Last Minute Sister Gifts

At the last minute I decided I wanted to make all the sister/sister in laws that I would see at christmas a present.  So a week before christmas I began franticly searching Pinterest for something I could make for cheap.  Then I thought just get over yourself, get them monogrammed note cards, at least its something.  But then all at once, or not at fast, it came to me, and I got super lucky and found four frames at Goodwill, and three quart-sized bags of legos for 6.50 each.  I sanded and painted the frames the same afternoon, I found the frames. Then used this tutorial to help me make the fabric rosettes.

  I absolutely love them, and can't wait to find another frame to make one for myself, I know exactly where I'm going to hang it.

This is the text of the photo: 

In this home...

We do second chances.

We do Grace.

We do real.

We do mistakes.

We do I'm sorrys.

We do loud really well.

We do hugs.

We do fun.

We do family.

We do love.

I have been so in love with the text for a few months.  I appreciate the idea to say its ok to make mistakes, but emphasis the sorries.  I am like giddy in anticipation to make myself one.  I'm going to make mine a little bigger. 

Grammy's Present

I have a sickness.  I think Christmas should be more about sharing with people, then spending money.  So then I end up making pathetic homemade gifts.  There are lots of good things about homemade gifts but the worst is you feel bad getting rid of them.  So I'm sorry all you out there who receive homemade gifts, probably the best is you know the person actually cares enough to spend way too much time on something that would be very cheap if it came from another country. This is obviously for my mom, when I saw the idea on Pinterest I thought it would be perfect since my mom got to have five out of her seven children at her house in December.  Its probably been close to 10 years since that has happened.

And now we know now that I'm no longer making christmas gifts that I should spend my time touching up my baseboards.

Teacher Gifts

 The other day at staples I was looking for christmas cards to give to my son's teachers, but they were so expensive! Then I found red thank you cards and a light bulb went off in my head! I found these printables online and made my cards.  (Isn't the internet great, people so willing to share their talents.) I thought they were perfect because the whole reason you give teachers gifts is to say thank you. 

 I ended up making more cards to give to my sunbeam parents.  It was a hard half year for me which I think the parents knew, but I wanted the parents to know I appreciated teaching the kids, because it taught me so much about our Savior's love for us.
But back to the teachers, so my son has a kindergarten teacher who teaches two half day classes so she teaches 45 student every day, then she has a full time teaching assistant, who goes to church with us and all the kids absolutely love her. So in addition to the ornaments, I also made them ruffle scarfs. There are so many tutorials out there about how to do ruffles easily.  I tried so many and none worked, I went through so much thread on the first one. It took me about 2 hours, the second one took me 15 minutes.  So easy once I figure out the best way to ruffle on my machine.  I just wadded it up and tried sewing in a straight line. Yeah like the tutorial for ruffle scarf says, I should have listened instead of trying everyone else methods. I absolutely love the one on the left and wanted to keep it for myself.  I can't wait to make myself a ruffle scarf, they are so trendy. But who knows if the teachers like them.  Oh well not my problem.

Christmas Insanity

Sometimes I have insane ideas, like being so impressed with my son's teachers.  As a five year old you would be amazed at how many he has.  A kindergarten teacher, a kindergarten assistant, a PE teacher, an Art teacher, a Music teacher, two librarians, a counselor (who meets with them every other week, to teach good citizen lessons), a technology teacher, and a primary (church) teacher, who he adores. That is ten teachers, I obviously couldn't buy ten presents, even at $5 a piece that is $50, but lets be honest by the time you add in the .99, and tax, it would be much closer to $75.  But I still wanted to do something for them. I've been super impressed with all his special teachers, he LOVES specials of course, but the surprising thing is, most of the teachers know him by name!  How a teacher who see 500 kids a week, knows the name of one kindergarten is beyond me, but I'm grateful for their effort.  I loved specials as a child, but they weren't actually fun, nor did the teachers ever know me even after years of seeing them.  It was a lot of alphabetical order and teachers not letting us talk. They have enough xylophones for every student in music class AND they actually get to play them on a regular basis! His tech teacher, encourages them to walk around the room and see what their friends are doing on the computer, she believes computer time should be a social thing, you should never do it alone.  Nor do they have sit, they can stand at their computer the whole time if they want.  Let me assure you I was not allowed out of my seat in computer lab, only occasionally did we try to whisper to the person above or below us in alphabetical order. So what I decided I could do was make them ornaments.  I made ten ornaments by hand!  What was I thinking?  That I was really impressed with these ladies, and it was the only thing I could do was to make them something out of my scrap material.

