Template 47, Emma's Baby Book, Sewing Projects, and More!

I am SO totally nesting. But not in the "must clean my house" way. Oh no. Not me. At least, not yet. Hopefully soon, because let me tell you, my house could use it LOL. No, my nesting has taken the form of projects. Scrapping Emma's 40 page (plus covers and table of contents) baby book in 2.5 weeks, for instance. Or planning out Christmas and birthday gifts at the beginning of October - and then going on to MAKE some of those gifts with my meager sewing skills. But, in my defense, we DO have several birthdays and such to plan for near Christmas, and I AM due about a week and a half after that...so I'm totally justified, right? Right?

Anyway, first of all, Emma had an appointment yesterday and she weighed in at 23 lbs!!! YAY! She's in the 10th percentile! Finally! I know that sounds really tiny to most of you, but considering her history, it's fabulous. The only other time in her entire life she was that high on the charts was at birth - and she was in the 10th percentile. Then she dropped down to 5th...then completely off the charts, where she stayed until at 9 months she got up to 2nd percentile. She maintained that for awhile, until she had nasty diarrhea for a week...which knocked her off the charts again. After that, she went up to the 3rd percentile and that's what she was last we checked. So to go from 3rd to 10th is phenomenal for her! LOL, but she's still in the 5th percentile for height - it's totally to be expected, though. John and I are both very short and so is pretty much everyone in our family.

And now for some scrapping news!! Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps have once again concocted a fabulous collab kit, Hoo's My Girl (image is linked to store):



Isn't it gorgeous?! If you drop by their announcement on GDS, you could win it for FREE!! It's also on sale this week for 30% off.

I could NOT wait for this kit to be released. I finished Emma's baby book last week, but I couldn't post the finished product until this kit was in store since I used it for several pages. You will see them further down in this post. I want to keep her baby book in order, after all ;) You can click on the "view layouts" button at GDS and see them there as well:)

And now, without further adieu, is Emma's completed baby book! I still have to go through and fine-tune edit everything and make necessary adjustments for bleed during the printing process, but that will be for another day. Credits are posted every 2 pages.




Credits:
Hoo's My Girl, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)





Credits:
Country Caramel - Kimi's Kreations
(BTW, the family tree LO is still available as a free quick page a few posts down;))




Credits:
Hoo's My Girl, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)
Alpha - Hoo's My Boy, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Doodlebug - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations
GDS Birthday Bash alpha - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Happy Go Lucky - geniaBeana Scraps




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Peaches and Cream - Kimi's Kreations (her very first kit! It was a freebie; not sure if it's still available)
My Darling glitter - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Queen for a Day - geniaBeana Scraps (her very first kit! It was a freebie; not sure if it's still available)
BCC2 glitter - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
My Darling - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Star Spangled - geniaBeana Scraps




Credits:
Doodlebug - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
Hoo's My Girl, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)




Credits:
Doodlebug - Kimi's Kreations




Credits:
GDS October collab - parts by Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps




Credits:
Queen for a Day - geniaBeana Scraps (her very first kit! It was a freebie; not sure if it's still available)




Credits:
Hoo's My Girl, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)


Credits:
Hoo's My Girl, KgB Scrap Kreations (Kimi's Kreations and geniaBeana Scraps)

Phew! And that's Emma's baby book! LOL, everything I used was by Kimi's Kreations or geniaBeana scraps! Man, it's a good thing I'm on their joint CT!

Oh lovely. I just discovered toilet water on my bathroom floor...by stepping in it barefoot. And it's 1 AM, so I can't call the landlord. I wouldn't consider a leaky toilet to be a major emergency - besides, I stopped it from running and it's still usable. All the same, it's mildly irritating.

Anyway, moving on. I have been majorly bitten by the sewing bug lately - and I'll be the first to admit I am a TOTAL novice when it comes to sewing. Sure, I can do simple things like curtains, baby blankets, hemming, and I made my own nursing cover (all I did was buy a yard of fabric, cut a hole in the middle for my head, round off the corners, and sew around the edges). Until a few days ago, I had never EVER made anything from a pattern. I had to enlist assistance from my sister-in-law to do it. At the beginning of the summer, I bought some lightweight fabric and such to make John a pair of PJ bottoms. The lightest he had that weren't totally destroyed were flannel...well, now THOSE have a huuuuge gaping hole in the knee. It was time to finally make those PJ bottoms I promised him months ago.

