Baby TOMS!

You think I would have learned by now that when I really take my time to do a project right, I am infinitely more pleased with the outcome. For example, the chair I re-upholstered or my diaper bag. For both of those projects, I took my time and made sure every little thing was done right, and guess what? I adore both of them.

Well, here it happened again. I really don't know how to express how excited I am about these little shoes. I love them so much! I was so giddy when I finished them last night. I just kept picking them up and turning them over and just looking at them. Call me crazy, but I love them!

The idea came from Craftiness Is Not Optional, who originally got it from this tutorial. She gives a full tutorial on how to make the shoes, both toddler and baby sizes. She has a pattern you can buy, or if you are a penny pincher like me, you can download the free pattern and scale it to the size you need! 

I saw the shoes and since my little man needed some black shoes anyway, I decided to make them!

Like I said, I followed the tutorial exactly and they turned out just how I wanted. I actually intended for the bottom to be black, with the plaid on the inside, but accidentally did it the wrong way. Lucky for me, I did both of them like that and loved how it turned out!

I finished them after Owen was already asleep, so I had to wait until this morning to try them on him. They are just a little big, but that will be perfect! Room to grow is never a bad thing...especially with this guy. 

Checking them out:

So cute!

Perfect for those roly poly feet! 

I just might make another pair...or ten!

~K.A.N.

Re-purposing: women's shirt into girl's dress

This is one of the easiest and most satisfying projects! I love re-purposing! For this project I took a shirt that I had never worn and decided to turn it into a dress for my friend's little girl. (sorry, I forgot to take any before pictures!)

I borrowed a dress that belonged to my friend's daughter and following this tutorial, I made that shirt of mine into a dress for her!

The front: 

Using the extra fabric I added a cute little flower to the front!

The back: 

The first time she tried it on, it didn't fit over her head. That was my mistake because I forgot to account for this fabric having no stretch! I took it back home and added a cut-out with a button and it worked like a charm. 

Isn't she just adorable? 

~K.A.N.

A new life

So I took 3 months off from blogging. It seems a bit long, but I feel justified in the fact that I had a baby. He will be 3 months old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it has gone. The first month felt like it lasted so long, then the next 2 months just flew by. Our little man is getting so big and learning so much. 

Baby O on his birthday

Happy Halloween from our little pumpkin ~3 months!!

 We love him so much and are looking forward to the rest of forever with him. 

So along with having a baby, we also moved and the husband started graduate school! It has been a pretty crazy last few months for sure, but I finally feel like we are settled and figuring out life. 

As far as crafting goes, it is definitely different doing projects with baby O around. Things that used to take just a couple of hours seem to take a couple of days. I have done a few projects for around the house and a couple of just-for-fun projects as well. 

My plan now is to start blogging once a week! I'm excited to get making things again and sharing them through blogging!

~K.A.N.

Chair Re-upholstery

This is a project that I have wanted to do for a very long time. I actually finished it several weeks ago, but it was such a huge project with so many pictures that it took me a while to get it all organized in order to blog about it. 

When my husband and I got married, we got two chairs from my family. These chairs were bought new by my grandma, so they have been in my family for some time. And they are rather old.

This is the chair before. It was a light blue velvety fabric and very worn. I have actually tried several times to get rid of the chairs because I just didn't like the look of them, but my husband loves how comfortable they are, so he won and we've kept them. 

When I was deciding on the nursery colors and furniture I realized that one of these chairs would be perfect for in there and decided to do my first re-upholstery project. 

We went to Joann Fabrics and picked out the fabric for the chair. Originally, I wanted a navy blue to go with the nursery, but we couldn't find any fabric we liked in that color, so we went with a gray instead. It would be a great neutral color, just in case we wanted to change it to a different room someday. 

The first thing to do was take pictures from every angle of the chair, especially the little details. This is important so that they can be referenced later. Here are a few of those pictures. 

Next, the original fabric had to come off. This was probably my least favorite part. It took much longer than I thought it was going to!! I used a flat head screw driver and pliers and lots of help from my wonderful husband. I also took pictures as each piece came off. I was careful enough taking things apart that all of the tack strip and foam was able to be reused. 

First to come off was the skirt, then the back:

Next, the sides and piping. This piping went up one side, around the back, and down the other side. 

The front of the arms then came off. I took a lot of pictures of this because of the way the piping laid. 

I then took the front pillow off. When this piece came off, I realized this project was going to be much more work than I expected. It was several pieces all sewn together and came off in one chunk. This piece was taken completely apart and the individual pieces were used as a pattern for the new piece. 

The last pieces to come off were the arms and front. 

This left me with a chair that was completely naked. 

As I said above, all the foam, stuffing, tack strips, and cardboard were in good enough condition to be reused. I vacuumed all parts of the chair and pieces of foam, then fabreezed it all to get it nice and fresh. 

The pieces taken off were used as pattern pieces for the new fabric. With the new pieces, I worked backwards from how I took everything off to put the chair back together. 

1. Front

2. Arms

3. Front cushion - cover buttons were used for the new buttons

4. Sides

5. Back

6. Skirt

7. Seat Cushion 

This was my first re-upholstery project as well as my first time using cover buttons and first time making piping. I love love love how this chair turned out and expect it to be used for a very long time. 

We also decided that we love this chair so much it will be going in the living room rather than the nursery!

The last thing I learned from this project was to never again try re-upholstery 8 months pregnant. It was not only difficult working around my belly, but my emotions. Even so, I'm very happy with the chair and love showing it off when people come to visit!

~K.A.N.

Mattoon Family

Let me introduce you to some of our very best friends: The Mattoons. Courtney and I hit it off with our mutual love for crafting. The best part about it is that our husbands don't mind hanging out either. :) 

Courtney has wanted to get some family pictures taken in the wheat fields, so I told her I would do some. Luckily, our baby decided he wouldn't come just yet, so the wheat had time to change and I was able to take their pictures last night. The sky was so clear and even at 7:15 pm it was still pretty bright, but we did our best and got some good shots of this adorable family. 

This is my handsome hubby who so graciously came to help. He agreed that it was a bit bright out. 

The family of 3: 

The men of the house:

Mom and Mason:

We also had help from our other great friend Nikki. She did awesome helping with the dogs and Mason, so a big thanks to her! Here is a shot of the whole family:

~K.A.N.