Handmade Baby Goodness

A while ago (before we knew that Nora was...well, Nora and not Jonathan) I found this baby gym at Costco for a really good price.  It seemed great.  Good price, nice colorful baby gym.

Then I was cruising around Pinterest and found a link to a blog where a lady had these adorable pictures of her baby laying beneath a simple wooden baby gym.

Her husband had made it for her and she was just raving about the beautiful, natural goodness of her new handmade baby gym.

This is was her observation on the gym that I had bought:

[those]"horrific jungle/etc themed things that put my teeth on edge."

(whatever 'puts my teeth on edge' means, I'm assuming it isn't good.)

I, being the occasionally peer pressured person that I am, thought:

*gasp* "Oh no!  I have one of those horrific things!  I must be wrong!"

Now, I realize that there is nothing wrong with those store bought gyms but as I thought about it I realized:

1.  I REALLY loved that simple, handmade wooden gym better.

2.  I knew two people that could get it built for me.

3.  It would most likely be cheaper

So I asked my dad if he thought he could build one for me.  We went out that weekend and picked out some wood, I took the other baby gym back to Costco, and he got my new one built super fast!

What would a beautiful, hand-crafted wooden baby gym be without some quaint little hand sewn baby toys?

And that began my baby-toy making craze.

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Isn't this just the most quaint, adorable thing you've ever seen??!

I love this little crinkle owl.  Probably the most complicated thing I've made so far.

I had to invent the pattern and everything

(which was a totally new skill to me)

All I saw online was felt faces (eyes, beak, etc)

I decided with my white material to embroider the face on.

I am by no means an embroidery expert.  In fact, I basically made it up as I went.  Considering that fact I'm going to jump out on an egotistical limb and say that it turned out pretty amazing!

Look at that lovely wood.  I even found some organic wood sealer to seal the wood with that is safe for ingestion.  Perfect for teething little babes.

Can't you just see little Nora laying underneath her little toys on the coordinating blanket?