What is it that when you bust out certain materials the creativity just seems to pour out of you in a great river? The popsicle sled ornaments from a few days ago spurred such an occurrence.

Harrison was playing with some of the sticks, before I let him have the glue and he created this simple snowflake. Its so small and sweet, just like Harrison ....... when he's sleeping. I wanted to make more. So I busted out some larger snowflakes - not knowing what the crap I was going to do with them. Everyone does that right? Make something or several somethings without fully knowing just how they're going to get used? I can't be alone in this.

Well after all the snowflakes were dry, I decided they needed something. Out came the same gold GlitterBlast from the paper dahlias. Seriously, love this stuff!

 Trying to capture the glittery goodness of these things is hard!



Then my snowflakes sat on my dining room table for a bit. We had Thanksgiving dinner in our kitchen, because the snowflakes were on the dining room table - waiting. Then I got inspired. I was perusing HGTV.com and their plethora of design ideas for Christmas and I was struck by lightening. I knew exactly what I was going to do with my giant snow flakes.

So how do you like them now? I love them! I love my mantle this Christmas. I love everything about it. Do you?

I guess its about time I got to showing off the rest of the Christmas decor. Get ready!

I have two sets of stockings. One mom made for everyone, and another set that I made. The ones I made are apart of the family room decor. The set mom made is up front in our living room apart of that decor. Last year I had the genius idea to beef up my banister decorations with Mom's stockings and I loved it. What I didn't love was that darn green garland. It looked nice, but eh. It just didn't do it for me.

So this year, while wandering around Michael's for the umpteenth time this holiday season, I saw some deco mesh stuff that I had to have. Its wheat colored with shots of mettalic gold running through it. Perfect for my living room Christmas decor!

So with a few white pipe cleaners and some patience, a few tries to get just the look I wanted, I ended up with a nice mesh garland on my banister!

All I did was wrap the pipe cleaner around the stiles of the banister and then secure two loops of the mesh to each stile. I then hung the stockings with the same pipe cleaner underneath the mesh. I love how it turned out!

Simple yet stunning!

I don't know why some projects take so long to complete, because when you get right down to it they're so stupid simple that the 5 minutes it takes to actually get them done should inspire you to just get them done. Ha! Not so.

I had a pillow project for Reagan that should have gotten done months ago, but I got 90% done and then stopped. The last 10% only took 5 minutes, but it took 3 months to spend those 5 minutes to get it done.

On Reagan's window seat, I had (have) several pillow ideas planned, and I had two 12-inch pillow forms lying around, so you'd think I'd at least get those 2 pillows onto her seat before she got here. Nope! You'd be wrong. I decided to wait until the wee hours of the morning one day after feeding her to get the one pillow done. The other pillow did take some time, because I only had 5% of it done for the longest time.

So the first pillow I made for her is a simple blue chevron print with some crocheted flowers on it. Super simple. The flower pattern I used is {HERE}. I simply changed hook sizes to get the various sized flowers for the pillow.

The second pillow was inspired by a monogram I saw somewhere and I can't for the life of my find the blog post that inspired me. I designed the monogram and then drew it out on the pink fabric. Then several satin stitch sessions later, I had this really pretty outlined monogram. Another 5 minutes to sew up the pillow and VOILA! 2nd pillow is done.


I have more pillows I want to make for this window seat, but for now these 2 will have to suffice. At least until after Christmas. :)

If you follow Straight Stitches on Facebook or follow me on Instagram (haboyajian), then you know a few days ago I shared a photo with a 1/2 done project. Well that 1/2 done project is now fully done and on display in Rae's room.


I know this isn't your typical sampler for a baby's room, but the boys both have cross stitch samplers in their room and I didn't want Rae to feel left out. I don't particularly enjoy cross stitch though. I mean, I can do it, I just don't like too. I get about 85 - 90% done and then I usually put the project down and forget about it. All those finishing stitches are annoying, which is why I didn't want to do a cross stitch sampler for Rae. That and I only half-heartedly looked for a sampler and I didn't  find any that I had  to have.

I did a couple of google image searches for modern baby samplers and quilled art, and then VOILA! Inspiration hit. After some playing in photoshop and more google searches for appropriate butterfly images, my butterfly sampler was taking flight.

I did opt to 'freehand' the lettering on her sampler and by that I mean, print out my master copy of the sampler and lay it over a light box with my nice cardstock and trace around the letters. All of the inside touches on the lettering is all me though! I think I did pretty good!



Then it was on to the paper play. Using free time any time I could, I glued up those strips of paper. All told it probably took a good 3 days to get the butterfly done, but I feel like it was totally worth it.


I found the glittery frame at Michael's and when I saw it I knew instantly that it was what I wanted to frame the sampler in. Thank goodness for sales!

So baby Rae is 3 weeks old and things are getting into a pretty workable routine here. The boys still argue; they just do it a little more quietly. They shut the door to their bedroom when they play up there.

Well apparently I'm just going to update the blog on a once-a-month basis, which is dumb, because I have been a project-monger lately. Lots of little stuff for the kids, and a lot of started but not finished projects too. I even started, and finished some, Christmas projects! I know, I'm shocked too.

So why can't I seem to get a post together? Hip pain. Back pain. Lack of functioning brain cells. Yep, those excuses all work.

So anyways, let me show off the biggest accomplishment thus far in getting ready for baby Rae. Her nursery! BTW - there will be a crap ton of pictures in this post. Just warning you.

