April 29, 2013

Finding Your Stroller in Disney World


The stroller situation at Disney World is unbelievable. There are so many strollers. Everywhere.

They literally have designated stroller parking lots. With lot attendants who constantly shuffle the stroller positions, keeping the lot orderly and compact. Efficiency is the key, but finding your stroller after being repositioned is a challenge.

Look at the photo above. Crazy huh? And it just barely begins to describe the stroller mania as the photo was taken at the beginning of the day at Epcot - a park families with young children sometimes skip. Multiply the image by about three and you'll have an idea of the stroller parking in Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland around lunchtime.

Forewarned by a friend prior to vacationing, I marked our stroller with this brightly colored flower and ribbon sash. A stroller identifier of sorts.



I was going for small enough to be cute, yet large enough to be functional.

I was wrong. Very Very wrong.

While the sash was helpful in distinguishing our stroller from the 47 other similarly colored Chico strollers in each lot, it was not nearly large enough to aid in actually locating the stroller. (Remember, the lot attendants rearrange the strollers for maximum occupancy. So it's not exactly where you left it.)

At one point during our vacation, we actually did lose our stroller. We had unknowingly left our stroller in a non-designated area. (There were several others lined up along a fence and we just assumed it was a stroller area...)

It took about five minutes, but we did eventually find our stroller - relocated about a hundred and fifty yards away. And you know how we eventually found it? We spotted our daughter's balloon floating overhead.

Now I understand why one family I observed had tied a six foot tall silk flower to their child's stroller. Obnoxious? Maybe. Functional? absolutely!

So there you have it. My two cents on strollers in Disney: 1) Never leave your stroller in an unmarked stroller area, and 2) Get yourself a BIG stroller marker.


April 22, 2013

Backpack Strap Covers: Photo Tutorial


Inspired by all the cute and fun camera straps I've seen recently, I decided to decorate my backpack straps in a similar fashion. It certainly made spotting our standard black Jansport backpack much easier while traveling! 

Here is a quick photo tutorial.


Step 4: Invert cover
Step 5: Slide onto backpack strap. 


As a final tip, I should add that knit is very stretchy and possibly not the best choice for my black and white base fabric. By the end of our nine day trip, the fabric had stretched and lost the snug fit it initially had.

Sharing at Sugar Bee Crafts, Monday Funday and these other great parties listed HERE

April 15, 2013

An Easter {Bunny} Hat

Have I ever mentioned what an incredibly talented family I was born (and then married) into? Seriously! They are all so darn creative. Someday I'll introduce you to each member and showcase a few of their talents. Someday.


Today, I'd like to share the most adorable Easter Bunny Hat I have ever seen. It was a gift from "Gigi." Isn't that just stinkin' adorable!!? I realize we're now a few weeks past Easter, but this hat was just too cute not to share :)
Here's another image. This shot gives you a better idea as to how the bunny ears were attached. 
(It's a bunny ear headband.)


Even looking at the photos now, I can't stop smiling. 

Interestingly enough, it was never intended to be actually worn. My mother-in-law gave the hat an inner wire to hang as wall decor or on the front door. 

But one sight of the hat and my daughter was in love. She insisted - in a still cute two year old sort of way - that the hat be worn on her head, for the rest of the afternoon. And I must say, the oversized hat looks awfully darn cute on her (relatively) little body :)

April 4, 2013

I Made A Quilt!

I never thought I could actually make a quilt. I always assumed that quilt making was WAY beyond my beginner's sewing skills. Yet somehow I managed to complete this baby blanket in one piece.

I can still hardly believe it -- I made a quilt! It turns out piecing together a strip quilt is not nearly as intimidating as I once thought.
 
Seriously guys. If I can do it, anyone can.
(Looks like I should have ironed before photographing and gifting!)

Here is my completed quilt. The front is cotton pieces, the back is solid minky. To avoid the tedious blanket binding, I simply top stitching around the perimeter. I also stitched next to a few of the seams to "quilt" the front and back together together.


Then, I made a matching tag lovie with some of the extra fabric :)


Happy Friday Everyone!