Crocheted Baby Blankets I've made

Today, I wanted to share with you the few baby blankets I've made for family & friends. Most recently, I made on for my sister's baby shower. Her & her husband want the gender of the baby to be a surprise, so they've chosen the nursery colors to be brown & sage green. I found this sweet pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn website, and thought it was perfect for her!


I chose to make a few changes to the pattern just to make it a bit more personal. I really wanted a chocolate brown yarn, so used the Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Baby yarn in Chocolate Cake & Sweet Pea. Another change I made was making the blanket 5x5 granny squares, instead of 7x7. If I had done the 7x7 the blanket would have been too big for a baby in my opinion. My last change was the border. The pattern calls for just a single stitch brown border around the blanket, but that just wasn't enough for my future neice/nephew. I think my border looks much better!


That seems plenty big for a baby blanket! And this yarn is sooooooo soft! I have a pattern I've picked out for my sister-in-laws daughter who will be one in April that uses this same yarn! I can't wait to get started on it!

Here's a look at the booties and blanket that I made for my cousin who had a baby boy. The pattern for the booties came from a book I bought years ago, and these were the first pair of booties I have ever made! They turned out pretty darn cute!




Again, I found the pattern for the blanket on the Lion Brand website. I really liked the style and wanted to try it out. I followed the pattern exactly except for the yarn choice. I used Lion Brand's Pound of Love yarn in Pastel Blue & Pastel Green. The look is meant to resemble tweed. I thought these two colors together turned out great!

This baby blanket I'm REALLY proud of because it's my own design! It's not real over the top, but it was perfect for a friend's little boy. Again I used Lion Brand's Pound of Love yarn in Pastel Blue, Pastel Green, & Pastel Yellow.


Here's a close up of the border. I thought it looked kind of like train tracks which is great for a little boy! My hubby also liked this border, and thinks I should do this border more often.


The next blanket was made for the same friend's little girl. I found this yarn at Walmart, & it was too soft to resist! I followed the pattern that was on the wrapper around the yarn, but you can also found it here on the Bernat website. The yarn was Baby Boucle in White & Dust of Pink.



I didn't like the border in the pattern (that seems to happen a lot), so I did my own. However, I can't remember exactly how I did this border. I wanted the border to look like a ruffle, and I tried about 3-4 borders before I went with this one. I think it turned out great! Plus, I've got enough yarn to make another one or try out the tweed pattern using this yarn!



My current crochet projects are making some booties for my sister & finishing a blanket for my daughter then I will get started on my neice's blanket. I'm also looking at more baby blanket patterns because my sister-in-law is expecting her 2nd baby in July! So exciting! If they have a boy, I've got a pattern already picked out! Thanks for stopping by!

~Davina

Days #13 and 6

Continuing with the 21 Days to Organized Challenge, Day #13 is Medicine Cabinets! Unlucky for me, I have two of them. Lucky for me they weren't too bad, but still needed to be done. Here's the before pic of the guest/kiddo bathroom medicine cabinet:


And here's the before of the master bathroom medicine cabinet:


Love how band-aids have to be in both bathrooms, & sadly I'm the one who uses them the most (yes, I've even used the Dora the Explorer band-aids). I cleared out each shelf & cleaned them. Checked for expiration dates on medicines & threw out any that were past their prime. In the guest/kiddo bathroom medicine cabinet I made the top shelve medicine related, the middle shelf bath & body, and the bottom shelf has toothbrush, toothpaste & syringes used to give medicine. Here's the after pic of the guest/kiddo bathroom medicine cabinet:


There isn't a whole lot of difference, but just tossing a few meds & reorganizing has made all the difference in the world!

For the master bathroom medicine cabinet, I did the same clearing & cleaning process. Then began the reorganizing. I made the top shelf for the hubby, middle shelf for me (yes, I got the taller area), and the bottom for what wouldn't fit on our shelves. I also threw out any products that I hadn't used in over a year or were dried out. Here's the after pic of the master bathroom medicine cabinet:


It's nice to see like items near each other. Now for catching up on the challenge with Day #6 Dresser Drawers. I did my daughter's dresser drawers because the master dresser drawers are pretty organized, and I felt a little uncomfortable about taking pics of my undies drawer. I do plan on going thru the undies & sock drawer to do some purging though. Here's the before pic of the top drawer of my daughter's dresser:


Before pic of the middle drawer of her dresser:

Love those helping hands!

And the bottom drawer of her dresser:

. . .more helping hands! LOVE IT!

