Top knot baby hat and matching onesie

Well, now that I've got a baby in the house again, a lot of my crafts and projects might reflect that...
so here we go!

I have quite a few friends/family having baby girls soon and have been wanting to make something for them.  I was at a cute boutique last week that sold every baby item you can imagine, and saw these hats there.  For $12 each!  I immediately knew I had to try to make them.  When I got home I found a free tutorial and pattern online (at Prudent Baby), grabbed a couple DownEast shirts that I never wear because I don't love the colors on me, and got to work.

And they proved to be as easy as they look!  I decided to make a matching onesie by sewing a flower on that I made with the same material.  I cut out 4 circles, folded them in half, overlapped them, then sewed a button in the center.  (Try to forget the fact that I don't have any girl models around here... sorry Will!) 

Homemade (and very inexpensive!) gifts all ready to go.

Onesie face lift

Since I haven't done too many projects of my own these last couple weeks, I thought I'd share someone else's. My sister-in-law gave us these onesies when we had Will. Such a fun and easy gift idea! And all you need are some onesies, scraps of fabric and Heat N Bond Iron-On Adhesive. No sewing machine required.

Here are some tutorials I found online:

DIY Iron-On Onesies @ Tatum Family
DIY Iron-On Transfers For Onesies @ Wee Baby Stuff
Baby Shower Onesie Craft @ Mommyinthemountains—this woman made these onesies at a baby shower... cute idea!

Hanging paper organizer

I have recently been brainstorming ideas of what to do with all the clutter that accumulates on our kitchen counter.  It drives me crazy.  Mail, receipts, projects the kids and I are working on, papers Pete brings home from work, keys, phones, magazines, bills... it all seems to pile up in one place.  And we don't have much counter space as it is.  So I came up with this hanging organizer to hold the kids papers, coloring sheets, and anything they're working on at the moment.  (This obviously doesn't solve all of my kitchen counter clutter problems... but it's a start).



I'm sure you can buy something like this at a pretty low price.  But I have a hard time spending money on something that I can make using things I already have.  So I hot glued together foam core, then covered it with paper from a brown paper bag and a few pieces of scrapbook paper.  I hung it at the kids level so they can easily access their folders.  And yes, it is right in our dining/kitchen area.  I knew if I put it anywhere else it wouldn't be used.



Now I just need to make one of these for all of my papers!

The arrival of boy #4

You may have guessed the reason for my absence the last week or so... our baby arrived!  William Hirschi Jackson was born on Thursday, March 22 at 1:04 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 15 oz.  We feel more than blessed to have little Will join our family.

As is expected, along with a new baby comes the need to let certain things go... so I may not be posting too much on here for the next little while. Instead I will be feeding, changing and snuggling my little one :)

A rainbow of cards

The first day of spring was calling out for an art project at our house. So we got out the watercolor paints and made "rainbow cards." We started out by painting rainbows, then I showed the kids a few different techniques and let them do their thing.



I always end up liking their paintings more than my own! Mine tend to be more methodical and thought out. They just go for it.



After they dried, I used the paintings to make cards. Now we have a fresh new stack to be used for birthdays, anniversaries, and thank you's... and I may just hold on to a couple of my favorites :)

Diaper changing pad

An exciting new item for this upcoming baby (due in 1 week!!) is a changing pad. Another creation by my friend Hilary. I'm surprised I never carried one of these around with the other kids, but it will be perfect for diaper changing when I'm out and about and is small enough that it can be folded up and stuck in the diaper bag.



The size is 18" x 24", which seems about right. One side is terry cloth and the printed side is from the "A Walk in the Woods" Collection by Aneela Hoey. I love the print and that it's not blue! We have plenty of blue things around here.



Now all I need is a little body to lay down on this. The constant diaper changing is about to begin :)

From pants to shorts

Over the winter we slowly built up a small pile of pants that had holes too big to mend. It's unavoidable with boys. John comes home from school with a small hole in his knee, I'm lazy and don't make him take the pants off right away so I can patch them, and by the end of the day the hole is all the way across and starting to rip up his thigh and down his shin. So the pants go in the pile waiting to be turned into shorts.



With the warm weather we've had lately, this project was calling out to me. I essentially took scraps of material or old clothing, used them to make bias tape, then sewed them around the bottoms of the shorts.



Now we're all ready for this beautiful weather!



Joe was feeling left out of the photoshoot :)



You can go to the HBfabrics giveaway post from last week to see who won!