Maggie Monday-Valentine Mini Shoot

I did not intend to have pictures taken for Valentine's Day...I mean, who does that? Apparently, I do. 

Jennifer Hall posted a sneak peek of the set she put together for the shoot, and I KNEW that Maggie had the perfect dress for the set. I couldn't resist it.  When else is she going to wear this dress?  The headband was custom made to go with the dress. It was just too perfect, right?

With this mini shoot, there were 4 digital files and a Facebook cover file included, but I just couldn't narrow it down, so I ended up with 8 files, paying for 4 additional files.

Maggie does this little face almost every time!

 

Mummy couldn't resist the glasses!

She wasn't a fan of the wings...

...so we distracted her with candy!

My love...so beautiful!

Maggie's next photo shoot will be her first birthday smash cake session. I can't believe she is almost 1 already! Where has the time gone? My sister is making the cake with bright rainbow icing. I'm sure it will a HUGE mess!

More to come,

Maggie's First Birthday Chalkboard

Miss Maggie's birthday is coming up in 9 days. I can't believe that time has gone so fast! I return to work in a short 7 days! Crazy.

So in planning Maggie's birthday party, I want to keep it simple. I mean, she's not going to remember, so no need to go cray-cray. So, the theme is stripes. Target is in the middle of being liquidated here in Canada, so I got stripey invitations, large plates, a paper bunting banner, a make your own message banner and plates at pretty good prices. Oh, and thank you cards and loot bags.

As I was searching around for other ideas, I came across millions many blog posts about chalkboard posters. This trend is probably passé, but I really like it. I am not crafty enough to make an actual poster by hand, so I chose to use PowerPoint to create the poster. Several days and many computer hours later, here is the (almost) finished product:

I even figured out how to make it a jpeg so that I can get it printed as a photo for Maggie's baby book. There are some small things I need to tweek, like updating her weight and height, and I just noticed the little gap in the "I love" section, I'll have to fix that. Other than that, I love it!  I am going to go to Staples to see how much it will cost to make into an 11"x17" poster to hang at the party. I can also upload the JPEG file to Shutterfly and make smaller prints.

More to come,

Maggie Monday-6 Month Photos

Maggie had changed so much in her first 6 months that I decided to have her photos taken again by Jennifer Hall. I just love the photos she takes.

I love this face!

 

Eyelashes for miles

Hello!

Jenn captures the best moments

My favourite

More to come,

Maggie Monday-Newborn Photos

Here is installment 2 in the series of Maggie photography sessions. 

25 days after my maternity photo shoot (see that post here), Maggie decided to make her entrance. Love at first sight doesn't even begin to cover it! (You moms know what I'm talkin' about.)

Our newborn photo shoot was then scheduled. Again, shot by the fantastic Jennifer Hall, in her home studio. Check out her portfolio here.

 How cute were those squishy newborn photos going to be?!? Well, you be the judge...here are four of my favourites. 

Wise Winnie

Grumpy sleeper!

A kiss from Goober

My grandmother crocheted the blanket

And really the only reason I had maternity photos taken, was to get this before and after photo. I first saw this kind of photo in a People magazine article when P!nk was introducing her first daughter. I knew that when I had a baby, I wanted the same thing. Jenn did not disappoint.

Look at the love!

Thanks for indulging my over-share!

More to come,

It's Elementary Soft Book

Last night I dusted of the sewing machine and revved it up! I had done some sewing for Christmas gifts, but as I was sewing last minute, I had no time to take pictures, let alone write a blog post. Someday I will catch you up on what I made.

I bought this soft book panel at Sew What?, a lovely quilt shop in Buffalo, NY, when I went on a shopping trip with friends in December 2013.  I was 6 months pregnant at the time, and having strong nesting feelings at the time. I bought a whole bunch of fabrics, most of which still need to be used in some way.

It's Elementary soft book panel by South Seas Imports

It was so cute, I couldn't resist buying 2. And they sat and and sat and sat. I even took them to my mom's place when I moved there just before I had the baby and for 2 months after. And they sat there, too. 

My nephew is going to be 1 year old on the 25th. It is hard to believe that the year has gone by so quickly! I mentioned Lucas in this post. (I am also planning on completing The Quiet Book.) My own baby girl is now 10 months old.  10 months! Since my sister-in-law is planning Lucas' birthday party, I figured I should finally put this together.

I was a little nervous about this project. I have used my machine for piecing and for sewing clothes, but never with a layered quilty project like this. I read the instruction panel and a bit of it didn't really make sense, but I figured if I just started, it would straighten itself out by the time I got there.

First step was to cut out the book panes on the dotted line. There was a note about leaving 1/4 inch for the seam allowance, but that is already included in the dotted line space. That was confusion #1.

2 panels cut out

Next, I layered the listed pages with right sides together, then placed them on a piece of quilt batting.

