stockings

I whipped up some Christmas stockings last weekend in an effort to try and make it look festive in our house. We don't have a tree because I'm paranoid about Fenix trying to climb it and potentially pulling it down on himself -- not worth the anxiety!

So we hung garland over the the doorway, wreaths on our front door and in another spot inside, and the stockings are hanging above the mantle.

The stockings were really easy to make. I bought a yard of blue and gray felt and a quarter of burgundy felt along with a spool of burgundy satin ribbon. I drew the pattern freehand on a big sheet of paper and then used my Olfa rotary cutter with a scalloped blade to cut out the pieces of fabric.

I cut the letters freehand and then stitched those onto the blue front panel first. Then I stitched the front and back panels together with a regular old top stitch - sandwiching a strip of ribbon folded in half between the two to make a little loop for hanging.

I finished it off by making a pompom from some variegated scrap yarn that happened to match perfectly!

Here they are, waiting to be filled:

Birthday shout out from Ohdeedoh

One of our favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy's Ohdeedoh, posted a birthday shout out for Fenix today.

Check it out here!

christmas comes early

I gave J one of his bday gifts a little early (his actual bday is 12/15). we had decided to hijack the tail end of Fenix's party to celebrate J's birthday as well. Our friends were giving him gifts so I decided to give him his big gift (a Wii). I guess he got caught up in all of the gift giving so he gave me one of my Christmas gifts early.

These wooden hoops from Leviticus Jewelry:


I love them! They feel so light on your ears - I kept touching my earlobes all through the next day to be sure that they hadn't fallen out.

Now that I have these it's kinda piqued my interest in other wooden jewelry items. Check out some of these:

from etsy seller carpedraco


from etsy seller ZsBcreations


from etsy seller effiehandmade

Happy Birthday Fenix!

This birthday wish comes a day late because I was busy preparing for and celebrating Fenix's 1st birthday yesterday. It was a really terrific party. He was so happy and appreciative - couldn't stop smiling.

In Fenix's honor, here are some pics from the first days and a couple from the party:

brand new:


1 month:


6 months:


a year old!:

surely it is made from solid gold

I was browsing Ohdeedoh and I came across this post about Lisa Mahar the owner of Kid O.
The post featured photos of her beautiful town house and links back to an article on New York Social Diary about her. I'm not too jazzed about her points of view but I definitely see some value in a few of the things that she had to say.

One thing that really caught my attention was this photo of her children's beds:


I love the simple design of this bed! Your toddler can't fall out because of the high walls, the entire unit is very low to the ground and on casters so it can be easily moved. Upon further investigation I found that the bed is sold online at Generate. All for the low, low price of $1399.00.

Why does a little kid need a $1400 bed?! I'll never know. I asked J how much it would cost for him to make a replica and he said about $200. Ridiculous. Fenix is getting the homemade replica.