Piper Grace is Finally Here

Piper Grace Mastain
May 2, 2014 at 12:46 am
8 lb 12 oz, 21 3/4 in

Clearly this sweet girl has her own timeline–3 days at 46 minutes past her due date. My water broke around 11:00 am May 1st, and we went to the hospital shortly after that. After lots of waiting and walking, I had to get some help from the pitocin. Even then, it took awhile for labor to really start. But when Piper decided she was ready, she didn’t mess around!

 

She’s fantastic. Eats like a champ, snuggles, naps through lots of noise, puts up with her big sister showering love on her. She does have her days and nights mixed up, and we started working on her not needing someone to hold her to sleep. Last night was our first night back at home, and it was a tough one. Piper was up every half an hour from 2-7. Oh my, I wish the hospital would send home one of those wonderful nurses who snuggle her at night and then bring her in to nurse. But lots of naps, caffeine, and chocolate will hopefully get us through the next few weeks while we figure this out.

 Emily loves her baby Piper. Tons of hugs, kisses, pats, and soothing. She’s constantly wanting to hold Piper and is really pretty gentle with her. Emi is testing some limits, and I expect that will get worse before it gets better. I love watching my two little girls together, and I can’t wait to watch them become best friends.

 I’m so thankful for all the help our friends and family have given. We really couldn’t have made this transition nearly as well without all their love, support, and prayers. From watching Emily to bringing meals to sending encouragement. You realize just how much you’re loved in times like this. Thank you!

Emily’s Doll

You know how there are some projects that you just love? That was this doll!

I used the tutorial at Make It and Love It. Way easier than I was expecting–two days later, I was done… Okay, I stayed up WAY too late one night, but it was so worth it!

Usually I’m all about personalizing a project and not following the picture exactly. But the doll on the left uses the same material as Emily’s birthday skirt, so that’s what I kept picturing. I couldn’t find any pink chevron for her tights, but the top is the same. Just with some sleeves.

Honestly, the only difficult part was attaching the front and back pieces, because there were arms, legs, and hair to keep tucked in. LOTS of pins, sore fingers, a few retries later, and she was done!

Why yes, Emily does match with her doll…

I just love her! And Emily likes to carry her around by her braids! Or tickle her nose with the end of the braids.

 Plus some skirts for her to wear. Since the skirt pieces only measured 5×21″,  my scrap box had plenty of options. Okay, I did go back to the store to get her birthday skirt fabric (the skirt on the bottom) so Emily and her dolly can match.

Right now Emily mostly just holds her or pushes her in the little stroller. But there’s just something about seeing her hugging and carrying around the doll I made for her!

Creative Collections: New Life Out of Onesies

After finally writing the post about updating Emily’s onesies last week, I realized that I had pinned a few ideas on how to upcycle some of her outfits. But not wanting leave the boys out, I searched for them too!

Bubble Dress by Make It and Love It

Necklace Onesie by A Couple of Craft Addicts

Onesie to Dress by Smile and Wave

Faux Vest by B is for Boy Creations

Tie Onesie by The Thrifty Craft Junkie

Bow Tie and Suspenders Onesie by Go Ahead and Make a Bid on That

And don’t forget about appliquéing something cute on the front… superhero logos, flowers, animals, team logos. Just search Google Images and be creative!

Dressing Up Onsies Tutorlal

Haha, this post cracks me up. Because I started it in May. Yep, months ago. Which means that the pictures are of Emily when she’s two months old!

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I had quite a collection of onesies, so I decided to add a little flair to some of them!

Option 1
The light pink one became a cute little ruffle-butt onesie. It was really pretty simple.

I started by cutting some 1 1/2″ strips out of knit fabric (so I didn’t have to finish the edges). Sew a basting stitch down the center of the strips–don’t backstitch! Pull the threads to create the ruffles.

Then just attach the ruffles to the back of the onesie. I did three rows. Make sure that you overlap the ruffles a little so they create a nice full look.

Option 2
Two of the onesies became little dresses. I cut them like an empire waist style.

Then it was like creating an elastic waist skirt, except you use the top of the onesie instead of elastic. I recommend using this tutorial from Freshly Picked as a guide.

Look how little she is!

And… I’ve since cut the bottom of the onesie off to make a little shirt for her! And… she’s outgrown that too!

(It’s been so long that I don’t remember what I did with the fourth onesie!)

Baby Must Haves

Baby Rowan finally arrived! He’s absolutely precious, and I’m so proud of my sister. Oh, little man, Emily has so much to teacher you… waving, scootching, giggling. You already have snuggling down, so check that off the list!

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I know that all moms have a list of things that are absolutely needed for a new baby. And usually those are things that weren’t on the registry. In the last eight months, there have been some of my baby sewing that’s been so helpful. Which meant that Shannon got five of my favorite baby sewing projects!

Burp Clothes
The flannel makes these super durable and really absorbent. Perfect for all those little messes.

Swaddle
I made one from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby. It wasn’t the easiest project to complete (partially because I’m not great at reading patterns…), but it turned out great. I also got a beautiful one from my friend Laura from Wild Sprouts.

Car Seat Shoulder Straps
I didn’t even realize I needed these until Emily’s little neck was all red from her car seat. They also work great for strollers! I’ll be posting some to my Etsy before too long!

Diaper and Wipes Case
I love little bags in my diaper bag. I feel like maybe I’ll be able to find things I need when Emily has an emergency. Maybe. I use this basic tutorial to create my diaper case–I just change the dimensions to 8×15″ for the back rectangle and 8×12″ for the front. This allows you to store an extra outfit under the diapers, just in case! The wipes case is just a hard cover one that holds about 30 wipes (I’ve only been able to find this at Walmart).

