sewn thank-yous

These are a few of the Thank You cards that I sent out from all of us at Christmas. I also gave a couple sets away as gifts. They were super easy, and fun to make. I think the simplicity of the cards are great in real life b/c they are set off by my beloved luxe paper from paper-source. Before zig-zagging the fabric on the card I used a small piece of double sided adhesive to stabilize the fabric when I sewed it on the machine. This is one of those small and simple projects that was very gratifying when I finished all of them. I could sit and make tons of these if people didn’t mind getting the same style of thank you in the mail from me occasion after occasion. Next time I will probably print the text so I can say a bit more and have a wider variety of fonts than the stamps I have.

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want a boy? eat breakfast cereal! Honest!

A new study out of the University of Exeter suggests a strong link between high glucose levels in the early days of your pregnancy and preconception and having a boy.

“According to a survey of 740 British mums to be, a high-calorie diet is more likely to lead to a baby boy in nine months’ time.”

“The level of calorie intake was the main dietary factor that affected offspring sex, say the researchers, who report their research in Proceedings of the Royal Society B ¹. Overall, women in Matthews’s study who produced sons ate an average of 180 calories more per day than those who had daughters — “the equivalent of eating a banana”, she says.”

Higher glucose levels were found in mothers who gave birth to boys, but interestingly there was also a correlation between mothers who routinely ate breakfast cereal.

“The researchers are unsure of why this happens, although they suggest that it could be to do with levels of glucose in the blood. Male test-tube embryos generally require a more glucose-rich growth medium to survive in the lab — Mathews suspects that a similar process may operate in the uterus, so women with higher sugar levels are more likely to nurture a male embryo as it is implanted in the womb lining.”

So eat up! Or don’t. Personally when that time comes I am going to load up on Whole Food’s Fruit Loops!!

christmas 2007 gift making

Wow, wee! This is old news, especially for those of you who received one of these bags– but there are some people who have not seen my sewing marathon and have been asking to. These are pretty much my first sewing projects ever. My actual first bag never got photographed before I washed it and it fell apart! I was very bummed, but on the up side I learned a lot about linen and what not to do. The pleated bags for Sheri and my Mom came from the sewing book I learned how to sew out of, Bend-the-Rules Sewing, which my dear Lori gifted to me for my birthday last year. I gobbled the book up as soon as I opened it and have done many other projects since.

I recommend this book as a great first book for beginner sewers, but I can not speak for the advanced lot of you as I am far from that; however, please check out the Bend-the-Rules Sewing errant page before starting a project! Trust me, it is frustrating to be 100% sure that you are doing something correctly and still have it not come out right at 1am, only to find out after much cursing, fist pounding, and loads of disappointment that you are NOT crazy and there truly was something wrong with the pattern or given measurements, honest!

NOTE: Sometimes the botoom photo feed breaks from flickr, I’m working on it, but in the mean time check them out here.

for baby rocki

I made these little gems a couple weeks ago for a new baby along with our favorite and most gental California Baby shampoo and conditioner and with my other trusty standby, the Tide Pen!

I bought this wonderfully 100% cotton flannel print a while back ago on the cheap with just this in mind. The backside is plain white flannel and there is an extra piece inside for additional absorption. If baby Rocki is anything like Ella was she is going to need it for sure! I used whatever rickrack I could find at Joanns, since we don’t have a proper fabric store here. The rickrack its polyester, which I had reservations about at first, but turns out it was great to use on a project like this because I was able to melt the ends instead of worrying about how to finish them. Super simple. I made these burp clothes a bit wider than anything I had and longer. More width and length is a necessity when volumes of yuck come out! Final measurements are 9.25”x15.25”, perfect for any accident baby or toddler.

long time, no post…

For the one to two of you who read this little corner of the web, hello again.  My intended site “re-vamp” ended up being more like a re-work of the sweet blue bird that I am quiet fond of for some reason.  Actually I seem to be smitten with any sort of silhouetted bird these days, I don’t have any good reasons for it to talk you into either so you are fortunate– this time!

So after much thinking, and very little writing or organized thoughts I have come up with some topics that I am going to try to write on in the coming weeks as well as sharing my normal interests and crafty to-dos.  You must be thinking “Oh God, no, please not another pointless blog!”  I will save you the agony and drama, ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’  You see, it is just a place for me to put my thoughts down and share with the few people that care about what I do, and what is in my head on a weekly basis… besides no Ella don’t pull the power cord out of the wall, Ella where did you find that, no bunny poo is not to eat…

So hello again my few friends.