Pages layered with batting

All lined up and ready for pins

The batting I was using was iron-on, so for the first couple of pages, I used the iron. I found that the batting would stick to the ironing board, then to the cloth I used, so I decided to skip the iron and just pin the panels and the batting together.

All pinned up and ready to sew!

Next, I sewed around the outside. There was a white line on the front of the panel that I could see through on the back, so I sewed just to the outside of that line. 

On my first page, I left a 3 inch gap so it could be turned inside out...I learned my lesson! On the remaining pages I left 4-5 inches open to make turning easier.

The seam

The gap - needs to be larger!

The edges need to be trimmed to reduce the bulk near the seams when the pages are turned right side out. Also, the corners nipped off so the corner is a pointy as possible.  Here, I learned an important lesson...in order to hand sew the gap after turning, you need to leave more fabric at the gap...in other words don't trim the fabric off. The batting at the gap, however, should be trimmed lower than the seam, so that it does not get in the way when closing the gap by hand.

Trim...

...nip off the corners...

...and turn.

I closed the gap by hand sewing, using a blind stitch (I think).

For Maggie's book I decided to top stitch around each box on the page. It turned out a little wonky, so I skipped that on Lucas' book.

Last, the pages were stacked together in the correct order and I sewed the all together down the centre.

TA DA!

All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours to put both of these books together. I am quite happy with how they turned out. An easy project, made with love. I would definitely buy another soft book panel.

More to come,

5 Things I Couldn't Live Without in January

I know, I know. It's been waaay too long since my last post. Miss Maggie is 10 months old (when did THAT happen?) now and the last time I posted, I was had modified a pair of baby sunglasses for our trip to Kelowna...in AUGUST!  Sorry.

The inspiration for this post is a recent post from GnomeAngel.  Read her post here.

So, here are the 5 things I couldn't live without this past January.

1.  Black leather mitts
It has been cold this month. I mean, it's January in Ontario, of course it is cold. Without a doubt, my black leather mitts have helped me keep warm.  Nice soft leather on the outside, toasty polar fleece on the inside. Quick to warm up my fingers, even if I left them in the car overnight.

2.  Bath time
My little one LOVES the bath. Without fail, putting Maggie into a nice warm tub of water brings out her smiles and giggles. Splashing and chasing toys around the tub are common sights. This time of day makes me thankful that I am a mum.

Bath time! Happy baby!

3. Calendar app
I have been leaning on this app all month. I am not able to remember events in the same way as when I was younger. Pile on pregnancy brain, followed by baby brain  (these are real afflictions, people!) and I will not be anywhere unless it is in my calendar.

4. My photographer
Who knew that one day I would be able to say that I have a preferred photographer? I am so glad that I found Photography & Design by Jennifer Hall. She takes fantastic photos. Below are a sample of the pics I have from my maternity, newborn and 6 month photo shoots. We just did a Valentine's Day mini shoot, as well. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

5. Nap time
This one is a no brainer! Maggie has been teething so there are days when she is whiney and clingy and I can't get anything done. On one hand, I try to treasure these times because soon enough she won't want anything to do with me. But, on the other, nap time gives me a well deserved break.

I'm hoping that this is the start of a blogging renewal. Thanks for the inspiration, GnomeAngel!

More to come,

Baby Sunnies Hack

I sewed!!  It was hand sewing, but sewing, nonetheless!

I purchased a pair of sunglasses for Maggie (almost 4 months old!) at Mountain Equipment Co-op yesterday.  They were these ones:

MEC Adele Sunglasses (Kids)

When I put them on her with the red strap, they were a bit too big, even on the tightest that the Velcro fastens.  But, I bought them anyway because I thought that I might be able to tweak them when I got home.

Into my supplies I jumped, and came out with 1" black ribbon, 1" black elastic, some black thread and a needle.

I didn't even measure...I just cut off a length of ribbon that I thought was long enough, and then cut another using the first piece as a guide.  After I took off the red strap that came with the glasses, I threaded one piece of ribbon into the slot on each side of the sunglasses until the ribbon was at the halfway point.

On each side of the sunglasses, I folded the cut ends of the ribbon over to the wrong side and pressed them with my finger nail.  I put the end of the elastic between the two folded over ribbon ends and hand sewed the elastic to the ribbon.  I did not cut the elastic to length before I sewed.

Next, I put the sunglasses around Maggie's face and decided how much elastic would be needed to fit her.  I held the length, and cut it.

On the unsewed side, I folded the cut ends of the ribbon over to the wrong side, and just like the first side, pressed them down with my finger nail.  Again, I put the end of the elastic between the folded ribbon ends and hand sewed it in place.

The result...

On my beautiful model...

And while we were on vacation in Kelowna, BC

More to come,