 The worst part was cutting out the material, but I endured and I made them each a flower ornament. Then I wrote them each a thank you not/happy holidays card telling them how I appreciated them in my son's life.

 But then I loved the flowers so much I made to make one for me!

On a side not encase you didn't realize how awesome our school is, he goes to most of his specials twice a week next year once he goes to full day school.  He has six specials that is more than one a day, and then half of them he will go to twice a week next year.  Yeah its a great school.  Not surprisingly we have less homework, shorter days and the highest test scores in the Springs area.  (That and affluent population, although we hardly THE richest school district.)


And if you look at the four posts previous to this, you now know why this is titled Christmas Insanity. 

Second Set of Presents

My daughter has been obsessed with Pinkalicious since about September. 

And since I only spent $4 on her other presents, how could make her more presents I knew she would love.  Not to mention she kept telling me she needed Pinkalicious's cupcake.  She pretends to eat this one non-stop.  Unfortunately I spent about $5 making these presents, along with buying the book. 

 Then we bought a pink dress.  That was another $9.  So her free birthday wasn't so free.  But I thought it was all so perfect. Not to mention she loves pink dresses, and doesn't have many.  Plus it was from Ross, plus doesn't every frilly girl need a birthday dress.

 Minus the pants, what do you think, just like Pinkalicious without the Brown pink-tails.

By the way I didn't quite want to embroiderer Pinkalicious on the crown but I was running out of time and couldn't come up with anything better, because I didn't want to do Happy Birthday again, although I probably should have.  Pinkalicious is better than Princess in my opinion.  Once I realized I made my son's crown on his third birthday I was very happy with my decision to make my daughter more birthday presents. Its just decemeber birthday are insane!

First set of Birthday Presents

My daughter just likes baby stuff, so I figured why buy her presents.  I bought her a used toy baby car seat. But it had an ugly princess torn cover so I figured I could easily make a new cover.  I made a new stroller cover a year ago. Yeah the carseat cover was hard than the stroller if that is possible.  They were both hard and I wouldn't suggest anyone do it unless they are committed. Then I made a matching backpack, after seeing Candice's post, in which she gets her directions from this site, I added width, but I also sort of wished I added length. I also am bad at following directions so I actually made the backpack one and half times.  Long story.  

But come on doesn't ever mom need a matching travel system for her baby?!  At least once in her life.

 She has been wanting a baby carseat for about two months now.  Everytime we were in the store and her brother looked at legos she asked for the carseat.

 Just for the record, I still have at least two yards of this duck material.  Does anyone wants some?!

Butterfly Cake

We had a butterfly birthday party for my three year.  The girls all go butterfly wings, and butterfly wands.  Then we ate butterfly cake.  I made it myself, from a round cake. 

  My son was very concerned about eat pink cupcakes so I made three green cupcakes, which I realized could make into a cute Caterpillar. Not to be conceded but I was surprised at how well my butterfly turned out.  Just so you know if you cut up a cake to form a new shape it is necessary, no vital to freeze your cake, do a frosting crumb coat, freeze again then frost a finished layer.
Even though she was all over a butterfly party, my daughter kept talking about hello kitty cupcakes.  I could not find any cupcake toppers with hello kitty that were actually cute, so I made my own.  They are a little large, I didn't realize that at the time. Problem is you make the cupcake toppers before the cake.

 Hooray for 3rd parties.

I'm amazing

Yes that title seems a little self absorbed but if you read this post, you'll agree.  Ok, maybe not, but isn't it nice when people think you are so fantastic.  Its always nerve wracking when you send someone homemade presents, because you invest so much of yourself in a present, so its always nice to see them gladly received   

If you read Alisa's post, then all these pictures will be repeats, but Alisa's pictures looked so much better than the ones I took, so I borrowed hers.  I think I need a new camera.

