Robot Mobile

Count down just 15 days before baby arrives and I finally got that baby mobile finished. It was a quick, easy and inexpensive project that really helped to complete our mini baby room. My nesting tendencies are in full swing but because we have a renovation gearing up I have been reluctant to tackle any house projects and it's driving me kinda crazy. To keep my mind off of the need to "fix" everything I have been working on making frozen meals to stock up the freezer and trying to sneak in a few more sewing projects. Sitting at the machine with this huge belly is getting to be a bit of a challenge so any projects tend to be quick and easy ones. The mobile was a two day project that I worked on in mini sessions. The first day I sewed and stuffed the little felt bots and the second day Matt helped me hang the fishing line to the silver painted embroidery ring and attach it to the ceiling. I really didn't get a great shot of the completed mobile the room is very small and hard to photograph but I think this weekend I will try again to get some pictures of the finished nursery. I used my bag of fabric scraps to crate this mobile so my only expense was a $3.49 embroidery ring, sure pays to keep those little scraps around.

Materials:
Felt
Fishing line
Silver spray paint
Embroidery ring

Simple Baby Quilt

It's been a crazy few months. Getting ready for baby #2 who arrives in just 4 weeks while managing a toddler has made for a busy busy summer. I've been battling with mommy guilt over the fact that I have been so involved with T that I haven't spent the same attention on preparations for baby 2. By the luck of the draw (coming second) baby #2 is going to be getting left overs and hand me downs from his big sis but there are a few things that I wanted to make just for him. I was set on making a baby quilt and a (not yet tackled) room mobile. I have never quilted before and so for my first attempt I wanted something simple yet stylish. I found inspiration & great how to techniques online at Purl & on You Tube. The only thing special I had to buy was a quilting foot that enables you to sew multiple layers together without the fabric slipping. I started with batting or pinning the three layers of fabric together with safety pins then proceeded in sewing zigzag lines of different threads across the short length of the pinned material. I did this repeated and changed colors with each pass until I "felt" the quilt was "done". The last step was to trim the edges and attach binding material around the edges. My total budget for this project including the new sewing foot was $22.00 and total time was about about 3 1/2 hours.

Materials:
Cotton batting
2 contrasting colors of cotton material
Several thread colors
Safety pins
Quilting foot

Tess 2nd Birthday

Finally posting some pictures from Tess' second birthday. We spent the week in Sanibel Florida with extended family at our yearly family beach retreat and ended the week with a birthday celebration for Tess. She is such a lover of the zoo that we thought we would bake cupcakes and decorate them with some of her favorite animals. Matt and I spend a few hours the night before coloring and shaping the fondant animals and first thing in the morning we baked off the cupcakes and decorated them with the critters.We topped the white cake cupcakes with buttercream icing and then colored store bought vanilla Duff brand fondant from Michael's. They tasted amazing and were really fun to make... Tess wasn't sure if she wanted to eat them or give them all names and play with them.

Materials:
Duff Brand Fondant
White cupcake mix
Zebra cupcake liners
Wilton Buttercream icing
Gel food coloring