Quilt for Baby 4

Over the week of Christmas, I pieced together the quilt for my fourth baby.  This ended up a very busy quilt, but I still like it.  I was going to incorporate white fabric, but then I bought way too much green and blue, so I decided not. Here is the front

 And now the back.  My back fabric was too short, so I added the blue for the length.

I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.  My baby boy comes in exactly a month.  Who knows if it will be quilted in time....
Now I need to make some burp clothes to match.

Winter Wreath

Well Christmas is over, and so now its time to get ready for the next celebration, my anniversary.  Ok, its not much of a celebration for my husband and I.  But I do switch from my christmas wreath to a winter wreath. (Next year I think my christmas wreath needs a update, after three years its looking sad.) Snowflakes was a theme of our wedding, so last year I made this wreath, to carry us in-between Christmas to valentines. But the wreath was all wrong. Its for a place covered in snow, and the snow here when it does come melts quickly, because its so sunny and dry.  I saw this wreath and this wreath on pinterest and came up with this new wreath by taking apart two wreaths.  So it was FREE!

I really like the the rosettes on the snowflakes. (Which was not my idea but came from one of the pinterest wreaths.)

 Since I had a white bouquet of roses for my wedding, and then the snowflake theme.

One Last Stocking

This is the essentially the first year we are spending Christmas at home.  So I get to start new traditions if I want.  A tradition I've always liked is the white stocking.  Not familiar look here or here. Everyone writes down on a piece of paper what gift they are going to give Jesus in the coming year.  So last Saturday I made a little white stocking.  I can't wait to do it with my kids and husband, tomorrow night.  Give us a minute or two to focus on our Savior instead of Santa and presents.

P.S.  I don't really like the pattern I used to shape the stocking, maybe one year I'll fix it.

Jingle Bells

A Christmas tradition that developed in my family (the one I grew up in) during my lifetime is to dance to The Christmas Revels' Lord of the Dance.  (No relation to Michael Flatley.) If you have never been to theatrical production of The Christmas Revels I have no way to describe this tradition in a way that would make sense. But just so you know children absolutely love it. To fully have fun we needed jingle bells.  So I made jingle bell bracelets with scrap Christmas material. 

Here is a clip of one of the theatrical productions of the Lord of the Dance. (I wish I could find a clip of the straw men/stick men whatever they are called fighting.)

Lastly here are the lyrics because I like them.

Lord Of The Dance

Sydney Carter

I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

I danced for the scribes and the Pharisees
They wouldn't dance, they wouldn't follow me
I danced for the fishermen James and John
They came with me so the dance went on

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They ripped, they stripped, they hung me high
Left me there on the cross to die

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

I danced on a Friday when the world turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body, they thought I was gone
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I'll live in you if you'll live in me
I am the Lord of the dance, said he

Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he

Matching Dresses

My daughter had been begging me to make a dress for her, so I let her pick out material and I made her a dress for her birthday.  I decided to use a shift dress pattern, because she complains if her dresses are too puffy or ruffly unless they are princess costumes.

(Can you find my belly?) This post would be better if she was wearing the dress.
Then I surprised her with matching dresses for two of her dolls. This was her birthday after all. This doll is an knock off American Girl Doll, so that size, and the internet gives a few free options for patterns. She is indeed a beloved doll.

This is Blythe, from Littlest Pet Shop, and was new for her birthday.  She is about four inches tall, and less than 2 inches wide. The dress has obvious flaws at that small of size.

Wrapping

I'm not sure this is a craft but that's beside the point.

 I grew up reading a christmas story every night during December.  I've always want to carry on the tradition, but do a terrible job.  The only other year I came close was the year my son found a non-fiction christmas section in a collected works, and we slowly read it to him, but not my daughter she was already asleep. Non-fiction christmas speculation is painfully boring, like what star the wiseman might have seen, and why we have christmas trees.
Anyway, so thanks to pinterest, I decided to wrap up a book for each night of the month, hoping we would read a christmas story.  It isn't quite panning out like I envisioned, but I guess its as good as it gets.  My son reads to my daughter by themselves each night and I can't even hear the story.  But this is what my wrapping looks like.
I printed out numbers for the month, used used craft paper from amazon packing, with green crepe paper.  I really quite love it.

