New wreath

All the Christmas decorations are boxed up so it's time for a new wreath. I love gray and ruffles.

 It matches well with the new years subway art. I wrapped the yarn while in the car on our way to Utah. It was a great use of time.

Also lets not forget my anniversary wreath outside for the post christmas decoration emptiness.

My dress

Years ago I made my daughter a dress out of fleece. It ended up being way too big. Once it fit she was decided she was picky and would not wear it. Two Sundays ago she picked it, I was so happy, sure it was too small, but who cares.

Birthday girl

My baby girl turns 4 this week. Can you believe it? I can't. Since its birthday week our birthday decorations are out with the Christmas decorations. Which sort of makes them seem obsolete, but since I put them out for my birthday it only seems fair.

Second stocking

Two and half years ago my sister had a second daughter, so two years ago I made my niece a stocking. Except the mailman stole it (ie it was lost in the mail). Last year they were moving so my sister said don't worry about it. So this year I finally made my niece a second stocking. Here it is.

Christmas taggie crinkle toy

Remember how I said I wasn't going to make a Christmas blanket? Well my son found a scrap material with Charlie Brown's Christmas on it and asked can we make a blanket for the baby with this? I said no, and he asked can we make him something for him with it? I said fine so I made a taggie toy although I didn't really have the right ribbon. I also sewed part of a wipes wrapper in it so it crinkles. It's pretty ugly and I would do it completely different next time. But the baby does enjoy it.

Fall Blankets

This post is eternally late.  Which is the reason I started posting crappy cell phone pictures on my blog.  The pictures are worse quality, but I actually post timely.  So back in September I started seeing cute festive holiday material.  I make stockings and other such christmas items, but I never have a reason to use halloween or thanksgiving material.  Until this year, I wrap my baby up in a blanket every day and night, so I made seasonal holiday blankets.  I halloween colors.

 Then on November first, I put away the orange, and started using the turkey blanket.  I love those turkeys, plus its fun to say my turkey boy.

I think I might keep using this blanket, its not as in your face as the Halloween   If not, then I'll pull them out both next year during their respective months and put them on my couch as a lap blanket. Not only do I love those turkeys, I love the yellow polka dots.

And no, I do not plan on making a christmas blanket.  There are plenty of christmas decorations without needing a blanket.

Wreath tonight

I took my thanksgiving wreath off the wine rack and it looked so bare. So tonight I made a Christmas wreath the idea thanks to Pinterest.

Tree skirt

After making Alisa a tree skirt last year, I decided I needed one. One in the same material. I am such a poser. I changed it a little bit and I didn't make mine two sided.

This year was a new experience because my mom wasn't here to offer her help on the hard parts.  I really did intend to make Alisa's tree skirt all myself, but my mom was in town for thanksgiving, and she offered.  I accepted her help because I really wanted to send out the presents asap, because you need a tree skirt in the beginning of December not the end.  Anyway, its hard work sewing without your mom.

A big boy now

We set up the crib and now my baby sleeps about half the time in my other son's room. I guess it's now my boys' (pural) room. I feel like a new woman having my baby out of my room for half the night and during daytime naps. Point off all this... I finally hung up the nursery art I made. Now I just need to make a dust ruffle. It's so fun to have them share a room. My six year old loves it and sleeps through the crying.

Remember the bunting it was suppose to match.

Kitchen Valance

I really really hated the valence over the sliding glass door in the kitchen. Turns out my husband wasn't too fond either, so he didn't mind much when I changed it. Now the style matches with my window two feet away. I love it! Turns out its a lot harder to sew curtains when your mom doesn't do all the work. Now all I need is a new stove. Oh and counter tops.

Burlap wreath

I have been behind the trend with burlap, but not anymore! In reality a thanksgiving wreath made out of burlap makes sense, throw pillows don't. I used felt for the leaves. Oh I am so obsessed with wreaths it's not even funny.

