3 Months

How about those itty bitty feet to get you into baby love mode?!  Yep, I'm back with another instalment of Co-pilot's monthly baby photo project.

Click here to see the other months

I had such a hard time choosing just a few (7!) to share with y'all.  Co-pilot did so well when we took his monthly photo that I probably have over a hundred that I took during the shoot.  Since his 3 month photo was in January I made a small sign with 2013 on it for the new year.  I didn't use any special backdrops.  Just our living room sofa.  There was a lot of sun that day and since our sofa is in front of the window, I had a lot of backlight to deal with.

So here is the onesie picture:

And the baby milestones photo:

Can you believe how big he looks for just 3 months-old?!  I have had dreams that he started walking.  I guess I am subconsciously thinking that he is older than 3 months.  He is almost fitting into the clothes Little Pilot wore at 12 months.

Oh, but isn't he SO sweet? :)

If you read the comments in my milestones photo above, Co-pilot is a really happy baby pretty much all the time.  He only gets this mad cry when he is hungry and I am not fast enough to get him on the breast.

Co-pilot's arms and legs were moving non-stop when I was taking these pictures.  I got some pretty fun poses.  Here he looks like he's conducting (maybe he's already letting me now who's in charge). :) 

On a side note, Tech Guy also downloaded a trial of the photoshop elements 11 for me, which means I'll finally be able to use some actions (you couldn't do that with PSE10).  I may revisit some of these photos for some fun editing later once I actually learn how to edit photos! :)  Anyone have any suggestions for a good place to start to learn how to use actions?  

Oh no!  I almost forgot this close up.  

Napkin Pillow and Den Sneak Peek

  

This past weekend I finally got around to using my sewing machine again (yay!).  It hasn't had any use since Co-pilot was born.  I made a pillow cover for Tech Guy's den.  I think it was another procrastination from getting to all that paper organizing (you can read about my other procrastination here). :) 

The pillow I made is the orange, Marimekko lumimarja fabric one below.

The pillow was made using two napkins that I picked up from Crate and Barrel after Thanksgiving.

Crate and Barrel Lumimarja Orange Napkin

They were just the right size for a 20" x 20" pillow, which made this project easy peasy (no cutting).  I even had an invisible zipper in my sewing stash.  Tech Guy was SO happy that he didn't have to take me to the dreaded Fabricland.  I sewed my pillow cover with an invisible zipper closure.  There are many tutorials out there on how to do this.  If you're looking for a tutorial, this one is pretty good and detailed.                          

The new pillow sits on this brown vintage, mid century modern couch that we picked up from one of our neighbours when they were moving (technically from the side of the road since they were throwing it out).  It was in good condition and the perfect size for Tech Guy's small den.  I haven't really given a tour of his den yet mostly because it is largely undecorated.  We are working on it, but here you can have a small sneak peek of one wall of the room.  I am planning to incorporate lots of blues and some orange into the colour scheme.  I'm not sure if the Monet painting is going to stay or be replaced by something different.  We'll see.  The longer print on the back wall is a listing of the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.) which is great for our plane-loving family. :)  Sorry that the photo doesn't show the details that well (I needed to increase my depth of field/f-stop...I think).  We have plans for a mixed media gallery wall above the teak unit as well.

Here's another picture of the pillow.  The trellis pillow was purchased at HomeSense and is by Tommy Bahama (in case, anyone was wondering). :)

Has anyone else pulled out their sewing machine lately?  I'd love to see what you've created.  Have a great day!

sharing with:  home storiesatoz, sundayshowcase, 36th ave, shabby nest, inspiration gallery, tatertots&jello

They Pull My Heart Strings

One of the great things about having kids is that you have an excuse to do some cheesy crafts you normally wouldn't do.  I want Little Pilot and Co-pilot to remember that I was the mom that tried to make holidays fun for them.  So for Valentine's day we made an airplane-themed Valentine's garland.

The idea came from the saying "You pull my Heart Strings".  The two airplanes are my two boys and they are pulling a string of hearts on a doily garland.  There's a little heart and a bigger heart on each doily to represent baby and big brother.  I know that's a little sappy, but I think the airplanes help make this Valentine's craft a little more boy-oriented :).

Below you can see our simple fireplace.  It has the garland we made and one of the peppermint candy wreaths that I made for Christmas resting casually on the mantle.  Of course, we continued with our twinkle light baby proof fireplace as well :).  

This was a great toddler craft in that Little Pilot was able to do most of it himself.  I cut out the airplane shapes and baby hearts out of sparkly card stock.  The bigger hearts were cut out of leftover Marimekko wrapping paper.  Hey, maybe this garland isn't that cheesy after all!  It even has some Finnish mod design going on! :)  Little Pilot was right into all of it:  folding the doilies, gluing them closed around a ribbon and gluing on the hearts.  Pappa was there to coach Little Pilot on how to push the hearts down onto the doilies (pounding them with your fist like a real man?!).  Little Pilot still goes up to the now hung garland and pushes the hearts saying, "pus" (he has started to use more English words now, but pronounces them with a Finnish accent) :).

Co-Pilot was content to watch from Mummu's lap.  This is a picture I took of him after we put the garland up.  Little Pilot says that the airplane on the right is Co-pilot's.  Isn't he nice to let his little brother be in front?

Below are some more pictures of the details.  You may have noticed by now that I tend to overload y'all with pictures!

I hope you liked our Valentine's craft.  

sharing with:  36th ave, the inspiration gallery, chic on a shoestring, shabby nest, whipperberry, tatertots&jello, iheartnaptime, Sunday Showcase, homestoriesatoz, lil'luna

A Mini Mudroom Procrastination

We have a few reno projects in the works for 2013.  The main one being our basement.  We were forced to gut it and redo all the plumbing when our sewage pipe backed up on us last summer.  Yes, eeewww, SO disgusting!  Being very pregnant at the time, I did not take it very well.  So the basement right now stands as a big gutted mess.  My brother-in-law helped Tech Guy start framing the Sauna and bathroom over Christmas, but that's as far as we've gotten.  I hope to finish drawing out a plan soon to share with y'all.

Another big goal for us is to get Tech Guy's den fully organized so that he can get a better system for his business paperwork.  His den is next to our front entry and had begun to be a dumping ground for all of the baby/toddler gear that comes/goes in and out.  So the first step to helping clean the den out was to figure out another place for all that gear.  That's where this next project blossomed from.  We needed a mudroom badly!!!  We don't have one of course, but we do have a door to the back that has an teeny tiny bit of space at the landing.  I decided that maybe we could maximize this space to contain some of the gear.  

Here is our back entry before:

It is a few steps down from our kitchen and has stairs that lead to the basement on the left.  This is where we let Nalle out and feed him.  It's actually a lot neater in these pictures than it usually is, but you can see we have all sorts of random junk happening in there:  extra kitchen cupboards stacked, clothespins, paint, toys, a vase, mismatched dog bowls, etc.  You've also gotta love the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.  I'm guessing it must have had a glass globe on it at somepoint.  So to get to cleaning out that den procrastinate from doing paperwork, I decided to make a little mood board of what I would like to do in our mini mudroom.  The plan is to continue with our overall house decor with simple and clean style.  This mood board shows some of the things I would love for our house.

 1.  I absolutely love these The Dots Coat Hooks from Muuto.  I'm not sure if I will splurge on these or try and make some myself have Tech Guy make some for me.

2.  I want to add a little touch of the turquoise that we have on our kitchen backsplash (I haven't shared our kitchen reno yet, but you can see the backsplash in this post).  It will likely be via a fabric like this Imperial Trellis toss cushion.  Since the mudroom is visible from the kitchen, I think this will help tie the two spaces together.

3.  Tech Guy really loves the industrial exposed hanging bulb and this E27 Pendant Lamp from Muuto comes in a ton of fun colours.  I think this might be something easy to DIY with a little spray paint.

4.  I want to make a floating bench (image from here) so that I can put Nalle's bowls and our shoes under it freeing up the floor space.  We're building it out of some oak veneer and staining it to match our hardwood floors.

5.  I really heart these woven felt baskets. For some reason they have a Scandinavian modern look to me.  They will go up on the top shelf.

6.  I have always wanted a metal boot tray.  I found the one pictured above here.

Those are some of the ideas I have for our mini mudroom.  We'll see how long it takes for us to get to all of it.  The boys are napping at different times at the moment which leaves us with like a second of free time.

Along with the basement, den and mini mudroom, I am hoping to get to the boys' shared room, our living room fireplace (built-ins or something) and when Spring arrives a play house for Little Pilot and Co-Pilot as well as some landscaping.   I think these projects will keep us busy.  We'll have to see how many we actually get to this year. :)

Anyone else have some fun projects planned for this year?  Is anyone also procrastinating with mood boards or other musings?  

sharing this at: The Sunday Showcase, Home Stories atoz, chic on a shoestring, shabby nest, whipperberry, tatertots&jello, iheartnaptime

Love at First Skate

Skating is a pretty big deal at our house.  When I was younger I spent countless hours on the ice figure skating (you may have guessed this if you saw this post).  I even continued competing while I was in graduate school.  So, naturally, I was super excited to get Little Pilot his first pair of skates and even more so to show y'all his first time trying them out.

Here's how our family headed for the local outdoor rink that is within walking distance from our house (sweet!).  Little Pilot was excited to get his skates on, Co-pilot slept nicely in his Bugaboo Donkey and Nalle was only concerned about visiting all the new people (hence, you can only see his tail end in this photo).  Mummu and Pappa also braved the cold to come witness this very important milestone and helped us get some pictures (kiitos!).


It was a super sunny, but cold day.  Here is Little Pilot sitting very nicely while Daddy put on his skates.  He really must have been excited to get on the ice and/or happy to watch the skaters on the ice.

Here is the happy skater.  Sorry, that I'm not looking at the camera, but this was the best picture of Little Pilot smiling.  Little Pilot usually has on a serious face when he likes something or tries something new. So this happy face must have meant he loved it!  Maybe, I'm looking down to avoid the pain in my feet.  After having two babies my feet have stretched quite a bit and my feet were pretty squished in those skates (think the evil step sisters trying on Cinderella's glass slipper - ouch!).

I think Tech Guy and my backs were pretty sore from holding up a 26 month-old for about an hour of skating.

We let Little Pilot fall a couple times to try and work on getting up.  He didn't quite master it and preferred to scootch on his bottom. :)  Overall, he did really well and was even able to stand up on the ice for a few seconds.  A good tip to help first time skaters to learn to start moving on the ice is to pick up their feet (I told Little Pilot to march).  This worked well and helped Mommy not have to do all the work holding him up (my back was grateful).

Little Pilot loved watching the Zamboni clear the ice!

 Once he got off the ice, he did a happy dance (running in circles around Nalle).

They also had this fun sleigh near the rink.  Nalle gave Little Pilot a ride. :)

Overall, Little Pilot's first skate was great fun for the whole family - love at first skate!  

I wonder if we can get Co-Pilot on skates next year?

Coca-Cola Toy Crate

This is a long overdue post about one of the projects seen in Little Pilot's nursery update.  

We picked up this Coca-Cola crate quite a few years back at a yard sale.  I initially used it in my kitchen to house spices, but it was hidden away in a cupboard.  I thought it would be much more fun to have it out in the open and it worked perfectly for small toy storage.  Currently, it has Little Pilot's blocks in it, but I think it could hold any kind of little toys (Legos, dinky cars, etc.).  This was also a super easy project in that we only had to screw on four casters to the bottom.  It now glides really well and Little Pilot even takes it for a spin around the house sometimes :).  Plus, there's no worry of those metal corners scratching the floors (Nalle does that a plenty already).

Here you can see more of the details.  Aren't vintage things so much more fun than new? 

This project was so easy peasy that even one year-old, Little Pilot, was able to help, sort of :).  This photo was from last year.  Look at how small he was!

This final picture is from Little Pilot's nursery last year.  You can see that the crate fits perfectly under his change table.  This room is actually in flux right now as Little Pilot and Co-pilot have started to share a room.  We still have to change this room from a nursery to a shared room. Hopefully, I will be able to get to that project soon! 

To see more of our DIY nursery you can click here.

linking to: iheartnaptime, it's overflowing, underthetableanddreaming, homestoriesatoz, house of hepworths, shabby nest, tatertots and jello

2 Months

I'm back with Co-pilot's  2 month photo as part of my monthly baby photo project.  

(read more about the project here and see all the photos so far here)

Since the second month photo was in December there is a little bit of a Christmas theme going on.  Co-pilot is wearing Little Pilot's old Santa hat and the backdrop is a Marimekko Lumimarja curtain panel I made for our dining room (hey, you've gotta use what you've got around the house) :).
So here is the first picture for the project.  I love having the option to write down a few notes on his development.

Here is the 2 month onesie.

Here are some other photos I took as well.  I attempted to have twinkle lights in the background, but it was pretty much a fail.  They kept falling down and by the time I got any photos taken Co-Pilot was ready to sleep - oh dear!

Here's another photo where I was being artistic made a mistake with the camera settings.  I think the photo kind of looks pretty neat overexposed like this.

One more photo just for fun. :)

Has anyone else tried a monthly baby photo?  Please share your ideas. I'd love to see what you did.

Airplane Custom Bokeh

I am so excited about this project.  It is custom bokeh.   It was super easy and fun.  I decided to make my bokeh into airplane shapes as I have a house full of airplane loving boys.  Even Nalle has started carrying around airplanes in his mouth :).

So how did I get the lights in Nalle's photo to look like airplanes?  Read on to find out...

You will be making a hood for your lens.  Below is what you will need:  black card stock, scissors, craft punch (mine is the airplane one that I used to make cupcake topper for Little Pilot's first birthday), tape and lens with a low aperture (mine is the Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4 f Gs).

Co-pilot watched this process very carefully :).

 First you will need to cut a strip of card stock to fit around your lens and secure it with tape.

Remove the ring from your lens and then use this ring or the the hood from your lens to trace a circle on another piece of card stock.

Because my hole punch didn't reach the centre of my circle, I cut a square in the middle of the card stock circle.  I then cut a square to fit over and punched it with my airplane shape.

Now you're ready to assemble...  Tape/glue the airplane punched square on top of the card stock circle and then attach the circle to your ring with more tape.  I taped everything from behind so that it would look nicer for the photo :).  It will look something like this once it is assembled and placed onto your lens.

Now I bet you can't wait to see what kind of pictures I got, right?  I know I couldn't! :)

I have a couple pictures of both boys looking pretty well into the camera here.  I think the airplanes look a little better in Co-Pilot's picture (I think it had to do with the distance that the subject was from the lights).

This picture doesn't show the airplanes that well, but it does show how Little Pilot loves his little brother.  We have to remind him to be gentle sometimes :).  Also if anyone has tips on how or whether it is possible to get both boys in focus with a really low f-stop it would be much appreciated.  I'm still learning. :)

I also made a fun collage with Little Pilot playing with a plane he got for Christmas. You can see more of the airplane bokeh in the pictures.  I also love all the different expressions we got.  Little Pilot came down with a cold and fever that night and I can now see that he looks a little pale and flushed in some of the pictures (probably starting to feel not so well :( .

Lastly, we have Nalle with some airplanes that look like they're flying out of his fur and making it stick up in the process!

If you decide to try this photography project, I hope you have as much fun as I did!  I'd also love to see how your pictures turn out (leave a comment and/or link) :).

linking with: T&J, iheartnaptime, simpleasthat, home stories atoz