Another Stocking

When I am great with child, as I currently am, I have to make my unborn baby a stocking.  I just can't let them be stocking less until the next year.  (The only other time I was great with child over christmas was 8 years ago with my first.) By christmas I'll only have 6 weeks left, let me assure you, this baby is a living presence in our lives.  He effects everything we do, so he needs a stocking, even though he doesn't get any gifts.

This red is a deeper red than it looks in the picture.  That's what you get when you are lazy and use cell phone pictures.  Second, I bought this material years and years and years ago, and still love it, so I used it for my baby.  The trim is yellow chevron, so it will one day be out of fashion. But it matches so well.

 Here's all six stockings.  I don't plan the materials at all, but I realized they match quite well with each other.

I probably have a name picked out, but I'm not committed enough to embroiderer it on this year.
P.S. Aren't my Jim Shore Santas cute? My mom and I went a little overboard one year.

Crown Cake

For her family party I decorated a crown cake for my 5 year old.  It wasn't an original idea, I found ONE picture online.

More Stockings

I know you have been waiting and waiting to see the rest of the stockings I made this year.  I was having technical difficulties with the blogger app on my new google phone.  Which I never did solve, BUT my pictures automatically update to my google account, and then I just select what I want to put in the post.  Its amazing! On to the point of the post.  The stockings, I really love what I made this year.

 I wish I could explain how much I love these stockings.

 Also I made a tree skirt for my sister.  I figured might as well pick material that matches with anything!

 The back/the reversible other side.

 Hope she liked it, the fabric was a little different style then I picked for the tree skirts I made the previous two years.

Pink Princess Tea Party

My daughter turned 5 which I just can't believe.  She is my baby! My oldest should be five not her.  This year we did a friend party, for the party we had a pink princess tea party.  With mini tea cups.

The day before I realized other than the table setting for the tea party we really didn't have any decorations so I made a bunting at the last minute.  To wish the princess Happy birthday.

 We also played pin the crown on the royalty. Turns out fan art is the best play to find free printables.

 The bunting with the table set.

 We had mini cupcakes so they fit on the mini plates.

 I made mini felt crowns for the girls.

 And we invited two boys, so we dressed them up as knights/kings.  I made these covers for them.  I didn't sew, I just cut the apron to the right size, and then cut out a fleur de lis out of felt and glue gunned it on.  It was quite easy, and my favorite craft of the party.  The boys love them.  I also made a foam duct tape sword for each boy.  (My son the model didn't come to the party.)

I will also add the boys LOVED the tea party as much as the girls, what is not to love about mini cups of water and mini cupcakes? We also played Don't Eat Pete Princess style.

#4

When I told my brother I was expecting again, his response was the race to four is on. He and his wife beat me by months, which was expected. So I made them this blanket and stocking.

I love the embroidery on this blanket, it looks so jaunty, which I feel is fitting for the name. 

And here is the stocking, I really love how it came together, I hope she liked it. 

In their family they have two red stockings, a green stockings, a blue stocking, and then another mostly green stocking, so when i found this fabric I hoped this stocking would sort of tie everything together. 

Mayflower

My kids made boats at Home Depot in the beginning of the month. I commandeer one of the boats, and added some peg doll pilgrims and Indians I made.

The Indian princess ended up with a massive amount of hair. 

I really like my indian boy. 

And my pilgrim girl, I love her bonnet. 

Another burlap wreath

The morning after Halloween I was ready to purge/ clean. I wanted all the costumes packed, all the leaves tracked in from trick or treating gone. Apparently I got a little ambitious. By lunch all the Halloween specific decorations were gone and leaving only fall decor in which the pilgrims and Indians were added to. Turns out I was down a wreath. I hung my fall wreath from last year outside and made a new one for my wine rack.

