Handmade Christmas!

This was the year of the handmade gift, it seemed, and I loved it! My dad and sisters made some great gifts this year! They are so special, I had to share.

I love this picture! Lily is holding on tight to the doll that Aunt Casey made her! I love it.

One of the most special gifts of all! A pulley train with blocks! Bobby has so much fun with it. Thank you, Pa Pa!

Initial blocks for the kids! Perfect for their rooms...

As what has seem to become a tradition, I made all the gifts for the kids and women on both sides of the family. It's getting harder and harder to figure out what to make each year, I don't want to do a repeat gift and I want the gift to be something they will love. I made over 15 gifts this Christmas! I even made something for Rob, a manly toiletry bag. :) I won't bore you with the whole list, instead I'll just show you a few of my favorites.

This is just one of the hooded bath towels I made. It is one of the easiest projects to sew, so I made 3 of them! One for both my nephews, and one for Bobby, of course!

I made computer cases for my sisters and mother-in-law. I am very proud of this pattern, which is my very own! I even conquered the zipper! That was the scariest part. The bag is padded and comes with a velcro pocket. I can't decide which is my favorite, I love all the fabrics!

These will be available soon for custom order in my shop, just stitch.!

I found a pattern for these back packs and just thought they were so cute! I made one for Bobby and one for my niece, Ani.

I already know what I am making for every woman in my family for next Christmas! I think it will be my biggest project yet. I plan on starting next month, believe it or not! I have 12 women to sew for, so I better get started quick! For now, I'm getting ready to update my shop, so check back in February! I'll have more kitchen towels, crayon rolls, and a few new goodies!

I'm not the only one being crafty this year...

Bobby is too!

We've been busy crafting for Bobby's grandparents. We made a Christmas trees and a birthday card for my mom's birthday. Then yesterday and today we made Christmas ornaments! I got the ornament idea and recipe from the Prudent Baby newsletter. It was super easy! Today when we were decorating them, Bobby thought the ornaments were cookies and tried to take a bite! They probably weren't very good, since they're made of flour and salt! Yuck!

I can't wait for Christmas, Bobby is going to have so much fun this year. We took him to look at Santa in the mall, and he was so excited! He kept saying 'Hi Santa! Hi!', trying to get his attention. So cute! We're traveling to Sugar Land to be with my family for Christmas. We leave in a week! Can't wait!

Cutting out the ornaments!

When it comes to glitter...more is better!

He loved the glue stick!

Being crafty for Granny and Grandma!

I &hearts ....HEARTS!!

When I was a little girl, hearts were my favorite shape...and now that I'm about to have my own little girl, I think it has renewed my love of ♥♥♥♥s! Especially since I found this fabric, by Ann Kelle. I fell in ♥ with it as soon as I saw it. It is so '80's! She has other color schemes of this heart print, but these colors are my favorite. Hmmm...what else can I make?? :)

Heart apron for me! I found the red heart fabric at Hobby Lobby, I thought they went perfect together!!

Heart wipes case that I whipped up today. It was pretty easy, but OUCH! Hot glue is dangerous!

I swiped this heart seersucker fabric from my mom's stash before I even knew Lily existed! I can't wait to make a cute summer dress and bloomers! Won't that bring back '80's flashbacks?? (I think my mom has actually had it that long!)

When I saw that Gap had this line of clothes, I had to have it! But for a baby, I just couldn't justify spending so much...so I waited. And lucky for me, they are on clearance right now! Score!! Can't wait for Lily to wear these!

And who can forget the Care Bears and all their ♥♥♥♥s? I love me some Care Bears!!

Oh---if you think all this is cute, just wait until you see Lily's birth announcements, made by you-know-who!! :)

♥♥♥♥

I &hearts Handmade!

So many of my friends are crafty!! Handmade gifts are so special, and everyone did not disappoint! My mother-in-law was so impressed when I told her that most of my friends sew, and that we used to have sewing parties. Those were so fun!! I need to find some crafty Laredo friends to have craft parties with...or just teach Bobby and Lily to craft with me!! I can't wait to teach Lily to sew one day. Check out all the handmade goodies!

One of two blankets my mom made for Lilliana. This one is my favorite! Cupcakes on the front and polka dots on the back. So colorful!!

Burp cloths from Sarah! These are the best. Very absorbent. Love the birdie!

Knitted hat from Erin. I love her hats! She made 2 of them and they are so cute! The flower is actually a hair clip, so when the hats are too small, Lily can still wear the flower in her hair! Genius!

I am so impressed with Courtney's new sewing skills. She is new to sewing and she does a great job! She also appliqued some onesies and pants. So cute! The other side of this blanket is a super soft 'minky' fabric.

My sister, Casey, made these veggies for Lily. Two of them are little rattles! She also made a little market bag to go with. So creative. I am already hiding these from Bobby, who right now thinks everything in Lily's room is for him!

This one is extra special. My grandma made it for her first great-granddaughter. She has 4 great-grandsons so she is extra excited to finally have a little girl to make things for! Everyone (especially the grandkids) knows my grandma's scent. If I pass someone in a store wearing my grandma's perfume, I have to stop and take a long breath. The blanket smelled so much like her, that I had to indulge in a big whiff! :) My grandparents live in a small town, Kermit, TX, so I don't get to see them very often.

Thank you everyone! I loved everything, and I am slowly getting everything organized and put away. Right now I am doing a big load in the washing machine. It is so different to see pink and purple twirling around in the wash! It used to be just reds, blues and greens! I could get used to this... :)

My 'Sew' Fun Shower!!

