A little bib obsessed

It seems silly now but when getting ready for Stickybeak's arrival bibs weren't on my radar. I was washing sheets, blankets, wraps, onsies and singlets by the dozen - and even plenty of hats and socks - but no bibs.

I didn't even think to buy any. Thankfully a clever mummy friend gave me a bag of hand me downs. You would think that given she thought that a whole bag of bibs would come in handy that it would register with me like the neon sign it was. But ... no. (I'm sharp like that.) So in all my wisdom I ignored the bibs and they stayed in a bag in the spare room for months. That is, until we brought Stickybeak home.

It turns out that it's common for babies to vomit, like, after every feed and whenever you lie them down. I'm sure I knew this BB (before baby) but somehow it skipped my mind post baby. Anyway, the term used is 'possetting' and it generally doesn't call for alarm, it is just wet and messy. Which we soon found out. On our first night home with Stickybeak we went through two outfit changes (which babies hate by the way) and a cot sheet change before it occurred to us that a bib would be really handy (yep, sharp as a tack!).

Since that night we became a little bib obsessed (ha!). That bag of hand me downs became our favourite thing and we started becoming attached to certain bibs, we even had nicknames for them. There was Panda, Big Rig and Bear - ok, they weren't especially clever names but in fairness we did have other things going on.

What, me vomit? - Stickybeak models one of our favourites.Panda was a cutie, it had a picture of a Panda face with the words 'Panda To Me' - and it says something about my mental state that it took me a few weeks before I recognised the play on words. But we particularly liked the randomness of Big Rig -- it was a large bib with a picture of an oil rig on it with the tag line "because future drillers need feeding". It was ridiculous, and it was perfect because you need a little bit of ridiculous in those first few weeks.

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation but we would be excited when our favourites came back from the wash. "Look who's back," we would say. "It's Panda!" I'm sure it seems silly, writing this five months down the track it seems silly to me now, but in those first few weeks when everything was a challenge it gave us a little something to smile to each other about at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Sadly, Panda and Big Rig have been retired. They certainly earned it and besides the vomiting isn't so much of an issue anymore. And now that Stickybeak has started solids we are in a whole new bib ballgame - I'm talking about bibs with sleeves! It turns out the wet and messy doesn't go away it just takes a different form.

So what's the moral of this story? For new parents: don't forget to wash the bibs. For the friends of new parents: whatever gift you buy you can't go wrong by throwing in a couple of bibs too. The more ridiculous the better.

Create: Rudolph the Reindeer

Each year I like to create something new to my existing box of Christmas decorations. Previous creations have been Christmas stockings and Gingerbread Men tree decorations, but this year I just had to share my unexpected Reindeer creation with you. Isn't he cute!

My new creation on show.

I love Chrissy decorations which have a clean stylish aesthetic and when I stumbled upon this wooden reindeer in a $2 shop and I just had to have it. It was a little pricey at $16.95 but as I had just earned $90 for market research yapping for 2 hours about nappies I decided it was a no brainer and so along with a few other items I took it home and stashed it away in my study until I had time to look at it away from prying eyes.

My wooden reinder from $2 shop.

Imagine my disappointment when I assembled the reindeer (it slots together in 3 spots) the designer had failed to consider the leg placement and the weight of the antlers. Therefore any sudden movement or bump means the decoration collapses onto itself. Making it essentially useless in my household with 2 kids and 2 cats.

Not to be discouraged I thought maybe if the legs had been cut on an angle this problem wouldn't occur, yes after all these years my design school training had not gone to waste.

To prove my theory I copied the reindeer onto an empty shoe box and got cutting. See pictures below.

Copying the reindeer onto shoebox

Originally I thought this would be a great idea to make as an alternative to a Christmas card. You could colour in one side and write a message on the other and pop into an envelope to your loved ones to assemble. A great activity for the kids when they are older.

Cardboard reindeer in action.

I still might make the cardboard cards, but I decided to take it a step further and create a version made from felt. And christened him Rudolph!

The Reindeer in pieces.

I used exactly the same pattern as the cardboard creation but did a few things differently. Firstly I ironed some thin facing onto the felt before cutting out the pieces. I then found some white wool in my box of treasures and started to blanket stitch the four pieces individually, stuffing it with polyester filling as I went. To secure the pieces and avoid it collapsing I decided the most practical solution would be to use a small pearl bead and loop to act like a 'hook and eye'. This would keep its clean look and still allow the reindeer to be stored flat when packed away with the Christmas decorations.

A closer look at the bead and loop.

If you would like the cardboard template you can get the scanned images of the reindeer here, Page 1 and Page 2. I'm now going to make it in a slightly smaller version by scaling the design to around 60%. I'll post any new creations in the next few days.

 What Christmas decorations are you making? Post a link to your creations.
-- Hannah