The Cutest {Homemade} Teething Ring

Back in April, I attended the Catholic Women's Blogging Conference in California.  You can read more about that experience here.  

While I was there, I met many lovely women, and have since been checking out many of their blogs.  One of the women who came blogs here at http://www.sewtravelinspired.com/

Back in June, I read her post about sewing a teething ring, and commented about it because 1) they are adorable! and 2) my 6 month old was FULL on teething and chewing on EVERYthing.  

 I don't sew, but I wondered if she sold them.  I never got an answer on that because she sent me one for free because she was so sweet and apparently my baby didn't get on her last nerve at the blogging conference where we met.  :)  

Not only did she send a teething ring, but she sent an extra fabric piece so that you can easily switch a fresh one out for a used one when it's time to put it in the wash.  Smart!!!!!!!!

Here is my daughter gnawing and sucking the heck out of that thing upon arrival!

I will let you know now that Maria did not ask me to review this item, but my daughter really loved it, and I really appreciated her sending it to us, so I wanted to share this with others.  Perhaps some of you are crafty enough to make your own using her tutorial.  

What I love about this teething ring in a nutshell:

*The wooden ring is easy for baby to hang onto and perfect for gnawing on.  

*The fabric piece(s) are really cute and bright, which makes it easier to find in the diaper bag when I take it to have on the go

*The fabric piece is detachable and washable.

*The extra fabric piece makes it so that when one needs washing, there is already a fresh scrap to put on the ring so that baby can keep chew, chew, chewing.  And drooling.  

*No parts are small enough to be a choking hazard. 

*It's adorable.  

Thank you, Maria, for sharing your gift of sewing with us!  

New Year's 2013 Challenges

1. Read Patrick Madrid's book, A Year with the Bible. So far, so good.

2. Complete at least 3 more sewing projects.

3. Run a half marathon.

4. Go on another backpacking trip with Chris.

5. Enhance the alphabet for Kayla and teach Elise a few letters along the way.

6. Be thankful every day. Be joy-filled every day. LOVE. Plain and simple.

Advent Calendar

Using my mother's felt Advent Calendar, I crafted one myself this year for my sister and her family. Here is the finished product (minus the little papers that go in the pockets and have a little rhyme pertaining to the corresponding felt piece).

Here it is! It didn't turn out too bad really.

Bean Bags and ice cream...

I feel really accomplished. I just finished sewing two sets of bean bags. I did it myself and the last 6 that I did today only took about an hour (that is counting the time that it took to accidentally sew two of the pieces the wrong way and re-cut them out and sew it over again). Bean bags are really not very hard to make, but I still feel like doing a little dance around our living room, because I finished another useful sewing project.

You can make them REALLY quickly and easily by just sewing three sides of a square (make sure you face the sides inward that you want to be on the outside in the end). You could turn it inside out, put beans in, and sew all four sides again for a finished product. BUT they are bean bags, which means they have beans inside them. My daughter sticks EVERYTHING in her mouth right now, so I made mine double strong. Still easy, but the process for each is about twice as long (which is still not very long).

So I made 3" by 3" squares of some of my spare fabrics (light colors work best so they don't show through the outer layer). Then I made 4" by 4" squares of the fabric that I wanted to show as the outside of the bean bag. I did one set in pink felt (these ones will probably last longer) and one set in a pretty pink and cream flower print (these ones are prettier).

The inner bean bag takes about 5 seconds. You just sew up three sides, add the beans (I added about 7-8 tsp), and sew up the fourth side. Then you take the outer layer fabric and place two pieces with the good sides facing inward toward each other. Sew up three sides and turn it inside out. Put in the inner bean bag and then stitch up all 4 sides for your finished bean bag. To make it look nicer and also because the flower print fabric frays, I folded the last open side in to itself and then stitched. I did the same with my felt bean bags, though you really don't have to because the felt doesn't fray like the other fabric.

inner bag and outer felt bag stitched on three sides

felt bag turned inside out and inner bag going inside to get sewn up.

there are four in each set, but I only took pictures of the ones I did today. Pink felt bean bags.

Finished pink and cream flower print bean bags.

Last night I made another gourmet ice cream flavor from my Jeni's recipe book. It's called Blackstrap Praline Ice Cream. The pralines are basically walnuts cooked in honey and sugar. It gets the "blackstrap" part of it's name because apparently blackstrap is a kind of molasses. We don't have it, but I just used normal molasses. The book said it's just a very strong kind of molasses. Anyway, it turned out really good in taste and consistency both. The next ice cream flavor we plan to try is Kona Stout Ice Cream. Coffee and beer are two flavors Chris loves and this ice cream combines them. I don't drink either beverage, but usually don't mind things that have beer or coffee in them....we'll see when we make it. It's a win-win for Chris. He'll definitely like it and if I don't; more for him. If I do, then we can enjoy it together.

Blackstrap Praline ice cream

Wow! I'm feeling so productive I better go try to get a short workout in before I lose my motivation......

Purses and Pigtails!

I am happy to announce that I consider myself to have officially conquered my 2011 sewing challenge. I tried to sew a purse the other day. The end product turned out to be a purse. boo-yah! I did it!!

My friend Maria suggested this fairly simple project that can be found at this website I found the pictures/directions to be a bit confusing in some areas since I am a newbie to all this sewing stuff. In fact I made a couple large mistakes because the directions and pictures weren't clear on a couple points (at least to me). But I also figured out what the problem was, and ripped out some very long seams...but the purse was still completed eventually and it looks like a purse so who cares how many mistakes I made?

I kept it really simple and did not put any extras on it. I didn't make a button to close it because that will just get in Kayla's way. I also didn't bother with a pocket inside.

Also, the other day it suddenly occurred to me that I have been so focused on being able to put Kayla's hair up in a ponytail that I completely forgot about pigtails! So I had to try them out of course, and they are adorable. How could I have forgotten about this easy, cute child's fashion statement?

I had to make my own pattern using her dimensions. I think I did pretty well.

So here are some closer looks at the purse I made. You can see by the shoulder straps that I didn't really understand her directions there either, but that's ok. Kayla actually picked out the fabrics herself, which is impressive because the color schemes of the two fabrics actually matched.

And here are some fun shots of us girls hanging out together at home.

Sewing update

It is already October, and I have only progressed a tiny bit on goal of learning to sew. That means I've got about 2 1/2 months to actually get on this or there goes one of my 2011 challenges....

I don't give up easy, so I'm going to keep trying. I was borrowing my grandma's sewing machine, but was making really slow progress (as in taking it out and practicing threading it, and running the needle through some fabric a couple times)...and then my dad's cousin brought me back the fancy sewing machine that she'd let me borrow before. I have completed one tiny, fairly pathetic project since that machine arrived.

I made Kayla's baby a blanket. I made it like a little pillowcase (sewed a square inside out and left a little hole to pull the thing back right side out, then sewed that shut). It's not great, but it was something and another step along my very long path to actually learning how to do something truly useful on the sewing machine.

I have to admit, even though I know the sewing aspect of the dress and blanket I made for Kayla's doll totally stinks, I am really happy that my daughter loves them so much. There is nothing quite like the smile on your 2 year old daughter's face when you make her something special for her baby. I do have larger goals than that, BUT if that is all I ever achieve on a sewing machine, I will still die happy knowing that I made my little girl happy.

But seriously, my goal for 2012 is to make the girls' Christmas dresses, so I've got a lot of work to do. What in the world am I still doing blogging? I need to bust out that sewing machine again....