Showered with Love Once Again!

Isn't this the most beautiful baby shower cake you've ever seen?! It looks like something from Martha Stewart magazine but it's not... it was the gorgeous cake (which matched the invites) at my baby shower yesterday afternoon! Another day of spoilage, this one thanks to my awesome sis-in-law Joanne and my mom-in-law Bridie!

The ladies hosted High Tea with cucumber sandwiches and cheese sandwiches; homemade scones with cream, butter and jam (recipe coming soon); fruit and all sorts of yummy cookies. Of course there was the fabulous cake and adorable cupcakes (with booties on top) as well! Auntie Phil brought the beautiful teacups pictures above.

Thanks to everyone for spoiling our little man! At this rate we really are going to have to move into a bigger house.

It's Coming Together!

Just four weeks to go until our due date!! C.R.A.Z.Y!

The prints we ordered from Ink Tree Press Art arrived today and we LOVE them.

I made the cloud valence and the gauzy curtains were a steal from ikea. A steal as in a good deal, not as in the five finger discount kind of steal.

You should take a closer look at the prints because they're sweeeeeeet.

We could have purchased two matching print themes (cosmos like you see on the alphabet print or animals like the numbers) but we wanted to mix things up so the artist and owner, Erin, customized the number print for us so that the colours matched the alphabet print.

They look even better in person than they do in pictures, THANK YOU ERIN!!

And just to refresh your memory... this is where things stand in the nursery right now.

Stay tuned for more nursery photos!

Shut 'Er Down

The time has come for Gingham Skies' shop doors to close. Boo hoo! Of course this doesn't mean I won't be sewing and it doesn't mean I won't still be making things for family and friends - there's no tax on bartering yet, is there? No doubt there will be in time.

I've bit the bullet and officially closed shop since I'll be starting my mat leave in a month (if not sooner) and the last thing I want to have to worry about while I'm focusing on my little man is bookkeeping and weighing packages.

I haven't been great at keeping my etsy shop stocked anyways so maybe what I'll do in a few months when I feel like sewing regularly again is start building up inventory so that when I open shop again down the road (I should say IF not WHEN) I'll be able to WOW you with my goods. We'll see...

Thanks to everyone who supported me and my shop over the last two years. Hard to believe it has been that long, but it has! Oh and just because the shops doors have closed doesn't mean my blog will stop - you'll be hearing from me as usual.

Slothy Sweetness

Oh my cuteness! My husband sent me this because they are just too cute for words:

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Fab Pick of Last Week

These futuristic looking AirPlant Pods by mudpuppy would look sweet hanging in just about any room. They're tiny pods so be sure to look at the dimensions before you order - I think they would be best hanging in groups OR sitting on shelves if you're displaying one on its lonesome.

Weeble Wobbles wobble but they don't fall down? Well this one did.

That's exactly what I looked like before landing flat on my arse last night. Lesson learned: at 35.5 weeks pregnant one should bend rather than squat OR spread the feet further apart to accommodate the gino-belly. From the look on Mike's face it was a rather amusing moment, then again I was laughing as it happened too. It was one of those slow motion moments. All of those Judo break falls from when I was a kid finally came in handy, it was a smooth fall (picture someone sitting in a rocking chair without the chair).

Sneak Peek!

The nursery is coming together! Actually it's 98% complete. We took a trip to Ikea last weekend to pick up some shelves and stuff to spice things up in the babe's room and it was a super successful trip. I think the rabbit driving the carrot hook is hilarious - how freaking cute are the little coats hanging from it?! The funky blue shelves match some dressers that we have tucked away for the future "big boy room" so they'll come in handy down the road as well. We were just about out of Ikea when I spotted the two plant pots you see in the first shot; they match the colours in our decal PERFECTLY so I had to buy them. I have no luck keeping plants alive so I bought two that apparently don't need much water; hopefully I manage to keep them alive until the baby sees them... otherwise I'm slamming some fake plants in there.

We've ordered two prints from Etsy (no, not the baby animals) that I'll show you once we have them hanging on the wall. I also made an awesome (I'm so humble, aren't I?) valence for the window which I'll show you once I'm able to get a decent shot of it.

