Sewing Project : Gift for my boss

My boss is having a baby boy in early September and instead of buying a gift, I decided to make one. This was a great decision because, it's an excuse to make something and it's more personal than just buying something. But the most important reason I decided to make a gift is because they registered at really expensive places!!! I would have ended up trying to buy the cheapest thing anyway.

I found some baby flannel fabric for $1 a yard at Jo-Ann's before I actually knew what I was making. Then I asked our friends with 2 kids what they couldn't live without. They said their "bicycle bag" which was basically just a thing that you put over the baby for keeping it warm. So they let me borrow theirs and I set about copying it. I needed to buy a long zipper, some batting, another yard of fabric (this time at $2.50 a yard) and some snaps but that was about it. Total for the gift came out to about $10.

So here is the original which is being modeled by Steven's Patrick doll.

The top part snaps off and on and the entire rounded bottom is one large zipper.

Here's my version:

My friend Trista gave me the puppy applique that worked perfectly to try and break up that very busy pattern.

I kind of wish I had made the outside the inside because I like the way it looks with the busy pattern more broken up. Here's a shot of the inside of it with snaps and zipper opened.

Here's inside of it without Patrick in the way. I ran out of fabric for the edging so that's why one is blue and the other is the patterned fabric. I made one improvement by putting in a sturdier zipper. The original "bicycle bag" had a very small metal zipper that the fabric get's caught in every time you zip it.

Here's the outside with it opened up.

I think it turned out pretty good. There's some weirdness about it but it's still functional. Since I was learning how to make it as I was going, there were a lot of mistakes made and things that I couldn't fix because I ran out of fabric. If I ever make another one again for another friend's baby, i'm sure it will be perfect. Still, not bad for $10.

Portland Vacation - Day 6 : Last day!

Oh so sad that our trip had to come to an end. We made the decision to spend our last day shopping to take advantage of the lack of sales tax they have there.

We spent about 4 hours at the outlet mall and then had our last meal together at Taco Bell. I know, all this delicious, fancy food the whole trip and we muck it up with Taco Bell. Hehe.

After shopping we walked around downtown Portland before going to the airport. We made our second trip to Voodoo Donuts where this time around we got a Capn' Crunch donut, a Fruit Loop donut, a jelly filled donut, and of course one last maple bacon bar.

Here's the line along the sparkly wall outside the building.

Stain glass of their most famous donuts.

They have a really cool chandelier in this shop.

Here are some shots from around town during our walk.

The boys really wanted to see the Rose Garden where they have the b-ball games.

We had a little mini photo shoot outside the Rose Garden before we left for the plane and not see each other possibly for at least another year.

I think John was trying to punch my boob in that last one. Anyhow, that's all for our trip. We got on our plane with no incident and landed back at Long Beach airport safe and sound.

These are truly some of the greatest friends a person could ever have. Jacob is now back in Japan and hopefully this next spring it will work out for us to try to visit him again. We plan on visiting Kelly next year.

Portland Vacation - Day 5 : Lazy Day

We really needed a break and this day was it. We lazily woke up late and headed to Wanda's for breakfast.

We really didn't have a plan that day so we spent about 2 hours playing Monopoly. I won...big time!

I won because I was damn lucky...or maybe because I was wearing a blazer and the game thought I meant business. I won the free parking spot all but one time throughout the game and each time the pot was at it's biggest. Below is the pic of all of my properties and all of those hotels (stadiums in the football version we played) were mine!

After Monopoly, Steven, Kelly, and I all stayed in and read our books and chatted while the boys went out in this boat to explore the river. They came back telling us a tale of a waterfall so we decided to go for a walk to find it and get some pictures.

It's like a jungle!

Found it!

But we had to get closer to it.

Here is a view from the top of the falls.

And a view from the side.

I think the amount of greenery broke John's Hipstamatic.

Here's Jacob sitting on the edge of the world.

                             

We got back up to the bridge while Jacob was still putting on his shoes and Steven was able to snap these really cool pics.

We got tired of waiting and started throwing rocks around him to speed him up.

With the waterfall accomplished we headed back and ran into some deer.

They got scared and ran away.

 Then we saw these weird slugs. Banana slugs maybe?

Soon after that we got back to the river house and made some burgers, packed up our stuff, and left back toward Portland. All during our hike and through most of the drive we played the 21 questions game. It sounds lame but it was a pretty good time.

Portland Vacation - Day 4 : CRABBYTACK!

Day 4 might be my favorite day of the trip. Kelly's dad took us out on his boat to go crabbing. I don't think any of us Angelinos had been crabbing before. So we woke up that morning and made pancakes with fresh raspberries from the garden to give us our strength.

We met Kelly's dad at the coast. He had already been up since about 4:30am for some early fishing and had already caught another salmon for dinner.

So off we go on the boat. Don't we look so colorful!

Steven and I were the only nerds who wore life jackets. Hey better to be safe than sorry!

Here is Kelly giving us a lesson on the crabs. Two things to look out for: size and gender.

If it's too small or a female then you need to throw it back.

Kelly's dad is setting the bait which is the fish carcass leftovers from our salmon dinner the night before.

Kelly teaches me how to hold the crab so you don't get pinched.

I did it!

So we set all the cages in the water and found a nice sandy area for lunch.

We docked the boat of course. This picture is cool because you get to see the boat and the inlet of water where we were crabbing. It leads to the ocean a few miles to the right but the water was much more choppy.

Here's our little lunch spot. Kelly has a picture of all of us in this little structure someone had built that I'll post as soon as I get a hold of it.

After lunch we go to retrieve our cages. You pull up the rope...

...and see what you got.

And that's how you go crabbing. It's a lot of fun and while you wait you get to talk with your buds, eat a delicious lunch and check out the locals:

After the crabbing we walked around the little town there by the dock and went to the antique store. We spent a surprising amount of time in that place. I didn't tink the guys would be into it, but they were:

Then we headed to another beach where the boys wanted to get in the water. They are obviously crazy since it was freezing out there. This is me putting on Steven's shirt for some added warmth.

Here they go running into the water.

Steven kept me warm on the beach.

Mission accomplished. They only lasted about 5 minutes but that was enough to get applause from a few people on the beach who were bundled up in some jackets.

Ahh the gorgeous West Coast.

So we get home and Kelly's dad has already boiled and took the main shell off the crab. It was up to us to get all the meat out so we had ourselves a crab crackin' party.

The is the bowl of the shells to discard. The smaller bowl that you can barely see behind it is all the actual meat.

I think we caught 9 crabs total. Afterward, Kelly's dad told us to dump the shells in the river behind the house to feel all the little critters there. John and Jacob saw this as an opportunity to make an offering to the river gods. Those silly boys.

Here is what our dinner looked like. Delicious, right?

That night we had a bunch to drink and we sat around the campfire making s'mores, watching shooting stars, and arguing about cultural things through late into night like true Oxy alumn.