Nursery Nook Sneak Peek

Hello again!

I am busy enjoying a full summer that included a visit from Cliff's best friend, a trip to Vegas and a visit from our in-laws. Good times.

I have also been really busy in my classroom. We are getting a new reading program and I couldn't be more excited. I had been teaching the same reading program and stories for eight years and was feeling a little stale. This new program is jam packed and the schedule will be tighter than ever. Not the best time in my life to be so challenged, but it still feels like a shot in the arm to have new stories and fresh new books.

And, like most of the bloggers I read, Pinterest has been taking up quite a bit of my crafting time.

Source: littlelovely.typepad.com via J on Pinterest

This image had me at hello.

I have always liked "sleep" as a nursery theme.  Since our baby's last name starts with "Z" I had originally planned a collage of "z's" for over the crib.

When I saw picture this I fell in love. It captures the sleep theme. It's very feminine and completely earthquake safe. It's also temporary.

For the time being,  the baby will be sleeping in our room. We have a guest room that will be pretty busy with family coming in from out of town to visit and frankly, I am not prepared to have a baby sleep so far away. I thought, why bother with a crib in one room and a bassinet in another? So we put the crib in our master bedroom and left the guest room as is. I am not sure how long this arrangement will last, but I think it will meet our needs for the first few months.

Back to the banner, my first thought was to copy it verbatim.  Then shortly after I saw that picture, I happened to just glance over my shoulder while walking out of the Goodwill and saw this mess out of the corner of my eye.


It was an assortment of lightweight plastic birds. The sweet kind that remind me of the birds who hold ribbons in Cinderella.

 They aren't as earthquake friendly as the paper ones in the inspiration photo, but they are hallow and do have a sturdy hook to hang them with.

I have a whole flock to work with!

Clips- Instead of Pins

Clips saved me with this project! So much easier, quicker and painless.

Extream Makeover: Car Seat Edition- The Reveal

I did it! I was nervous and also challenged the whole time, but I love it and I am thrilled with the results. Once I built up the nerve to try and remake the hood, I realized that I wasn't bound to the orange, gray, tan color scheme. I found a large piece of green twill in my stash and bought the polka dot fabric from Joannes.  I recycled all the trim and bias tape from the old seat and just added a bit of homemade bias tape on the hood for detail.



I took lots of pictures of the original seat as the tutorial suggested, but not necessarily the one I needed. Isn't that the way! So from time to time it was a real challenge to figure the best way to sew a certain seam, or bias tape, etc... Still, I found the challenge to be enjoyable. It's not often that I do something completely new.

I used the exact padding on the seat cover so that only the top fabric was changed. I used the black edging from the original car seat that has all the loops, elastic and holes to secure it to the seat. However, I greatly simplified the design on the hood which had a patchwork of clear vinyl, mesh, and several colors. Using the lining as a pattern I made the hood out of four solid pieces.



The vinyl window was a real challenge with my machine until I remembered reading a post long ago about sewing vinyl with tissue paper. It worked like a charm. It was so cool to see how much my sewing skills have grown over my years blogging! However, this took hours and hours to do! I think it was a one time deal for me!

As for the safety issues of a replacement cover. Yes, I am aware that it may void my warranty and that the safety techs who will install it probably will comment on how it is less safe. I can only hope the CHP officer who installs it is as good looking as Ponch or John while he lectures me.

In all seriousness though, I did weigh all my options before choosing to do this. With all parenting decisions we all have to weigh which risks we will worry about and which we can just accept. We live in the heart of LA and unlike many Angelenos, we do very little driving. Very little. And the local driving we do experience is often at *very* low speeds. My husband works from home and his 18 year old car has less than 65,000 miles on it.  The reality is that parking where we live is expensive so we often walk to restaurants and museums. Most of the miles this car seat experiences will be via stroller.

Also, we have a brand new "My Ride 65" that will be our primary car seat once the baby is about 13 pounds or so. The reviews on that car seat (and my SIL's personal experience) state that it's a bit hard to adjust with a tiny baby and great with bigger babies.

So there you have it! My very first sewing project for Baby Girl!

Extream Makeover: Car Seat Edition

 I  have finally embarked on a sewing project for my own wee one!

We have been so blessed to receive tons of hand-me-downs for this lucky baby. We already have a crib, high chair, car seat and stroller! The excitement and generosity of our friends is amazing and I am so grateful.

Source: google.com via J on Pinterest

This is a stock photo of our car seat. Our friends Will and Kristen gave it to us along with a really cool stroller. We know it has never been in an accident, we have been in touch with Maxi Cosi checking for recalls etc... Everything checks out and we are set to go. Early on, when I thought  I might have a boy, I was totally content. But, after learning we were having a girl, I began itching for something a little more feminine. I started noticing little stains and scuff marks.

Source: makeit-loveit.com via J on Pinterest

Then I saw this car seat makeover and tutorial on Make It And Love It and I was suddenly obsessed with the idea of pimping my ride.

At first, I was intimidated and felt limited by very intermediate sewing skills.