First I made her pillows, with ruffles, because ruffles are big right now!  Then I made her a smaller pillow with a flower, because flowers are so fun.  When I made those ruffles I only broke one needle, so you know not bad.

Before I went shopping for fabric, I hunted Alisa's entire blog to find out what color her couch was for the pillows, how she decorated her tree.

 Alisa seemed to favor on red ornaments, so it seemed only fitting to buy red and white Christmas material for the skirt, not to mention based on the ads it was the height of fabric fashion this holiday.  But in my mind the skirt should be green like the tree.  So I did both, and made a reversible tree skirt. 

Then if you look at crafts on Pinterest at all you know that Monogram tree skirts are beyond the height of fashion, so I had to add it.

See aren't her pictures pretty!

New Ribbon

I made this glass believe block a couple of years ago.  Ok, I didn't make the glass, I put the vinyl lettering on it. It had an ugly ribbon originally.  I never could find ribbon I like to replace it.  Finally two years ago, I use some ribbon from a present from my grandma gave to me.  I still didn't like it.  This year I was determined to find ribbon I liked.  I didn't find what I was looking for but I did find some I liked.  6 yards on the spool worth.  I had more than enough to make a pretty bow.  I love it now!  

Luke 2:10-11 Printable

I decided I wanted a printable that read, Luke 2:10-11. "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." We are big Charlie Brown fans, so when I read it I hear Linus's voice.
A google search came up with nothing, come on all y'all Subway art, fanatics! So instead I found this picture on google, and made my own printable. (The picture came from Free Christian Clip art, and I think I am allow to post this, because I am an "individual believer of the Christian faith" and I'm not selling it, and I linked it back to them.) I really wanted Shepherds or sheep with the star since its the Angel talking to the Shepherds.  But you get what you get and don't throw a fit.
Here is what I came up with:

 I think I'm using this one in a 4x6 frame.

(By the way I do know this isn't subway art.)

Update as up 2:02 pm I actually made a new one, this is what I'm using.

Play kitchen-- what I'm not doing

I so wanted to make one of these nightstand play kitchens.

But then I saw the TV stand kitchens.

I thought if I'm going to make a kitchen I should make a kitchen.
But lets get real.  I'm I crafter, but not a diy-er.  I am probably physically incapable of making a kitchen from a TV stand, and would probably never finish my nightstand kitchen. I just learned how to put an anchor in the wall.  Do you think someone who barely found out how to put in anchor knows how to use a saw?
Let me tell you the correct answer, no!
But we do need a new kitchen.  Check out ours. That blue thing sticking out of the oven is the facet.  Pretty good that its actually with the kitchen, unlike the facuet nobs or the sink, or the oven door. Not to mention it is pretty small, about a foot, by a foot, by a foot and half.  But it work well in our tiny previous apartment.

Pretty
Then I found this ikea hacks,
I'm so excite about these:
stool to kitchen

This is just a chair! 

I could actually make one of these.  There is no sawing involved, just painting, and maybe some screws.  But I just learned how to do that, so I can make these!  Not only can I put in anchors, I can hang a curtain rod.  Oh the dreams I am getting from these bad boys.  This is not a christmas present, I wouldn't have time, these would take me probably a good two months.  Not to mention our house believes in Santa Claus, so Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc do not bring homemade toys. Mommy is too needy for that, she needs the praise of eveyone knowing SHE made it.
Personally I'm thinking two chairs bolted together, one stove one sink.  Plus I want to use bolts or screws or something, so our stove knobs turn.
Two Ivar chairs, and I guess this Ivar shelf to go on the bottom of the chair legs, and two more of these Bekcam spice racks, some blecka hooks, a bowl with a flat bottom that I would glue on the top for the sink (hey it works in my parents bathroom) (no one in my house can cut a circle with a saw), paint, glue, screws and lots of time, because I'm dense. Then I'm done!
But then of course we need, Dunktig toy sets, the baking, utensils, pots and pans.
Wow, this is getting expensive!

