a t shirt quilt for Brendan, or how to spend almost the entire night sewing to meet a self-imposed deadline

My brother recently moved out of my parents' house and I wanted to do something to help spruce up his new apartment, and of course, being a quilter, the first idea that came to mind was to make him a quilt. But, with all the baby quilts I'm making over the next couple of months, I didn't think a larger quilt would be possible for a while and I wanted to make something soon. Then I had the brilliant idea of making him a t shirt quilt. Normally I would do anything to avoid making a t shirt quilt because I think they're ugly and I don't like working with knits, but my brother is a hoarder and could stand to part with some shirts, specifically the ones he's been saving (and wearing!) since, oh, elementary school. So I figured this would be a way to help him clean out his closet and provide him with a little apartment warming gift, both figuratively and literally. He gave me a giant stack of shirts a few weeks ago and they sat in a pile while I finished up some other projects at the sewing machine. His birthday was last weekend so I thought it would be nice to finish it up in time to give to him then. It was Saturday, the night before his birthday, and I don't know what got into me but I decided to I was going to have the quilt done on time! I had about fifteen hours to complete it, and that was if I stayed up all night which, for my own health and sanity, I knew I should not do. So at about 6:00 pm I took the boys outside to play in the backyard and I brought my cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter out onto the patio table. I cut into the shirts outside for about an hour and then took a break to bring the boys in so they could eat a quick dinner, take a bath, and get to bed. They were asleep by 8:30 so I continued cutting and worked on the layout on the dining room floor as I cut.

Once I was done cutting I started piecing the quilt top, joining sections together until I only had a few places that had partial seams. I was psyched to be able to finish it up, and after it was done I trimmed a twin size fleece blanket to the right size and sandwiched the two pieces right sides together, but Finn woke up so I decided to call it a night, hoping I would have enough time to finish before church in the morning. It was 3:00 am at this point so I really couldn't stay up much longer anyway! Like I said earlier, I really don't know what go into me. It's over a week later and I think I'm still paying for that late night! Anyway, I went to bed and prayed the boys didn't wake up too early. I slept like a rock! I don't think it was until around 8:00 that we all woke up, and back to the sewing machine I went. I stitched along the edges, leaving an opening for turning (so it's not a true quilt as there is no batting or binding), and then I stitched along the edge of the quilt to finish it, closing the opening as well. I didn't even trim the loose threads! I just stuffed it into a gift bag, got us all dressed, and handed the boys granola bars as I hurried them into the car so we wouldn't be late for church. We made it there with ten minutes to spare!

After church we headed to my brother's apartment where we all had lunch together, and Ezra gave him the quilt. His words were, "This looks even better than I thought it would!" Ha! I'll take it :) I think it took me about eight hours in total. I always try to keep track of the time it takes me to make things but with all the interruptions (child care, bathroom breaks, chocolate chip cookie breaks, etc.) I tend to forget to do it. Making this blanket in such a short span of time cut down on that so it was pretty easy to keep track! Now hopefully I won't have to make another t shirt quilt in my life, but if I do I know it won't take me too long ;)

If anyone is interested in making a t shirt quilt with a layout like this, you simply cut everything to be divisible by any one dimension (the sides of my "blocks" are all divisible by four - 4x4, 4x8, 4x16, 8x8, 8x12, etc.) and then fit all the pieces together like a puzzle. I like to save some t shirt scraps in case I need to fill in any gaps in the quilt top. I used a few sleeve pieces and some blank areas to fill this one out.

a chocolate chip cookie celebration | happy birthday to my husband

Last week I hosted a chocolate chip cookie taste off in honor of Matt's 28th birthday. It was quite possibly the best birthday party I've ever hosted. I got the idea from You Are My Fave and used the invitations from there, too.

We had eight entrants into the taste off and almost all of them were classic versions of the chocolate chip cookie. My favorite part about being the host was the questions I got to answer, like this one from my friend Karissa: So if I bring slice and bakes, should I send you the ingredients list and cooking instructions? That was a joke that I didn't get (Matt is vehemently opposed to any and all forms of store bought cookies and Karissa knows it); thankfully no slice and bake cookies were entered in the contest. Another good question: Are we limited to one batch per couple or can we each enter a recipe? There's a back story to that one - my friends Keri and Josh had a dispute about whose recipe to use (they're married) - Keri's famous "Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies" or Josh's "Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies" (or, as Keri called them, "Variation on Toll House Because My Wife Wouldn’t Let Me Copy the Recipe Cookies"). Here's a quote from Keri: "I'm glad there can be spousal competition, because I thought marriage counseling was going to be necessary if we had to narrow it down to one recipe."  This is the kind of dedication our friends brought to the party. It was awesome. And Keri won, by the way. Here's her winning batch of cookies...

I highly recommend having your own chocolate chip cookie taste off. Soon. In fact, I may need to have another one.

P.S. I made this for Matt's birthday cake, but doesn't  this one look incredible?

Ezra turns 2! | a school bus birthday party

I've been putting off writing about Ezra's second birthday party because I was overwhelmed by the amount of pictures that Matt took, but I finally sorted through them and chose some of my favorites to share here. We held Ezra's party on a Thursday morning because of some weekend scheduling issues that couldn't be resolved, but it ended up working out quite well. The party was school bus-themed because Ezra loves watching the neighborhood children getting picked up in the morning right outside our house every day. After Matt's return home from work, I think it's his favorite part of the day.

