Quiet book (finally!)

I started a quiet book for Rebecca in the fall. I didn't really buy much for this except for a few pieces of felt in colors I didn't have and some eyelets. I had everything else already. I've had the first pages of the quiet book done, but I just needed to get eyelets in to hold the pages together. I finally did that yesterday, so here's the first pages.

This is the cover:

The flowers button on and off and are double-sided, so they can be switched around and flipped over.

The gumballs are have velcro and come off and have matching stitching on the globe.

The mailbox flag goes up and down and the cover has velcro, so it can close.

The barn doors open and have a pocket inside for the animals.

The clock hands move around.

These are the animal finger puppets, which Rebecca loves!

And the back cover. I stitched our last name on the back in case we take it to church and leave it or something.

It's a fun project, but takes a lot of time! I have a couple more pages done, but they need a page to attach to the back before I'll add it to the book.

Party decorations

The birthday party went really well. We had a packed house, but it was a lot of fun. And almost everyone in Steve's family was together for the first time in a long long time.

Naomi made a great looking (and great tasting) cake. I made cupcakes, and Naomi came early to decorate them.


I didn't want to buy a lot of decorations for Rebecca's party. I bought balloons, and I spent $1 on the cupcake banner hanging over the high chair. I made everything else with supplies I had at home.

I used scrapbook papers and supplies to make the birthday banner.

The curly ribbon is a couple of gift bows from Rebecca's baby gifts. The paper rosettes were made from a story book I bought at a yard sale for .25 cents. I didn't like it and was just going to get rid of it. I had found instructions somewhere on the internet for paper rosettes, which I can't find now. They were pretty easy though. I tore out the pages, and folded them like a fan. I used the folded pages on most of mine and cut the ends to look a little more interesting.

I found a bunch of containers, cans, and jars I had around the house to use for chips, pretzels, forks, toothpicks, etc. I used a small mailbox decorated with green ribbon and a number "1" and put Rebecca's pictures in it for guests to take.

I bought this flag at a yard sale for .50 cents, and plan on using it again.

Another converted story book. This was really really easy. I just tore out the pages, which were perfect squares. Cut it in diagonals (four triangle pieces), folded one corner and stapled it, and used my hot glue gun to attach buttons and wooden dowels. I put them in a jar with some buttons and put it on the table as a centerpiece.

Now I start planning for next year. . .

Getting ready

We're preparing for a birthday party around here. I've been working on making lots of decorations. I'm really kind of proud of myself. So far the only decorations I've bought is balloons, and that's all I plan on buying for decorating. I had my supplies all over the kitchen counter yesterday, and Rebecca was right next to me the whole time finding things to get into. I thought, has it already been a year? Wasn't she just born?

I was also thinking, "I wish our house was bigger." But maybe the weather will be nice on July 17th, and we can go outside. We shall see.