Toddler Valentines

These were inspired by these Valentines that I found on Pinterest. 

I used the "love bear" design ID #37323 from the Silhouette store. I printed 2 sheets of the bears and let Liam go to town with crayons. I used my Silhouette to cut the bears out after he colored them. When I initially created the label, I drew the words using a pink glitter sketch pen, but it was taking forever and my toddler wasn't patient to wait for the "cutting machine" to get on with our project. The next 2 sheets of the labels I printed instead. I was out of colored ink, so black it was. 

Liam did a great job attaching the 3M sticky dots to the backs of the bears. I showed him how to do it and he kept repeating my instructions as he was working. "This one goes in the garbage. Stick it on the head. This goes in the garbage. Stick it on the butt." And repeat. Eventually he added "I'm proud of you" to the end of his process because I kept saying that each time he would finish one.

Once the labels were assembled, I hot glued them to snack packs of Teddy Graham cookies. We will take them to the park tomorrow to share with his playgroup.

Nap time crafting may be a thing of the past, but doing projects with Liam is pretty fun, too. 

'Tis the Season

It's not quite time for Christmas music or Evergreen trees, but October is the official start of my busy season. Over the next few months I have: Liam's birthday, Halloween, Liam's birthday party, a mini-road trip, in-laws in town, Thanksgiving, our 6th wedding anniversary, my family coming to town, Christmas, a baby shower, New Years, a 2nd baby shower. By the time all of that is done, I will have reached my due date. Keeping so busy, I know it's going to be here before I know it.

I started planning for Liam's birthday party a few weeks ago. We are not having a huge party like last year, just family and my very best friends whose kids are around Liam's age. I think it will still be fun though. I love how the invitations turned out. I used the print and cut feature and pop up dots for the car, airplane and banner to give it dimension.

Liam has been quite the toddler lately. One moment he is the funniest, sweetest kid. A minute later he is having an absolute meltdown because I took the lid off of the yogurt instead of letting him. "My do it" is one of those phrases I hear all the time: brushing his teeth, buckling the car seat, cooking, brushing my teeth. It's right up there with "I help Mama" of phrases that I don't like to hear.

Can I brag? Liam says "thank you" without me prompting him, even to strangers. It's awesome. He has also started to say "bless you" and "please." His please is so cute that I can't resist it. I'm sure he'll eventually figure out that he can get anything he wants by using it and it will lose its charm.

We're still struggling with his eating a sleeping. This video was shot around 10:30 sometime last week. Most nights are like this:

I love my crazy boy!

Nap Time Crafting: Pinwheel Quilt

One of my best friends just had a baby girl. After our group of friends had 4 boys in a row, it was really exciting to sew for a girl. I started on this quilt a long time ago, but morning sickness and exhaustion turned my "Nap Time Crafting" into "Nap While Liam Naps." I finally finished this quilt a few weeks ago and gave it to my friend this past weekend.

I used Sew, Mama, Sew!'s Pinwheels in the Park pattern. Her suggestion for taping down the backing was a great idea.

I was going to do a simpler quilt, but I am really glad that Dan talked me into the more complicated, but much more beautiful quilt. I strayed from the pattern just a bit and did a scrappy binding. I love scrappy bindings.

October Week 1

I started October, my month of focusing on Liam, with a trip to the zoo. We go pretty often, but hadn't been in a while. The weather cooled down just enough that it was tolerable in the early morning. 

so cute in Momma's hat

Liam is starting to get to the age where he has strong opinions. These opinions are not always convenient for me, but I try to let him have his way when it's not a big deal. He insisted on pushing the stroller without any assistance from me. "I do it! Let go!"

A litter of capybaras was born since our last visit to the zoo. They are pretty cute.

Me and Liam's favorite part of the zoo is the kids' discovery area. Liam likes to dig in the sandbox, play with the toys and see all of the little critters in their cages. I like that it is inside in the air conditioning.