Halloween '12 Costume #4

The Grass: 

the flagship of costumes this year

My six year old has been talking about being grass this Halloween since November 1, 2011.  We bought an "outdoor rug" ie astro turf. I cut it up and glue gunned it on sweat pants and a shirt.  Luckily I bought too big of a shirt for J because the astro turf has no stretch or give and is hard to pull the shirt on and off.  We cut slits in the collar, and on the sides of the shirt, so we could get it up and over his head.  The sleeves are covered in leaves so he can actually move his arms. The legs have a break in the turf at the knees. I thought the bugs were a good addition on the astro turf.  Last night before our couple's Halloween party, we went to the school's fall festival.  His teachers loved it, (his classroom teacher and his librarians).
I don't even want to try to to estimate the cost of this costume.
The astro turf was $12, I bought the shirt (4.95), luckily we had sweatpants that were forming a hole in the knee.
Then I bought the leaves and spent about $5, and another dollar on bugs from the dollar store.
20+ glue sticks.
The hat came from the large collection of family reunion hats we have.


I don't think costume #5 the backpacker will actually make an appearance on this blog.  Since it involved no crafting on my part.

Halloween '12 Costume #3

The fox.
After my daughter was a cat her first halloween, I've taken over her cat ears. The family seems to think it is fun that I'm "dressed up".  Well this year, after I saw this adorable costume on etsy, and thought wouldn't it be cute if someone in my family was a fox.  Then I decided it fit with the woodland theme, of grass, a gnome, and a fairy. So I decided I would dress up like a fox.  I have to admit I'm embarrassed posting a picture of my Halloween costume.  It was convenient I made a costume this year, because my husband and I went to a Halloween party.  He stuck with the theme, and dressed up as a backpacker, best part he needed no new supplies.  (We didn't actually take our children to the party.) Unfortunately he changed before I got a picture of us together.

Cost of the costume:
$3 for an orange shirt
$ .46 on felt
$2.68 for a pack of headbands, most of which are now my daughter's I only needed one

 I made the famous pinterest scarf, for my costume. I used the whole shirt for my costume except for one sleeve.

Halloween '12 Costume #2

THE BABY GNOME
I love it, I'm pretty sure I've never seen anything cuter.
Super easy costume, all we did was the hat.  Some people but beards on gnome costumes, but that is silly.  Gnomes have to have babies too, so it looks perfect this way.

Eek Frame

Back on the craft day my friend and I had at the beginning of the month, we made these eyeball frames, when we made the snake wreath.  We got them from pinterest, but we added a spider instead.  It took me until two night ago to get a picture in it. I'm lame I know.

Knee Deep

Yesterday I was knee deep in Halloween Costumes.  Luckily my husband is supportive, he told me he would mow the plastic grass when he got home. 

I finished at 9:30 last night, my hands are bruised and burned.  The sleeves are staying gray, I like to think of them as the rocks in xeriscaping. 

When I was half way done with the costume my 6 year old told me he was 1% happy with it, meaning half way happy.  When he tried it on this morning, he said it was good.  I'm taking it.

Halloween Shirt

Back in September I decided I was going to make my daughter a halloween shirt, because I didn't like what Walmart had, and didn't feel like shopping beyond my small town.  In the words of my brother Ben when I was in college, I'm so lazy I'm not.  For the some reason I let my 3 year old design the shirt, so I ended up with a design I wasn't too excited about.  When she broke her arm, so I stopped making it because it was too hard to put long sleeves on the cast.  Now that the cast is off, I finished the shirt. 

 Unfortunately now she has forgotten it is her original design and thinks the shirt is scary, and doesn't want to wear it. Poo, I was hoping we could get three wearings out of it before Halloween. I tried bribing her with candy, but she won't take the bate.

Halloween '12 Costume #1

Costume #1 for the season is a flower fairy. 

Very fitting because she is currently working at pronouncing her 'F's in speech therapy.  Sometimes I wonder why I make homemade costumes.  When I asked my husband he told me I enjoyed it.  

