and something for the baby

I have lots of crafting projects going on simultaneously these days, but today I pushed aside the other projects I should have been working on to make some completely unplanned and spontaneous goodies for River.

You see, a few weeks ago my mom took care of my biggest getting-ready-for-baby-worry: a carseat. We had an old hand-me-down infant seat for Liam, which we swapped for a Britax convertible seat when he was just a few months old. The infant seat never seemed particularly safe, so we got rid of it. Liam is still comfortable in his convertible seat, and a rear-facing convertible seat for the baby is not practical with the layout in our Element. We needed an infant seat, and I am a big fan of Britax.

My mom gifted River with this terrific seat, and I decided that it needed some entertaining toys and a few matching burp cloths.

I used some organic hemp fleece and scraps from Liam's new Daddy Shirt to create a tag rattle softie and a sweet little whale softie. Both are attached with velcro.

The burp cloths seem especially luxurious with just a single layer of the hemp fleece edged with binding I cut on the bias. Hopefully, we won't need them as much with River as we did with Liam, but in case we do, these will make a yucky thing a little easier to handle...

And here is a peek at another recent project (this one planned in advance): rocking chair cushions for the freebie Craigslist chair I refinished back over the summer.

I used the Ikea fabric we picked up in the As-Is department for only $1. The cushions are polyurethane foam wrapped in cotton batting. The covers have zippers for easy removal, making them easily washable.

And the result? They turned out great. And they make the chair so much more comfortable. I think I'll be spending a lot of time in this chair in the coming months.