my home makes me happy. take two.

Remember a while back when I said (like a real blogging professional) that I was going to start a series?  Well, I didn't forget.  I meant what I said and I said what I meant.  (Thanks, Horton.)  

 

So, a while back, my mom did a really great thing for me.  She thought it was ridiculous that Tillie didn't have a real "bedspread" and proceeded to make her bedding for her big girl bed.  Well, luckily for us, we know some girls who designed some fabric.  And, they had a little bit leftover. 

One thing that Becca and I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about was how loud each of the fabrics are.  It is great that they can hold their own, but when you put all of them right next to each other without a little planning---well, it can get a little overwhelming for the eye.  My mom was wondering how I wanted it to look, and I found a great quilt online that I wanted her to replicate (check out her blog and you'll be amazed at how lovely quilts can be).  It's perfect to let your eye rest in between our fabrics. 

(by and by, it's really hard to photograph a big quilt. sorry the pictures are kind of funky)

Anyway, this is the nap quilt (pictures of the bedspread will happen someday.  I decided to pull everything off of Tillie's walls and wanted to redo it all---so when it's put back together, you'll get the full effect.).  I love this little quilt so much that I have it in the front room on our recliner.  It makes me glad every time I see it.  

*Also, my mom did this with an cool method where she cut out the patterned pieces, and then, instead of pinning, she used ELMER'S GLUE to stick them where she wanted.   BRILLIANT! The glue then is washed away as soon as you wash it in your washing machine.  So, she was able to quilt it with out being bugged by a million pins.  She heard about that technique at a quilt retreat she went to this summer and I think it is so cool. Thought I should add that little tidbit. 

**Wow, another edit.  Becca wanted me to make sure I gave credit where it's due.  Apparently, SHE was the one to physically glue down every single patterned square.  It was long and tedious---and really, a labor of love.  She also helped convince my mom to stay with the original pattern I wanted and not squish all the colored squares together.  Wow.  Thanks, Becca.  So sweet.  Thanks to mom AND Becca for the lovely quilt.

There's something really wonderful seeing my kids wrap themselves in something I helped create.  I remember spending so many hours in front of the computer making these designs come to fruition while Tillie would be patiently playing next to me.  A billion emails back and forth with Becca and I, swapping files to tweak details on each of the patterns...

It's just pretty cool to see it come full circle.  

We're pretty lucky they chose the designs to print, because I'll be honest, it's pretty hard to get things picked up by the powers that be.  We've designed many many other "lines" but for certain reasons they're not quite right at the moment.  And, I'll be honest.  It's kind of discouraging.  We're crossing our fingers that other designs will make it someday.  But, for now, I need to remember how great it is that some of our designs DID get printed.  And, that little blanket in the middle of my house reminds me how lucky we are.  

Anyway, in case you wanted to see the big girl in her big girl bed, here's a sneak peak of the bedding---and mostly it's to illustrate her love of BOOKS.  Oh my.  I've never seen someone more in love with books than this child.  Aaron and I couldn't be happier that her most favorite "things to play with" are books.  This situation happens on a regular basis: she asks me to turn on a movie for her, and then after about 20-30 minutes of watching, she goes to the book shelf under the TV or sneaks away to her room and pulls out books to read instead.  You go, girl.  

When we put her to bed, she takes a bunch of books in with her and will stay up reading them anywhere from 30 minutes to more than an hour.  She reads a lot of them aloud and then giggles when she gets to funny parts.  It probably is the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  

Anyway, I snuck into her room a few weeks ago to snap a picture during her nap time (sorry it's a little blurry, but I wasn't going to risk having the flash go off and wake her up).  So funny that she is TOTALLY ZONKED in this picture.  I love that the Tootle is still upright in her little hands.

Oh, that girl.

So, there you have it.  Another installment of "My home makes me happy".