Mady's Christmas Doll

She isn't much so far, but she is the biggest doll I've ever made, plus, only the third actual doll. So I'm pretty proud of her. I bought the fabric and the beans that are in her butt way back in January or February 2010 for my baby girl...and she wasn't even conceived until September 2010.

I messed up on her armpit a little, so it looks funky, but with clothes you'll never notice. She still needs said clothes, a face and hair. Have to decide what I want her to look like. I'm gonna make her little leather shoes to cover those funky feet.

Toddler activity and I spy quilts.

Some activity quilts that I hope to sell. The girl one I made second and so of course it is better and has more activities. Both are a step up from the first one I made. By the pictures I put if it was the boy or girl quilt, should be obvious, but you never know. Personally I think boys can have purple (it's in the rainbow) and girls shouldn't be all pink and purple, but a lot of mom's and dad's disagree. So, I did my best to humor the masses. 

I decided to do a giraffe for each one. If I'd have done a doll for the girl quilt I'd have had to make several different skin tones and an outfit. I have too much on my plate right now for that. 

Soft fuzzy sports ball fabric inside the lace and tie pocket. (boy quilt)

Stuffed toy in the learn to zipper pocket. (boy quilt)

Learn to snap and learn shapes on the left, learn to buckle on the right. (boy quilt)

That's a pocket the shapes can go in.

Lace and tie on the left. (boy quilt)

Learn to button and learn to count. (boy quilt)

I spy on the boy quilt.

Learn to button. (girl quilt)

Learn velcro, counting, and the colors of the rainbow. (girl quilt)

I spy. (girl quilt)

Full activity side. (girl quilt)

Learn to lace and tie. (girl quilt)

Every little girl will eventually need to know how to use a hook & eye.

Buckle (girl quilt)

Stuffed toy. (girl quilt)

She hangs out in the learn to zipper pocket. (girl quilt)

Learn to snap and learn shapes. (girl quilt)

Mady's Feathers.

I've decided my princess is going to be a peacock for Halloween this year. Her first year trick or treating since she was in bed by six last year.

I already have the tutu skirt made that I used for her 7 month pictures, and I made these feathers to go on it. She won't wear anything on her head, so the complete outfit will just have a blue long sleeve onesie and orange baby legs. I'll post a picture when I get all that done, I have a feeling I'm going to have to dye a onesie.

That's a lime green, not a yellow on the lighter ones. 

I got the idea off of pinterest, but there wasn't a link, so I just did it my own way.

Blocks for Mady

Mady loves to build things, so I made her some blocks with some carving wood I had laying around. I will make her more when I can get more wood. Here they are so far.

I had them set up like this when she came down in the morning. She played with them ALL day. 

She is again dumping them out as I write this. I will also add more pictures to them when I find more stamps. I plan to wood burn some as well. 

Quiet Book for Jack's Christmas

After seeing the quiet book that I made for Mady a friend that I went to school with requested that I make one for her little boy who just turned two. It's for Christmas, so no rush...but of course I couldn't resist after all the ideas started flowing through my brain...I put everything else aside and busted this baby out and I'm very please with how it turned out. His momma's main request is that all the pieces be attached somehow, so there may be issues with tangled ribbons, but it will still be fun.

The fun starts before it's even opened! A box of crayons and eight pieces of green construction paper are in pockets on the front. 

Learn to unbuckle/buckle! Have to figure it out to get to the fun inside!

Learn to snap, spell his name and match the letters!

Learn to zip/unzip! 

They are God fearing, church going people so I went with Jonah and his whale and knew I could get away with it.

See there are secrets inside!

Look what the whale swallowed! A fish, Jonah (who looks a wee bit like a bald Tarzan), a boat, and for some good ol' Wisconsin humor and some "Mommy, why??" a snowman!

Learn to velcro! (Here is where I'm sure there will be some ribbon tangles as I've already been tangled myself.)

Each bug has velcro on it and there is five pieces spaced out on the leaves. 

(A requested page.) Learn to count! (I also threw in the 'Learn the colors of the rainbow' on this one.)

Learn to lace and tie!

Little piggies in the toe of the shoe! (Every kid at this age has piggies instead of toes.) 

Monkeys inside the shoe.

Learn to button/unbutton, learn your shapes, and learn the colors of the rainbow! (I had room after the seven colors of the rainbow and so added the other shapes/colors.)

So much learning!

The end.

Or is it? 

The pages are loaded onto rings so pages can be added or taken away!

