Friday, May 4, 2012

Settled In

Lukas proudly standing outside.
 Although I will admit, there are still a few boxes which haven't been unpacked (and may never be opened. When did I accumulate so much stuff?), it's safe to say that we have finally settled in to our new place in northern Germany.

Traveling and living out of a suitcase for over two months was not easy and made me appreciate the concept of home even more.  I tried to keep the kid's routine as much as possible and brought as many of their security things, like blankies, toys, and books.  Nevertheless, it's tough living with other people all the time, no matter how loving they may be. I was so excited when we were finally able to move into our new house and even more overjoyed when our cargo finally made it over the ocean.

Jonas in front of the house on his trike.
I love our new place and it already feels like home. The kids love having a yard to play in and are determined to be outside come rain or shine.  It often showers, but the sun always seems to make it's way out after each one and everything here is amazingly green because of all that moisture. We are so close to the coast that we often see seagulls and the ocean is only a bike ride away.

I have to get a bike soon, because most of the mothers here use it as their primary source of transportation.  Jonas has already learned how to use his tricycle and I'm sure Lukas will have a Laufrad (a bicycle without wheels) soon as he mastered walking  by 11 months and seems unstoppable.

I can't wait to get started on all of the projects that I have had on hold for the last couple of months, but I still have a lot of organizing to do before I can start on a lot of them.  Thank you for your patience.  I look forward to bringing you more creative posts soon!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Goodbye Palm Trees, Hello Windmills - Donner Family Relocation

Typical Friesen Windmill
We're moving back to Germany!  This time to Friesland, where my husband has taken on a job as a developmental biologist starting the first of March.  

Since we just got the news before Christmas, we have been busy getting packed, selling things we don't need, and trying to find a house -all in one month.  At the same time, my 8 month old baby has gone from crawling to trying to walk and my two year old is gaining his independence.  In other words, I've got my hands full, but I'm excited nonetheless. 

I really love Friesland.  My mother was born in Friesland, Holland, so I grew up listening to my grandmother's stories and hearing her speak Friesen.  I look forward to making lots of bike trips, taking walks with my kids to the local baker, and getting to know my neighbors.  Even though I know I will miss California, especially the sunshine, I'm looking forward to seeing the North Sea and its holiday islands. 

Neustadtgoedens, Ost Friesland
Since I will be separated from my beloved sewing machine and art supplies  for the 6 weeks that it will take for our stuff to make it by cargo ship, I may not be able to post very often.  I have plenty of ideas on hold, though.  As soon as we get settled and I get my creativity unpacked again, I'm sure I will be posting up a storm. 

Thanks for your patience and wish us luck!
 
Kelley

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Cars and Trucks Padded Toddler Headboard

Jonas enjoying his new headboard and pillow
My son loves cars and trucks.  He just can’t get enough of them.  This morning, as an example, he wanted to watch the documentary Mighty Machines instead of Barney or Elmo.  That says a lot.

For Jonas’s second birthday, I decided to pimp his crib and make it more toddler-friendly since he is still not ready to have the sides removed, yet.  However, with Christmas and our family planning for a big move from California to Germany, I didn’t have time to work on the project. I had looked at toddler beading, but the majority of it was 60–100% polyester.  I bought the Disney Cars beading once, but took it back because it seriously felt like a shower curtain. 

Last night, I decided it was time to take action and make something myself.  When we were in Germany over Christmas, Jonas fell in love with big fluffy down pillows.  Previously, he had only been using the baby pillows that I had made him a year ago (Baby's First Pillows, 3/2011).  As soon as we got home, I bought him one for his bed with a bright red 100% cotton pillowcase.  One big advantage to this pillow is that ever since he started sleeping with it, he stays in one place at night instead of moving around his crib like a bumpercar.  I decided to use the second pillowcase for my project.

This toddler headboard is super easy to make.  There is a flat pillow in the pillowcase which can easily be taken out so that you can toss the whole thing in the washing machine.  The snaps/loops on the side make it a breeze to take on or off the headboard and it can be used on a crib or toddler bed.

Here’s the How to:

1.  First you will need a pillowcase.  If you have a standard crib, ours is from IKEA, then a standard pillowcase will fit perfectly on the headboard.  I bought a cotton pillowcase in the adult section, since the kids bedding, like I said above, has a lot of polyester in it which can cause overheating, sweating, and heat rash.

2.  Sew a loop of ribbon, about 10-12 inches long, on each side of the pillowcase about 2/3 of an inch from the top.  I cut a hole on one side of the case and pushed the ribbon into the case before I sewed it shut.  Add snaps to the end of the loop and on the inside of the pillowcase as shown.  You may want to measure your crib before you do this just to make sure that your headboard hangs straight and doesn’t sag in the middle.  If your child already has a toddler bead and no sideboards, you can measure the loops so that they fit over the poles of the bed.

