Applique Onesies and Stamped Markers

After the fever and teething came a flu so, needless to say, we've been down and out for a bit. Wish spring would hurry up and get here! I have been working on some things though. One of them was related to my brother's mission homecoming. He was able to fly into the NEW St George airport (woohoo!) but his flight arrival time was at 10:40 pm. Not so good with the bebes particular bedtime of 8pm sharp. I wanted a way for THEM to also be able to welcome him, so I decided on some shirts with a message. I just used a bit of wonder-under, some fabric scraps, and cheap onesies from Walmart to spell out a "Welcome" on one shirt, and "Home" on the other. Since it was also his first time meeting the girls, I added an introduction to the back of each shirt. Fun, easy, cheap.

It was a wonderful reunion with lots of tears and hugs and baby-tossing. It's amazing how much can change in two years but yet how much remains the same. My lil' bro had grown into this tall, confidant, adult but he still had the same sense of goofy humor. He was my hiking partner before he left and though things will be a bit different now with me being a mom and him juggling school, work, and semi-serious dating, I hope we are able to explore some new trails together.

The second thing I worked on did not turn out quite like I hoped it would. Thats ok though because it only cost me mmmmm.... 50 cents? I saw these neat looking stamped plant markers on Etsy made out of old silverware and I loved the vintage look. I found a tutorial online that told me how they could be made so I thought I'd give it a try. I picked up a few interesting pieces of silverware from the D.I. for 10 cents each. Once I started, it ended up being more difficult than the simple 4 steps given (doesn't it always though).  The second step was simply stated as, "Hold metal stamp in place on silverware and strike with hammer 5-8 times." HA! The silverware bounced away the first time I struck. I put my foot on the handle but it still bounced, which caused the letter stamp to jar out of place and require perfect re-alignment before the next strike. And then I didn't dare strike too hard because my unbroken little fingers were holding the metal stamp in place just millimeters below the target. But not hitting it hard enough didn't cut the grooves deep enough. Some of my letters were slightly off and an imperfect realignment of a "t" caused one piece to say "Watter Me" and a "y" caused another to say "Parslex". Aaaaanyways, in short, I think a vise and a few other tools are probably required to make these look like the ones on Etsy. Unless you don't mind broken digits. I need mine to microwave food. But it was fun making something anyways. I might try them again after my next trip to the D.I.