Happy Birthday Mum!

Today is mums birthday!

We had a dinner for her last night
it's so fun to have her close by!

So I can torture her .... and make her hold Micah!

Merry Christmas

We started out matching (courtesy of my mum's Christmas eve pajama pants) but Micah's didn't last long enough for a group shot : (
Here he is on his own... there were pictures of him smiling but this one was my favorite! I am loving the thumbs down and waving of the other hand.
He was cheesing it in almost every picture from Christmas morning
And here is his Great Grandma reading to him...

But apparently Brinkley is a better listener!

There are more fun shots but I will leave some for other people to blog (so they better blog them!)

Pine Cone Tutorial

I figured it out!!! Here's a quick tutorial- hope you guys enjoy. If you make them please link to yourself in the comments so I can see how they turn out for you!

Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only.

Please let me know if I made any errors and I will correct them.

Supplies

-styrofoam eggs 1 7/8"x 2 1/2"

-grosgrain ribbon

-1/4 yard of 36" wide felt by the yard will make 3 pinecones

-rotary cutter with wave blade

-hot glue gun

eggs are from Joanns

-Cut a 28" piece of ribbon.

-Fold ribbon in half and put a drop of hot glue at the center

-Stick ribbon to the top of your egg
-Cut out 1 1/2" circles

-Scallop your edges

-Cut diamond shape at the center

- Set aside
-Using a wave rotary blade cut (3) 36" strips at roughly 3/4" wide

-Snip at the center of each indented curve
-Start rolling the felt adding drops of hot glue as you go.

-Stop when the roll is about 1/2-3/4 thick.

-Push the center of your roll out a little to create the tip of the pine cone

-Add glue to the top (the non rotary cut side) allow glue to cool down for a few second and then adhere to the bottom of the egg.
-Start wrapping the egg with the felt gradually working up the egg until the top is reached.

-It might be necessary to cut a few pedals off the long strip and glue them on individually when the top is reached

Add a drop of glue at the top of the egg and then pinch the ribbon together at the top of the egg.

-Thread the ribbon through the scalloped circles and then glue over the top part of the pine cone to hide the edges.

-Clean all of the hot glue hair off the finished pine cone

Make a bunch more and wrap them up in a cute bakery box for a gift!
And just because here's a picture of the little guy. Seriously the double chin just KILLS me- he is so scrumptious!

I'm So Very Behind

I really don't know where the time goes, but it does. I've done lots. Really. 

I've also received lovely gifts. These gifts came last week and I have yet to say thank you to the givers. 

So to these two wonderful women I hope the adage better late than never stands.....

Dee made this mini as a part of pay it forward. I. Love. It! Thanks Dee, it brightened my day!

My Sister sent these slippers. She knitted and felted them. I cannot express how comfy they are.

I've hardly taken them off since they got here.

THANKS SO VERY MUCH!

Nursery Reveal

I am so happy to finally show you Micah's completed nursery!

My goal was to create a fun space that he wasn't going to out grow quickly. I really wanted to stay away from any specific theme's but have a lot of nature inspired items. It was amusing to realize later that the first item I had for the nursery was a calendar print of James Christensen's Flight of the Fable Maker that I'd had my Mum frame a few years ago. I had it hanging else where in the house and had totally forgotten about it until half way through finishing the nursery. It fits in perfectly and ties the whole room together. So somewhere I managed to keep that in the back of my mind as I made all of my design choices!

I can't say by any stretch of the imagination that this nursery really ended up being budget friendly, well at least by our standards. But I did pick items that could be used for all future children and then could transition into our house in other areas easily. And everything that I could possible do myself I did.



Matt and I have always thought it would be fun to have a giant map in the house so I decided to incorporate one into the nursery. I just love the array of muted colors it brings into the room and I made a bunch of flags out of Japanese masking tape and straight pens to mark all of the place we've been separate, together, and soon as a family.

It's hard to pick a favorite item in the room but the Tree Stump Ottoman is definitely near the top. And to make it even sweeter it's full of a schleich animal collection my dad has steadily been adding to.

The Mobile and Quilt are my other favorites for the room. And are hopefully items that will be with him for many years to come.

Most of the toys in the room are hand-me-downs from various family members. With a few additions like his own Steiff elephant, SIGG bottle and various Melissa & Doug items.
Well there it all is finally! I hope you guys enjoy the pictures as much as we are enjoying the room! Oh and sorry there is not Micah shoot for you this post has taken a few days to get together and I simply forgot to load one in at the bottom when I started... I'll try to get some up in the next few days! : P

Resource list:

Crib - Walmart.com

Dresser- 'vintage' piece my parents picked up second hand for me in Germany

Chair - Babiesrus

Side table - Pottery Barn Kids

Rug - Pottery Barn

Wall sconce - Restoration Hardware outlet

Curtains - Pottery Barn pinstriped sheers discontinued

Floating shelves - Ikea

Closet shelves/hanging system- Lowes

Baskets - Michaels Craft Store

Wooden clothing hangers- amazon.com

Book baskets & wall hooks - from Ballard Designs but have since been discontinued

Map - McMaps.com

Toy Chest- has been in the family since my mum was a child

The elephant puppet is from this etsy shop

Puky Bike - a gift from my parents

The stuff I made: Tree Stump Storage Ottoman, Bunting, clothing organizer, Mobile, Quilt, bumpers, Deer head, Spoon Shadow box, growth chart

Stuff others made: elephant stuffed animals, hamper, diaper bag, back pack, elephant garland,

6 years

Micah's Mobile

I'm FINALLY done with the last piece -for now- of Micah's room. I wanted to do a mobile over his crib but I wasn't big on anything I saw out there ... so of course I made my own! Thank goodness Uber likes it because apparently he hates mobiles....he was nice enough to wait until I was done with it to tell me!

I went ahead and repeated the sea theme from his sea turtle quilt. All the creatures are needle felted from beautiful wool roving. We've got a beluga whale
an octopus
a manatee
a pelican
a sea turtle
a sea horse and a pacific blue tang... more commonly known as Dora
and here's what it looks like from Micah's perspective. He likes having something to look at! Alright and just to make everyone happy here is a Micah shot!
His great grandparents sent him this awesome rocking horse! He loves it!

Next up pictures of the completed nursery!!