Two Grandson Stockings

My mom had two grandson's born this year. Mine fourth child and my younger brother's first child. Its a good thing I made my son's stocking last year, because I just wasn't feeling too crafty this year.
It took me a long time to embroider any of these names.
But then it turned out I re-embroidered my third child's name, because I was never happy with how it turned out.

I was feeling so uncrafty I didn't even take a picture of my baby's stocking by itself.

My youngest's cousin's.

Mini Stockings

 My husband's parents are serving a mission for our church and we needed to send them a christmas present. The only thing I could come up with is mini stockings.

The kids had a great time stuffing them for their grandparents.

I used the same pattern as last year, and didn't change the pattern at all.

Fall Birthday Bunting

Long story short, I needed a birthday surprises for a friend. So the other three of us, left a candle, banana bread and heart attacked her front door in fall colors. I volunteered to making the Happy Birthday sign.

 Here is the close up, I used sharpie, paper, glue stick and my die cutter. It took me about an hour to make. Not bad, it was fun.

Elsa the Turkey

If you've ever had a kindergarten you've probably had to disguise Tom the Turkey.  

Here is my son's turkey.

Can you guess who Tom is dressed as? I'll give you a clue, its not a Viking opera singer, singing "Let it snow, let it snow...."

 This is the picture my 5 year old took.

New Thanksgiving Wreath

Remember, I wanted a new wreath, so I went down to Michael's used a 40% coupon and bought myself a new grapevine wreath for $3.
Overall I was quite disappointed in the trip, because of veterans day I had ALL my children with me. I also had a 25% of my entire purchase, so I bought a few things I didn't need today, but I would in the future. The cashier rang it up wrong. It seemed wrong when I paid for it but I was trying to make sure I didn't lose any children especially my two year old. I looked at it in the car. She rang it up wrong, she took 25% off one item. Since I was in the back of the parking lot and nap time was looming, it didn't seem worth it to go get my $2.50. You hear that @Michael's your cashiers struggle with the 25% off the entire purchase, this is not the first time it has happened to me.
Anyway, back to my wreath.

 The white paint on the wreath will look a lot better in a month when its been weathered outside.
The felt leaves have stitching on them, but you can't really see.

Since I used left over felt and ribbon, the total cost was $3. Wahoo.
I'm going to take off the leaves in a few weeks and Christmasized it. Its time for a new christmas wreath, my other one is four years old, which is eternity in craft years. Actually I'm not sure, I'm considering changing my old one. Only time will tell.

Thanksgiving Heart

I needed a different thanksgiving wreath for my wine rack this year. I had no interest in recreating last year's. 

I decided to use my heart shape foam wreath. I covered it in burlap and tulle like last year. I made my sign from copying an old pin on pinterest. I'm so unoriginal, I'm pretty sure that is what pinterest is all about copying other people's crafts.
I took some leaves off this wreath. Three years ago when I made that wreath I was so obsessed, but now its on my front door and I'm so done with it. I'm considering making a new wreath and throwing away that one. There is only 16 days until thanksgiving I'm not sure its worth it to make a new one.

Pumpkin Patch

I made a pumpkin patch for my kitchen counter. My kids helped, Nat painted the stems and J made the leaves. They are made from old soup cans and scrapbook paper. The kids were so proud of the additions. 

What I really wanted was 2x4 block pumpkins. But that would have required me to buy wood and then ask my husband to cut to for me. And I really didn't want to buy wood, because I'm trying to save my money. Plus these were far easier, they took me about 10 minutes to cut and tape the paper, and since I only spent $1.50 on paper (scrapbook paper is expensive) I won't feel bad throwing them out. Painting wood is many more steps.

You didn't really think we were done?

Once again Nat changed Halloween Costumes yet again. She was Rapunzel at school and then the Pirate Princess for trick or treating. This costume was made from construction paper. Construction paper is what you get when you are on your FOURTH costumes. 

I also pinned up her dress, and we put on pirate boots and leggings. It would have been great to ad a belt, but I didn't have on her size, and I didn't think a construction paper belt would have held up too well.
The inspiration:

Wait there is More

I think my daughter had buyer's remorse with Izzy.  When she picked Izzy she told me she picked her because next year she would be too old for the show Jake and the Neverland pirates. She wanted to be Izzy last year then switched to the wedding dress. She dressed up as Izzy for trunk or treat at our local YMCA. Four days later when we went to the trunk or treat at our church she wanted to be something else. Her daddy was being silly in the costume box and it thrilled and inspired her. I'm sure the massive amounts of Elsas at the trunk or treat at the Y didn't help. So she went hunting in her princess dresses. At first she settled on Rapunzel, but then she didn't like that her hair wasn't long enough, so she picked out one of her favorite and most rattiest dresses. Barbie dreamland or something. I said, really, what about a different dress, she said well I wanted to be sleeping beauty because we have the same color hair. I said you have a pink princess dress she said oh yeah, and went put it on. I think she had fun being yet another costume. But once again since its PINK its pretty wore down, not as bad as barbie. With her school Halloween party coming up, I wanted her to have a nice dress to wear. So I conned her into going back to Rapunzel. I told her Rapunzel's hair is short in the end, and I offered to make her a new crown. I wanted her to be happy with her costume against the ten or so other Elsas that will be in kindergarten.
This picture channel's the Rapunzel punk rocker fan art.

