still:living

Looking for some FREE CARDS?!

2012-01-28T19:38:00.001-06:00

Looking for a way to score some free Valentine's Day cards, or in my case, birth announcements? There are a few deals floating around there on the web you might want to check out!

Minted is offer a FREE $25 when you sign up through a referral link. And, if you get friends to sign up you can earn more free credit. So, click through to that link and place an order! You can also use the promo code BEMINE35 to get free shipping. I think Minted has some of the cutest card designs out there.

Paper Coterie is also offering a FREE $30 (cannot be used towards shipping) when you use the promo code FREETHIRTY. I purchased the cutest little Christmas cards for my photography clients this year from Paper Coterie and can testify to their superb quality and unique designs.

I'm not sure when these deals end - so don't wait too long to take advantage of them!

I originally saw both of these deals on Money Saving Mom and My Dallas Mommy which are GREAT blogs to follow for steals and deals and tips on being frugal.

Letters to Cason: The One Where You Turn One Week Old

2012-01-13T20:10:00.000-06:00

Sweet Boy -

You are my littlest and you're already seven days old. All we've done for the last week is snuggle. I think I've barely set you down, barely had to swaddle you and barely let you sleep alone and yet I can't believe we're already celebrating one week of your life. I think I'm afraid to put you down for fear that I'll turn around and you'll be grown up.

Today as I held you I tried to imagine you growing up. I could never have imagined the little personality and imagination that your brother has today, and I wonder about all of the plans that the Lord has for your life. Your Dad and I dream about the things that you and Cannon will do together. We hope that you'll be the best of friends and yet if you're completely different that's okay too. I can't wait to see you smile with a twinkle in your eyes, learn to sign and talk, take your first step and start to figure out what you want and like.

I love you little guy. I wish I could tell you not to grow up too fast. Until thing I'm going to stay here, with you snoozing on my chest, kissing your newborn head, feeling the rise and fall of your chest with every little breath and try to hold even tighter to this moment.

- Mom

Cason Reed has ARRIVED!

2012-01-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

Cason Reed

Born at 4:14 am

Jan. 6, 2012 (on his due date)

7 lbs 11 oz

20 1/2 inches

3 hours of active labor at home

1 hour laboring at the birth center

10 minutes of pushing

and the birth photographer made it with 6 minutes to spare

Happy Birth Day Cason!

2012-01-06T20:21:00.000-06:00

Remember that time we hired a birth photographer, Keri Duckett, and she didn't have time to make it to Cannon's actual birth (of no fault of her own, sheesh, the doctor barely made it)? She still captured these amazing photos that I cry over to this day.

I love her photos so much that I tell EVERY pregnant friend they HAVE to hire her. I would give up purchasing alot of "newborn/baby stuff" to be able to have her at every birth I have.

**Go check out her website - that's Cannon there on the left!**

Well, the minute we went into labor with Cason, Danny was on the phone with Keri. We were determined that she wouldn't miss this birth.

There were a few questionable moments - like when the midwife told us we couldn't come to the birthing center because my contractions were too far apart but I KNEW I was getting close. (And, yes, I know ya'll are waiting - the birth story is coming soon!) Well, Keri still got up in the middle of the night and got ready to leave because she knew Cason would come fast. She's just that awesome.

You can't imagine Danny's relief when she walked into that room with her camera. I believe Cason was born about six minutes later. Let's just say I'm an efficient use of people's time.

I'll forewarn you - these are birth photos. There's nothing graphic, but I'm not a pretty or quiet laborer, so be prepared. You might just hear me roar.

Songs: "First Day of My Life" by Bright Days and "Beautiful Things" by Gungor

And, in case you'd rather not be bothered with the seven minute slideshow, here are a few of our favorite moments:

First of many family snuggles.

LOVE!

Big brother waiting to meet his little brother!

Hello Mama!

Hello Dada!

Hello big brother!

First of many high fives between brothers.

I still can't get over how big Cannon's hand looks next to Cason's!

First moments as a family of four.

Our fabulous midwife, Carole, and birth assistant, Teri.

I just want to say, Teri walked in right before Cason was born so we met "officially" after the birth. Our first conversation went something like, "You did great! Oh by the way, I'm Teri!"

Sound familiar? I didn't meet the doctor that delivered Cannon until after the birth. Apparently I have a problem - I show up to places just in time for someone to catch my babies. :-)

Goals for 2012

2012-01-02T18:27:00.002-06:00

Personal Goals:

Adjust to having two kids
Get back into running (YEA!)
Choose to have time in The Word before doing my chores for the day
Crochet for enjoyment (and put one thing in Etsy shop every month)
Read!

Parenting Goals:

Resume "preschool" sometime in/after March
Choose to enjoy my boys OVER checking things off the to-do list (aka: play on the floor instead of clean)
Once Cason gets into a semi-schedule, create a routine for our day using blocks of time (ie: morning wake time is for playing outside/walking, afternoon wake time is for reading/art, etc.)

Household Goals:

Continue once a month cooking
Hang shelving in kitchen
Finish activity corner with book case, toy bins, and activity rug
Hang towel racks in bathroom
Buy/sew curtains for at least one room in house

Blog Goals:

Update the blog template
Continue posting family recaps (but add a family picture each month), reading summaries, 3-in-30 goals & recap and favorite Delicious & Pinterest links each month
Put correct dates on posts starting July 8, 2010
Update & consolidate blog tags:

Add correct "month x" tag to all posts starting July 8, 2010
Add correct "week x" tag to all posts starting July 8, 2010
Add "yearly family picture" tag

Organize SmugMug albums by month/year and upload all old pictures for backup

Photography Goals:

Book 2-4 photo shoots a month (starting in April)
Open a business checking account
Create a watermark action to speed up workflow
Buy a set of actions for photoshop (TotallyRad, Kubota, Paint the Moon, or Formula One)
Redesign blog/website
Upgrade SmugMug to Pro account
Create marketing materials:

packaging (cds fromMillers, metal tins w/ stickers, 3 press panel card, etc.)
thank you cards
return labels
business cards
forms (contracts, model release, price list, packages, print release)

Order the same photo from multiple labs to compare prints:

Pounds
WHCC
MPIX
Simple Color
Walmart/Target/CVS
Shutterfly/Snapfish

Plan out specials/deals, mini-sessions, client gifts, etc. for the year:

Mother's Day contest
Spring mini-session (maybe in bluebonnets)
Christmas in July special
Winter mini-session
Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal

Create a "to-learn" list:

color profiles
using my external flash
Kelby training
continuous vs. single focus
in-camera meter
photoshop (using curves, dodge & burn)

Goals 2012: Reading

2012-01-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

The new reading list for 2012 is up and books are already on hold at the library. A few books are repeats because they didn't get read in 2011.

Reading List for 2012

Here's to lots of books read during those middle of the night nursing sessions. :-)

To do a little recap of the last year of reading, here's a few of my favorite reads:

Best Fiction Book(s): The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Best Non-Fiction Book: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Best Activity Book for Kids: Baby Read-Aloud Basics by Caroline Blakemore

Best Parenting Book(s): Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman and Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp

Best Baby Food Book: Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley

Favorite Links This Month (December 2011)

2011-12-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

Delicious Links:

Power to Choose
Boring, I know, but we just switched energy companies - so, if you want to find a lower rate, check out this website!

I Heart Fluff: How NOT to Wash Cloth Diapers
I thought this was a great resource from my friend Jessica on how to wash your cloth diapers, especially after our horrible STINK incident this last fall!

JPG Mag: My Advice for Aspiring Photographers
I LOVE this little article. My favorite words of wisdom?

"Never apologize for your own sense of beauty."
"Say no. Say it often."
"Great portraits are a side effect of a strong human connection."

Pinterest Pins:

Make a photo book of your kids artwork
I LOVE this idea! What a great way to preserve the memories while saving space and making it easier to display.

Amazing Toddler Activities
This mom is super creative and has tons of fun ideas for young toddlers on her blog!

Hanging Organization Baskets in Nursery
I might need to hang a shelf and hooks over the changing table for a little additional organization in the boys' room, and I LOVE these baskets as a starting point!

DIY Kids' Workbench
As soon as the play kitchen is complete and our garage is semi-organized, I think this would be an AWESOME birthday present for Cannon.

Crocheted Flower Hat for Little Girl
I really want to make this - anyone with daughters want to try it out if I do?

3-in-30 Dec/Jan

2011-12-31T15:24:00.000-06:00

January Goals:

Cuddle Cason.
Play with Cannon.
Adjust to having two kids!

December Goals Recap:

~~Freeze Meals~~
~~Put together birth center bags~~
~~Wash newborn clothes~~

I also got a few extra things done including lots of things on the Baby #2 Bucket List! So, it was a good month of nesting and now I'm ready to take a break and love on my BOYS!

Our Family This Month (December 2011)

2011-12-31T15:14:00.000-06:00

How is it time for another monthly update already?

You can read our annual Christmas letter, which was mailed out at the beginning of the month.

Danny ran the last leg of the White Rock Relay at the beginning of December. It was a cold and rainy run, but it was fun and reminiscent to get out and see him jog down Swiss Avenue. There are a few things we miss sorely about Dallas - running Swiss Avenue and White Rock Lake are one of them!

It was a fun "crafting" month for me, as I hosted a Quiet Book Page swap with my friend Susan and sold a few crocheted items at a small "Etsy-style" sale with friends. I knocked a bunch of to-do items off my Baby #2 Bucket List and feel ready for Cason to make his debut!

Cannon is talking more and more. He's also getting louder and more emphatic as he learns that volume and intensity catch our attention FASTER! He's had two colds this month and is closing out the year battling an ear infection. His little toddler walk has turned into a haphazard "run" wherever he goes and resulted in his first good topple and knot on his forehead last week.

We are sticking close to home and keeping our schedule wide open for the New Year wondering when Cason will show up. Hopefully you'll get to see pictures of our newest addition the next time you check in here at the blog.

Happy New Year Ya'll!

- Danny, Laura, Cannon and Cason

To see all of our monthly posts from 2011, check out:

December 2011 Reading List

2011-12-31T14:53:00.000-06:00

46. Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman
This book is a great companion read to "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. I thought it was a little more practical with more examples and real life situations while Shepherding a Child's Heart was more of the theology and theory behind disciplining and training your child. I would HIGHLY recommend both of these to any parent wanting to better understand what the Bible says about raising children.

47. Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Loved this book. I will definitely need to be referencing it often as the boys grow. I loved how this book didn't stop at discipline and behavior modification, but explained the importance of addressing your children's hearts. There's WAY more to say about this book than can be written in a few little paragraphs of a book review, so if you have thoughts or questions, I'd love to discuss it further.

48. Listen to Me Good by Margaret Charles Smith
This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. It read more like a history book than a memoir, and at times I wanted to read more of the midwife's story than the history sections included at the beginning of each chapter. There was also less about midwifery and more about the entire life of Mrs. Smith than I expected - which was fine - I just thought I was picking up a book about childbirth and midwives.

49. Playful Learning by Anne Engelhardt
This is one of the best resources for preschool ideas ever! Some of the activities were too old for Cannon - but it was a great resource for themed activities.

I didn't quite make it through my reading goals for 2011. I got derailed by other books here and there. You can see my reading goals for 2011, along with the additional books I read here. I think this next year I'll leave more wiggle room for additions to the goal sheet.

