Spring has Sprung

Spring may have finally have sprung in Michigan! My poor baby girl has cabin fever!! She wants to be outside every waking moment but since I have to work (way too much) we only make it outside for short spurts and lately there has been nothing but cold wet days keeping us in. We finally had a warmish sunny day last week so I finished my work as quickly as I could and took my little bug out for a walk before dinner, she loves running through the yard and exploring her surroundings. We walked through the lovely landscaping that was set up by the previous owner of my house but has received a few installments over the years by us.
When I was pregnant my husband and I dug up a ton of bulbs from my great aunt Helen's house, she is an amazing gardener and wanted to share some of her overflow. Last year they didn't do much, a quick bloom and then dead, and being the delinquent gardener that I am, I left all of the dead blooms and stems to rot on the ground over the winter. So as I am pointing things out to my little one, I decided to pull off all of the debris from last year. Underneath was new growth, strong vibrant little buds poking up, searching for the sunshine.

Growing up in the greenhouse business, it was not a surprise for me to see this, I expected it, but my 16 month old looked at me surprised, as if she was asking me "what is that mom?" I explained to her that each year these flowers grow, then they go to sleep underground for the winter and wake up again when the weather is warm. Not that she understood anything I was saying, but it ended up being symbolic to me. It was a reminder that even when things seem dark and dim and dreary, there is something good happening under the surface. There is new life ready to emerge. It actually reminded me of when I met my husband. When we first met, I was a blooming happy flower, full of life and energy. When my dad got sick, I began to wilt, and after his death, I felt like I died too. I was covered in my dead leaves and searching for the sunshine. My husband brought spring to me, he cleaned off the dead debris and helped me see the sun and eventually to bloom again. I know it was not easy for him, but he stuck it out, and never gave up. I am so grateful to have found such a wonderful man, and now to have such a wonderful family.
I needed to have this reminder and this moment of clarity, I have been feeling buried lately, and I am again on a journey searching for the sunshine. I think that we all go through times when we need someone or something to remove the dead leaves and help us reach the sun. I am hoping my sunshine will find me soon and in the meantime I will do my best to shine for others who might need a hand. There is something wonderful ahead for all of us and in all situations, we just need to clear the way so that we can find it and it can find us! Happy Spring!

Giveaway #2

Okay here it is, super simple!!! All you have to do is LIKE my facebook page. Leave a comment on the contest post telling me what your favorite animal is. On Sunday, October 28th, I will draw one lucky winner to receive an awesome custom fruitpants creation themed around their favorite animal. 

You will earn 1 entry by leaving your favorite animal comment on the facebook contest post and you can earn 3 additional entries by clicking the share button on the contest post and sharing the contest post on your wall, in a group, or on a friend's wall. Share as many times as you want to earn more entries into the contest!!

Good luck everyone, I have some REALLY awesome ideas in mind for the lucky winner!!

300 for my 30th!

Well I turned 30 last week... I am not sad about it, I feel so lucky to have an amazing baby, husband, family, job, friends and of course all of the little pieces of wonderfulness that I have collected along the way! My husband told me to never be sad about aging because there are many people who are not given the opportunity (he heard this famous quote somewhere) and he is so right! So I decided to celebrate 30 by doing a giveaway!

Working full-time and being a full-time mama to a very busy little girl does not give me much free time AKA "fruitpants time". However, sewing is something that I love to do, it relaxes my mind, it makes me feel productive, it calms my stress and overall is a great way for me to spend 20 minutes or so a few nights a week and maybe a little more on the weekends. So I have decided that I need to keep fruitpants as a part of my life, even if its a very small, whenever I have time to squeeze it in kind of thing. And in an effort to spread the fruitpants sunshine to more people, I am doing a giveaway!

I want to reach 300 likes on my facebook page for my 30th birthday! So for my first giveaway (that's right, there will be more to come) I am teaming up with my friend Desirae from Going with the Flow and we are giving away a 3 pack of Baby Leg Warmers from fruitpants! This giveaway will begin on Wednesday, October 3rd!!! Be sure to check out the Going with the Flow blog and also the facebook page and the fruitpants facebook page for all of the details! We are excited and wish you luck!!!

DIY Stretchy and Woven Baby Wrap

I had a baby in November and could not stop cuddling her! A friend made me a stretchy wrap, similar to a Moby, which was awesome for wearing my little monkey around the house and when we went out. She and I both loved it!
This wrap is made out of 5 yards of jersey interlock fabric which you can buy at just about any fabric store. With jersey fabrics you don't even have to hem the edges, they curl up and don't fray! How easy is that?! So you buy 5 yards (more if you are on the fluffier side) of jersey knit or similar stretchy fabric, cut it in half lengthwise, and BOOM two stretchy wraps, one for you and one for a friend! :) Such an easy and inexpensive way to own a baby wrap that you will love and it makes a great baby shower gift!

