Baby Blanket - Project #3

Here's the baby blanket which I knitted for Baby Q.  I completed knitting it on Saturday, started stitching in the end pieces on Sunday night, and finished stitching in the ends Tuesday in the hospital after her surprise entry on Monday.  Here is a picture!

"Princess" Board

I'm not the most creative or original person you'll ever meet!  I am, however, really good at duplicating something I like when I see it.  And so when I saw this post over at Baby Makin(g) Machine (a blog which I read frequently) I just knew that I wanted to make something similar for my princess.  I just had one hang-up, when I originally read the post I knew that we were planning to start trying for baby #2 in the coming months.  And since Y and baby #2 were going to be sharing a room, I wanted to wait until 1) we were pregnant and 2) we knew the gender.  So in March, after our ultrasound, the wheels started to turn in my head.

I should interject that I'm very fortunate to have some very talented and crafty friends here locally.  I spoke with one of these friends regarding what I wanted and she gave me some awesome ideas to make the project even better.  She has a vinyl cutter and I simply emailed her to see if she would be able to create the vinyl for me but she also gave me the idea of using scrapbooking paper behind the vinyl.  On top of that great idea she also recommended that I contact a mutual friend, who is amazing at carpentry and woodworking, to shape the edges of the board so it wasn't so boxy and gave it more of a finished look. 

The project is finally finished and I am super excited about it, I fall in love with it again every time I walk into the room!  Here you can see pictures of the progress from start to finish!
 

I started with a regular 1" thick board from Lowe's which measured 12" wide and 4' long.  I can't remember what it cost but I think it was somewhere between $6 and $10.

 

The edges after being shaped by a friend.



I choose to stain the wood instead of paint it.  I wanted a cherry wood color that would match all the furniture in their room and the closest I could find was called Red Mahogany by Minwax.  It's not a perfect match but it's close enough!

 

Here's the board after I added the scrapbooking paper.  It's super easy to do, all you need is Mod Podge and the paper of your choice.  First, cut the paper to the size you need to fit the board, apply a small amount of Mod Podge to the board and then apply the paper.  After all paper is applied to the board allow it to dry and then apply Mod Podge to the top of the paper.

 

Take some measurements and apply the vinyl.  I was sort of paranoid because I have never applied such a large piece of vinyl so I just had my friend help me out with that part.  She was a huge help and had some techniques I never would have thought of.



The final project hanging above their window.  The window is just over 6ft wide so you can probably understand why I needed the board to be so big.

 

In case you're wondering why I didn't chose a polka-dot scrapbooking paper which would certainly match the decor of the room a little better, it's because I needed a paper that was both feminine and would grow with them.  I'm sure that eventually I, and they, will outgrow my polka-dot obsession and so I went with a more neutral paper.  In either case, I think it turned out perfectly.


I'm pretty relieved to finally have this complete!  Baby Q will be here within a week and a half and fortunately my to-do list is dwindling down.

Finally Finished!

As of yesterday I finally finished painting the letter's of Baby Q's name.  It took several weeks of me staying up late while everyone else was in bed but I was finally able to complete it and hung it on the wall today.  It's pretty much exactly like Y's name (which I swore I'd never do again but since they're sharing a room it didn't leave me much of an option) except I used a turquoise base coat instead of lavender.  Here's the Q and the Y from their names so you can see their similarities and differences.

Now that I have fully completed one project I just have to work on completing the other two, which have been in progress at the same time as I was painting her name.  Hopefully I'll have pictures of those posted soon because my time is winding down!

It is Done!!

So after months of procrastination I have finally finished the baby's blanket!!! I have included some pictures below. Let me know what you think. In the pictures it is slightly folded so that I could fit it all in the picture. Anyway, here's the pictures:

Front

Front & Back

Yanna!

Okay, so I have finally finished Y's name! We have about a week before we move and once we do I'll be happily setting up her room! So I'm taking this opportunity to show you guys the options and have you choose which setup you like the best! If you look to the right you will find the poll. Thanks!

Staggered

Semi-circle

Let's Play Catch Up...

Okay, so it's been almost a week since my last post so I'm going to try to catch you up on all that has been going on since then (Warning: This may be a super short post).

On Friday I had another doctor appointment. He asked about my weight gain, which has been up 2 lbs, up 1 lb, down 3 lbs, up 1 lb. So I am officially one pound heavier than when I got pregnant and I have absolutely no complaints about that! He looked at my blood glucose levels and he actually said that he was surprised that they are still at the level that they're at (meaning he thought they'd be higher by now) because with gestational diabetes the farther along in the pregnancy you get the more hormones are produced and therefore more of your insulin is blocked. So he's very surprised that the numbers have pretty much remained the same even without medication. He said that probably means I was eating LOTS of carbs before, and he is completely right! I LOVE my carbs!!!! So anyway, I go back again on the 23rd and then probably again a week later because he wants to see me twice before I leave for NC on the 31st. They are also going to schedule my 28 week ultrasound which will fall sometime around June 20th.

In other news...On Thursday I started painting Y's name (and as you'll discover in a minute, I'm nowhere near finished). When I bought the letters they were primed in a white paint and it said for best results to sand a little before painting with acrylic paints. So I sanded and then I started painting on the base coat, which is lavender because I'm not one of those girls that likes pink. I spent upwards of 5 hours painting with just lavender paint. Then I got to draw the polka dots on in pencil which took another 3 hours (because I'm a perfectionist). So on Friday before my appointment I started to paint in the polka dots on the "I." I will just mention that the "I" is the smallest letter with the least number of polka dots and it took me 2 hours just to paint them in. It's a tedious task. So 1 letter down, 7 more to go. With the next kid I'm just gonna keep it simple! If you're wondering when I chose polka dots, it's because it matches the crib bedding that we're going to get.

We spent this past weekend in Canada with the family because it was Mother's Day and because it was C & Å's last weekend before they fly back to Norway. It's always so much fun when we're all together because the stories and the laughs just seem to go on forever.

So that has pretty much been our week! Now I've gotta go and get some cleaning done which I've been putting off because I hate it so much. ttyl. Oh yeah, I guess I was wrong about this being a short post. Ah well!

I almost forgot...

Okay, so i know I just posted about 5 minutes ago but I forgot to mention and include pictures of baby project #2. It's one of those French Memory/Photo boards! I started it yesterday (Monday) and I'm almost finished with it, I only need to sew on 8 more buttons and then I'm done. But here are the pictures anyway.

A picture of the whole board.

A couple of the buttons close up - they all have a baby theme.

A good shot of the ribbon and fabric.

I just Love this button, it's my favorite!