To see all the books I read in 2011 check out Shelfari, or you can read my reviews here:

November 2011 Reading List
October 2011 Reading List
September 2011 Reading List
August 2011 Reading List
July 2011 Reading List
June 2011 Reading List
May 2011 Reading List
April 2011 Reading List
March 2011 Reading List
February 2011 Reading List
January 2011 Reading List

The Magic of Christmas

2011-12-31T12:17:00.000-06:00

It took several weeks, but Cannon finally noticed the ornaments on the Christmas tree. I purposely put "play-safe" ornaments within his reach and he has enjoyed playing with a few favorites. He LOVES asking for me to wind up the cello music box ornament, squeezing the sweater to see the lights flash, and turning the manger scene advent ornament to hear the Christmas story.

I hope all Christmases are filled with the awe of discovery and that we can instill such a sense of wonder as we anticipate the birth of Jesus.

In other news, we've started exploring the activity bags I've been saving and little by little he's figuring out how to do each one. He's meticulous about putting the pipe cleaners through the holes, although we have a ways to go in matching the colors.

Baby Belly #2 - Week 39

2011-12-30T20:19:00.000-06:00

This is the no-make-up, I'm a tired mom look. Just thought I'd keep it real - one day I'll look back on this and smile.

"Cason. Son. I love you. But PLEASE don't make me take a Week 40 belly photo. PLEASE! I beg of you."

We made it through Christmas. I've been walking every day, pulling Cannon in the wagon, drinking my six-week tea like my life depended on it and NOTHING. The little guy is staying put. What a stinker. He got us all revved up that he was coming early and then . . . stall. I haven't made any significant progress (still about 2 cm dilated) at my birthing center check up, but every time they let me know the weekend on-call midwife just in case.

I have rough days. The anxiety of waiting, the anticipation of the pain, the FEAR of the pain sometimes is overwhelming. Precious friends are sharing sweet scriptures to encourage me and I carry my verses around on index cards and meditate on them numerous times a day.

I feel like everything exhausts me physically. The simplest tasks of taking care of Cannon wear me out. We're both going stir crazy staying at home, but I just can't lift him in and out of the car and chase him around the park by myself. It's a catch-22. Don't want to go out, but don't want to stay home.

I also have good days. Days where I'm content waiting on my body to go into labor. Days where I savor the moments where Cannon and I just sit and read or cuddle before nap time. I want to cherish the last few days with just one child.

Maternity Pictures by Joyful Portraits

2011-12-30T15:38:00.003-06:00

I know from carrying Cannon around that one day I'll miss these big-belly days (even though I'm dying to share the load and let someone else carry Cason just for a MINUTE!). So, I wanted to get a few pictures to commemorate the pregnancy belly before it was gone.

I forgot my second outfit (oh the joys of trying to get out of the house with a toddler) but still love these photos that Shadee took for us! Be sure to "like" her business, Joyful Portraits, on Facebook. She's a friend and local photographer from the Love Affair workshop.

Baby Belly #2 - The Danny Stiller Edition

2011-12-30T12:29:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Cason coming exactly at 40 weeks on his due date I didn't have to take a Week 40 baby belly picture.

However, before closing out this baby belly #2 series, I thought I'd give you a little chuckle. My husband is a grand sport of all of my crazy ideas. He tolerates my weekly pictures, my crafty ideas, and my diy projects. He more than tolerates them, he usually embraces them and runs with me to complete them.

Every week before my belly picture, I adjusted my camera settings using Danny as my "usually" unsuspecting model. ALL of these pictures (except for the pumpkin in the shirt) are unposed and are Danny being himself in all his wonderful candidness. We never anticipated putting these on the blog, but after going through them I just couldn't resist.

Danny gave his permission for me to post ALL of these. For those of you that make it to the end, you'll understand.

Baby #2 Bucket List UPDATE

2011-12-26T20:37:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd give you a little update on how we're doing on getting ready for our second son. Remember the original Baby Bucket List? Well, most things have been crossed off and a few extra things added! I'm ready for Cason to get her!

Get Kids' Room Ready:

~~set up twin bed~~
buy sheets/comforter/pillows for twin bed
~~hang Cannon's name & picture~~
~~get Baby #2's name for wall~~
paint & hang Cason's name for above his crib (almost done! the modge podge is drying on the kitchen counter)
hang hooks for baby carriers (hooks have been purchased, just need Danny to bust out his drill)

Create Activity Nook in Living Room: (all of this is pretty much waiting for a line item in next month's budget)

buy 4x4 Expedit Birch Bookcase & storage bins
find a motor mat
organize toys

October To-Do List:

~~buy Christmas gifts~~
~~prepare for Advent~~
~~start rehearsing for birth~~

November To-Do List:

~~get office somewhat organized with both desks~~
~~get Christmas pictures taken for the last time as a family of three~~

December To-Do List:

~~freeze meals~~
~~put together birth center bags~~
~~put together labor & delivery survival bag~~
~~wash newborn clothes~~
~~install infant car seat~~
~~make eye doctor and dentist appointments for new/Allen doctors in February~~
install cabinet locks in kitchen (again, just waiting for Danny and his drill)
~~set up nursing corner in clean office~~

Cannon's Kitchen

2011-12-25T21:05:00.000-06:00

I'm sure you've all seen the "entertainment centers turned play kitchens" floating around the internet. They are everywhere and I'm pretty sure every other child got one this Christmas. Cannon could not be left out.

Cannon first played with a little kitchen a few months ago at a meetup group. He stirred, cooked and imagined for 30 minutes straight all by himself and I knew we had to get him a culinary workspace all his own.

I won't recap every step we went through, but I'll leave you with a few links. I first saw my friends, the Apels, make an AWESOME play kitchen, then I decided I liked this gray color scheme. We also used a few other to give us ideas, like this kitchen, this one, and this one. You could always Google or search Pinterest for more ideas.

We started with a FREE entertainment center from Freecycle. WHOOP on the price!

Danny then bumped out the walls, knocked out the shelves, and built a countertop.

And yes, we really ended up just using the frame of the entertainment center, but I guess it was less overwhelming/intimidating to start with a frame than to start building something from scratch. :-)

Here's the kitchen completely built, but unfinished. I purchased the faucet and oven knobs at the Habitat ReStore. The sink is a bowl from Walmart, as were the oven racks and dishwasher strainer.

Add paint and it's coming together! Picking out these paint colors was a fun way to live vicariously through my child because I think this is how I would paint a kitchen if I ever had the chance. Hopefully Cannon likes gray!

And finished product. We still need to add plexiglass to the oven door, although Cannon finds it mighty convenient to just reach in and pull out his baked goods, and I'd like to add a picture above the sink for a little decor. We have yet to hang anything on the hooks on the right because Cannon can't reach them, but one day . . .

We were originally just going to do two cupboards under the sink and on the left, but Cannon LOVES helping me load/unload the dishwasher, so we decided he needed his own little dishwasher.

Props to Danny for all of his hard work and evenings spent in the garage working on this. Thanks for listening to all of my hair-brained ideas and making them come to life!

Pictures of the great unveiling coming soon.

Minute to Win It: Reeder Christmas Edition

2011-12-25T19:10:00.000-06:00

I just had to include this picture of Cannon opening his absolutely FAVORITE book from Nana and Papa. We had this thing checked out from the library and renewed it so many times I'm sure they thought we had lost it. Well, now we have our own copy and Cannon and point out every balloon and ball on every page to his little heart's content.

This year, after all the presents were opened and the food eaten with gusto, we had a rousing game of Minute to Win It complete with gift card prizes from Mom and Dad.

Christmas Morning in the Stiller House

2011-12-25T19:06:00.000-06:00

Christmas morning Danny prepared a baked french toast casserole and a sausage/cream cheese casserole. My 38-week pregnant self couldn't bare to stand in the kitchen so I simply sat back and enjoyed eating the scrumptious goodness.

A boy and his Blue Bunny on Christmas morning:

Cannon was more interactive this year in regards to opening presents, but he still didn't quite understand that all of the unopened ones were for him. He would have been content opening and playing with one present all day long.

I got to unveil the quiet book, and while he's still a little young, he enjoyed exploring the pages.

One of his favorite gifts was a cooking set from Glammy for his new kitchen - which wasn't quite finished yet - but oh my word - it was worth the wait. Blog post coming soon!

Cannon had so many gifts from family members that we had to pause opening and playing with his presents to have lunch and gifts with the Reeder Family.

Merry Christmas from the Stillers 2011

2011-12-25T09:12:00.000-06:00

Friends & Family Christmas2011

There is really no “new” news in the Stiller Family because ithas all been blogged before. But, I LOVE receiving Christmas pictures andletters and can’t quite give up the tradition.

Last year on December 31^st we closed on our very first home in Allen, Texas. It’s small and simple, but it’sours. There are no stairs to climb, it has a washer and dryer and it’s only 10minutes from free baby-sitting (aka: Laura’s parents). Some days we miss beingable to call “maintenance” to fix things, but overall we’ve enjoyed having ahome. (Our new address is at the bottom.)

Danny’s doing great at his job as a Claim Manager in short-termdisability at Cigna. He’s found ways to lead and be involved on different teamsand was recently accepted to the Leadership Development Program which willprovide even more opportunities for him to grow and learn. He’s still slowly chipping away at hisMasters of Theology at DTS and took several classes this year. Graduation isstill several years away.

I (Laura) feel like I am adjusting more and more to being astay-at-home mom. I have found other mom friends through meetup groups andthrough coordinating a little, weekly preschool group for Cannon. I signed upto sell things at a small craft fair this month and rediscovered my love forcrocheting, crafting and sewing. It’s a refreshing break to step away from thecomputer, photo editing and blogging and make things with my hands. Myphotography business has been growing this year. I’ve enjoyed the creative sideof photography, along with the business side of creating a new logo, designinga brand, etc. and look forward to resuming photo shoots in March.

Cannon has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 12 months. Hefinally walked at 15 months and

communicates pretty well through signs and one-syllable words. Ilove taking him to play groups and watching

him interacting with other children. He is not shy and LOVEStalking to other kids his size in his little gibberish language. We celebratedhis first birthday this summer with family and friends and cannot believe it’sbeen

almost 18 months since we first became parents.

This summer brought the news that we are expecting our secondson around January 6, 2012. We

are anxiously awaiting Cason Reed’s arrival, but hope he will atleast wait to make his appearance

until after Christmas. Cannon has NO IDEA what is about to hithim and still pats his OWN

belly when we ask him where the baby is. We are excited for themto grow up together, and

Danny has a running list of things he can’t wait to do with hissons once they are old enough.

As always, you can follow our daily adventures online at: http://thestillers.blogspot.com.

We hope you have a wonderfully Merry Christmas!

The Stillers –

Danny, Laura, Cannon and Cason

Meeting Jesus.

2011-12-24T22:12:00.003-06:00

On Christmas Eve I was working in the garage making Cannon’s play kitchen and on the

radio came a Christmas song. The song is the telling of a story of a man who is waiting

in line at a store. In front of the man in line is a boy who wants to buy some shoes for his

mother who is terminally ill. The boy does not have enough money for the shoes so he

turns to the man behind him and makes a request to the man. The boy says,

Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my mama, please

It’s Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size

Could you hurry, sir, daddy says there’s not much time

You see she’s been sick for quite a while

And I know these shoes would make her smile

And I want her to look beautiful, if mama meets Jesus tonight.

As I was listening to this song, doing manly things like building stuff with wood, I

started to weep and cry. If you have heard this song you know it can really be a tear jerker, but the part of the song that made me cry today was the thought about meeting Jesus. The thought about seeing, face to face, the Man who gave up the comfort of heaven for a life of suffering. The Man that rescued me from the kingdom of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of light. The Man who washed away my sins, and the Man who rescued me from slavery to the idols I love, so I can love him and experience eternal life. Those lyrics made me cry because I have been given, by God, the grace to truly know Jesus. And the

thought of meeting this Man face to face and knowing Him fully by sight and being in His

loving presence touched my heart.

