That day we sacraficed a new lego for the sake of little brother.

Last Black Friday, the only purchase I made was these legos and duplos.  Which, we recently broke out because we needed to sacrifice a few of them for this swaddler blanket.

Then, the husband got home and we all sat down to play Legos. 

I'm glad to say that my lego skills have not depleted through adulthood.  As a child/teenager I used to make houses and all sorts of stuff out of legos while watching Pokemon or Batman or maybe Spiderman.  Ya know, the cool shows one watches after coming home from a hard day of high school.

The husband and his brother have a ton of a legos, enough to make me jealous.  They would get a big set every year for Christmas...so they have quite the collection.  Mine on the other hand...was a small bucket that had a lego vacuum that NEVER worked on carpet.  Yet, I always used that little vacuum.  

(Created out of the mind of the husband.)

You'll notice the two OCD people on the far end of the table.  Baby girl and I kept to the other end, where we couldn't get in trouble with the "Lego Nazi." (see previous blogs) aka the husband.  He's particular about his legos.  Auntie Hannah almost died by his hand.  She got two legos stuck together, you know, those stupid little ones that one would naturally use their teeth to pull apart.  Well, one does not just use their teeth.  The Lego Nazi probably would have lost 5 years off his life watching her use her canines.  

   

Aiko and I tried out the Duplos, she loves to have you make something so she can destroy it.  I am distraught about some of the crazy colors.  Pink ones?  Flowers?  Weird people...

Naturally, while one plays with Duplos, we pull back ones mullet hair into a pony tail.  Amazing right?!

(Soon to be a famous lego piece done by Hannah.)

For as expensive as these bad boys I'm glad I found them!  I'm sure with little brother they'll be a big hit...in like 3 years. 

#ThriftedThursdays

Have you ever seen such a perfect little chair for a tiny 17 month old mullet baby?

I daresay not.  She loved it too.  Once she realized she could sit like a big person she was quite pleased with herself.  Once she realized that she could stand on it everything got oh-so-much-better.  She has no fear of climbing.  She climbs on her toys to stand taller.  I know how she feels.  It's tough being short.  

Plus, this girl is quite flexible.  When it's time to get in the bathtub she takes her foot and places it on top of the tub rim.  Which, is just below her shoulder.  Now, I know that's not super tall, her being a whole 26 or so inches, but still, I can't do that.  

We've been quite vintage as of late.  Plus, that mullet seems to just help the outfit. I thrifted this shirt and pants for little brother, but then, I realized that they would fit her.  It was too hilarious not to put her it.  She did have a headband on that made her look girly.  Promise. 

Spring Fires

 

Sometimes, I forget that I'm pregnant, and then someone shows me a picture and I'm like "Whoa."  Especially when I see how awesome my outfits are getting towards the last few weeks.  It's gotten a little worse.  You'll notice that I have snowboots, the husband's sweat pants and a jacket that I was hoping would at least zip up.   Today I ironed a WHOLE dress, that I wore the last few weeks when pregnant with Aiko.  I probably should have tried it on before ironing...it didn't fit.  As my husband put it..."Your buttons are bursting all over."  Sigh.

You may recall similar outfits from my pregnancy with Aiko...gems.  I tell you.  Gems. here.

 

Crazy to think that it's only March and we're having bonfires.  Here I figured would be a good time to try imitating Tom Hanks from Castaway.  I felt it was pretty Oscar worthy.  Oh...yes, most of my shirts don't fit anymore, but once I put a shirt on, I rarely change it.  Which, is not my norm.  I'm usually a pull out 5 outfits before we find the right one.  Not so now. 

Aiko has yet to learn how to smile for pictures.  She is usually pretty stonefaced.  I'm trying to soak up as my #ohniceandchubbybaby time as I can, it's going to be a little weird adding in a #littlebrother into the mix too.  People keep asking if she has any idea what's going on...I'm pretty sure she doesn't.  But luckily, she does love baby dolls, so that should help right?

The Husband's Birthday.

I feel that birthdays are meant to be more bragging about the person days.  No, I'm not going to be too sappy, I'm just going to write some awesome facts about my ever so awesome husband. So here we go.

 

 The husband is an excellent dad and husband.  He is incredibly selfless.  He always puts everyone else first.  He can work in almost any condition with a variety of distractions, such as my pregnant self, his favorite little baby and his dog.

 

He loves his "floor" time.  If you know him well enough, you know if there is carpet somewhere, he's usually laying on it.  I feel this comes from his childhood.  He grew up with a swamp cooler, which was the coolest in the hallways under the cooler.  Now, he loves it because his favorite dog and child spend most of their time there as well.  Recently, Aiko has been into wrestling and headbutting him.  She loves hanging out with her dad.  These last few weeks have been "dadddddddd" weeks.  She hears the door open and rushes to go meet him.  She just adores him. As does his Kona.  As you can see, once again, he places himself just for the kona's benefit.

I think, well, more know, that the husband has a very calming effect on most everyone.  He definitely brings more peace when he enters the room.  Dogs just love him, his nieces and nephews love him, people seem to just be drawn to my introverted husband.  He's not one to react quickly.  Always calm.  My family has yet to hear him "yell."

Oh, how that baby loves her dad.  

 

I think we'll keep him for a while more.

Diy muslin swaddled prints with a Snorlax

I swear, this is going to be the last one.  I think we've painted and exacto-knifed ourselves out for a while.  I bought a remnant of the muslin that was just too big for a little baby.  So we chopped it in half.  

One for buffalo (post) and one for ..............

Wait for it...........

the Snorlax!!  

