Simple Sewing Book Review and Giveaway!

Today I am so excited to share with you a book by Katie Lewis, Simple Sewing: 30 Fast & Easy Projects for Beginners. You may also know her from her lovely blog, The Red Kitchen. She wrote a book! How fun is that!! And a darn tootin' pretty good book if I do say so myself.

This book is absolutely perfect for the beginning sewist. I so wish she had written it when I started sewing 4 years ago. And even though I am no where near a beginner I really think this book is pretty great. I love the sheer volume of fun and quick projects she put together. Accessories, Baby, Toys...the list goes on, as you can see from the picture above! And I'll have you know that every project has full color, step-by-step instructions AND 90% of the projects in the book require less than one yard of fabric!

I actually used her Reversible Bib project to make a baby gift for a friend's friend's baby shower (haha, did you get that?) It was the easiest bib I've ever made, using 2 different cotton fabrics to make it reversible...and good for a gender neutral baby shower gift...and a set of snaps instead of the velcro! 

Totally adorable, right?

I paired it with some of the burp cloths I sell in my shop...

And packaged it up all pretty along with a few other fun gifts and sent it on it's way to it's new happy home!

If you'd like to make your own Reversible Baby Bib or any of Katie's other fast and fabulous projects than you will want to enter the giveaway below to win a copy for yourself!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can see more of the book tour over at Kojo-Designs and Ruffles and Stuff.

And you can buy a copy of the book for you or some friends at these retailers:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

XOXO,

TUTORIAL: Double Layered Gauze Swaddle Blanket

After Oliver was born this summer and we found out he was a boy, I sat down one night and sewed him up some of of his very own stretchy Gauze Swaddle Blankets that Dana shared on her blog a few months prior.  I still don't understand how I never knew about them before especially having Oliver be my 4th little babe, I guess I missed the big craze as I was using Noah's hand-me-down blankies with the girls.  

Well, Dana made them look so easy to make which they totally were and add in the fact that the gauze/muslin is super stretchy made them the perfect new baby wrap.  Plus I loved how lightweight they were for my summer baby which kept him nice and snug but not too hot (again, how did I not know about them before? I mean, hello! Oliver was my 3rd baby born in the summer!) 

Well this past January I had a few lovely friends have their sweet bundles of joy all within a week of one another so I decided what better gift to bring to them then one of these blankies along with a nice warm meal .  This time of year though all those new little babes need to stay extra warm so I thought a Double Layered Cotton Gauze Blanket would do the trick.  Stretchy, Wrappy, Cozy goodness...Perfection! 

Double Layered Cotton Gauze Blanket:

1. Buy 1 yard each of two gauze (also known as muslin) prints. 
2. Layer them on top of each other, right sides facing, and sew around the perimeter using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leaving a 3-4 inch opening at one side for turning.
3. Turn the blanket right side out and topstitch around the perimeter of the blanket using a 1/8 inch seam allowance.  Make sure to sew the opening you left for turning the blanket right side out closed!
4. Press your seams.
5. Give as a baby gift!

Super stretchy, super sweet. I hope you make a few for the winter babes in your life!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

First Taste.

Somebody finally had their first taste of food this weekend. Yes, it's been long overdue.  All the other kids were already at least a month in to trying out food at this point but since Oliver is our last I will fully admit that I am milking his baby days for all they are worth.  7 1/2 months old? Pshh...that's nothing.  What else can I delay? ;-)

He seemed quite into it at first but I think he was digging the spoon more than the food.  Another toy to chew on perhaps?

OK, and he loved gnawing on the bowl too.  We thought he was trying to slurp up the food but come to find out he just wanted to suck on the bowl.

We gave him his first taste of water in his very own sippy cup too, what a big boy! He raised his hand in excitement when he sucked up his first sip.

And then he gave us this face, hah! Maybe it'll grow on him ;-)

Here's to more days of this.  

Mealtime just got a little bit messier around here!

XOXO,

Vintage Crib Makeover-TUTORIAL

So I finally went through all the pictures of the vintage crib makeover I did right before Oliver was born.  Yup, he's almost 4 months old so I'm just a leetle late.  He's been a fun, little, smiley pudge to snuggle these last few months though which makes the late posting of it all okay, right? Riiight.

Here is the before of the crib.  Isn't is so cool? I had been eyeing, and I mean down-right staring at this sweet thing for several months at a local thrift store but there were a number of factors getting in the way of my ownership of this vintage treasure.  One being that it was being used as a display piece for as long as I can remember going there.  Nards!  Don't you hate when thrift stores use awesome vintage furniture or crates as display pieces with those big honking signs sayin, 'NOT FOR SALE For Display Only!'  

