The Results Are In….

Ok everyone! We had our big ultrasound! But before I get to the exciting news, let me tell you what you all thought I was having:

53% of you said I was having a boy

40% said I was having a girl

and 7% said I was actually having twins (thanks)

Drumroll please!

 

We’re having a girl!!!!!

That’s right, Mackenzie is going to have a little sister. We were pretty shocked because we honestly thought we were having a boy but we’re excited nonetheless!

So because I of course want to show off my new little munchkin, here are our ultrasound pics. If you notice the baby is already an acrobat with her feet all the way up over her head! The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting good pics and measurements because she was curled up so much! But she was able to see enough to say that our little girl is right on track and very healthy!

So even though we have all of our old baby clothes still, I of course will be making some new things! So tell me, what are your favorite projects for baby girls??

Fall Wreath {tutorial}

Hey y’all! In case you missed my guest post last week over at I {heart} Naptime, here’s the tutorial! I’m so grateful to Jamielyn for letting me hang out over there!

PS…did you miss any of the ABC Quiet Book tutorials? You can find the whole list here!

So here’s the wreath we’ll be making":

 

Supplies Needed:

• Wreath form
• Raffia (I actually had it leftover from a Halloween costume I made for my husband that may have involved wearing thermal underwear as pants…that’s true love)
• Burgundy, orange, and yellow felt
• Burgundy, orange, and yellow embroidery felt
• One or two matching buttons
• Hot Glue

Step 1: Ok so I live in Texas. It’s still 100 degrees here. But I had to have some sort of fall decoration. I think I’m just trying to trick myself into thinking it’s actually cooler outside. My husband even had soup for lunch the other day. Anyway, so grab your raffia and wreath form. Pull a strand from the raffia and wrap it around the form closely together so you can’t see the Styrofoam underneath. I just wrapped around the end of the strand so that it would stay in place. Continue grabbing more strands and wrapping until the wreath is covered. I just sat and watch my daughter paint while I did this.

Step 2: Using 3 or 4 strands of raffia tie a bow. The strands I had were pretty long so I tied a double bow. Set aside.

Step 3: Out of your three pieces of felt cut three leaves. My leaves were about 3” long. I cut the first and then used it as a template for the other two so they were the same size and shape.

Step 4: Taking each of the leaves and it’s corresponding floss, embroider the veins into the leaves. I used a simple backstitch (forward on the back, backwards on the front…does that makes sense?). I just free handed it, though you could definitely draw them ahead of time. Repeat for all three leaves.

Step 5: Assembly time! I chose to put my raffia bow off to the side a little, though I’m sure it would look cute wherever. Glue the bow down first. Follow this with the three leaves. I put them together how I wanted them to look and then hot glued them to the bow. Finish it up with a button to cover the leaf bottoms. I used two buttons, but I’m sure one would do the trick. I finished it off with a thick piece of raffia on the back of the top to help it hang.

I'm linking up here:

ABC Quiet Book {Day 15 tutorial}

Today is the day! Can you believe it??? I hope that if any of you end of making one of your own (and I hope you do cause it’s so much fun!) that you will pretty please email me! I would love to do a spotlight post where I show off pictures of your quiet books! Now…without further adieu…onto the last ABC Quiet Book tutorial.

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
• Pink (or whatever color you want for the covers. you can use 2 separate pieces or one longer piece like I did)
• Pink sparkly
• Embroidery floss
• Pink (or whatever color you want)
• Pink yarn
• Y and Z page
• Last white felt page

Step 1: Since I knew there would be a leftover page I decided to make this a little note to my daughter. It’s a way for you and your child to remember it. Carefully write out your note on the white felt. I used cursive so it would look fancier but you certainly don’t have to. Then grab your embroidery floss and backstitch away.

Step 2: Grab yesterday’s page and the pink yarn and stitch these two together.

Step 3: Grab your cover felt. I decided to use a bigger piece that would wrap from front to back but you could just use two separate pieces. Line up all your pages and cut the felt to fit around them. Then this is where you bind them. I’m going to tell you my method, but you are free to use whatever way you want. In fact if you use a different method I would love to see it! I just grabbed the pink yarn and made similar stitches to the ones I used for the page edges, except bigger and through all the pages.

Step 4: Now for the finishing touches. Cut a small piece of the pink felt and hot glue a little pocket on the inside of the back cover. This is the perfect place to keep those x’s and o’s from your tic tac toe board. I then made the letters A B C from the pink sparkly and hot glued them to the front. Then I grabbed 4 pieces of ribbon and glued two to the front inside and two to the back inside so I could tie the book together.

And you’re done! PHEW! You can do you victory dance now. And now let’s admire the whole thing together, shall we?

Hurray!

Pink or Blue?

