Happy Campers Quilt

I actually made this a while back but just realized that I hadn't shared it with you. The baby blanket (or I guess it is a quilt, as it is quilted, I never know what the actual distinction is) is made with 3 fabrics from the Beach Mod collection by Birch Fabrics called Happy Campers, Tree Meadow and Medium Dot in Mineral. All just fantastic.

I have a ton of scraps of organic fleece and am constantly trying to think of ways to use it as I hate to waste it as it is super expensive, so I added some squares of this to the front too.

The back of course is made with organic sherpa. I love that stuff but unfortunately it is now out of print. I am a bit unhappy with Michael Miller for discontinuing their organic line but obviously I don't run the world so I will have to make do with out it but until then I am hoarding the bolt I have left for special projects only. (and yes my husband thinks that I am insane)

I top stitched it, as I don't think batting is necessary when using such a thick and heavy backing, so I stitched horizontal rows, alternating between two rows of stitches then four rows of stitches, to make it more interesting on the back.

I love these fabrics so much that I may have to make another one only with a different pattern. I don't know, I am having lots of conflicting thoughts. We'll see what happens!

UNO Birthday Party Roundup

Just wanted to share some birthday party pictures with you to conclude The Bubb Birthday Week :)

We opted to have an UNO themed birthday party to celebrate The Bubb being one year old. We sent out UNO invites

and I made him a Wild card t-shirt for the party using freezer paper stenciling. I had thought about making him an UNO shirt but decided that Wild suited the situation better, plus I've been wanting to try multiple colors on the freezer paper stenciling. It was well, um, interesting. I wouldn't recommend starting with multiple colors especially when you have a one year old trying to climb up your leg while painting!

Finding a black t-shirt proved to be difficult and finally was able to find a long sleeved one at Target and just altered it to be short sleeved.

The party was pretty simple. We made cupcakes and decorated them with white frosting and numbers on top and then just had primary colored accessories for napkins, plates, etc. I hung up the birthday banner that I made.

And we had balloons. I have been dying to have a reason to get some 3 foot balloons. I think that I can die happy now, is that crazy!? Okay so we got one of each color - red, blue, green and yellow. They are actually pretty hard to find and ended up getting them at SF party in San Francisco. We then rented a helium tank because we couldn't get them inflated at the store, as they wouldn't have fit through the door into our cars, not to mention getting all 4 of them to fit! Here we are blowing them up:

Of course we took some pictures with them :) and tied one to The Bubb. You have no idea how amused I was! (FYI if he had been 5 pounds like I had wanted, it is possible that I would have put him in a basket and bought 33 of these balloons in order to get him to hover off the ground. (my brother did some calcs on lift). Anyway not important since he weighed WAY more than that when born, and the parent police probably would have come and frowned at us.

 

The party was lowkey and was exactly what I wanted :) We ate some cake,

opened some presents,

played ball, chased each other around on the deck.

He had a wonderful time and I am so glad that my parents were willing to let us use their house :)

Aquarium Fun

On his actual birthday we took The Bubb to the aquarium to see the fishies. He. Loved. It.

We got to watch the diver in the outer bay tank.

See the Great White Shark (above) and the other fish (below):

Check out the fish in the otter habitat

Look at the ocean

And the best part (where we spent most of our time) was in front of the tropical fish

Not too shabby of a birthday! Of course it is hard to explain to a one year old that, no, we don't own the aquarium so you can't crawl wherever you want right now :)

Fabric Friday :: Across the Pond

Friday is here at last and so excited about the upcoming THREE day weekend. Yeah! Also so exciting was that I got my first entire fabric collection this morning. I love hearing my doorbell ring when I know that fabric is waiting for me on the other side.

What was the fabric you ask? It is Cloud9's new line called Across the Pond by Michelle Engel Bencsko.

It is certified organic cotton and just so lovely. I really like the herons, butterflies and under water. But seriously as I am looking at the pictures to share with you, I am falling in love with the asters and english plantain. I also am loving how the banks will go so nicely with the larger prints for a quilt. Such a wonderful size variation.

Anyway if you'd like to have some of your very own, I would be happy to cut any amount for you, just send me a message through Etsy. Happy Fabric Day!

Happy First Birthday

We've made it, The Bubb is now officially ONE. Happy Birthday to my little man! It is weird to think of our lives without him now, he is such a good baby and we love him so much!

He is weighing 22.7 pounds (50th percentile) and is 31 inches tall (75th percentile). His head is 48.5 cm (95th percentile) which basically means he's like a bobble head! Let's see he now has 4 teeth, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. I think that 2 more on top are coming very very soon, I just hope that they aren't as bloody as the other top two were...

He has a lot of energy and I mean a lot of energy. He likes to be going everywhere and anywhere, constant exploring. He likes to open and close our doors, and can go up the stairs. He can go down them too, he is really good at my parents house cause they are carpeted, but we have wood ones and I think it hurts his tummy so he typically stops at the 3rd step down and wants to be carried.

The Bubb isn't walking yet. He pulls up and scoots along everything. Once he figures out that walking is faster we'll be doing that instead! One of his favorite activities is looking out his bedroom window as he can see the busy street and loves to watch the cars as well as open and close the blinds, over and over and over again.

He is starting to learn cause and effect, mostly through his classic pop up toy when you push a button an animal pops up. He likes to dance to music and will make singing sounds when he hears someone else sing (like when I was catching up on my episodes of Glee) He likes to clap and most of all he loves his laugh, and I may be biased but I think his laugh is the best sound in the world. He babbles and likes to mimic us, not in words but in syllables. He is getting pretty close. We've tried to teach him "all done" when he is finished eating and is getting pretty good at it. The Bubb eats pretty much everything. We let him try whatever we are having (assuming that there isn't too much salt or sugar) but we want him to get a variety of things. I find it interesting that he loves his pickles, I guess he is taking after his mom. He isn't too big on cheese yet or perhaps he is taking after Evan on this one. But his preferences vary from hour to hour day to day so I should probably try that one again.

Emmett loves to read his books, well flip through him. He loves to turn pages and will happily sit on his own reading which just is fantastic. He also still loves to suck on his bath toys, he has moved on from the fish and is now obsessed with a penguin. His beak has to be pushed in. If it isn't and he sees it he will come across the room push it in and then go back to what he was doing. He's started organizing his stuff too, his favorite is to line up all my shoes and then pick out his favorite, typically the one with all the beads/stones stuck on it. The Bubb has also been interested in his box and passing toys back and forth. But he doesn't want to be inside to pass just on the outside.

He is still giving me two naps a day, although one tends to be shorter than the other and they vary back and forth depending on what we've been up to, etc. Anyway I am sure that I could go on forever about what wonderful things he is doing but I should probably stop :)

Happy Birthday little man!