And while Evan played with his friend, Caroline insisted on swinging with her BFF

(p.s. Evan’s super awesome Mike Mulligan shirt is from Out Of Print clothing. <3 them!*)

*a true, unsponsored kind of love

I am a sucker for crafty, homemade, small business, or handmade stuff. There is a reason my Paypal balance never stays positive for more than a few days. Here are some of my most recent purchases (plus a one-of-a-kind gift from a friend that is going to make you squee with cuteness). If you have a baby, are expecting a baby, know someone having a baby or just love heandbands, this will be very very bad for your wallet.

Don't even think about taking my animal crackers

Diaper clutch

How much do you love that fabric? LOVE. I won a store credit from Bird E Studios last year and spent it on a gorgeous baby blanket with this print on it. The quality was outstanding and I liked it so much I asked Erika if she could make me a matching bib and diaper clutch. She did – but the post office lost them somewhere between the West Coast and the East Coast. When I mentioned it to Erika she sent me replacement items and told me if the other ones showed up I should just give them to someone as a gift. Is that great customer service or what?! (Sadly, they never did show up. Stupid post office.)

Bebeh shoes

Have you signed up for Heartsy? I heart Heartsy. It’s like Groupon, but for Etsy shops. If you sign up here, you get a $5 credit after your first purchase (also, I get a $5 credit so go do that, OK?) I bought a gift certificate for $9 to Weepereas and got $24 to spend in the shop, which covered a pair of adorable reversible baby shoes, plus the shipping. These have TINY SHEEP on one side and little blue circles on the other. Perfect soft shoes for Caroline.

There are TWO things I love in this photo. Three if you count Caroline. The super cute crochet turtle was a gift from my friend Ashley (it MIGHT have been for Little Evan, but don’t tell the baby. She loooves it). Ashley has a shop on Etsy or check out her Facebook page for more crocheted dolls and animals.

Second is the headband I bought Caroline for my sister-in-law’s wedding from Audry & Ulric. Can’t beat the extremely reasonable prices and free shipping. I think I’m going to buy the sunflower or the water lily ones next.

Despite The Face, she does love her Giddy Up and Grow headbands. Or maybe I’m projecting because they are seriously amazing – the details are like art. I showed the site to my friend Megan right after I ordered this one…and she bought 2 of her own immediately. They’re impossible to resist!

Allora Handmade headband, obviously. It looks fantastic with her vintage pinnafore. How much do I love dressing her in something called a pinafore? SO MUCH.

And do you see what she’s gnawing on? That right there is the best handmade baby gift EVER:

Flat Chicken. My internet friend Audrey invented the pattern from her own head. It’s seriously genius – Caroline loves the silky ribbon tail and the bumpy comb and the pointy feet for chewing. I brought it with us to a doctor’s checkup and our nurse would NOT STOP gushing over it. She eventually asked if she could take a picture to try and recreate one for her daughter. So Audrey, OBVIOUSLY you need to make these available to people besides me.

And last but not least, my darling Emily from Uff Da Deigns made the beautiful baby dress and those adorable felt flowers, which are actually clippies attached to a stretchy headband. Super useful now when Caroline’s hair is still too fine for barrettes but they’ll be useable for years and years (and can also be borrowed by mamas who love felt flowers too). The trio flower clips are coming to the Etsy shop soon, but because I *might* be her best customer, Emily made me a couple already. Is there ANYTHING she makes that I don’t love? (Answer: NO).

Have you ordered anything yet? Don’t worry, I’ll do this again in the next couple weeks with non-baby related stuff for my non-mom friends. I’m an addict. It’s cool.

Blah de blah hopefully unnecessary disclosure because you KNOW always honest with you: I bought all this crap with my own cash money and/or got them as legit gifts from friends who had no idea I was going to blog their crafty talents. I’m just sharing because I like sharing.