Wand

 Flower Crown

The best thing is the costume was almost free, all I spent was a $1 on felt for the crown, and $2 on the wire for the shape of the crown.  The shirt and lace was all given to us.  I bought the material for the tutu last year. The wand was left over from her birthday party last year, that I changed up.
I used this tutorial for the roses. Lesson learned the hard way, mechanical pencils are hard to write on felt with, use a traditional pencil.

Snakes

Thanks to pinterest and Martha, my friend and I had craft afternoon.  We made snake wreaths.  I love them.

I have no idea what else to say.

I think I need to cut off the sticks that poke off.

Last Summer Blankets

About three weeks after my baby was born, my friend had the last of the summer babies.  I made the other three girls I knew who had summer babies blankets so I figured I should make the last of the summer babies a blanket.  The gender was a surprise until he was born.  She had a boy, and I made this blanket.

 Close up, I love the barn wood material and the tiny stars.  I love this blanket. This is the first blanket I sewed along the middle instead of using ties.  It was easy since the blanket is covered in lines.

Oh and it turns out I never posted the picture of my baby's cousin's blanket.  Brent's sister had a baby like three days after us.  But as a disclaimer I have an obsession with making Brent's nephews rooster blankets.  Brent's family likes to keep their own chickens, so I can't resist.  Brent is planning to get chickens in the spring, so we'll see how that goes...
Back to the blanket.

 Ignore the chalk around my embroidery, I'm sure it came off when my sister in law washed the blanket.  Plus I thought this might match her rooster lamp.

By the way my baby and my sister in law's baby were the last of the babies for my mother in law this year.  She got four grandbabies this year, it seems like a lot! Lucky her.
On to the winter babies....

Anniversary Wreath

I love Christmas decorations, but usually my husband and are ready for them to go December 26th.  Yes, we put them away the day after.  There was a few years I put everything away the day we left town before Christmas.  Anyway, so its nice to have a clean clutter free house after Christmas, but it is also a little lonely, especially on my door. But I can't bear to stare at Valentine's stuff for a month and half so everything looks bare for two or three weeks.  Last year I really wanted to make an anniversary wreath/January wreath, but that just wasn't going to happen after the exhaustion of the holidays. 

 So that is what I did last week!  I made an anniversary wreath! 

 Our anniversary is December 30th, and we had blue and white snowflake theme.  I made the wreath with tulle, it will be great for the last week of December and the beginning of January.  (If you want to know how to make a tulle wreath go here, but pretty much its a tutu on a wreath.  I used a white wreath form since I used white tulle. I bought two and half yards of tulle I think )

It led to exciting developments, my friend saw my wreath, and she said learned from her mother in law to leave the snowman decorations up in January, so things don't look too bare.  How exciting to have January deco... I can't wait.  I'll have to make a snowman craft after I finish Halloween costumes, because I don't craft in January.

Mouse Ears

My three year old daughter is pretty into Minnie Mouse these days.  So last Thursday we made Minnie Mouse ears.  Cost of the project FREE!  I already had the black headband, the black felt was left over from a different project, and the ribbon was also leftovers.

She also just happened to be wearing all black that day.  She has those days, where she wears all black, I have no idea... normally she wears as much pink as possible.  Her leggings actually did have pink stripes on the black.

Freaky Friday Wreath

I am the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator in my ward (church congregation).  I was afraid when my bishopric member (assistant pastor) said that, I was afraid it would involve asking people to say prayers.  Apparently being ward prayer spotlight coordinator has scarred me for life. 

Turns out it is the new name of Enrichment leader. What do I do as Enrichment leader?  I don't know... the presidency seems to plan everything...  But am in charge of a craft for Super Saturday, except its on Friday night.  Its not called Freaky Friday no matter what my brain tells me, I eventually can remember its Fantastic Friday.  This is the wreath I came up with, its loosely based on this wreath, that hangs on my front door.  All year long women have told me, we should make this for Super Saturday.  But I had to modify it, I wanted easy flowers everyone could make and I wasn't about to try to help people modge podge letters, while juggling a baby. 

Here is a great tutorial on how to make the rosettes.

