the hubs so sweetly got me lotta jansdotter's fabulous book "simple sewing for baby" for xmas and i finally got a chance to whip up two patterns from the book that i had been dying to make this weekend.

first off i did the soft rattle that looks like a giraffe. this was a fun and easy project that i was able to make with mackenzie, especially after i realized i had cut my fabric wrong and ended up having to make 2 instead of 1. it all worked out in the end though, one for her and one for little bean. that will teach me for not reading the directions right? it's supposed to rattle but i couldn't find a little bell at Michael's when i was there so for now they are silent giraffes. it matches a pillow i made eons ago for the baby's crib and all the colors of the bedding.

next up was the tag blankie. i heart tag blankies. they are so fun and a tad addicting. i can see myself easily whipping up a few more of these before the babe comes along. i used some soft flannel i had left over from the backing of mackenzie's quilt for the blankie. it's not too big, just 12" x 12" finished size. i think i may make a few small ones as well to go with it that i can just throw in the diaper bag for playtime. mackenzie never had one of these when she was little and i always wished i had made her one.

after i managed to get the above projects off my to do list this weekend, i also managed to hem my new ikea drapes from our trip to van in january. yes, i had them hanging all pinned up for over a month, i'm not embarrassed to admit it...that's what happens when you get to the third trimester...haha. but i finally did get to hemming them. poor jer was a bit frightened i must say as i tried to battle the ikea hemming tape. i have decided that i hate that stuff and will never use it again. after about 1/2 hour of us struggling with the drapes i said f*&k it and got out the sewing machine and hemmed the good ol'fashioned way.

after cutting off my excess i realized i had enough material to get one of my long time projects completed. we recently bought a new shower curtain for our master bath and the curtain i had made to hide a weird gap between the cabinet and the wall just didn't match anymore. i had been dreaming of doing a white ruffled one (like the anthropologie ruffled shower curtain i adore) and shazam! that ol'ikea material did the trick. i kept the old panel as my backing and all i had to do was cut the leftover material in half and hem 2 out of the 4 bottoms (2 were already hemmed) and then ruffle the tops and sew them on. easy peasy! i love the look! what do you guys think?

i thought i would give you a little sneak peek into my usually messy and chaotic master bath just for fun. it's hard living in a rental at times when you wish you could do so much more with your space. like that floor in there? bah! and the counter top (it's an ugly grey that shows every speck of dust, like mere minutes after you dust it) - bah! can't stand them, but what do you do? i just try to pretty up the rest of it and count down the years until we own our own home. (ps. the pic on the wall is of our fave place along the oregon coast...i want to live on that beach someday)

what have you been making lately? do you have any projects you have done to hide ugly rental fixtures? i'd love to hear and see them!