Then I learned that a replacement cover from Maxi Cosi was just $36. Not such a big risk after all.

I decided to just recover the seat part. The hood seemed way out of my range. I created a "pinboard" to save fabric ideas that might work with the hood colors.  To my surprise, there were a lot of girly orange fabrics out there. I even had some plain orange denim in my stash that would work well enough.

I read the tutorial about a thousand times and studied every inch of the car seat's construction.  That's when I realized I would never be happy with just recovering the seat. It was a "If you give a mouse a cookie" situation. If I was going to go through all that work to recover the seat, I wanted the hood to look fresh and new too.
 
So I did it! I used my seam ripper and spent hours carefully deconstructing, photographing, and labeling each and every piece of that car seat cover and hood!

It was intense!  I learned so much from the whole process. The first thing I learned:

Source: etsy.com via J on Pinterest

The women on Etsy who make and sell custom car seat covers (such as this one above) earn every single penny they charge!


Tune in tomorrow for the results of my latest obsession.

Thanks! & The Story

Thanks for all your kind words, prayers and thoughts.

This pregnancy has certainly has been a lesson in patience, determination and ultimately surrender.

The short story is that I had some weird bleeding at the beginning of  my Easter break. I had planned each day with an inch of it's life. I had plans to paint the bed my dad and I made. I planned to paint our bedroom. I had lots of errands and social gatherings. I was busy with a capital B.

But, the bleeding was strange and gross and I thought "Welcome to your 40's" and called the doctor. Of course my beloved Dr. Dwight (real name awesome OBGYN in LA-seriously) was booked solid so I met with a new partner. Dr. Yamaguchi. She was/is terrific too. She told me I was pregnant, but that my uterus was full of blood clots and I would more than likely loose this baby. There was no way for her to measure how far along I was. She couldn't really see anything. My mind went totally blank and I couldn't think of dates either. I asked her if I should cancel my plans and go on bed rest.  She assured me that there was nothing I could do to cause or prevent a miscarriage.

I told Cliff that good and bad news. The good news was, that after seven years of trying and six rounds of IVF and three miscarriages-we actually got pregnant on our own! And the bad news, this one wasn't going to make it either.

We cried for about 10 minutes and then I just went on with my life. I buried this pregnancy deep in denial and went on with all my plans. The bleeding continued for weeks on and off. At this point I was working after school and on Saturdays getting my students ready for state testing. Things at school were very stressful.

Sure I was tired, but hey that's the story of my life. Other than that I had no symptoms of pregnancy and on the few times when I allowed myself to even think about it, the lack of symptoms seemed to convince me further that this was not going to work out.

In early May, my family suffered a loss and I took two weeks off to mourn. I felt so guilty about being away from school, but I knew that I needed this time to rest. It was then that I remembered that I never did miscarry. So, I asked Cliff to take me back to the doctor to schedule the D&C. I figured the day already was sad and awful, let's just get all the bad stuff out of the way.

I couldn't even look at the screen. I did not want a memory of what wouldn't be. Even when Dr. Yamaguchi said, "Look at the four chambers of the heart." I was scared to turn my head. When I did, I saw an 11 week old fetus!  It was too much, I just couldn't comprehend it all.

Dr. Yamaguchi advised us to wait until 16 weeks to announce just to be safe. I had 3 previous miscarriages to warrant a high risk scan at 12 weeks.  Everything looked perfect there too. But, Cliff and I were still too nervous to get excited. At 16 weeks I was terrified because I wasn't feeling anything, but the doctors appointment went well. Still I was mum.

I went to a therapist to try and sort out what I can only describe as post traumatic stress syndrome.

Finally, at the 20 week high risk scan I could exhale. I was showing, but only a few people caught on. Most of my friends thought I was stress eating. Nobody said anything and I am grateful. The "telling" was so scary because "un-telling" is so sad and miserable.

Needless to say, the excitement our family, friends and you have shown is wonderfully overwhelming. I have cried so many times hearing that this person or that has been praying for me/us. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

The flowers and pink baby clothes were waiting for me in the guest room at my parents house. I spent ten days relaxing, swimming, and catching up with them. It was a wonderful way to start my second trimester.

Not Exactly "Crafting"

Source: weheartit.com via J on Pinterest

Happy 4th of July -

Happy 4th of July!

This is not a typical 4th of July post in that there is no red, white, or blue craft in it. Instead, I want to celebrate a little of what makes America great for me. It's the small things.It's the kindness of strangers, the willingness to help, and Yankee ingenuity just to name a few.

Not too long ago my neighbors discovered a teeny tiny hummingbird egg smashed on the deck outside their apartment. Turns out, the bottom of the nest was weak and the eggs were dropping as fast as mama bird could lay them. (If ever I could relate to a hummingbird it was this one.) Well, my neighbors used a bit of creativity to solve that problem with a cotton ball and some surgical tape.

Mama bird laid more eggs and now there are two baby hummingbirds thriving.  You can just see their heads and beaks here.

Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.”

Bob Richards quote

A special thanks to our military men, women, and families. YOU are our cotton ball and surgical tape!