Before our daughter was born we put our condo on the market. During the de-cluttering and staging process we decided that not everyone was as geeky as us and would want 3 desktop computers and 2 laptops in their bedroom. So the mini lab was packed up and I switched to using my husbands Macbook Air. Being a PC person I thought the switch would be hard. It wasn’t. I was in love and I haven’t turned back since!

In fact I’ve become even more of a geek  by getting my first iPhone this month. It was a long and agonizing wait for it to be shipped but it finally arrived and being a crafty person I knew it needed a cozy… not just any cozy but a handmade cozy!

It took two tries and four long nights of cutting and sewing but I did it. It has a little pocket in front for credit cards/cash and headphones for quick trips out and a wrist strap for carrying.

It only took so long because I got stumped on how to sew the lining in and tried a handful of ways until I finally got it. I even took a picture so I wouldn’t forget, which was a good thing because when I went to make the second one I forgot!

Why did I need two? Well in the process of figuring out the lining I made the cozy too short and the phone stuck out about a centimeter. My husband said it looked like it was wearing a hand-me-down and insisted I make a proper one for my beloved new phone.

Oh I’m also a little embarrassed to mention (being in the IT field and all) that I used a magnetic closure at first and then totally freaked out after realizing the magnet could damage the phone the same way they do to computer hard drives. The second one has a proper snap button to  secure the phone and cards.

Any iPhone users out there? I’m always on the lookout for cool new apps to try. Let me know what your favorites are!

It’s been a hectic few weeks so it was relaxing to squeeze in time to make this little bumblebee from Sarah of Bit of Whimsy Dolls ….

The Little Peanut has dubbed her “Mii” and lets out a little “buzzz buzzz” when she sees her. It’s so adorable!

Mii is a little mishmash of fabrics because I was too impatient and wanted to start asap and used what I have on hand. I love how fun and colorful she turned out though and can’t wait to make more.

In hindsight I think I would have made the stripe on the body a little shorter so that the bottom fabric shows a little more.

It’s hard to say who loves these little plushies more, me or the Little Peanut. Its so hard to resist Sarah’s patterns though and I’m soon going to have a small army of them.

What’s a girl to do with too many stuffies? Put them up on her Etsy shop of course! I’ve just added two darling puppies to the shop last night and should have two monkey’s listed yet this morning. They’d love a new home! Check them out here.

Over the past few days the Little Peanut has been spending a lot of time with a little toy dog. Feeding it, giving it water, hugs and kisses… I started thinking about building a small collapse-able cardboard dog house so that it could be put away when she wasn’t playing with it.

While trying to construct one in my head my mind wondered again to this fabric house from UK Lass In US and I go to thinking, could I turn it into a doghouse?! My mind is churning with ideas but nothing solid yet! I did find some of these other amazing houses in the Flickr pool that have really inspired me to get something on paper and get sewing. See for yourself!

Every time I go to the store (Target, Marshalls, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ikea etc) I look at the plethora of storage boxes. Canvas, leather, paper, wicker, plastic… the options are endless. The problem? None of them fit the spaces I want to put them in (10×10 and 10×14) or were the wrong color. Then a few months ago I discovered Make It and Love It and her tutorial on making storage boxes from recycled cardboard.

I immediately started saving diaper boxes so that I could make my own. It was slow going because I only got two pieces from each box (5 are needed for one box) but just last week we upgraded the Little Peanut from her portable crib to a full size. When I saw the box it came in- storage boxes started popping up in my head! I finally would have some more storage that I so desired (so I could cram even more crafting materials into the house!)

Ta da!

The first box (above) was slow going but turned out pretty nice. I used a box cutter and got some crooked edges. For the rest of the boxes I got a little smarter and used a small hand saw that we have. It worked so much better- the crooked edges were gone!

Instead of using fabric for the fronts I used scrapbook paper. The paper tore a little around the handle area so what better way to cover up the tears then with some bias tape? I did a mitered corner to give it a more finished look. It was just Mod Podged on so there are a few gaps where the tape meets up at the corners.

Next time I would sew the tape up into the square first before attaching it to the box and also use less Mod Podge because it made it pretty stiff. I would have liked a softer handle. The sides, inside and bottom were left raw. The second and third boxes I was able to get the paper around the handle without tearing so I skipped the bias tape.

Currently I’ve got three boxes but have plans for more once my arms are done being sore. The dilemma now has become where do I put them?! They look pretty nice lined up in the closet (second pic), but then I could use them in the bookshelf in the living room (first pic) for toys. One works well under the sink for storing toilet paper too (third pic).

