baby – Page 12 – emerald city diaries

my long weekend in pictures: indiana edition.

we left last thursday for a long weekend in the midwest to spend time with aaron’s family.

{waiting for the bus to take us downtown to catch the lightrail to the airport. #myhusbandlovespublictransit}

{hers & his lattes.}

{look at all of that leg room! glad we upgraded our flight.}

{we got to meet beau, my in-laws’ new dog.}

{we stayed with aaron’s friend colt, his girlfriend erin, & gertie the bulldog. i spent friday night cuddling with gertie.}

{i finally got to meet kenley! she is the daughter of kendra – aaron’s cousin – & such a doll!}

{teddy – aaron’s nephew – is already a slugger. let’s go 6-7!}

{aaron’s grandfather neal with aaron’s nephews teddy & frankie.}

{we crashed a wedding reception on saturday night. a cousin of a cousin is family, right? congratulations logan & vanessa!}

{me, kenley & kendra hanging out. finally!}

{um, 43 degrees indiana? definitely not ready for the cold yet.}

{we spent sunday morning tailgating at the colts game with colt & his family.}

{#letsgocolts}

{it was a bit sunny with the roof open at lucas oil field, but aaron made do.}

{the tomatoes at colt & erin’s makes me want my own veggie garden. someday.}

{waiting for our plane to take us back to seattle.}

{the beautiful sunset somewhere between indy & seattle.}

we had so much fun catching up with family & friends – thanks for having us indiana! aaron has quite a large family, most of whom still live in indiana, so we get spoiled whenever we go because we get to see so many people. we also got spoiled this time & got a chance to see family that flew in from out of town – thanks for making the last minute trip kendra & kenley! thanks to everyone for such a fun weekend!

how was your weekend?

diy baby shower gift: baby swaddler.

when it came down to the gift that i wanted to give amanda at her baby shower, i knew i wanted to make something. amanda is one who loves things handmade – you should see the beautiful cards she makes! – plus, i liked the idea of hand making something for the new baby (seems more personal).

this could be considered another pinspiration project because i found the idea from pinterest!

from the very little that i know about infants, i do know that swaddling is a way to help them feel like they are back in the womb. however, amanda & her husband are first-time parents & the process of swaddling a baby seems, well, difficult. a wailing infant with flailing arms & legs? no thank you.

so, why not a swaddler. an infant-sized sleeping bag that allows those arms & legs to be gently velcro-ed in. genius! {sidenote: i really hope this was a thoughtful present after all, meaning that i hope it really works!}

*update: the little babe i made this swaddler for was only about 7 pounds when she was born, so the size of this swaddler is too big. if you know how big the baby is, you can adjust the size accordingly.*

{original tutorial: snuggler}

{sidenote: the gal’s blog who posted the original tutorial makes an amazing amount of things by hand. if you want some inspiration, definitely check out her blog!}

supplies:

pattern printed {updated link!}
instructions (attached to the pattern pdf)
1 yard fabric – fun fabric for outside of swaddle (i used fabric from pacific fabrics)
1 yard fabric – flannel or soft cotton fabric for inside swaddle (i got organic cotton flannel from this etsy seller)
pins
fabric scissors
fadeout marker (the type of marker that either has disappearing ink or disappears with water)
velcro
thread (i used white)
iron
sewing machine
ruler (i used it to help me transfer the dart pattern)

{sidenote: please excuse the bad lighting in the last set of photos. i was taking them in the evening without sunlight, so the color is funky. the real color of the green fabric is mint green & is best seen in the first part of the tutorial.}

this was the first time i made something from a pattern, so i was a bit nervous. plus, it was intended to be a gift to a crafty girlfriend who was expecting her first baby – no pressure! after my first read-thru (& second & third!) i found some of the instructions a little confusing. my remedy was to just go ahead & start, & i would work out the finer details as i came to them; turns out, this was a pretty good method!

first, print out, cut out & tape together the pattern (there are two main pieces). then iron your fabrics (after pre-washing them in hot or warm water to prevent later shrinking!).

fold the printed fabric in half & pin the patterns to the wrong side of the fabric, lining up the folded edge to the inside of the pattern (there is a note on the pattern where it should line up with the folded edge). cut out the fabric along the pattern.

before removing the pins, trace the dart pattern onto the wrong side of the fabric. i placed a pin at the top point of the dart triangle (so that i could lift the paper to expose the fabric) & then used a ruler to draw very faint dotted lines onto the fabric with my fadeout marker.

