Whipping up a 2nd birthday

My son turned 2 this past Sunday and I was busy the entire week prior whipping up some birthday goodness just for his special day.

I made him a shirt just for the day. I couldn't find any cute train shirts that had a number 2 on them so what's a crafty mama to do? Make one herself of course! lol The train is actually a clipart from Microsoft Word and I just used a font that sorta looked good with it for the 2. The clouds I free-handed and the stitching was hand done. My machine couldn't get into those curves and it was too late at night to even attempt it. lol

I also made the cupcakes and some cute little cupcake flags from train scrapbook paper. I wrote some cute little train phrases along with the typical 'happy birthday' on them with a fine point Sharpie. The cupcakes were healthy, made from a yellow cake mix along with pumpkin puree and organic banana yogurt. The recipe came from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and it tasted awesome!

But my biggest accomplishment was the present I made Alex. I was working all week on this cute little kitty just for him on his special day. The face was hand embroidered and I embroidered a special message on its collar, "For Alex on your 2nd birthday. Love, Mom". Truly a labor of love and I love that he loves it too! :)

For those interested, the kitty pattern came from this link: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/party-cat-plush
It only gives you the pattern for body and the head, the rest is pretty simple. For the arms and legs I cut out rectangles that were 1.5 inches wide by 4 inches long (2 for each leg) and then shortened them where necessary. The ears are simple triangles except I cut one side longer than the other so it would stand up more like a cat's ear. Also to made the kitty stand up, I simply cut 2 more ovals from the base pattern out of muslin and filled with a bean filler (it's in the stuffing aisle in craft stores). Put that at the bottom and then stuff with Poly-fil on top of it.

If you're interested, I'll scan my pattern pieces for the legs, ears and belly for you to use. And I'll show you exactly how where I inserted the arms and ears (the bottom legs and tail were simply sewn into the seam).

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