I used burlap ribbon with ivory tulle ribbon to soften the burlap a tad. Then  I wanted it easy so I used my old school sizzix to cut out mini felt leaves. I wish I had dies with larger leaves but I do like the mini aspect. I also decides I wanted a mum garden on my wreath since in effort to save money this year I didn't buy fall flowers for my planter pots outside. 

Of course I found thanksgiving subway art to match. 

Lastly I made mini felt leave garland for my back door valance. 

I was finished with my new decorations by Friday evening it was great.  

Halloween Crowning Glory

Here is where Halloween started.

(They weren't suppose to have face paint at school.)

One More of Ron

I just can't help myself I'm seriously obsessed with the boy whether he is in a costume or not.

For his cloak I just used a shirt/jacket/vest thing of mine, and doubled up the sleeves.

Halloween Costume #4

My family gets a kick out of me dressing up.  So this year, I decided to be an owl.  Hedwig to be exact. Thanks to pinterest it was real easy costume, and took about $1 worth of felt.  I basted (large sewing stitch) the feathers onto the collar and the sleeves of a white shirt.  I used this template.

My daughter really did not like the costume, but tried to be a good sport.  My husband thought it was hysterical and my son/Harry Potter told me it was fine.

Harry Potter Accessories

For some reason I made my son a wand.  I'm not sure why he needs a wand to trick or treat, but I had all the supplies on hand so it was free. I used this tutorial, with my kid's air dry crayola clay for the handle.
 

At least it made him feel special.
 

I always say I'm going to buy costumes.  But then I looked at the price at Amazon, because heaven knows I'm either buying it at Amazon or Walmart, and I couldn't bare to spend that much when I had a large piece of hand me down black twill in my closet.  I bought the patch for $5, so much cheaper than Amazon pricing.  I didn't add lining, because I figured a black cloak (minus the patch) could be used at Halloween for years, where a black and maroon cloak not so versatile. (But you know in the pictures of the characters from the early movies, they don't have maroon lining.) This is the tutorial I use for the cloak, plus I added a hood.
 

And here are the matching buttons I made for the boys to wear on their costumes.

So here is a another picture of Ron's Tie.

And well who doesn't want to see another picture of my ginger baby.  He's so adorable. 

(Aren't you glad I don't clean my house before I take pictures?!) 

Turns out that tie is a very effective drool catcher.There are two more Halloween Posts, one more costume, plus the 7 year old actually dressed up.

Halloween Costume #3 -- Dobby the House Elf

Orginally the baby was going to be Ron, but then my kids really wanted him to Dobby.  I think other than Harry Potter, Dobby is my 7 year old's favorite character.  So I made a Dobby Costume, everyone loved it but the baby, he would scream until he could grab the ears and rip it off. So then we went back to Ron for the baby, but I did have a house elf costume sitting around that the big kids loved playing with.  Then my husband needed a costume for a work party, so low and behold:

Dobby the House Elf, with his black sock.

His black sock he found in Tom Riddle's Diary.
Overall don't you wish I had a decent camera? Me too.  We have a nice SLR but it doesn't do well indoors.

Costume #2 -- Ron Weasley

Since my oldest is going as Harry Potter for Halloween, I decided to have my red headed baby goes as Ron. I made him the tie and button badges for his shirt. Since the book periodically brings up these badges. One is a gryffindor quidditch graphic, and the other says Ron is King, I found both on Pinterest.

I purposely dressed him sloppy because it was Ron.  The shirt isn't all buttoned, the tie is loose, he is wearing worn in jeans instead of slacks.  (It also worked out because it was more comfy for a baby.  

I think the tie material is very reminiscent of Mary GrandPré's illustrations. Convenient that his pretzel sticks look almost like a wand.