Chalkboard Art and a First Birthday

I have to admit, I have not been a fan of the recent craze in chalkboard art. I can't give you a good explanation as to why it didn't appeal to me -- all I can say is now I'm really wishing that I had taken a class. Thanks to my late night Pinterest hobby, I came across some adorable photos of using chalkboard art to celebrate the monthly milestones of newborns.

(photo from Pinterest - does not link to correct page, but photo credits Angela Photography

if you have the correct link, please let me know and I'll update!)

(photo from Pinterest - The Photographer's Wife)

Aren't those fun? If you search "chalkboard art monthly baby" on Pinterest, you will come up with a slew of ideas. Luckily my Mum had a fabulously large vintage chalkboard that I could use..since I've snubbed this trend, I did not have my own.

And my chalkboard was.. well.. beginner to say the least..

Take 1..

Take 2..

Alas, I have some room (a ton of room) for improvement on my chalkboard and photography skills. But, this was such a fun way to celebrate Tommy's first month birthday. Can you believe it? Oh time, you fickle mistress.. please slow down and let me have this precious year go ever so slow..

Celebrating the 4th of July

Our days and nights have been full with enjoying our little family. Father's Day was especially sweet with the arrival of our little man, but I wasn't able to do everything I wanted to for my husband and father. I'm scaling way back in my expectations of what I can accomplish in a day. However, my sweet Kiddo is an aspiring "Martha Stewart" at age 5 and really wanted to celebrate the 4th of July with decorations and more. Luckily it only takes a few extra touches to make her smile..

A sweet little star garland in our front room..

A little door decor..

When you're 5 years old (or 35), crepe streamers can make any holiday festive..

I let Kiddo go crazy picking daisies from our garden to adorn the front porch..

Lots of red and blue treats for the day! 

Fun food picks for our BBQ.. 

We are so thankful for all those Americans that fight for our freedom! I hope you and yours celebrate a safe and fun 4th of July!!

Are you looking for some more patriotic ideas?
Come see my free pattern for this paper pieced mug rug..

Welcoming Our Sweet Baby Tommy

At my last OB appointment on June 7th, everything looked to be going great. Tommy had stopped trying to come early and we were all hopeful that he would make his induction date of the 17th. I spent that weekend having lunch with girlfriends and was even spoiled with a romantic night with my dear husband. I had been reflecting on the knowledge that this was our last baby chapter. The last time I would feel those baby kicks, those private moments only shared between our sweet baby and me. Even though every one of my pregnancies has been difficult, it is still such a sacred time in my life. I had planned on writing a post on the 10th about how I was going to cherish my very last week of pregnancy. Tommy had other plans..

Monday the 10th was supposed to be a quiet day of running errands with my Mum and the girls. We shopped at Target and were parking at Joann's when I received an urgent message from my OB nurse. At Tommy's last ultrasound, he measured 2 weeks smaller than he should. It was time for him to come. We raced home, made phone calls and prepared for Tommy.

My sweet baby came at 38 weeks and is perfect! He is my tiniest baby at 6# and 9oz, but in the end the ultrasound was wrong. He measured average for his size and is completely healthy. Tommy is truly an angel baby - he sleeps soundly, hardly makes a peep and is just the sweetest snuggle bunny. It is fair to say we are completely smitten with him!

We've already had 3 professional photo shoots with him and I can't wait to share even more pictures of my sweet little man. Here a couple snaps I took of him on his 1 week birthday..

Little Man's Nursery Projects #2 - Baby Mobiles - Pirate Ships, Fish and Bubbles

I've created the baby mobiles for all of our children. I had Pinned a bunch of ideas for Baby T's nursery and really fell for the simplicity of the dot mobiles. This was a really cheap and easy project - about 6 pieces of shimmery cardstock punched into 1" circles. Before I started to assemble the mobile, I ran across Alisa Burke's amazing fish baby mobile  I loved the carefree nature of hers and the added texture addition of fabric. It was quick to free motion sew a few fish from fabric and paper; such a fun and perfect touch!

This is a simple project, but it makes a fabulous and colorful impact in the nursery. All I needed was an embroidery hoop, scrapbook paper and scrap fabric. Once the dots and fish were completed, I just chainstiched it together in a random pattern. I love to watch it sway in the breeze - I can't for little Tommy to rest in his crib and enjoy the symphony of color!

After the bubble and fish mobile was completed, I started to become re-interested in papier-mache. And of course I created yet another Pinterest board.. In my late night Pinning sessions, I came across the amazing Ann Wood. Her pattern and tutorial for a papier-mache boat is wonderful!

I had promised Kiddo and my dad that somewhere in the Baby's nursery, there would be a pirate.. I adore this little pirate ship that hangs in the corner. It was fun to make, but it is a bit time consuming. I had thought it would be fun to have a small fleet of them, but yeah.. For now and the foreseeable future, there will be one ship flying high and seeking mischievous adventures!

Little Man's Nursery Projects - #1 Gone Fishing Improv Baby Quilt

My sweet Little Man's nursery theme is "Gone Fishing". My husband wanted a fishing motif, I wanted nautical and neither of us liked the typical colors.. What did we end up with? A fishing motif in sweet, soft oceanic color tones. Lots of cool blues, clementine orange, sandy browns and a touch of light green. The nursery is serene and the whole family enjoys being in there.

I wanted to create a number of items just for him, like I did with the girls, even though my time is honestly more stretched now. I wanted to create a couple pieces of art for his room that would be meaningful. At the top of list of thing I wanted to create was a large quilt piece to be focal in the nursery. And I had no ideas. Inspiration would just not come and I was getting sick with it. I wanted it to be more art than traditional, but I wanted it to be pieced. And I have come to accept that I really, really don't like creating realistic or literal pieces. I gave up and created a pretty simple modern quilt.. and hated making it. There was no connection, no piece of me in this other quilt. Finally a good friend told me to trash it and start over. Ugh! Really? I could never do that.. and so that quilt has become a carseat cover, a much more functional and adorable use for a quilt that held little meaning.

What to do? I'm still a novice at improv piecing, I can count on one hand the number of projects I've created in that style. However, I'm always happy when I create in that fashion. I decided that I would do an impressionist piece with a single fish that was not too abstract, but not too cutesy. I loved the process, I was eager to work on it and it felt right.. I finally found the quilt that gave my son a piece of me.

The details of the quilt..

It is 22"x30" - I had originally envisioned a very large piece, but we ended up having less wall space and I had to par it down.

It is completely pieced - no applique or fusing at all. This is huge for me. Of course for bed quilts, I've always pieced, but it when it comes to art pieces, I've run from piecing. I always felt like the precision of piecing would somehow kill the spontaneity of the art. I never had that feeling with this quilt I think because it was improv pieced with a very vague plan. This is also the very first time I used curved piecing as well.. It was not that scary and the gentle waves were perfect for this piece.

I quilted it on my domestic machine. Given its smaller size and that I learned how to FMQ on my domestic, it made the most sense. Maybe one day I'll enjoy quilting art pieces on my mid-arm, but um..yeah not yet. The majority of the quilt has 2 motifs - white waves and blue bubbles. The little bit of white sky has fluffy clouds and I left the fish unquilted.

My single goldfish swimming in a sea of blue. Looking for new adventures and eager to see the world. My sweet Little Man, that is my wish for you.

*****
I am linking up this post to Amy's fabulous Blogger Quilt Festival.
I heartily encourage you to visit and dive into all the amazing quilts that have been posted.