Pi Necklace Giveaway from Boutique Academia

I know, everywhere else on the craft blogs, you're seeing St. Patrick's Day and Easter crafts popping up...we'll here at Helping Little Hands we've got to get ready for Pi-Day first.  We're getting ready a little early this year, since baby #4 is coming just before Pi-Day...and to make sure you've got enough time to get ready yourself.  Never heard of Pi-Day?  It's March 14th (3-14) every year and is the day when math lovers everywhere celebrate the number Pi...as in 3.14159... or the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter.

There are all sorts of ways to celebrate Pi-Day...the yummiest of which is eating some pie.  I'll be sharing some other fun ways to celebrate throughout the rest of the week (and you can check out my Pi-Day archives for things we'd done in the past), but to kick things off, we've got a giveaway!

Maile from Boutique Academia is giving away one of her beautiful Digits of Pi Necklaces.

I've shown mine off before...

...and I love that it's versatile enough to be worn with a T-shirt or a classy dress or anything in between.

If you haven't been to Boutique Academia, you should check it out.  As Maile puts it, she designs "smart-and-beautiful accessories for women in science & technology. Stuff for geeks with taste. "

There are three easy ways to enter the giveaway for one Digits of Pi Necklace.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  You can enter one way or all three.  You have until March 5th at midnight to enter.  Then we'll select one random winner, and you should receive your necklace in time to wear it for Pi Day.  (If you live outside of the US, you can definitely enter...but it might not arrive in time depending on shipping times.)

• Become a follower of Helping Little Hands via GFC or Facebook.  (Or if you already are a follower just tell me in your comment.) 
• Head over to Boutique Academia and check out Maile's shop.  Then come back here and tell us what your favorite product is.
• "Like" Boutique Academia on Facebook and come back here and leave a comment.

Thanks so much for entering!  And be sure to stop by the rest of the week for more fun with Pi.

WARNING - Crafting while Tired and Pregnant Could Lead to...

Crafting while tired and Pregnant could lead to some items like this...

I thought I was so brilliant and nerdy to come up with this...

I showed the Nuclear Physist onesie to Hubby and asked him, "Where do you think this is going?"  Meaning...what do you think will be on the back?...what's the punchline?  Hubby's response..."To someone who can't spell?"

Nurseries and Waiting for Baby

We're about to welcome baby #4 into our family sometime in the next two weeks.  We've been getting a few things ready...but a nursery is not yet one of them.  In fact, with all four kids, I have yet to decorate a baby nursery.

We struggled for years with infertility.  Our oldest two kids are adopted.  We only had a few weeks notice that Firecracker would be coming to our family, and I spent that time sewing quilts for her birth parents.  Had I realized it would be our only chance for quite a few years to get a nursery all dolled up, I might have planned ahead more and done it before we knew she was on her way.  (But to be completely honest...I also didn't have the courage to get a nursery ready when I didn't know how long we would wait for a baby.)  We had more notice about adopting Little Brother...but when we brought him home, his nursery was a mini-pack-and-play in our bedroom until he moved into a crib in the tiny bedroom he shared with Firecracker.  We were finally able to get pregnant and Sweet Pea came home to that same mini-pack-and-play in our same tiny apartment.  Sweet Pea got her "own room" when we moved that mini pack-and-play into our tiny master-half-bath when we first moved to Washington, and she finally got to sleep in her crib when we moved to our somewhat larger current house.  Baby #4 will be coming home to...that same little pack-and-play for a month or so until he can move into his crib here.

Seriously, I'm excited about this little crib closet-nursery that's waiting for our baby as soon as the house is finished.  We had it added to the house design.  It takes a corner out of our room and will have folding closet doors, so baby can be close by while allowing us to use the extra bedroom he would have occupied as a play room.  But with a whole house to decorate from scratch...I doubt too much decorating action will happen for a while.

I did want to show off a couple of friends' nurseries that I love.  These nurseries are already beautifully decorated...they just don't know when their babies will arrive to complete them.

Richard and Emily are dear friends of my sister, Katie.  Emily just posted pictures of the sweet nursery they're getting ready for the baby they're hoping to adopt...but they are still looking and waiting for their baby.

Pictures from Emily and Richard's Adoption Blog

I love all the birds and blues and bassinet...and so many of our favorite books.  They also have an adorable tree wall decal.  It's such a happy and sunny looking room.  I also love what Emily has to say about how they chose the theme and are adding to it.  You can learn more about them on their adoption blog here.

Whitney and Spencer are also dear friends of my sister, Katie.  They received word back in December that they would get to adopt a little boy this month, and they got this beautiful room ready for him.  And then it fell through.  (We had an adoption fall through between adopting Firecracker and Little Brother and the only way you can describe it is hard and heartbreaking.)  So this nursery is currently waiting and hoping for another little boy or girl to come and fill it.  I just love the bike and balloons theme and all the cheery colors.

Pictures from Whitney and Spencer's adoption blog and Creating While Waiting

Please pass their names on to anyone you may know who is considering placing a child for adoption.  Besides their adoption blog, Whitney also has an adorable craft blog called Creating While Waiting.  You can also see more details from her cute hot air balloon and bicycle nursery design here.


Maybe you know someone who can help them these amazing couples find the babies who are meant to fill these nurseries.  Our family has been forever blessed by adoption, and we're excited for what Emily and Richard and Whitney and Spencer have ahead of them when they find their babies.

Nesting

We've been busy getting ready for baby #4 around here.  Even the kids are getting involved.  Sweet Pea completely came up on her own with the idea to sew a "gingerbread pillow" for her soon-to-be little brother.  (Grandma made the kids' gingerbread pillowcases a year ago for Christmas and Sweet Pea sleeps with hers year round.)  She's been talking for days about how this project will just be her and me...not the others and it's for the new baby.  We finally made it happen today.  She is SO proud of it and keeps asking when the baby will be born so she can give it to him.

