Easter booties!

Bambina needed some cute shoes to go with her “new” dress for Easter.  So I made some.

They fit!

Very Berry Shortcake

Combine 2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and a pinch of salt.  Cut in 1/2 cup butter, cubed.  Beat together 1 egg and 2/3 cup milk, then add to dry ingredients and stir just until mixed.  Plop and slightly flatten onto 9 flattened cupcake liners (or parchment circles) on a cookie sheet and bake 13 minutes at 465 degrees Fahrenheit.  Meanwhile, mix together 1/2 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 cup sliced blackberries, and 1/2 cup blueberries, and sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over top.  When cakes have cooled, peel two off their papers, slice in half, spoon berries and juices over top, and smother with whipped cream.  Replace top of cake like a cute little hat and enjoy with a friend!

This recipe was modified from the original in the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book.

Old-fashioned bonnet

With the sun peeking out more and more each day, I realized that Bambina needed a nice warm-weather hat to shade her eyes and keep the rays off her head.  And I’ve always loved old-fashioned bonnets.  Would your bambina also like a nice, old-fashioned bonnet?

Not-so-lazy Sunday

I started out the day with every intent to simply savor a quiet day with Bambina and Papa, and ended up completing more of my to-do list than I thought I could:

• make a new fitted sheet for Bambina’s crib (love it)
• test a new recipe for apple-banana cookies (needs work)
• convert an old tank-top into a nursing tank (super handy)

Besides doing the things I had originally planned on:

• hang out with Bambina and Papa
• check up on my brackets to see how I’m doing in the group (as of now, 2nd place – woot!)
• check in with Grandma about the family Easter dinner
• laundry, laundry, laundry

I’ll take it.

 

 

 

Bunnies for baby boy

My good friend is having a baby boy in just a few short weeks! I’ve put together a hat and swaddle blanket with matching baby bunnies to welcome the sweetie pie.

Repurpose! T-shirt into swaddle/sleepsack

I don’t know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but around here, the temperatures are rising both day and night.  I also don’t know about your little one, but I can tell you for sure that my Bambina prefers to be swaddled both day and night.  (It’s almost like the swaddle is the switch that turns her from awake to asleep.)  So it was time for her to have a swaddle/sleepsack that isn’t made of heavy fleece; t-shirt weight would be nice!  *light bulb*

Here’s how it turned out in the end…

Mamma’s little audio engineer, sleeping peacefully (finally – it was not a good day for naps).

Unfortunately, she wriggled right out of the swaddle, so there are remake plans in the works.

Repurpose! T-shirt into Tulip hat

Tulip season is coming up!  If you’re a Pacific Northwesterner, head on up to the Skagit Tulip Festival in April.  But before you go, whip together this cute little hat for bambina to wear on the trip!

The body of the hat is a skull cap.  (Here’s a great tutorial for that.  I made my hat a little taller than what it says because using the size described in the tutorial leaves bambina’s ears uncovered.)  The tulip is made of a purple circle folded in half, then accordion folded in thirds, stitched over two green leaf shapes.

Standard Sewing Accoutrements

I consider these items to be standard sewing accoutrements, and refer to them as a group when listing your needed items in tutorials:

• sewing machine (unless you want to sew it all by hand, which is always an option)
• needle and thread
• straight pins
• safety pins
• scissors
• rotary cutter, cutting mat, and see-through rectangular ruler/template
• water-soluble fabric marking pen
• iron and ironing board

Repurpose! T-shirt into Bunny hat

Looking to keep bambina’s head warm on chilly spring days?  Turn your old t-shirt into a cute bunny hat!

Upcycling vs. Repurposing

Yesterday I found this article that differentiated between upcycling and recycling.  At first I thought, hey, that’s what I mean by Repurposing.  But actually, it isn’t.

Upcycling is when you take something that isn’t useful anymore and turn it into something useful, rather than sticking it in File 13.

Repurposing, on the other hand, is taking something that may still be useful to someone and assigning it a new purpose – which may involve cutting it up and patching it back together in a new way.  That’s what I do.

Just wanted to clear things up.