Then one day, several months back of course, I walk into the store and magically see a very tiny for sale price tag on it...but at over 100 dollars that was not about to happen.  Oh well.  I could only hope in the fact that everyone else felt the same way...or that the pricetag on it was uber tiny that you really had to be checkin' it out to see it, hah.

Then, of all things, Mr. Smashed Peas and I have the day to ourselves.  Crazy I know. We had a wedding to attend to so we had a babysitter for the entire day...whaaaat!?!?  Woot Woot!  That never happens.  Well, after the wedding we were driving up to the reception locale and on the way passed by this particular thrift store.  I asked (ok, begged...Mr. Smashed Peas is in no way fond of thrift stores...at all.) if I could just pop in real quick to peek around.  He said I could only if I dropped him off at a store of his choice first and went back to pick him up in half an hour.  Umm, yeah, I'll totally do that.  And guess, what!  That leetle tiny price tag had a big red slash on it and the new price said....wait for it...

$30

Yes!!  Totally True!!

$30 freakin' dollars!  I swear that never, ever happens to me!

I was so excited I bought it on the spot.  

Then I had to somehow figure out how 8 months pregnant me was going to get it into my car.  Thank goodness for the two very gentlemanly teenage volunteers who offered to carry it out to my car aaaand even loaded it in all in the nick of time to pick up Mr. Smashed Peas.  Wooo Hooo for perfect timing :-) 

So here is the before and after, again.  The original crib is made of a really dark wood and then had some sort of icky half on/half off varnish on it.  I didn't love the dark color but saw potential in it for a more updated version for our home.   Since I didn't know if Oliver was an Oliver or an Olivia (just kidding, Olivia was not on our girl name list...that's our dog's name silly!) I wanted to paint it a neutral yet vintage-y white since it was going to find it's new home in my sewing studio.  I figured I could make fun gender-oriented sheets for a little mattress once we knew boy or girl.

Like I mentioned in this post here.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Zinsser Cover Stain Primer spray paint.  This stuff is sooo awesome.  And no, they don't pay me to say that.  I just love it so I could eat it up.  I used two cans to cover the entire crib inside and out (the flat board took the most primer, it was a lot more surface area than I originally thought).  And then I used less than one can of the Rustoleum White in a Satin finish as a lovely top coat.

It turned out beautifully, don't you think!

Oliver is about 2 weeks old in these pictures.  Can you believe it?

What a plump little babe he has turned into!

 I love the froggy-leg sleeping positions babies sleep in, ahhh.  Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Flashback: Ten Days

Yes, 10 days is how old Oliver is in these pictures.  That newborn photo session seems forever ago as he is now pushing on the 2 month mark!

This summer has been such a whirlwind of activity that I just now realized that I never shared any of these with you.

 

He is still just as precious albeit slightly chunkier these days :-)

 I am so glad I got my act together and had these photos taken.  Such wonderful memories of our littlest child's first few days on this beautiful earth.

 Memories of how the first three took to him right away.  He fit right in.

 Those beautiful eyes...they look like they are staying brown.  Yup, 3 blues and one brown-eyed in the bunch.

I still stare at him with the same look...he steals my heart every time.

Just as he steals his daddy's...there is something about that littlest boy.

Thanks for stopping by and revisiting our first few days with this sweet guy.  He continues to be such a great little babe, he sleeps so well during the day (and night!) and is so easy going that we can pick him up and take him anywhere.  We thank God for him every day.

PS.  If you are interested in who our photographer is and live in the Chicagoland area send me an email and I can get you her info, unfortunately she doesn't have a website I can link to.  We loved her!!!!  These pictures make me smile every time I see them :-)

XOXO, 

Little Dude: One Week

 It's hard to believe that Oliver went from this little guy a week ago...

To this little guy today.

A week old already?  Say it ain't so.

For the most part, his day-to-day is pretty much the same...eat, sleep, poo...eat, sleep, poo...

Ahh, the life of a newborn!

He has been the most perfect addition to our family.  

We feel so blessed that every day we get to hold him and snuggle all his sweet baby goodness.  

(Did I seriously push that head out of me?)  

Being #4 in the line up, life doesn't stop when you're born.  

Sorry little dude.

In just a week's time little man has already been to soccer practice.  

Every. Day. This. Week.  

And it's been in the 90's aaaaalll week long. 

Good stuff.

He's also already had his first trip to the zoo.  

He's a mover and a shaker.

And the sweetest little one-week old sleeper around :-)

Oh, I'm in love, so in love.

Big Time.

XOXO,