A Very Lady Bug Birthday Party.

Little Miss Lylah Bug

I still cannot believe that our little girl is already two years old! I remember very vividly back to when I was pregnant and being annoyed at everyone telling me that it "will go very fast" and to "enjoy the little things" and "she'll be a teenager before you know it" blah, blah, blah. At the time I thought it was just another annoying thing that pregnant women had to deal with...kind of like when everyone thinks it's okay to touch your belly. 

BUT IT'S TRUE! The time has FLOWN by! And now I even find myself telling other pregnant friends to "enjoy them while they're young". Sheesh...now I'm getting old. 

Even though our little Bug is getting bigger, this is my favorite age yet! It is so cute watching her play and interact with her little friends. For her birthday party this year, I knew I wanted to make it super fun for her other two-year-old little buddies. 

Ten kiddos age 3 and under! Ha!

When I started to make up the guest list for the party, I sat back and laughed that we would be inviting more than 12 kids! Haha! This would definitely be a fun party. Between my husband and I's friends with kids, as well as family and their kiddos, we would have over 40 people coming...what happened to a simple kid party?? This was turning awesome! 

We decided to have the party and my husband's parents house. They have an amazing big backyard that was perfect! 

Despite a little soggy Oregon weather, the party turned out great!
Our BBQ theme was a big hit. 

I decided on a Lady Bug theme for her 2nd party. It seemed fitting since her nickname is "Lylah Bug". I'm not quite sure where the name came from, but it has stuck and will probably be with her for life...or at least until she hits high school and realizes she's too cool for it. Anyways, the BBQ plan for food and the outdoor setting went perfectly. It was a tad bit soggy, thanks to good ol' Oregon weather, but turned out to be super fun. 

I knew I wanted to try a candy table at this party. I've never attempted one before and I am always in awe of them when I see them at weddings or other parties! There is just something beautiful about a TON of candy...and I think the guests enjoyed taking some sweets with them to enjoy on the ride home. 

Isn't it awesome?!?!

My mom and sister-in-law made the cakes and cupcakes! 

The "Smash Cake"

I had a lot of fun making most of the decor myself. It's amazing what can be done with a bunch of scrapbook paper! I did buy some cute lady bug decor items from Party City as well as some red and black polka dot balloons. I found the polka dot table runner at a thrift store and used black plastic table cloths from the dollar store on all the outdoor tables. I did end up purchasing an instant download from Etsy for the Invitations (PapaCrabPaperie) and the Cupcake Toppers (digitalfield). I am so happy with how everything turned out! 

Each Kiddo got a goody-bag filled with a "lady Bug" net, bubbles, stickers and cute lady bug ears. (All found at the Dollar Tree).

One thing that my husband really wanted to do was a Pinata. I personally thought that two-year-olds might be a tad tooo young to be swinging a giant stick around...BUT it turned out to be the FUNNIEST thing ever, and one of THE BEST things at the party. It was hilarious!

Daddy teaching Lylah how to swing.

Klara was BY FAR the best hitter. LOL!!

Camden and Dad Ryan taking a swing.

CANDY!!

Another thing that my husband and my father-in-law really wanted to do was smoked ribs...so here's the shout out...they were messy, but so good!

Yep, here they are...

The party ended with our little bug digging into her cake. (I'm pretty sure all she had the entire day was pretzel chips and cake) Oh well, it was her day! 

Singing Happy Birthday!

The highchair bunting was made with scrap fabric, burlap pennants and glitter letters.  

What'd I tell ya? Pretzel Chips all day long! LOL!

Here are some more pictures of the party. It was such a fun day and I truly thank my sister-in-law Jenni for the amazing pictures! She took Lylah out back before the party got started and did a quick photo shoot with her as a birthday gift. The best gift ever! Thanks Jenni! You can check out her site here www.thejarfly.com

The Lady Bug fort...made by my mother and father-in-law out of an old refrigerator box! 

Trying to get a shot of all the kiddos...haha! 

Ring-Around-the-Rosie!

And they all fell down!

So much fun!!

Lylah's 2nd Birthday Photoshoot Pictures...

I love this one!

Happiest when she is on the go!

Just a girl and her balloon!

We LOVE this little BUG!

The party was so much fun! I thank all those who came to celebrate our Lady Bug turning TWO! And people..it seriously does go by fast...so enjoy it while you can! 

Until next time,

Britt

How to make a fabric nursery mobile.

Oh my goodness...when I started this blog, I had all good intentions to blog at least once a month. I do so many projects throughout the year that I thought it would be cool to share them. I guess life and a very active one year old can put a damper on my blogging plans. Well, while the projects have not stopped...my blogs obviously have. So I'll do my best to catch you up!