Eventually I would love to make some with covers (and a tie ribbon) for our media stand to house our Wii accessories and games. The ribbon would be to keep the Little Peanut out of the box because she loves to dig through stuff!

You may remember a few weeks ago our Etsy favorite Wednesday: Baby sewing patterns featured the Liberty Lion pattern. I couldn’t resist the adorable patterns and the buy one get one sale from Bit of Whimsy Dolls and bought the Peter Puppy and Millie Monkey patterns.

With the Little Peanut at grandma’s house and no contract work to do I declared today “me” day and finally got to create my own little Peter Puppy. He was so much fun to make and took no time at all. It was nice to get back behind the sewing machine again.

I adore him and I think my daughter will too! She’s in a puppy phase and lets out a little squeal when she sees a dog on TV, in the park, in a car, photos of dogs…. pretty much anything! We live near a dog park and she always has a lot of fun when I take her for a walk there.

His face sides and tail are fluffy fabric that I think she’ll have fun with. I also added interfacing to the face so that it wouldn’t pucker where I used the zig-zag stitching. I stuffed him so he would be a little floppy and easy to hold on to. I’m pretty happy with the embroidery as well since I’m not very good at it!

As a proud new parent we always have the camera on hand for those firsts. Ideally I would love to put all those photos into scrapbooks but it’s hard to find the time – and the space – to do it. By the time I get all my supplies laid out it’s time for a feeding, nap or my own bedtime.

Enter in Scrapblog.com – an online scrapbooking website. You do everything online and don’t have to worry about cleanup! It’s great to work on during naptime (when I’m not napping myself!) or when my little one is playing nearby.

There are dozens of themes to chose from or you can mix and match from various themes. With the abundance of backgrounds, stickers (elements you can put on the page) and frames the possibilities are endless.

My current favorite are the Baby Enstine themes. They feature the puppets and stickers for a lot of baby firsts and activities. The perfect thing for making a first year scrapblog.

Just recently Scrapblog added a printing service where you can order books and cards of your creations. While I haven’t ordered any myself I plan on it once I finish the first year album for my little one.

Since my daughter started sitting unassisted we setup a play area up against our bed for her and proped up a few pillows so that she doesn’t hit her head on the frame. The pillows were grabbed from the couch and looked to grown up for her space. I decided to give them some new covers to make them more kid friendly (ie. washable!) and to give her something interesting to look at.

We found this great animal print that matches her bed set and picked up a few extra yards of yellow and blue as accents. I wanted to do something different for each pillow and created different stripes and blocks of color. The backs are overlaps (similar to our own embe pillow covers!) so that they can be removed and washed if soiled.

I also wanted to add a personal touch and created a “birth pillow” (you can see it peeking out behind in the photo). I was inspired by some of the posters I saw on ohdeeoh.com. I used inDesign to layout the words with her name, birth day, time, and weight. Then I printed it on iron-on transfer paper in order to place it on the pillow.

My daughter really finds it interesting to look at and enjoys touching it… which has made the iron on transfer start to peel. Hehe. I guess it’s going to be more for decoration then use!

We’ve only been using them for a few days but I think they really help define her play area (not that the toys don’t already do that!) and help keep her safe.

A lot of people are surprised to learn that I’m a self-taught knitter or that I knit at all! It all started when I got married and discovered a love for HGTV. I remember watching a show called “crafters from coast to coast” and thinking that it would be fun to pick up a crafting hobby.

I initially learned from a “Learn to Knit” kit I picked up at Michaels. While the book was helpful in learning the basic techniques of casting on, knitting and purling I found I needed more guidance then what the book could provide if I wanted to make more than potholders. Not knowing anyone who knitted and being an IT professional, I turned to–you guessed it–the Internet!

One of the firsts websites I came across was knittinghelp.com. What drew me in were the free instructional videos. They were just the thing I needed to learn more advanced stitches, like increasing and decreasing! (It’s funny to hear myself say that increasing and decreasing were considered advanced but to me each new technique is advanced!) Even now, four years later, I return time and time again to KnittingHelp for a refresher on a technique I hadn’t used in awhile or for something new.

Another site I use is knittingdaily.com. They just recently started posting how-to videos and some of my favorites are how to knit joggless stripes in the round and tubular cast on. The knittingdaily blog also is a wealth of information. It’s taught me how to take my body measurememtnts to ensure that a sweater will fit, how to knit lace, and different types of cast-ons and cast-offs.

I’ve come a long way since my potholder days and I owe it to all the great online knitting websites. Now that I’ve given out my secret, you can start knitting now too!

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with KnittingHelp and KnittingDaily, nor did they pay me to say such great things. KnittingDaily image from knittingdaily.com