The idea for this page was a bit of a process.  Some of the things that I considered for this page include a puzzle page, a photo flip page, a memory page and the list goes on. Ultimately, I wanted to include something architectural in this book (as both my husband and I are in the field), but the problem remained, how I would actually go about this. I didn't want to do velcro or snaps because I had already done that, so, for a while, I was stuck. Then, a couple weeks ago, while visiting my sister, the bright glimmer of hope shined! One of the toys she uses for her daughter at church is a little tin with magnetic letters in it. Now the problem remained of whether to buy pre-made shapes or to design my own. I leaned toward the design side, but wasn't sure how I would turn it into magnets, then again, my sister shared another idea. A friend of hers had printed pictures of their kids onto magnetic paper, which seemed easy enough, but.... well I will get into that during the process part. (The update for this post is just in the pictures).

The construction of this page hasn't had any issues, the update here is just the pictures. They needed some touching up. Originally, I found this babushka page  when looking for inspiration and essentially duplicated it, but added my own flare. I'm quite pleased about how it turned out, however, there was a bit of a snare that turned into a learning experience for the rest of the pages. By the way, I did create a boy version of this page that features woodland creatures.

So I am pretty sure that this is the last of the pages with an update in the construction of the page. I will still be updating the rest of them, but more to edit the pictures, not so much editing the instruction. Ultimately, though, the purse has left the book, but is still the crayon container of choice.

Most of the lace up quiet book pages include a shoe and weaving pages are usually pies or just strips of felt. I wanted both of these pages, but I couldn't find anything that I really liked. While perusing quiet books on Etsy to gain inspiration, I came across the Monster Album. A couple of days after first seeing this little book, it hit me, monsters under the bed! 

This is a page I made for a quiet book 2 years ago. Since then, it has held up pretty good, until last month when my toddler started to rip the leather cords I used to hold the beads. It occurred to me that perhaps this issue could have been averted had I used a different material, so here is my updated version.

Two years ago, I made a quiet book for my daughter and the pages were my first posts to this website. Since then the quiet book has actually stood the test of the toddler. However, there are a couple of things I would do differently if I were to make the book again. Over the next little while I plan to update those previous posts. To see the other pages as well as a list of tips, visit my Quiet Book page.

It is no secret, I love to bake. I also love spending time with my family so it only makes sense to combine the two. My daughter is still a little too young to do too much, but I will usually pull up a chair and let her dump the cups of ingredients into a bowl. In my fury of sewing over the last month I felt it necessary to make a lovely little apron for her. It turned out a bit big, but that is better than too small.

Part one of this fun little project was all about drafting a pattern. In part two, you will get to see everything come together, which is always exciting!

I'm not entirely sure what came over me about a month ago, but I became obsessed with making little kiss clasp purses. I have made about 20 tiny key chain, change purses and I have 9 larger metal frame purses in the works right now. Drafting up patterns for these is a cinch and sewing them up is even easier, so I just can't help myself, I keep making more!

The idea of drafting a pattern used to terrify me. I always thought of pattern making as something that only professionals could do. Then, a little over a year and a half ago, I was looking to turn a men's dress shirt into a baby dress and stumbled upon The Metro Dress by Shwin & Shwin. Their website is chock full of wonderful patterns as well as instructions on various sewing techniques and even how to draft your own sewing patterns. I thought back to The Metro Dress last month when I saved one of my husband's dress shirts from the good will pile. Below is the upcycled version of said shirt.