How do you feel about meeting Jesus? If you truly know Him, you may feel like I did.

If you don’t know him I am guessing the number of responses to “meeting Jesus” could

be many. Do you know Jesus? If you don’t know Jesus then you don’t have eternal

life. “Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,

whom you sent.” (John 17:3) Knowing Jesus is eternal life. Do you know the Son

of God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,

and was made man? And who for our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who

suffered death, and was buried and on the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the

Hebrew scriptures, (Old Testament) that spoke of his promised advent (coming). Is he

the reason for your joy this Christmas season. Do you know Him? Do you look forward

to meeting Him? If not I pray that you would. He is your only eternal hope. He is eternal

life.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Grand FINALE

2011-12-24T20:30:00.000-06:00

This is more for the gals that actually attended the swap and had the privilege of enjoying Susan's Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies!

I think it's fair to say that we all enjoyed this swap (despite the stress or trying to figure out new sewing techniques on the fly) tremendously. I'm beyond thrilled with the final product and know we'll treasure this book for years to come. Thanks to Susan for coordinating this endeavor with me and for all of my friends (new and old) who participated! Merry Christmas!

Pistachio Thumbprints

1 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups flour

1 package (3.4 oz) instant pistachio pudding mix

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Filling:

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and extracts; mix well. Combine flour and pudding mix; add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts(optional).

Roll into 1 inch balls ( I use a cookie scoop). Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet( I use a silicon mat). Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Make a thumbprint in center of cookie while hot.

Cool. For filling, cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and milk. Spoon or pipe into center of cooled cookies. ( I put my filling in ziploc bag and cut off the end and use that to fill the center.)

----------------------------

If you would like to see any of the quiet book pages you can find them all on Pinterest, or click the links below!

Christmas Eve Traditions

2011-12-24T18:57:00.000-06:00

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of going to The Village's Christmas Eve service. . .

. . . followed by a pizza dinner at Campisi's. (And, did you click through to that link last year to compare how much my child has grown and changed? It's WILD!)

Danny and I closed out our quiet little evening cuddling by the fire after putting Cannon to bed. We wrote notes to put in each stocking, even one for unborn Baby Cason, which I hope is a new Christmas Eve tradition. Instead of filling our stockings with candy and toys each year, every family member will write a letter to every other family member until our stockings our brimming with cherished memories 20 years from now.

And then we said "to all a good night" and went to bed to dream of next year's Christmas when we have TWO little boys in footed Christmas pajamas.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Bead Ladder

2011-12-24T09:30:00.000-06:00

About Allison:

I met my husband Ben traveling overseas together while weboth attended Texas A&M. We married in 2009 and have two little darlings,Mali Joy (22 months) and Tenley Grace (7 months), and a Hippo who weaffectionately refer to as “Bippo.”

During the day I manage property taxes for telecommunicationcompanies and my husband divides his time between financial planning andteaching. In the evenings we are busy spending time with our sweet girls andputting some TLC back into our home. When I’m not working and mothering, I’m drooling over DIY ideas at Young House Love and pining over theidea of a double jogging stroller for runs with my little misses.

How to Make a Bead Ladder

Quiet Book Page

Disclaimer:

I have a bad habitat of thinking I can do anything andeverything, I took on this project with little sewing experience and in themiddle of our office renovation. Which really means I moved twice as slow andfound myself sewing on a 2x10 held up by sawhorses. I was so thankful to Laurafor graciously let me practice creativity with 19 other mommies. I know mypages didn’t turn out perfect but I’m growing. Maybe when my daughters aregetting married they will ask me to sew their wedding dresses (with beadeddetail of course).

Supplies:

2.5 yard of Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer (cut into 8.5 x 10 pages)
3 sheets of green stiffened felt
2 rolls of brown Ribbon (ladder legs) – desired width
3 rolls of 1/8in. brown ribbon (ladder rungs)
Thread to match (green and brown)
1 Large bag of mixed beads

Crafting Tools:

Rotary Cutter
Straight Edge
Sewing Machine
Thread Cutter
Pins

Inspiration:

I duplicated the Counting Ladder over at Sugar BeeCrafts. Why improve on what was already amazing?!

Page Assembly:

1. CutPellon pages to size with a rotary cutter. If you have acutting mat, use it – I improvised with a diaper box because one, I’m cheap andtwo, I have a plethora of boxes with two little ones.

2. Whileyou still have your rotary cutter out, cut 20 1.5 in strips of the stiffenedgreen felt for the grass. Set aside.

3. Presortbeads into color groups and pick your pattern accordingly. The mixed bag Iselected had more of some colors than others – not important if you are onlydoing a couple pages, but with 20 pages you don’t want to get to the last pageand run out of 10 beads in the same color.

4. Bagyour beads.

5. Pullout one set of beads and lay them out in lines from 1 -10 on a sheet of Pellonto determine how wide and tall you want your ladder legs. Mark accordingly onthe Pellon - I drew out lines that would run down the middle of the ribbon Iwas using for the legs to help me pin the rungs later.

6. Cut40 strips of ribbon for the ladder legs to size. Pair up and set aside.

7. Withyour leg height and width determined, you can now measure and cut the ribbonfor the ladder rungs. I cut an extra ¼ in. on each side to allow for easiersewing and pinning once the beads where added.

8. Nowthat everything has been prepped the tedious task of stringing and pinning 20sets of beaded ladder rungs begins. Maybe I’m paranoid, maybe I just don’t wantmy daughter growing up thinking 10 beads really is 11 but I found myselfrecounting the beads about every 5 seconds (okay maybe 30).

9. Sewdown the ladder rungs – I used a zigzag stitch because I thought it would holdup to toddlers pulling on the beads better and I didn’t want to send 19 othermommies a choking hazard.

10. Remove the 400 pins thatwere used on the rungs and resist the urge to poke an eye out with one (can youtell I don’t sew often?)

11. Trim the ribbon used forthe rungs to ensure none of it will stick out of the side of the ribbon beingused on the legs.

12. Center and pin theladder legs over the zigzag stitch that was just sewn for the rungs.

13. Sew up and down bothsides of the leg ribbon, reinforcing the rungs so no beads come loose and findtheir way into little mouths.

14. Pin down and sew grass–trim accordingly. I found it easier to trim the sides to 8.5 in. after I hadsewn everything together.

15. Clean up, double checkthe bead count again and enjoy.

True Story – my oldest daughter pulled the first finishedpage off the table and started counting to nine. She has never done this. Howis that for instant gratification?!

Up Next: The Grand Finale: Susan's Pistachio Thumbprint Cookie Recipe

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How to Make a Quiet Book: Road Map (Part 2)

2011-12-23T21:30:00.000-06:00

About Jenni:

My husband, Chris and I have been married for 3 incredible years. He is just an amazing, thoughtful man, and I can't believe he decided to marry me most days. I worked for a small restaurant consulting firm creating marketing plans for restaurants nationwide before the economy tanked and I was out of a job. Luckily, we got pregnant with sweet Vera almost immediately after that, and made the decision that I should stay home. I so glad we did, because when Chris's health took a turn for the worse this summer, I was blessed with the time to redefine our lifestyle- most importantly, I had to relearn to cook all over again without the use of gluten, dairy, soy, yeast, and processed sugar. All that to say, I spend most of my time in the kitchen now, and when I'm not singing showtunes to our 11 month old Vera, I like to hop on my sewing machine and create.

How to Make a Road Map

Quiet Book Page - Part 2

Supplies:

Felt: Green for the background of the page, grey for the road
Felt: Blue for the carwash and garage
Tulle for the inside of the car wash
One curly shoe lace (I found mine at Payless)
Embroidery Thread and a size 3 needle to do all hand stitching
Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer
Double sided iron on interfacing (Wonder Under)
Single sided fusible interfacing (Pellon Jas Val-u-fuse)

Page Assembly:

1. ROAD MAP

I first cut out my green background and templates of the car-wash, garage, and road. I hand stitched my road using thick embroidery thread. I did not sew the piece of road on to the green felt where the carwash was going to go. (You want to stitch both pieces on together)

2. CAR WASH

I attached fusible interfacing to the back of the felt to add some structure.

3. Using my embroidery machine, I wrote the word "carwash" on that piece of felt (If you don't have an embroidery machine, try using embroidery thread and sewing it by hand), then cut it into a 5.5"x2.5" rectangle. I made a quick stitch with my sewing machine down the long sides of the rectangle just to reinforce it.

4. To make the carwash's insides, I hand stitched 3 layers of tulle to the back of the carwash. I alternated a white piece, a blue piece and another white piece, and those pieces were all cut into approx. 1.5" squares.

5. Lastly, I stitched I tucked the ends of the carwash under the road and stitched both the road and the carwash onto the green felt at the same time.

6. GAS PUMP

I embroidered the word "gas" on a piece of blue flannel that had some Wonder Under ironed on to it. If you have never used Wonder Under, it's pretty awesome stuff. You can iron it onto one piece of fabric, let it cool, then peel off the paper backing and iron it to another piece of fabric. A few reinforcing stitches and voila! You're done. The Gas pump was made entirely using pieces of scrap fabric I had laying around and Wonder Under. The 'pump' itself was a curly shoelace that I bought at Payless Shoe Store. I cut it short, tied a knot in the end, then poked it through both the green felt and the gas pump. I thought putting it through the green felt would help to reinforce it. Lastly, to add a little extra protection and to keep the knot from being pulled straight through and detaching, I made a small stitch by hand to keep the pump attached to the green felt.

7. GARAGE

The garage was nothing more than a pentagon with fusible interfacing ironed on it to help it keep its shape.

8. My final step was to attach the green felt to thick pellon to reinforce it. I made a simple stitch with my sewing machine around the edges of the page. This got a little tricky where the page was thicker (like at the garage) so after breaking 2 needles, I went and bought a heavy duty needle and heavy duty quilting thread. After that, I had no more problems.

Up Next: Bead Ladder

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Baby Belly #2 - Week 38

2011-12-23T19:18:00.000-06:00

Oh, my achy breaky belly. Things are so uncomfortable. I'm having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and low, period-like contractions. I've dilated to 2 cm, but that really means nothing. I stopped going out with Cannon (lifting him starts a contraction) and stopped going for walks (any amount of walking starts a contraction) this week because I really want Cason to stay put until after Christmas. Our birth photography is NOT on call on Christmas - so we don't want a Christmas baby!

Cannon and I have both been sick, so I finally went to CareNow and got an antibiotic for a sinus infections. The midwife has assured me that sick, pregnant women rarely go into labor because their body knows they can't handle it. Thanks goodness because I would go straight to the hospital and ask for an epidural if I went into labor this week!

How to Make a Quiet Book: Road Map (Part 1)

2011-12-23T09:26:00.000-06:00

About Aletha:

I'm Aletha and I don’t have a blog, though everyone tells me Ishould since I have a degree in English and love to write! I am married to anamazing man, Mike, who is a personal trainer (and my personal trainer aswell!), and we have a baby girl named Marchesa who will be turning 1 inJanuary. Before having Marchesa, Iworked on campus at Dallas Theological Seminary, the school Mike graduated fromthis past August. I always toldhim that when he graduated with his Master’s degree, I would graduate fromwork…and I did just that last January. I now stay at home and take care ofMarchesa. I love reading fitness and fashion blogs as well as shopping, makingclothes, running, working out, biking and cooking.

