Home Tour of Sorts

While we were visiting my family in Arizona last month, my dad and I took the kids to tour some amazing homes. Take a look at these beautiful rooms.

Ok, so I tricked you a little bit ;) This was a museum of miniatures! These were all little dollhouse rooms. Aren’t they amazing? Nothing like the dollhouse I had when I was a little girl.

This one was my favorite. It was called “Yellow Rose of Texas” and it was staged for a wedding (did you see the wedding cake in the picture above?).

My daughter loved this “princess” shop :)

They even had a Christmas village display. This was one of the kids’ favorites.

Why is it we all love miniature things? They’re just so cute! But seriously, the craftsmanship that went into these rooms is ridiculous!

New Shop Items Added

Hi friends and happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  Mine was a nice combination of productivity and relaxation.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know I’ve listed a couple of new items in the shop. 

The first is this adorable Owl Binky Bag.  This fabric is so popular, I can hardly keep it in the shop!  

What is a Binky Bag you may be asking yourself?  Well, it is my own design (born out of necessity and sleep deprivation) for storing spare pacifiers on the crib.  You tie it to the outside of the crib and drop a few extra pacifiers inside making it easy to find a replacement for the one baby loses in the middle of the night.  Thus, allowing baby and you to go back to sleep quickly.

The next item is the Lakeside Town Car Playmat. 

These car playmats are the perfect on-the-go toy.  They make awesome travel toys, but are also great for taking to restaurants, doctor’s appointments, to Starbucks so you can catch up with your girlfriends while your children entertain themselves. 

And they roll up with the cars inside so they’re easy to throw in your purse or diaper bag.

{Shown here with 3 cars rolled up inside}

I’ve got other styles of Binky Bags and Car Playmats in the shop as well as other baby and toddler gifts.  Come by and take a look!

Truth Be Told Tuesday #9 - Unpacking

Welcome to another edition of Truth Be Told Tuesday (TTBT).  If you spend any amount of time reading blogs or catching up with friends on Facebook, it can seem like everyone else has it all together (perfect house, perfect kids, clean kitchen).  But we all know that is not the reality.  Truth Be Told Tuesdays is an opportunity for us to share the reality and support one another in our imperfections.

Truth Be Told, every time I look at my suitcase that I need to unpack…

I am reminded that I still haven’t unpacked my suitcase from my last trip several weeks ago (4 weeks to be exact!).

As my cousin Karen said, I’m suffering from a “vacation hangover” (love that phrase…I am totally stealing it!) and am finding it very difficult to get motivated.

Ok, now it’s your turn.  Tell us your truth!  And if you enjoy reading TTBT, please tell your friends about it, share it on Facebook (and while you’re at it, come by and Like me!), Tweet about it, share it on your blog, etc…  the more people that share, the more fun it is!

On The Road Again...

Ok, so I won't be on the road, but I'm about to be in the air again (but I couldn't think of a clever song about air travel). I'm packing up the kids and heading to sunny Arizona this week to visit my family!

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So, don't be sad if you don't hear from me on a regular basis. It's nothing personal, it's just that I'll be enjoying my vacation. I'm hoping to get lots of yoga in (since I'll have built in babysitters!), spend some good, quality time with the fam and catch up with some old friends.

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What are your best traveling-with-children tips? I've traveled a lot with my children but I'm always on the hunt for new suggestions! I've got the DVD player charging, books packed and snacks laid out. It's not a long flight so hopefully that will be enough to keep them busy!

Be sure to come back tomorrow for Truth Be Told Tuesday...there's no way I would leave town without posting that. It's one of the things I look forward to every week!

Car Playmat

I've seen a lot of Car Play Mats out there and I've really been wanting to make one for my son. I came up with this design after finding this great fabric at my local Joann's (it's sort of a combination of all the other playmat designs out there that I've seen). It was really easy to make and I think it came out so cute. I especially love the pockets or "garages" for the cars to park in (this was a great idea from Obsessively Stitching!). This is a great toy for around the house, but it also folds up nicely and can be thrown in to a diaper bag (or in my case my giant purse) and taken to the dr.'s office waiting room or anywhere else you need your child to be entertained!


I started with 2 pieces of fabric (the front and the back) that measured 14" x 21 1/2". This was the measurement I used because I wanted at least 3 roads for the cars to drive on. If your fabric is different, your measurement might be different.


Here's a close up of the fabric, complete with a toy store, fire station, school house, stop signs...


Next I cut my pocket material into a 11" x 5 1/2" rectangle. I double folded the sides and the bottom and ironed them down. Next, I used some leftover double fold bias tape from my Treasure Basket project and cut it to fit the top. Sew along the top edge only.



Next pin your pocket to the play side of the fabric. (Bear with me because I got on a role here and forgot to take a couple of the pictures to show my work).



I zig-zag stitched along the sides and bottom of my pocket to secure it to the play side of the fabric. Then I measured my pocket and marked 2 lines to form the "garages". Then I zig-zag stitched along the pocket to create the "garages." My pocket was about 10" long so my lines were at about 3 1/4" and 7 3/4".




Now cut a piece of your double fold bias tape about 24" long. Sew along the edge to close the tape. This will become the ties that allow you to fold and tie your mat up when not in use.



(Sorry...I skipped a few pictures here, too.) Next you want to pin the right sides of your 2 fabrics together. Fold your bias tape "ties" in half and pin it in between your 2 fabrics (making sure the ties are sandwiched between the 2 fabrics). Now sew along all 4 sides of your playmat, leaving an opening to turn your mat. Here's what mine looked like after turning it.



Iron your playmat and then sew a straight stitch around all 4 sides. This will reinforce your playmat and also close the opening where you turned it.




Now place your cars on the playmat and in the garages and have fun!



If you're closing up your playmat with the cars still in the garage, I found that the best way to close it is to fold up the bottom...



Then fold down the top...




Roll the playmat up and tie it to hold it all together. You can see that it folds up in to a pretty small, cute, little package.


Here's what it looks like when it's rolled up without the cars in it. So cute!



I can think of several little boys that we know that would LOVE to get one of these for their birthday!

If you make a playmat for that special little guy in your life, let me know. I'd love to see pictures! But as always, please only use this design for personal use, not for resale.



Linked to:







Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design





Trash to Treasure Tuesdays