Mod Kids

While my mom was here for the new baby, we stopped at the small quilt shop in my town and bought mod kid dolls on clearance. They had a finished dolly and my daughter asked to buy them. They were printed on the material and you had to sew them up.  It seemed like an easy job.  Not really I'm not quite sure when I'm going to learn that sewing dolls is never easy.  Then we made them little dresses from this pattern. We used fleece for their dresses so we wouldn't have to hem any seams. 

Hopefully one day she will play with them.  For some reason she doesn't play with homemade dolls until they have sat in her room for at least three months.  Today she did get jealous when a friend was over and wanted to play with them, I guess that is a good sign that one day my mom's work won't be in vain.

New But Who Knows If Improved

Ends up I hated my last key hook.  I decided imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so just do it exactly like the girl did in the pin, and here is the results.

 I used the same H as in my other monograms.
I'll be honest I'm not sure I like this, but I definitely like it more than my last three attempts.  Attempt 1 and 2 were so bad I didn't even post them. Attempt 1 even broke my color printer.

Key Hook

I saw this key hook on pinterest and wanted one, but I thought I had plenty of monograms without more, so I went with something else in the frame.  I can not tell you how many times I redid the inside of this frame. Well actually I can, its my third attempt.  I still am not sure I like it. Maybe I should just go with the monogram after all. I'm also not sure I like my mini rosettes.  Maybe I should just chuck the whole craft.  Any thoughts...

Last for a while

 I have very conscientious babies.  They don't come until I finish my crafts.  My daughter came three days late, and I think it might have been because it took that long to finish the Christmas crafts that year (she is a  December birthday).
I spent months agonizing how to style wise fit a baby into my 6 year old's bedroom.  I didn't want to turn it into a baby nursery, and make him the visitor, but yet I did want the crib to "fit" in the whole scheme.  This is what I came up with, after searching pinterest many many times.
Unfinished quilt blocks that I am going to put on the wall above the crib.  The yellows are left over from the bunting over the window. The rest of the fabric was also left overs, so the project was FREE. I think the animals are an odd mix.  I would have liked to do all exotic zoo animals, which would have fit with the circus theme of bunting, but I wanted my older son to actually like the animals I was hanging on his walls.  So that is why the fish and the bunny got squares.  The giraffe was one of the few mammals my son actually enjoyed watching at the zoo, and the elephant, well he doesn't mind them, and I love them.

A close up.  I just used heat and bond for the animals.

Revist

Remember all the shirts I made?  I think the kids look great in them.

Girl Baby Things

My friend has been pregnant along side me.  Its been fun, our 6 year olds were in same Kindergarten class together, and so we saw each other every afternoon until the summer.  Her due date was two weeks after me, so we have been at the same stages together.  Plus we were in a competition to see who could be the smallest pregnant lady ever, always arguing who was smaller.  We were both convinced the other one was.

Anyway, I made her this blanket and burp cloths.  I'm missed her shower, because I'm recovering from having my baby.  (I typed this up before he came.) And now that I'm looking at this picture I realize its hard to see what it is.  A blanket with a corner turned up, and three burp cloths, with chenille.

 Oh well, I'm not taking new pictures, here is a close up on the material.

My Baby's Baby Blanket

I had a baby two days ago.  He is really wonderful, and really big.  Ok, 9 lbs 2 oz, is not HUGE, but it is for me, my other two were 7 lbs 8 oz.  Thankfully he was induced 10 days early or he would have been 10 lbs! I couldn't birth that.  Like I said though he is really wonderful, and smells wonderful.  I'm too tired to go get the camera and upload pics, and I'm too tired to write details on my other blog, so this is what the announcement is for now.  Here is his baby blanket.  

 I have been saving this material for a few years now, no baby seemed good enough for this cute tractor print until I found out I was having a boy.   I found it nearly impossible to find a matching back.  I went to at least three stores, which is a lot for material.

 Oh, yes, I'm madly in love with my baby.  Just for information I picked the first name months ago, and my husband finally picked the middle last week.