This weekend, we traveled to Sugar Land so Lily and I could be showered with gifts and fun memories. My sisters, mom and friends threw me a sewing theme baby shower (how appropriate, right?)! I had sew much fun! (Ok, ok...that will be my last time to do that! I promise!)

Everyone got their craft on and decorated cute onesies, hats and pants for little Lily. I can't wait to put her in them!

The food spread

The craft spread

Me and my two beautiful sisters!

My wonderful hostesess with their one of a kind, just stitch. originals! (Hanging kitchen towels)

Sewing buddies: My sister and my mom (we don't look anything alike, right?)

The finished products from the shower!! They all turned out so cute!

Hmmm...where do I begin??

I got so many handmade gifts, which I love!! I'll have another post about that tomorrow!! Thank you to everyone who came and to all the hostesses. Y'all out-did yourselves!!

Crayon Rolls!!

When I got my new diaper bag last week, I wanted to put some little activities in it for Bobby. So naturally I thought about crayons, wishing I had a crayon roll or something cute to store them in. Then....ding ding ding! I decided to make him one! I whipped up a pattern in my head, jotted it down on paper, and I made 2 in about 45 minutes. They were so much fun to make that I decided to add them to my shop, just stitch.

Please go take a look! There are girl and boy designs. Perfect for a birthday present, back to school gift, or for stocking stuffer (it's not too early to start your holiday shopping, ya know!!).

I can't decide which one is my favorite!! I'll let you be the judge!!

Love these fabrics together!!

All rolled up and ready to go!!

Playdough!

While in Austin this weekend, Bobby and I got to hang out with Cynthia and family. I'm so grateful for friends that let me come and kill time at their house!! Thanks Cynthia!

While we were there, Bobby got to play with some homemade playdough. He had never played with it before and was quite intrigued. It seemed easy enough, so I looked up a recipe online and got to cookin'.

This was a free project!! We had all the ingredients on hand and each batch only took about 10 minutes to make, so I made 3 of them...blue, green and yellow.

Bobby had such a good time! He loved stabbing it and putting pieces into cups. We will be doing this daily, I'm sure.

Back to sewing...

I finally have a little bit of order to my life, now that we are getting settled and unpacked. I made myself a sewing area, got organized...and got busy! My first project was for one of my best friends, Sarah, and her baby boy on the way, Brayden. I made him some soft stacking rings! I used the Heather Bailey Happy Stacker Ring Toy pattern. They turned out to be one of the coolest things I've ever made (so far). I was so proud of myself! The pattern required a lot of hand sewing, which I was not aware of when I bought it...argh. But all the hard work paid off! Sarah loved it, and it is going to match perfectly in Brayden's room.

I have also gotten around to adding new items to my Etsy shop. Finally! It took me long enough! I made some nursing covers. They are perfect for gifts, as well as all the other items in my shop, so please check it out! I will hopefully be adding more weekly, so keep checking back for updates.

Fabric...just waiting to be made into something cool! I have plans for all of this! This isn't even 1/4 of what I have...I seem to have a habit of collecting fabric. I see something I like and buy it if it's on sale, that way I have it..."just in case"...

My super fun sewing station!

Stacking rings, made with Riley Blake All-Star fabric.

I've been working on a couple of other gifts, which I'll post after they've been given...wink, wink...

Handmade Christmas

I did not make these, but my mom did! Aren't they cute?

This year I made more handmade gifts than ever before!! I really procrastinated until the last 2 weeks before Christmas. Even though I don't enjoy it, I think I work better under pressure. I was a sewing- machine (no pun intended)!

All together I made 20 gifts for 14 people. I had a some setbacks which led to a few meltdowns during the process, but I got them finished just in time! I think I am going to do what Steph did, and make this year's gifts all throughout the year so I am not so stressed. I want to be able to enjoy the holiday, not stress about making the perfect gift.

I wanted to show everyone all my hard work! Maybe you'll get some ideas that you can make yourself! There is a lot of pictures, so sit back, and be inspired!
Rice Bags
Baby Bib and Burp Cloths

Kitchen Towels

Wet BagCatch-all Bags
These caused a small melt-down. They started out as re-usable 'ziplock' bags. I used vinyl on the inside thinking it would be perfect. I was about half way done (I was making 6) when I had the brilliant idea to do some research to find out if vinyl was food safe. Well...you guessed it...vinyl is practically the worst plastic to use for food! Not safe at all. So I decided to make them 'catch-all' bags. For make up, jewelry, money...whatever. I think they turned out nicely.
Baby Air-freshener
I conquered a fear and made my first button hole! I don't know what I was so scared of...easy-peasy!
Car Organizer
Soft Number Blocks
(my pride and joy!)


Pillowcases
These were the source of another one of my melt downs. I learned an important lesson: always read the pattern slowly and carefully. Read it multiple times. I thought I did that, but I didn't buy enough fabric because I thought I knew what I was doing. Turns out, I didn't have nearly the amount I needed. What a waste! After freaking out and crying for about 10 minutes, I grabbed one of my pillow cases and took some measurements. I had the perfect amount of fabric to make my own design. Phew! What a relief!
If you have made it this far, that means you looked at all the pictures! Thanks for taking the time, I know it was a lot. I hope I gave you all some ideas! Rob even got inspired this year and got a little crafty himself, but I'll save that for my next post.

Happy Sewing!