Portable Changing Pad

A little changing pad to put in the diaper bag so the little one has a soft space for a little bummy. Cotton on one side and fleece on the other. A little ribbon to tie it all together so it stays in a little bundle in the diaper bag.

All rolled up and ready for travel.

Lovely and soft red fleece. I quilted it and that took the longest in this project. Oh, and the stinking binding. I am terrible at the binding, but it is presentable for little babies bottoms right?

Pretty top of the pad. Yes, a little obsessed with sewing lately!

Car Seat Canopy/Cover

Another sewing project to keep myself busy. Yes, I might be a little obsessed with my sewing machine lately. This was SOOO easy to make and took such a short amount of time. The ironing and pinning took the most time.

Plaid on the outside and a cute (No! Not cute. Let's say manly. Bryce would like that better:) green on the inside.

All tied together with brown ribbons to keep in all in its place. Fun and easy as pie project.

Mei Tia Style Baby Wrap/Carrier

I have seen these carriers all over the internet and in all of my baby/pregnancy magazines. They looked simple enough so I decided to sew one. I looked at about a dozen or more websites to try and get a feel for how to make one. After seeing how a few were designed, I came up with this little bugger. It took me pretty much all day, but I think it was worth it.

I had to have my sister in law Haley try this out on my nephew Hunter. Hunter is 9 1/2 months and he fit in the carrier pretty nicely. The coolest thing about the carrier is that I made it for $0.00. Yes that is right. Zip. Zero. The body is made of an old scrub top of my husbands that is too big for him. The ties are made from an old sheet that was fraying at the ends. And the padding in the head support and straps is made from an old fleece blanket I got when I was in high school. Pretty inexpensive considering that these carriers range from $50-$100.

A back view of Haley wearing Hunter on the front.

I also had my sis in law Mary try this out with my nephew Peyton who is 14 months. He also fit nicely. Mary is wearing Peyton on her back.

A view of the back carry. You can also wear the carrier on your hip.

One more view of the carrier with Mary wearing Peyton on her back. I think I will make another Mei Tai and add some pockets, a hood, and an extra strap/hook around the middle. Come back soon and I guess we'll see how that one turns out!

Bobby Cover

This Bobby cover is the newest of my sewing project to keep me busy before the baby comes. My sister sent me a bunch of baby things in the mail and one of them was this Bobby. It is in good shape, but it is quite an ugly, no offense Emmers, pattern. So I sewed a cover for it. The cover is black fleece on the back and a cotton top. NO ZIPPER! I hate to sew on zippers and I have never been good at it. So I found a way to do it without a zipper.

Showing the two different sides of the cover.

Front of Bobby,

I had to show the original pattern that I covered up. It was a bright red with a bunch of animals on it. I like the new look better.

Happy Mothers Day Cupcakes

I have a lot of time on my hands recently and I like to find ways to keep myself busy. Bryce and I had a BBQ on Mothers Day and I wanted to make a little something special for those Mom's who are so wonderful. So I made these lovely cupcakes. The decorations on top are a royal frosting that I piped out into letters and shapes onto wax paper. I let them dry overnight and then decorated the cupcakes with them. They turned out quite adorable.

I made 24 of these puppies. Each cupcake is a little different from the others.

Close up. It was a fun and rewarding project.

Pocket All-In-One Diaper

This is mostly for my Mother so she can see how I altered the pattern to make this new diaper. Here is the finished product, without the velcro because I don't have any right now. This is also without the cute flannel on the outside. I wanted to make a prototype before I dove head first into making more.

The main difference between this and my other diapers is that this has an opening that allows you to take the insert in and out for quicker drying.

I altered the soaker a little as well. This soaker, rather than being sewn all the way around is only sewn right down the middle and then on the corners to keep the soaker stable. Each individual piece is zig-zagged around to keep from fraying. This is so much easier than sewing around the whole soaker and it will also dry quicker than the original.

This shows the three layers of the soaker and how they are sewn down the middle an zig-zagged around the edge. (Look at that big fatty hand. My hands are very swollen as of late. Go figure)

Diaper and soaker. The soaker looks quite a bit longer than the diaper, but remember than the diaper has elastic in the legs and once the soaker is inserted into the diaper it fits perfectly.

Diaper with soaker in place. It was a fun project figuring how to alter my original pattern to make this one. Fun stuff.

Cloth Diapers

No I'm not crazy. Yes, I have changed a diaper before. Yes, I know how disgusting it can be. And Yes, I have used cloth diapers before. *SIGH* Okay, so for those of you reading this and thinking that I am crazy and that this little idea of mind will only last until I have one big diaper blowout, I had to put that little beginning statement.

I have embarked on a fun project these past few months. I have been sewing cloth diapers. I actually nannied for a family in Iowa that used cloth diapers. She has three little boys and at one time they were all in diapers. Cloth diapers. I thought it was a fantastic thing and the more I used the cloth diapers the more I was determined that when I had little ones I would use the same. Cloth diapers now-a-days are quite different than what many of you are used to seeing. A big square piece of cloth folded in a million ways and pined in the front with enormous safety pins. That's all in the past baby! These little critters I am making are quite amazing and I know, from experience, they work very well.

The outer layer is just a plain flannel. The inner layer that touches the babies skin is a super soft mico-fleece. Then sandwiched inside is a layer of water proof fabric called Polyurethane Laminate, or PUL. Then stitched into the center of the whole caboodle is a "super soaker" made up of two layers of extra-absorbent terry cloth with a piece of fleece inside of that. That makes the inside of this diaper six layers thick! Tough to get a sewing machine through sometimes, but I have managed so far Then the little tabs are velcro and are adjustable so they can be made to be larger or smaller. The legs and waist also have elastic in them so they will fit close to the baby to prevent leakage and give him a little wiggle room.

