DIY Montessori Topponcino

This weekend while Jason and Matilda were out of town camping, I knocked out one of my last projects I had planned for baby Mabel.  While we aren't strictly following all Montessori principals from birth (no floor bed until she's 6-12 months old), one thing I had researched and previously didn't have with Matilda was a topponcino. 

A topponcino is basically a flat security pillow you use with newborns and infants.  You can use it when holding the baby, under them when they sleep, for play time, etc.  The thought is that it will retain their smell and your smell and provide them a comforting spot, especially when you might be traveling or handing them off from adoring relative to adoring relative.

The typically run about $37-40 online, with each case running an additional $12-15 (plus shipping).  I had found several sets of instructions online to make your own, and was confident this was a project I could handle. These were the two instructions I used for my topponcino (here and here). 

The materials for the topponcino and 2 covers ran about $31.  I could have probably gotten them cheaper had I waited for the right sale at Hobby Lobby.

To make it, I bought 1 yard of wide cotton batting, 3 yards unbleached cotton muslin, and 2 yards of fabric for the cases (I chose 1 yard of while flannel with cute delicate flowers on it and 1 yard of very plain white gauze.)

Once I had my materials, I had to cut a pattern out of paper.  My pattern was about 26x16, with slightly rounded corners.

One tutorial said to use about 4-8 layers of batting, and 6 seemed about right for me.  (Remember, while this is a "pillow," it still needs to be rather flat for safety reasons.)  You layer muslin between the batting, so all in I had to cut 6 layers of batting and 5 layers of muslin to get me started.

Here's what the batting and muslin looked like layered together.

Then you hand whipstitch around the edges to combine all the layers.

I didn't take a picture of the next step, but I made a permanent cover out of muslin.  I cut about 1/2-1 inch around my initial pattern and sewed it on the sewing machine leaving about 8 inches open.  I turned it right side out, inserted the batting, and hand stitched the opening close.

The permanent cover needs to be attached to the batting by darting it in place in 5 spots.

Here is the finished topponcino.

I also sewed two covers/ shams.  For the front of the sham, cut 1/2-1 inch around your initial pattern.  For the back, do the same thing but make it an additional 8-10 inches longer and then cut it in half.  Hem the flat edges of the two halves (the goal is to have them overlap 4+ inches on the back so you can slide the pillow in and it will remain in place).  Then line up the backs to the front (right sides facing in) and sew all the way around it.

Here's a picture of the back of the sham, so you get an idea of how it should overlap.  My flannel cover overlaps by like twice the amount as this one.

My flannel cover ended up slightly too small, but it will work fine, and the gauze was a pain to cut, pin, and sew since it was so flimsy, but overall, I'm happy with how everything turned out.

Looking forward to seeing how it works with Miss Mabel.

New House Exterior Tour

The other day I snapped a few quick exterior pics of our new house.  Here's the front. 

We have some pretty big exterior plans, including darker accent paint on the trim, a new curved garden bed out front, replacing the siding glass doors, and building a deck overlooking the ravine.

Here's the side of the house.  The small concrete patio is where we'd like to eventually build a deck.

Here's a few shots of the ravine.  This was before 2 nights of freezes, so now the elephant ears are looking pretty pathetic.

Around the back of the house is a decent sized backyard.  We may eventually fence off the side next to the ravine with some wire fencing that won't block the view.

And here's our small patio outside of the kitchen between the back of the house and the garage.

New House Interior Tour

Did I mention we moved in August?  Just a street over.  We are habitual house hunters, but we had gotten increasingly more serious during 2016.  We were thinking about having another kid, and while we could have definitely made our 2/2 work (the bedrooms were huge), ideally, we wanted to be in a 3 bedroom prior to having another baby.  And by we, I mostly meant I did.  I really didn't want the stress of moving while being pregnant or having two little ones.

Our house hunting had been pretty depressing.  Real estate has been sky high, so we were having a hard time finding a house that met all of our major criteria.  We were looking for a 3/2, 1500+ sq foot house with two living areas and a double driveway.  We didn't want my commute to be more than 30 minutes, so that limited us to just a few neighborhoods that would be within our budget.  We would have loved for it to be zoned to a good elementary, but we also would have loved to stay in our existing neighborhood which means we'd be applying for magnet school programs when the time comes.

In the meantime, we had been making some improvements (including fresh interior and exterior paint) to our existing house.  We figured it'd help with resale value, and if we didn't find anything worth buying, we'd just enjoy it for the time being. 

In June, a house a street over from us went on the market.  We got a viewing the first day and quickly made an offer.  While it didn't meet all of our criteria (it only has one bathroom and it has a single driveway), it had the added bonus of being on a double lot with a ravine running through it.  The back den has an oversized sliding glass door that looks out over the ravine.  That's really what sold us on this house.  So far, the single driveway hasn't been too much of a pain, and eventually we'll reconfigure our one bathroom into two by combining it with two adjacent closets (one of two hall closets and one of two master bedroom closets).