For each drawer, I cleared it out & cleaned it out, & then I set out to reorganize them. The top drawer is below the diaper changing station, so it houses all supplies except diapers. This will later be her underwear drawer as we get into the process of potty training. Here's the after pic of the top drawer:


The middle drawer is a storage for her crib sheets and decorative items that I haven't placed yet. Here's the after pic of the middle drawer:


The bottom drawer is socks, which I will admit are just thrown in there by me. I did go thru and organize by colors. Here's the after pic of the bottom drawer:



Thanks for stopping by! I hope to get to my linen/pantry/coat closet tomorrow, plus I'll be posting pics of the baby blanket that I made for my sister's baby shower along with pics of other blankets I've made.

~Davina

Days #10, 11 and 12

I've been away from the 21 Days to Organize Challenge due to trying to finish crocheting a baby blanket for my sister's baby shower this Saturday. Since her shower is like 1800+ miles away, I had to have it done & mailed in time. Thankfully, it made it just in time! Didn't get the baby booties done, but she's got another shower in February. And I will be posting pics of the blanket & other blankets I've made on Sunday. I also had to get Valentine's Day & St. Patricks Day hair bows posted to my Etsy shop, which you can check out here.

Today, I did Challenge Days #10, 11 & 12.Here's Day #10--the Laundry Room/Closet which at this home is also Toy Jail. What's Toy Jail you ask? When my sweet little girl decides to not be so sweet & whacks the dog with her toys, I take them away, and put them in toy jail. My intent is to leave them there for 1 day, but that usually turns in to 1 week. The toy stroller seems to always be in jail due to chasing the dog & running over his paws, & this judge is deny it's bail. So, here's the before pics.

The laundry station before:

The Toy Jail/storage:

The space behind the door:

I didn't feel like my laundry room was too bad, but it still needed some organizing & a good sweep. For the laundry station, I just reorganized a few things, & found a roll of paper towels that fell behind the bakers rack. SCORE! Here's the after pic:

The Toy Jail area got the most reorganization. If I were to add anything to this room, it would be a shelf to put the tools & cat carrier on and maybe a few extra supplies. That way it's not all on the floor. Okay, that settles it a shelf is being added to the shopping list. Here's the toy jail/storage after pic:

I didn't take a before pic of the kitty area, but here is an after pic. I keep the bags that I get from produce to do kitty duty, & the grocery bags that I store in the old litter container are for doggy duty.

Now on to Day #11--The Freezer. Here's my before pic:

Freezer door before pic:

Okay, so I don't have much in my freezer, but what I did seem to have a lot of was bread heels. I've been saving them for the summertime to feed ducks & geese at the local parks, but after cleaning out the freezer I realized I had too many. So I saved 1 bag of heels. The other bags of bread are full loafs for sandwiches. Here's the after pic:

Freezer door after pic:

Here's Day #12--The Spice Cabinet! I'm so glad this was on the challenge because I've cluttered up my spice cabinet, and have had a few fall on my head when trying to get something out of there. Here's the before pic:

The after pic doesn't look much different, but I assure you that I cleaned it out & even threw away some things! Here's the after pic: (It looks a little neater, right?)


Well, that's all for now. I will be continuing to catch up on my organizing. Thankfully my linen closet/pantry/coat closet are one in the same. And don't forget to check out A Bowl Full of Lemons!

~Davina

Day #5--Under the Kitchen Sink (wait where's #4)

So, I haven't done Day #4 (Linen Closet) yet, but I plan on doing it on Sunday. My linen closet is also a pantry/coat closet/storage closet, so it needs a lot of love. Sunday is the soonest I can give it that love, so don't think I'm putting it off. Note: I have put it off for like almost a year now, & I'm super happy to see it on the Challenge because now I have no excuses. . .so Sunday will be the day for that.

Now, on to Day #5--Under the Kitchen Sink which is an area I didn't think was that untidy. . .until I took the picture. Here's the before pic:


Pretty untidy! I also noticed how things in the back are just thrown in there! What was I thinking! So, I took everything out and found one empty container (what the heck!). I found other homes for things that were not being used or were just too bulky to be under the sink. Cleaned the area, and re-organized everything that would be staying down there. I have all my go to cleaners in the big basket and grouped like items together. I'm thinking of getting a small basket for the scrub brush & sponge, but that will be at a later date. Here's the after:


Much better! Now things look like they have a place instead of just being thrown in there. Thanks for stopping by, and check out more challenges at A Bowl Full of Lemons.

