An angel with a hat

This gorgeous hat is available from Havalah, whom we have dubbed "Crochet Boss". She's just *that* good. The cute factor is certainly thrown over the top when you look at the teensie-weensie angel wearing it though. :) (And no, this is not my little one, she's still 'on the inside').

Many thanks to Melissa from Snap In Time Photography in Rochester, NY.

Carseat Recover

After having three babies ride around in a faded gray and black carseat, I thought it was high time I got a pretty carseat. Taking some clues from this tutorial, and adding a little of my own interpretation, this is what I came up with. I'm dying to put a teensy-weensy girl into this carseat!

My favorite part of the entire project is the candy-stripe visor. It's just something different than expected, right? 

The fabrics used are:
Tea Cakes Ribbons & Roses Vanilla, designed by Verna Mosquera for Free Spirit.
Tea Cakes Sugary Stripe Raspberry from the same collection
and Tea Cakes Petit Fours Spring Green from the same collection (this one is no longer available on Fabric.com)

I did not want to add in a boring newborn head support cushion that covered up all my work, so I created a pattern for an insert myself and made one from the leftover floral fabric!

Easter, Spring, and Birthday Month Wreath

It seems only fitting that I have three little, spring-born girls. (Well, 2-going-on-3)

The colors, the cuteness .... it lends itself to little girl life. 

So this is our Easter, Spring, and Birthday Month Wreath. 

Pink yarn-wrapped wreath and rolled flowers in hot pink polkadot, yellow polkadot, and aqua polkadot.

The other thing I love is that our door is also aqua - though this photo doesn't do the color justice. The aqua flowers and the color palate match so well!

Pinterest Love - Home

Source: etsy.com via Susie on Pinterest

Source: andreasideablog.blogspot.com via Susie on Pinterest

Source: urbannestblog.com via Susie on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Susie on Pinterest

Source: granddesignco.blogspot.com via Susie on Pinterest

Rag Puff Quilt

The ragging process isn't complete yet, but my scissors were a bit dull so I was ready to take the scissors to my eyes with all the snips that needed done. ;) I used HoneyBear Lane's pattern here. I won it in a giveaway! I highly recommend it! Super easy to understand. The hardest part is just holding down the quilt while you're sewing some of the last pieces. It only took me a few days to complete.

Matching Easter Dresses [Custom Order]

 This dress was designed from a vintage pattern (Simplicity, copyright 1974).

These bloomers are a new pattern but I added the ribbons on the legs.

Since the sisters these were made for are 6 and 2, their dress designs were best to be different, while utilizing the same fabric. Big Sister chose the dress design she wanted. It was originally meant to look like the Kit Kittredge (American Girl) journalist dress.

And for good measure: A dress for Big Sister's American Girl doll to match.

New Baby's Dresser

With a new baby arriving some time in the next 2-7 weeks, I've [Susie] been feeling the crunch to get everything set for baby. We were going to move around some dressers to accommodate the new little person's clothing, but after a bit of a forgetfulness snafu, I decided I should find a way to use the hideous, old one I was getting ready to throw out. 

It had a peeling finish, broken doors, and to be completely honest, it was the bottom half of a china cabinet. It was never intended for use as a dresser. (Please pardon the ugly photo and hideous mess, this was from a "My House is Trashed" blog post). You can see that the door never liked to stay shut, the hinge was broken at the bottom, the messed up finish is obvious.

I took to the doors with a flathead screwdriver and pried them right off the front. A few minutes of work took the broken hinges off too. Then I took to it with 60 grit sandpaper and (go with the grain!) took off all the finish. Because it was such an old finish, it came off almost completely in 30 minutes of sanding.

Then I went over it with a 100 grit sandpaper. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought a pack of higher grit sandpaper for a final finish, but just using 60 and 100 worked fine.

Then I sprayed it two two layers of primer spray paint. I did this over the course of a few days - sandpaper 1 day, 1 layer of primer in the day, 1 at night, etc. 

Then I painted it over with two coats of Glidden Caribbean Sea. Now, I'm not convinced it was actually Caribbean Sea. I got the quart of paint in a Glidden giveaway last year and when I opened it I thought, "Odd, that looks too blue..." But since it was free, I went ahead with the project. I think it's actually Glidden Cool Cobalt and I still love it. 

Then I took a piece of 100 grit paper to the finish and rubbed off some of the paint. I went with the grain on the flat panels and then gave special attention to the corners to take off more paint. 

The final touch was fabric covered baskets to go inside the shelving. A tutorial is coming soon! Easiest $10 project!

The secret weapon: Dollar Tree plastic bins can be hidden.

I love the overall look! Can't wait to get it upstairs!