Part of the problem was that I didn't really know my sewing machine. My mom gave me her old one - which she bought when I was a baby - when she got her new one. I don't have a manual for it. And the only person I know who KNOWS that machine is 800 miles away. Everyone I know who lives nearby is used to newer machines, as far as I know. Whereas my machine is as old as I am. It's a good sturdy little machine, though. It has a metal frame, unlike the plastic ones of today. But now, after working through a few projects over the last few days, I know my machine MUCH better and can troubleshoot some of the simpler problems that inevitably come up.

So, John's PJ bottoms:



I'd post a pic of him modeling them, but he fell asleep on the couch and the photo looked weird. The pants look a lot shorter in the pic than they actually are because of how they're positioned on the couch. They turned out really well! The only issue is the waist is a bit loose on him, but that's not my fault;) I handed John the elastic and had him mark with his highlighter (he was doing some reading) where he wanted it. I figure he's the one who'll be wearing them, so they might as well be comfy for him, right? ;) And really, it's better that they're a tiny bit too loose than too tight. I could take them in if I needed to, but he's satisfied:)

I had fabric leftover from John's PJ bottoms, so I used some of it to make little tossable bean bags for Emma. Actually, I only used the part of the pants that were too long from the pattern to make them. There are definite advantages to being short:D The bean bags turned out really cute (though they aren't all the same exact size):



Technically, they're lentil bags, since that's what I filled them with. We get a ton of free beans and lentils and never really use them. Why not put some to good use as a kid's toy? I used lentils rather than beans because I liked the texture better. Oh, and please ignore the old worn-out look of my couch. We got it for $50 at a local thrift store. For a leather couch, regardless of how old, that's a STEAL! It's a bit worn, sure, but it's VERY comfy!

And now for my favorite of the projects! I mentioned on BAM (a mommy forum I frequent) that I wanted to get Emma a play kitchen, but that I have absolutely NOWHERE to put one. Space is an issue as it is. Not to mention the financial aspect of buying one. Several of the girls posted links or pics of less space-invasive kitchen sets, but one of my friends there pointed me to an awesome tutorial to make your OWN roll-up kitchen play mat from fabric!! You can find the tutorial here if you're interested. I added most of the suggested additions to mine:



And rolled up:


My stitching is far from perfect, but overall, I like mine much better than the one in the tutorial. Her stitching is infinitely superior, to be sure, but I like the colors and overall look of mine better:) It helps that I added fun elements to make it more kitchen-like. I ended up making mine a bit bigger, too. I printed the PDF pattern as instructed, but for some reason, I think my pieces turned out bigger - and therefore necessitated a bigger background. But I like my sizing better anyway, since 17.5" x 9.5" is pretty dang small. I ended up using a thick flannel for the background. I didn't like any of the felt options at Walmart (yes, I'm cheap - I buy fabric at Walmart more often than not). They had squares of felt, which I used for all the fun elements, but the other felts had a nasty texture and I didn't like any of the colors enough to even consider them. But I LOVE the exterior fabric I used! And the ribbon. Love that ribbon. I have more on the spool, too:) I'm thinking of buying more of that fabric to make curtains for the kids' room. I currently have pink curtains in Emma's room, but since she'll be sharing the room with her baby brother...I think I need something a little more boy-friendly. Both their bedspreads have green and yellow in them, so I was thinking something with those colors. Hm, what do you think of that green starbursty fabric for curtains? Is it too busy?

I had a small amount of that pretty green fabric (and the sage flannel, too) leftover, so today I made a cute little drawstring bag with it and some of that gorgeous ribbon.





The kitchen play mat AND the bean bags all fit in it, too! But it's primary purpose will be for Emma's Halloween candy. She doesn't need a big bag, after all. I could buy one of those 94 cent pumpkins at Walmart, but I'd either have to store it somewhere for next year or throw it away...LOL, we always used pillowcases for our Halloween candy. Although, I just remembered that Mom made us some drawstring bags for it one year, too - but they were MUCH bigger and out of Halloween fabric. This little baggy matches her costume to some degree and will be usable for other non-Halloween things:)

And now for the template!! Template 47 is a 12x12 PSD template. It's from the first half of Emma's Welcome Home page above. I'll make the other half for next time:) Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

As always, I love hearing back from you and seeing what you do with my templates. Enjoy!