My Talented Friends, Part 2

Yesterday I blogged about my friend Sarah and the custom backpack she made for Lilah's birthday. Today, it's all about Kristyn and her gorgeous custom cloth books. What can I say? I have talented friends.

I know Kristyn from work, and I knew she was a quilter and an all-around crafty person, but I had no idea how amazing her handiwork was until I saw some pictures of her Books for Beginners on her Facebook page. Then I just had to have one for Lilah. These cloth books have the child's name on the cover, and then a letter of the child's name on each page, along with a picture of something that starts with that letter. The back cover even includes a photo and dedication!

(For the record, we didn't buy thousands upon thousands of birthday presents for Lilah. Her big ticket item was a Fisher Price Little People farm, and her other gifts included a couple consignment store purchases, such as wooden insert puzzles, and the items I've been blogging about. To me, this is a no-brainer. I get hand-made, durable, and meaningful gifts, customized with Lilah in mind, designed and sewn by people I've known for years. And I get to support their crafty/business ventures at the same time. Talk about win-win!)

Here's what Kristyn came up with for the Lilahbility:

Awesome, right? I think every kid needs one of these!

If you'd like to contact Kristyn about her Books for Beginners or other Playful Patches Productions creations, you can email her at P3.by.Payne@gmail.com

My Talented Friends, Part 1

You may recall that a couple months ago I asked my friend Sarah to make a baby backpack for us to give Lilah for her first birthday. If you need a refresher, you can read about our little Spice Girl here. Once it was decided that Lilah is 3/4 Scary Spice and 1/4 Sporty Spice, Sarah got straight to work designing a backpack for the li'l miss.

The backpack arrived a couple of weeks before Lilah's big day, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Sarah usually makes the backpacks in cotton or flannel, but keeping Scary Spice in mind, Sarah felt a silkier material was in order, so this is a bit of a departure from her usual style. The shoelace drawstring closure and ribbon straps address Lilah's Sporty side. The straps are long enough that Lilah has room to grow into the backpack, and my hope is that she will fill it with treasures and take it along with her when she goes to daycare, the park, a friend's house, and wherever else her little heart desires - just one more step in our busy girl's quest for independence!

So, without further ado, here it is:

Sarah's handiwork - Lilah's custom baby backpack

Lilah's modeling debut

You can check out other Sew Inspired products here.

Spice Girl

I have a very talented friend named Sarah who has a business called Sew Inspired*. She makes cool stuff for babies and toddlers, and she is currently working on a backpack for Lilah's first birthday! Here's a sample:

So when I told her she could just run with fabric and design (Lilah has yet to voice an opinion on such matters), she just had one question: "If Lilah were a Spice Girl, which one would she be?" I have to admit, this question threw me for a loop. My very first thought was, "Baby Spice, of course! Duh." But then I realized that was too obvious. And Lilah isn't really the happy-go-lucky type.

Next, I ruled out Posh. (Incidentally, during doppelganger week on FB, I was told I look like Posh,which is flattering, of course, and I should just take the complement. But I feel the need to qualify the statement - the only similarity I have ever had to Posh is during her Spice Girls days. The resemblance ended when she started looking like a stick-thin alien with implants. Oh, and since I know he will read this post, I should say that my Hubs is as hot as Beckham. That ought to butter him up and mitigate some of the damage I'm about to do with comments below.)

That left Ginger, Sporty, and Scary. Lilah does have a little strawberry tinge to her hair in certain lights, but other than that, I don't think she has much in common with Ginger. After mulling it over all day yesterday, I consulted the Hubs. Afterall, he did go to a Spice Girls concert in their hayday, which makes him more of an expert on the Spice Girls than I am. (He'll kill me for putting that out there on the blogosphere, but apparently my blog is all about oversharing, as witnessed by my last entry on poop inspection. Full disclosure - that's just how I roll.)

Together, the Hubs and I decided that Lilah is probably most like Scary, with her intense personality and loud voice. She can be pretty aggressive in her attempts to communicate with other babies and kids. But we also think she has a little Sporty in her. She's an extremely busy baby, and I like to think she's going to follow in her parents' footsteps and be quite athletic. At the moment I dress her in girly dresses, heavy on the pink, because I have a feeling she's going to be something of a tomboy and won't let me get away with the frilliness forever.

Is it weird that I think my baby is most like Scary Spice? She doesn't wear leopard print or have big hair, but she's got the big voice and adventurous attitude. Can't wait to see what to see what backpack design Sarah comes up with for a 3/4 Scary 1/4 Sporty baby - that should present some interesting challenges!

*If you're interested in a backpack or other cool custom product for a kid you know (think quilts, playmats, taggie blankets, Tooth Fairy pillows, etc.), you can get in touch with Sarah at inspired_sew@yahoo.ca