Crocheted Owl/ Diaper Cake

Very pleased that Sue from SIBOL received my owl today.  Apparently, the postman could not read the postcode that I somehow must have printed incorrectly and it took a while to get to England.  Oh well! For those who don't know, SIBOL is the acronym for sunshine international blankets of love and I really like to read Sue's blog.  It is www.sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com   Sue has several "challenges" where she asks those who crochet or knit to make squares along a certain theme.  Won't the "Owl" blanket be a good one?  Sue receives the squares and then artfully arranges them and crochets the squares together, puts a border around each one and then delivers them to those in elderly care homes in England.  Sue receives squares from around the world, so they truly are international blankets.  Thanks to Sue for letting me know that this little guy was finally able to overcome my bad handwriting and made it to England.
Now, remember I told you I was in the midst of preparing for a baby shower.  I will be going there tomorrow and will be taking a diaper cake...Want to see how I do it? It's easy, if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it.  (They are called nappy cakes in England and Australia!)

This polka dot blanket (I love polka dots!) had a very pale pink rough kind of stitch around the side.  I took some lavender yarn and joined the yarn in one corner and just crocheted away...all the way around the blanket in a single crochet.  I could have gone around it again and made it a more lacy edge by doing a picot edging, but I'm a plain sort of gal and just liked that clean straight lavender edge on it.  What do you think?

Oh, and you know those women who always have beautiful nails and perfect hair and are always dressed beautifully?   I hope to be that like that one day, but the outlook doesn't look too good.

Ta-DA!  I think you can see from the photos how I did it.  I use clothes pins and rubber bands and just roll the diapers up and shape them into a round cake shape!  It really is best if you have a blanket or something that goes really flat so you can smooth that around each layer of diapers so it looks like icing.  You are supposed to pin the blanket at the back with covered baby diaper pins but I don't know if they even make those anymore, so it is just pinned together at the back with regular large safety pins. My second layer was actually girls trousers with a lacy bottom so it wouldn't lie as flat as I wanted it to, that layer is tied up with a white ribbon. It's a good idea to have something like a wooden spoon that you can decorate if you like or something similar...I found a little heart wand that was long and sturdy and so was perfect to push through both layers of diapers to kind of hold it together.
I fell in love with this little doll and knew I wanted it on a baby girl's diaper cake even though it says
" First Valentine's Day".  It's so cute that I hope the new mother won't mind. After all, that baby will have her first Valentine's Day next February!  The doll is sitting on top of a washcloth that I DID edge in a lacy edging and I hope the new mother will like that too! Very pleased I could wedge a Dr. Seuss book in there, Dr. Seuss being one of my favorites.  And "The Lorax" is a little onesie for a newborn!  I truly love to make diaper cakes and please, if you know anyone who is having a baby, I encourage you to make one too.  Let me know if you do!    I have seen them made with just diapers and ribbons, and I have also seen them with lots of gifts stuffed into them. Often, people will wrap the whole thing up in plastic, but I leave mine like this, just have to try to balance it on a hard piece of paper lined cardboard and get it to the baby shower.   Wish me luck!
 

DIAPER CAKE UPDATE:  Newsflash! Stop the presses! Overnight, the second layer of the diaper cake had settled making it look even messier than before, after frantic last minute panicking and more time spent with it, the diaper cake has now another layer and paper which probably clashes with the polka dots, but the artist in charge likes it anyway! I have added a crocheted flower which is tied to the baby wash on the front and now the doll is carefully perched at the very top. Since this is now so heavy, I found a plastic plate for it to rest upon. What do you think? It's got to be this since I have run out of time!

BABY SHOWER UPDATE: The baby shower was wonderful and the mother-to-be, Melissa, was just glowing! My cousin, Chris, was very, very happy too! (Can you tell by those beautiful dimples?)

It was a beautiful day for a shower...the dogwoods were in perfect bloom and the sky was amazing.

Melissa and Chris have lots of family and friends, look at all the vehicles lined up on both sides of the road.  (And there were more you can't see! )  What a wonderful showering of love upon these parents to be!