Shed a Little Light

If you've been following, you've seen that I've been slowly reworking Rowan's room.  No more Winnie the Pooh.  Hello tractors!  Here's a few pics of what I've done so far:

So as you can see, I've got a tractor/country thing going with the chambray and the check.  Very little boyish, if you ask me!

The next thing his room needed was a lamp.  All I had was the overhead light.  The problem was that I had to place to put a lamp.  Heaven knows I couldn't put it on his changing table, and we're not quite potty trained enough yet to do away with changing table.  

Well now, what about that blank wall by the door?  Hmmm...how about something for some toy storage/organization?  So while my husband was out of town, look what appeared!

It's a handy little set of cubbies!  I'm thinking about painting it red?  Thoughts?  

So now that I have something to put a lamp on, what next?  There just so happened to be a lamp that was not in use, so I snagged it!  (You can see it above without the lampshade.)

Nothing special.  I think perhaps it came Wal-Mart.  But what a boring shade!  Wait!  There's extra fabric from the curtain and pillowcase project!  I could totally cover the shade.  Should be a piece of cake.

Let me just say that that's a super tricky shape to work with.  Luckily, I had a bunch of big, blank paper work with.  It only took me two tries to get a decent pattern to work with.

I ended up laying the shade down, holding a pencil on the end and rolling it as I traced the shape.   Then I divided it into 2 pieces and added my seam allowances.  I used those pieces to cut out the red check for the tap piece and the chambray for the bottom.  Next, I sewed the pieces together and hemmed the top and side edges.  I wanted to make sure that the bottom was nice and even, so wrapped the fabric around the shade and clothes pinned it at the top.  Then I pinned up the bottom making sure I was even.  After the pinning, one more hem to be sewn, then off to glueing!  

A few squirts of fabric glue and a ton of clothes pins later, I had this:

At which point I realized I forgot to sew the ric-rac down.  *head smacks on desk*  So i cheated and glued the ric-rac down too :)  Maybe it's not technically cheating, but it sure felt like.  I'm curious to see if it will fall off sometime down the road...

A few hours later the glue seemed mostly dry and I had this:

I think it looks super cute and really ties the room together.  However, I can't lie.  The picture looks better than the finished product.  In reality, it's a little bubbly.  Somehow the fabric just wouldn't lay on there exactly right.  Just don't look too close at it.

And yes, that's a piece of Tupperware filled with money.  Rowan broke his piggy bank awhile back and we haven't replaced it yet.  A plastic box seemed like a safe alternative for now.  

Does Rowan like the lamp?  Honestly, I don't think he's even noticed it.  But gosh darn it, it makes me happy!

Here Comes Mickey

I finally finished the patterns for my Mickey quiet book!  I'm really quite excited.  At first, there were only going to be about 10 pages, but there ended up being 18!  Once I started brainstorming, the ideas just kept coming.

For a quick preview, here's a list of the page titles:

1.  Build the Clubhouse
2.  Button Mickey's shorts
3.  Tie Minnie's bow
4.  Help Goofy get dressed
5.  Buckle Pluto's collar
6.  Find Donald's hat
7.  Brush Daisy's ponytail
8.  The gangs's all here!
9.  Match Clarabell's cookies
10-11.  Count Pete's beads
12.  See what tools Toodles has
13.  Solve the picture puzzle
14.  Try on Mickey's glove
15.  Count the Mickey's
16-17.  Drive the toon car
18.  Catch a gooey fish

Yesterday I got all the muslin and interfacing cut out for the pages.

I know using felt for the page bases is all the rage right now, but I chose to go a different route.  I'm just not convinced that felt will hold up over time to the rough use of little hands.  My grandma made most of hers out of muslin and they're still in great shape for my little guy to play with.  Also, muslin (with some light interfacing) is oober cheap compared to using high quality felt!  I added some lightweight interfacing to give the muslin a little more body and to help hide some of the stitching.

Here's a little embroidery trick I've picked up this past year: print your pattern off on the computer, cut it out, pin it down, and just stitch right over it!  When you're done, use some tweezers and pick it out.  This is by far the easiest way of transferring a pattern.  & it works on any type of material.

