Little Miss Piggy

I made this little piggy for the shop originally, but before I could get it stowed away, Layla found it...and fell in love. She sleeps with her, she holds an ear and sucks her thumb, she even says, "piggy!" whenever she sees her. And so, since she did sacrifice one of her outgrown onesies for the piggy's shirt, I'm going to let her keep it :)
This was a very fun project to make. The pattern and instructions are in the book, Fun Dolls, and the whole book is just pure fun. All the dolls in the book are frowning, though and that just bugs me, so I literally turned this pig's frown upside down. Much better :)

What's Up with the Weather?

Before I get to these pictures, I have to say, even as a Coloradan who knows the weather here is unpredictable, this weather is just being weird. I am used to the weather changing drastically from day to day, but recently it seems to be changing from hour to hour. I woke up to rain in the middle of the night, Natalie played outside all morning in the sunshine and now it's SNOWING! God must want to keep us on our toes.

On to our day. I was invited to spend the morning scrap booking with a lovely lady from church, while her daughter and a friend played with the girls. I expected Layla to be super clingy, but she was wonderful and Natalie had a blast and I actually got a whole page done in just a few hours. (That's unusual for me.) This picture is much clearer in real life, but when taking a picture of a finished page, I find I have to choose either the setting that makes the picture clear OR everything else clear. Ah, well.

ALSO, this here is a picture of the heating pad cover I made my friend Jenn as a happy un-birthday gift :) She is the only person I know that uses her heating pad regularly and so when I saw the instructions in Denise Schmidt Quilts, she was the logical person to make it for. She received it in the mail last week and loved it, so I'm happy to have made her happy :)

















AND, totally off the subject, I have a potty-training dilemma and maybe some of you can help me out. Natalie is over 3 now and potty-training is just not happening. I am starting to wonder if she may have an issue where she literally can't feel when she needs to go. She NEVER has dry diapers over night and when I do decide not to put a diaper on her, she always seems surprised when she starts to pee-pee everywhere, as if she did not know it was coming. She is SO SMART in every other area, so I can't imagine her truly not understanding the concept. All this leads me to wonder if there is a problem here that she can't help and maybe I should take her to the doctor to find out. Any thoughts, advice or suggestions? Please leave me a comment and help me!!

Another Hat for Another Kid

As promised, here is a picture of the finished hat I knitted for our coming baby boy. Although I have knitted several things successfully now, I have not really considered myself *a knitter*. Can one just have too many hobbies? Should I enjoy so many different crafts? Well, I must admit, I did enjoy knitting this hat and am closer to considering myself an actual knitter. I think I like the term *fiber artist*, it seems pretty all-inclusive, don't ya think?? Although, it does leave out the scrap booking, doesn't it. Or is paper fiber too? At any rate, this is called an umbilical cord hat and the pattern can be found in this popular knitting book. (I just can't bring myself to cuss in print.)

One Can Never Have Too Many Hats

I made Natalie this hat. I'm in love with this fabric, but I only got just enough for the hat, so I just might have to get some more. Anyway, I've been surprised at the lack of summer hats for toddlers, while there are so many for smaller babies, and so I just made one. Hopefully I'll make some more for the shop soon. I have exciting shop news to share, but it will have to wait until some things are up and finalized. I've also started knitting a hat for the new baby, now that we know he's a little boy. I'll share a picture of that too when it's all done.

Baby News!

We are happy to announce, our new baby is a BOY!! Casey is especially thrilled :) Natalie came with us to the ultrasound, while Layla stayed with a friend and she was a little disappointed at having a baby brother instead of another baby sister. But, it didn't last long and she is now pretty excited, I think. We are off to some friends' for dinner, but I just had to share before we left!

A Long, Long, Twirly Dress

Okay, I'll get to the dress in a minute, but can I first acknowledge how beautiful she is???? Those eyes! Just gorgeous. Anyway, I made Natalie this dress today and she really loves it. I got this fabric some time ago for $2 a yard and a Butterick pattern for $1.99. Can't beat that, eh? Anyway, it came together really fast, despite poorly written instructions. I cut it out last night and sewed it today between an emergency trip to Target because we ran out of diapers and a major bubble bath catastrophe. The wet hair and red eyes are both due to the latter :)

On a side note, I came across a brand new blog dedicated to kids art and craft ideas. It's called The Crafty Crow, if you'd like to take a look.

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful last few days. On Saturday, Casey was home all day (rare but always great) and so we colored some Easter eggs with Natalie. Layla missed the fun because she was napping. I planned it that way actually :) She LOVED the whole experience and Casey and I had fun too. He made an *I love Natalie* egg and I made him a Pepsi egg.

On Sunday we had a lovely breakfast at church and then a good Easter service. After that, we went straight to some friends' house for lunch and stayed there until we were all bursting at the seams. I apologize for the cruddy quality of the last few pics of Easter morning; I had the camera on a weird setting by accident. And also, I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the Easter basket fun. Natalie is still carrying hers around today after sleeping with it last night.

The Incredible Non-Edible Egg

I whipped up some of these irresistible Easter eggs this week. I couldn't help myself after seeing the tutorial on The Purl Bee. There are instructions for knitted eggs too, which I love, but will have to wait for another year, not the week before Easter. I love all the Easter trees I've been seeing lately and I want to have one next year. Maybe if I make a few eggs a year, I'll have a nice little tree a few Easters down the road. Of course, I have plans to give half of these away, one as a little hostess gift along with some homemade jam (we got invited over for Easter supper after church) and one just because I know someone special will love it. I had one for another someone special, but Natalie was holding it in the car on the way to her house and completely lost it. I was dumbfounded, since it was zipped into a bag she was holding, the windows weren't down and we made no other stops! I'm still baffled, I just don't know what could have happened to it!!! Anyway, enough. Is it obvious how much I have loved these Heather Bailey fabrics the past several months? I ordered several quarter yards before Christmas and they have just lasted and lasted and been perfect for every little project, I just can't get enough!