A Quilt for Little Mister! (& 34 weeks)

I'm not a seamstress y'all. I don't really sew, but...

I MADE A QUILT! 

I'm pretty proud of this project! I know it's the biggest sewing project I've done, and I'm pretty sure it's the biggest craft project I've EVER taken on.

I knew I wanted a pretty triangle quilt for the little mister when I found the first thing (a print) that inspired the nursery. I kept finding all these pretty quilts on Etsy but man were they pricy and none of them were exactly what I wanted. 

I knew I wanted to make my own triangle quilt when I thought about how simple it would be and how much I (and hopefully he) would love it. 

I haven't shared the nursery yet. It's still a work in progress but I'd say I'm 90% done. Just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail and finding a rug has been frustrating to say the least. This quilt really brings it all together and I smile everytime I see it in there.

This truly was a labor of love. Hours upon hours of cutting, measuring, pinning, sewing, work. It was both harder than I thought it would be, and easier than I thought it would be at the same time. 

My blood, sweat and tears went into this quilt. Literally.

Blood - I pricked myself several times and cut myself once with my rotary cutter.

Sweat - I've been working on this on and off for the past month and a half in the 90 degree heat (with no air conditioning)

Tears - Ok so no as many tears but a few hot mad tears when I made a simple mistake and had to fix it and giddy tears when I got so close to the end and I was still in love with it.

I practically flew through the last of it once I got the quilt top put together. I could barely stand it I loved it so much. 

Sewing around each triangle was pretty time consuming but I love the way it looks and hopefully this will hold up nicely.

He's going to be very cozy this winter with his quilt and the baby blanket I crocheted a few months ago.

I'm working on a post to share my progress through the quilt and the methods/tutorials I used etc. But the colors are greens, aquas, turquoise, gray and white.

Not all my lines are straight but it's made with love and it's perfectly imperfect. I'm in love with it!

And since I'm feeling pretty round and pregnant these days, here is a photo of me from yesterday at 34 weeks. Technically I still have 6 weeks until my due date but I'm guessing he's going to come earlier than that. I have a growth ultrasound later this week to measure how big he is getting!

(34 weeks)

Baby's First Blanket

When we found out we were pregnant, I knew I was going to want to make some things for this baby. I waited to find out if it was a boy or a girl before I started anything.

My first project that I've completed is this crocheted baby blanket.

I found these gorgeous and soft yarns at our BX one day and knew these were the colors I wanted. 

They are Red Heart Soft Baby Steps in Baby Blue, Baby Green and White.

I bought 2 skeins of each color, 6 skeins of yarn total and used it all.

I did a simple single crochet using all three yarns at the same time using a large size P crochet needle. The effect was really pretty and created a really bulky warm blanket for our September baby.

It came together pretty quickly when I actually had time to sit down and crochet it (usually while I was catching up on some of my favorite shows. Anybody else love Scandal!? Addicted! I have 2 more episodes left.)

It ended up being pretty large, measuring 52x42 inches but it's perfect.

 I can't wait for our little boy to be snuggled up with it!

My Project 64 Photo Book

I made a book. 

I sure did and it's lovely.

Here it is in all it's colorful glory! You may remember my Project 64 photography project I completed in 2012. I absolutely adored this project and wish I could find one I loved as much. After I finished it I wanted to a make a coffee table book out of all my photos to document the journey. I used Snapfish and waited until they had a sale on their photo books. I got a pretty good deal.

The hardest part was going through and putting each photo in chronological order. I save the photos by color name so that got a little tedious but other than that I got this done in no time. Plus it was fun to look over my progress and changes in style as time when on. Some weeks were more technical than others and some weeks I was more focused on matching the color exactly.

My book is a 8.5x11 custom cover book. I used the studio theme which kept it a simple black and white and I could change up the photo sizes. Mostly I left my photos big. At the bottom or on the side, depending on the layout, I wrote the color and a little bit about each photo. It ended up being 66 pages all together.

So now I have this pretty coffee table book for people to look at when they come over. I'm sure after a while I'll add it to the bookshelf but for now I'm enjoying showing it off!

Busy Book {DIY}

Check out my other fun DIY activities and crafts for kids!

For our 9 hour flight from Germany to Florida, I created a "busy book" for Ariana. I had this idea in my head of activities I knew she would like so I decided to put it together the last few days I was in Germany. It was so simple. I got a 3 ring binder, some folder dividers, and some plastic sheet protectors. I printed off a bunch of fun pages I found online and made some of my own. For the coloring pages I put them in the folder dividers so she could pull them out and color them and for some of the other pages like matching etc I put them in the sheet protectors so she could draw on the plastic with dry erase markers and reuse some of the pages.