How to Make a Road Map

Quiet Book Page - Part 1

Supplies:

Jo-Anne Fabrics:

2.5 yards of Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra FirmStablizer (cut into 8.5x10in pages)
2 yards of bright green felt
2 yards of gray felt
Green, gray, black, and pink thread to match my felt colors
Bright yellow thread for the road lines

Michaels:

1 page of black felt
5 pages of pink felt
1 page of forest green felt
1 page of dark brown felt

Inspiration:

I didn’t use many blog resources for my page, except for theroad design from Sean & Jenny Ricks Blog. When I wasassigned the road page, my first question was, “How can I add some girl intoa page that could seem all boy?” I thought about making a pet store, butbeing the overachiever that I am, it probably would have had to have little furanimals on it, and since I had to make 20 by a deadline, that just wasn’t goingto happen. So naturally, I decided to put a mall on the page. Isn’t that whereevery young child, boy and girl alike, *wants* to go? I basically just createdas I went, and ended up with my page.

Page Assembly:

I was so focused…I forgot to take pictures of my steps!However, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Step 1: I started by cutting out all 20 pieces of Pellon. Iused a piece of paper that I cut into 8.5 by 10 inches for both the Pellon andgreen felt cutting.

Step 2: I then *sewed all of the green felt backgrounds tothe Pellon.

*Note: My genius husband, with his engineering mind, asked me,towards the end of the project, “Why didn’t you just sew all the pieces on tothe felt and then sew the felt onto the Pellon so that you didn’t have to keepsewing through such thick layers?” Hmm. That would have been a better idea, andI may have saved myself from a lot of unnecessary anger towards my sewingmachine, that horrible bobbin, and a few broken needles. So that’s my (his)advice for doing this.

Step 3: THE ROAD

I used my 8.5 by 10 sheet of paper to draw a road. Jenny wasdoing the right side of the road, so we decided to have our roads be two incheswide and meet at the bottom, and then two inches up at the middle. With that inmind, I measured out a road design on my template and cut it out so I wouldhave a pattern piece.

Step 4: I cut out all 20 of my road pieces using thepattern I made, and then sewed them onto the green backgrounds.

Step 5: THE MALL

I cut out the mall pieces out of individual sheets of pink felt(I got 5 per page) and then sewed them onto the background.

Step 6: THE LETTERS

I grabbed my scissors and just started making M’s, A’s, and L’sfrom my black sheet of felt. The M’s were easier than I thought…the A’s…not somuch. And the L’s were a cinch. I threw out a lot of them, but still managed toget 20 of each letter from the single sheet of felt and still have leftoverfelt.

Step 7: I sewed the letters onto the pink mall.

Step 8: THE TREES

I cut out large, medium, and small circles for the trees so thatI would have 6 per page. I did the same with the trunks, and sewed them on withsingle stitch down the middle.

Step 9: THE DETAILS

Add details. I wanted to add details to all 20 of the malls, asI did on the one page, but I just couldn’t get it done in the amount of time Ihad. So some additional things to add to the mall would be little black cut outpieces of clothing and shoes, and doors or windows.

And that’s it!

Up Next: Road Map Part 2

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Puzzle Pockets

2011-12-22T22:18:00.000-06:00

How to Make a Puzzle Pocket

Quiet Book Page

This is just going to be a short and sweet post by me (Laura), but I wanted ya'll to see the pocket page that was made to coordinate and hold all of the fabulous puzzles for the puzzle page.

Inspiration:

Susan and I thought it would be good to have a page to old the various puzzle pieces, like we saw on Creating by Cami and Crafty Chic Lyric.

Supplies:

2.5 yards of pellon
felt for pockets
snaps/buttons/elastic to fasten pockets
rick rack (or other ribbon/decorations for pockets)
thread

Page Assembly:

Cut pellon into 8.5 x 10 inch rectangles.
Cut felt into rectangles - make sure you make rectangles large enough to hold the puzzle pieces (consider size and thickness).
Add any embellishments to the felt rectangles that you want the pockets to have. Sew botton holes on the rectangles that will be fastened with a button.
Sew felt rectangles onto pellon on three sides, leaving top edge open to hold puzzle pieces.
Attach snaps/buttons to felt and pellon.
Fill the pockets with puzzle pieces and you're done!

Up Next: Road Map - Part 1

Missed a page? Check them out here:

Peekaboo and Baby Signs

2011-12-22T18:50:00.000-06:00

**DISCLAIMER: I know most of you are anxiously awaiting more pictures of Cason. They are coming - I promise. In fact, Cannon has taken to giving Cason kisses and it's so cute I just want to eat them both up. However, my brain will explode if I don't blog in chronological order - so pardon me while I catch up!**

This cutie patootie has one word for you . . .

PEEKABOO!!!

We do this over and over again at meals/snack time.

Until he decides it's time to return to his regularly scheduled eating . . . with an extra scarf around his neck.

Cannon would also like to show off some of the signs that make our day SO MUCH less frustrating.

YES!

Thank you!

and the over-used MORE!

And one of these days I'll get an actual video up of him doing more of his vocabulary.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Puzzle Page

2011-12-22T10:11:00.000-06:00

About Kristin:

Hi, I’m Kristin. God has blessed me with a wonderful husbandof 8 years and an adorable little 20-month-old maniac named Jack. We live inMesquite and my husband Wade and I both work for the school district here, I asa graphic artist and Wade as a video producer. I wouldn’t call myself a crafterand I am certainly not a sewer, but I have always loved to create (both on andoff the computer).

Inspiration:

My assignment for the swap was the puzzle page. Halfway downthis post is an example of a nine-square felt puzzle with a cute corresponding page toassemble the puzzles on. Here is my version of the same:

Page Assembly:

1. Make a stencil of the word “PUZZLES” by printing the wordout on cardstock and then cutting it out with an x-acto knife. Before printing,I tilted and overlapped the letters in Photoshop so that they were one bigshape instead of separate letters. Using the cardstock stencil, sponge-paintthe word on the top of 8.5x10 sheets of thick pellon. Obviously cardstock isnot ideal material for a stencil – the paper soaks up the paint and warps withuse – but I was surprised by how well it held up for 20 pages. It wouldcertainly be good enough for a single use.

2. Outline the letters with a black sharpie. The pellon atemy sharpies – I went through three markers before finishing – but the outlinewas nice for hiding any little painting mistakes.

3. Sew a 6x6-inch square of black felt to the middle of thepage, and decorate however you like. I just added a quarter-inch border ofwhatever felt I had left over after finishing the puzzles.

Puzzle Assembly:

I wanted to steer clear of the symmetrical single-shapepuzzles. Maybe I’m underestimating, but I think those puzzles would be reallydifficult for preschoolers to solve! So, using coloring sheets as a startingpoint, I came up with the three puzzles below. If you make your own, it helpsto overlay the grid lines so you make sure you won’t be cutting throughsomething important (like eyeballs) and each piece has a decent chunk of thedesign (rather than just little slivers on the edges). This was harder and tookmore time than I anticipated!

Fish Puzzle Template

Tree Puzzle Template

Owl Puzzle Template

Assembly of the puzzles was very similar to other pages inthe swap:

1. Trace each unique shape of the puzzle onto Wonder Under.For the purposes of doing 20, it helped me to number each shape as I traced sothat I wasn’t constantly going back and recounting.

2. Iron the tracings onto the felt. If you traced only onecolor at a time (first owls –then moons, eyeballs, and stars – and lastbeaks), then you can skip cutting around each piece and just iron the entiresheet of wonder under to the felt.

3. Cut out the felt pieces. By the way, I know cutting out100 stars seems crazy (my husband certainly thought so) but this really goespretty fast – I put all 20 owl puzzles together in one afternoon, and it was byfar the hardest of the three puzzles.

4. Peel off the paper backing and assemble the picture backtogether onto a 6x6-inch felt square. Iron.

5. Finish it up by drawing the eye pupils in with a sharpie,then sew as needed (for strengthening).

6. Iron a 6x6-inch square of thin, fusible pellon to theback of the puzzle. This hides the ugly backside sewing and hopefullystrengthens the thinner pieces without adding bulk.

7. Cut the puzzle into nine 2x2-inch pieces. Yikes, thisfeels so wrong after all that work! A rotary cutter and an extra-largeself-healing mat made quick work of all the zillions of 6x6-inch squares inthis project and for cutting the puzzles apart.

That’s it! The puzzle pieces are all stored in pockets on afacing page.

Up Next: Puzzle Pockets

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How to Make a Quiet Book: Shoe Lacing

2011-12-21T09:12:00.000-06:00

About Bobbi:
Hi, my name is Bobbi Keese and I am from the charming suburban community, Richardson, TX. My husband John and my son Jaxon are the joys of my life; so to keep it short and sweet, I am blessed!

How to Make a Shoe Lacing

Quiet Book Page

Inspiration:

I was so excited to be a part of this quiet book swap organized by Laura and Susan. These ladies were gracious enough to assign me the lacing page which I believe was one of the easiest pages to make, lucky me! I had a solid place to start, thanks to Laura and all of her great resources on how to make the page. Although there are many themes for a lacing page, I chose to do a simple shoe. The process was fun and I am pleased to share how it was done. So here we go!

Page Assembly:

Materials I used:

Pellon cut into 8 1/2''x10''
Stiffened felt
Slouchy felt in fun colors
Sharpie Markers
Rotary Cutter and Mat
Eyelets 3/16''
Eyelet Setter
Shoe Laces (36'')
Coordinating Thread
Sewing Machine

1. My first step was to unwrap all of that beautiful Pellon and begin cutting it to size; we decided 8 1/2''x 10'' would be best. I used a rotary cutter and a clear quilting ruler to make all of my measurements. I drew them onto the Pellon with a sharpie marker (my fabric marker of choice) and made my cuts.

2. After cutting, I stacked the Pellon and put it to the side. My next step was creating the shoe pattern; I simply used some cardboard and a real Converse shoe for inspiration.

3. I made the pattern more detailed in the beginning because I was going to use the same cardboard cut out for the tip of the shoe, the lace attachments, and the foot hole of the shoe.

4. Next, I traced my shoe pattern onto the red, stiffened felt and cut! It is important to use stiffened felt for this step due to the amount of "play stress" this piece will endure.

5. While I was in the cutting mood, I went ahead and cut the tip of my cardboard shoe pattern off in order to make a stencil for the tip of the shoe. I then traced my shoe tip onto the slouchy felt. I used slouchy felt here, because this step is purely cosmetic. The slouchy felt will be completely sewn into the pellon and will not be under any stress while little hands are using it.

6. Still in the cutting mood, I decided to go ahead and cut my foot holes out of black slouchy felt. I traced these with a silver sharpie.

7. After all that cutting, I decided I needed to change it up a bit and do some sewing! First I sewed on the slouchy felt shoe tips followed by the foot holes.

8. Now it's time to get out that Pellon I set aside in the first step. I wanted to attach the shoe to the Pellon before sewing on the laces attachment for extra stability to withstand tugging and pulling. I used a fun stitch to mimic the white sole of a converse tennis shoe. For extra stability I attached the edge of the shoe with a zig zag stitch.

9. Now it's time to cut and sew on the laces attachment. While cutting, be sure to leave plenty of room for the eyelts; my dimensions were apporximately 3 1/2''x 1 1/4". This piece needs to be the most stable; it will undergo the most abuse. I used a good tight straight stitch at the edge and a zig zag stitch for extra support. Notice, you're sewing through stiffened felt and pellon; my hope is that this will make all the difference when it comes to the test of time.

10. Now it's time to play with my new toy, the eyelet setter. A variety of setter choices are available out there, but I think this particular setter worked efficiently for this project. First I eyeballed the tabs for the laces and marked them. This step is followed by punching the eyelet holes, this feature is included on my eyelet setter (how convenient).

