Curtains and Puppy Dog Tails

For those of you who might not know, my oldest sister is a large and small animal veterinarian.  Presently, she is in the process of building out and opening her own small animal clinic.  And being the good sister that I am (*wink, wink*), I want to help her out with something even though I couldn't be there in person to do any of the cleaning, painting, etc.  So, she asked me to sew together some curtains for her to help spruce up the office.  Back in January, after the made rush of Christmas presents, I had some spare time and was able to put together the curtains she asked for. 

 The curtains were made out of a cute purple patterned material with a purple daisy trim along the bottom.  I lined the back with an off-white just to give them a little bit of weight.  At the time that I made them, I didn't get a chance to get a good picture of the end result.  Over Memorial day weekend, we went down to Arkwright to visit my sister and my parents for the day and while there, I got a chance to see my sister's new small animal office (which is almost done!).  She had my curtains up and they looked to pretty!  So I snagged a few pictures in order to share them here with you.  Enjoy!

Velcro Anyone?

Can I just say how much I love my Little Bear and would do just about anything for him?  

Can I also just say that I love how much money we are saving by using cloth diapers for Little Bear?  

Now can I say, I absolutely dislike the fact that the Velcro tabs that hold the cloth diapers onto Little Bear have completely given out on me and I have been forced to replace said Velcro tabs?  

Yup, this is one of those projects that sit next to my sewing machine and haunt me every time I want to make something new and beautiful because I know that although the end result will be diapers that once again stay on Little Bear, I'm not creating something beautiful, new and shiny.  I have been plugging away on re-doing the Velcro tabs on Little Bear's diapers for several weeks now, working on a few at a time.  The pile of fixed diapers is slowly growing and thankfully the pile of "broken" diapers is slowly shrinking. I think I only have about 10 out of our 40 diapers left to do!  I'm so close to being done and being free!  Wish me luck.

 Oh, and if you ever get the idea to ask me to fix the Velcro tabs on your cloth diapers - just don't, because I'll say no even though I'll feel bad for you and then we will both end up being sad.  Sewing Velcro - especially very sticky Velcro - is not something any sewing machine likes to do. 

Baby Car Seat Blanket

I had quite a bit of this lovely grey forest flannel print and green minky left over from making a friend's baby blanket, so I thought I would put together a hooded car seat blanket for her as well since her little one will be a fall baby, and with the cold Buffalo winters we get around here, this would be just perfect to keep the little one nice and warm. 

I used a combination of patterns from A Handmade Childhood, Life Ordained, and The Complete Guide To Imperfect Homemaking.  All three tutorials were excellent sources of inspiration as I tweaked their patterns to give me what I wanted.  

 

 Don't you just love my model?  My little Bear is simply too big to model this for me, so one of his stuffed animals had to do it. 

Minky Baby Blankets

With so many dear women in my life having sweet little babies in the future, I've been sewing like crazy all kinds of different little baby gifts.  Here are two baby blankets that I put together recently.  The one on the left has a green minky back to it and a lovely flannel print that I picked up at JoAnn's.  The baby blanket on the right has a vibrant orange minky backing with this adorable animal print that I also picked up at JoAnn's.  Both blankets measure approximately 40" square which I think is just the perfect size to wrap up a new little on in.

Tiny Owl Bunting

I have been seeing bunting banners popping up all over the place and I have to admit, I think they are just adorable!  I love the whimsical and childlike feel that they lend to a space.  So for an upcoming baby shower that I'm hosting for a dear sweet friend of mine, I thought I would try my hand at putting together some cute bunting that would look great at the baby shower and would also coordinate with their nursery woodland theme so she could use them in the nursery too.  

I spotted this owl print into JoAnn's and knew it was perfect!  I love how simple the print is with the tiny owls peering out of it.  I also love how the solid green flags and blue strip really compliment and make the owl print pop.  Its so cute, its almost tempting to keep it for myself (or I guess I could make some more for myself...). 

Enjoy! :)

Little Bear's Art Display

The other day, I was browsing through our local Am-Vets Thrift Store and I stumbled upon this fantastic looking old frame.  It didn't have any glass in it, but it was exactly what I have been looking for.  I bout it for $0.49 - what a steal! 
I dragged it home, cleaned it up, added some backing to it (left over matting) and glued a clothes pin onto the matting and ta-da! I now have a great place to hang and display the art work that my Little Bear brings home from day care.  This hangs right next to our kitchen door from our dinning room and it makes me smile to see his artwork so happily displayed.