Sophia's Room is Done...again

It has been several months since I embarked revamping Sophia's room from her former nursery.  It was sweet before, but I wanted more color.  I made a new valance and roman shade, a quilt, pillows, and I replaced the closet doors with a curtain to match the valance.

Please ignore the wall decals to the left.  I have already informed Grandma that we don't want those for Christmas ever again.  There is just no way for them to look nice.

I made two 20x20" pillows with a vintage hankkerchief sewn onto the middle.

I added some crochet edging from thrift store pillowcase.

This room is teeny-tiny and just doesn't have room for two closet doors to take up square footage, so I replaced them with a simple curtain.  I put Sophia's doll house under her hanging dresses in the closet so she can still access them to play.  

Click here to see my Pinterest inspiration for this room.  

Many of the inspiration rooms had lots on the walls with a collage feel.  When I tried that it just felt busy.  Maybe my style is a little more simple/uncluttered?

Updating Sophia's Room

Recently I have painted all the trim upstairs white including all the bedrooms.  I ended up painting the walls in Sophia's room to be a lighter green.  Since we are finished with her crib bedding, it seemed like a good time to update her curtains and bedding. Click here to see her old room.  This is still a work in progress, but I have completed the roman shade and valance.  For the roman shade, I took apart an old one I had gotten from Target and used a green polka dot fabric that will also appear in her quilt.  My next project is a new quilt for her bed. 

Headband

It is so easy to make a simple headband cute just by adding some yoyos and buttons.  You can get the pattern for this headband here.  

I made this headband to match a dress I made years ago.  It finally fits Sophia.

Rapunzel Birthday Cake

Less than a week before Sophia's birthday I got the phone call from my friend that she wasn't going to be able to make Sophia's birthday cake after all.  I quickly called another cake-making friend only to find out that she already had a cake due that day.  So necessity required me to make the cake myself.  I did get a little help with the fondant which I had never worked with before.  I am really happy with the results and now I think I have the confidence to attempt more complicated cakes in the future.

The Rupunzel braid was my nine year old son's idea.  It was such a tangled mess, it took me days to braid!  We used it to decorate the table and wrap around the cake.  The night before I had the idea to make a game out of it. Everyone guessed how many times it would wrap around Sophia.  The winner got a bag of m&ms.

Gray Ruffled Newborn Dress

I made this dress in size 0-3 months for my cousin's baby shower.  She didn't want too many traditional pink sleepers, so I though this fabric would be comfortable for baby, but sophisticated enough for mommy. 

I used some of my little girl's old onesies to make the pattern.  I got a little teary-eyed pulling her tiny little clothes out of the cedar chest.   

Fairy Garden

Sophia received these fairy houses for her birthday and all the kids had fun helping me set up our new fairy garden using things we found around the house and in our yard.

So sweet dress

I made this before Sophia was even born, and now it finally fits her.  Yay!

Baby Shoes

Another baby shower, another stab at something I've never tried before...baby shoes!

click here for pattern  

And of course a dress to match...

And a matching skirt for big sister.

What the heck, why not make a card to match, too.

I have always wanted to integrate fabric and sewing into cards and this was a fun opportunity to give it a try.  I grabbed a scrap of fabric off the floor and sewed it on!  

Chalkboard

Just finished another Christmas present for Sophia.  I got chalkboards for each of the kids and planned to paint each and put their names.  Then I came up with the idea of making a nice quilted case for each complete with a pocket for chalk.  I am still waiting on some fabric I ordered to do the boys'.  It's hard to find cute boy fabric!

I especially love that the cover reminds me of a laptop case.  Ironic considering it is for a slate like they used in one room school houses a hundred years ago.

Wooden Dolls

One lucky little girl will be opening these Christmas morning.

When searching for homemade gift ideas for the kids this year, I came across several cute painted little people.  I took it to the next level and added some skirts and dresses out of vintage hankies.  The I made a matching bag to tote them in.

Pillows and Purple Ice Cream

Luke was on a pillow sewing kick this week.  He made one for Sophia and a small one for himself.  He's five and this was his first time using the machine (around the edge of the pillow).

I make lots of smoothies and sometimes when they turn out too think I call them ice cream.  The kids get way more excited about ice cream than smoothies.  They particularly liked today's concoction.

Purple Ice Cream

A handful each of frozen strawberries and blueberries

One and a half frozen bananas

One scoop of vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup apple juice

I didn't actually measure, I just threw everything in the blender.  I usually use plain yogurt, not ice cream, but I was trying to make it a special treat today.  

Roses are Red and apples, too

I made this dress a while ago, but don't think I have ever taken pics of it on Sophia.  This is my style... mixing lots of prints.  I have seen these straps around.  They tie through buttonholes to adjust the length of the dress. So I wanted to give it a try.  I used my Roses are Red label that I put in all my girls clothes.  Great advertising!  Not that I actually have time to make clothes for anyone else's kids right now.  

Last weekend we had a great time at a local orchard and got a great deal on lots of apples.

So far we have canned jars of apple sauce, and made apple crisp and apple cake.  Still to come..apple pie and canning apple slices.