Here is a peek into her "busy book".

 Ariana loves color by number so I googled that and printed off about 10 pages of color by numbers. I also printed worksheets with shapes.

 She loves to color animals and I found these great pages with pictures and words. We also made the fun number book where they circle all the number 1's on one page, 2's on another page, etc

 Things that are opposite and things that go together pages were a big hit. The ABC maze took some concentration.

 I created our own uppercase and lowercase letter matching pages and she loved the thinking pages like "which way is the animal facing" and such.

Hidden pictures are usually a favorite with her so I got some from Highlights website. Also added in more counting pages.

These pages are just some of what are in her "busy book", there are over 60+ pages of fun activities. If you want to make your own "busy book" for your little one, I've linked some of the best websites I found when making our book.

Websites I printed from:

tlsbooks

kidslearningstation

animaljr

allkidsnetwork

highlightsteachers

Check out these other creative kid crafts on my sister site!

It kept her entertained for a few hours of our flight although some of it took assistance from me to read the directions. Perfect for kids who need stimulation and something to think about. This could also be used if you homeschool as worksheets or just if you have little ones who need some fun activities to do inside on a rainy day etc.

Project 64

I can't believe Project 64 has come to an end.

In case you missed project 64, you can check out their blog here, or I can break it down really fast for you. Each week they pulled a crayon from a 64 count box of Crayola crayons. The challenge was to find that color and photograph it each week. Fun huh?!

See all my Project 64 photograph posts including my book I made as well as each post larger and the inspiration behind each color.

My photos were taken with my Nikon D7000 camera and the following lenses - 70-210 zoom lens (great for capturing things far away), 18-105mm kit lens (good for everyday photography), 105mm micro lens (great for up close shots) and my beloved 50mm lens (great for getting that perfect focal point)

 

If you've kept up with me the past 64 weeks, thank you! It's been fun searching for the colors each week and it'll be a habit that I'll have a hard time breaking. This project has been a great way to capture my surroundings and expand my photography skills.

Project 64 has taken me a long way from when I started.

I've taken P64 photos all around the world: 
Germany (around my home, Bavaria, and Berlin)
Florida (Miami and Key West)
Florence, Italy
Paris, France
Prague, Czech Republic
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg


I've taken lots of animals:
 2 horses
2 butterflies
sea lion
bird
beetle
ladybug
rooster
and a snail


Fruits and vegetables:
bananas
leek
2 apples
zucchini flowers
and mushrooms


Nature: 
moss
sticks
crystals
vines
8 flowers
plants
leaves
dandelion
and the ocean


2 famous walls:
Berlin Wall and John Lennon Wall


And lots of random things:
a map, basket, and a door handle
Ariana and myself
coffee beans, paint, and mouthwash
tea, play dough, and a flag
a bicycle, signs and trinkets
fire, balloons and boardgames
money, popsicles and acrobats
paint, rust, and beer bottles

I can truly say I have loved this project.Project 64 has been an exciting ride. I'm sad to see it go.

If these are new to you, or you want to see my photos larger, check them out by clicking my p64 link for each post and a description about each photo when it was taken.

Thank you to Brooke and all the other ladies who hosted Project 64, and for everyone who played along. I've loved this project!



This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

Garden: Before & After, ranunculus and other beauties!

My garden/patio was in much need of a mini makeover! Check out this before and after picture of our covered patio area. Eww, that brown bench is just horrible. 

I was going to throw it out, but decided it wouldn't hurt to have some extra space to sit outside. So, I spruced it up. Choosing paint was fun since the base has NO selection and German paint, well it's not the same, and plus we can't read the can!

A lot of sanding, priming and painting later, I had this! Beautiful isn't she!? I'm proud. Not only because I love the bright summery color, but this was my first project of repainting furniture. Nothing spectacular, but to me it made a huge difference. And of course, flowers never hurt!

Ariana and I (and Rich) have been doing some gardening the past week or so. Her are some peeks of the flowers we have planted.

Ariana picked these yellow ones by herself. She insisted on getting some yellow flowers! 

And, you may have seen the flower below on my Scavanger Hunt the other day, but I loved it so much I decided to share it again! I love that you can actually SEE the pollen specks on the petals.

And this baby is my favorite flower in my garden. It's a ranunculus. It's my new favorite flower. I finally figured out what kind of flower it was this year. I scooped up the last 2 that the base had for sale the other week. Love it!

Plant a garden was one of my April Goals! Check!!

xo's 

Cat