He Has Arrived

That special day we have been waiting for finally arrived on Monday morning, October 22, 2012 at 3:00 am. Our first grandson was born in Anaheim, Southern California via emergency c-section; he was 7 lbs, 12 oz and 19” long, his name is Parker. Unfortunately we were not there when he was born but we did manage to arrive several hours later.  We live about 6-8 hours away depending on traffic and how many stops we needed to make, we left at 5:30 am and arrived around 12:30 pm. My husband and I started packing and getting the house ready when we got the call Sunday evening, we packed all night getting only about an hour of sleep then hopped in the car and started our journey, staying up about 36 hours before we were able to go to sleep.  You know what, we are not young anymore and 36 hours is a long time to go without any sleep but really worth it to be able to see and hold our darling new grand baby not long after he was born.  We truly cherish those first hours of our grandchildren’s lives when we get to really bond with them which makes for a very special life long relationship.

Because it was an emergency trip several things got all messed up or forgotten, one of them being my pre-scheduled blog posts of the Apron A Day Series.  I was not able to set them up like I planned to so I can not share them with you while I am away, oh well; I guess they will wait until I get home again.  I think I will be back on track again late next week after I get home and unpacked.  We planned to stay for about ten days but we could not find an extended stay hotel due to some huge convention which hits town this Friday booking up all the rooms anywhere close to our son’s condo. We managed to find a hotel across the street from Disneyland for a few nights, what a great area with tons of places to shop and eat so we will stay until we have to move out on Friday, after that who knows.  Anyway… we are thrilled to be here spending time with our son and his new little family for as long as we can.

Thanks for letting me share the joy we are experiencing with all of you; things will be back to normal very soon, keep watching for the Apron A Day Series and more of the toy room makeover projects, lots of those coming up.

See you soon.

Laurette

Baby Boy Charm Pins

This is going to be a quick post even though the project I will be sharing was not quick at all, in fact it was very time consuming. My daughter and I decided we wanted to make a memorable baby shower gift which would not just be thrown away in a few months, we wanted to create something which would last for a long time; we chose to make charm pins featuring silver and enamel baby charms.  Little did we know, when we picked out all the embellishments, it would be so labor intensive attaching all the little charms and ribbons.  It was a lot of fun and went really well once we got a rhythm going between us, good thing there were two of us or I would be working on them until the night before the baby shower.

I gathered some of my jewelry making tools and jump rings along with all the charms and the pins we shopped for and bought on line. We did a test run to see how things would look and got to work once we agreed on assembly style, no two pins are alike.

Some of the pins before we attached the ribbon and the backing cards my daughter designed just for them.

A close up of the test pin we used to help us choose ribbons and what kind of mounting paper or card they would be attached to.

These are some of the charm pins completed and displayed on their cut little baby boy cards.  They really came out darling, our jewelry making skills and my daughter’s graphic arts talent really helped us create a one of a kind gift for each of our guests.

Thanks for letting me share our Baby Boy Charm Pins with you even though it was just a quick post.  I think I have just one more baby shower project to share with you, but who knows, I may do one or two more things before the party.  Next week I will be sharing the rest of the gifts I am making for the baby, keep checking daily so you can keep up and not fall behind.

See you soon.

Laurette

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Notepad Blues

First project up is the notepads for the games at the baby shower.  I dug through my all my scrapbook paper stacks/slabs, ribbons, buttons, brads,  stickers and crafting supplies looking for baby boy themed embellishments and prints.  I was very surprised how many little things I accumulated over the years in blues, greens and yellows.  I still had to do some shopping because I did not have everything I needed for all my projects, but it was a good start.  I grabbed some empty photo boxes and gathered it all together in one place for easy use and transported it downstairs to my huge granite island where I like to work on my projects when my cutting/project island, in my studio, is busy with fabric projects, which it is at the moment.

Work began on the notepads we will give out to each guest so they can participate in some quick and easy games. I am not always neat when I am in the creative process but I do clean up once I know what direction my creativity is going.

Everything is cut and ready to assemble using some rectangle sheets of scrapbook paper, printed tags, ribbon, a small round punch and several shades of blue colored copy paper.

Here are some of the notepads all finished and ready for our guests, aren’t they adorable!

Thanks for letting me share my Notepad Blues with you, right behind it are some darling flower pens, look for those in my next post.

See you soon.

Laurette

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Pretty In Pink

I just had to share these sweet little bubblegum pink newborn kimono jackets and matching burp cloths.  They came out so cute they make me think of pretty baby girls all soft and sweet smelling after a bath, brings back lots of memories.

This is the only time you will see me making any pink baby clothing or accessories, we found out the new baby due in October is a BABY BOY! We are over the moon and so excited to be having our first grandson; he is going to be so spoiled.  All of my baby projects will now be the usual blues and greens with some yellows and oranges thrown into the mix.  I guess the little pink jackets and burp cloths will have to go into a box until the next baby girl comes along. After sewing nothing but little girl things for the last six years it will be really fun to work with other colors for little boy projects while still sewing pretty things for the girls.

Today while picking up the toy room I realized it is decorated predominately in oranges, greens and pinks (perfect for little divas).  I think I will need to do a bit of a re-vamp to make it much more gender neutral; oranges and turquoise blues added into the color scheme should do the trick.  More fun projects for me to work on during the fall and winter months, at least I have time before the baby will be old enough to play in there, but it is something fun for my creative mind to play around with until I have time to work in there.  I think it might be time for me to pull out my sketch books and blank mood boards so I can jot down any ideas that come along in the next couple of months.

For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you may have a noticed a lag in between my posts.  I wanted to let you know I am working on several projects at once which is keeping me away from my writing; I am also swamped with taking care of a very sick outdoor studio kitty and several family events all happening this weekend. So far I am keeping my head above water but who knows how things will go, fingers crossed. 

For those of you who follow the antics of my furry studio helpers please keep good thoughts for my kitty, Toby, he is very ill and in the cat hospital in pretty bad shape, I will keep you posted.  

As for the rest, everything else should work out just fine, I have my granddaughters pre-school graduation, my son’s 30^Th Birthday party and a Father’s Day barbecue, all three days in a row with two of the events in my home and stay over company for five days as well.  Once all this is over I will be back early next week writing again about some great new projects I did this week.  Keep checking in between now and then in case I get some time to sneak up to my computer and share all the festivities with you as well as a progress report on Toby.

Thanks for letting me share my bubblegum pink kimonos with you, be on the lookout for several fun makeover projects, I can’t wait to show them to you.

See you soon.

Laurette

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