Home Made Birthday Gift of the Year: The Perfect Picnic Blanket

Sorry for the bad picture, it is all rumpled from being rolled up in our closet

Still no baby so I am trying to squeeze in a few last blog posts I have been meaning to do. Unfortunately I have been feeling lousy and very very tired so I didn't take any decent pictures of this project but you'll have to take my word for it that it turned out great!

I try to do home made gifts as much as I can (and supplement with store bought, I love giving gifts!) so for Eric's Birthday this year I made him a gigantic picnic blanket! We did a ton of picnic dates in the early days of our relationship, when I was in grad school and he was out of work and money was tight to say the least. Now that we have a little one (and one on the way) going out to eat can be really difficult for different reasons. Picnics however are a great kid friendly activity, we can get in a date night and bring the little ones along too! I have been eyeing the awesome picnic blankets that have a waterproof side for a while and decided to make one of my own this Summer. You can find the tutorial I used here. I love this version because it is extremely large but still folds up small so you can store it in your car, plus it has pockets for storing your goodies!

Close up of the fabrics

It uses a lot of fabric so it can be expensive to make but I saved up some coupons I had for Joanne's and was able to spend a little less that way. It was very easy to make because it was all straight lines but a little tricky just because there was so much fabric to work with. Anyway, it turned out lovely and I can't wait to get some use out of it when the weather cools down, I see a lot of picnics in our future this Fall!