Finishing Touches

I'm officially 34 weeks along now-- 8.5 months! It's kind of hard to believe how quickly the time has flown by. I think Tom and I more or less have everything we need ready now. Crib and change table are set up, we have a bassinet, a stroller and a car seat. The drawers and closet are overflowing with clothes, and the baby is moving around like a maniac, sticking her butt and feet out every chance she gets.

I've been putting some finishing touches on decorations for the nursery. After about ten days of painting non-stop in my free time, I have finally finished them!

The inspiration for my paintings came from a Papyrus card that I gave Tom for Valentine's Day  four years ago. It clearly stuck in my mind because I saved it, and have been thinking about how it could be incorporated into a baby's room in the future.

I really like painting with acrylics, but I think it's been a couple years since I cracked them open. I got in the habit of doing a little bit each night. The paintings pretty much took over our kitchen table.

Now that all is said and done, I am very happy with how they turned out! My favourite part, without a doubt, is the volcano spewing hearts!

And to give you a the full effect, here is what they look like with respect to the rest of the nursery furniture.

Now that I'm done with my sewing and painting projects, I'm not totally sure what to do with myself anymore. I'm going to have so much more free time! I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Edible Wool

It's been a few months since I've had a chance to make some creative cupcakes. When I got my Hello Cupcake book a few months ago, I remember flipping through the pages and seeing a design for cupcakes that look like skeins of wool, complete with knitting needles. I thought to myself, "If I ever have the opportunity to make my friend, Corina, cupcakes, this will be the design I use." Corina is a crafty lady, and she always has some sort of knitting project on the go, so they seemed perfect for her.

Well, wouldn't you know it? Right before Christmas, Corina and her husband had a beautiful baby girl, and over the weekend I attended her baby shower.  Her sister-in-law e-mailed me a few weeks ago, and asked if I would be willing to make make some cupcakes.

Would I!?

Sign me up!

Here's how they turned out:

Love it!

Dino Mania!

 I sort of forget how single-minded I become when I start working on a project.

Tom and I finally got our crib set up, and I decided I wanted to make some accessories to go with the crib bedding.  Initially I looked at pillows on Etsy, but eventually I stumbled across some felt dinosaur patterns (here) that would nicely complement a painting I am planning to paint for the nursery.

Etsy Pattern

I bought the pattern online, and the supplies were a quick stop at Michael's for felt, embroidery thread, pipe cleaners and polyester stuffing.  The dinosaur pattern was called, "Angry Dinos", which didn't quite fit with my girl-themed nursery, so I modified the pattern so that the dinosaurs were a bit friendlier looking.

Once I started stitching... It basically took over my life. In this case, single-minded could probably be better described as "obsessive compulsive." Every spare moment, you could find me sitting on the couch cutting felt, pinning fabric, sewing or stuffing dinosaurs. At one point, I even wondered if it would be acceptable if I brought parts of the project on the train with me so I could sew on my way to and from work.  Ultimately, I decided that I was taking it to a whole new level of crazy. I stand by my decision to keep everything at home...

Regardless, I am very pleased with the results. The dinosaurs are not very sturdy, being hand-sewn. So I don't think our daughter-to-be will really be able to ever play with them. But they make great decorations!

Crib & crib bedding.

Friendly dinosaurs!

Close-up of the dinosaurs.

And when I finally finished stitching everything, I found myself buying a second set of felt patterns from a DIFFERENT Etsy store (here), and stitching a new set of dinosaurs.  These guys are more three dimensional, and cute in a whole new way!

Etsy Pattern

 I burned through the sewing and stuffing of these two in a couple of days while recuperating from a cold that Tom infected me with earlier this week. There's nothing like drinking orange juice and ginger ale while stitching and watching TV for eight hours straight...

More dinos!

I'm relieved that I am now officially done this, and I can move on to the next project. And... The next project is currently taking over our kitchen table-- I am painting away! More on that in weeks to come.