PS Ikea Hacks, tell me how to make a fridge easily. With no sawing, or anything.
There is this, made with this. But come on, $80 for a play fridge? I don't think so.

Oh I found this hack. I could buy Fullen Sink Cabinet, get a top for it, put different handles on and make a fridge with that.

Tom

For kindergarten we had to disguise Tom-- he was feeling a little worried about the time of year.  Can you guess what Tom is? I really kind of hate school projects like this.  I think Kindergarten project should be projects they can do by themselves, but that is not the way school works, and nothing is going to change over the years. I guess I should revile that they are as easy as they are right now.

 Here is J and Tom.

On a side note my son originally wanted to disguise him as a triangle.  I drew most of the stuff, but had my son cut it out.  I felt like I was being too involved, but that's the way these projects work.

Fluffy Apron

Once again, I've been meaning to sew this apron for about a year.  

 Last year when I made this apron, for my daughter, I also made one for my sister's daughter but it got lost in the mail, so I sent her that one.  I decided to make a really ruffly one to replace it. A few years ago for christmas one of my sister in laws made a christmas apron for Nan.  It was by far her favorite so I decided I would make her a general through out the year apron.  Except we moved and I didn't  But now I finally did.  It was pretty quick and easy, and my daughter loves it ruffly.

P.S. I always make the children's aprons neck strap too big.  I don't mean to but I definitely don't want it too small, their heads are big in proportion to their body, and I just can't help it.

A little late

I guess I should have edited this picture before I posted it, so it didn't have so much blank space.  Oh well.

This craft only took me 13 months to make.  I print and cut out the letters the previous Halloween, like back when my son was 4 when everything was ghosts for Halloween, including the soap dispenser.  I got the letters from here. And this tutorial to make the rosettes. Rosettes are the accordion circle behind the letters. J loved it when I showed it to him, unfortunately he is going to have to wait 11 months before it stays hanging in our house.

Birthday Wreath

In honor of my mom's birthday today, I'm finally posting my birthday wreath. 

I'm absolutely in love with it.  These wreaths are surprisingly expensive on etsy, and after finishing this one I know why.  It took me three sessions of conference, two movies, plus some extra time to finish it all.
Although part of the reason it took so long is I made three bottlecap pincushions for the cupcakes.

The Robot Butterfly properly stuffed

Here is my almost three year old in her robot butterfly costume.  She is about the cutest thing ever, when she tries to copy her dad doing "the robot" (dance).  I decided her pumpkin needed some frills, and so we glued a tutu to him too.  

Finished

Pink Butterfly Robot is finished, 24 hours before my due date.  Hooray.  For some reason I hand sewed most of the robot part of the costume.  Instead of using a machine or a glue gun, so this robot took be the better part of two almost full days!   

Does it look like our pattern? 

I think I hand sewed it all because she wanted a soft front, not cardboard. She is about comfort.

I'm not sure if I like the black thread on the eye buttons.  I thought maybe it would look like pupils, I might pull it out and put pink in its place. As I worked on the hat, and looked at the robots I had pinned for inspiration.  I realized in sci-fi we love to humanize robots, eyes, and bolts or buttons for ears. When robots finally do take over, do think they will actually be as humanized as we make them in our imaginations?

Sneak Peak

Photography blogs always have sneak peaks, why not craft blogs? 

Here is a sneak peak of the robot addition to the butterfly.  I love it.  Nan-o-matic 3000, since this is her third year trick or treating.

Lego Rock Monster

Before we started working on the butterfly robot, this is what we were doing.

Making Sulfurix the Lego Rock Monster, from Power Miners.

I was so ready to buy Halloween costumes, I had no desire to make a costume for the 6th year in a row.  But then my son became dead set on Lego Rock Monsters.  He had complete faith that I could make this costume, because I had made all of previous costumes.  But I had no idea how to make this costume.  Here is what the internet offered:
http://relentlessfury.lefora.com/2011/03/18/monstrous-comic-relief/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Rock-Monster-Halloween-Costume/
They helped a bit but overall I was very lost on where to start. I have only ever sewed a halloween costume.