Sight Word Magnets

OK, I've been working on a TON of crafts, and I'll get them up here soon. Another activity quilt, a quiet book, etc. These though I just thought of this morning. I just put Mady's first batch up on the fridge and she loved them so much she is pitching a fit as her Daddy gives her her bath.

The first three I made that are not pictured are pictures of her dad with the word Daddy on it, me with Mommy and her with Madelyn.

Here are the others in the first batch.

I took pictures of things she knows and sees every day and made matching words for them.

I put them face down on a piece of laminating paper and put magnets on their backs.

Then covered with another piece of laminate paper. 

Here they are on the fridge! She grabbed the one with her dolls right away and said, "Baby!" 

Makes so much more sense to do these with things she knows personally. 

I have lots more to make with stuff from around the house, then also shapes, colors, numbers, etc. She will get a few at a time. 

Then I have another copy of each word and each picture and I will laminate and add magnets to them separately for her to match. Can be put on a cookie sheet for road trips.

Makes me so happy when she loves something I make for her. 

Tuna Sandwich Saver.

You know when you pack a tuna sandwich in your or your husband/kids lunch and it is all soggy by the time you/they go to eat it? That's so annoying. One way to avoid that is to pack those ready made tuna packs, but those are pricey. Another way is to send the bread in a bag and the tuna in a plastic container, but you run the risk of not getting said container back for a while, if ever. I found a way to solve that in our house. 

My husband won't take a lunch box and I know if I send any kind of container I'll be hard pressed to ever see it again. He says, he won't remember it and I'll get mad and yada yada...so what to do when he wants tuna. 

I first came up with this idea after I packed him some tortilla chips but didn't include salsa and he asked me why on earth I'd do that. 

So, the next day I put some salsa at the bottom of a little paper cup, some sour cream on top of that and then some shredded cheese. I wrote in marker on the side to "stir". It was a huge hit...the only complaint was that it was kind hard to dip the chips in the little cup. I told him to tip a bit out onto the chip. After all, beggars can't be choosers. 

So I did the same when it came to tuna. I was tired of packing the standard sandwich and I'm sure he was sick of eating them so I did this to change it up a bit. My husband also likes a TON of mayo in his tuna, making it even soggier. 

Mayo drenched Tuna. 

Several little cups as it will still go through when sitting out until lunch time. 

Covered in plastic wrap and then stuck inside yet another little cup to hold it in place. (I could tape it or something, but this is faster.)

Then stuck inside a ZIP top bag. MUST zip, the normal cheap folding ones he likes me to use would be a bad idea for this....

Make sure it sits upright in the lunch bag.

Bread in a separate bag ready to be turned into a sandwich when he's ready. Bye bye sogginess. 

Quiet Book

Here is the long awaited and much loved quiet book post. I've also decided I WILL make Mady an activity quilt since the other one I made was such a hit and it has less pieces to get lost. My sister and her husband told me I should make and sell those quilts, that was a pleasant surprise. I'm thinking about it. Now that I know what I'm doing and it will look better...

I'm big on everything teaching colors so that is the order I went in.

The cover isn't pretty, but it's functional. (This was before I added the belt.)

The red page with shapes and a zipper. 

Learn shapes, how to zip and how to velcro. 

The orange page to learn how to braid (Hair isn't the best, but I had limited orange supplies) Yellow, learn to tell time. The clock hands move independently. 

Green learn to count. This was taken before I added the written numbers down the left side. She loves this page of course. 

Blue, learn to lace and tie. Also learn about day and...

Night. 

Indigo, learn to button. The envelope on the bottom holds pieces for the Violet page too. 

Indigo and Violet.

Learn ABC's, more velcro and how to snap. Only the letters of her name have snaps as well as velcro. Otherwise that would have been way too many snaps to deal with. 

The vowels are one type of fabric and the consonants are another. I freehanded all the letters directly onto the fabric. 

Y is a fabric all it's own as it can be either a vowel or consonant. 

Brown is a felt/velcro Mr./Mrs. Potato Head. I freehanded all the pieces directly onto the fabric before cutting them out. 

Black has a pocket for Potato Head pieces and three different kinds of buckles. 

White is a doll with an outfit made from a baby sock. She was going to be another posable doll, but when I was trying to stuff her, her skeleton got on my nerves so I pulled it out. 

She goes into a White bed. 

Took me forever to think of an activity for this page. I originally thought of a ruler and a few things to measure...but I just wanted to finish it!

Added a belt handle/closer.

There you have it. Not pretty since it was 100% freehand and I'm basically just teaching myself to sew and do things as I go, but I like it, and she likes it. That's all that matters.