Nella's Easter Basket

With each new day we have our "firsts".  It is so exciting.  We are about to celebrate our first Easter with baby Nella.  I know she is too little to understand any of it, but she'll have photo's to look back on.  She won't really know at the time about God's love for us as we sit in church on Sunday morning and she won't understand all the hulabaloo behind an egg hunt.  She won't know why there is a man dressed like a giant bunny (let's hope there are no tears) and she won't taste any of the delicious food that we'll eat.  But gosh darnit, she'll have an ADORABLE EASTER BASKET! 

I was browsing online trying to find an Easter photo I wanted to replicate for her 3 month photos.  I still cannot find it, but I did find this.  It was actually a picture of the basket that I found.  I had to hunt down the original page, but what a treat it was.  I will show you my rendition now.

I started with a Jelly Roll purchased from Joann's.  I tried to buy one from the original site, but there were none for sale.  Luckily, I still had my 25% off coupon and Joann's is just down the road.  There were only a few Jelly Roll's left and only ONE cute one. 

Enter exhibit A.

A Pocket full of Posies Jelly Roll.

Unroll the Jelly Roll.  Seperate all strips by color.  This particular one had 10 different fabrics, 2 of each.  I cut the strips in half lengthwise, so I was left with 40 strips.  They were approximately 2.5" x 20" after cutting.  I then stacked them into one pile in alternating colors/fabrics. 

Now I had to get all intimate with the glue gun.  The original tutorial calls for sewing, but it's midnight.  I have a 3 month old.  I don't want to sew.  You'll need two packages of filler cord piping.  I used Wrights brand 12/32" for the basket and 6/32" for the handle. Wrap and glue, wrap and glue.  Make sure to alternate the fabrics! You'll wrap the entire length of the thicker cord (6 yards) and about 39" of the smaller one, for the handle.

Begin coiling the bottom.  You'll coil until you have 7 rows from inner to end. You can be an overachiever and sew if you want, but really, just glue it as you go.  Don't be sloppy though.   Let the dog check it out.  He knows his crafts!

Now let the baby check it out.  She doesn't know her crafts (yet) but the photos tell you otherwise. Once the dog and the baby give you the thumbs up, you'll need to begin your coiling for the basket.  I used to own a pottery shop.  I'm no stranger to the coil pot.  This was very similar.  Just keep going, and gluing, until you reach the top.  I tucked the end inside the basket and glued it down.  It was later covered by the handle.

To do the handle, you'll leave it in one 39" piece.  Fold it into thirds and glue...or sew.  Then anchor that bad boy into your basket with glue...or sewing.  Although I did glue it for now, I will reinforce it with a needle and thread because I do want this basket to last for a long time.  It's too cute not to.  And hey, the baby is pretty darn cute too!

A close up for your viewing pleasures.

ReFashioned Tees

I debated whether or not to keep this blog strictly about pregnancy, birth, baby, marriage, family etc.  I had to have this discussion with myself because I wanted to share some cute, and simple, crafty things I've done recently.  I thought that maybe I should not put that here.  Then I thought that was crazy talk, because what am I if not crafty?  So, the debate is over.  I will share whatever I want on my blog.  Yep, it's mine. I guess I have control over that. 

Without further ado...my shirts!
(I'll apologize in advance for the poor quality photos.  They came from my cell phone and at the time my goal was cute shirts, not great photos.)

For the first shirt, I refashioned an old, super comfy, super soft tee shirt using a bleach pen.  That's right! You actually want to get bleach on your clothes for this project.  I got the idea  here.  Actually, I first saw it on Pinterest, but this is where the idea stems from.

I recommend putting something between the layers of your shirt, otherwise the design will bleed through.  I used a piece of cardboard.  I'm sure you could use some wax paper or even a plastic bag.  I started to draw out my design with chalk.  Not so easy on a loosey goosey teeshirt that likes to stretch every which way.  I quickly gave up on that and just went in blind with my bleach pen.  If you look closely, you'll see there are both a turquoise and a white part of my design.  The green in my shirt bleached out differently depending on how long the bleach was left on. Once I realized that,  I did what I wanted in white first.  At the very end I added a few lines and dots that I intended to be the bluish tint.  Once my design was done and my colors lifted I rinsed the whole shirt in cold water to stop the bleaching.  I'd like to tell you that I then promptly put it in the washing machine for a quick wash and dry and put it away neatly in my dresser.  I did not.  It hung up (after the cold rinse) at my studio for a few days, then it sat in the back of my car for the weekend, spent a day or two in the dirty laundry pile and just recently made it out of the dryer.  That's how I roll.   All in all, I'm happy with my NEW shirt.  For less than $4 (the cost of the bleach pen) I can turn multiple old shirts into new shirts.  Love that!

For the second shirt, I rocked that Old Navy $2 tank sale.  I bought 5 tanks in fabulous colors and plan to turn them into something amazing, adorable, fabulous, what have you?!  With this little purple gem I took some inexpensive left over fabric and cut circles.  3 per flower in various sizes for a variety of flower sizes.  Once I had my circles, I snipped four parts into them to add some dimension.  I stitched them together and then on to the shirt (after laying them out multiple times to find a pattern that I liked.)  Once they were on the shirt I used some fabric and gem glue to add little buttons to the center of each flower.  For this shirt I chose to use all of the same buttons.  You can use all different types, like my friend Rachel did, and it also looks amazing.  You can't go wrong with this idea.  It is so simple and inexpensive.  Oh, and I do not sew.  That means that if you also do not sew, you can still make this shirt.  I don't consider threading a needle and doing a few quick stitches sewing. 

*Just a side note on shirt number two.  I had to put it on and mark with some chalk (or maybe I used a Crayola colored pencil, I don't remember) where there were gaps.  When the shirt is flat there were no gaps.  Once it was on and stretched out a bit, those flowers seperated.  No big deal.  Just whip up a few extra flowers and fill in the holes.