Sewing for Baby: Tula Hoodie Hood

Hello everyone!  Summer break has started for me and I am looking forward to taking lots of walks and having lots of adventures with my daughter using my Tula soft structure carrier.  I have enjoyed wearing my baby girl since she was a newborn and I carried her around in a Boba wrap.  It is also an awesome way to get a baby who won't nap to take one because those really young babies can't resist falling asleep while being snuggled up against you.  A Tula carrier was on my list of major wants and once she started to get too big for the Boba wrap I decided to make the investment on one and I love it!  I bought the Fizz canvas carrier which you can find here.

I joined a Facebook group for Tula wearers and the people in the group were always talking about the accessories that they bought for their Tulas.  When I found this pattern for a hoodie hood by Carry Ella Creative I just knew that I had to make one to accessorize my Tula.

The tutorial and pictures that come with the pattern are great.  The pattern instructions are so easy to follow and there are lots of options with the pattern for instance you can add ears (I of course had to add some kitty ears!) or you can choose to add a bill (like I did with the eyelet trim).

I found the fabric for the exterior at Cotton Candy Fabrics which carries many of the fabrics that Tula uses in their carriers.  The fabric of my Tula is a Michael Miller print from the Fiesta collection called Emilia Grape.  The fabric that I chose for the exterior of the hood is also from the Fiesta collection and is called Ernesta Grape.  For the interior I used some embossed minky that was leftover from another project.

I also added a bow made from the fabric that matches my Tula and some lace ribbon.  I thought it would be a cute touch.

I probably should of taken some photos of Lyla in the Tula while wearing the hood but I am not a great selfie taker so here are some blurry photos of her wearing it around the house.  She is in constant motion nowadays so they are a little blurry.

By the time I snapped the second photo she was wearing the hood sideways haha.  I am currently making some drool pads for the straps of the Tula from a pattern by the same Etsy seller.  I can't wait to share that project with you too!

Updates to the Bonus Room

The last time I posted about this room which we have referred to as the bonus room (that is what this room was listed as on the real estate description) was back in February of 2013 in this post. In that post I talked about how this room was more about function than aesthetics for me so I hadn't done a lot of design updates to it.  This is changing now though because of 2 unfortunate springs of water damage to the room.  I don't have any photos of the water damage but the carpet was ruined. Thankfully the exercise equipment, TV, and futon didn't suffer any damage.  We decided that this room would probably continue to risk getting water in it so we had two basement companies who install drain tile come in and do bids for the room.  We ended up going with the same company that did the drain tile in our main basement and we decided to have the company do some updates in flooring and add a drywall railing to the stairs while they were working on it.

To install drain tile they cut out the bottom portion of the drywall and removed the concrete floor around the wall.  They were able to put a sump pump in the closet under the stairs. The other company wanted to put one in along the walls so we would of lost floor space in the room.

We decided to put laminate flooring in instead of new carpet.

As you can see from this picture of our cat, the staircase used to be open on one side and there was no handrail on the other side.  It wasn't very safe and it would be impossible to put a gate at the bottom of the stairs.  Since we intend on using this room as a playroom for Lyla that was a big problem.

We had the workers build a drywall railing on the other side of the stairs.  Here is what the room looks like after the workers finished up their part of the work (we still have a lot to do down there).

Our next job in this room is to paint and install the baseboards.  You can see the baseboards that we picked in the last photo.  The paint has been selected and purchased as well.  I have also bought a new futon and a rug for the room.  We will still need curtain rods, curtains, and a piece of furniture to hold the TV and to use as storage.  We also need a new door for the closet under the stairs because the one that is in the room now doesn't shut.  It will be hard to keep the baby out of that closet unless we have a door that shuts!  I will keep you updated on the progress of this room.  I am excited with how it looks so far!

Gift Card College Survival Kit Grad Gift

Hello Everyone!  Happy May!  I am back today with a very belated blog post.  Last year my brother graduated from high school and I made him a fun gift that I wanted to share on the blog. For some reason the photos of this project disappeared from my iPhoto so I was unable to.  About a month ago when I opened my iPhoto it had a message that it needed to reconfigure itself and after it was done these photos had magically reappeared!  So now I get to share it with you almost a year later than planned but it is perfect timing for anyone who needs some grad gift ideas for this year.

I wanted to come up with a unique idea for my brother's graduation gift and when I saw a gift card book and then another idea about a college survival kit with gift cards on Pinterest I decided to combine the two.  My brother is attending the University of Kansas so I purchased gift cards that he could use in Lawrence.

Then I cut some paper I had on hand to make the book part.  I purchased scrapbooking paper in black and gold colors for the decorations in the book.  I used my Silhouette Portrait and printable gold foil for all the sentiments in the book.

I got him a Starbucks gift card to help him stay awake while studying.

I got him an iTunes gift card to keep him pumped while studying and a Wendy's gift card to help with the hunger during an all night study session.

I got him a movie gift card for when he needed to take a break from studying (which he used to see the latest Star Wars movie, good choice!) and a Walgreens gift card for stuff when he was feeling a little under the weather.

I got him a Target gift card for any other essentials he needed and a KU book store gift card for school spirit items.  I made all of the gift card pockets with black card stock and my Silhouette Portrait.  I loved the way it turned out!  What do you think?