Shh… Quiet

I have been working on a quiet book for Lincoln for a few months now. After several missed deadlines and delays I have finally reached a good stopping point. I think I will probably add some more pages in the future, once I can look at a piece of felt again (I am missing the standard lace the football page after all), but for now I am calling it a day. I hand-stitched everything but the cover (similar to how I did my Advent Calendar), so that drew the process out a bit, but I think the results were worth it.

I had a hard time finding a tutorial for the cover, so I sort of had to make it up as I went along. I made some mistakes, but that can’t be helped.

I got the idea for this house page from Leafy Treetop Spot. There are pictures of Jonathan and I behind each of the shutters and one of Lincoln behind the door.

                                                                                         

Homemade by Jill included a rocket page in her book, but I decided to change Lincoln’s to an airplane since they are still his favorite thing (his most recent obsession is watching air shows on YouTube, but I digress). The opposite page is just shape matching with Velcro.

Two more pages from Homemade by Jill. I still need to make a few more finger puppets, but you get the idea. Lincoln can also send and receive letters in his personalized mailbox.

This alligator page is probably my favorite in the whole book. The original idea came from this blog, but I expanded and fancied it up a bit. We took the book with us to Church for the first time last week and I put some Reese’s Pieces in the alligator’s mouth. Lincoln was pretty pleased. The cars opposite just snap on and off.

This page is probably my second favorite. It took forever to make because stitching that entire road on was quite the undertaking. 

This is just a simple counting page with beads. The idea came from this blog.

I decided to put a pocket on the back cover in case pieces need to get gathered quickly or I’m feeling too lazy to put them all in the right places.

There you have it. Lincoln’s quiet book. We took it for a test drive at Church last week and, I must say, it was very successful at getting him to stay on our laps, but not as successful at keeping him quiet. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

Easter Festivities

Now that Lincoln is two he is really starting to get holidays. This is what I have been waiting for. There is nothing better then seeing his eyes shining with excitement and watching him dart around as he yells, “Eggs! Eggs!!” I didn’t get very many good pictures of him looking for eggs in the morning because the light was bad and I was filming it, but that’s okay.

                                                              

Lincoln had a few chances to practice looking for eggs before the Easter Bunny came, though, so he was thoroughly prepared. A few weeks before Easter someone came and “egged” our house and we had a ton of fun searching for all the eggs around our door (and eating the candy inside.)

                                                                                     

                                                         

And we had a little, last minute Easter egg hunt with some friends from Church last week. The kids might have been a little disappointed when they realized most of the eggs has raisins in them, but they still had fun finding the eggs and doing a bunny ear craft.

                                   

Now I just need to hit the stores and round up all the clearance Starburst jellybeans before they’re gone and my Easter will be complete!

Croquembouche

We had our annual Branch Talent Show last night and this year I decided to contribute a Croquembouche.

cro·quem·bouche

[kroh-kuhm-boosh; Fr. kraw-kahn-boosh]

     –noun, plural -bouches [-boo-shiz; Fr. -boosh] Show IPA. French Cookery .

     a pyramid of bite-size cream puffs coated and held in place with caramelized sugar.

This was my first time attempting a Croquembouche, although I have made cream puffs before, but I was pretty pleased with the result. Mine wasn’t the towering cone I was envisioning, but it didn’t fall over… and for a Branch Talent Show I think that’s enough.