Giraffe
This is another project from Lotta. It’s the perfect size for little hands to hold and little mouths to chew on. But you could make any shape. Just search for the silhouette of your chosen shape. Cut two pieces out of fabric (make sure that the right sides will face out when you sew them). Sew around the sides, leaving a gap. Turn it right side out, stuff with batting, and hand stitch shut. You could even add a little jingle bell inside if you want.

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What are your baby must haves?

 

Sweater Dress

Lately I haven’t been creating many of my own projects… just checking out my favorite blogs for ideas to try. And Ashley at Make It and Love It never fails to inspire me!

I used her tutorial for an Old Sweater into a Short Sleeve Dress. Absolutely adorable! And what a great way to get new life out of a nice sweater that got a hole in the front!

Now that Emily is moving so much more, getting her to stay still for a full length picture of the dress never happened!

Now to thrift stores so I can make Emily more of these!

Emily loves reading her books 🙂

Safari Theme Baby Shower

So I’m pretty excited about my sister having her first baby. It means our kids will be about 8 months apart. How perfect is that for cousins?

Seriously, doesn’t she look great!

I have to admit, I’ve been planning Shannon’s shower LONG before this little man was around. I’d find cute elephant/giraffe prints and save the idea for her shower. The theme was always an African safari. Shannon spent nine months in Zambia doing missions work and loved all the elephants and giraffes she saw (one of her funniest stories was when a baby elephant wandered into their camp…and the momma elephants came looking for it!).

See that cute diaper cake? The craftiness of our friend Sara!

Elephants:  I searched for an elephant outline and traced it onto scrapbook paper. Then I just sandwiched ribbon between two elephants.

The other decorations mostly came from Shannon’s house. She has quite a collection of wooden elephants that spotted our table. I also used some of her African cloth to top my tablecloth.

My suggestion when you’re buying decorations:  buy basic pieces. These will last you through many parties, dinners, special events. Then you can pick up smaller, less expensive pieces (or borrow them) to personalize the event. And never forget the value of cute scrapbook paper!

The menu:  Why thank you Pinterest.

Shredded Beef Sandwiches by Erin Chase via The Chew (I heart Michael Symon)

Caprese Salad Kabobs (picture via Terri’s Table)–skewer grape tomatoes, mozzarella, and a leaf of basil on a toothpick

Sour Patch Grapes by Pure Sugar

Fruit and Cream Cheese/Marshmallow Dip

Chocolate Cupcakes

Coconut Meringue Cookies

Brownie Bites by me

 Pineapple Lemonade Punch by Froggy and the Mouse (I floated sherbet in it too)

Busy Bags:  I got this idea from Happy Hawkins. We made simple felt activities for when the little man is a little older and needs some quiet time. I printed out Laura’s examples for ideas, and everyone put their own spin on the project. We had a flower page from my mom and Grandma (they’re both fabulous gardeners), a rainbow from Shannon’s mother-in-law, a starry night, an autumn tree, butterflies, and ice cream cones. The great thing about this idea is that then the activities go into baggies so they can be switched out. Plus it’s an great craft to talk through (and easy enough that even non-crafty people have a good time).

 

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We can’t wait to meet you, little man. Keep getting big and strong! We’ll see you in a few short weeks. Your cousin Emily can’t wait to teach you how to talk and giggle. And your Aunt Lindsey can’t wait to give you kisses!

Revised Baby Leg Warmers

Remember this post when I turned little girl socks into leg warmers for Emily? Well, needless to say, she’s gotten quite a bit bigger since then. And as cute as she is, she looked completely ridiculous wearing leg warmers that were so short!

My solution… a $1 bag of lace I got at a garage sale! Okay, the solution itself probably cost less than a penny. But I got all that lace for $1! Huge deal!

Measure around the bottom of the leg warmer and cut a piece of lace ½” bigger. Sew the ends of the lace together using a ¼” seam and zig zag the edges. Then match right sides together and pin the lace onto your sock using lots of pins (keep in mind that the sock with stretch so this keeps it in place). Then sew with ¼” seam and zig zag to finish.

And now you’ve gotten a few more months out of your cute leg warmers!

 

Baby Bows

Besides headbands, I love baby bows. And Emily’s hair gets in her eyes, so either a headband or bow is necessary. But her hair is so fine that the bows were falling out all the time!

I found this tutorial on making bows on Make It and Love It. Ashley’s trick was to add shelf liner to the inside of the clips so it grips to fine hair. Genius!

Hot glue your shelf liner to a scrap of felt. Glue the felt to the top of your bow clip. The end 🙂

And tada… they stayed in!

Hot glue your shelf liner to a scrap of felt. Glue the felt to the top of your bow clip. The end 🙂

Baby Headbands Part 2

I saw this picture on Pinterest on a way to make little flowers and thought it would be a perfect as a headband.

There wasn’t a link/blog to the picture I pinned. If you know where it’s from, please let me know so I can link up!

Based on the picture, I sort of made it up as I went!

What you’ll need:
*felt (time to raid the scrap box!)
*beads
*elastic
*clippy barrette
*glue gun

1.  Cut a circle of felt. Cut a the circle into a spiral shape. Cut a scalloped edge on one side of the spiral.

2.  Starting with the center, wrap and glue. Be careful not to burn your fingers on the hot glue!

3.  Glue the beads in the center of your flower.

4.  Cut a small piece of felt to act as your base to attach the other flowers. Glue your flowers onto the cardboard. Add some leaves.

5.  Measure your sweet one’s head. Sew your elastic slightly smaller than her head.

6.  With another small piece of felt, create a loop on the back. This is so you can slide your clippy barrette through. That way you can use the same band of elastic for multiple flowers!

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