Pin #16 Baby Blanket

Inspiration Pin

 

 picture from mamastellato.com

I've always wanted to make one of these soft and fuzzy blankets as a baby present. My friend just had a baby boy and so I decided to try one out using Mama Stellato's awesome tutorial that I found on Pinterest. 

  Here is the blanket mid-project. This is my sewing spot and I am in love it! I didn't have one in our last home and always had my stuff spread across the kitchen for days. Now I can leave a project on my machine for days and no one it doesn't bug anyone but me. My sewing machine is still broken and so my Mom was nice enough to let me borrow hers for a week. I am hoping to get that machine fixed this week, and then I am going to baby and love it so it never breaks again. It isn't cheap to get them fixed!

Here's the finished blanket:

 

 I used flannel for the front, unlike Mama Stellato who used a cotton fabric, but I think it turned out cute. I am excited to do more of these in the future. They are pretty easy and I love how soft that polka dot fabric is for a little baby.

On a side note...I actually started this blanket back in November and I originally planned to use this warm comfy brown fabric for the backing:

 As wonderful as this fabric feels, it was a BEAST to work with. I even assembled the blanket and was at the point where I was going to sew the border when I noticed trouble with my machine. The stitches started to look wrong and regardless of what I tried to do with the tension, the stitches looked off. So at that point, I decided to pick out the crazy seams that I had sown and go to my Mom's to use her machine. Of course, as I started to pick the stitches I ripped the brown fabric and as hard as I tried, it refused to be fixed. You can see how fragile it is and the tears along the edge of the fabric in this picture. Anyway, I finally gave up and went back to JoAnn's to get the brown polka dot material that is used in the tutorial. I knew I should have just done that from the beginning!!!  I blame my broken machine on this fabric, but the truth is that I probably needed to get it serviced anyway. 

Pin #15 Balloon Experiment

Inspiration Pin

We've only done one or two science experiments at home but my kids keep insisting that they are now scientists and need to study things. So, this morning I told J and A that we were going to do a science experiment this afternoon. Lucky for me there are tons of toddler science related pins on Pinterest, and so I just searched around until I found one that was quick and easy. Here's what we needed:

 

  1empty bottle

vinegar

baking soda

1 balloon

1/2 cup of water

 The first step is to mix some baking soda in the water and show the kids that nothing happens. Not a very exciting step, but the instructions said to do it and so we did.

Next, we mixed some vinegar and baking soda in the measuring cup. This had a much more exciting reaction. At this point, I tried to explain about gases and how they can fill containers even though we can't really see the gas. The kids got bored and I confused myself, so we moved on.

Finally, I added vinegar to the bottle, poured in some baking soda, and quickly put the balloon over the lip of the bottle. The balloon started to inflate which was pretty cool. I think I got more baking soda on the table than in the bottle but overall it was a quick and fun experiment and the kids really liked it. 

P.S. Yes, Jack is wearing his Darth Vader costume AGAIN. And yes, Anna is wearing a slip as a tutu. It's her favorite dancing outfit. I promise we did get dressed and leave the house today!