Oh, baby! Projects for the little one!

Fresh tiny human!

Soooooo.... at 4:42 am on the day we were planning on having the Moria photoshoot, we got a baby instead! I was given a bit of a lecture about procrastination by Captain Crankypants, who had been looking forward to the shoot, but he was mollified by getting to take pictures of our beautiful, 8lb 6oz baby girl! Good thing I had been working hard on various little projects for her! Oddly enough, it's been over three weeks since, no idea where the time has gone - newborns are like time sinks.  

Oh, and by the way, as of today this lil' blog is officially over 10000 pageviews! How awesome is that? Thanks again for all the support, and for reading what I've had to write over the last year and a bit! That said, on with the show!

 Geeky Onesies!

I'll be posting more about these soon, but I just love them so much.  So far I've still only made the three - Majora's Mask, Triforce Eagle/Hylian Shield, and White Tree of Gondor, but I have a number of solid colour onesies and shirts as well as several more designs planned, and a few cut out and ready to go - stay tuned for more, and next up I'll be posting my Customize ANY piece of clothing tutorial so you can find out how to make your own!

Crochet Projects!

Early on in the pregnancy I took up crochet so I could make my babe her very own crochet baby blanket! Little did I know at that point, everyone we know knows how to crochet, and she's had ten made for her at this point (only two by me), but it was a nudge down a path that opened up all kinds of fun creative projects! I've made countless little hats, booties, slippers, and sweaters for her (and every baby we know) by this point, but where the real fun comes in is prepping for her newborn photoshoot! In order to avoid having the same pictures with the same outfits every other newborn has, I knew I had to come up with something fun and geeky for our little lady to wear - only two of these are crochet, but I may run out of time for finishing the other, so I'll keep it to myself for now.

A sample of my Crankypants Crochet Collection

Mermaid Tail!

I've seen various baby mermaid photos out there, so I just had to try my hand at crocheting a mermaid tail! The problem I found was finding a satisfactory pattern I didn't have to pay for - apparently I'm a total cheapskate. I knew the look I wanted, and I knew I wanted to used crocodile stitch for it, so I went about designing my own! I'll probably post the pattern sooner or later, but be kind, it was my first attempt at making my own, forgive me if it's not perfect - either way it turned out super cute!







Piranha Plant!

I've seen so many blasted Anne Geddes style photos of babies in flower pots, I figured the obvious gamer translation of this was... a baby in a warp pipe! And what comes out of warp pipes? Piranha plants, of course!  I started with a pretty standard baby hat pattern, and adjusted the edge to open like a mouth, then added white "lips", and made and stitched on a series of circles. The teeth were crocheted right on to the underside of the brim, and then the leaves were made and attached! I'll probably post the pattern for this too, just not yet!  Oh, and to allow for some variety in the photos, I also made a matching diaper cover just like Petey Piranha's little spotty briefs - so cute!
Buuuuut take one was a failure, as my child's head is massive, and the teeny little hat didn't stand a chance of stretching enough to fit. So take 2, I upped my hook size to up the gauge, and sooner or later I WILL get my piranha plant pictures!


The Up Nursery

I don't believe I had any reason to mention this before, but I hate pink. I hate it with a passion. As soon as I learned we were having a girl, my joy was mixed with dread at the thought of freaking pink everything, outfits, bedding, "girl" toys, "girl" lego, ugh. So needless to say, a pink princess room was NOT going to happen (at least not until she's five and able to demand it herself... maybe we can re-open negotiations then. Just maybe).

Well, the room we selected to be the nursery in the house was already two shades of blue when we moved in, so rather than paint it, I figured I would have to come up with a theme that fit the colour. Immediately I thought "sky," which was closely followed by "UP!" I LOVE Pixar movies, and Up is one of my favourites, what could be more fun than a multi-coloured house with a rainbow worth of balloons? It opened up the bedding and decor to fun, bright colours (so much better than baby colours) and gave me a nice big fun project to occupy the wait for baby!

I freaking love balloons!

It ALSO gave us a theme for just about everything, including our beautiful baby shower cake, made by a close friend, and my insistence on having a bouquet of beautiful balloons for our maternity photos!

The Mural

The template

So first up is the mural, an entire wall of house and balloons! It took a while to find an image I was happy with, but I found one I could work with and did a vector outline to print out on transparency paper, and the ever awesome Fatima found a second hand . I scaled the balloon size up for ease of drawing/painting (it would take FOR FREAKING EVER to do them in the proper size) and threw in Kevin on the roof as she was there in the original I found.

It's not finished yet, but we have about six months before she'll actually be sleeping in there anyway, so no REAL hurry - it'll happen!

PROGRESS! Loving it so far!

The Mobile

I looked everywhere for nice looking balloon themed decor.  It doesn't exist. I looked everywhere for mini fake balloons that don't look like garbage. They don't exist. I considered casting some in resin, but that was going to get pricey and complicated, AND resin fumes are extra bad for pregnant ladies/unborn babies, so instead, I found a cute little hot air balloon mobile pattern, then neglected the "hot air" portion of the equation, leaving just balloons! The balloons were made in felt using the size 2 balloon from this tutorial, and I used this papercraft Up house pattern, upscaled, to pattern out the house! I'm finished about six balloons at this point, and the house is underway, but that mofo is complicated, so it's going to take a while longer!

The Bedding

My intention was to have cloud/sky crib sheets and a multicoloured ruffled crib skirt, but I can't for the life of me find cloud pattern fabric that fits the aesthetic I was aiming for, so instead I just have turquoise fabric for the sheets, and will still be making the multicoloured ruffles, with pink bows in the corners for a little touch of girliness. I have all the materials, just need to get the ol' sewing machine out and make it happen!

And there's much more to come! If I can ever figure out how to make this little one to nap for more than ten minutes at a time.  Next time, I'll post one of the other articles I've written but not posted!! I'm sure it will be a blast no matter what I pick... whenever I have a moment to post it!  Until then, you stay classy, internets!