Baby Talk

Y'all know that at any given time, I know 407 pregnant women.

What?

Fine.  Count them if you want to, but I swear, it's up there.

Anyway, when one of my best girlfriends from college told me a few months ago that she was expecting, I could. not. wait.  She is one of the most fashionable women I know, and she actually WORKS in the fashion industry, so I was fingers crossed for her that it would be a girl to inherit all her fashion savvy and fingers crossed for me that it would be a boy, so I could offer my little home-grown gifts and not get baby laughed out of the Big Apple.

I won.

:-)

So when she FINALLY decided on baby's name - just in time for her shower this past weekend - I was more than happy to get cracking on baby boy some personalized gifts!

First of all, she picked one of the cutest bedding sets I've seen.  It's called Nantucket by Bananafish and features a solid navy paired with white, green, and gators.

Modern prep at its best!  The only thing missing is the argyle!

One of the things she registered for was this precious little fuzzy gator pillow.

 I know.  Freaking adorable, right?

But I wanted to personalize it.  It needed to belong to the baby and only the baby...but how could I do that?  There was no way to monogram or personalize an already sewn together gator pillow.

So, I just had to make my own version.

With only the picture from Target's website to guide me, I freehanded a pattern out of two shades of green fleece - one of which I already had on hand!  If you know me, you know that my math abilites register somewhere on the scale around those of a fetus, so actually being able to replicate a 3D pattern was a bit of a geometric victory for me!  Then I used a great fun curly font to personalize the front of the gator with Baby Niles' name.  Et voilá!  Personalized baby pillow!

In addition to the great gator pillow, I also made some personalized onesies.

Keeping with the gator theme is this cute little brown-striped number.

And on this blue onesie I used a classic circle monogram that I think is great for boys due to its sleek appearance!

The other baby gift I have recently created was actually for a friend to gift to some other proud parents!  I created a cute little purple fleece kitty hat for all the little girls I knew last year, and she had really liked the way it looked in the pics and thought about getting them for a family adding to their family this past summer.  One child was already seven, and the other was on its way.  Since she didn't know the sex of the new baby, we decided to pick a color that was bright but not too girly.  And here is what I came up with:

These awesome turquoise felines will keep the kiddos nice and toasty this spring...that's right - as residents of Australia, I'm afraid these hats have already missed the coldest part of winter there and will be getting to them just in time to pull out the shorts for December!  Crazy southern hemisphere, being all opposite seasons!  Oh well - if we're lucky they'll fit next year?  They certainly do look cute together, and I'd love to see the pair of these kitties - I mean, kiddies - sporting these hats!

EDITED TO ADD:  These hats are actually going to JAPAN.  So while they will still get to experience a full winter's wear, they are going to the land of EVERYTHING CUTE.  I just hope they can keep up!

Stay tuned to the baby channel here at With Pin and Ink...I've got a burp cloth and bib set in the works and if the trend holds, I'll hear about 4 new pregnancies by the end of the year, so you could be watching my small person gift inspiration chug along for a good, long while!