Shoes for my boy

I finally motivated myself to make my baby boy his first pair of Lynndi Design Loafers. I can't wait to try them on his little feet. I had also purchased this adorable outfit for him this week at Target - I just could not pass it up. I am loving the orange and brown combination these days.

My Silhouette SD

My awesome husband surprised me this year for my birthday with a silhouette SD. I am SO in love...yes, with him for buying it, but also with this awesome machine!! For all your crafters out there you know that the silhouette is the machine to have, seriously. I was extremely excited to get it and could not wait to get started on some projects! I have a few ideas cooking in the back of my head, but today I did finally do one that I had wanted to test out for a while. I used the machine to cut adhesive backed vinyl. INCREDIBLE! I can't believe I lived without this machine for this long.

I evetually would like to re-make this in the black vinyl but I only had white available at the moment. But this was very easy to design and then create and I was really pleased with how it turned out. 

Baby Boy Blanket

I love to create different things but simple is key for me. Quilting has been something I have done in the past, but nothing to complex. When I was pregnant with Kora I made her a simple quilt with 3.5 x 3.5 inch fabric squares in 9 different materials. It was super easy and turned out really cute. I, of course, need to keep that tradition alive with this second child (due in 4 weeks, yikes!). Here are a few pictures of the start of the process and then the finished project. I really love the colors and how it turned out!

My weapon of choice. If you don't have one of these rolling cutters that Friskars makes then you are missing out. Seriously, I would not be able to cute all these squares so quickly without it.

I use my rolling cutter in conjunction with my clear block ruler (above). LOVE. IT. In fact, about 2 months ago I was working on a different project and could not find this ruler anywhere....I pouted about

it for about an hour before I finally used a different straight edge to get the job done. The next day I was in our laundry room (where I had literally checked 10 times for my ruler the day before) and guess what I found? Yup. My ruler. I was beyond happy....better late than never.

I cut 20 3.5 x 3.5 inch squares of each of the 9 different fabrics that I had chosen. This will give you an 1/4 inch seam allowance with a finished 3 x 3 inch square showing on the front of the quilt. 

Here was the layout that I decided I liked best. Although, I actually think I ended up switching it after this picture was taken. I didn't like the two bigger polka dots that close to each other. The OCD in me couldn't handle it. 

And finally the finished project! I used a brown flannel as the backing on it, a thin batting for the inside to give it a little thickness (but not a lot), and then brough the brown flannel around to the front to create the binding on the edge. Also, I used tan yarn to tie the quilt in different spots - every two squares. Very simple. But very adorable. Can't wait to cuddle my little baby boy in it.