Katie-Did

Our wonderful, dear friends who also happen to be close neighbors are having a baby girl in less than 2 months (yay!) so we happily offered to throw them a couples baby shower! When Ted and I sat down to discuss what theme it should be, we started with what food we should have. He suggested ceviche, and from there our Embarazada Extravaganza was conceived!! I quite possibly went a little nuts, but got SO EXCITED about hosting a theme party that I kept finding more and more cute ideas!! For starters, I found party favors - little rubber duckies at  Oriental Trading Company  - they have so many different kinds! We used the mariachi band duckies and fiesta donkeys  plus some small candies in little sacks to make individual pinatas! I set them out in a cute old suitcase in little packets next to an R for the baby's name that served as the guestbook. Everyone wrote cute messages to Baby R which she'll get to read in her room one day! I had a great time on Pinteres...

Long ago, in a land far away (the other side of town, actually), I started making quilts for all of the new babies in my family, all "signed" (I have a fancy machine that can do text!!) with "Love Aunt Katie" and the year. I just recently finished the quilt for the newest soon-to-be baby family member (my own daughter! Eek!! And "signed" "Love Mom & Dad"!), and thought I'd take a stroll down memory lane of all of the cute little quilts I've made over the years! Nathan - 2007 Nathan's quilt was fun because when I started, I wasn't told if he'd be a boy or a girl ;) So I just picked out "baby fabric" and came up with a theme. The theme was "I heart <3 ___" - I decided to do one shirt with "I <3 TX" because both parents were from Texas, "I <3 the Navy" because his dad was in the Navy, "I <3 FL" because he was born in Florida, and "I <3 Japan" in Ja...

As I've posted  before , we are using the most ADORABLE  inspiration board  to, well, inspire us for our nursery!! 2 months to go before our little lady shows up, and we couldn't be happier with the room! I decided to make some ridiculously easy valances to spruce up the place and add a pop of color!  First, we purchased a super cheap  double curtain rod  at Target. They also sell single rods if you can't find the double rod (we had to fake it with one of the windows and buy 2 single rods - just make sure one is deeper than the other so the valance hangs in front of the curtain!). I also went ahead and bought plain white curtains there because it was the same cost as fabric would've been had I made them myself!! Next, I bought some incredibly cute fabric at fabric.com  - they'll even send samples if you want to check on the color first! Which yes, I did!  I also bought blackout fabric for the backing so the seams and imperfections wouldn't...

Thanks to this amazingly easy pattern, I made 3 ridiculously adorable pairs of baby shoes in only 2 hours! I have a few coworkers who are having babies soon, and decided these would be the perfect gift! I just so happened to have leftover fabric from previous endeavors (2 baby blankets, an apron, and a super cute little lady dress), so I am proud to say this entire project was free!! You really hardly need any fabric! Check out the link, pick out cute fabrics, and go to town on your own tiny shoes!!

For the past year and a half I have been planning on sewing new chair covers... when Ted and I moved in together, it was Thanksgiving and we were hosting my family THE DAY I MOVED IN, which was QUITE a (stressful) Big Deal! We bought an amazing table at West Elm that perfectly fit our dining room (square, not elongated or I would've bought a super cute farm table!) - however, chairs are quite pricey, so we decided to go to Ikea and get a cheaper set of dining chairs. When we bought the chairs, we also stopped by a fabric store and ordered some super cute fabric which "we" planned on covering the chairs with! Before today, I had made 2 (TWO!!) because apparently I'm lazy and can't make myself work harder than I should! It takes approximately 1-2 hours to make a chair cover, because despite these things being relatively self-explanatory, they're a bit tricky! How To: Buy a chair cover that's meant to cover the chair ($10 at Ikea!!) and tear it apart! ...

I am super excited because today is the first day in about a year that I crafted something that was non-wedding-related!!  (Ok, not ENTIRELY true, but about 90% true!) HOORAY!!!  I saw this super cute dress online but told myself I'm not allowed to buy dresses anymore because I have too many... but, am I allowed to MAKE one?? ... YES!  It looked relatively simple, and turns out it is!  The hardest part is finding cute knit material - knits are just stretchy fabric along the lines of t-shirts all the way up to sweater material!  Most big box stores have more quilting fabrics and a small selection (read: BORING) of knits. I found this adorable website, girlcharlee.com , that has ONLY knits and they're all cute and reasonably priced! Mine was only $5.25/yd which is CRAZY (I ordered 2 yards which ended up being way too much, but it's cute so I'll reuse it - this dress was about $7 in that case rather than $78 on Piperlime!!).  First step - f...

I found the most adorable bachelorette party hat recently, and when I asked the store clerk how much it was, it was a RIDICULOUS $160. Why would someone pay $160 for a hat that you CLEARLY cannot wear regularly??  I thought to myself, CERTAINLY I am crafty enough to make my own!! And muahaha (evil laugh!!) - I AM!! I found this great pattern which is easy and cheap, but SUPER CUTE!! Kind of my motto, I'd say! Materials: 1/4 yard of fun fabric (I used leftover satin from my bouquets which was handy! Just be careful to not use the iron as hot as you normally would with other fabric when fusing the fabric and fusible fleece together!) 3/8 yard fusible fleece (you don't use that much, but it sure is helpful when you accidentally iron it and it melts!) One 9x12" sheet of 2 mm craft foam Hot glue gun and sticks (yay!) Attachment for your head (I used a comb because it's less obvious!) Embellishments - I used some tulle (50% off, hooray!), ribbon, stickers that ...

I had the best time coming up with my niece's Christmas gift :)  Years ago when I was a wee one, my mom made me "Katie's Do Book" that had all sorts of cute little shapes and colors and letters and numbers, buttons, snaps, etc., that as a toddler gave me hours of fun just playing by myself.  These days, they are called "quiet books", so I discovered, since they keep toddlers quiet at the dinner table or at events when out and about :)  How clever you were, Mom... I didn't realize THAT was your goal!! I figured Josie, at 1.5 years old, would have a good time touching the felt, playing with finger puppets, learning to use a zipper, snaps, pockets, seeing animals, colors, and learning easy counting, so I came up with a zoo theme, and using a lot of hot glue, sewing, scissors, and very fun felt from JoAnn Fabrics , I now have this finished product that I think is adorable!! Clearly I'm very modest ;) All total, it probably took me about 6 hours...