With the holidays just around the corner (gasp!!), it's about that time to work on shopping and DIY gift lists...

While reflecting on past gift giving, I realized that I was a terrible blogger (and yes, not just because right now I'm averaging a post every 3 weeks..) but because I completely forgot to show you any pictures of one of my bigger DIY undertakings!!

Last year (!!!) I made a flannel rag quilt for little Rozalyn - I am THRILLED with how it turned out and Rozalyn seems to be a big fan as well... :)

I originally got the inspiration from Creations by Kara - she has a great tutorial posted so I didn't feel the need to write one myself!

I made mine rectangular (instead of square) and I made it a little larger.  She recommended cutting tiny 1"x1" swatches of your fabric to represent your squares and plan out your pattern - I voted for "nerd" and went with Excel...  :)

Here's the pattern I came up with (complete with square count) - The letters correspond to the design that I put on the back of the quilt.  Just to keep it interesting... not at all because I miscalculated how much backing fabric I would need............

It was purely coincidence that I ended up with a brown and pink quilt (just like the tutorial example), by the way...  I was originally planning to go with bright colors but when I found the princess ballet monkey flannel, I just couldn't resist!  

Cutting this quilt was definitely the most tedious process (lots and lots and LOTS of squares...) but it was really easy to piece together!  Like the tutorial shows, you basically stitch an X through each front-batting-backing sandwich and then sew them together with seams toward the front!  From there, you're just 2 movies-worth of scissor snipping fringe to a super cozy quilt!  

I'm very seriously contemplating making another one for myself...

Anyways!  Here are some snapshots of the final product!! :)

Remember my friend/dance instructor Jen's little girl Rozalyn?  I posted about her first birthday here and this past August I was able to be there for her second birthday, too!

Here's a mother-daughter shot - opening presents of course :)

How much do THEY look alike??  Almost as much as my mom and I, probably... haha

I always had a thing for Dr. Seuss books when I was little and my environmental career has left me with a little bit of a soft spot for the Lorax...  Don't get me wrong though, Green Eggs and Ham is not far behind!

This inspired this years birthday gift:

How cute did he turn out?!?!?!  I won't lie... probably going to have to make one for myself...

And as if it could get any more adorable, Rozalyn calls him "HoHo" - she thinks he's Santa because of the mustache!  Bahahaha!  Love her...


While HoHo was terribly exciting, the battery operated pink and purple ATV was also a HUGE hit:

She hadn't quite mastered the steering part of it yet so Grandma and big brother, Daniel were helping out a little.

So, Jen - when can I babysit again???? :)

With Dad's birthday in July, (the 21st to be exact), we usually end up with some kind of outdoor dining extravaganza to celebrate.

Being the official BBQ- and grill-master of the family, Dad - sometimes referred to as Daddio or Daddy-o - ends up on the back deck or patio an awful lot for summertime dinners.  Hence, Daddio on the Patio!

Two years ago, I commemorated his skills with a very masculine grillin' apron - that I of course can't find a photo of, for the life of me... Think: Black apron with "Daddio on the Patio" stamped on the front of it in fire-esque letters.  

ANYWAY!  This year I decided to continue the tradition with some custom-made towels that he can hang out by the grill!

I picked up some black kitchen towels, a little flame fabric, random patchwork letters, etc. added in some fabric I already had, a little Heat 'n' Bond, and my affinity for applique and voila:

I wasn't really sure what to expect, so I just dove right in and they turned out great!  

Rob and I went over to the house and we had a big birthday dinner with Mom, Dad, and a bunch of my parents' friends.  Delicious, per usual!  :)

I received an email a few weeks ago from an incredibly sweet girl, Grace.  Her boyfriend was, as she put it, "dead set" on having her make his first set of Greek letters after he finished his membership initiation.  

On the hunt for a starting point, Grace managed to stumble across my tutorial and wrote me a very nice note to say how helpful it was.  (P.S. I LOVE getting messages like these...)  Her boyfriend joined a chapter of Sigma Chi so she wanted to ask me about the letter sizing, given that it's only 2 letters instead of 3.  (Just for reference, they're traditionally still the 4-inch size).  Grace decided that she wanted the letters to fill out a little more of the shirt though, so she resized her stencils to be 6-inch letters.

Didn't they turn out great??

Wonderful job, Grace!

And happy sewing, everybody! :)

This past weekend I went to my dear friend Laura's baby shower - so exciting!

(Please forgive me for completely neglecting my camera at the actual baby shower... the whole thing was just too exciting...)

She is one of my Sisters (from Alpha Omega Epsilon) who graduated a few years ago.  I was lucky enough to see her get married and I'm thrilled that now I get to see her family grow!  

This is all super exciting for a few reasons:
1. Babies are exciting!
2. She is the first Sister from our Chapter to have a baby!!  (Although Sarah isn't far behind!!
3. THERE'S TWO OF THEM!!! :)

I did a little crafting for my baby gifts...

I made a onesie for each boy - declaring them as future boyfriends of the sorority, of course (I appliqued on lowercase greek letters, similar to my regular letter tutorial) and I made pacifier clips (I figured two dropping pacifiers isn't something worth worrying about...

I'm THRILLED with how it all came out!

For the pacifier clips, I used a piece of ribbon with some velcro on one end (to attach at the loop on the pacifier) and hot glued it to a flat-back safety pin on the other.  I used one of the safety pins that has the locking mechanism so that they won't unhook and poke the babies!  For the pea pods, I just made homemade shrinky dinks!  (Basically?  Just draw on #6 plastic with a sharpie marker, and then bake at 350 degrees for a few minutes until they stop shrinking...)

We still have a few months until the due date but Laura looks great and I'm so happy for her!! <3