great baby shower project!

Handmade baby blocks is far from an original idea (someone named Martha Stewart has a tutorial for it), but it's a goodie.  It's fun, creative, and easy to personalize.  It would make a great activity at a baby shower, because no baby can ever have too many blocks (ok, let's get real here for a second - decorative baby blocks are for the parents, not the babies), and it's an easy, fun and quick project.

I made these for my new (3 days old!)nephew, whose name is Otto, but whom my son refers to as Babyotto.  When my sister-in-law was here in November, Gus could not figure out why Babyotto could not come out and play.  He's going to be a hell of an older cousin.

I repurposed two books - an old Richard Scarry and a new Eric Carle that I scored from the Twist goodie bag.  My only regret about this project is that I started cutting up the books while Gus was still awake.  Not so good when I spend a great deal of time explaining that books are precious and not to be destroyed.  He doesn't quite get that the exception to the "cutting up books is bad" rule is when you are repurposing the books in such a cool way.  He'll learn.

I didn't have a theme in mind, but once I started reading the Eric Carle, the seasons became an obvious one, especially because there are 4 seasons and 4 letters in Otto's name.  Brilliant, right?  

We'd love to bring this fun project to the next baby shower you host (assuming you live within driving distance from our Happy Valley).  Shoot us an email!

you have to look closely to see the 

letters o t t o overlaid on the beautiful

Eric Carle drawings 

awesome Richard Scarry drawings that 

nicely reflect the 4 seasons

and here is Eric Carle's take on 

the seasons - I couldn't have planned this

if I tried!

two personalized sides:  Otto's birthday is on the

winter block, and on summer is a baseball field 

and some stats about his parents' 

beloved Cincinnati Reds