Random Baby Projects

Here are the last couple of projects from the nursery that I promised to post when they were done.

Firstly, the hedgehog clock. I saw a picture of an awesome wooden hedgehog clock on Pinterest, and I fell in love with it. However, when I searched around for one, they were $68, like the one linked above. This seemed a little exorbitant for a clock in a room where the main occupant won't be able to tell time for a few years, so I gave up. UNTIL I showed the picture to Eric and my dad, and they both said, "That is completely doable." So my dad and I went and picked out a piece of wood (poplar, which was $5 at Home Depot), Eric sketched on the outline of the hedgehog, and my dad spent a couple of days in his workroom cutting it out. (He's retired. He has time for things like this.) We played with some different stains, but in the end we decided that the wood was so beautiful we would just put some natural oil on it. We bought some clock works at a craft store for about $7 (although I think we had a coupon), and my dad drilled a hole and carved out a spot in the back for the clock works to sit in. The end result is awesome.

I love this SO much, and I love that I can tell my little girl that her grandpa made it for her based on her daddy's drawing, rather than telling her I paid $68 for it. 

The second project a mobile, and it was probably the most fun for me. I spent a few days just sitting and creating patterns and sewing by hand, and it was really relaxing and enjoyable. I'd been collecting pictures of little felt animals on Pinterest and Etsy since basically the second I got pregnant (I don't know why - I just really wanted to make a mobile) so I went through and looked at them for inspiration and figured out how to make something similar. (The exceptions were the tulip, mushroom, and bluebird - I just made those.) I've never been terribly artistic, so I felt a really big sense of accomplishment when I was figuring out patterns and cutting out pieces to create these things. The pictures aren't great (we hung it yesterday and I just couldn't get all of the animals to face the right way, particularly the fox) but hopefully you can get a sense of the cuteness, because I'm posting like four pictures of it.

The mobile itself is made from two embroidery hoops wrapped with some yarn I had left over from a blanket I made (below). It was a pain and a half trying to get the hoops to hang straight, but I got it to a point where I could feel moderately satisfied.

Finally here are a couple of random blankets I made just because I couldn't resist. 

My mom and I tied this one while watching a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey. I just couldn't resist these cute fabrics. It will be a more wintery blanket than all of the nice jersey and muslin ones I got, but it's cozy. 

This is the only blanket I made without help, and I got to test out one of the decorative stitches on my Christmas sewing machine. It's made from the leftover forest fabric that inspired the whole nursery.

Finally this is not something I made, but it's something I found and loved, so I'm posting it. Check out this awesome little cube I found at Target for putting the random toys and teething rings and such that I wasn't sure what to do with! I couldn't resist. (And I had a gift card.)

RIGHT??

So I think we can all agree that I am beyond ready. I think it's time for this baby to stop playing hard to get and show up! (Okay, okay. She's not actually late yet. Or for another week or so. She just FEELS late because my doctor told me she was coming early and she hasn't yet. Sigh.)