Adventures in Sewing: Shape Book

I decided to get brave and try out a cloth book for Blueberry.  I really want to make her a "busy book" but I wasn't quite that brave yet so I decided to do a simple shape/color book so I could learn how to make the pages and put the book together.  It turned out to be a lot simpler than I thought.  I'm excited to start on her real busy book.  If anyone has any ideas for pages for the book let me know! 

 Here's the material I started with....some cute denim scraps that my Grandma gave me for the cover, black for the pages and multiple colors for the shapes and pockets.  I love, love, love the owl print!

 I have no clue why all these pictures are sideways but, oh well.  Here's the front cover....

 ...the first two pages (notice how the circle's fabric has circles on it and the square's fabric has squares on it?)....

 ...the next two pages...

...and the last two pages.  These last two pages are pockets.  The page on the left is for flashcards, notepads, etc.  The page on the right has slots for three crayons.  I'm sure I'm much more excited about this project than Katie will be to play with it but I am!  I can't wait to make her an actual "busy book"!

Our Week

Not too much going on this week.  We've had our usual routine that involves playdates and library time.  I do, of course, have some pictures of our beautiful girl to share.  She gets sillier and sillier every day!  She's been really interested in seeing what she can fit into.  She likes sitting in her toy box that's in the living room.

 She managed to squeeze into her alligator toy...her Daddy was pulling her all over the house while she sat in it.

 I don't know where she'll wear this dress but it is too darn cute on her!

 Knox came over to play and Katie tried feeding him her play food from her tinker bell kitchen.

 She has some balance!  She has been standing on her head and holding one foot in the air.  In this picture she stood on her head and then put both feet in this little box.

 She's really into Dr. Seuss this week.  She keeps grabbing his books and wants us to read them over and over.

 She continues to make goofy faces...here she is relaxing on her new pillow.

 She loves to "help" with the laundry, dishes or whatever else we're working on.

 She likes to carry around shoes and try to put them on our feet or her feet.  She used her stand on her head technique to put my tennis shoe on this morning.  If we're getting ready to leave she'll bring us our shoes...even if we already have some on lol!

 I made a mess-free finger paint board for Katie.  Of course she used her creativeness and decided to finger paint with her toes, too.

Adventures in Sewing: Shape Bean Bags and Katie-sized Pillow

I was blessed to get a sewing machine for Christmas!  So far I've made a purse (with my Grandma's help) and a hooded towel for Katie.  I was looking for a project that I could create on my own, was easy to complete and that would be useful.  At the same time I was brainstorming different learning tools I could use with Katie to teach her shapes and colors.  I wanted something that she could touch and feel since that's one of the best ways for kids her age to learn.  Then it hit me...shape bean bags!  Katie and I ran to wally world and for a little over $3 got enough material for many, many bean bags and a couple of bags of beans.  I went on the computer and printed off a few shapes, traced them onto the fabric, sewed the pieces together, filled 'em with beans, trimmed around the edges and voila!  (By the way I looked on amazon and similar bean bag shapes were $20!)

Later this week I made Katie a pillow just her size.  She likes using one of her baby dolls as a pillow so I used that doll as a size template.  She cuddled with the pillow all evening with her Daddy on the couch so I think she likes it!



I am definitly still learning and there have been many mess-ups but I'm really enjoying sewing.  Check out my sewing projects pinterest board for ideas of what else is to come.

Our Week: Katie turns 15 months

Ms. Katie turned 15 months old this week!  She's growing up way too fast and discovering new things every day.  We took her to Lowe's and Home Depot last weekend and she walked over the entire store.  She hardly crawls anymore and loves to walk around stores and outside.  Here's the Katie stats:

*Walks everywhere and carries things around while walking.

*Says Mama, Dada, Papa, bubbles, dog, she has said ball a few times, makes a woof sound for dog and smacks her lips for fish.

*She can point to her head and tummy when asked.

*She signs for drink and to eat...very helpful in reducing little fits because we don't know what she wants.

*We've only found two foods she doesn't like so far, brocolli and brussel sprouts.  The rest she gobbles up!



 The first sewing project I did all by myself.  It's a hooded towel.

 She's really into standing on her head recently, it is too funny!

 She loves playing outside and begs to go out even when it's cold outside.

 She is still a big fan of books.  She sits for long periods of time and looks through her books.

 Such a goofball, she's yelling really loud.  She thought it was so exciting that she was standing on top of her slide.

 This is soooo darn cute!  She kept on loving on her Daddy and hugging and kissing his head.

 She still enjoys her weekly playdates with her little buddy Knox.

 Luckily she's still small enough to fit in the sink, sink baths are so much easier than tub baths.

 She gets so excited to go to the library.  Here she is dancing to the throw your teddy bear song.

 She brushes her teeth and pretends to put toothpaste on her toothbrush.

 We got a James Avery catalogue, I don't know who enjoyed looking through it more me or her!

 Katie loves to color and she has her own notebook where she can color anytime.  She's really good about not coloring on anything else.

Our Week: Happy Birthday Rich!

Rich had his 35th birthday this week!  We had his parents over for dinner and birthday cake. 

                                                     Katie eating birthday cake.

Katie sang happy birthday to her Daddy with her keyboard and microphone....she was cracking herself up lol!

We went to my Grandma's this week so I could learn how to use my new sewing machine.  Katie got to play with Grandma's dogs and got plenty of attention from her Great Grandma, Great Grandma, Aunt Vicki, Aunt Jo and Uncle Gary.

                                                           I made a purse!

Knox celebrated his first birthday this week!  He came over to play with Katie.

Katie cheeses for the camera, it is so funny!  She had just eaten some chicken chili and was in a really silly mood.

Pops came over and took Katie out to play in the snow.  I think it was a bit too cold for her liking.

                                             
                                                 She liked touching the snow with her hands.

We went to the library for storytime.  This is Katie's favorite puzzle, it has all her teethmarks on it lol!  The theme for this week was dragons, Katie colored a dragon picture.

She's been having a lot of fun playing with her block tower.  She's getting really good at building towers 5 or 6 blocks high.  Her fine motor skills are excellent for her age!  She's walking all over the place now.  We're very proud of our baby girl!

Our Week: Lots of outside time

The weather has been sooo nice this week that Katie's got to spend a lot of extra time outside.  The beautiful weather is extra good news for us too because keeping a 1-year-old inside all week doesn't work very well.  She's been able to practice walking with shoes on outside and she's doing really well.  

                       She has become a master at making goofy faces, just to get your attention.

 We've traded in the crayons for colored pencils.  She likes the colored pencils better, I think because she sees us using pens and pencils all the time.  I took one colored pencil and a little notebook grocery shopping the other day and Katie spent the entire time scribbling.

 Her Daddy has been working on some projects lately and he has Katie help him.  He gave her a screwdriver and she has been carrying it around all week and "working" on her toys.

                               She snuck in the refrigerator while I was unloading groceries.

                                              Love this one of our goofy girl and her Daddy.

 She's been spending a lot of time at her block table, building towers and taking the blocks apart.

 She gets really happy when she builds, I think she's proud of herself.  Sometimes she'll put a block together and clap her hands for herself.

 Rich's birthday present came in the mail....Katie was more interested in the box.