1. We ended up making sandwich board costume.
2. I cut the cardboard the size of my child. 
3. I painted the cardboard, with left over beige sample paint
4. Then I covered it in yellow cellophane, twice so it would be brighter.
5. Then I cut, and folded/molded cardboard rocks.
6. Spray painted them gray.
7. Glued them, lets hope they stay, fingers crossed.
8. For the helmet I used a left over ice cream bucket, and cut the front to resemble the teeth. 
9. My friend helped me paper mache it.  
10. Then Spray painted it gray
11. I cut the eyes from construction paper, and the red is crayon, then I mod podged them on the bucket.

My son thinks its perfect.  If I ever did it again, which I won't, I would make the front of the sandwhich board wider, so it I could make the rocks have the proper room.  I so wish the front board was 6 inches smaller, but J likes it that way.
By the way we didn't make lego hands, because how could he hold his candy if was holding lego hands.
I have to say, I ended up enjoying using the box cutter, and shaping the cardboard.

Butterflyrama Nanomatic 6000

What we are working on right now.  We drew our blueprint today.

Felt Pumpkins

I needed felt pumpkins!  

So I made them.  

My son keeps drawing these skeleton faces all over my drive way with chalk, and I love them.  So I put them on. 

I've been using felt a lot this fall.  I don't know why?  I use cheap craft felt, not wool felt.  I think I'm in to it, because Michaels is a lot closer than JoAnns and Michaels doesn't have material only felt.

My kids love them, and both claim the fat one as their own pumpkin.

Baking

I read this article the other day as I was ripping it up for paper mache, about Americans become better cooks.
It won't happen until we are willing to cook instead of follow directions.
It won't happen until we taste our food as we go, instead of eating it at the end.
It won't happen as long as we are stuck to measurements instead of weight amounts.

Well that pretty much sums up why my husband is a better cook than I am and why he cooks when we have dinner parties. When he makes his bread he weights it all with a food scale, and doesn't use measuring cups.    That being said, he can't keep up that stamina for dinner every night.  Sometimes dinner needs to be on the table, not feasted upon.  There is homework, and scouts, and baths, and books assignments, and shoes to learn to be tied.  I can't experiment with food every night.  Nor do I have a desire to change my cooking habits. I read that article and though oh well, I guess I won't be improving any time soon.  That being said, I could never make frosting, if I followed directions properly and never tasted it.  So I guess I occasionally I'm unAmerican in the kitchen, but rarely.
Not to mention I don't think I enjoy eating, or random food enough to be a serious cooker.  I don't like branching out, I'm picky, I'll be honest.

Brent's Bread

Look at this beautiful bread my husband made a few weeks ago.  

He has made bread off and on for years, but lately he does it weekly.

SNAKES!

A few years ago I bought my son a large stuff snake, and every kid loves it will.  Well my son is good at sharing but my daughter on the other hand....
So I decided I could easily make her own pink snake.  Partly, because you can never have too many snakes in your house.  She loves it.

 I don't know if it was easy, but it wasn't hard. I made it with pink fleece.

Its eyes are just normal buttons, so it reminds me of a Muppet from the 70s, something off the first few seasons of Sesame Street. You know back when they were clearly puppets.  Back when oscar only had one arm, because the puppeteers other hand was his head.  Decades before Sesame street used computer animation.

Shiny Framed Pumpkin

Turns out my husband is right, I like sparkly things. I saw this blog post and had to copy it. Except I got a shinny pumpkin. I was afraid my glued pumpkin would rip my paper, so I glued it on the glass, then I thought oh that way the paper could change if I got anything better. 

It matches perfectly with my shinny fall sign.  I love the 3-d art.

P.S. I'll be honest, I was really bad at cutting my pumpkin.

Trick or Treat Pillow

Here is this season's newest pillow.  I wanted a halloween pillow, but I wanted something I could pump out in an afternoon, so instead of embroidery I used fusible bonding, and my sizzix (think old school cricut).

 I bought this halloween material last year, and its about my favorite halloween material ever! I'm so glad I found a project to showcase the material with.

Actually I thought I needed a halloween pillow, because I have more couches that I had last year, considering I larger living quarters, so I wanted more than my pumpkin pillows, I wanted another pillow for the other couch.