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April 29, 2008

Make your own taggie!

Caroline loves to play with the tags on her plush toys so I wanted to get her a taggie but once I saw the construction I thought I'd just make it. I took pictures while making it to share with a friend and thought I would just go ahead and post it. Little disclaimer- I am not a pattern writer. :)
I was shocked to find out what these actually cost. I bought some fleece at walmart and it wasn't even on sale (it was $7.40 a yd). I also bought some ribbon there that was $.60 a yd. (I'll give specific measurements below)
I ended up with enough materials to make 2 and I spent only $4!
Super cheap baby gift and it only took roughly an hour to assemble.

I had them cut 1/3 yd of fleece and once I trimmed off the selvage edge this yielded 4 rectangles measuring roughly 12 x 14. I didn't really care about them being a particular size as long as each piece lined up. I also bought 1/2 yd of several colors of ribbon which I ended up cutting into 4.5 inch strips. My ribbon ranged from 1/2 inch wide to an inch.
Then I spaced the ribbons out on all sides to figure out my spacing and placement of color. NOTE: When you figure out spacing, have the right side of the fleece facing up.
Leave at least 1/2 inch at the corners because you'll be sewing with 1/2 inch seam when you stitch the two pieces together and you don't want a ribbon to be caught up in a corner.
The original taggies are 12 x 12 and have 5 tags on each side, mine has 7. This too doesn't really matter and is up to the maker. I also spaced them out without measuring, so I suggest you just eye ball it.

Pin your loops with the edges lined up with the edge of your piece of fleece, loops towards the center. Make sure that you are pinning to the right side of the fleece. When you assemble you will sew the fleece right sides together with the loops sandwiched in the middle. Before sewing the two sides together I went ahead and stitched the ribbons to the one piece of fleece. I wanted to make sure that I could see them while I was sewing and stitch them on straight, plus you have to take the pins out. :) This can be a basting stitch or regular stitch, its purpose is to hold them in place once you put the other piece on top. I stitched it right along the edge.
Take your pins out.
Place your second piece of fleece on top with right sides together and ribbons in the middle and pin.

Sew 1/2 inch seam all the way around the outside leaving a 2 inch gap so you can pull the taggie right side out.
Turn right side out and give each ribbon a gentle pull so you can be sure the no extra fleece is tucked underneath. Fold under your opening 1/2 inch and pin.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edge. And there you have it, you just made a $2 baby gift or toy for your own baby!

I was looking on the taggie site and found these which are super cute and would sew up so quickly. How cute would they be on top of a baby gift? I think I might make a few the next time I have some free time. LOL Oh who are we kidding, I'll just sacrifice mopping the kitchen floor and make some.

Hope my instructions made sense and were useful for someone!
Enjoy!

Coming soon- instructions for a nursing cover and baby hooded towel made with a wash cloth and towel.

Posted by JennR at 10:45 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

April 14, 2008

she makes me giggle

Julia continues to make me laugh regularly. I just shared this with my sister through email but wanted to post it so I had a record of it later.

I was just giving Julia her daily dose of antibiotic which is becoming more of a battle each day and I said, "Take a sip of your medicine, por favor. That means 'please' in spanish." Grinning to myself that I got a little language lesson in there.
She turned around and said, "Atheite, that means 'I don't want to' in spanish."
LOL

I asked her to repeat it a bit later since she completely made up a word, "Julia how do you say 'I don't want to' in spanish?"

"Atheite!"

Should have known!!!

Posted by JennR at 07:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 11, 2008

the zoo

I finally took the girls this week to cash in on the gift certificate I got for the Chattanooga zoo.
It was a fun afternoon, and I am glad I got the membership (especially since it was half off). I was hoping with the renovations that they would be adding more animals but I think its just a new entrance.
The girls loved it. Julia was a bit scared. I didn't really explain what a zoo was and on the way there we were talking about what animals we might see and she got scared and thought they would be roaming free. LOL The macaws were loud and caught her off guard and I felt like a tour guide with my voice infliction trying to make it very exciting for them. When we got to the reptile house she didn't want to go in at first and I wondered again if in her little mind the snakes were just going to be all over the floor. I wasn't all that excited about the reptile house either!
They loved the spider monkeys, if you wait by the glass they come right up and look at you.

I loved the big cats and we learned a lot about cougars and jaguars and bobcats. When we were looking at the cougar there was a zoo official (and I use the term loosely) showing another family a sort of behind the scenes tour. She took them right up to the chain link fence (we were on a walk way further back) and was dangling dead mice in front of the fence. So this huge cougar comes over and she holds the mouse up above her head and he stands on his hind legs making himself bigger than her and takes the mouse. Then the guy who was with his family was putting his hands up against the fence trying to pet the cougar or get it to lick his hand. IDIOT! At this point I was watching sort of hoping this guy would get swatted at or something (I even had my camera ready for the news story)LOL. It irritated me to no end. He was calling to it and putting his hands throw the fence! And his little son was right there too. You know, where were people like that when brains were being handed out.
I wouldn't say I am an animal activist but zoos can sometimes get on my nerves. I understand about protecting endangered animals and educating the public but I wonder if their cages are big enough and if they care that its a plastic rock and fake vines. It seems sort of sad to me.
Anyway, I hadn't intended for this to turn so negative.
All in all we had a great time and with the zoo being literally 3 or so miles from my house if that, it will be a great place to pop in on every once in a while.
Plus I am very excited about getting 50% off in Atlanta and Knoxville!

At the end the girls sat on some benches and had lollipops. I was telling Julia not to sit in the bird poop and a couple of minutes later she pointed to some and said, "Mom, there's a granola bar in that bird poop!" LOL I thought it was hilarious.

On that note a few other funny things that have come out of her mouth this week:
I was tying capes on the girls and Lizzie ran away saying
"SUPER LIZZIE"
when I tied Julia's on she ran away saying
"SUPER CABBAGE!"
yeah I have no explanation.

Later that day they were playing outside and I heard Julia yell,
"NO, it's not time to shear the sheep!"
It sounded so funny out of context but I later realized they were playing on a farm. Inspired by Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo.

Posted by JennR at 11:18 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

half birthday

Happy half birthday Caroline!! And let me just say- YAY we are half way through the first year!! The first year in my opinion is always a doozie and while I am enjoying this baby stage of our sweet girl, I also look forward to a little more independence (on both our parts).

You are such a joy and very smiley and giggly. You are easily entertained by your sisters and are now at the point where you cry when I leave your sight only to break out in laughter and excitement when I come back.
I can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings as we try more foods, you learn to pull up and crawl and we might possibly all sleep through the night!

Posted by JennR at 10:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 07, 2008

Who is who?

Some of these are pretty obvious to me, however after looking through pictures I can now see how so many people think Julia and Caroline look so much alike.

As one friend so eloquently put it this morning, we apparently only have one mold for making babies. LOL
(there's one of Lizzie thrown in there as well)

Posted by JennR at 02:06 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack