“Hand” Made Gifts

My sister Rachael e-mailed me a picture of Baby Porters Nursery a couple of months ago so I got to see the color scheme and sailboat theme that he has going on.  It is very tasteful and I love sailboats.  They remind me of home and of my Dad.  Seeing the picture allowed me to head to the fabric store to gather materials for his gifts that I spent several snow days and a lonely Friday night making.  (Actually, I’m never lonely, but Rick and I spent Saturday night together that weekend for whatever reason).  There were several other store bought gifts to send as well…none of them clothes since through the grapevine I gather he’s well covered in that department.  I had a wonderful time putting his box together partly because I wasn’t under the same stress as I am with having my own babies.  I’m still busy but not as busy and tired as a brand new Mom.  Sadly his box sat here for two weeks waiting for the 10 minute job of stitching two eyes onto his final gift but I finally got the box in the mail.  My youngest two enjoyed modeling the hand made gifts we sent.

This is a rag quilt.  Porter already has a quilted quilt for his bed and this is nice to add for warmth or for taking with him on the go.  It is flannel and cottony soft.  I think the dots are kind of like bubbles and go with his sheets.  The boats and sea creatures go along with the sail boats on his quilt.  The brown goes with the sheets and the wood of his crib.

I have wanted to make one of these for several of my children but have never gotten to it.  These quilts are not hard to make and I have squares all cut out to make Nathan one.  I need to sit myself down and finish the job but for now I am glad that Porter has his.  I wish I could be there to cuddle him in it but his Mommy will take care of that.

   I had to snap this quick…Nathan thought it was silly to wear a towel when he wasn’t all wet.  This is a ducky towel made from directions off of Martha Stewart Kids which I found about 7 years ago or so.  They are nowhere to be found on line anymore so I went digging in my box of patterns and found that I had thankfully saved the cutouts in a ziploc and I remember the directions…not hard.  I like this towel because it is more absorbent than purchased infant towels (you cut down a regular sized towel for this project) AND it is super cute.  You can’t see here but the towel has little orange webbed feet that match the beak as well.  When Porter gets bigger and walks with his towel around him the little feet will hang down right by his own feet in the back.  A friend made us a ducky towel and a bunny towel for Tristan’s baby shower and they are now being used for child number 3.  They are both well worn and are sometimes fought over even.  I thought they were some of the best gifts and cutest towels ever.  They take a long time to outgrow and are good for a boy or a girl.  I so wish I’d been able to go to Porter’s baby shower and am sad that I live so far away.

Now that Porter has his gifts from us, we hope he enjoys all of them and that they will be useful and/or fun for a long time.  Welcome to our family.  Happy Birthday!