictures. I am so pleased with the final result!!!
Here are the before and after pictures. The fabric that I bought for the carseat was a thick "outdoor canvas" from JoAnne's Fabric.

DIY Button Monogram

I found a ton of “pins” on pinterest with these beautiful buttoned monograms and I knew that I wanted to do one for Emily’s room. I followed this link to a great tutorial, Element Monogram Tutorial by Jen Jockisch

Materials Used:

~Printer
~Frame
~Cardboard
~Fabric
~Spray Adhesive
~Scissors
~Hot Glue
~Buttons

I scrolled through all of the fonts on my computer and found the “E” that I liked the best. I used “word art” so that I could make it super large and bold enough to be able to fit a bunch of buttons inside.

For the frame portion, I cut out a piece of cardboard that would fit perfectly into the frame. I then used the spray adhesive to evenly glue my fabric piece directly to the cardboard and then over all of the edges to wrap around to the back. Then I placed it into the frame and closed the back of the frame just as I would if I placed a picture inside.

I took the piece of paper that I printed the “E” on, cut out the “E” in such a way that it kept the paper in one piece and simply had a hollowed out “E” in the center. By doing it this way, I could tape the paper in place, on top of the fabric, and begin placing the buttons inside of the “E”.

I started with the larger sized buttons first so that I could evenly disperse them throughout, followed by the medium sized buttons to fill in the majority of the “E”, and then ended by placing the tiniest buttons to fill in the left over holes.

Once everything had found it’s place, I started gluing it all down, one button at a time. 

When I glued the very last button, I removed the paper (some of the paper did get glue on it, so I used tweezers to pull of the paper out from the glue under the buttons)…and I just LOVED the finished product. It turned out so much better than I imagined, and it was so much fun to do!!