the instructions also tell you to transfer dotted lines where the velcro strips will be placed. {sidenote: i did this, but in hindsight i think it is unnecessary. the velcro “placeholders” that i made were much bigger than the velcro i ended up using & so there was a lot of blotting with water to remove the ink from the fadeout marker. i think that once you are at the point where you add the velcro – later in the tutorial – you can look back to the pattern to determine where the velcro strips should be sewn on.}

sew the darts into place. this was my first time sewing darts, but it is a fairly easy process. you basically fold the fabric in half (the middle dart line becomes the fold) & pin. then you run a seam towards the raw edge of the fabric. then you cut off the extra fabric.

{darts completed on both fabrics. you can see the remaining ink lines here; i blotted the ink with a damp washcloth to make it disappear before i sewed the pieces together.}

repeat all above steps with the flannel fabric. then, you should have two identical pieces, one in printed fabric & the other in flannel fabric.

then you place the flannel piece (inside out) into the fabric piece (inside out) & pin the pieces together. then attach the pieces by sewing around the half moon piece, as well as along the arm pieces, leaving a couple inches at the bottom of the left arm open (to flip the fabric). trim the seams.

flip the swaddler right-side out. i used a chopstick (clean, of course!) to help turn the corners & edges.

then hand sew the remainder of the edge shut.

grab your velcro & lay out the pieces. cut three lengths of velcro (both pieces!) a couple of inches long. one piece goes on the front half-moon piece (middle picture) & two go on the outside left arm/inside right arm (far right picture). i sewed the rough piece of velcro to the front half-moon & also to the front side of the left arm; the soft velcro pieces are placed accordingly so that the velcro will properly close.

{the final swaddler!}

what do you think of handmade baby shower presents? also, to my readers who have infants or kids, did you swaddle?

diy baby shower project: paper flags.

i wanted to add some extras to the baby shower dessert table & thought cupcake toppers & stripey straws would be perfect accessories! {sidenote: we didn’t actually use the straws during the shower, but they were very festive!}

not surprising that i found some pinspiration!

{ribbon flags on drink stirrers: oh joy! blog}

{paper flags on stripey straws: etsy}

amanda (the mama-to-be) loved dalmations as a child – the dog breed, not the movie! – & so i incorporated a bit of animal print into the shower theme.

i couldn’t find any dalmation printed paper at my local craft stores, so i scoured the interwebs & found this pdf of dalmation spots. i simply printed a few pages on my home laser jet printer.

supplies:

paper for flags
glue stick
ruler
pencil
something to glue flag onto (straw, lollipop stick, bamboo skewer)

{stripey straws from amazon//lollipop sticks i picked up at michael’s}

i turned the paper so the printed side was down (this way you can see your pencil marks!) & began measuring. i wanted pretty small flags & ended up cutting paper strips that were 3/4” by 3 1/2”.

then i ran a glue stick along the entire back of the paper strip & wrapped it around the straw/stick about an inch or so from the top (this is totally a personal preference). i also pinched the paper closed right near the edge of the straw/stick in order to make sure it was well adhered (see last picture below).

finally, i cut a small triangle from the outside edge of the paper strip. you could use a pencil & ruler to mark this, but i did it just with scissors since it was such a small cut.

VOILA!

{sorry this isn’t a better picture of the cupcake toppers, but you get the gist!}

what do you think of paper flags to decorate cupcakes & straws?

diy baby shower project: paper pinwheel board.

i had a few requests for the projects that were part of amanda’s baby shower. as i mentioned in the original post, i looked to pinterest for inspiration and ideas, so these are all definitely pinspiration projects (this will be a series of project posts).

…

i was fortunate because very early on in the shower planning process i found the ultimate inspiration on pinterest & pretty much ran with that idea. i loved the look of white serving dishes & stands & i knew that i wanted to create a paper pinwheel board that would be the focal point for the dessert table.