Our existing house was market ready within a week or two, and it sold the first weekend being on the market.  Once both houses were under contract, we found out we were pregnant.  Timing was truly a blessing. 

We're finally mostly settled into the new house.  Jason pretty much handled all of the packing, moving, and unpacking himself because of how exhausted and useless I was my first trimester.  This house didn't really require much upon move-in; we resurfaced the bathtub and bought a new couch for the den, but otherwise we've made all of our existing furniture and décor work. 

So, here's a tour of the interior... I'll get some exterior shots eventually.  Right now our lawn is covered in leaves.  Also, I haven't taken any pictures of the utility room or garage.  I guess I'll do those when I get the exterior shots.

Living Room

Here's looking towards the front door.

And here's looking from the front door into the living room and further to the den.

Here's the living room view to your left which opens to the dining room.  The door beside the built-in bookshelves leads to the bathroom and bedrooms.  It's been nice having more separation between the main living areas and the bedrooms.  Less volume control issues once Matilda heads to bed.

We love the huge windows which overlook the ravine.  Matilda has her camping chair and binoculars set up for bird/squirrel/cat watching.

Dining Room

Nothing too fancy here other than Jason's record collection and turntable setup.

The door to the right leads to the kitchen.

Den

Back over to the den... this is where we probably spend a majority of our time.  Matilda loves the carpet.  Who knew that carpet could make a kid so happy?

So a few things going on here.  Yes, that is some sort of wood burning grill in our living room.  Yes, that's a lot of wood paneling.  Yes, we have a massive beer stein collection handed down to us by Jason's grandma.  And finally, yes we have a random door which makes no sense to us since you can walk 15 feet into the kitchen to use that door to get to the back patio.  That's why we blocked it off with the couch. 

But, here's what's great about this room... the massive sliding glass door overlooking the ravine. 

Breakfast Area

Heading out of the den towards the kitchen, we have Matilda's play area and the breakfast area.

Hi Matilda. 

Here's the view from the kitchen, through the breakfast area, and towards the den.

Kitchen

Here's a close-up of the kitchen.  Kinda reminds me of our redone kitchen in our prior house.  The gas stove is a bit fancy.  It's a gas oven as well which is pretty rare.

Here's the view of the sink area and the nice window above the sink.  There's a covered walkway to the utility room connected to the garage.

Hallway

So stepping out of the kitchen, through the dining room, leads you to the hallway to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Bathroom

The first door to the right is the bathroom.  Not much to see here other than a bunch of white tile.  The bathroom is original to the house, so it's starting to show its 70+ year age.

Master Bedroom

It's not the biggest master bedroom in the world, but it does fit a king size bed with no issues.  For now, Jason and I have separate closets, but that will change once we add the second bathroom.

Nursery

I just finished decorating baby sister's room.  I'm still waiting on one more picture to come in from Etsy (ignore the bottom frame above the changing table for now) and I need to organize the closet, but otherwise it's done.  We went with a navy/teal/pink camping/woodlands theme.

It was pretty difficult trying to figure out a layout that accommodated the twin bed, crib, and glider, but I think I got it to work.  We'll likely change the nursery into a Montessori style room once she's between 6-12 months old, so this is just temporary anyways. 

Just as with Matilda's nursery, I crafted a few of the decorations.  I made the banner above the crib, her name, and pillow cases out of matching fabric.  They were fun little projects.

Matilda's Room

Matilda's room is pretty much the same as the other house except we recently moved her into a twin bed so we could use the crib for the baby.  I re-covered a headboard that we had previously made for our old queen bed.

So, that's it.  I'll eventually get some exterior pics as well.  We're enjoying the new house.  :) 

Christmas 2016

Happy holidays!  We've had a wonderful Christmas with family.  Here are a few of our DIY pictures we used for our Christmas card this year.  We took them on our front porch and down in our ravine.

And here's a few pictures of our new house decorated for the holidays.  I love Christmas decorations, and even got a few new ones this year.

As usual, we headed south for the holidays.  We did Christmas eve at Jason's parents.  Matilda had a wonderful time opening presents, and even had a costume change halfway through the evening into her new ballet outfit.

We opened presents at my parent's house Christmas morning.  Matilda particularly loved the tea set my parents got her and the doll & stroller set we got her.

She also had a wonderful time playing with her cousins.  They shot off rockets and swung a ton.

Our last full day in town, we took all the kids to the park to run off some steam.  I think they had a ton of fun.

And ever since we've been back at our house, Matilda has been in play mode with all of her new toys. 

It was a great Christmas.  I'm always sad when this time of year ends.