Finally Finished {Faux Chenille Baby Blanket}

So the baby has not arrived yet, obviously or else I'd be shouting it from the rooftops!

I guess my womb is just way too cozy... dang my cozy womb. 

Instead I will show you what else I labored over lately (man I'm funny).

The faux chenille baby blanket that I made based on the Made tutorial turned out SO CUTE!

Even if I mangled my hands with all that cutting between the seems. 

My hand looks like Chandler's Pacman claw from Friends.

Awesome.

One thing that I could do without is binding. 

I. hate. binding.

Or maybe binding hates me....

Not sure, but either way, I always have the toughest time with it.

I love the colors that I chose for the blanket, the top ended up being what I thought would be the bottom.... that was confusing. 

What I meant was, I had a brown and white polka dotted flannel for the side of the blanket that would "show" and I decided at the last minute that I wanted the green on the other side to be the one that was prominent.

Don't really think that made anymore sense than before... let's pretend it did, 'kay?

So in the end, once I had painstakingly cut all the chenille-like-whatever, the polka dotted side ended up looking kinda funky.

But to me it's a good funky, psychedelic if you will :)

And of course Aubrey got herself all up in this photo shoot. 

Funny because this kid is NOT pleased when I pull out the camera these days... guess I over did it there for a while. Oops.

So soft she had to fake-sleep on it.

The lovely green :) 

And Aubrey's too-cute feet....

This seriously was one of the most time consuming projects I've ever done. And soooo NOT an instant gratification one either, which is usually how I roll. 

So worth it in the end...

Even if it looks wonky because I wasn't fully paying attention when I tried to trim the edges and make it a rectangle.... more like a trapezoid (hence no full blanket shot!).

A Little Sheep Obsession... And Being Featured

So as of Friday and a little wander around the World Wide Web, I fell in love with sheep.

Seriously, I saw a birthday party on Half Baked, The Cake Blog and then a link to make the sheep pillow at Purl Bee Blog and I was hooked! 

And you know I was in love because I went right up to my sewing room and started to make all the things swirling around in my brain. 

Motivation is not my strong suit when 37 weeks pregnant.

It was a bonus that I happened to have all the supplies on hand already!

True to Jen fashion, I totally wung the sheep pillow and freehand drew a pattern, partially because that's how I roll and also because our printer is not working so I couldn't print the free pattern.

The sheep in the frame was just a random what-not I came up with and ended up falling in love with. 

Just a garage sale frame, some rick-rack and felt and you got yourself some art.

Too cute right?!? It's going above the baby's crib and the pillow is for the crib too.

Just look at the little lamb!

Of course Zach has now taken to randomly throwing the lamb at be an baaing super loud, but I saw that coming before it even happened.... 

Seriously, I was sewing the lamb together and was thinking of all the random ways Zach was going to be obnoxious with it. 

I guess I've learned a thing or two about my man in the 11 years we've been together :)

Like I've said before, those are the moments I love him the most.

We're a little sad like that.

To be honest, I'm not sure the sheep/lamb is going to ever make it into the baby's crib, between Zach's randomness and Aubrey's new found love for it, I think is destine to be in the living room.

Oh well.

Linking up here...  

In other news....my ugly tray to chalkboard project was featured over at Southern Lovely!!Yay for being featured :) You can check me out here !

Getting Ready For Baby....

I've been wanting to make something for over the crib, but had no idea what to make since we have no clue what gender of the baby is.

This also means I can't do something with the baby's name on it.

Somehow this all felt very limiting.

The crib is going to be in our room and to say my room is a decorating challenge is an understatement. 

There is a hideous border and it's a pale yellow...not a pretty yellow. Well maybe the yellow would be pretty if it weren't for the horrible border.

So, as any good decorator would do, I'm completely ignoring the border colors and just decorating around my duvet cover :)

I'm awesome like that.

Once I decided that, I felt oh so free.

And today, I made this... while Aubrey napped.

yup, napped (she's almost 4). 

This is what our lives have come to in order for her to see Zach at all anymore. 

We have to nap her so she can stay up later, so that she can hopefully see Zach at night. 

Awesome.

It's a good thing she's not in school or they'd never see each other. 

I'm apparently into mini bunting, but I'm not ashamed.

I LOVE MINI BUNTING!!!!

I will shout that from the rooftops. 

The felt flower thing is something I won on a blog giveaway a while ago and I didn't know what to do with. It's from Blossom & Vine and she has the cutest shop :)

I forgot how productive you could be while your child is sleeping.... 

might have to put her down for a nap more often, buuuuut it might not always be worth the fight that happened beforehand....

Linking up here...

Revamping Things....

Remember these ugly trays?!...

Well I finally finished them and here's the one that worked out....

I used chalkboard spray paint and then covered the inside with newspaper and sprayed the outer frame with a pretty blue color!

But when I pulled off the paper, it still felt like something was missing so it sat for awhile as I tried to come up with something to spruce it up.

Enter some mini bunting...

and I'm in love!

I just glue gunned the whole thing together, so it was super easy and quick to make.

I've been saving these buttons for a while, waiting for the right project to show them off and I think this is perfect!

How cute is that little flag?!?

I have the chalkboard up in my kitchen and I'm loving it as a place to write out encouraging verses that I need to see all the time...

because let's face it, as mom's we need all the encouragement that we can get :)

***Update: This chalkboard was featured on these two blogs!!! Yay!!***

And remember how there were 2 trays....

one was a giant craft FAIL. Seriously.

I used a different kind of spray paint on this one and obviously it didn't take to the chalkboard paint. Oh well, I have one and when I have the urge, I'm sure I'll sand this one down and do something with it.

And it being Valentine's Day and all, I figured I'd brag on Zach a bit and show you what Aubrey and I got. The stuff above was for Aubrey and you should have heard her squeal when she saw it waiting for her this morning! It's just a shame Zach didn't get to see her reaction.

And these are my fabulous flowers....

So pink and purple and wonderful! Well done husband, well done.

Now all I'm hoping for is to actually see him tonight... pretty sure that won't happen with the rotation he's on, but a girl can dream right?!

Tin Ceiling Tile Magnetic Board....

I saw an amazing home the other day on the Home Made Lovely series on the Life Made Lovely blog.

I. want. this. woman's. home.

Yup, coveting. 

If you haven't checked out this series, then I suggest you do because the homes that are shown look real, lived in and fabulous! 

Nothing overly magazine-a-fied, just real peoples cute, crafty homes.

Love.

Anyway, back to my project...

I saw that she had a ceiling tin that she used to put pictures up on and suddenly remembered this little diddy I had kicking around and never really knew what to do with.

I just have had it placed in various spots in our last 2 places we've lived and always knew it was good for something (other than just looking fabulous!)...

I didn't ever think about it's magnetic capabilities... until I saw the one in the post.

And I'm so glad I did! I love it, it's simple and I can switch out the pics whenever I want.

Perfect for this fickle woman.

I would love to finish the edges with something (not quite sure what) but for the time being, I kinda like the rough looking edges.

I'm also wanting to make some magnets to match a bit better, I just threw on what I had laying around because I was just excited to try it!

Not bad for a $2 find at a garage sale a few years back :)

And for my next project....

aren't they hideous?!? 

Yet I have a plan for these puppies (that I got for a $1 for the pair) and I just need to wait for the husband to have some time off work so he can help me with the painting part :)

I'm excited to see how/if it'll turn out...