3.  I have a lot of scrap material, so it was not difficult for me to find some that already had cars and trucks on it.  You can also make your own vehicles, if you’d like.  I took all of the material that I wanted to use and ironed some heat-bonding material, like Wunderunder, onto the back of it.  Then I used a washable Crayola marker and drew the letters to Jonas’s name on the material.  I cut out the letters and vehicles.  Then, I took the letters and laid them onto some black felt which also has heat-bonding material on the back and drew them slightly larger.  I cut out these letters and the dotted lines for the street.  Finally, I ironed on the felt first and then the rest of the material cut-outs onto the pillowcase.

4.  Since heat-bonding material doesn’t last well through many washings, I went in with my sewing machine and sewed around all of the cars, trucks, and letters.  I also sewed a straight line through the dotted street line.  This is an important step, since toddler bedding needs to be washed a lot and even a headboard will get dirty and dusty. 

5.  Now add the pillow in the pillowcase.  If your pillowcase bunches open on the sides, use snaps or Velcro to hold it in place.  Hang your padded cars and trucks pillowcase onto the headboard of your toddler’s crib. 

You are finished!  Now, you can take off all of those baby bumpers (I'll do this as soon as Jonas wakes up. Goodbye Safari bedding!) and let your child feel a little bit bigger. Yeah! 

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Toddler Identity Band

Traveling with little ones is tough, especially with long layovers in airports and jet lag. This trip, I was worried about our two-year-old Jonas.

What happened if we got stuck in an airport somewhere and he ran through security or somehow managed to run away from us in a crowd?

He’s really fast and doesn’t like to sit still (see picture of him on the plane) I knew I couldn’t just put him on a leash and that he would want to run around.

As it happened, we ended up missing a flight and spending five hours in Salt Lake City after having been awake for almost 24 hours. Although I watched him like a hawk, my husband and I were really tired and watching our baby Lukas as well.

This identity band helped to keep me calm, knowing that if for any reason Jonas got separated from us, the airport would be able to identity him quickly. Being two, he was still too young to say his full name and would probably say his name was tractor or auto. Thankfully, he never got away from us, but I saw many times how easily it could have happened and I’ve heard from many people just how horrible it is when you lose your child somewhere.

Although this identity band is pretty simple on the outside, you can easily add a sticker on the inside with telephone number and address if wanted and thanks to the snap it can’t be pulled off easily by a toddler. 

How to:

1. Measure the width of your child’s wrist and cut one piece of light-colored material out this length plus about a half inch and another piece using a darker fabric twice the length plus an inch. I used white and blue for contrast and made the outer blue piece about four inches wide and the white piece about two. The blue material is leftover organic flannel, which is nice and soft on the skin.

2.  I used embroidery thread and quickly sewed Jonas’s name and birthdate in the middle of the white material. Then, I folded the white material in twice and ironed it flat.  If I had had more time, I’m sure I could have sewed it neater, but I kind of like the crooked look that came out of my lack of time.

3. Cut your dark fabric in half so that you now have three pieces of material the same length. Now sew the light colored fabric with the name of your child onto the middle of one of these strips. I sewed the white piece onto the blue using matching blue thread.

4. Put your other dark piece of material face down onto the one you just sewed and sew around all three pieces together leaving only about an inch opening. Turn your material inside out. Sew this shut by hand, or go around one more time with the sewing machine about an eighth of an inch from the edge as I did.

5. Finally, wrap the band around your child’s hand and mark where it closes. Add two snaps (I prefer the kind you push or hammer in) and your identity band is finished.

Time to fly!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing all of my readers a very Merry Christmas from my home to yours! I'm taking a break from all of the sewing, crafts, and baking and just enjoying the holidays and I hope you all do the same. Make yourself a cup of cocoa, sit back, and remember the days when just looking at that Christmas tree made you forget everything else. Happy Holidays! Kelley

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Guest Blog Section 2012

Are you interested in sharing your DIY crafts and recipe ideas?

After two years of blogging and now Etsying, Tweeting, Facebooking, and Pinning, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are not only a lot of wonderful Mommy and Daddies-sites on the web, there are also many creative people out there who also make crafts, clothes, and food items for their family and friends.

I've decided to start sharing some of the best ideas that I’ve found on the web and allow you to also send in your DIY ideas for possible submission. If you are interested in guest blogging with A Little Donnerwetter, click on the link to the right titled “Submission” for more detailed information on how to apply.