After discovering the left over flannel in my sewing cupboard, Little Brother wanted to sew the baby a pair of puppy pajamas to match the ones he got for Christmas.

I did very little sewing or "getting ready" ahead of time for my other kids.  I never made any of them baby blankets...they got those from other people who loved them, and got them from me later...in fact Little Brother and Sweet Pea just got their first mom-made blankets for Christmas.  I almost didn't make a baby blanket for this baby on principle, since I didn't do it for the others...but then I had a fun idea, and if there's one thing I've learned from experience, it's that the only way to know something will get done is to do it.

What's made the difference this time?  Less stress and more creative vibes, maybe.  And also knowing from experience that I won't get much creative stuff done in the next several months, so I'm trying to get as many projects done now as I can.

Anyway, in the last couple weeks, I've sewed a baby quilt...

Radioactive Tie

Hubby wears ties to school a lot.  It's not requried for teachers at his school, but he thinks it's more professional.  Since he's always been a math and science kind of guy he's accumulated some fun, nerdy ties over the years.  His main focus in collage was chemistry, so he's got 3 or 4 periodic table ties.  Now that he's a high school teacher, he's also teaching physics and physical science, so I thought it was time he had some ties with a broader range of science topics.

So for Christmas, I made him a radioactive tie.

Well, with a radioactive symbol on it...the tie itself is not radioactive. :)

I'd seen this post from Megan at Generation T used freezer paper stenciling on a tie and thought I would give it a try.  (An honestly...I think her tutorial is better, so if you're going to actually try this, be sure to click over and read her version too.)

Now I have to say, this was a bit trickier than regular freezer paper stenciling.

Here's what you'll need...

Last Minute Cupcakes

I promised Firecracker that I'd make cupcakes for her class Valentine's party...and then before I knew it, it was 11:30 am and the cupcakes needed to be delivered by 1 pm...and we had no powdered sugar in the house.  I thought about switching to cookies...but that didn't really seem any easier.  I thought about bar cookies, which would have been a lot easier...but all of our favorite recipes call for chocolate...and one classmate is allergic. 

So with less than an hour and a half to have the cupcakes mixed, cooked, cooled, frosted, and delivered I figured I better get started.

I used a cake mix...because no matter now much time I have, I always use a cake mix, and popped them in the oven.  Lucky for the kids we had red cupcake liners.  Then I realized unless I wanted to add a trip to the store in for powdered sugar, I better make some 7-Minute Frosting.  7-Minute Frosting takes longer to make than buttercream...but it turns out is actually better if you're in a hurry...since it's a cooked frosting, it works perfectly fine to frost warm cupcakes.

Dinosaur Fossil Cookies and Favorite Dinosaur Books

A little while ago, I saw an idea for making some dinosaur fossil cookies and it looked like fun, so I thought we'd give it a try.

The kids LOVED making them.  I'm sure you could use a lot of different cookie recipes for this, but I pulled out my favorite unshaped Sugar Cookie Recipe from Little Page Turners.  We did everything the same as her recipe, except this time we skipped rolling them in sugar since we were turning them into fossils.  We also made the balls of dough about twice as big as usual, so they'd be big enough to stamp the whole dinosaur.

Birthday Signs Tradition

Hubby's family had a tradition growing up.  When you woke up on your birthday, there was a fun sign waiting for you announcing your birthday.

When we were first married, I thought it was silly and we didn't really do it.  Then we had kids, and I realized what an awesome idea it was...because it's a cheap and easy way to make the day feel extra special for your kids.

We've put in varied amounts of effort over the years.  Sometimes they're made out of scrap paper...

The Not-Too Crazy Quilt

I was looking through some older pictures and came across one of the quilts I made back before I started blogging...and taking millions of picture of every project...so this is the only picture I have of it.

I made this quilt several years ago.  As I've mentioned before our oldest two kids are adopted.  I made quilts as gifts for their birth parents when we brought our kids home.  I should share those quilts with you sometime too.

Several years ago, my mom and step-dad adopted a girl they'd had as a student who'd been in the foster care system and needed a permanent family.  I was already grown and out of the house, but made this quilt for her to commemorate her becoming part of our family.

The pieced blocks were done by cutting out a square of muslin.  Then I sewed the strips of other fabric on, however they struck my fancy.  Then I trimmed the strips to match the size of the muslin square.  I liked the unplanned nature of it...as well as the fact that it still had a certain amount of order with the plain blocks in between.

I put lots of blue in throughout the quilt, but each pieced block had a second color scheme...orange, pink, purple, etc...  There are two blocks of each color scheme.  Then I used those fabrics to make the binding as well.

I don't have pictures for a tutorial for it, but if you have questions about specifics, feel free to send me an email.

Scrappy Bunting Cards and Giveaway

Last week I was itching to do something with some of the scraps I've been generating lately.  I hate to put little pieces of fabric back into my regular fabric stash because they can get lost and it makes the whole bin a mess.  I've more or less decided on a scrap quilt to start...but I need some good quality white quilt fabric first...and that has to wait until this next weekend before we can get to the "big city" and go fabric shopping.  (Funny how using up scraps necessitates buying more fabric...isn't that how it always works?!?)

Anyway, I had the itch to do something with those pretty scraps, and I knew some of them would be too small for a scrap quilt anyway, so I decided to whip up some of these.

I figure they'll work well for writing Thank You cards (which I'm typically terrible at sending out) for baby gifts, especially since the scraps came from the baby's quilt.  (Which I'll post about sometime...but I'm waiting to have a cute baby to pose with it.)