The books on the table next to the turtle lamp are itching to be read; I've picked them up and put them back down at least 20 times now. I know, I know: read to the baby while he's tucked away inside! Yes I could do that but I want to save them for reading while nursing. I was excited to find these at a used book store in town, the owner of the shop said that the red books by Thornton Burgess were his absolute favourite when he was a kid. He has a clear memory of taking a box full of books by Burgess to school for show and tell in grade 3. Who knows, maybe they'll end up being favs of our little guy too. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for more of these gems.

Oh! And I made myself a nursing cover (hooter hider) with boning in it so that I can look down and see the wee man while he eats his million meals a day (here's hoping nursing works out for us) while hiding the ladies from onlookers because well you know people can't get enough of a nursing mother's boobs. hehe. Kidding. The cover is for my comfort, not the comfort of the general public. Like the fabric choice? Me too!

5 weeks and 5 days to go until our due date!!! YIPPEEE!

Spoiled!

Today was AWESOME! My amazingly fantabulous girlfriend Jessy threw me a baby shower. A pile of my favourite ladies and a few sweet little men (under the age of one) + lots of yummy treats including a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (this was just the best surprise EVER) + no cheesy games = a perfect shower!!

Thanks, Jess! And thanks ladies for all of the wonderful presents! We were definitely showered with goodies. Sooooo many sweet little outfits and toys and books and... well, just SO many awesome bits!

Two more showers to go... where in the world are we going to put all of this stuff?!

Something for Moi!

I bought this grey fabric almost two years ago with the plan to make something fabulous with it. Mission accomplished.

I love love LOVE our new diaper bag! The inside is lined with a thin blue vinyl which can be wiped out easily in case of spills - there are five elasticized pockets in there too. Two large pockets are found on the front (see the bottom left photo) and another two are on the outer sides of the bag; finally there is a zippered pocket on the back of the bag that is large enough for a cell phone and a wallet. The strap is adjustable so that it will work for me and Mike too. I think I'll make a travel change pad in grey and blue to match, and maybe some burp cloths too.

I've admired bits made with the reverse applique technique (cutting a hole in your exterior fabric and stitching a pretty fabric in behind to peek through) for ages now but I owe a special thanks to Smidgebox for inspiring the circle on the exterior of my bag - I love her peek-a-boo circles! Check out her blog and definitely check out her shop!

Nesting is in full effect. I can't wait to show you what we've done with the nursery!

Fab Pick of Last Week

Adorable beanies on super sweet tiny people! I Heart Baby has an awesome selection of baby head gear. Our little man will be wearing one of the über cool skull & crossbone beanies when he's fresh from his current hiding place: Daddy bought one sized for a newborn and another sized 0-6 months. I will definitely be making additional purchases from this shop, I love the black and grey argyle cap featured in the photo above. Check out I Heart Baby and let me know which beanie is your fav!

Down with the Dandies

I think dandelions have something magical about them, the little fluff balls are beautiful especially close up. I love plucking the biggest and fluffiest from other people's lawns and then making a wish and blowing as hard as I can... The key words in that last sentence: other people's lawns.

I have spent the last week plucking dandelions off our front lawn. I'm in full fledged nesting mode and since it has been so beautiful out I've been taking advantage of the weather and spending an hour after work each day tearing these nasty weeds out of our grass. Before we owned a house of our own I never understood why people bothered to pull them, then we bought a house and ended up with a dandelion infestation and I fully understood why people painstakingly pull the little buggers: they take over and destroy the soft grass I love to walk on barefoot, leaving rough patches of nastiness. Down with the dandelions!!

The backyard needs some serious work but the front is looking fab thanks to my pulling and Mike's mad raking. What a pair we are: Snap Foot with the rake and Preggo with the dandelion torture device. I'm loving this early summerish weather (a very rare treat in southern Ontario), now if only the weather man could be wrong about the prediction of frost this weekend.

Baby Creatures

I fell in love with Sharon Montrose's photography a few months ago when I stumbled across this photograph:


Then I watched this video that was linked on Stacy Claire Boyd's blog and I have an even greater love for Sharon's work. There is something about an artist truly loving what they do that makes their work even more fabulous.



We haven't made a final decision on the art that's going in the nursery (we will after our trip to ikea next weekend) but I can't stop looking at Sharon's photographs, wouldn't a baby porcupine and a baby giraffe look adorable framed in the babe's room?