If your submission is accepted, I will either post your entire tutorial on my blog or give a short abstract including pictures explaining your idea with a link to your blog or webpage with more info. Your site will also be added to My Blog and Link List directly on my page. If you are just beginning to get out into the web, this is a great way to get more people to come to your site.

My first guest blog will appear in January of 2012 and if successful, will become a monthly addition to A Little Donnerwetter. I'm looking forward to receiving many creative submissions and finding a lot of creative people on the web, so get sewing, crafting, or cooking!

Kelley

Monday, November 28, 2011

Baby Winter Sleepsack

Brrr. Winter is on its way.

Lukas's sleepsack, one that I had made for Jonas in the summer, was just not warm enough. As it is with my boys, the store bought sleepsacks were all too short, and I hate putting my kids in 100% polyester sleepers since they have such sensitive skin and get heat rash easy. Nevertheless, because my little Lukas is such a snuggler, I still wanted to make this sleepsack nice and soft and cuddly warm.

This is the third sleepsack that I have made so I made sure to make it big enough for him to grow into a little. I decided on two layers of soft 100% organic cotton flannel with a layer of fleece in between. The first night I put Lukas in his sleepsack, he slept straight through the night until 5:30 in the morning. Therefore, it was definitely worth the time I invested into making it.

A sleepsack is not the easiest thing to sew, especially if you are not familiar with zippers. Although it is possible to make them with ties or snaps, I prefer the ease of being able to zip the sleeper quickly up or down in case of a late night diaper change. I also like adding some sort of embellishment. We had just been to an airshow, so I put an airplane on this one. I like the contrast of yellow to blue and the airplane for this color scheme worked well.

If you want more info on sleepsacks, take a look at my earlier post from July 17, 2010 - http://kelley-donner.blogspot.com/2010/07/baby-sleep-sack.html.

Here is the How to:

1. Since I already have a pattern for a sleepsack, it was easy for me to just trace around one of my old sleepsacks and add a bit more material for growth. If you don’t have a pattern, lay down a onesie or a shirt on a piece of newspaper and draw around the top to make a vest pattern. Then draw the sides down around like a pear making sure that you have at least 6-12 inches more length than your child is long. I used an orange Crayola washable marker to do this (They really do wash out wonderfully, even on the couch). This will be the back of your sleep sack. For the front, take the same pattern and fold it in half. Then cut out the neck like a v. You will need a left and right side.

2. Cut the flannel out according to your new pattern. I cut out blue for the outside and yellow for the inside. Then I cut a half an inch off of the pattern that I had so that you have a slightly smaller version and used it for my fleece material. If you want to put an embellishment on your sleepsack, here the airplane, you will need to do it now before you sew everything together.

3. Sew the fleece material onto the material that you will be using for the inside, in this case the yellow flannel (see pictures). If the fleece were the same size as the rest of the material, your seams would end up being really really thick. In order to avoid this, we have just sewn the fleece in a half inch so that later you will only be sewing the flannel pieces together.

4. Now take your left side pieces and lay them together with the best sides touching each other. Your fleece piece will be facing out. Take your zipper and put it in between your two pieces so that the material completely covers it. Use stick pins to pin the zipper to the material. Now sew the zipper in place by making a seam at the edge of your material with only about a 1.5 to 2 mm edge and sew just until the end of the zipper material. If you sew too close to the inside of the zipper, your material will always catch on it when you zip the sleepsack up or down. Do the same on the other side. Fold the pieces back out to make sure that your sleepsack zips correctly, then fold back.

5. Now you will need to sew a horizontal line at the end of the zipper to sew the ends shut. Then take the two pieces and sew from the inside of the horizontal line down to the end of the material. I hope I have explained this well enough, but in the end when you open up the two pieces, you should now have one piece that fits reasonably well onto the other piece that you cut out. If it is a little two big at the bottom, you can make pleats like I did and if the zipper looks silly at the bottom you can always add a little triangle piece of material over it. I usually do this anyways, because I like the look of it.

6. If you want a seamless sleepsack, you will now need to take your back piece of flannel and lay it down, here my blue piece. Then I lay my new front piece with the zipper with the good side down toward the blue piece. Finally, I lay the yellow piece of flannel on the top. Use stick pins to pin the pieces together from under the arm all the way around to the other armpit. Then sew the pieces together with about a quarter inch of material around the edge. Remember, you should only be sewing together four pieces of flannel and not the fleece.

7. Then pin the top of the arms and sew them together leaving not only a quarter inch of material at the top, but also a half inch on each side. Now fold your sleepsack back right-side-in so that the pieces are all where they should be.

8. Now fold the material in about a quarter of an inch around the neck and arms and iron flat. Then sew these seams using matching thread on the outside. Your sleepsack is now finished. Way to go!!!