{original post here: vintage themed dessert table.}

gorgeous, huh? i hadn’t made pinwheels before, but just a few days later i was catching up on blogs and found this tutorial on making paper pinwheels. it was definitely a sign that i had to at least attempt this project. {sidenote: this was a bit of a time-intensive project that spanned over about five evenings spent in front of the TV.}

supplies:

paper or colored cardstock (i used three different scrapbook papers, plain white computer paper & two different cardstocks; the paper is definitely easier to fold!)
doilies (optional)
hot glue gun & lots of glue sticks
thick cardboard (i cut apart two boxes i had from amazon.com)
thick poster board with a foam core
scissors
medium-sized circle punch (optional)
ruler
pencil

i don’t have any pictures of the process & i apologize. i really didn’t think i would be doing a tutorial of this project, plus my fingers were covered in hot glue which is not conducive to taking photos.

i followed the tutorial from the lovely cupboard: cut strips of paper, fold & glue. the paper strips i used were between two and five inches. i also learned that the bigger the pinwheel, the more strips of paper that you need to glue together before making it into a circle.

perhaps it was because my folds were not always perfectly the same, but my pinwheels didn’t want to lay flat on their own. i remedied this by gluing a small (about one inch by one inch, or so) piece of cardboard to the back of the pinwheel in the center. this kept most of them together & lying flat on their own, & also gave me a good flat surface to attach it to the poster board.

i am not sure how the pinwheel board in the inspiration picture was constructed, but once i started laying out my pinwheels on the poster board, i figured out that i would need to elevate some of them in order to get the right effect (i.e., no white poster showing thru) & to get the pinwheels to overlap. i made about a quarter of the pinwheels before i glued any of them to the poster board, just so i could make changes in the positions of the pinwheels to get the right look. only a few of the pinwheels are actually glued directly to the poster board; most of them are raised up by cardboard. in order to get the pinwheels up off the board, but still attached, i cut lots of little cardboard squares (like the ones i talked about for the back of the pinwheels) & stacked & glued them together into little cardboard towers until i had the right height. {sidenote: if you are interested in seeing more pictures, let me know and i will update the post.}

some of the larger pinwheels also have doilies & smaller pinwheels on top of them; i liked the look of this layering, but you could skip this part. also, i added a paper circle in the middle of each pinwheel in a contrasting paper to give it a more finished look (but also to hide the imperfect folding!). i just cut out circles by hand so they aren’t perfect, but if you had a circle punch that was big enough, you could use that too.

{the pinwheel board right after i finished it. the colors in this picture are really close to what they are in real life.}

{the pinwheel board on the dessert table}

in order to make it stand (it was quite heavy considering it was made out of paper!) i had aaron add cardboard triangles to the back to prop it up; you could also hang it from a wall with poster hangers (like the ones made by 3M) which is probably how it will be displayed at the new house once i find a place for it {anyone have ideas as to where it should go?}.

if you end up making a paper pinwheel board, i would love to see it, so please share pictures!

would you make a pinwheel board for a shower, party or just a fun house decoration?

a baby shower.

last weekend i was lucky enough to co-host a baby shower for one of my dear friends amanda. amanda & her husband are expecting their baby girl this summer!

i was in charge of decorations & dessert which was so much fun! i had lots of ideas at first but really used pinterest to help me organize the details. {you can see the baby shower pinboard here.} the other co-hosts (sam & denaye) and i decided that we would keep the shower theme simple, so we went with a theme of purple (the mom-to-be’s favorite color!).

{the dessert table: mini cupcakes from trophy, cupcake flags (diy), paper pinwheel board (diy), tablecloth (diy), flowers from pike place market, tall glass cake stand from tj maxx, white cake stands and platter from crate & barrel, stripey straws from amazon & diy flags, “cupcake” sign (diy).}

{the book check-in. denaye had the idea that guests could bring a book in lieu of a card to help the baby’s library grow. i thought it would be fun to include a card inside each book that had a note to the baby, so we used old school library cards.}

{i gave the baby my very favorite book the very hungry caterpillar.}

{sam made a cute little diaper cake.}

{sam, denaye, me & amanda.}

{the food table: homemade mexican enchiladas & fajitas by sam & her husband, sangria by sam, lavender lemonade by denaye, tablecloth (diy).}

{baby shower games: name that baby food which entailed guests tasting (or smelling) baby food & writing down their best guess. wishes for baby allowed each guest to fill-in-the-blank. fill-in-the-nursery-rhyme (sorry there isn’t a picture) which had guests fill in the missing words to the nursery rhymes we all grew up with. sidenote: i totally rocked this game & walked away as the winner with a set of bubbles! on the other hand, i failed miserably at the baby food game.}

{amanda isn’t big on really girly stuff for the baby, but this outfit was insanely cute!}

thanks to sam & denaye for being fantastic co-hosts! {the food was so delish (thanks sam!) & denaye brought the cutest (and tastiest) macaroons from chicago as party favors.} thanks also to amanda for letting us throw a shower in your honor & letting us surprise you with all of the details! i can’t wait to meet your baby girl.

i am planning on posting later in the week about all the diy projects!

also visit amanda’s blog for scenes from the baby shower & a shower game.

have you attended or thrown any showers lately?

highlights of 2011.

i love reading the yearly highlights on other blogs & thought it would be especially fun to catch up on the entire year since i didn’t start blogging until the fall.