Once your holes are punched, press in the eyelets using the setter. This will make a clean, sturdy border for your laces to pass through. When you've done that, lace your shoes up and you're done!

Up Next: Puzzles

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How to Make a Quiet Book: Clothes & Clothesline

2011-12-20T07:02:00.000-06:00

About Taylor:

My name is Taylor and I am a stay-at-home mom to our eight month old little girl, Vera. Scot, my husband, is a CPA and lovingly lets me indulge in all of my crafty adventures. When I'm not being a momma, I'm a professional photographer. I keep a current blog of all my latest shoots here. Scot and I both graduated from Harding University in Arkansas and are loving our life here in Lewisville. We are very involved at Prestoncrest Church of Christ where I currently teach the nursery class. As far as what I like to do for fun, I love all kinds of crafting, especially sewing and scrap booking.

How to Make a Clothes & Clothesline

Quiet Book Page

Supplies:

Joann's:

2.5 yards of Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm one-sided fusable Stabalizer (cut into 8.5 x 10 in pages)
2.5 yards blue cotton material
1/2 yard each of light pink, magenta, brown, blue, and green soft felt
5 yards of thin grosgrain ribbon
light blue, white, and brown thread

Things I had around the house:

rotary cutter
quilting mat
paper
pencil
pins
scissors

Inspiration:

I looked at several quiet books but used this post for my inspiration. I knew that clothespins were out of the question (I kind of see them as a choking hazard), but I still wanted the clothesline look. Because I wanted to add more pizzaz to my page, I decided to use colorful ribbon as my "clothesline." I also wanted to avoid velcro, thus the basket concept in the inspiration quiet book was perfect for the look I was going for!

Page Assembly:

1. Cut the Pellon and the light blue cotton into 8.5 x 10 in pages with a rotary cutter on a quilting mat.

2. Iron on the light blue material to the fusable side of the Pellon

3. Create paper templates for the grass, tops and bottoms, and basket. For the grass and the basket, you'll need as many pages as your making. For the clothing, I made an outfit for a boy and a girl. You'll need to cut double of each article of clothing. I created the pattern using the template that is on the paper doll page that Jenny created.

4. Using a zig-zag stitch, I sewed down the grass as well as the edges of the cotton material onto the page.

5. Sew on the ribbon in a diagonal along both edges across the page.

6. Sew on the basket around the sides and edges. You need to make sure to leave the top open for the clothes to fit into.

7. I then sewed around the edges of each article of clothes. You don't have to get as fancy with the stitching on the outfits as I did, but I basically made sure the felt was double layered for durability.

8. When you're finished with all the sewing, tuck the outfits into the pockets! Felt will stick to felt like flannel graph. These outfits are meant to be played with alongside the paper doll page. Enjoy!

Up Next: Shoe Lacing

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How to Make a Quiet Book: Cloth Doll

2011-12-19T12:39:00.000-06:00

About Jenny:

I am Jenny! I have a blog, McClure Family Space, that I am way behind on {oops!} where I share our family's day-to-day with friends & family. I am married to a wonderful man, Brian, and have two amazing sons, Rylan {4yrs} and Quinn {18m}. I am a photographer and am so blessed to capture God's glory through 2 By 2 Photography. I also love to sew and have an online boutique, 2 by 2 boutique and an etsy store. {Can you tell I like to keep busy??} Most importantly, I am a stay-at-home-mommy to my wonderful boys while my husband teaches high school Art. We strive daily to bring God glory and be his light to the world!

How to Make a Cloth Doll

Quiet Book Page

Supplies:

Sheet of green, brown, yellow, orange, cream, & light blue felt
Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stablizer {cut into an 8.5x10in page}
One black & one white embroidery floss skeins
Red, green and White thread
Scissors, ink pen, straight pins, embroidery needle, & rotary cutter, guide and mat {optional}
The above template

Inspiration:

I loved Sugar Bee Crafts doll page with matching clothes line. I used this page as my main inspiration. Because my page was smaller, I opted for one doll and decided to add hair to make the doll a boy or girl. You can find the cloth doll template here.

Page Assembly:

1. Begin by cutting your stabilizer and sheet of blue felt down to 8.5x10in.

2. Next, using the template, cut out the doll from the cream felt, the center of the sun from the yellow felt, the outer sun from the orange sun, and the two hair styles from the brown felt.

3. Using the green felt, cut a wavy pattern {to symbolize grassy hills} with the peeks around 2.5in and the valleys around 1in.

4. Pin the grass to the bottom of the blue sheet of felt and sew all around as close to the edge as you can.

5. Now pin the sun to the right corner 1in down from the top and 1in in from the right edge. Stitch a swirl pattern using the red thread. {The best way to do this is to start stitching around the edge. When you are almost to the beginning of your stitch, turn in and use that line as your new edge. Do this until you get tight in the center.}

6. Take the doll you cut out of the cream and center it about 1in about the bottom margin. Pin it down and sew as close to the edge as you can.

7. Now you are ready to add the face! Take a pen and lightly sketch on eyes and a mouth to the head of the doll. Using the black floss and embroidery needle, stitch on the eyes and mouth.

8. Take the blue felt, pin it to the stabilizer and sew around the entire edge as close as you can.

9. To finish the hair, cut 2 pieces of white floss 5.5in each. Use the floss pieces as ribbons and tie them in bows around the girls hair. The felt will cling to felt so you can "stick them to the side of the page, use sticky velcro dots, or simply put them in the clothing basket on the next page!

10. Enjoy!!

Up Next: Clothes & Clothesline

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And We Have a Winner in the Baby Name Game

2011-12-18T15:58:00.001-06:00

Image Source

Cason Reed Stiller

Well, we took over 37 weeks to pick Cannon's name - so my goal with this second child was to choose a name by 36 weeks. We beat our deadline and settled on Cason Reed at 35 weeks - WHEW!

Cason
I originally threw out the name "Cason" on a whim while reading a list of baby boy names. I had been avoiding "C" names in the baby name books, but for some reason Cason just jumped out at me.

Danny just started laughing and asked if I knew what a Caisson was? Of course not.

So, I had to look it up.

A caisson holds ammunition - what an ironic name to like after naming my first son Cannon. Apparently I have a "thing" for guns and ammo that I didn't even realize existed. But also what a perfect little pair for a set of brothers that we hope will be inseparable and the best of friends.

(Side Note: We pronounce Cason like it rhymes with Jason or Mason. We do NOT pronounce it like the ammunition holder. :-)

Well, I was hesitant to settle on the name Cason for multiple reasons:

I didn't want to start a gun theme that we'd have to continue
I wasn't sure I was ready to commit to all "C" names for our children.

Well, Danny assures me that we don't have to choose a "C" name if there's a Stiller Baby #3 in our future, and Cason just kind of stuck ever since that first fateful mentions. So, Cason it is.

Reed
This is after my maiden name: Reeder. We knew this would be the middle name no matter what, boy or girl.

And there you have it. After months of deliberation the Stiller boy has a name.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Notebook & Crayons

2011-12-18T07:17:00.000-06:00

About Lara:
My name is Lara and I live with my wonderful husband Jonathon and our (almost) 16 month old daughter Cadence. I am a Colorado native, and lived in the same city I was born in, Greeley, CO until I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado at the age of 22. Then I followed a job offer to the Phoenix, AZ area where I began my kindergarten teaching career and met my husband, Jonathon. Just over a year ago, Jonathon's career with Southwest Airlines brought us here to the Dallas area. I am now a stay at home mom, and I love to swim, craft, read, wear flip flops, and take Cadence to see new things. I hate to cook and shop!

How to Make a Crayons & Notebook

Quiet Book Page

My Quiet Book page is a coloring page with crayons and a notebook on it. The finished product looks like this:

(sorry about the flash)

Supplies needed to make 20 pages like this (if you are only making one you won't need this much!):

Hobby Lobby:

Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer cut into 8.5x10in pages
5 sheets of red 9"x12" felt
1 sheet of black 12"x18" stiffened felt
1 spool red thread
1 spool black thread

Dollar Store:

5 boxes of 48 crayons (I know that you don't need this many crayons, but 5 boxes allows you to choose nice colors instead of ugly ones, and 5 boxes of 48 was cheaper than 20 boxes of 8.)

Walmart:

5 packages of 4 spiral memo books

Page Assembly:

Cut the Pellon into 8 1/2"x10" pages
Cut 20 rectangles out of the red felt to measure 2 1/2"x7" each.
Cut 20 rectangles out of the black stiffened felt to measure 1 1/2"x 4 3/4" each.
Pin a red rectangle onto your page 2" down from the top of the page and centered from left to right.
Sew a straight line up and down in the middle of the rectangle to attach it to the page, and then remove the pins:

Use a crayon to help you measure the pocket size. DO NOT sew the pockets flat, or when you put the crayons in, the page curves up into a semi-circle. If you were making the pages out of regular cloth, this would work, but on Pellon it does not. So you have to create a 3D pocket with the Pellon as the flat backing. For a regular sized crayon you need 1 1/16" of the red felt to make the pocket and you sew it onto the pellon 13/16" apart. If this is confusing, it will be helpful to use a crayon to measure and mark where you should sew:

Then remove the crayon and sew a straight line. Repeat this until you have 6 pockets, 3 on each side of the center seam.

There should be a small amount of red felt remaining on each end. Switch your sewing machine to the zig-zag function and sew up and down over the extra bit of felt to help secure the pockets.

Next, use your notebook as a measuring tool to mark where to sew. I used pink chalk on the first several, but after a while I knew where to sew without measuring.

Pin the black felt in place and sew a square on each end. (This picture is from a practice round, so excuse the messiness. Also ignore the zig-zag across the bottom of the pockets and the measurements written... none of them are correct, this was just a piece I was trying everything out on first. I used red thread so you could see the square, but on the real ones I used black to match the felt.)

Then choose 6 crayon colors and place them and the notebook into their spots.

Helpful Blogs:

Skip to My Lou was a helpful blog for measurements, but again, you will have to modify the sewing methods in order to keep your page from curling.

At Second Street was a great inspiration for a similar page, though they made smaller pages so the notebook and crayons were on separate pages.

The Ricks Family was also useful, but similar to Skip to My Lou, they sewed a seam straight across the bottom of the pockets, which would have curled the page unless you used a regular cloth instead of the stiff Pellon.

Up Next: Cloth Dolls

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Mailbox

2011-12-17T10:02:00.000-06:00

About Chesley:My name is Chesley and I have been happily married to theman of my dreams (Josh) for 5 years. We have two boys, Aiden (3 years old) andLuke (10 months). Josh and I met and graduated at Texas A&M and currently reside in Rockwall,Texas. I have the joy of spending my days caring for my sweet boys! Josh is anassistant principal at a high school in Mesquite. During my free time, I love hanging out with my hubby,running, reading, crafting, sewing and cooking and experimenting with recipes.

How to Make the Mailbox
Quiet Book Page

Supplies:

2 yards of Pellon Peltax 70 Ultra Firm Stablizer (cutinto 8.5 x 10 in pages)
2 yards of blue felt (for back ground- optional)cut these into 8.5 x 10 in as well
I bought the mailbox feltpattern (animal print) in sheets of 8 x 11 in, so I am not sure about how manyyards. But I bought 10 sheets of the felt and cut out 2 mailboxes per page. Then I used 2 additional sheets totrace the 20 mailbox lids.
1.5 yards of green felt forthe grass.
stiffened felt: red (2sheets), yellow (3 sheets), brown (4 sheets), blue ( 2 sheets)

Inspiration:

I used Serving Pink Lemonade’s mailbox template and I also got my idea from the Cutesty Crafts blog as well, but added some of my own style in there (the flower and the patterenedmailbox).

