Lucky Kitty

Craftiness is genetic...

When we decided to become parents, one of the things the Hubs and I discussed time and time again was if our child would be the creative type. 

We figured that as he got older, maybe he would like being crafty because he's been around it... but it would be more nurture than nature...

Turns out my little super baby genius didn't need for me to show him the crafty ropes, he's got his own thing going on...

First, he did an awesome finger painting at escuela...

All the babies in his classroom have done some finger painting, but their's doesn't seem as arty... there's such movement and texture to this painting - I absolutely love it!

So, for Halloween, Quinn's teacher asked for me to bring a paper bag to school so that he could make a costume... um... yes, you got it - I will bring anything you need to encourage my son to be artistic!

He was a paper bag pumpkin... hand painted by the baby man himself...

Apparently, they all made little pumpkin stem hats to wear too - but none of the babies were into it...

They also made little trick or treat canisters... complete with googly eyes...

Love love love!

It just goes to show - you're never too young to express your artistic side! 

I'm so thankful that he's enrolled at a place that isn't afraid to get down with the crafting.

Can't wait for the little man to make some Christmas prezzies for the family!

My little strong man...

My buddy Vickie Howell has just launched a new bi-monthly column over at PBS Parents!  It's called Craft Apparent, and this month, it features four completely awesome baby Halloween costume ideas that go easy on your budget as well as your time and skill level!

Baby Quinn was asked to be a model for one of the costumes... Baby Strong Man...

 

I love that all the costumes featured in the column start with a plain white onesie.  This one was dyed with coffee for the 'skin tone' effect!  A little embroidery floss for the fake chest hair, some glitter cheetah fabric, felt, yarn, and fabric paint for the barbell and bing-bang-boom - baby strong man!

Getting a mustache on Mr. Man turned out to be a bit of a challenge, but we worked as a team and figured it out!

Head on over to PBS Parents to check out the rest of the costumes, you'll be glad you did!

The Cobbler's Kid actually has cute shoes...

The uncontrolable urge to have cute shoes for my little man began before he was even born.  Our good friends, Roger and Eliza sent these as a prezzie for the baby all the way from California...

Did you just die from cute overload... yeah, me too...

Once these little beauties arrived in our mail box, I was determined to find a way to custom make some cute baby shoes for my Mr. Man...

Check out this most awesome pattern from StardustShoes... click here... 

First things first - what sort of fabric should I use to make the shoes? 

How's about some fake snakeskin...

Pretty darn cool... I used felt as the lining...

How's about some cool muscle car fabric...

Oh, yes, super duper cool! Felt was used as the lining here as well, which, by the way, makes for some really warm and snuggly shoes - perfect in the winter, not so great in the sweltering 90 degree "fall" weather...

...and finally, had to make some out of some Amy Butler fabric scraps I had in my stash...

So, how did the baby like his new kicks?  Was it kind of like putting a neck tie on a cat?  Well, kind of - I didn't have to bribe him with tartar control chicken flavored cat treats, but he was not fond of the snakeskin shoes at first...

He seemed to like his muscle car shoes, but we ended up taking them off that day - it was just too darn hot outside...

Check out Dad's matching tie shirt - made for us by our buddy Mandy Joe...

I think Q appreciated the Amy Butler shoes the most - I lined them with plain ol' broadcloth, so, they were much lighter than the others... I also made him a matching bib-dana...

All in all, the pattern is totally easy - once you get the hang of it, you can make an entire pair of baby shoes in under an hour - seriously! 

Up next - Halloween inspired baby shoes, but of course!  

You'll say WOW every time!

Hello Friends!

How have you been?  I'm well, working on some little things here and there, completely ignoring my blog, etc. - you know...

So, turns out babies are quite drooly creatures.  Especially my guy Quinn and his friend Clover.  Clover's mommy and I decided that we should make the amazingly cute bib-danas found in Baby Stuff for our little ones...

...but here's the twist... regular cotton material didn't seem very... absorbent... so, we got to thinking... what is super duper absorbent, but still thin and soft - thereby being comfortable to wear but also do it's job properly... only one product seemed to fit this description...

 

Oh yes, my friends - you are seeing that right - it's Shamwow!

The Shamwow deluxe as-seen-on-TV jumbo pack comes with two different types of Shamwow - regular and super - also known as purple and yellow.

Here are C-Note and Q-Tip wearing their tribute to Dios De Los Muertos regular absorbency Shamwow bib-dana (wow - that's a mouth full!) and yellow bird super absorbency Shamwow bib-dana...

 

Cute and useful - thanks bib-dana!  And a special thanks to Vince and the Shamwow team (and I guess to Germany where Shamwow is made) - your product is keeping our little ones dry and fresh!