{via google}

january: we had a mellow start to the new year that was highlighted by starting the last semester of my law school career.

february: we celebrated our 6 month anniversary on the first (cheesy, i know). we hosted a celebration party at our townhouse which included my turning 26 (yikes!), a very belated housewarming & of course, our 6 month anniversary. aaron took me away to whidbey island for a romantic weekend to celebrate my birthday and valentine’s day, and we went to serafina (my fav) for dinner!

march: my last official spring break (probably ever) which was spent studying (papers & oral argument) & working on my Bar application. i submitted my Bar application. we were surprised by the early arrival of baby cambridge: franklin pierre cambridge.

{via cari cambridge}

april: we attended the Barrister’s Ball (a.k.a. law school prom) which was held at the EMP. we drove to ritzville, WA to meet my dad & brought home the newest member of our little family, sadie. we had a date night at The Pink Door during Seattle Restaurant Week.

{taken at photobooth}

{the very first picture of sadie & aaron at the columbia river – taken with holga 135}

may: my last official final exams period: one final, two papers & a project. i painted our office a soothing blue in preparation for my bar exam studies. we attended Baccalaureate Mass at Seattle University & my Law School Graduation at Key Arena. we flew to indiana to see aaron’s family & to attend aaron’s ten year reunion at Culver Military Academy. we continued east-ward to Paris where we spent a week of celebration: graduation & aaron turning 28! we spent our first day in Paris with our good friend jerry who acted as our translator & tour guide.

june: i started my bar prep studies on the first; this marked the beginning of eight grueling weeks of 80 hours a week cramming. aaron interviewed & was offered a program manager position (still at microsoft).

july: we saw Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II at the IMAX. i sat for the WA Bar Exam on July 26, 27 & 28; i wouldn’t have made it thru those three days without my friend miriam, three-evenings-in-a-row massages, jimmy john’s delivery service or the sheraton hotel in bellevue. we got celebratory pedis at my favorite spa Julep.

august: on the first we celebrated our one year anniversary at Rover’s. we dropped off sadie with nanny lisa and headed east for a lower family vacation. we spent the bookend weekends in charlotte, NC with aaron’s brother david & his family, but spend most of the vacation in charleston, SC on the beach at the Isle of Palms. lots of sun, sand & air conditioning. sadie & i drove to boise for a quick trip home to visit my family & to get a haircut (yes, i go to idaho to get my haircut). we waited in anticipation for baby lower who was born shortly after we left NC: landon neal lower.

{via jodi lower}

september: we saw maroon 5 & train in concert at the white river amphitheater. we drove down to salem for a weekend to see old family friends & so aaron could skydive; we saw our friends but had to cancel the skydiving due to weather conditions & miscommunications. we attended a surprise dinner party for sami, one of my very old friends from idaho, who now lives in seattle with her husband, brandon. on the 26th we celebrated sadie’s 7th birthday.

october: i passed the bar exam! we celebrated our four year dating anniversary with dinner at the melting pot. we attended Ghouls Near Greenlake, ben & sarah’s annual halloween bash as aladdin & jasmine. we ate our way thru seattle & bellevue during Seattle Restaurant Week. aaron ran in the warrior dash. i started a little blog called emerald city diaries to keep family & friends updated on the lower family.

november: i was sworn in as an official King County Bar Association member. i was rear-ended. we celebrated the baptism of baby herschel, the son of one of my law school friends. we celebrated thanksgiving with my grandmother & friends in seattle. we bought doug the douglas fir, the second annual lower family christmas tree. aaron took me to the nutcracker for an early christmas date.

december: we celebrated the engagement of our good friends andy & hailey. we attended a champagne brunch fundraiser. we got an SLR camera. we drove to boise in a rental car. i got a haircut. we flew to vegas. we attended the nuptials of scott & kelly at the chapel in the clouds. we cheered on the boise state broncos to victory in the las vegas bowl. we attended a christmas reunion of the CBC (my dearest high school girlfriends). we celebrated christmas! we drove back to seattle.

whew, what a year! every year i think “this has been the best year ever!” and i think this is totally true about my 2011.

how was your 2011 – was it a year to remember or are you itching to start 2012 already?

a pinterest christmas: keepsake ornament.

this is the first post of my pinterest christmas series and i am so excited to share.