Page Assembly:

1. Cut Pellon and blue felt to 8.5 x 10 inches.

2. Sew pellon and felt pages together.

3. Make templates. I used the Serving Lemonade templateand then made my own templates for the post, grass, flower, and the center ofthe flower in proportion to the mailbox and size of the page itself.

4. Trace all the templates onthe felt and cut out.

5. First sew on the mailbox post. Not directly in thecenter, but more to the left.

6. Next sew on the grass.

7. Sew on the flower. I sewed each individual petal toensure it was securely on there and not coming off!

8. I hand sewed the blue middle of the flower.

9. Here is the final productagain. After the flower, I sewed on the mailbox without the lid. I didn’t get apicture of the lid opening, but don’t sew the inside of the mailbox opening sothat you can put mail actually inside of it. Here is an example:

10. After that, sew thebottom part of the mailbox lid on.

11. Finally, I sewed on thered flag onto the mailbox by hand, and it actually moves up and down.

Enjoy!

Up Next: Notebook & Crayons

Missed a page? Check them out here:

Baby Belly #2 - Week 37

2011-12-16T14:52:00.000-06:00

I'm officially on "slow down" mode. Lifting Cannon is exhausting. Do you know how many times a day you must lift a toddler? ALOT! Think in/out of the crib, up/down from the high chair, on/off the changing table, in/out of the car. It's ridiculous!

We're down to weekly appointments at the birthing center which means that one of these days I'll schedule an appointment but will get to cancel it because I'VE HAD THAT BABY! They don't check for dilations/effacement until I ask, so we'll probably wait until Week 38 or so to start doing that fun check up.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Buckles

2011-12-16T09:47:00.000-06:00

Photo by Ariel Starke Photography

About Kara:

My husband James and I have been married five years and we had our first child, Elliot Kyle, eight months ago. After graduating from Texas A&M we came to the Houston area where James works as an engineer while I (mostly) stay home with Elliot. I taught bilingual 2nd then 3rd grade for five years, and now I teach 3 year olds in a Mother's Day Out program at our church. I enjoy reading blogs about multicultural education (like Spanglish Baby and Multilingual Living), learning Arabic and running. Though I've never really sewn before, I thought this would be a great project to do while I have the time and before I really need it.

How to Make a Buckles

Quiet Book Page

My page was the "buckle" page and after searching on-line for ideas I settled on a dog collar (see Pinterest).

Supplies:

I bought stiffened felt for the black and white, but in order to get the brown and pink colors I needed regular felt. I searched online for buckles, nylon, and dog collars, but buying $1 collars at the dollar store was cheaper even than wholesale places. I spent about $41 on everything (about $2.05 a page). I borrowed the sewing machine from my mother in law, and mostly used her thread. I used extra strength thread for the dog collar, something we already had on hand.

Page Assembly:

I printed out the dog picture from one of my pins.
Then I cut apart the different pieces of the dog (ears, body, tongue, etc) and traced them on colored construction paper. This way I could see what it would look like without wasting felt. I modified the design to look a little different (some said "bunny" and "cow" in the process, but I think the final product looks more dog-ish), then measured the pieces to estimate how much felt I would need (I bought too much actually, and was able to return some).
My mother-in-law helped me come up with the plan: sew all the pieces on to the dog body (brown felt) then sew the dog onto the page. When I was sewing the nose on I also sewed along the ears in black to create a line. She also suggested we make the tongue flap, so we cut double the number of tongues and sewed two together to make it sturdier.
I pinned the dog and tongue down then sewed around the dog - in brown for most of it, then switched to black for the nose.
My husband helped me cut the collars after I measured about how long they should be (I read the description here about how to sew the collars down). We burnt the ends with a lighter then sewed the ends down near the dog's neck, reinforcing as needed.

That's it! I'm glad I was able to be a part of this project, and I hope everyone's kiddos enjoy the dog collar page (I hope they don't escape from their car seats and strollers, as some people suggested would be a consequence of giving kids a buckle page to practice).

Up Next: Mailbox

Missed a page? Check them out here:

Snack Time in the Stiller House

2011-12-15T15:10:00.000-06:00

We've been practicing eating at Cannon's "big boy" table lately. He likes to get up and down, up and down, so we're working on only getting down when we're completely finished eating.

And yes, Blue Bunny is becoming the ever-present buddy. Cannon tries to take him everywhere. Blue Bunny is to Cannon what the dirty ole blanket is to Linus.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Gum Ball Counting

2011-12-15T09:27:00.000-06:00

About Katie:

I am Katie and once upon a time I had a blog where Idocumented our home remodel and family happenings, but it has since taken abackseat! I am a stay-at-home mom to our 9 month old son, Zachariah, and soonto #2 who is coming in May! I have a wonderful husband who works hard and goesto school for his MBA so that I can stay home. We are both graduates of TexasA&M University, where I obtained a Special Education degree. I taughtspecial education for 6 years. Our family loves Jesus, traveling, and eating ourway through every city we live in or visit! In my free time (ha..) I like tocook, sew, read and recently, nap.

How to Make the Gum Ball Counting

Quiet Book Page

Supplies: (I shopped only at Hobby Lobby…small child,pregnant, one-stop shopping)

2.5 yards Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer (cut into8.5x10 pages)
.5 yard each of light blue and red batiste fabric
.25 yard red and white striped fabric
1 sheet each of stiffened felt in red, orange, yellow,green, light blue, dark blue, and pink (or whatever 7 colors fit your fancy)
1 sheet of regular gray felt
1 yard double-sided iron-on interfacing (Pellon brandWonder Under)
.25 yard single-sided medium density interfacing (Pellonbrand)
2 packages of 75 velcro dots
red thread

Inspiration:

I looked around at lots of different blogs and pinterestposts about quiet books and after being assigned a “counting” page, I thoughtthe gumball page was perfect (plus it was one of the suggestions, which made mydecision even easier)! I made my own template, which I can share with you ifyou email me at kamorris05@gmail.com.

Page Assembly:

1. CutPellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer to 8.5x10 pages using a rotary cutterand self-healing mat (must-haves in my opinion).

2. Printtemplates on cardboard paper (for stiffness and durability) and cut out.

3. Tracebottom of gum ball machine and top of gumball machine onto Wonder Under (easiestif you trace all 20 tops together and all 20 bottoms together so you can cutthe Wonder Under paper apart and iron each group onto their respective colors…)

4. Ironthe tops on blue and the bottoms on red (very important, otherwise you will endup having to go buy more Wonder Under. I may have done that. Remember:pregnant, 9 month old, tired), then cut all of the shapes out. I numbered eachone so that I could keep up with it easier.

5. Usingthe remaining gum ball and gumball retrieval flap (the gray piece in thefinished picture… sorry no better name in this brain of mine!) templates, cutout 20 of each color gum balls in stiffened felt and 20 flaps in the regulargray felt.

6. Ironthe single-sided Pellon interfacing on the red and white striped fabric. If youare an over-achiever like me, dig through your old scrapbooking materials anduncover a scalloped-edge template to make the fabric look like a candy shop.Measure out 2 inches and .5 more inches (if making a scalloped edge and makelines across the length of the fabric (perpendicular to the stripes). This willcreate your striped top. If you are making the scalloped edge, trace thescallop from the 2 inch mark down. Cut the strips and then cut the scallop.From there, you will be able to cut the strips down to 8.5 inches to fit oneach page. I was able to get 4 pages from each strip, meaning that I needed 5strips in total to make 20 pages. (Hopefully this makes sense.. Email me if youneed clarification).

7. Nowall you have left is to assemble everything. I worked from the bottom up,ironing the gum ball machine down first (oh and I cut a semi-circle out of thetop of the gum ball machine bottom piece because my fabric was thin and youcould see the red showing through the blue gum ball circle on top). Then Iplaced all of my Velcro dots on. I chose to do the soft-side on the page andthe rough side on the dots, which worked out perfect because the rough sidesticks to the Pellon 70, meaning that I didn’t need dots for under the stripedscallop for hiding the dots. Last, I sewed the top of the striped fabric to thetop of the page and the gum ball retrieval flap to the bottom of the gumballmachine.

8. Ifyou want, you can number each of your felt circles so that your child canpractice counting as they play!

Have fun watching your little darling play with this page!

Up Next: Buckles

Missed a page? Check them out here:

Preschool: Christmas Month (Week 2)

2011-12-14T15:04:00.000-06:00

In case you missed it, read about our earlier Christmas adventures here:

Christmas Month - Week 1

Our second week of Christmas month was our field trip week! We attempted to go to the "ice palace" at Willow Bend Mall, but were a little disappointed at the small display and not being able to take our own pictures with Santa. So, we settled for hanging out at the play place and then eating lunch at Chic-fil-a afterwards.

It took Cannon over 30 minutes of sitting next to me on the bench and watching all of the kids run around before he warmed up to playing at the mall's play place. On the other hand, our picture below is missing Dominik because he was so EXCITED to be running, playing, climbing and socializing.

How to Make a Quiet Book: ABCs/Alphabet Page

2011-12-14T13:02:00.000-06:00

About Julia:
My name is Julia Kimball and I am a 24 year old stay-at-home mom. I am married to my wonderful husband, Robert and we have a little boy, Caedmon, who will turn one on January 3. I blog about our growing family on my private blog, Building Engedi. We currently find ourselves in Waco, TX but anticipate a move soon due to Robert's job. He works as a project engineer for Archer Western, a general contractor, and I am blessed to stay home with Caedmon. We love to be outdoors, whether it's running, biking, hiking, or simply enjoying God's beautiful creation. I also enjoy reading, quilting, cross-stitching, baking, and spending time with others.

How to Make the ABCs/Alphabet

Quiet Book Page

Supplies:
Found at both Hobby Lobby and Joann's

2.5 yards of Pellon Peltex 70 Extra Firm Stabilizer cut into 20 8.5 X 10 inch sheets
4 sheets of black stiffened felt
2 packages Steam-A-Seam 2 Double Stick Fusible Web
7 packages Sew-ology hook and loop stick-on white velcro dots
1 Chaco Air Erasable Pen
4 Silver Sharpies
2 packages Colorations Felt Letters (found at discountschoolsupply.com)

1. Cut pellon into 8.5 X 10 inch sheets.

2. The pre ordered felt letters were too flimsy to use by themselves, so I decided to back them with stiffened felt. I traced the footprint of the colored felt letters onto cardstock, and then enlarged the area by 1/8 inch all the way around, thus creating a black outline. I then cut each letter out from the cardstock.

3. Using the cardstock templates, trace the letters onto the stiffened felt with a silver sharpie and cut each letter out on the inside of the traced line.

4. Peel one side of the Steam-A-Seam and place the colored felt letters onto the page. Cut the letters out.

5. Next, place the colored felt letters onto the corresponding stiffened felt background letter, with the Steam-A-Seam in between.

6. Iron together following the directions on the Steam-A-Seam package.

7. Now, on one page of pellon, mark where you want your letters to go. My husband made this grid to ensure that the letters were even. I simply punched holes in the page and where the letters should be. I was then able to quickly place the grid page over another page and dot with the air erasable pen.

8. Place a Velcro sticky dot on each mark. I used the rough side of the Velcro for this part.

9. Next, place a smooth Velcro sticky dot on the back of each letter.

10. I had to trim some of the Velcro because the dots were bigger than the letter itself.

11. Finally, place the letters onto your felt page.

Disclaimer: Ideally, I would have sewn the Velcro onto each letter and page, but that was not feasible when making 20 pages. I do recommend that for anyone making just one or two pages at a time. It would definitely hold up better under the wear and tear of little fingers. Also, using iron on letters would speed up the process but price got me there. Enjoy!