 
 

Baby Quinn is here!

Baby Quinn Kirby Canacorn has arrived!

Tuesday, June 9th  8:18pm
8lbs 2oz and 20 inches long

He's happy, healthy, and totally awesome!

I am so excited that he chose me to be his mommy - that makes me one lucky lady!

Applique!

It dawned on me a few weeks ago that my hopefully-soon-to-be-born child might need a little sun hat considering it's already in the 90s here in the ATX.

So, I popped over to Target to see what my options are...

Turns out, if you're a boy baby, you get really plain, ordinary hat choices - navy or khaki... no designs... no patterns... nada.

If you're a girl baby, you have at least 10 to 12 different super cute patterns, colors, sizes, shapes - it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet of baby hats all in various shades of pink with flowers, butterfiles, ladybugs, etc.

I went with both the navy and the khaki - one is toddler size, one is infant size.

My nephew, Logan (and his parents) will be visiting us later in the month from North Dakota - where I'm pretty sure it's still snowing and they don't ever see the sun... so, thought he could use a sun hat for Texas as well.

I left the Target with two plain boy hats and an idea... what if I were to try doing an applique on them... hmmm...

Thanks to a little searching on ye ol' interweb, I figured out what kind of interfacing I would need (Wonder Under) and that it's super duper cheap... yay!

Next up was figuring out what type of designs I wanted to do on the hats.

For my first try, I thought I would keep it simple and just do the babies initials - in similiar fabrics...

Check it out... I think they turned out pretty darn cute! The Wonder Under was sooooo easy to use - I'm already thinking about shapes and patterns for some onesies...

More Baby Bibs!

Finally!  The patterned baby bibs are complete!

My boy Chuy now has 10 custom made bibs courtesy of his mom and pop and the fabulousness that is Stencil 101.

The first six on muslin and the remaining 4 on various scraps of fabric I had in my stash... check it out!

 

 

I used plain white terrycloth as the back - figured it would be soft and would soak up various liquids well...

Now, to make a cute baby hat out of some awesome hot rod car fabric... because all babies need hot rod sun hats, don't cha think?

Baby Bibs!

In an on going effort to make sure that the cobbler's kid has shoes, I've tried to make sure Chuy gets to have at least a few handmade-by-me items in his stash of stuff...

One idea that The Hubs and I most recently tried our hand at was one that we participated in at our friends Vickie and Dave's baby shower a couple months ago... Stenciled baby bibs!

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Ed Roth's Stencil 101, stenciling has never been easier or more fun... Check it out...

Me working on a deer bib...  

The Hubs getting in on the crafty action...  

We stenciled on plain muslin as well as patterned fabric (which I have yet to sew into bibs... the couch and Oprah always tend to win that contest)...

I used a bib that I received as a present as my pattern and used velcro to make the closure at the top...

All in all, I think they turned out really cute... More pics soon when the patterned fabric ones finally are complete!

Time to move the bassinet...

We've been keeping the bassinet that our dear friends gifted us in the garage since we got it - to keep cats from sleeping in it...

Last night, we came home after seeing a movie to find this in our garage...

That's right - a big giant SNAKE! In our garage! Hanging out around our baby's bassinet! Not cool!

I've been wondering when the right time to bring the bassinet into the house would be... looks like that would be now-ish...

Drool

I'm an only child.

I never had younger siblings hanging around for me to help out with. I did a little babysitting when I was in high school, but the kids were 7 and 9 years old and "babysitting" meant hanging out, watching 90210, and eating dinner on their Dad's country club tab... not too shabby.

Needless to say, I have approximately zero hours of baby training. I've never even changed a diaper. When friend's babies end up in my arms, I usually give them back pretty quickly, but only because I'm not sure what I should do with them. 

As we're getting ready for Chuy's parole, I'm learning more and more about the mysterious world of babies... today's lesson... apparently, they drool... alot.

There's so much drool, in fact, that you need to be armed with things like bibs... and towels...

Thank goodness for Baby Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo! *yes, when I said I was going to make every single project in this book, I wasn't kidding*

Check out these awesome drool towels...

So cute - even if I do say so myself!

There's two different kinds here... Flimsy Bear...

...and Flopsy Bunny...

They were super dups easy to make - just a little terrycloth fabric, some felt for the eyes, and a bit of embroidery floss for the noses and mouths - that's it!

Best of all, apparently babies like to chew on the arms and legs of the Bear and the Bunny too - so, while he's being entertained, he's also staying drool-free, which makes this borderline OCD clean freak mom-to-be just a little bit more calm about the drool situation.