blogger slacker

I realize I haven't posted in over a week and I'm not trying to be a slacker. My vacation kind of threw me off. I'll get something new up soon.

Airplane hat

I brought a small skein of yarn for our flight to Germany, thinking it would keep me entertained for at least the first few hours. We were delayed on the runway and I actually finished this hat before we took off. Good times. This hat is made with a Peter Pan brand yarn, which is unbelievably soft. I have two more skeins of it at home, and I think it would make a cute baby hoodie.

blue stripe blanket

I made this blanket for a bookclub baby shower. I used a boucle yarn that faded from baby blue to white, so it had a wide-striped look overall.

baby shower invite

This is an invitation I put together for a friend's baby shower at the end of this month. The polka dot ribbon is my favorite part. I found a great paper supply store in the city called Paper Presentation. It has everything you could ever need to create invitations, scrapbook, wrap pretty presents and more. It is an enormous store, with entrances on both 18th and 19th streets. As a bonus, it is just around the corner from The Container Store.

P.S. Did I mention I am in Germany?!! I'll post pictures later.

Serious Scissors

Today was one of those awesome days because I got a package from JoAnn, my best crafty friend. She sent me a bunch of the usual stuff - plenty of new yarn (in nice neutral baby colors for those friends who like a surprise like, will it be a boy or a girl? Yellow or green it is.) I also received a fresh stock of batting for more burp cloths, but maybe I'll get adventurous and try a blanket.

But best of all, I got these bad boys:

Fiskars heavy-duty, spring action, comfortable softgrip scissors. Now, before you can say "You'll [poke] your eye out, kid!" don't worry ... they have a safety switch too! They are cutting machines. The little ones are made specifically for snipping material for creating frayed edges. The long ones are for your run of the mill heavy-duty cutting needs. I think I've gone to heaven.

Onesie Cookies

I had a frosting-filled weekend making onesie cookies for a friend's baby shower. I can't take credit for the design - I saw them on Rolling Pin Production's website ... so cute. Five dollars a cookie was just a little too rich for my blood though. I found the cookie cutter on-line at Off the Beaten Path. They have a really great selection at great prices, and I especially love that they have a cookie cutter for each state. I couldn't help get a Missouri cookie cutter (my home state).

To make things easy on myself, I bought pre-made sugar cookie dough from Fresh Direct (it is so good) and Royal Icing base from NY Cake and Baking Distributor.

Here is the process step-by-step:

First, I gave each cookie a coat of white royal icing, which I thinned to make a "picture" or "flow" icing. It spreads really easily and dries as a smooth, perfect finish.


Next, I piped white icing at the neck and seams:


Third, I piped a light green stripe on the body.


Last, I piped the blue strips and this is the final result (a mere four hours later):


These were a ton of work, but they turned out so great. I wish you could see the colors better in the pictures - I used just a little dye to make light baby colors and my flash washed it out a bit. Anyway, they were a big hit at the shower and I'll definitely make them again.