Up Next: Gum Ball Counting

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Counting Flowers

2011-12-13T08:07:00.000-06:00

About Leslie:
I am Leslie, I have a blog called, creatively, peterandleslie.blogspot.com. Peter, being my husband. Our son, John, is 18 months and we are expecting another baby in April.

I was excited to participate in the quiet book swap because it is such a cute idea. But also because I've been wanting to learn and grow in craftiness (like, arts and crafts, not deception!). I have a sewing machine which I have used but, until recently, was not very comfortable with. I thought that doing this would give me a goal and force me to overcome at least part of the learning curve that I had been using as an excuse for not doing more sewing projects. I'm definitely glad I did it because I do feel much more comfortable with my machine. I can thread it now without having to read the step-by-step instructions each time! I'm by no means an expert (I even attempted to sew on the velcro sticky dots which is a no no!) but I've got the confidence to try more projects. Not to mention, I've got 18 other adorable pages coming my way!

I will say that a good motto for doing something like this is: "Don't forget: it's for 18 month-olds." Meaning, details like perfectly straight seems will not necessarily be appreciated by the target audience. So, have fun!

How to Make a Counting Flowers

Quiet Book Page

Materials:

2.5 yards Pellon Peltex 70 ultra firm stabilizer
Pages of stiffened felt: orange (2), light blue (2), yellow (1), green (1)
Sticky velcro dots from Hobby Lobby 75/pack (2) and 15/pack (1)
Miscellaneous: thread, sharpies

Inspiration:

Serving Pink Lemonade - I used the template from this blog, deviating very little. I modified her instructions in that I didn't fuse the felt pieces onto the pellon; I only sewed them. I don't know if fusing would add stability or some other benefit. With 20 pages to make, I was going for the most streamlined process I could manage! I also wrote the numbers onto the flower petals rather than fusing on felt numbers. Again, with 20 pages, I thought that cutting out the numbers for all those petals (160 in all!) would be prohibitively time consuming.

Assembly:

Cut the Pellon into 20 8.5 X10 sheets.
Trace the individual template pieces (flower petals, stem, flower pot and flower center) onto the stiffened felt and cut out.
Sew flower pot, stem and center of flower onto Pellon. The flower pot functions as a pocket, so leave the top open only sewing around the sides and bottom.
Trace flower petals around flower center with sharpie.
Apply velcro sticky dots to each flower petal (soft side of velcro) and within each traced flower petal (rough side of velcro).
Write numbers 1-8 on each petal6. Voila! Finis!

I didn't document the assembly process but here is a picture of the finished product where you can see all the components.

Lessons learned:
Overall, you can't go very wrong with this (I don't think! I'm open to feedback from the other quiet book swappers who might have critiques of my page!). But it would be ideal to use sew-on velcro as the stick-on kind will not hold up very well long-term. I intend to reinforce mine by hand stitching each one on. Had I had more time (much more time!) and resources, I would have used the sew-on velcro. But as it was, that would have been too time consuming and more expensive than the sticky dots.

Since I live out of town, I didn't get to go to the swap in person but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's work. Here's to (hopefully) many quiet minutes of quiet, well-behaved children exploring their quiet books!

Up Next: ABCs

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Button Flowers

2011-12-12T15:18:00.000-06:00

About Vanessa:
I am Vanessa, married to Will, and mother to Karis (18 months) and baby no. 2 (April 2012). We currently live in Oxford, England, after living in Cambridge for three years. My husband works as a biblical studies scholar and teaches at the University of Oxford. I recently ‘retired’ and will be staying home full-time with my daughter. I love to sew clothes for my daughter and also enjoy traveling throughout Europe. Originally from Dallas, I was thrilled to be able to participate in this swap while spending 3 weeks home for the holidays. I pretty much rely on Pinterest for inspiration- but some of my favorite blogs are Sewing in No Man’s Land, Grosgrain Fabulous, Making It Lovely, and Little Birdie Secrets. I am not incredibly crafty, but love to work with fabric and a needle!

Supplies:

2.5 yards of Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stablizer (cut into 8.5x10in pages)
5 sheets of green stiffened felt, cut into 3”x10” pieces (each sheet leads to 4 rectangles)
80 wool blend felt flower die-cuts in varying colors and shapes (etsy.com 3”, 2”, 1.5” diameters)
3 (yes three!) spools of green thread
Various other threads
Sewing machine that can do button holes and ‘vine stitches’
Buttons in three different sizes (80 total)

Inspiration:
I mostly relied on Pinterest for examples. There are a lot of different variations of this page- but I decided to use four different flowers growing from the grass (as opposed to pot planted flowers). I thought this would be more natural and whimsical. I also thought it would help use the white space of the pellon better.

Page Assembly:

After cutting the pellon into 8.5”x10” pages, I stitched a green rectangle of stiffened felt (3”x10”) on the bottom border only. Doing this first will serve as a guide to using the white space.
Using the button hole feature on my machine, I sewed button-holes on each of the 80 flowers. Afterwards, carefully cut the slit for each flower and trim threads
Next, using a pencil, I marked where I wanted each button/flower to be placed. Using my pencil, I traced down from that point to below where the green felt would lie (remember, this is not stitched on the sides or top yet) with light pencil marks.
Using a wide and thick stitch, I sewed the pencil marked lines for each flower stem.
Next, I sewed on the buttons to the original pencil marked point. Be sure to double your thread and to use a loose stitch so that the thick felt flower can fit behind the button. Also, it will be easier for children to unbutton the flower if the button is loosely applied.
Finish sewing the sides and top of the green ‘grass’ felt. Stitch ½ inch from the top of the felt to leave room to trim grass blades.
Once the grass has been stitched, using scissors, cut blades into the felt.
Button the flowers on the buttons... and Enjoy!

Up Next: Counting Flowers

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Tent & Sleeping Bag Zippers

2011-12-11T10:17:00.000-06:00

About Alissa:

My nameis Alissa. My husband and I haveone daughter who is 15 months old. She is the best little baby! I’m a little biased, but I think its ok since I’m her Mom! My hobbies have gone to the waysidesince I had the baby, but I normally love running, camping/hiking, andreading. I also like papercrafting, photography, and quilting. I am new to the quiet book world, but there are some really great ideasout there! I was so excited to beable to give it a try.

How to Create the Tent & Sleeping Bag Zippers

Quiet Book Page

Supplies:

Etsy(K and C supplies):

25 5inch zippers in multiple colors
25 4inch zippers in multiple colors

HobbyLobby:

3 sheetsstiffened gray felt
2 sheetsstiffened black felt
1 sheeteach stiffened baby blue, yellow, and red felt

JoAnn’sFabrics:

2.5yards Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer (cut into 8.5X10in pages)
1.5yards blue felt for background
Darkblue thread

Walmart:

Light Blueand yellow thread

OnHand:

Airerasable fabric pen
Whitechalk pencil
Quiltingbasting tape
Red,Black, White, and Gray thread
Heatembosser
Papercutter
Rotarycutter and board
Sewingmachine

Inspiration:

I got myidea from the K Leigh Ford Blog and modified it. I love her ideas, but didn’t think Icould do all the details in time for the swap. So I simplified it a little. I did add a zipper on the inside sleeping bag for a littlemore fun for the kids. I wouldhave loved to have added stars in the sky and a little bear inside the sleepingbag!

My Mom and husband helpedguide me along the way since I had never done this before. The baby even got to help test itout. She opened the tent without aproblem. I have to say that I sawthe coolest zipper page on the Imagine Our Life Blog, but with my limitedskills, I definitely didn’t want to take that one on in a month.

PageAssembly:

1. Cut pellonpages (8.5x10 inch) with a rotary cutter.

2. Cutthe blue felt a little larger than the pellon (9X10.25 inch) with the rotarycutter. Center the pellon on theblue felt square and pin. Sew togetherwith the pellon side facing up leaving a 1/8” edge. We used white thread on top with dark blue bobbinthread.

This ishow the background looks when you sew it before you trim it.

3. Oncethe background is sewn, turn the page pellon side up and use a straight edgeand rotary cutter to cut a smooth edge. I left about a 1/16^th inch overlap of blue felt so thebackground would fully cover the pellon.

4. I handdrew the tent and used the paper cutter to make the sleeping bag template. The templates and measurements can bedownloaded as a pdf here.

5. Trace and cut all of the tents andsleeping bags. (It may be easierto use the measurements and a paper cutter for the sleeping bags. I did trace the zipper area on thesleeping bags though.) I used thechalk pencil to trace and cut around the lines to get rid of the chalk.

6.Cut the zippers to the right length and heat seal the edges using anembosser. Use 5 inch zippers forthe tents and 4 inch zippers for the sleeping bags. I measured the zippers each time making the metal stop reachthe top of the space on the tent and sleeping bag.

7. Sew the 4inch zippers to the sleeping bags and 5 inch zippers to the tents. Rather than use pins to hold the piecestogether, we used basting tape. (Make sure not to sew through the tape, the needle gets toosticky.) I used a small piece ofbasting tape at the end of the zipper.

8. Sew the sleeping bags to the background piece. I eyeballed the spacing, but you cansee measurements here: We used matching thread for the top thread and whitebobbin thread to leave the back of the page plain and white. It was easiest to sew both sleeping bagpieces at once. In order from topto bottom: top sleeping bag piece with zipper sewn in, bottom of sleeping bag, darkblue felt, and pellon (already sewn to blue felt). I used basting tape again to keep the bottom of the sleepingbag from slipping sideways.

Note that the sleeping bag is a little off center to allow easier access to thezipper when it is under the tent.

8. Sew the tent over the sleeping bag. I eyeballed this as well, but you canuse the measurements here: Basting tape helpedstabilize the tent while sewing.

9. Cut and sewthe moon to the background. (Forthe template, click here: ) Your zipper page is complete!

Up Next: Button Flowers

Missed a page? Check them out here:

How to Make a Quiet Book: Barn & Finger Puppets

2011-12-10T18:13:00.000-06:00

About Lindsey:

I'm Lindsey, I live in Kentucky with myhusband Alberto and our two boys, Aidan (3 years) and Elian (14months). I graduated from Texas A&M in 2004 and moved to Kentuckyfor an internship. I was a manager at a large horse farm (my firstdream job) but now I am a stay at home mom (my second dream job:-))and my husband is the manager on a local thoroughbred horse farm. Myhobbies are quilting and cooking and hanging out with my sweetfamily!

How to Make a Barn & Finger Puppets

Quiet Book Page

Supplies from Joann's:

stiffened felt inthe following colors: Yellow and White
regular felt :Pink, black and red
sew on velcrodots
Pellon Peltexextra firm craft stiffner

Supplies from Hobby Lobby:

stiffened red felt (the red felt sheets were larger so I could cut 2 barns from each sheet)
feathery arm scrunchy thing ( I couldn't find the packages of feathers so I bought the smallest feather thing I could find!)

Supplies from my stash:

colorful cotton for the animal pocket
soft iron on interfacing- I ironed this on the back of my piggy finger puppets to add some stability to the soft felt.
¼ inch brown ribbed ribbon (for the barn roof)
5/8 inch brown ribbed ribbon ( for the “beam” over the barn door)
clear finger nail polish or Fray Check

Templates:

Most of my ideas came from the ServingPink Lemonade blog, she has all the templates avaliable on her page. However my printer was out of commission when I needed the templatesso I ended up tracing my own templates, using her photos as guides. I free handed the piggy ears, cow spots, and chicken beaks.

Page Assembly:

Cut from pellon, 8 ½ x 10. I used myrotary cutter for this.

