Frog and lion animal blankets.

My daughter. She loves frogs. And anything to do with frogs. Her favourite stuffy is a little green frog. And of course, she has a hundred other frog toys. She wears a frog pendant on her amber necklace, which she's worn since she began teething. Her arms are always full of frog gadgets and trinkets, and whatever else frog-related she could find on our shopping trips. So it was not a surprise when this past Christmas she asked Santa Claus to bring her "frogs!!!!!". My wheels started turning, "what other frog item(s) can Santa bring that she already doesn't have and that she will actually want to play with?" 

Then one evening, my daughter was playing in my sewing studio as I completed a fleece shark blanket. I was sewing it for my nephew's upcoming sixth birthday. I asked her to try it out as I was curious about whether I had made it the right size. When I asked her if she liked it, she replied, "Yea, but it would be better if it was a frog..." and then uninterested, tossed it aside. And there it was... the idea I had been wracking my brain for weeks! I knew right then and there that my next project would be a fleece frog blanket! And because I wanted to avoid any future arguments over whose blanket it was and whose turn it is to climb inside, I had to make another one for my son. I decided to make his a lion.

Both blankets turned out fantastic. And they came together in no time! I included details like tongues inside the mouths, spots on the frog, and claws on the lion's paws. Both kiddos were ecstatic when they opened them on Christmas morning! They love to take them along to Nana and Papa's house for sleepovers, they climb inside when they want to snuggle in front of the television or while reading a book, and they play with them all the time. My only regret is that I made them toddler sized. I wish I had made them a little longer, as I now see that they will be used for more than just the next couple of years.