Clifford Blanket

My aunt gave me some Clifford fabric and I made a little baby/toddler blanket.

It has a green fleece backing.

I think it will be a baby gift, but when I laid it out to fold it all up, my little guy decided he would lie down on it. He wasn't all that interested in it after this, so I don't think it'll cause too many problems for me to give it as a gift!

Newborn Pants

I used the pattern from Made By Rae to make these pants. I did add a ruffle to the bottom of the girly version I made. I did not hem any of them...I used old t-shirts and was going to hem the boy version, but I was afraid they'd be too short!

(We have babies with long legs around here!) Since they're t-shirts, they won't fray.

For the boy version, I did two small fabric stamps on other t-shirt scraps and sewed them onto the pants like patches.

Here is the back:

To start the pants, I cut two pieces of the pattern just like it says. I also cut a few 1" strips of fabric for the ruffles.

I sewed the intended ruffle strips together at the ends, pressed them flat, and then gathered them (using the lowest tension on the machine and the longest running stitch length.)

Then, I attached the gathered strip (sewing right sides together) to the bottom of the pant leg. (Note, it is the shorter inseam of the two. I did it incorrectly the first time and had to remove it!)

After attaching the ruffle, I pressed it on the right side of the pants to make it flat. Then I just followed the rest of the tutorial and sewed the front and back seams.

I finished up by sewing around both legs. I clipped the seams to remove excess fabric.

I followed the pattern to fold the waist over twice and then added 13.5" of elastic. I pressed them to crisp up the seams. The flower was made using the same tutorial I posted here.

My pictures are lit terribly because I took them all at night! Please excuse the lighting problem!

DIY Smoothie

I love smoothies. They are really easy to make at home .... To think that fast food places and restaurants charge $3 or more for these when they're so easy to make at home makes me crazy! Also, mine uses all 'real' food, no added sugar (I did add a little honey, see below.)

I've determined the secret to great smoothies made at home without some sort of thick fruit sweetener.

Come closer, I'll tell you...

Frozen bananas.

As long as you've got a frozen banana in your blender for smoothie making, you don't need ice. Here's how I made my smoothie today (it served about two people plus a small child):

2 frozen bananas

(When you freeze bananas, peel them, cut them into a few pieces, and put them in tupperware. They'll turn brown if you don't use them in a few days, but that's ok.

Other fruit, fresh or frozen. Today I used 5 strawberries.

2 T of peanut butter

1 cup plain yogurt (I only use yogurt that doesn't contain sugar)

a shake of cinnamon

1 t honey

1/2 cup milk

I blend it in my Vita-Mix until it is smooth! Yummy.

Satisfied snacker.

Fuzzy Ribbon Baby Toy

Is it a dog or a bear?

My husband says dog. I'm pretty sure our little boy agrees. (The little guy doesn't speak all that clearly yet.)

I meant to make a bear, but it is one of my first attempts at embroidering.

I made this baby toy from my towel stash (see more about repurposing towels here, here andhere). It's nice and soft and I love the colorful ribbon. I used the tutorial found here.

So many friends are having babies and I think this would be a fun baby gift!

First Guest Post!

I am a guest poster at "Or so she says..." today! It is a repost of my fabric stamping tutorial, but check it out if you're interested!