Barn:

Cut barn from stiff red felt.
Cut doors- I started from the center,cut up about 5 inches and then to the left and right 3 inches.
Cut 4 white strips 3/8 inch wide by 6inches long from either the stiffened white felt or the scraps fromthe pellon for the x's on the barn doors. Arrange in an x pattern oneach door and sew on doors. Trim off corners to fit barn door.
Cut a 2 ¼ x 5/8 piece of the stiffwhite felt or pellon for the barn latch. Sew one side of the velcroon the latch and sew latch to barn door. Sew the other velcro on theappropriate barn door so it stays closed.
Cut a 3 ½ x 6 ½ inch strip of cottonand hem the long sides to make a 3 x 6 ½ inch strip. Sew three three sides of the strip on the page leaving top open. I eyeballedfor the positioning, the bottom should be placed where the bottom ofthe barn will be so it makes a pocket when the barn doors are open.
Place the barn over the pocket and sewthe sides and above the barn doors. Leave the roof and the bottomloose.
Sew from the top of the door opening tothe bottom to secure the pocket with some extra stitching and toreinforce the opening of the door.
Sew the ¼ inch brown ribbon with azigzag stitch. Seal the ends of the ribbon with clear nail polish orfray check.
Sew the 5/8 inch brown ribbon over thedoors with a single zigzag stitch.

Animals:

Cow:

Cut 2 finger puppet shapes from thestiffened white felt.
Cut 2 ears, one each from the blackand the white.
Iron Steam a Seam on the back on onesheet of black and one sheet of Pink felt. Cut the noses for the pigand the cow from the pink and cut the spots from the black for thecow spots.
Position the ears between the two whitefinger puppet pieces and sew together. Iron the spots and noses onand use a sharpie to draw on the eyes.

Pig:

Iron the soft interfacing on one sideof the pink felt.
Cut 2 finger puppets from the pinkfelt.
Cut 2 pink ears ( I just cut outtriangles)Sandwich the ears between the puppetpieces and sew together.
Iron on pink piggy nose.

Chicken:

(The chicken pictured here was madewith a felt cut out feather, for the others I used feathers- this wasmy first “test” chicken, I like the feathers better but if youare just making one chicken it may be easier to cut the tuft out offelt)

Cut 2 finger puppets from the stiffyellow felt
Cut 2 wings from the same felt
Sandwich the wings and the feather tuftbetween the pieces and sew together.
Iron Steam A Seam on the back of apiece of red felt and cut out the chicken beaks. Iron on face.

Up Next: Tent & Sleeping Bag Zippers

Missed a page? Check them out here:

Playing with Ornaments

2011-12-09T21:26:00.000-06:00

Cannon is slowly discovering the Christmas tree. He hasn't bothered even looking at the ornaments for the first few days, but once I started pointing out a few ornaments that he could touch his interest peaked.

One his favorites? The newest one made in preschool!

Baby Belly #2 - Week 36

2011-12-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

Several note-worthy things happened this week. Some friends from my 2010 Babies Meetup Group threw me a little "sprinkle" for Cason and I walked away with a bundle of disposable diapers. How wonderful!

Nausea has hit again, which basically means it's here for the rest of the pregnancy because my stomach has been crammed up into my throat by this little guy. It's a very odd sensation when you start running out of room to grow a child. You still want to eat a meal, but you literally can't take more than five bites because you have NO ROOM TO PUT IT!

Finally, in addition to Braxton Hicks contractions I started having the low, period-like cramps every so often, which was mildly scary because that's what I had right before I delivered Cannon. So, we're limiting the walking in attempts to keep this kid in until after the holidays.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Seasons Tree

2011-12-09T07:28:00.000-06:00

About Chelsea:

I'm Chelsea and I blog about our family on Grow as a way to document and share our life with others. I have a wonderful husband, Cody, a little boy Chandler (16 months) and little Audrey is expected to arrive early April 2012. We both graduated from Texas A&M and loved College Station so much we never left! I am a former 1st grade teacher and now enjoy being a stay at home mom. Cody works for our church, New Life as well as part time for UPS. We are passionate about Jesus and living to glorify him. In my free time I like to sew, craft, read, garage sale and search for new projects, activities, and recipes on Pinterest!

How to Make the Seasons Tree
Quiet Book Page

Supplies (for 20 pages)

Joann's:

2.5 yards of Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stablizer (cut into 8.5x10in pages)
2 yards of brown felt (which was plenty, its on the large bolts)
green thread to match green felt
2.5 yards of Wonder Under
Air erasable fabric pen (wonderful invention!)

Hobby Lobby:

4 packages of white sticky Velcro dots (75 per pack)
Stiffened felt: green (6), orange (4), red (4), yellow (4)
Soft felt: pink (6) (only because I couldn't find stiffened pink felt)

Walmart:

3 packages of clear sticky Velcro dots (because I couldn't find the clear at Hobby Lobby)

Inspiration:

I loved Serving Pink Lemonade's Season Quiet page. I made a few modifications because she was making two books and obviously I was making 20. She used snaps on her page which I thought was an awesome variation but wasn't able to do because of resources and time, 400 snaps would have been alot of sewing! I ended up using clear velcro for the tree part (that shows in the winter) and white velcro on the back of all the pieces. I also used my own templates for the pieces and added apples with the summer leaves.

Page Assembly:

1. Cut Pellon pages to size (8.5x10 inch pages) with rotary cutter
{ignore my green sewing lines, I forgot to take this until the end}

2. I enlarged tree pattern from Serving Pink Lemonade to best fill our page

3. Trace tree pattern on smooth side of Wonder Under

4. Cut around tree and iron onto brown felt

5. Cut out trees (very carefully)

6. Peel off Wonder Under and iron trees on pellon pages

7. Make template for grass

8. Cut out grass pieces of hard green felt (I cut them into 3 inch strips since the width was 8.5 and then went back and cut the "hill" part)

9. Make templates for pieces

10. Trace pieces (with air erasable marker) on felt and cut out (I did 5 pieces per season like the example)

11. Stick white (fuzzy side) of velcro on all pieces

12. Stick 5 clear velcro dots (rough side) on tree

13. Sew on grass using green thread

14. Put one season's pieces on the tree and the rest in the pocket

Enjoy!

Templates

Tree (Tree template is enlarged from Serving Pink Lemonade. )
Grass
Seasonal pieces

Up Next: Barn & Finger Puppets

Missed a page? Check them out here:

The Quiet Book Cover

Cannon at 17 Months

2011-12-08T22:48:00.000-06:00

(I'm stealing Chelsea's organized little method of reporting on her son each month. So, instead of just random paragraphs, you get categories!)

Clothes:
Cannon's wearing mostly 18 months and 24 months clothing these days, although 24 months pants and long sleeves do need to be rolled up a little bit. He's pretty much in 24 month pjs just because I buy those big to last, and his shoe size is still a 6.

Sleeping:
He was doing GREAT taking one nap a day from around 12:30 - 3:30 pm for about a week. Other than that we've waffled between two short naps a day, one short nap a day and lots of fussiness. I'm a little bit at a loss for what to do.

Eating:
All fruit gets consumed quickly and first thing, as do carbs/starches. Cannon's a little more hesitant when it comes to eating veggies. He'll mostly eat peas, carrots and green beans but won't touch asparagus or broccoli. Meat is much more difficult to get him to try. He'll attempt chicken but avoids any kind of beef, so I usually get him protein through eggs and black beans.

Talking:
Cannon started signing and nodding "yes." He also will shake his head "no" although he has yet to say "no" (which is nice!). He's still repeating everything we say and words that he likes (ie: shoes, apple, snack) are becoming more and more clear to understand. (See complete list of signs/words below.)

New Tricks:
Cannon's getting better at finding me to ask for help instead of just getting frustrated and yelling. He'll often come running down the hall saying "mamamamama" and then lead me to what he wants and nod vigorously when I ask him if he needs help or wants something. I'm loving that he's communicating so much more!

Teeth:
13 total! Cannon started cutting one of his bottom eye teeth this month, so he's working on a little mouthful.

Likes:
Cannon LOVES his Blue Bunny. He asks for him for every nap and bedtime, when he hurts himself, and occasionally just to join him in playing. You can tell Cannon to give Blue Bunny a bite and he'll try to feed him with the spoon. It's very cute.

Dislikes:
He doesn't like to share or be told "no." If he's at all tired he'll yell and sometimes "swat/hit" at you in frustration. We're working on this. :-)

Cannon also doesn't love my frequent visits to the birthing center. He'll sit in my lap or next to me the entire time and most often cry when I'm laying down to hear Cason's heartbeat.

Cannon's Signs:

more (2/18/11)
milk (4/12/11)
all done (7/4/11)
eat (7/31/11)
help (9/23/11)
hurt (9/24/11)
dog (9/30/11)
thank you (10/4/11)
water (10/21/11)
ball (10/27/11)
shoes (10/27/11)
socks (10/28/11)
diaper (11/2/11)
dada (11/7/11)
mama (11/8/11)
sleepy (11/8/11)
up
down
bird
fish
banana
hat
drink
yes (12/1/11)

Cannon's Words:

mama (4/16/11)
dada
ball (ba)
bird (bi)
balloon (ba)
more (moooore)
down (doon)
hot (ha - 11/1/11)
blue bunn (boo boo)
bacon (bubu - 11/13/11)
bless you (ba boo - 11/3/11)
water (wa wa - 12/13/11)

still:living

Looking for some FREE CARDS?!

Letters to Cason: The One Where You Turn One Week Old

Cason Reed has ARRIVED!

Happy Birth Day Cason!

Goals for 2012

Goals 2012: Reading

Favorite Links This Month (December 2011)

3-in-30 Dec/Jan

Our Family This Month (December 2011)

December 2011 Reading List

The Magic of Christmas

Baby Belly #2 - Week 39

Maternity Pictures by Joyful Portraits

Baby Belly #2 - The Danny Stiller Edition

Baby #2 Bucket List UPDATE

Cannon's Kitchen

Minute to Win It: Reeder Christmas Edition

Christmas Morning in the Stiller House

Merry Christmas from the Stillers 2011

Meeting Jesus.

How to Make a Quiet Book: Grand FINALE

Christmas Eve Traditions

How to Make a Quiet Book: Bead Ladder

How to Make a Quiet Book: Road Map (Part 2)

Baby Belly #2 - Week 38

How to Make a Quiet Book: Road Map (Part 1)

How to Make a Quiet Book: Puzzle Pockets

Peekaboo and Baby Signs

How to Make a Quiet Book: Puzzle Page

How to Make a Quiet Book: Shoe Lacing

How to Make a Quiet Book: Clothes & Clothesline

How to Make a Quiet Book: Cloth Doll

And We Have a Winner in the Baby Name Game

How to Make a Quiet Book: Notebook & Crayons

How to Make a Quiet Book: Mailbox

How to Make the MailboxQuiet Book Page

Supplies:

Inspiration:

Page Assembly:

Baby Belly #2 - Week 37

How to Make a Quiet Book: Buckles

Snack Time in the Stiller House

How to Make a Quiet Book: Gum Ball Counting

Preschool: Christmas Month (Week 2)

How to Make a Quiet Book: ABCs/Alphabet Page

How to Make a Quiet Book: Counting Flowers

How to Make a Quiet Book: Button Flowers

How to Make a Quiet Book: Tent & Sleeping Bag Zippers

How to Make a Quiet Book: Barn & Finger Puppets

Playing with Ornaments

Baby Belly #2 - Week 36

How to Make a Quiet Book: Seasons Tree

Cannon at 17 Months

How to Make the Mailbox
Quiet Book Page