Currently it has been nearly a year since my last post. Say what?!?! Time flies! The last project I shared was the matching twin's nursery blankets for a good friend's twin boys (who was preggo with them at the time). Well the boys are nearly 8 months old now and the blankets look so cute in their new little nursery! Here are some pics...

Noah and Silas clearly loving their monogram pillows.
Or at least Noah likes them. Ha! Silas is not so sure.

And here is another one of the whole nursery including the blankets! Isn't it so cute? I'm also loving that my friend (their mama) has moved so close! This is their new room in their new house only about 6 minutes away! Hooray! I can't wait for summer time strolls in the park, with the birds chirping and our babies sitting like perfect angels in their BOB strollers as we chat about simple nothings with the sun shining down...uh...what...too much? Oops, sorry.

Gotta love a twin nursery!!

One of the things that I think make this room so cute are the hanging fabric mobiles over each crib. One of them was my daughter Lylah's old mobile from her room (transitioned out when I switched up her room decor...another post coming soon!), and the other I made to match! They are made out of old lamp shades and scrap fabric. This is a great project for your scrap fabric stash!

So here goes...a tutorial on how to make a fabric lamp shade nursery mobile! 

Lampshade with tapered sides make the best mobiles.

Step one - Find an old lampshade, preferably one that has tapered edges so that the strands of fabric hang without touching each other. 

Step two - Strip all original fabric from the frame of the lampshade. 

Step three - Prepare your fabric pieces. During this step it is helpful to have an overall color theme in mind, and to not get caught up on specific fabric designs. It won't end up making a difference in the end result if your fabric pieces have trains or flowers or geometric designs. The overall color scheme is what you're after. Cut various shapes and sizes of at least 15 different fabrics...i stuck with small squares and triangles ranging from 1-3 inches in length.

Step four - Prepare your fabric strips that will be used to wrap the frame of the lampshade. This process simply consists of cutting long strips about 1-2 inches wide and ironing them in half. You will use the finished ironed seam as you wrap the frame...creating a finished look. The unfinished seam will be hidden as you continue to wrap around itself.

Step five - I forgot to take a pic of this step..but it's pretty self explanatory. Wrap the frame using the long strips and a glue gun. There is no real trick to doing this...your goal is to just keep wrapping and adding dabs of glue periodically. Cover the entire frame.

Here is the mobile after it has been wrapped. For this mobile I chose greens because the other was done in teals and blues. What better for a boy nursery than green and blue! The prepped fabric strips can also be seen here. 

Step six - Decide on length and placement of your strands...I suggest looking at your specific shade and adding strands where there are frame "intersections", wherever the metal frames are welded together. I also added strands in the middle of these "intersections" to add more dimension. Don't forget to add strands to the inside top portion of the shade too. Cut all of your strands of string leaving an extra 2 inches on each to tie to frame. 

Step seven - Using a small yarn needle...begin to string the fabric pieces onto the pre-cut strings. I tied knots about 2-3 inches apart to keep the fabric in place. I also folded the fabric pieces in half and "weaved" the needle in and out of the fabric to create a bunching effect. When attaching the strands to the mobile, I used the needle to "sew" it to the wrapped fabric on the frame. 

Here we are about halfway through.
Flipping the shade upside down makes attaching the strands easier.  

Step eight - After attaching all strands...flip over and marvel in your success! You are now a baby nursery fabric lampshade mobile making queen (or king). Now that's a mouthful! But seriously, you just made a pretty sweet mobile that your baby will love! 

Here they are side by side! I love that they are different but correlate very nicely together. 

The finished product hanging in their nursery! 

Thanks for reading! And hopefully my next post won't be a year in the making...here's what's coming in the very near future.

• CHALK PAINT! It's freaking awesome...I've pretty much painted every piece of furniture in my whole house. So multiple posts coming on this.
• Lylah's big girl room remodel. 
• Backyard decorating.
• Lylah's 2nd birthday...her ladybug birthday extravaganza! 

And a special thanks to my BFF Coco for letting me plaster pictures of her cute boys all over the internet. Muah!

Until next time,

Britt

Sewing for Noah and Silas - A tutorial for patchwork baby blankets.

Hi again everyone! I am excited to share my first sewing tutorial...it shall be called, "Sewing for Noah and Silas".

Over the past few years, many of my good friends have started their journeys into parenthood. What a wonderful adventure to embark on! And how exciting that Lylah will have so many little friends to play with! One of the things that I make sure to do for each expecting mama is sew a custom baby blanket for her nursery. (So if you are reading this, and you have a baby with a blanket from me...know you are special.) I always try and make the blanket match the theme that the parents-to-be already have in their nursery. After all, if I'm going to sew something special, it might as well be used right? I mean, we've all been that awkward 12 year old on Christmas morning, excitedly opening a gift from ol' grandma; only to find it's a hideous piece of hand-sewn clothing that will only further add to your awkwardness. And what's worse? You'll probably have to wear it to the family dinner that night just so she can see you in it at least once...wait...what? Just me? Oh...anyways...I guess that's why I try and always sew stuff that people will actually like. 

