Hooded towel

One of the things at the top of my list for Ava's baby was a hooded towel. After all, what is the point of an all vinyl doll if she can't throw her in the tub? Really, I have no idea if my sister will allow her to bathe her doll, but at the very least she can pretend with this cute and cuddly towel and washcloth set I made.

I bought the terry a million years ago (or maybe just over a year ago) when my sister was pregnant with my nephew, hoping to make him some hooded towels. I thought it would be hard to work with, so I never ended up using it until now. You'd think I would have tried at some point! It was so much easier than working with the stretchy plush fabric on this little project. I think I now might make some hooded towels for the new baby, modifying this awesome tutorial I found (and used to help me make the doll towel).

A place to put it all

I worked this week on a miniature diaper bag for all of the diapers, clothes and accessories that I plan on making my niece's baby doll for her birthday. It looks huge in the photos, but it's really about 9 X 9 X 2 inches.



I lined it in the same green as the flap and used bright pink velcro to go with the Strawberry Shortcake theme. Strawberry Shortcake was my niece's first character obsession and one she still loves. The main fabric on this bag is leftover from the other pillow case I made her for last year's birthday.



Check out my hand embroidery! I'm so happy with how this turned out. I can see a dozen little flaws, but over all I think it almost looks like it was done by machine, and that makes me happy. Not to mention I designed the berries myself and just traced in my niece's name from a printout of a 90 point font in Word.

Wednesday Weigh In

Down another 0.6 lbs this week for a total of 19.4 lost. Next week is going to be a tough week. I'm not throwing up anymore because of my new nausea meds, but the ones I'm on now make me prone to heat stroke. I have managed a 15 minute aerobic workout on them, but I'm sort of afraid to push it further.

Birthday baby

I made mention yesterday that my niece was very concerned that I be told she wanted a new baby and some baby clothes. This is my gift. The baby was $10 at Walmart and by far the cheapest all vinyl bodied doll I could find. She's tiny, tiny, but for a four year old she's the perfect size to carry around everywhere and I am so happy I discovered her way in the back of the shelf.



I started with diapers. She was wearing a very cheap cloth diaper when I bought her, so I took it off, traced around it and added 1/4 inch to make the pattern for these. They were so cute and easy I got more than a little carried away.



I grabbed a bunch of flannel scraps from my stash, making sure to include some pieces that are special to me, my niece and her mom. These three are the special ones. On the far left is a scrap from the baby quilt my mother-in-law made for my nephew, something he was at one point using every day. So she'll have a little piece of her baby brother on her baby doll. The middle diaper is made from the scraps of the pillow case I made her for her birthday last year and the one on the right is a scrap from the border of the first quilt I ever finished. I love incorporating little hidden extras like that into projects. I think it makes it even more precious.

Now for that question I promised...I'm a little lacking on motivation. Not for this project. The big hug I'm going to get in a couple weeks is motivation enough. No, I'm lacking the will to finish something that has been paid for. Yikes! Do you ever get yourself into the situation where you agree to do something for a certain price, and then it ends up being so much work that you can't possibly fathom finishing it? I know what I have to do, and what is right, whether or not I think I'm being paid enough, after all, it was agreed on that I would sell it for that price. The problem is wanting to work on it when I know I have done way more work already than the money warrants. How do I get myself excited about it again?

Monday Moments

I got to see my niece and nephew all too briefly this weekend. I love those kids so much. The best thing about nieces and nephews is that when they're cranky or snotty it's my sister's problem. They're so cute, aren't they?

And that little girl there has ignited the sewing fire in me again. Her birthday is coming up and I casually mentioned to her mom that I might want to sew her some dolly clothes for her birthday if she'd like it. I got a text message shortly after saying, "Ava asked me if I told you yes. I told her I had and she said, "Well, tell her again!" Adorable!

I'll be sharing my projects here soon and asking a question for all of you crafty folks.

Wednesday Weigh In

I did actually do my weigh in yesterday, just forgot to post it here. So for anyone keeping track I am down 1.2 lbs over the last two weeks for a total of 18.8 lost.

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

Saturday after my husband got out of work we all went to the beach. It was perfect. The water was warm, the sun wasn't too hot and it really helped my jaundice to be out in the light for awhile.

We took the kids out to dinner and hoped the 30 minute drive home would be long enough to get at least the little one sleeping. Summer has seriously put a kink in our grown up time. Since his big sister thinks she no longer has to go to bed EVER, Gabe has got the idea that he doesn't have to either. And even though we make said big sister hit the hay around 9:00 every night she inevitably gets up at 10:00 and 11:00 and many other odd hours of the night to complain about how she can't sleep, or ask what we're watching, or ask what that noise was, or get a drink of water, or ask for a piece of cheese because even though she was SO, SO full at dinner that she couldn't eat another bite, her belly is hungry now.

It is annoying to say the least. Especially annoying when you're addicted to some very scary adult TV shows and you can't watch them for fear of what the kids might see when they inevitably come thunk, thunk, thunking out of their rooms for some inane reason.

Last night the little one went to bed on time thanks to a strategically planned trip to the oh-so-boring unless you're my husband, auto parts store. We watched a movie that wasn't rated G and went to bed at a decent hour for once. As I reached over to my nightstand to grab my Nintendo DS and play my nightly game of Scrabble I heard that familiar thunk, thunk, thunk of my son's feet on the floor. He climbed in next to me and passed out. I would be awakened one more time, hours later by crying and saying, "Too deep. Too deep. Can't go out there." Apparently all of the sun and sand Saturday wasn't good for everyone.

Wednesday Weigh In

I'm only down 0.6 lbs this week! I'm celebrating that. Though I feel like I have thrown up this week more than I have in a long time. Cannot wait for all of this to be taken care of. I'm currently having a debate about my anti-nausea meds. See, the one they have me on works, and works pretty well but it costs an arm and a leg. About as much as a car payment...only weekly. There are other nausea medicines out there, but according to my doctor it will knock me out. Every time I take a dose I'll need a nap. So I'm at the point where I can take no medicine for the nausea, or I can take some, but only when someone else can be here to watch my kids. Ugh...I'm trying going without for awhile to see how I do. So far everything I've eaten has come back up, but I've only eaten once.

I decided to spend my weekend actually out of the house. To take some chances and do at least a little something with my summer. We went to the beach for the 4th, then parade and fireworks later in the week. At one point it was too much activity and I barely held off on the puking until I got home, but I did. And I didn't miss out on at least one Monday moment with my kid, even if I didn't write about it here.