Steelers fever

Football season has begun! This means of course that I lose my husband to the television yet again until football and hockey season ends. He warns me each year before football season begins to get as much TV watching in as I can because come September, I have to hide myself away in the bedroom to watch any shows I might want to see.

My husband and his family are HUGE Steelers fans. I don't think I ever knew what a "fan" was until I met my husband. His love for the Steelers means when they win a game, he's on cloud 9 for the rest of the night which is great for me. But if they lose, I get Grumpy Husband who mopes around the house for the rest of the day and then goes to bed at a rediculously early hour because he's in a bad mood. Good thing they won the Super Bowl 2 years ago or he might have secluded himself in the house forever.

For his birthday this past year, Pat's family got him a Steelers jersey. Haley got one recently too, thanks to an awesome garage sale find courtesy of my mother-in-law :)


With my husband's love of the Steelers and the discovery that Baby #2 is a boy, I knew I had no choice but to make Connor a Steelers-themed baby room. I bought 7+ yards of Steelers print fabric on top of some gold fabric and other materials and set out to make matching Steelers stuff for Connor's Steelers/football baby room, including bumpers, bed sheets, a dust ruffle, and a Boppy cover. I might also throw in a blanket if I'm not feeling completely worn out by the entire ordeal.

Knowing this was going to take some time, I began with the bumpers and I'm proud to say I finished them in about a week's worth of sewing after Haley's gone down for naps and bedtime. I used Sew 4 Home's crib bumpers tutorial and they turned out great!!



The back of the bumpers is gold like the piping on the top. I'll have to get better pictures once I finish everything and can actually put it all on the crib. The actual sewing part of the bumpers wasn't difficult, but the measuring and cutting part was what took the longest. I'm extremely happy with the result though, I'd recommend this tutorial to anyone who would like to make their own bumpers (and at a fraction of the cost I might add.)

More baby room decoration updates as I continue to finish the projects!

A ruffly apron

There has been a lot going on lately, namely nesting nesting nesting! I'm 27 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow, and the thought hit me recently: this kid is coming soon and nothing is done!

Well, some things are done...I have some boy clothes and a lot of essentials left over from when Haley was a newborn, but Connor's room isn't ready. We plan to put him in the room that Haley is currently in and move her to a toddler bed in one of the other spare rooms...but she's currently occupying the crib, and I'm not so sure she's ready to make the big move yet. So with that in mind, I've been feverishly working on Connor's Steelers themed baby bedding so that it will at least be ready by the time he comes, even if he has to sleep in the Pack 'N Play bassinet for the first month or so. I'll have pictures up soon of my progress, but it's taking some time...which seems to be slipping away more and more lately, which is funny because it drug by with my last pregnancy. It's exciting and scary at the same time! Soon, we're going to be a family of 4. FOUR. I can't wait.

In the meantime while I've been running around like a madwoman cleaning and making baby bedding, I've managed to work in a couple projects, one which is an apron for my Mom's birthday....which was in July (I know I know, it's September.) Anyways, I found some fabric in my favorite colors - brown and blue - and made THIS super cute Ruffle Apron from One More Moore. I really wanted to keep it for myself, but I did end up with some leftover fabric, so I may just make a second one soon. Soon being after December when Connor is born.


I love how it turned out! It looks more like a skirt than an apron, if it were me, I don't know if I could bring myself to get any food on it. Oh, and see the belly? It was impossible to get a picture of me wearing the apron without the belly getting in the way. I guess I probably should have picked a shirt that coordinated better with the apron :)
So here it is, your apron is finally on the way Mom! You should probably try it out by baking me some cookies....for the baby of course.

Vacation and a new chair

We are back from an amazing (and very refreshing) trip to Pittsburgh to visit family one last time before Connor is born. After driving 13 hours each way, I'm glad to be on an unmoving surface again, but I would make that drive a hundred times over if we could have as much fun as we did this past weekend.

We packed so much stuff into 4 days: shopping, yard saling, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, 2 birthday celebrations, a trip to Kennywood Amusement Park, a visit to Treesdale for canoeing, and plenty of hang out time with family. It was a great final getaway before the baby comes, and Haley had SO much fun

getting an ice cream mustache at Kennywood...

...canoeing on the lake with Cousin Lena...

...wearing a crown made of wildflowers...

...and riding her first rides at Kennywood (with Mommy of course, I'm not ready to let her try it on her own just yet!)

Oh, and did I mention one of the Christmas presents we got for Haley came in yesterday?

It's a toddler-sized recliner! Yes, I realize it's September, but we just couldn't wait to give her her present. She loves sitting in the kid-size foam chairs at daycare, so we knew we had to get her one of her own. And why not get her one to match Daddy's chair?

How cute are they?? Now they can both watch the Fresh Beat Band together in their recliners :) And by the way, I would like to thank the whole cast of the Fresh Beat Band for making our 26 hour round trip to and from Pittsburgh that much more enjoyable. Although I have to say their songs are unavoidably catchy, and I think I may have infected my in-laws with Fresh Beat madness while we were visiting...there are worse things I suppose.

The tutorial for the quilted bibs is coming soon, stay tuned!

Quilted bibs and burp cloths - upcoming tutorial!

My mom emailed me recently wanting some burp cloths and bibs made for a friend at her church. I have this really cute book of baby crafts called Sweet Booties! which is where I got the pattern for all of the cloth rings I've made.



The book has so many cute projects that I haven't tried yet from crib shoes to blankets. There was one project in particular, a quilted bib, that I've been wanting to try for months so my mom's request was the perfect opportunity to try it! It took a little more time than usual, but the result was sooo adorable and worth the extra time and effort!


I went to Hancock Fabrics and bought 5 different fabrics that I thought would look cute together, but you can always use whatever scraps you have laying around. The only other materials needed were some bias tape to line the edges, flannel for the back of the bib, and string. I love that this project can be done with things I have just laying around. Best of all, I used the same quilting technique and made some adorable coordinating burp cloths!


They're almost too cute to let your baby spit up on. Would you like to know how to make some quilted burp cloths of your own? I sense an upcoming tutorial...