It was no different when one of my best friends announced that she was pregnant with twin boys! How exciting!! The mama-to-be was doing her nursery in grey tones with pops of bright colors here and there. I didn't want to make the same exact blanket for each boy...but I did want them to be similar enough to go together in the same nursery. Two blankets takes longer to make then one, so I knew I had to get started right away. 

I am a planner...so after deciding on fabric, I came up with this. It was an easy way to "see" what the quilt top would look like without having to cut out fabric in a "trial and error" method. 

How I planned out the arrangement with how many squares to cut. Colored pencils helped me to visualize the finished product. It's messy, but it worked great! (The side table was my guide for how many squares to cut of each size and color)

I mentioned before that I wanted to make the twins' blankets slightly different. This was accomplished by following the same color/pattern design, but with slightly different fabrics. I decided that all of the grey squares between the two blankets would match up; but for the color fabrics, I would choose different patterns. Initially, I wanted to add a fabric to each that would incorporate each color, but after cutting and laying them all out, it was too busy and I went with the whale pattern in each. Here was my inspiration.

The greys would be the same in each blanket, but for each color - I chose a slightly different patterned fabric. 

 The first step is to cut all of your fabric squares. Refer to your guide for this. My finished blanket would be a compilation of 9" squares in a 5X7 grid pattern. Some of the 9" squares are made up of 4 smaller squares. For each "big" solid square, cut 9 1/2" squares (1/4 inch seam allowance). For each "small" square, cut 5" squares (1/4 inch seam allowance doubled).

Careful measurements help with seams matching up later.

After you have cut out all of your squares...it's time to start sewing! Start with the smaller squares first...piecing them to match up with your larger squares.

Start with your 5" squares. Sew along edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Iron down your seams and then match up middle seam. 

Pin with seams matching up and them sew with 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Your finished product should be a 9" X 9" square. Iron all seams flat.

Now it's time to organize your squares...I made a pile of all my squares in order according to my guide. That way, all I had to do was pull the next square from the pile. 

First you will sew the bottom row of squares together. It is really important to keep your seams at a 1/4 inch allowance the entire time. I found a little trick that helps me to do this...

Set your measure to 1/4 inch.

Measure from the point of your needle out towards the right. Add a piece of blue painters tape to help you guide as you sew.

1/4 inch allowance every time!

Now keep going until your entire bottom row is sewn together and you have something that looks like this...

Sew your second row as well...you can see in the picture above, I am just piecing my last square of my second row. I work from the right to the left. Once you have two completed rows, you will iron down the seams, and then sew them both together with one long stitch.

One trick that I use to make sure my 4 seams end up squared is to measure as I go judging off of the row beneath the current one...I mark where the seam needs to be and I always end up with squared edges!

Here I have two of the bottom rows sewn together.

Keep working until, row by row, you have completed the entire quilt top. See Below!

The next step will be to cut your backing and lining. I used a flannel for the back of this blanket, and I used a medium thickness basic quilt batting for the lining. Make sure to cut both the backing and lining about an inch larger that your finished quilt top.

Once your pieces are cut, you will layer the three pieces in the following order. Batting on the bottom, flannel right side up, and quilt top wrong side up. See below...

The next step requires some patience...you will start pinning from the middle square out (use quilting safety pins). Smooth as you go. Be very careful you have no bubbles, this will result in an uneven stitch and unsightly puckers!

I put a pin in each square as well as pinning generously around the perimeter. The more pins, the easier the next step!

The next step is to roll up your blanket like a burrito and strait stitch around the entire perimeter of the blanket with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Your guide is the quilt top fabric. Make sure to leave about a 12" open space for you to turn right side out. See pics below...

Rolled up like a burrito and ready for the strait stitch around the perimeter...at each corner, you'll need to unroll and re-roll in the new direction. (This just makes it easier to manage all that material!)

Once your strait stitch is done, trim excess batting and lining to match up with the quilt top.

Remember to leave the excess on your opening. This will make the closing of the whole a lot easier!

The next step is my favorite!! You will now take out all the pins (not my favorite) and turn the blanket right side out...this is the best feeling after all the tedious sewing! You can finally "see" the makings of a finished product!

You now only have a few short steps left! Once the blanket is turned, pin the opening shut and add one more strait stitch around the perimeter of the blanket; sewing the opening shut as you go. Now all you have to do is add yarn ties and you are done! 

Boom! 

Here are some more pics of the finished product! 

Noah and Silas will be warm and cozy for years to come! Not to mention how cute their little nursery is going to be. Congrats to the mommy and daddy to be! Hopefully these blankets are loved and cherished forever. XOXO!!

Britt