The safari print diaper is the first that I made. Don't look too close for it has a few flaws that I was to tired to pick out and redo. The rest of them I have made over the past couple months and I am actually getting pretty efficient at these little puppies. Today I pumped out 4 of them while watching Hairspray. Pretty cute little things. Most agree that they are really adorable but I can almost convince NO ONE that they actually work and are worth the money saved and the loads of laundry. I guess I'll have to see myself in three months when I actually have a newborn at my house.

If anyone wants me to make them a little cloth diaper, I would be happy! Maybe if you try them you would be hooked and want to buy more. You never know right!

Happy 5th Birthday Taylee!

My niece Taylee wanted a Halloween party this year for her birthday. I think that her cousin had a Halloween party last year and she wanted one as well. I went up to Bellevue for a few days to help Emily with all the preparations. My favorite thing was decorating this bat cake. Sharon (Grandma Nanna - Jakes Mom) used to do decorate cakes for Albertsons and she is a pro. She has all the fun decorating stuff and she taught me how to do it all. It really was soooooooooooo much fun. I really want to be a cake decorator now. We thought it turned out great, but Sharon is such a professional she knew there were a lot of flaws. Taylee loved it and that is all that mattered anyway.

I wrote the words on the cake as well. I wasn't trying to write straight, if any of you were wondering why the letters are all over the place. I learned that when doing type on anything, if you try to write straight it usually goes crooked. But, you write crooked and it ends up looking prety symmetrical. I don't know.

This was my other contribution to the party. Taylee got a Barbie Musketeer for her birthday from Grandma Honey. She calls her Barbie Mouseketeer. The Barbie has a mask that turns into a tiara on her head. And Taylee go her own "Mouseketeer" mask as well. So, Emily and I decided to play pin the mask on the Barbie Musketeer. I drew this picture of the Barbie and made a bunch of masks to pin on her face. It was fun.

The next day, Bryce came up to pick me up. While Emily was putting Tristan down for a nap, we went out and picked blackberries. We came in and made blackberry ice-cream parfaits. YUMMM! Plus, they are so cute too.

On another note: All these recent pictures are from our NEW CAMERA! For our anniversary we usually go out and splurge on a really nice dinner. It ends up being a little pricey. So, this year we decided to use that money to buy a new camera. We really needed one. So, we had dinner at Burger King and bought a new camera with the rest of the dinner fund. It was a good decision. Here is Bryce trying out the new camera. Turns out, he looks super good in this pic. I never look good in self portraits like this.

What Card Exchange Can Do To An Honest Girl . . .

Sorry about the amazing amount of pictures for one set of cards that all look exactly the same. I was having a lot of fun with the camera I guess. Anyway, here is another set of cards.

This is a new set of cards I made. However, those of you who are thinking that I am very creative and crafty . . . I actually stole this idea from a friend who I do a card exchange with. I really loved her cards and wanted to make a set all my own. These are a copy cat of yours Mandy. Thanks for the idea. Sorry I ripped it off!

I like these because the card isn't a perfect rectangle. That makes it fun huh.

As you can tell, a lot of my cards look similar. I guess I have a do have a style all my own. I try to get creative, but I always tend to turn back to the same things.

Another Sincerely Set

The cool thing about these cards is that the music paper I used is actually old sheet music. At the library they sell these ancient theory/practice piano books for $.25 a book. It is very pretty on cards.

I love the pink ribbon the most.

More Cards . . . Sorry

Seriously! I know I post a lot of cards on my blog, but I really don't have much else to post. I have no adorable children nor any on the way. I, myself, am quite boring and Bryce won't let me take any pictures of him. His life is a lot more exciting than mine. With med school ups and downs and all the drama within his rotation group, he really should be the one posting here. But, you get stuck with me so you get more cards.

My latest. Yes, they look very similar to the last I posted. I really liked the way those turned out so I copied it and did these just like them. With a little color and some ribbons of course.

Hope you enjoyed!
Sincerely, Natali

Happy Easter Eggs

I can't be left behind while all the kids get to color Easter eggs. So, we broke out the dye and colored some eggs this afternoon. Here are the fruits of our labors.

I tried to put the pretty ones close the the front of the glass. Then Bryce started putting all of his eggs in the glass so I had to take a picture of them too.

Yes, that yellow egg is covered in bullet holes and oozing blood. Very uplifting huh. I'm not sure who the blue egg is with the giant tie, but hey, its still awesome right.

Had to let you see the Easter Bunny Egg. Bryce started this and I embelished and "helped" it along. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Non-"Cutesy" Thank You Cards

Bryce gives the physicians he works with a thank you card at the end of each of his rotations. Of course, I have plenty of cards and am happy to make more. But, he wanted to buy a few at the store and this puzzled me. So he told me that I could make them for him if I made them less "cutesy." I guess my cards aren't manly enough for him to give to the doctors. So, I attempted a few times before I came up with these, and he seems pretty pleased. Believe me it took some effort not to embellish these with ribbons, bows, and glitter. They are also totally devoid of all color. How more manly can you get.

Card Exchange Cards

My Mother likes to be posted on the crafts I do. She is always a good voice of encouragement and support. In short, she is a wonderful morale booster! Thanks Mom. This post is for you.

I am in a card exchange group. Every month we choose a theme and create 8 cards exactly the same for that theme. Then we get together and swap them. So I come home with 8 different cards, rather than 8 of the same old thing. I get great new ideas from master card makers and I get to enjoy a good amount of girl time.

These are a few of the cards that I made in the past few months for the exchange. A few of them I didn't make enough of so I didn't come home with one of my own. I do regret that, because now I forget what I did. Here they are Mom. Love YA!