{A blanket of puff shells}

After finally finishing a blanket for my son, I figured I should do one for my daughter as well. Lucky for me, a local small yarn shop was having a sale! There, I picked up 30 balls of lemony Rowan "Cotton Rope" yarn (that's right, 30 balls! and it cost the total of only $30). This particular pattern - 3D, or puff shells - is not complicated at all; what takes time is the sheer size that I decided to attempt. The result looks beautiful, and what's more important, my daughter just loves it!

{Basic Fruit Purée}

Starting your baby on solids is an exciting milestone, but can be a bit daunting for any new parent. You want to give your child the best, and you know that food is a big part of that. If you choose the old-school way of starting your baby on purées (the route I took with both of my kids, at least for now), you can either buy prepared jars of purées or make your own.

Making your own is SUPER simple, especially in the beginning. You can make batches of single ingredient purées and freeze them; when ready to serve, it's fun to combine with other things such as cereals, meats, etc., or just offer on their own. I promise you, baby's taste buds will love it!

Today, I'll show you how to make fruit purées. I've tried many different ways of preparing it, and my favourite in terms of taste is baking. Yes, it IS more time consuming (but that's just because you have to wait for your fruit to bake), but the outcome is delicious!

Nectarine purée thickened with oatmeal cereal

{Crochet Suck Pads}

Very recently, I became a happy owner of Beco Gemini baby carrier. My baby loves it, but they don't come cheap! So to protect the straps from drool, spit-up and chewing, I highly recommend getting/making some suck pads. These are usually sewn from cotton fabric. Although I can sew a little bit (and these ARE pretty easy to do), I'm not good enough to figure out velcro, clips, etc. I crochet, that's what I like!

These suck pads are SUPER easy to do - all you need to know are a few simple crochet stitches and how to crochet in a round. The suck pads will be slip-on.

{Thick Baby Blanket}

Here it is, my first finished project to share with all of you - a blanket for my baby boy!

I'm not going to lie, this one took a really REALLY long time; granted, I only did a little bit at a time, but it's a time-consuming pattern nonetheless.

(click on images to enlarge)

I adapted the pattern from a beautiful crocheted hat I found HERE (it's in Russian, but you'll find the actual pattern diagram there as well).