My Makeshift Family Photo

***UPDATE***
Because I have received many emails regarding this family photo diagram, I am now offering custom design services in my etsy shop. You can find the listing HERE.

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Original Post:

My little brother moved to college this weekend and is starting his first day of college today! He is getting so grown up. I wonder if my mom is shedding a tear or two over her "baby" growing up right now? He would like to think so, but really we aren't that sentimental of a family so I would guess no. Sorry bud!

Anyway, I remember when I moved to college and how awesome I felt to "live on my own." And even better than that? Actually getting MAIL at that new address! So, I decided to send my little bro a quick package to his new apartment. In it I wanted to include a family photo for him to put on his new desk in his new room of his new apartment. However, we haven't had a family photo taken in over two years! Shame on us. The most recent is missing two neices and a nephew, and that just wouldn't do.

I decided to design him a "makeshift" family photo until we get the next one taken. I originally planned on just collaging photos of the family together in a 8x10 frame. However, when I sat down at the computer to make it, I got this genius idea to to a radial diagram of our family with my parents in the middle, their kids (and spouse, where applies) in the first tier, and grandkids in second tier. Then I ran our family name in the blank space so it didn't look so awkward that Ty is the only one without a kid (or one on the way... if you noticed my little 3D ultrasound photo there!). I am very happy with how it turned out and definitely need to print one for me too!

Sneak Peek of our Nursery

Our baby's room is FAR from being completed, especially since we are currently at a stale mate over the wall color. I thought I knew what color I wanted it to be, but after I bought the paint sample and put a portion of it up on the wall, I wasn't so sure... 5 paint samples later, and nothing has changed! In the mean time, I sewed some fabric baskets to go on our changing table. Here is a peek:


I mostly followed a combo of this tutorial from vlijtig, and this tutorial from Pink Penguin (they are really similar). However, all the fabric basket tutorials I found online were much too small for how I wanted to use them, so I made mine way bigger than these two tutorials. Just case you want to make yourself a basket big enough to hold more than two things, I will share my dimensions with you so you don't have to do the math too:

• Top outside fabric: cut two 18x5 inches
• Bottom outside fabric: cut one 18x16 inches
• (After I sewed these together, I laid them on batting and cut out a piece the same size. This is especially important in a basket this big because otherwise it will flop over and not hold its shape.)
• Lining: 18x25 inches
• Straps.... hmm didn't really measure these but probably something like 3.5x6 inches
• (One last note: when you do the box corners, I measured 7 inches across the bag and marked, then sewed it)

Dish Cloths

Here is a quick peek at my 26 week belly:
And a quick note about what I have been up to lately. I have been craving a lot of salty food (and a fair share a sweet things too, but that's beside the point) and so my feet have been swelling up like balloons! That leaves me with the desire to only sit on the couch every night with my feet elevated... and not much to do! We were in bad need of some new dish cloths, though, so I have kept busy by crocheting a whole set of dish cloths:

This is the pattern that I have used on most of them. I like it because it's a really tight pattern without a lot of spaces-- much better for scrubbing! I have enjoyed making these as well because I'm all about instant gratification and there aren't many other crochet projects you can completely finish in one episode of Project Runway!

Craft Hope

Craft Hope just posted their next crafty service project: making Christmas stockings for Tornado Survivors. If you remember, I did a craft hope project at a baby shower I threw earlier this year. We made birthing kits for women in Haiti. It was a big hit at the shower and also felt great to help women that aren't as fortunate to have access to medical care like I do.


I think that this stocking made from vintage fabrics which is on their website is adorable. I also quickly found this roundup of stocking tutorials (and this one too!) on tipjunkie.