Ok folks…I have my big ultrasound on Sept. 28. So the big question is…boy or girl? I’ve decided not to tell you what I think it is so I don’t sway your vote one way or another. :) So weigh below on the poll and then tell me in your comments…what are you favorite baby names?

Is Britt having a boy or girl?
	Get ready for the blue...it's a boy!
	Break out the dresses...it's a girl!
	The other baby's just hiding...one of each!
pollcode.com free polls

ABC Quiet Book {Day 14 tutorial}

Today is the day we finish the letter pages! Wow! Tomorrow is just some binding and finishing touches and then BAM! we’re done completely. I must say, I’ll miss our daily meetings, but it will be a little relieving as well. Is that bad? Don’t worry, I will be back to my normal schedule so I’m not going away completely!

Oh and don’t forget to go and vote starting today on what you think I’m having! I find out next Wednesday and I would love to see what everyone thinks!

Supplies Needed:

• Embroidery floss
• Purple (or really whatever color you want)
• Yellow yarn
• Piece of cardstock
• Zipper
• Letters Y and Z
• White felt page

Step 1: Cut a circle out of the cardstock. I think mine was probably 2 1/2” in diameter. Using the yellow yarn, wrap up your circle. Make sure not to make it too tight or the paper will buckle, but not too loose that you see the paper underneath. You’re trying to get this to look like a yarn ball. I then put a line of glue on the back around the circle making sure it seeped down to the paper. I then cut out the middle in the back so it wouldn’t be too thick. And unfortunately I don’t have a picture. So you’ll just have to wait for the assembly step.

Step 2: Grab your zipper. I decided to cut a line into the felt where I wanted the zipper so when it opened it was like a big pocket. But you don’t have to. I actually used a zipper from an old pair of jeans but you can use any kind you want. Use the embroidery floss to stitch the zipper into place on the white page.

Step 3: Glue down your letters and yarn ball. I grabbed a smaller piece of yarn and glued it coming from underneath the ball so it looked like the end of the yarn ball. Then set aside for our final day tomorrow!

ABC Quiet Book {Day 13 tutorial}

Almost there! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• Brown
• Black or Black Sparkly
• Embroidery floss
• Grey or white
• Brad
• Pom Pom
• Dowel or lollipop stick
• Yellow yarn
• Pink yarn
• White felt page
• U and V page

Step 1: Let’s make the wheel first. For this you’ll need your black felt (I used black sparkly because that’s what I had around and I knew my daughter would prefer it), and your brad. Start by cutting a nice circle from the black. I think I traced the inside of a tape roll. Now my brad was something I had on hand and had some saying on it. Since this is a wheel I wanted it silver and plain so I took it outside for a quick spray paint coat.

Step 2: Set aside your wheel stuff. For the xylophone grab all the other felt. Make a trapezoid (big on one side and small on the other) shape from the brown. Then using the rainbow colors, make a small rectangle from each. The orange should be slightly small than the red, the yellow slightly smaller than the orange, and so on.

Step 3: Make a little mallet (I was informed by my percussionist husband that it is NOT a drumstick) using the dowel or lollipop stick and pom pom. I actually had lollipop sticks sitting around from another project so I just cut one in half and it was the perfect size. I then hot glued the pom pom to the end. To attach it I used the yellow yarn. I glued one end of the string to the bottom of the stick. Since this didn’t look very pretty I then wrapped a small piece of ribbon around it to cover the glue.

Step 4: Assembly time! Glue down your letters. For the wheel in the top right, I cut a small hole where I wanted the center of the wheel to be. I then cut a small hole through the center and the wheel and stuck the brad through both. I decided that I wanted it to look more like a wheel, so I used grey embroidery floss (though this is not necessarily needed) and made small spokes coming from the brad. Glue down the xylophone, making sure to put the loose end of the yellow yarn underneath the brown piece before you glue it down.

Step 5: Grab yesterday’s page and stitch together using the pink yarn.

ABC Quiet Book {Day 12 tutorial}

Welcome back! Are you counting down the days until we’re done or would you rather this went on forever? I’m a mix of both. Ah well!

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Gray or black
• Green (I used both a dark green and a light green)
• Embroidery Floss
• Orange
• Letters U and V
• White felt page

Step 1: For U we will be making an umbrella. I wanted it to be a multi-colored umbrella (red, orange, and yellow), but you can make it all one color. I started by drawing a template of an umbrella top on paper. I then used that to draw my first side piece (there will be five pieces total). I kept going until I had all five pieces. You can see what they look like in the picture. Then I just cut a pole and top from grey, though you could use black.

Step 2: All I could think of for V was vegetables. I mean, I had thought of “vase” but then I thought my daughter might focus more on the flowers aspect. For the first vegetable grab your orange and cut out a carrot shape. Cut some nice leafy green tops for it as well. I then used the dark green to cut out a pea pod shape and then the lighter green to cut out three small circles for peas.

