A Baby Blanket for Baby Yasmin!

My co-worker Silvia is expecting her first baby, a sweet little girl, Yasmin Alissandra, in April. Silvia has been a great friend to me and has always been super generous and wonderful, so I wanted to do something special for her. I decided to make a baby quilt for Yasmin.

I don't pretend to be a seamstress, but I thought it turned out super cute!! Sil told me their nursery has a jungle theme, so I thought the bees and the monkeys would be a cute tie-in. I didn't want it to be too pink, so the brown and pink paisley fabric was a perfect color to base it around (if you click on the photos, you can see the patterns better...and the colors are cuter in real life--the lighting in my apartment is a little sad).

This is the first quilt like this I've ever made, so I didn't know how it would turn out, but thankfully, it worked. I will admit, the edges were a little wonky, but my sister gave me a great idea for how to finish them, and I LOVE how it worked out.
Considering I didn't really have any of the proper materials to easily make a quilt, I thought this turned out nicely. And thankfully, Sil and Luis love it! :)

Good luck these last few weeks, Sil! I can't wait to meet Yasmin!

Pencil People

I was helping with a middle school after-school program a few weeks ago for one of my co-workers, and she had me make pencil people with her kiddos. She said she did them this summer with kids as young as 4-5, and I thought they were super cute, so I should share the idea with you.

Supplies:

Embroidery floss in different colors (or yarn)

Fun pencils

Pencil grips in different colors

Craft wire in different colors

Beads in different colors

Wooden ball/bead for head (must have a hole through it)

Markers

Directions:

1. Hair: cut as much embroidery floss in whatever color(s) you're going to want for hair. Basically, you want to make a bunch of it, so you can fold it back and forth in half or just gather it together or whatever.

2. Cut a piece of craft wire about a foot-ish long. Find the center of the wire (or close to it) and fold it over the center of your hair bundle. Twist it a couple times to secure it.

3. Put both ends of the wire together and thread them through the bead. Now the hair is on top of the head.

4. This is the trickiest part: Taking each wire end, thread it through the center of the soft pencil grip, and poke it through about halfway down, one on each side. These will hold the head onto the body and will become the arms.

5. Put a few beads on each wire. When the "arms" are long enough, you can twist it around to secure the beads and clip the end off.

6. Slide the whole contraption onto the eraser end of the pencil.

7. Use the markers to draw the face, add any finishing touches, and voila! Pencil person. :)

You can be as creative as you want with these. :) Have fun!

The kids decided to try to make Disney characters--one of the boys made this outstanding version of Ariel. :)