Matt started snapping before I had everything completely set up, and once the toddler party guests arrived my carefully staged dining room was quickly dismantled (as it should be at a party!) so there aren't any pictures of the full set up. The paper products are all from Target (plates found in the dollar section and the rest are Mara Mi), and I borrowed the yellow striped tablecloths from my mother-in-law.

They're hard to see, but I made little flags for the cupcakes out of white and yellow ticking. A matching garland hung from the two shelves in the dining room.

I replaced everything that's usually on them with a few things that coordinated with the party theme - yellow tulips in a mint julep cup, an embroidery hoop displaying a square of school bus fabric (Kokka Beep Beep, in case anyone is wondering), a wind up school bus toy, a framed illustration of a bus, the silver E from Ezra's room (it made an appearance last year, too), a wooden school bus I found on Etsy, and a candle. Yeah, the candle didn't have much to do with anything, but I needed something to fill the space. Of course pom poms were involved (will I ever stop making them?).

We served banana bread, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, cinnamon rolls, and mini bananas.

Drinks were kept simple - just water and apple cider.

I found these cute school bus wrappers for Hershey's chocolates, so of course I printed out a few sheets and Ezra and I spent an afternoon cutting and sticking them on. (Of course I was in charge of cutting so don't anyone get worried. Ezra was in charge of the glue dots.)

Lucky for us, my dad works part time for a bus company so he was able to drive a school bus over to the party and take us for a ride! I was beyond ecstatic when his request was approved because I thought it would be the perfect party activity and I knew Ezra would be excited to ride with his Grandpa.

We rode over to a playground near our house and let the kids burn off some energy for a while. 

Obviously it's very difficult to take a picture of twenty toddlers and preschoolers with their moms.

After about twenty minutes we all piled back on the bus and headed back home for birthday cupcakes!

Ezra had been waiting for this moment since he woke up. He had been practicing blowing out the candles since his friend Amelia's party. You know, just blowing on anything or nothing after half singing "happy happy!"

I think Ezra ate the frosting off of three cupcakes and left the rest. He basically ate cupcakes for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and dessert that day. What can I say? A boy doesn't turn two every day.

A week before Ezra's party I decided to make a child-size photo booth prop. We didn't do a fancy backdrop, but the kids had fun pretending to drive the school bus around our house.  

Babies got in on the action, too!

We sent everyone home with yellow school bus crayons and little school bus coloring books I made using Microsoft Word and free school bus coloring pages. Apparently I didn't get any photos of the books and crayons... just the bags. Oops!

Two and a half weeks later and Ezra is still talking about the 'coo bus' ride with his friends. And the frosting. He certainly hasn't forgotten the frosting. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us!

P.S. I'm happy to give the cupcake flags and garland to anyone who's local and can pick them up! Just send me an email...

gifts for the girl // a little birthday wishlist

My birthday is tomorrow and I caught myself mentally compiling a wishlist when I was at Target the other day. What girl doesn't love new accessories and pretty paper? For your child's teacher, a high school graduate, to thank the babysitter (or for yourself!) - these are all great to have on hand for last minute gift giving. Here are some of my favorite finds... 

scarf / cookbook / nail color / note cards

Full disclosure: I bought myself the nail polish.

a monster bash

Now that the dust has settled, I'm so excited to finally share Ezra's birthday party. My friend Keri snapped lots of photos for us and I'm so thankful that I didn't have to worry about capturing all the little details.

The theme and decorations were all based on Ezra's Ugly Doll and the colors of Ezra's room. 

Upon entering the room (we used our church's fellowship hall), guests were greeted by Ezra's stuffed animal collection. 

I hung one photo from each of his month shoots on the wall... after looking at them all lined up I couldn't believe how much he changed from month to month!

This photo book was created on Shutterfly to use as a guest book.

Of course we had to have pom poms. Three hung over each table as a vague pom chandelier.

My mother-in-law, my mom, and I baked up lots of sweet treats for all our guests. We served coffee, tea, water, and Yacht Club soda.

{rice krispie treats} 

(made with fluff, the secret ingredient, instead of marshmallows!)

{vanilla cupcakes}

{fruit salad}

{double chocolate brownie bites}

{chocolate cake pops}

There was a 'sugar cookie decoration station' for the kids (inspired by this party), although I think a fair amount of adults got in on the frosting and sprinkle action. 

Ezra was much more impressed with his little cake when it was topped with a flaming candle than when he was allowed to dig in...

Rather than eat it himself, Ezra decided to share some with his Uncle Brendan and cousin Jacob.

I'll admit it was a little dry. He must have been parched.

Each place was set with an orange monster, er, a clementine with a googly eye - (idea from here)...

...the eyeballs seemed to migrate to human foreheads very quickly. 

I got the idea for the 'adopt a monster' favor from party perfect, and then a few months later found these great patterns for mini monsters. My mom and my aunt along with my cousin's daughters (ages 9 and 4!) worked overtime to help me get these finished in time.

Many thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Ezra's first year!

P.S. Check out the awesome gift that Keri made for Ezra!