Step 3: With the orange carrot and orange embroidery floss in hand, stitch the carrot. What are those called? Veins? I don’t know, but I’m talking about the curved lines that give the carrot texture.

Step 4: Grab your white page and start assembly. There aren’t any fun loose parts on this page, so just glue everything down. Then keep it in a safe place for stitching to tomorrow’s page!

Guest Posting over at I {heart} Naptime

Psst! Hey guess what?! I’m guest posting today over at I {Heart} Naptime.

 

I’ll be sharing a tutorial on how I made this fabulous fall wreath:

Come check it out!

ABC Quiet Book {Day 11 tutorial}

It’s the beginning of the last week! What on earth are you going to do with your time when we’re done? I certainly have no idea. Guess I’ll just have to start on my never ending to do list of projects!

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
• Yellow
• Red
• Blue
• Embroidery Floss
• Blue
• Yellow
• White felt page
• Letters S and T
• Pink yarn
• Q and R page

Step 1: Draw a star on your yellow felt and cut out. I used the blue floss to embroider two smaller stars inside the yellow one. I drew the lines first, though you could free hand if you wanted. Set aside.

Step 2: Make five small x’s and four small o’s (x’s always go first in tic tac toe, but you could make five of each if you’re feeling ambitious). I made the x’s out of blue and the o’s out of red. Set aside. For some reason I don’t have a picture of the these pieces but you can see them in the end picture.

Step 3: Glue down your letters and star. In the bottom left corner use the yellow embroidery floss to stitch a tic tac toe board. You’re going to be making a pocket for the tic tac toe pieces at the end, but don’t worry, they really won’t go anywhere since felt sticks to itself.

Step 4: Grab that pink yarn and the Q and R page and stitch the two pages together just as you have done. Then stay tuned for tomorrow!

ABC Quiet Book {Day 10 tutorial}

End of Week 2! Only five more days after this! Alright let me think for a sec…what letters were we on? Oh yeah Q and R! Ok let’s get this started.

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
• Red
• Red Sparkly (though you could just use regular red)
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• White Sparkly
• Embroidery Floss
• Black or Flesh colored (it’s up to you)
• Red
• Blue
• Yellow yarn
• White felt page
• Letters Q and R

Step 1: I originally was going to do a question mark for the letter Q, but my husband informed me that was very lame. So I went for a queen instead. Start with your red sparkly (or just plain red). Cut a little dress shape from it. Or just a triangle. Then cut a tiny little crown from the yellow.

Step 2: For R we are doing a rainbow. Start with red and draw a thin curved line. Cut it out and use it as a template to draw the orange and so on until you get to purple. Then cut a cloud that is big enough to cover the bottom out of the sparkly white.

Step 3: Glue the letters onto the page. In the upper right corner glue the queen’s dress down. Make sure you leave enough space at the top for her head. Draw a little stick figure from the dress (arms, legs, a neck, nose, and head). Using a backstitch, embroider these lines (except for the feet). I used flesh colored, but you could go true stick figure style and use black. Then use red for the mouth and shoes. Use blue French knots for the eyes. I then threaded some yellow yarn around her face and frayed it for hair (except for at the top where the crown would go). It’s not very much. Her hair ended up looking crazy but I love it.

Step 4: Carefully glue down the rainbow pieces. I just started with red and only glued the bottom half of each color so I could hold firmly onto them while I placed them so they were nice and together. Then I glued the tops and finally the cloud. And now you’re done for the weekend!

ABC Quiet Book {Day 9 tutorial}

Can you believe we’re nearly done with our second week of this quiet book? Only a few more days to go! And we’re already over half way done with the alphabet.

Supplies Needed:

• Felt
  • Purple
  • Orange
  • Brown
  • Green
• Embroidery Floss
  • Orange
  • Blue
• White Felt Page
• Letters O and P
• M and N page
• Pink yarn

Step 1: Draw an octopus body on the purple with four legs. Cut out. Then trace the body of the octopus onto more purple. This time draw four more legs that do not coincide with the first four. Does that make sense? You’ll be layering them and you want to be able to see all eight legs.

Step 2: On the piece you want to use as the top piece, use the blue embroidery floss to make two eyes. I just used two French knots.

Step 3: Cut a pumpkin shape out of the orange felt. Cut a stem fro the brown and a little squigly leaf from the green.

Step 4: Use the orange floss and a backstitch to embroider curved lines onto your pumpkin. I drew mine first just because I was afraid I’d mess up by just winging it.

Step 5: Assembly time! Glue down your letters. For the octopus glue down the entire bottom octopus piece, including tentacles. Then place the top piece on and only glue the head. That way four legs are loose. When you move to the pumpkin, glue the stem and leaf down first and then the pumpkin. I have to tell you: the pumpkin is one of my favorite individual pieces. I know it’s simple but I just love how it turned out.

Step 6: Stitch together with the M and N page using the pink yarn.