I am currently less than 50% of the way through two separate adult-sized sweaters (one for myself, one for E) so of course I’ve spent all my spare time this week starting brand new small projects instead of working on them. I am a fickle knitter who gets bored with the same yarn and the same pattern over and over and little extra projects keep me from quitting altogether.

Here’s what I’ve made in the last week and a half:

Reusable coffee coozies

I finally finished up the last 2 of these I wanted to send to friends. All I need now is time to get to the post office. I’m glad these are the last two I’ve promised to make because I am sick to DEATH of them. (Original pattern found here, but I’ve changed a lot of it)

My first attempt at baby socks

I have always said I hated knitting socks and I’ve only ever knit one before. Not one pair, one SOCK. The second one is less than 1/2 an inch long and still on my needles. But BABY socks are baby sized, and these took only a couple of hours. I made a counting mistake on the first one that I just fudged and a couple of knit vs. purl mistakes on the second one that I had to rip out and do over but even with the frustrating parts they are so adorable I don’t even care. I see a lot more tiny socks in my future. (Garter stripe baby socks pattern found here)

Blanket buddy rabbit

This was SO EASY and SO CHEAP to make – it’s done in dishcloth cotton, which you can buy at Walmart for only a couple of dollars and takes less than 1 ball. It’s all seamless so nothing can be pulled apart and the face is stitched on with yarn so there are no choking hazards which makes it perfect for babies. I had this yarn left from the very first time I ever bought yarn (EVER!) and found the pattern in one of my 1-skein pattern books. If you’re a new-ish knitter who only makes hats and scarves this would make a great next step project.

Baby and toddler bibs

More dishcloth cotton AND a pattern I made up myself. Well, ok, I modeled it off a nearly identical bib my friend Megan gave me as a baby gift but still – no pattern. You are only impressed if you’ve never knit a stitch in your life. Otherwise you know it does not get any easier than a garter stitch square. These are gifts for someone who happens to be a knitter so I hope she knows they were made with LOVE even if it wasn’t with hours and hours of time.

Tiny bunny

Finally, I present OH MY GOD the cutest little 15 minute knitting project ever from Mochimochi Land. I stumbled onto these on Ravelry this afternoon and made this one approximately 30 seconds later. Then I spent two hours squeeing over their other patterns and wondering why I hadn’t been knitting these adorable little things for months and months already?

You know your husband loves you when he'll pose with your tiny bunny

I have already made another, slightly larger one for the toddler to play with and plan to make a few more. They keep multiplying like…well…rabbits. I will build a bunny army!

And now I guess it’s time to get back to my sweaters. Sigh. At least I have all summer to finish them.

This video contains several things I’ve been trying to capture on camera for the last couple of weeks:

1. The palms-up “I dunno!” shrug, accompanied by the face. I think I’ve shrugged like that maybe twice in my life, but obviously one of those times was in front of Baby Evan.
2. That “Ey-ee?” noise he makes when he pulls his arm back to throw something. I was at playgroup two weeks ago and complained that Baby Evan LOVED to throw things but had a hard time distinguishing appropriate stuff from hard, pointy things. One of the moms said “Why don’t you get him to ask “Ready?” before he throws?” AND THEN HE DID. Because she mentioned it once within his earshot. It doesn’t really help though, since he just ask “Ey-ee?” before throwing the hard, pointy things. But at least you have fair warning. It is often followed by “Oh!” (throw!) but not always.
3. The “Ooooooo-ho-oo-oo-oo” that goes with the “Oh” face from the weekend’s post. He does it all the time and I always crack up.

(As usually, please ignore the mess and the dog and my husband’s gym shorts yadda yadda yadda. Whatevs, this is what my life looks like. I’m over it.)

(Also, free housekeeping tip of the day: Socks pick up a lot of dog hair and dirt and are easily washable.)

P.S. Want to make our relationship Facebook official? “Like” me – you can use the link in the left sidebar – to get even more Bebehblog! It makes me feel all warm and tingly.