~Davina

Day #3--Tub Drawer

Day # 3 of the 21 Days to getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons is the Tuppaware Cabinet. Well, I keep the tubs in a cabinet, and that stays nice & tidy; however, the drawer that I store the lids in is a whole other story! It short, it's a hot mess! The lid drawer is full of lids, sippy cups, straws, & snack bowls for the little one.

See, HOT MESS!


I started by emptying the entire drawer out, to discover that there were a lot of lids that didn't have a partner so to the trash can they went. Also, the bottom of the drawer was d-i-r-t-y! So, cleaning it was next. Then on to peace, harmony & organization!

TA-DA!


Lids are stack neatly. Most used sippy cups in front with space for the 2 that are in the dishwasher or currently being used. Least used sippy cups in back. I'm really glad I cleaned this drawer! It used to be so full that lids & cups would fall back behind the drawer making it hard to close the drawer. I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem anymore! I'm even thinking of moving the snack bowls & straws to another spot. Thanks again Toni for another great day of organizing!

~Davina

Day #2--Top of the Desk

Day #2 of the 21 Days to getting Organized hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons: top of the desk.

Okay, well I was so excited by how my junk drawer looked that I organized my entire desk/file cabinet minus the drawer with the files. That drawer will hopefully be tackled on Wednesday. I was also so excited that I failed to take before pictures.

Here's an after pic of the top of the desk.


I have since organized it more. I narrowed down the notepads to one, and made a new spot for the chore cards & recipes cards that I need to work on/update/test out. The day planner is usually in my purse, but I have it out in this pic to update the calendar for my Mobile Command Center. This area used to have notebooks, expired grocery store ads, coupons, mail, etc. Now, all that stuff is trashed, put away or organized in the Mobile Command Center.

I even cleaned up the side of the desk which also was a pile of expired grocery store ads & coupons. Now, it's paper for the printer, my past Mary Kay catalogs, my idea book & address book. The black binder is my budget binder. Again, sorry no before pics, but I promise you this was a mess! When the pile on the desk went overflowing it would land here.


Here's the top of the filing cabinet, & there's the Mobile Command Center (only thing missing is the calendar which is now on there)! Love it! Such a great idea from Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons. This area was a pile for notecards & CDs. The camcorder isn't staying in this spot. I only have it here to remind me to get the Christmas photos/videos off of it & on to the computer.


Here's the top drawer of the filing cabinet which usually looks like this. The only "junky" part about it was that I used to just put all our bills in here, but now those are in the To Pay folder in the Mobile Command Center. Have a mentioned that Mobile Command Center enough? Well, it just goes to show you how much I LOVE it! Very handy! Mail, bills, papers, coupons, grocery store ads all in one spot! This momma likes that! A LOT!!!!!


Thank you again to Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons for hosting this Challenge. I'm having a lot of fun with this & can't wait for tomorrow!


~Davina

Challenge Day #1--Junk Drawer

Ok, so not only am I late to the 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons, but I'm also SUPER behind on updating this blog! What I hope to achieve with this challenge is an organized home (new year's resolution #1) and keep me motivated to update my blog with my organizing progress, craftiness & family doings.

So, baby step #1 is to tackle the junk drawer! EEK! Mine happens to be the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet where I have all the papers that need to be shredded, a collection of notecards, file folders, banking ledgers, etc. Here's a before pic of the top layer (notecards, file folders, ledgers).

And here's the second layer of junk which is papers that needed to be shredded years ago.

I don't have a shredder, but my area Sam's Club holds a Shredathon twice a year. Sadly, despite my efforts to put the date on 3 calendars, I have missed those days. But, not this year!!!! April 30th is the big day, and I WILL not forget it this year! I'm setting a reminder in my phone this time!

So here's what I did. I emptied this entire drawer out. Went thru the 'To Be Shredded' pile and put those papers in a box to be labeled 'Shredathon April 30th'. I put the Christmas cards that I never mailed out (or even took out of the box) in the Christmas storage box to be used next year. Organized most of my notecards into a cute orange basket I had on hand. I used the box the file folders come in to hold the file folders, ledgers, computer CDs, & larger boxes of notecards.

Here's a pic that shows more of the back of the drawer.

And here's a pic that shows the whole drawer. I feel so much better about this drawer now!

And I've made a promise to myself to stop just throwing stuff in it.

This challenge was too much fun, and has gotten me pumped to clean off the top of my filing cabinet which I will be putting the Mobile Command Center on! Many thanks to A Bowl Full of Lemons for getting me started on the right organizing foot for 2011!

~Davina