Itty Bitty Baby Mittens

I was looking for something in our mud room closet, when these itty bitty baby mittens fell out of a bin and into my hands. Seems impossible to believe their hands were ever that tiny. That their little fingers were so small they wore thumbless mittens.

These itty bitty mittens remind me they grow up way too fast and I need to slow down and cherish the itty bitty moments.

Although my boys have tons of mittens, I distinctly remember buying this pair. Shortly after returning from maternity leave, I had to travel for business. When I travel alone, I like to go wander the local mall. On this particular trip, my newborn baby was never far from my mind. I made up for missing him by shopping baby stores. These tiny mittens on a string reminded me how small he was and how much I longed to go home and cuddle with him.

I couldn’t bare to stuff these cuties back in the closet, so I framed them instead!

I found this bright teal frame at Michaels. Although it is not a shadow box frame, it has springy metal clips on the back with enough give to put something thicker under the glass.

I sandwiched the itty bitty mittens between the glass and white poster board. I played around with several layouts for the string attaching the mittens before settling on this crisscross swirl, reminiscent of a snowman.

The itty bitty mittens have a proud new spot on the picture ledge in our family room, where they will stay the remainder of the winter. When I do something new to decorate for the holidays, I try to do projects that I can leave up throughout the winter. Which is why I did a winter mantel upstairs, instead of a Christmas mantel.

I am over the moon with how our family room turned out for the holidays.  It is so bright and fun.  From the almost-too-crazy-fun party tree full of family pictures to these sweet baby mitten memories, this room screams FAMILY!

Speaking of itty bitty, how sweet are those tiny turquoise bells?  My mom picked them up for me after the holidays last year.  I thought they were individual ornaments to hang and packed them away with ornaments for the tree.  To my surprise, when I opened them up this year, I discovered it was really a garland of tiny bells.  I hung them on the front of the picture ledge with little adhesive hooks.  I am not going to lie…they will probably stay up long after the holidays are over.

Tell me, what do you do to remember the itty bitty moments?