A Vintage First Birthday

Here are a few pics from my daughter's first birthday! My favorite part was the Happy Birthday banner I created from some of my grandma's vintage lace and fabric. I love to incorporate items from different family members into my project's as  it gives each piece a unique story! I was thinking about posting a tutorial about how I created the banner...but I didn't take any pics...hmmm...maybe I'll try to backtrack the process a little and get a few pics for you guys! It's really pretty easy!

The next picture is very sad.......it shows what happens when you stick the cupcakes in the oven so that the dogs won't eat them and then your husband turns on the oven, after I told him not to!

But! I was able to quickly re-ice them and everything turned out okay. This will definitely be a fun story to share when my daughter grows up! AND, now my husband checks the oven before turning it on:) 

Holiday Dress

Photo Via Crochet Today

As much as I don't want to admit it, but I've had to come to terms with the fact that Christmas is right around the corner!!......Sort of right...I'm mean all the retailers are beginning to put out their holiday gear..YIKES!!! Don't get me wrong I love the holidays, I just wish they were not so commercialized and lasted for only a month instead of 3!! Anyhoo...I've been stressing over what type of dress to make for little girl this year, as it will be her first Christmas so it needs to be something special and I'm totally feeling the pressure!!:) The pressure was lessened yesterday however when I saw the cover of my sisters crochet magazine, how wonderful is that dress!! It will be perfect..it's a little vintage...and not to holidayish......now to find the fabric?

Homemade Baby Food: Batch Two Pretty Peas

Since my butternut squash was such a cinch and turned out much better than expected I moved onto peas! Peas were super easy! I purchased a bag of frozen organic peas, so that meant all that was left to do was steam and puree! When finished they were so bright and beautiful, they did not have that typical brown tinge that I find that so many of the store bought peas have. They were also very tasty, I'm not a big pea fan and I loved them and so did my daughter! I was very nervous about introducing peas as I wasn't sure that she would really enjoy them, but after I saw how beautiful the peas had turned out I knew they would be a hit!

Homemade Baby Food: Batch One Butternut Squash + Photo Tutorial

After reading many books and discussing options with my doctor I have decided to create my own baby food. This was such a big decision to due the fact that I can not cook!! I will be the first to admit my non-existent cooking skills but I'm pretty sure that it stems from the fact that I truly dislike cooking and I suppose it's hard to be good at something that you hate:) I really enjoying eating however I tell everyone that if I were to win the lottery the first thing I would do would be to hire a personal chef! Forget a nice car, I want good food:)

Anyhoo I went out and purchased a steamer which I figured would be my best bet as far as cooking the food, as it is pretty much plug and play......all you are required to do is add water and set the timer! The following is a picture process of how I prepared my first batch of baby food...which went surprisingly VERY well and My daughter has already enjoyed many servings!

Step 1: Cut squash into large chunks( i hate the word chunks, I'll think of something better later) and hull out the seeds. Do not worry if you miss a few seeds or if you can not remove all the stringiness as this is much easier to remove after it has been steamed:) Also there is no need to remove the skin/shell before steaming as once you have steamed the squash you will scoop the meat out of the shell and into the blender, it's very easy I promise!

Step 2: Once you have steamed your squash, according to the time set by your particular steamer, take a fork and make sure you can easily poke/push all the way through the squash. If the fork easily pushes all the way through than your done steaming and your ready to scoop and blend.

Step 3: Scoop squash meat out of it's shell and into your blender or food processor which ever you prefer:) Make sure you remove and discard the excess seeds that you may have missed. You will need extra water for blending so for this you can use the excess water left in the tray of your steamer, see picture below, this water contains many of the vitamins that may have lost during steaming.

Step 4: Your almost done!! That wasn't so hard was it!! All you have left to do is blend and freeze. Blend until you achieve a very smooth and creamy texture, see picture below. Here's a tip on blending, if it seems as if your blender is churning away yet the squash is not moving than you may need to add more water. I have found that this usually gets things moving. Also with larger foods like squash you will have to scoop and blend a few times as it will usually not all fit into the blender at once.

Step 5: Scoop squash out of blender and into ice trays for freezing, they sell special ice trays just for this purpose that are bpa free and safe for baby food, I have since purchased these. They are also nice for freezing breast milk as they come with airtight lids! Once frozen, approx. 12-14 hours simply pop the food cubes out of there trays and store in freezer bags. Make sure to date and label your bag, most say it will stay good for up to 3 months but I always think the sooner the better:)

To Serve: When serving the food I typically thaw each cube in the microwave for approx. 30 seconds. Always be sure to mix thoroughly to avoid hot spots. You can also thaw in the refrigerator for approx. 4 hours.

Fun Side Note: I purchased this organic butternut squash for approx. $5.50 and it made 36 servings, how wonderful is that! It's yummy, beautiful, healthy, and inexpensive!

Elephant Template and Instructions for Blanket

While shopping for baby cloths I've seen tons of items with cute little elephants appliqued on them, so I decided to create and share my own elephant template so that I and you could create your own elephant gear. Here is one item I found at target that would be super easy to re-create yourself:)

It's a super cute and cozy fleece blanket, I wish I had created one of my own already to share with you but I figured if you had to wait until I actually finished the blanket to share this template with you it might be Christmas before I got it posted...LOL. However the the blanket is super easy to recreate with just simple instructions.

Click here to Download Template

Instructions For Blanket:

Materials:

Fleece large enough for a blanket size of your choice

Small piece of fleece for elephant and ear

Embroidery Floss (if you want to stitch around the edge of the blanket)

1.Cut out a square piece of felt to what ever sized blanket you would like, it would also be fun to round the corners.

2. Create blanket stitch around the edge of blanket with embroidery floss, this is not necessary if time is short:)

3. Cut out elephant template in coordinating fleece fabric, you can use a different color for the ear if you would like.

4. Pin ear onto elephant and stich around edges

5.Pin elephant onto blanket and stitch around edges, you may turn under the edges as you stitch for a more finished look, however fleece does not fray so turning under is not necessary.

P.S....The tail can be left off or created with emroidery floss as it is to small to re-create with fleece.

I will be the first one to admit that I'm not the best at writing tutorials so if there's anything missing or something doesn't make since please just let me know:) I wanted to share an elephant template with you so you could create your own elephant gear for your little one's:)

Mini Baby Quilt For?

I found this (mini?) baby quilt that I made some time ago hidden underneath a mound of fabric the other day. I can't remember the reason for making it, but something tells me the small size is the reason that I never used it. Now I'm scratching my head wondering why I made it so small, but it has made a wonderful little stroller blanket for little girl, and matches her room amazingly well!! I figure it will also make a perfect quilt for her dolls as she gets older.

New Baby Set

My prep school plaid monogrammed onesie and shoes.

New Monogrammed Onesie

I found this wonderful vintage reproduction fabric the other day and I though it looked so cute with the red polka dots behind it.

Newest item: Simple and Sweet shoes for Baby

I am so excited to start offering these adorable baby shoes. I have been drawing up plans for them for a while. I will be introducing a lot more styles soon, I'm hoping to create them into an adult sized house shoe.
My inspiration for this project came from the wonderfully awesome Zakka craft books, I just loved there simple designs, they are so beautiful. So if your in the need for a wonderful new craft book I would highly recommend buying one of these books.
Check out http://chocolateswirl.etsy.com/ for a wonderful selection of Japanese craft books. :)