For those of you who don't know, a Snorlax is a Pokemon.  Who, is adorable, and if anyone wants to make me one of these, I'd let you, for free even.   (The husband claims that anyone who is younger the 35 probably knows what a Snorlax is.  Interesting stat I think)

The last few months, the husband has been making me watch these classic Anime videos...which some were good, but some were not.  But, how could I forget, that I myself, is/was a slight anime nerd.  I'd forgotten that in high school I would watch Pokemon.  I don't know why, I just liked it, a lot.  The husband has recently informed me that it actually was a game.  I had no idea.  I just liked to watch the cartoons, which, in case you were wondering, have recently been added to Netflix!

Anyways, Hannah and I were brainstorming and we came across said Snorlax.  He could be adorable on a boys blanket right, yes, yes he could and is.  He was a little harder to find an image for.  I actually found a video clip that had him in just the right position and did a Print Screen Shot on the computer.  Then we printed him out and started cutting him out.  Once again, I started the cutting, but Hannah finished it out. 

After testing him out on some cardboard we were ready! We centered him on the blanket and started painting. 

 

 After getting him applied, we started on the "Zzzzz."  I don't know why, but the Snorlax is always sleeping.  ALWAYS. 

I think he turned out pretty dang cute.  Plus, I've never seen another one like it, which is always a bonus in my mind.

Thanks to Hannah for helping all my muslin swaddling cloth dreams come true!  I probably never would have done it (or watched her do it) if she weren't around!

I posted these before, but here are some tips and instructions on stenciling. 


Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before applying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. If you are going to use a stencil multiple times, make sure to stop and let it dry after 10 times or so, depending on the details.  It may be more or less times you can use it, but you'll start to notice it sagging and just not coming out quite as sharp.  I've actually found that after the paint dries it's basically been plasticized and works really well after. 
11. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray. 

Bye son, Bison, DIY Stenciled Onesies and DIY Baby BisonSwaddlerBlankets.

Let us start out with a joke by the husband.  
Husband: "Why did you decide to use the Bison?"  
Me: "I don't know, it spoke to me."
Husband: "Is it because you wanted to be able to say "Bye son"."
Me: I usually don't respond to his jokes anymore.

To continue on with little brother's blankets, I decided to try something a little beyond my skills.  It had to do with a Bison, excato-knife, potato, and scissors.  Supposedly, you make stamps with potatoes.  I saw them here.  Which, I'm sure you can, just not with the particular design I chose.  My start to finish lasted about 4 minutes and in disaster.  It didn't even go far enough to even show you.  I gave up after my paper started shriveling up from the potato. 

Then, my sister Hannah took over.  As much as she claims that she is not a crafty person, she really is.  It's just the perfectionist in her that stops her  She made Aiko a few onesies, that she stenciled and painted herself.  They turned out awesome here.  Hannah and her OCD self probably couldn't bear to watch me muff it up again. 

We pulled out our stencil paper, resized and printed our buffalo (by we I mean she.) and started cutting.  Make sure to have some kind of surface under the stencil paper so you don't cut up your table. 




She's pretty good right?  We did have to delete some of the buffalo, there were just too many little lines.  After we tested out the stencil, she applied it to the onesie!

Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit. 

I know, I know, it's pretty rad.  If only I could have a crafting-slave-perfectionist who I just bossed around and said "good job" to after they finish.  But don't worry, eventually I did join the bison-exacto-cutting-fun.  See, I had some other big plans for this bison.  We did one successfully, WHY NOT MILLIONS?!

Well, how about five. We printed up four more bison and I myself, even cut out two of them.  It's kind of a long process, but once you have the stencil you can use it quite a few times. 

By quite a few times, I mean a lot.  (I'll put some tips at the end of this post.) We decided to apply it to another Swaddler Blanket.

Boy, am I glad we did.  I was a little worried that all the detail would get lost on the texture of the muslin, but it worked out great!  We did mainly yellow buffalo with a few random blue ones.   

After finishing with the buffalo we realized we needed a little something more.  So I took a chapstick and placed dots.

I was too lazy to pull out my good camera, plus I don't really know how to use it beyond Auto anyway...so you have some different colored photos going on here.

What do you think?  Pretty cool right?  And really, it's not that hard, I promise.  It take some time, but once you have your stencil you can use it over and over again.  

Some tips that I learned from Hannah on Stenciling. 

1.  Make sure your exacto-knife is sharp and your eyes are even sharper.  You may want to print a few of your patterns so if you mess up one by cutting something wrong.  Hannah even colors one ahead of time just to make sure she knows what she does and doesn't want to cut out. 
2.  When printing on the stencil paper there will only be faint lines.  Make sure to print on some scrap after running the stencil paper through to get all the left over ink that didn't print. Otherwise, you'll go to print something and it will be covered with random lines of buffalo. 

3.  Always cut your stencil out on some surface you don't mind cutting up. 
4.  Always test your stencil on something else before diving into your material.
5.  We like to tape our stencils to the cloth.
6.  Always dab off excess paint before appliying to cloth. 
7.  Hold the stencil with one hand to keep it steady.  You'll want to dab your paint brush STRAIGHT up and down to avoid bleeding underneath.
8.  Once you'd applied your paint, pull stencil immediately after. 
9.  You'll want to make sure you didn't get any excess paint on the back of the stencil before laying it down again on your surface.  
10. Stand back and be amazed.  You did it. Yes, you are awesome and so is that stencil.  

Here are the basic utensils we used for stenciling. 

Hannah prefers the shorter style paint.  She also really likes her fat stubby paintbrush. (green one.) We used the standard sponge brush on the bison and the short sponge brush.  We use the fine paint brushes on really small detailed work, like on the tiny little "z."  Also, this is her beloved paint tray.

Bison Print purchased from Etsy Shop PrintitFrameit.