DIY Nursing Shawl

So we've all seen those nursing covers I like to call "glorified bibs".  Yeah I got one with little man and all I can say is I hate them like crazy.  My back was never covered, if the baby wiggled it slipped, and that metal hoop thing was so big anyone who stood next to me while I was nursing had a full view down my shirt.  Honestly I liked using a blanket way better.

See what I mean about these things.... they want $34 for these big old bibs that do diddly squat!  (forgive my tirade but I really do hate them... like a lot. 

So that is why I loved the idea of this one from crafty crafts sooo much.  It's light and covers all the way around, plus you can look and see what the baby is doing without having the whole world look down your shirt.

Her's 

I got the fabric at fabric.com again.  I love the color and how light and airy it is.  It was sooo easy to make and turned out beautifully.  Her directions where super easy for me to understand and even easier to follow.

Again I'm not modeling right now... maybe in a few months when I have  nursing baby under it I'll add a picture.

Cost: $12.57 for 3 yards of fabric or $4.19 a piece.

DIY aden + anais stamped blankets

So here is another gift someone gave me with little man.  Those Aden + Anais blankets.  Again never would have spent the money on them myself but ended up loving them in the hot months.  Since these 3 little girls are all coming in May they are going to need swaddle blankets that wont roast them.

So when I my friend sent me this tutorial from Hello Copeland I had to try it.  Once again the hardest part of this was finding the fabric.  So back to fabric.com I went.  I ended up with 6 yards of this gauze.  They have several colors and a few patterns but I went with solid so we could stamp them.  I already had stamps lying around in my boxes so I used them and all I had to do was buy the ink, which was $5 at Michael's.

Her's

I just cut 1 yard sections and roll hemmed the edges.  I think they turned out pretty well.

Mine, I did giraffes on this one and lions on the other.  

Cost of a 4 pack at Target: $34.99 or 8.75 a piece
Mine: $23.88 for 6 yards of fabric and $5 for a stamp pad.  Made 6 at $4.81 a piece.

DIY Moby Wrap

Wow it's been a long time.  I blame my brother getting married and moving 3 times over the summer, one move was across the country (literally from Southern California to Maine!).  Any who, now that we have baby #2 on the way and my sister-in-law and my sister-of-the-heart are having babies in the same month we are back to DIY baby pins!  Yay!

So to start, my favorite baby gift with little man was a Moby Wrap, I would never have bought it for myself but my aunt got it for me and oh my goodness was it the most amazing thing!  Even my husband used it while he was on the computer.  

Aren't they cute?

I bought myself one of those sling things and never felt comfortable walking around with the baby in it.  I always felt like he was going to fall out.  I never worried about that with the Moby.  I used it for church, the store, laundry, dishes, basically everywhere and everything I did little man was in the moby... except when I was cooking cause that is not smart.

Any who as much as I believe they are worth every penny I do not have many pennies these days and with 2 equally loved women having babies I thought I would make them.  Especially since this tutorial  from Leanne Barlow at Elle Apparel gets to 2 mobys out of one cut of fabric.

I had a hard time finding the fabric at the store, some day I will write a whole post about how besides leaving friends the hardest part of moving to another part of the country is having no idea where and what the stores are.  So I went hunting online.  I found this Jersey Knit at fabric.com and bought 6 yards of it.  It is a little thinner but has about the same stretch as my store bought Moby so I'm pleased.  If you wanted you could double it up for extra support, but having tested it I really don't think you need it.  Just follow her directions and cut it in half long ways and taper the ends.  Make sure you have a large work space (I used my kitchen floor) since you will be working with 6 yards of fabric and keeping it that long.

Over all I liked this tutorial, it was easy enough to follow and I'm happy with the way it turned out.  I think I'm going to add  print or a design in the middle for easier wrapping.  

I wont model the one I made since I am pregnant and gross and used a 10lb bag of sugar to test it out but here is the fabric all laid out on the toddler table :)  

Okay maybe rolled up on the toddler table.  

Cost of 1 regular Moby: $44 and up

What I spent: $34.90 on 2.... or $17.45 on each.... Not bad I say :)

Baby Food

Okay so I should being this post by saying my son is a beast! Not that he is huge mind you (he is 6 1/2 months and still in 0-3 month clothes). He can down food like there is no tomorrow.  For example today I went to Golden Corral with DJ and Grandma.  DJ is of course at the 'if you are eating big people food then I want to eat big people food' stage.  So I got some mashed potatoes and gravy and thought I'd feed him some and finish the rest.  Well... 2 cups of mashed potatoes and 1/2 of my orange sherbet (yes I know ice cream... don't judge me... at least there was no milk it it) later I finally had to get up and remove him from the food so he would stop eating.  SERIOUSLY! This kid will eat till the cows come home.  Any who, we obviously can't afford to feed him tons of store bought baby food so I used this pin.  And used some of there recipies.

 *my* Swaccoli and Apples

DJ loves the Swaccoli (Sweet potatoes and Broccoli) and the apples went over really well.  In the apples I used Nutmeg instead of cinnamon for half of them and he likes those ones better.   I also used their instructions for peaches to do nectarines.  Only I left the skin on them.  DJ loves the nectarines.  He eats them at the end of every meal and actually prefers them to the sweet stuff my husband is always trying to give him.  *score for healthy*  Now we have not tried any of the recipes over the 6-9 month range but the ones younger are great.  Maybe in a few months I'll revisit this and let you know about the older ones.  But at least for pureed stuff, this site is a winner!

What is your kids favorite baby food?  How do you make it?

Christmas Baby picture

DJ was born at the end of November.  So of course we decided to combine birth announcements with the Christmas Card.  We saw what this blogger did and had to try it.  Thanks to our killer photographer Heidi (check her out) we were able to do a great version that we loved.  Our announcements turned out great and I couldn't have been more happy.  Tip: they did not actually stick him in the stocking but just laid it on top of him.  We also got the hat off of a Christmas Teddy bear.  Isn't my son the cutest?

The pinner's original 

Our version up close... this is the one on our Christmas card

Our version pulled back

Our version... isn't he the cutest thing ever!!

What pictures did you do for babies first Christmas?

Car Seat Canopy

So I love these! The first one I made for myself took me about 2 hours but now I can whip them out in 30 minutes.  They are an inexpensive and yet very nice baby shower gift.   I got the idea from both of these pins.  I melded both patterns.   I did not like the buttons or the Velcro, especially for gifts (you never know what kind of carrier they will have and what size the handle is).  Instead I used ribbon.  That way you can tie it on no matter what size you want.  I'll show the picture of the one I made for my son.  We really love it! A definite MUST DO for any mom.  Don't pay the $50 plus dollars, even the most basic sower can do this.

 Pin number 2

blog number one

Mine... still has buttons, I changed it after a while to ribbon

Did you buy or make your canopy? If you made it did you modify the pattern in anyway?

Baby picture

My little brother, Clark, was on a mission for our church when my son was born.  They havn't met yet but for Christmas my brother sent DJ "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".  I wanted to document this sweet gift and send it to Clark so he would know how much we appreciated it.  Conviently DJ's newborn pictures were right around the corner so we borrowed this pinner's idea.

Her's

Ours

We changed it around a little but I really like how it turned out.  I'm actually thinking of trying it again the exact way she did now that he is a little older but we couldn't get new baby DJ to work with us on it.  Here is our version

What fun newborn pictures did you take?  Did you include any special things in them?