Chiara Daniella is here!

Chiara Daniella Blackburn was born this morning at 11:45 am. She’s 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. Aria was in labor for about 12 hours I think. Go Aria!!!! All natural and so beautiful – both of them.

So glad this baby girl is finally here! She was 13 days overdue. Poor Aria.

In preparation for Chiara, I have been doing a lot of projects that I forgot to post pictures of. I finally finished all the little presents for Chiara just in time to send them in the mail, so I only snapped a couple pictures with my phone. But here are the gifts for Chiara:

I did several of these. Matching baby onesies and hair things.

A ruffle butt onesie (is that a thing??) …it is now.

And then here’s all of it laid out on my bed before I threw it into a box to be mailed …

Some things I bought from the consignment store, some I made and the stuff on the right I got from Target. I made baby bracelets in every color of the rainbow and scads of headbands, so I HAD to make something for them to hang on …

I got the frame from TJ Maxx and painted/distressed it white. Then I got some hardboard from what used to be the bottom of an IKEA drawer and cut it to size and put yellow scrapbook paper over it and added hooks and viola! A jewelry/headband holder.

I felt bad sending all this stuff for Chiara, imagining Enzo and Luca watching all these gifts go to the new baby and nothing for them. So, I HAD to make some stuff for Enzo and Luca …

Luca’s gift: a “treasure bag”, full of treasure of course. (Luca is seriously into pirates and mostly treasures).

The design is a gold coin from Pirates of the Caribbean.

These are all pictures from my phone, so kinda fuzzy and some are blurry …

And for Enzo: a stuffed super hero monkey. With a cape. I also made a life sized matching cape for Enzo to wear (which I hear has been commandeered by Luca):

And I had Ray try out a Chiara headband …. ahhhhh, sigh. Ray would be such a pretty little girl ….

OK, now on to the next project … Aria called me last week and said she wanted me to make something for Enzo’s birthday (which is on Thursday), so I’ve been sewing like a mad woman for days and finally finished it today. It’s a coloring/activity briefcase for Enzo. Here are wayyyyyyy more pictures than you wanted to see of this …. I really feel like this is some of my best work. Not bragging, just saying, this is about as good as it gets for me. I’ve topped out on this one.

On the right is a magnetic whiteboard.

OK, on the right is a large pocket for coloring books with the alphabet hand embroidered on the front. The middle section is for crayons on the bottom and colored pencils in the top section. The left side has two zipper pockets for magnets and treats or whatever. The magnets would be for the magnetic whiteboard I have on the flap.

We were afraid that with all the carrying around this briefcase would get, that the colored pencils might slip out, so we made this flap to Velcro close, to keep them in place.

That’s mesh, so Enzo can see what’s being held inside.

Finished with a magnetic snap closure. Phew! I’m tired just looking at this post. I can’t believe I cranked out all that stuff. Well, welcome little Chiara and happy birthday Enzo!!!

One thought on “Chiara Daniella is here!

  1. Holy Cow, this post rocks! I have seen it all in person, but it still amazes me when you put it all together like that! We love you Aunt Fran!!! Thank you so much for being here in our lives despite not really “being” here physically.

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