But... she got bigger and heavier and squirmier and the wrap became less and less supportive. That is when I discovered the world of woven wraps!! I went to my local baby wearing group and tried out all kinds of wonderful woven wraps, it was like my stretchy wrap in that it was a long piece of fabric but unlike my stretchy, I could wear her on my front, on my back, in many different kinds of positions and carries and the best part, she didn't sag, she felt light and comfortable and supported! This was a way that I could continue to carry her well into toddler-hood! Downside, woven wraps are very expensive because they are made of premium woven materials intended for the purpose of babywearing. So I thought, if I can make a stretchy why not a woven? After collecting tons of advice and tips from veteran DIY babywearers I went to the fabric store again in search of a 6 yards of sturdy 100% linen, which was pricey but still much cheaper than buying a "real wrap" especially after my coupons :) But the material was boring white, so I decided to spice it up with tie dye.

First cut your fabric in half lengthwise again creating 2 wraps. Wash your fabric, don't dry, lay it out damp on a garbage bag cut down the sides and opened up to make it as long as possible. I wanted to do star-bursts down the center so I started at one end, pulled the fabric from the middle up like what you do when you pull your pony tail through and wrap a rubber band around it.

Do this all the way to the other end. Then I did the same thing on both sides of the middle pulling the fabric up and wrapping a rubber band around each bunch. The bunches on the sides are lined up in between the middle bunches so that they are staggered. You can do all kinds of tie dye patterns, just have fun with whatever you choose to do.

Prepare your dye according to the directions. I used Dylon fabric dye with tie dye squirt bottles that I had from another tie dye project.

*TIP* Use a "safe" dye because baby will chew on your wrap at some point. The better the dye the better the final product and safer for baby!

I dyed all of the middle bunches with red and all of the outer bunches with blue. Then I wrapped the fabric up with the garbage bag, taping it closed and left it overnight. The longer you leave it, the more the dye should take. The next day I removed all of the rubber bands, and rinsed it in cold water, then washed it according to the dye packet instructions.

After your wrap has been been washed and dried, you will need to hem the edges so that they don't fray. You can make your wrap a regular rectangle or you can taper the ends to shape it like a parallelogram. I just fold and hand press the edges as I feed it through the sewing machine but if you have more patience you can fold and iron the edges to give a nice clean finish before sewing. I did a zig zag stitch all the way around and then added a small square piece of fabric, like a tag, as a middle marker to the top and bottom of the wrap. New wraps take a lot of breaking in to make them easy to use, so I braided an un-braided this wrap like crazy, here is a video on braiding your woven wrap.

Finished wrap braided to break in fabric

Finished wrap after being un-braided

After my wrap was broken in a bit, I used it for front carries for awhile until I felt comfortable using it for back carries, and each time I use it, the wrap becomes more and more fluffy and easy to use and baby loves it more every day!

The length of fabric that you will need depends on your size and what types of carries you want to use it for. I purchased 6 yards of fabric for this project which for me was more than enough for any type of carry. I recently made a wrap with 5 yards of fabric and that is perfect for me. 5 yards of fabric is about 4.6 meters which is a typical size 6 woven wrap. If you are petite, you could get away with a size 5 wrap which is 4.2 meters or a little over 4.5 yards. 

If you are making your own wrap be sure to buy good quality fabric, and use safe dyes. Then enjoy them while snuggling your little one from squishy new baby to big kid!

6 yard 100% linen hand dyed wrap

5 yard light & airy linen cotton blend

What a great day!

I hope that you had a great day too! Why did I have such a great day?

Trio Linked Rings

Well... today I received my Trio Linked Rings that I won from the Araneida Studios Etsy Giveaway! Very cool ring, I feel so lucky to have won such a unique and fun piece of jewelry! It came packaged in a beautiful box, super fast shipping and it was great getting to know Elisabeth from Araneida Studios, its obvious that she loves what she creates, and she created a perfect ring for me!! Thank you so much Elisabeth!

ALSO... fruitpants was featured in this awesome Window Showcase by Aulani Photography! The By Hand Giveaways Blog is updated regularly with all of the best handmade giveaways found around the web. I was thinking about doing a fruitpants giveaway. What do you think, should I go for it?