{sidenote: i have a few more projects up my sleeve & the list of projects keeps growing – i blame pinterest!}

as soon as i saw this picture on pinterest, i knew i had to do this (honestly, what else am i going to do with the rest of our wedding invitations? any ideas?).

{this is the original pinterest link: wedding invitation ornament.}

this project was pretty simple. the hardest part for me was cutting the paper strips since i had a new paper trimmer and was still learning how it worked.

supplies:

wedding invitation, baby announcement, etc.

paper trimmer (you could measure and cut with scissors, but it would take forever.)

clear ornament (i used plastic ones from michael’s)

pencil (or something to curl the paper around)

ribbon

charm (optional)

{our wedding invitation. i fall in love with it every time i see it.}

{i decided on 1/4 inch strips so i made marks before i cut so i wouldn’t be cutting thru the letters.}

{most of the strips had the important stuff like date, time, place, etc.}

{every strip got curled around a pencil.}

{clear plastic ornament with removable top.}

{curly-cue.}

{i decided to use a small charm for the top of the ornament. this is a fleur de lis.}

{i thought that i would need to string the charm onto thread before it went on the ribbon, but you really don’t need the thread (unless you want the charm to hang way down). for the other ornaments i made, i just thread the ribbon thru the charm.}

{on the tree!}

i had two birth announcements on my bulletin board and decided to make these babes an ornament to celebrate their first christmas. {jen and kendra: i mailed the ornaments on monday so be on the lookout!}

{for kenley dee. check out her mom’s blog here.}

{for deacon clifford. check our his mom’s blog here.}

this was such an easy and quick project, so start saving those keepsakes and make ornaments!

have you tackled any pinterest projects for christmas yet?

diy onesies with applique.

i am a ~~bit of a~~ complete novice when it comes to sewing as i have been sewing less than a year (i got my sewing machine last christmas). though the extent of my sewing projects have been covers for throw pillows, i decided that i would make a baby present for our new little cousin kenley.

these were the onesies right out of the package. i got size 0-3 months so that kenley can actually wear them before she grows out of them!

flower onesie

first, i measured and cut out a 2.5 inch square, a 2 inch square, and a 1.5 inch square of fabric. then i cut out circles from each of the fabric squares. i didn’t want perfect circles so the wonky sides were perfect.

then, i layered the three cut circles, largest on the bottom. i “tested” the flower size by laying it on the onesie before i started sewing in case i needed to cut down the circles. i wanted the flower to be big, but not so big that it took over the onesie completely!

next, i sewed the circles together. i decided to sew just one stitched circle in the center of the smallest circle. again, i didn’t want it to be a perfectly sewn circle. (this was perfect actually because i would still be working on this project if i was required to sew a perfect circle!)

then, i sewed the flower onto the onesie. this was a little tricky as i had only the neck and the bottom of the onesie to put thru my machine, so there was a bit of stretching of the fabric and tricky maneuvering. i basically sewed the same stitched circle as when i originally sewed the three circles together: i would make a short stitch (.5 to .75 inch) and then raise the foot, turn the fabric, and sew another short stitch.

for the first onesie i made, i just put one larger flower on. for the second onesie, i put two flowers on that were a bit smaller.

monogram onesie

first, i cut out a “k” (yes, this is the letter “k,” it is just sideways. *cock head to left shoulder*).

next, i put the “k” on the other fabric and cut a rectangle of fabric leaving a little room around the “k.”

then, i sewed the “k” onto the fabric rectangle (i got lucky and only had to sew straight lines! who knows how this may have ended up had i had a curvy letter like an “a”!). and then i sewed the rectangle onto the onesie right in the middle. i wanted the “k” to be big, but not so big that kenley couldn’t wear leggings or a skirt with the onesie and cover up the “k.”

and here are the finished onesies!

a big congratulations to kendra, greg & little kenley! (you can find them on kendra’s blog).