It's nice to finish our visits to the zoo with some time at the splash pad. Liam is tall enough that he can wander the whole area, with my close supervision of course. I'm the mom sitting on the rock in the middle of the splash park with my pants rolled up and my feet in the water. There weren't a lot of kids out, so Liam had the boat to himself.

clean, dry & ready to go home

 Our play group has started weekly trips to playgrounds for the "fall." It's is still way too hot to be outside for very long, especially since my kid wants to be pushed in the swing in the full sun instead of playing independently while I sit under the shade. He actually did do very well this week. We hadn't been to this park in a while, so I was surprised at all the new things he could do.

As part of my goal to get Liam's room organized, Dan and I put up bookshelves in an odd corner in Liam's room. I still need to caulk them and touch up the paint, but they are functional for now.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go to a painting class. My sister came over and stayed with Liam while I was gone. When Dan and I went to this class a few months ago, it took me weeks to finish my first painting. I was shocked that I did my second painting all in one class and I love the way it turned out!

When I got home, me and my sister made a cape for her Halloween costume. She said I could post these pictures as long as I didn't say her name or put them on facebook.

In other news, Liam is doing pretty well transitioning to his big boy bed. There are still nights when it's an hour and a half past his bedtime and he's still getting up that I put him in the crib and call it a night. Last night was kind of rough. He got up several times during the night. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I stayed up late watching football. Eventually, I let him sleep in the bed with me.

I do love that I wake up to him and his frog over the side of my bed and we have a big cuddle-fest every morning. I know these days are limited, so I'm trying to enjoy these precious moments.

I love this so much. 

Card Making

You know it's time for a new cutting mat when you have to tape the paper to the mat.

I actually ordered a new mat, some sketch pens and adhesive cardstock while I waited for these pictures to upload. I'll let you know how the sketch pens and cardstock turn out. 

After tinkering with the cutting mat, I was able to make this cute little card for a baby shower this weekend. I am really happy with the way the card and envelope turned out. The print & cut feature on the Silhouette machine is my favorite. I used 3D dots to give the butterflies a little dimension.

Last name blotted out for privacy.

I'm not that creative, so I usually do the same things in all of the cards I make: a nice quote inside of a curly frame.

Inside of the card. 

4th of July

Independence Day was full of fun. A few weeks ago, I changed out the frames in my hallway. I love the picture of Liam last year, he was so little! These printables all came from Pinterest. Unfortunately, I didn't pin them, just printed them when I found them. 

I am ashamed to admit that I had to take out our Christmas card to put up July 4th decor!

Dan's family is in town. It is non-stop fun. Liam loves playing with his "ta-tins." That's cousins for those of you who don't speak Toddler. On the 4th, we went to the river, rode in the boat and played in the sand.

At night, there wasn't enough room for all of us to fit in the boat and watch the fireworks on the river. I didn't mind, since Liam needed to get to bed earlier than that. Dan and Liam watched the neighborhood fireworks in the backyard. Liam is still saying "boom! pop!" this morning. I took my camera and tripod to the overpass near my house to watch a big fireworks display and get pictures. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes, but it was totally worth it.

A huge full moon rose around the same time the fireworks were going off. It was on the wrong side for me, but I did manage to get this:

Happy birthday, America!

Nap Time Crafting: Super Hero Quilt

My mom says that I haven't blogged enough lately, and she is right. I've been really busy recovering from our vacation, throwing a baby shower, finishing a quilt and caring for a sick toddler. I did manage to finish the quilt to give to my friend for her baby shower. I loved how it turned out.

In addition to hand quilting for the first time, I also did a scrappy binding. It is now my favorite binding.

As soon as Mallory opened it, Liam had to investigate. He thinks it's his quilt, he loved to get on it when I was trying to sew. 

Such a stinker. Funny story. I had all of the blocks laid out and arranged on the guest bed. I didn't know at the time that Liam had figured out how to get up there until I discovered him rolling in the quilt blocks. It took me forever to get them reorganized.

I used Obsessively Stitching's "First Quilt Ever" tutorial. I think the pattern is usually called a disappearing 9 patch.