week 28 {maternity book}

well hello third trimester! so glad to see you – but so sad to see my energy slowing leaving, already. 11 (ish) weeks left!

have a great weekend!

{justine}

keepin it real

this is the state of our house right now. i thought i’d share in case you want to feel good about your house. i’m not a neat freak like ryan claims he is (he’ll be the first to tell you that i am the opposite), but it’s driving even me nuts.

i place 70% of the blame on the waterfall leak in the nursery closet ceiling we had over a month ago (plus of renting: we don’t have to fix it. negative of renting: it takes forever). a week after letting them know about the leak they finally stopped it, but here we are, again, a month later, and we still have no ceiling. and thus no closet to store all the baby gear we’ve starting amassing.

the office is the temporary holding place for all the junk that was in the nursery closet before. the plus side of the leak is it forced us to clean out the closet, which we needed to do. but we still haven’t found a home for all of this yet.

so the painting of the nursery walls is still not completed. but the headboard is moved out – improvement. once the mattress and box spring are moved to the basement i can finally check that off my list. and look! the crib and crib mattress arrived! ….and then there’s the other side of the room – a mess of fabrics, in-progress blanket and a mess of…a mess. oy.

welcome to our dining room…if you can call it that. more like storage locker. one corner holds two strollers, a bathtub and diapers…another has the highchair (that we just couldn’t wait to put together, i love it)…and another has a swing and toy waiting for assembly and use. at dinnertime you can find us eating around the pile of baby gifts on the table.

cleaning up the above messes is only part of my lengthy to do list. and my deadline is looming:

weekend goals: finish painting the nursery. huge ikea trip for storage pieces (dresser and bookcase) and miscellaneous . and hopefully setting up the crib! (and possibly an email to the landlord about when to expect a ceiling…)

{justine}

ruffles and appliques: burp cloths

burp cloths! one of my favorite baby gifts to give for a touch of personalization. someone in my office recently gave birth to a gorgeous little lady, tallulah (tilly), and i made her some pretty burp cloths to up the style of her spit up.

(edited to add: i forgot to mention that the base of these burp cloths are the gerber premium 6-ply cloth diapers, which have been given two thumbs up for use as a burp cloth – and what me and my siblings grew up using)

every girl needs some ruffles, so ruffles it was, made out of a pink and white striped jersey fabric from my stash (jersey fabric is great for ruffles since the edges won’t fray). the ruffles were made following the same steps as the ruffles from my ‘think pink’ burp cloths:

{using the longest stitch, sew down middle of fabric strip – do not back stitch}

{gently pull one of the threads to gather the fabric. my back side thread worked best}

{pin ruffles to fabric, sew down middle of ruffle – backstitching at beginning and end}

i also tried my hand at appliques for the first time, and i will definitely be doing it again – easy and i love the outcome.

(note: steps pictured are for a different project, but it’s the same idea)

supplies needed: fabric for design, heat n bond, design and fabric the applique is being applied to

{this is the heat n bond i used – ultra. it says to not sew, which is great since it eliminates a step. but if you do want to sew around the design for extra strength, i did and it was just fine.}

trace your desired design onto paper side of the heat n bond. if it’s something that needs to go in a certain direction – i.e. a letter or word – make sure it’s printed/drawn backwards.

iron heat n bond design to back side of design fabric, paper side up.

cut out design.

peel off paper from  backside, position on fabric and iron. viola!

i used the same technique for the last burp cloth, although my fabric was my design (so i just ironed on a piece of heat n bond large enough to cover the design to the fabric,  cut around the edges, peeled the paper off and then ironed the applique to the burp cloth).

for some reason i was having issues with the applique adhering in places to the burp cloth (i really don’t know why), so i did sew around the perimeter of the applique using a zig zag stitch (i like to use white thread so the stitches blend in on the opposite side).

the pretty trio:

all packaged up:

and there you have it. burp cloths that are not only functional but pretty too.

it was fun to step away from the boy mindset that i’ve been in for the past couple months since finding out i was having a boy. i can’t say that i’m not a tiny bit jealous i can’t enjoy flowers and ruffles myself – but that’s what future kiddos are for (hopefully)

{justine}

p.s. for more burp cloth inspiration, see here, here and here

weekend recap {st. louis}

{sammies at shower; walk home; milk}
{the famous pappy’s bbq; fancy blueberry ice cubes; pampering}
{nap time; tiny toms; diapers!}
{cool dude; present invasion; tired}

(pics via instagram. follow me @jstuck)

this past weekend we were in st. louis for our first baby shower! it was a fabulous weekend and the shower was amazing. we got a carload of great baby items from generous friends and family, and it was great spending time with all of them. pics of our first baby shower to come!

i can’t believe the weekend is over already. can i skip monday altogether??

{justine}