Now to start cutting out all felt pieces....

Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's a few treasures I found on Pinterest this week!




My inner child and my inner Star Wars geek both love this picture :)



One of the pages I've been designing for my Mickey quiet book is "Catch a gooey fish". This is great inspiration for how to do it! There's a paper clip sticking out of the top of the fish and then there's a magnet in the "hook" on the fishing pole. You can actually fish with this page! How epically cool is that?



I LOVE this bag. To pieces. I've been thinking that Rowan needs a bag other than the diaper bag to haul stuff around in. Something like this would be big enough to fit his quiet books in AND it isn't super girly. Next time my husband wears out a pair of jeans, this bag is happening.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day weekend and isn't melting in the humidity :)

Woot!

After about 3 months, Rowan FINALLY let me put his ducky jacket on him!

Seriously, don't you just want to eat him up?  We had a good afternoon splashing at the "big pool" at the Y and he was just a little frozen popsicle when we got out.  I think he was so cold he was willing to do anything to get warm!  

If you want to read about how the jacket got it's cuteness, check out my blog post But It's Too Cut NOT to Wear for the full story!

Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's the best of the best I've found this week on Pinterest!




I fell in love with a pin earlier in the week that suggested "carving" pumpkins with drills. This is one step better! No sharp knives around the toddler (who looooves power tools) and the paint makes them look pretty in the daytime too!



There's two things that caught my attention with this one. First, the color of the walls! Maybe a bit lighter, but it's very happy :) The second thing was the wire with the clippies. Currently there's a bulletin board in my craft room, but I love how simple it would be to change out inspirations.



Amiee Ray is one of my favorite artists. Check out her blog here. I have one of her little Noms (a little tiny gnome!) and several of her books on embroidery. Ever since my college days I've had a bit of a soft spot for gnomes. I'm not sure what I'll use this pattern for yet (maybe a tea towel?), but it definitely deserved to be filed away for later use!

Don't forget you can follow me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/ljz3535/pins/. I'm a bit of an addict, so there's usually new stuff to see!

Arrrrr Mateys!

Rowan has been getting really in to the whole pirate thing lately.  If you ask him what the pirate says, he responds, "Arrr Mateys!".  I think that's where the fascination with maps came from...

We took a family trip to the San Diego Safari Park a few weeks ago.  We've an annual pass, so we actually go pretty often.  It's great to get some walking in, see the animals, and just hang out as a family.

The place, although very beautiful, is really laid out strange.  Every time we visit we need to pick up a map.  Below is a picture that pretty much sums up what Rowan this whole trip.

He was OBSESSED with the map!  He'd very seriously study it and show us just where he wanted to go.  Then he'd look up, scan the area, point and say "This way!".  It was ridiculously adorable.  For about fifteen minutes.

It got me thinking, though.  Maybe he needed a play map a home.  Ooo!  I could make a pirate map out of felt!  Boy, did the wheels did turning.  I churned out a map by the end of the weekend!

I did a bunch of Google image research and came up with me pattern.  I think my favorite thing is the sea monster.  My second favorite is the skull cave :)  The whole thing is made of nice wool felt.  Not the cheap polyester, plastic, whatever the heck it is stuff from the dollar bin at Jo-Ann's.  Then I added some velcro so you can roll the whole thing up.  Just like a real pirate map!

Rowan has taken his to the park and on many walks already.  I love how seriously he looks at it, like he's really deciding just where we need to go.  

Since it's so cute, I thought it would make an awesome addition to my Etsy store!  So here's the first listing for one!  Come and get it!

& keep your eyes open...dino hooded towels will be coming!

Weekend Pinterest Update

Here's a few of my favorite pins that I found on Pinterest this week.  Enjoy!




This was perfect timing for finding this. I recently got a T-shrt from a car dealership that's way too big on me and would be perfect for a workout shirt with a little cutting :)



I seriously laughed out loud at this one! I actually have a wreath like this in black and purple. I could easily take off the current decor and monster-fy it!



How awesome is this!? Might need to incorporate this into the backyard next spring...

Remember, you can follow me and all my grand Pinterest adventures right here!