 So here's the overview of her room. I can't tell you how in love I am with this room. :)

 Here's her super simple window valance. I love that all of the eyelets I picked for her room did not need to be hemmed. Yay for no hemming!

 Showing off some stuff in the built-ins. Look how much more storage room there is! Love! The first picture has pictures of me and my great-grandmother together, along with me and Mom, my great-grandmother, my grandmother, great-uncle and aunt. Dana is also in there, and the other picture is from several Easters ago when Dev gave Harrison a little dandelion. So sweet! Oh and the flowers in the second picture are from Dana's wedding!

 Here is the chalkboard art with a Shakespearean quote on it. Rae is gonna have to be fierce with 2 older brothers. :) The other picture is of my sisters when they were 2 or 3.

 I'm glad I managed to save stuff from both Steve's and my childhood to give each kiddo. This baby rattle was made by my grandfather for me. See, it even has my name on it. My sisters have matching ones as well.

 For all of you that love an Ikea hack, this one was super simple. I merely wrapped beads around the base of a ho-hum lamp to spruce it up a bit.

 Here's some artwork I made for Miss Rae. I did some web searches for cute butterfly quotes and I really liked this one. Below you'll see that I had to add some bling to it with stick-on rhinestones.

 There's the closet! I am so in love with how the dresser and mirror turned out. The dresser was a leftover from Harrison's nursery, and the mirror actually goes to my dresser, but I'm not a fan of it. At least I wasn't until I painted it black and put it in her room. The curves of the mirror will help all the corners that are going on with the dresser.

 Ok so this picture is upside-down and I don't know how to fix it, but I wanted to show off the Ikea rug for her room. I love how the gray really helps ground the space. You'll also see the blanket I crocheted for her. Very first crocheted blanket people! I don't think I did to shabby. :)

I guess most people would consider the crib the main even, and really I'm no different. Not to say that there's less work involved in this crib than in other places in this room, but the crib really was a labor of love. From Stephen painting it black for me, because really, after 2 boys the white on the crib wasn't so white anymore. To agonizing with my mom at Hancock looking for the right combos of white and eyelet to achieve the look I wanted. There are a lot of whites out there people! The whites I ended up going with are more of a blue white, but the crib sheet actually looks a little pink because of her ceiling. Then there was the cutting out of everything, because I wanted the crib skirt to have the scalloped edge of the eyelet, but the bumper to be out of the middle, and then we ended up going with a seersucker for the contrasting fabric because of its texture and it didn't compete or take away from the pattern of the eyelet. The bedding for this crib was one of the most planned things in the room. Second only to the built-ins, but the built-ins were easy comparatively.

So here's a closer view of the crib bumper. You can  see the delicate floral pattern of the eyelet. Below that is the crib skirt. You can see how intricate the eyelet pattern got towards the edges.


Here's a view of the mobile that I made from Rae's perspective. I really love my twig and butterfly mobile. Although getting it to hang just right, was kind of a pain. Luckily I used fishing line and you can't see just how many strings are attached to the stick.

Here's another view of over her crib. You can see the one hook in the ceiling holding up the mobile. I also love the addition of the boys' christening outfits on the wall. They are so excited to have some of their 'stuff' included in her room. You can also see the size difference of the boys. Dev's christening outfit is about a 9 month size, and we christened him at 4 months. Harrison's is a size 6 month, and he was just about 6 months old when he was christened. I also included the shoes they both wore.

Here are some close-ups of the butterflies. I just used white cardstock for them, and used my silhouette to cut out 5 different butterflies. I then strung them up with beads on the fishing line and went to town on my stick.


Here are some better views of each christening outfit. My grandmother made Harrison's outfit and per my request included the touches of blue. Stephen was pretty adamant that the boys' not wear a dress. The hangers were regular plastic hangers that I wrapped in satin ribbon to gussy them up a bit, and the door knobs were a gift from my mom. You know you're an odd duck when you get excited about door handles as Christmas gifts. :)

 Devlin's christening outfit was made by my mom, and again I requested the blue. I'm glad I did too, because lord did that child love to spit up and the blue hid a lot of it! Mom has also claimed making Rae's christening outfit. I think it was the 2nd sentence out of her mouth after I told her that she was having a granddaughter. She's very excited to experiment with some heirloom sewing techniques she's been working on.

 So here is my great-grandmother's side table, painted pink and topped off with a silver platter I 'borrowed' from mom about 10 years ago. I'm pretty sure that counts as mine now, right? I just topped it off with some fake roses and a mason jar to hold nursing essentials.

Here's the glider that has survived a lot, and then we improved on her by adding the zebra print!!! I love this chair!

Here's the opposite wall from the crib. The boys helped me a lot with this side of the room. I asked for their opinions on the the art and the letters, and I think they did pretty well with arranging everything. :)

The letters are just MDF letters topped off with glitter cardstock. I do love my shiny, glittery things.

The artwork is from The Graphics Fairy, that I printed out onto watercolor paper with our laser printer, and then the boys helped me paint them. I love how all of them came out.



 So here are just some of the crochet projects I've been churning out for miss. Pinterest has been especially deadly for me when it comes to baby stuff, cause I see all of it and then I have to try it!

 Oh and here's the inside of the dresser drawers. I didn't forget them either. I had some leftover contact paper from other projects so I pulled it out to add a little color to inside her dresser.


So that's her room. One of these days I'll get around to showcasing the crocheted projects I've done.