 Even though we have already have a Rapunzel Crown, I channeled the flowers in her braid for this crown.

(Who knew Flynn had such meaty hands? kind of gross.)

 I kind of hate the whole thing, especially the big bow, she loves the big bow. I made it kind of too small, I'm really quite mad at myself. It took me practically all day (the day before Halloween) to make, minus when I was mopping up after my leaky dishwasher. (bleh) I hate last minute.

Cost: $2 for baby's breath silk flowers
I could have made flower that small, but I needed plastic stems. After I finished, I totally could have skipped the baby's breath.
ARG! I'm so mad its almost too small.
P.S. I don't push my daughter into princess costumes. Overall I'm not a princess dress up girl, but she LOVES them.

The Last Halloween Costume

My baby boys were so adorable in their coordinating costumes, I decided I want to match with them for our church's Trunk or Treat.
I was Katerina Kitty Cat (that's Henrietta Pussycat's daughter).
Those ears were very difficult. I used felt, glue and my daughter's headband.
I went through all the effort of matching with my babies then took a low quality photo. :(

I originally had a bow on my ears but I felt silly. I also wore  jeans instead of a dress because I'm not a prissy as Katerina. I even had a tail which you can't see. I wanted to be as awesome as Turbo with my tail..

Cost: Free

In case you haven't made a running total of the price this year it was a good year.
$0 - J
$1 - N
$0 - A
$3 - I
$0 - me

$4 is a very good year

Halloween Pillows

Weeks ago I made easy slipcover Halloween pillowcases for my living room. I always want a full couch of Halloween so this year during nap time I did it! I used all that Halloween fabric I've been hoarding for some unknown something.

The Trick or Treat pillow I made a couple of years ago.

This orange one is my favorite.

Cost: Free-- paid for all that material years ago
Took two or three nap times.

Jackson Pollock Halloween Costume

My oldest has a long line of original Halloween Costumes. This year is no different. He went as a Jackson Pollock piece.

He and his sister splattered the paint themselves. I think they did a good job.
Cost: FREE
We recycled a science fair project for the cardboard, and used old paint.
His costume is a big hit with the older crowd.

O the Owl

If my two year old was Daniel Tiger I wanted my baby to have a coordinating costume, so I picked O the Owl. For all you old school Mister Roger's Neighborhood fans, O is X the Owl's nephew. Daniel Tiger is the son of Daniel Stripe Tiger.

The Inspiration:

 Words can describe how much I love this O costume on my 8 month old! And to think I wasn't going to make him a costume! It was very hard to find a turquoise shirt for him, but I eventually found a short sleeve one at walmart with a large graphic on the front. So I sewed feathers all over the graphic. Still it was a short sleeve, I had some left over legs from my daughter's green turquoise leggings that I had made into cut off Bermuda shorts. I made the legs skinnier then sewed them on the arms.  Then lastly I added wings on top.

Cost: $4 for the onesies. The fleece was all leftover from who knows what.

Daniel Tiger Halloween Costume

This costume was very easy since we already had tiger pants. My 2 year old LOVES dressing in these pants. I added ears to his red sweater. I used felt and sharpie. I drew those tiger stripes myself! 

The inspiration:

I just want to remember him like this forever! He always checks to make sure his tail is still behind him. "Mom!"...."Oh, there it is"

Cost: Free

Pixie Dust

My daughter decided she wanted to be Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates this year. Its a really difficult costume, I had to make pixie dust.

What a terrible mom I am that I don't have a single picture of her alone.
Here is the inspiration:

Cost: $1 for bandanna

O the Owl Costume

 With scraps I had laying around the house over the weekend I decided to make my baby an O the Owl hat for a Halloween costume.

Here is what O looks like on TV.

I thought it would be cute for Ikey because A loves to dress up as Daniel Tiger.

Why would I buy my two year old/third child a Halloween costume when he loves to play dress up with what we have? For all you lacking in PBS children's programming, here is Daniel Tiger. He is the son of Daniel Stripe Tiger from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Seriously my boy wears tiger pants half the week. Every so often he will stop playing look around then grab his tail and say, "There it is" The pants were handme downs and since he wears them so much I'm worried they will wear out before Halloween.

I meant to make the owl hat big enough to fit the two year old, but once I added the lining it didn't work. A was not so pleased his baby brother was the model and since it didn't fit him very well he decided Cheese the bear should wear the hat. My two year old named his teddy bear Cheese. I guess we know his favorite food.

Maybe after Halloween I'll take out the lining, or after it doesn't fit the baby anymore.

#ldsconf packets

To get sub par conference packets together this year was a miracle. But I have some tips for myself in six month time.

1. Have a apostle bingo so they pay attention to who is speaking, with fill in the blanks for the women and seventy who speak.
2. A tally for sheet for how many times they hear the word amen. A tally for how many times they see the prophet.

Currently our packets include a cover sheet and then are mostly coloring sheets. They love bingo sheets, and because of their young ages they all get treats when one person gets a bingo as long as they are in the room with conference playing.
I also included some dot to dots. And my oldest got word searches and crossword puzzles.

The Middle Three

Turns out I never blogged about my new couch pillows, apparently I was always expected to finish my last and waited until I finished the last pillow.

Remember the fiasco that was my May? Well the deal was my husband was suppose to watch the kids on Saturdays while I sewed my pillows BEFORE he went to Guatemala. If he was going to be gone for 10 days without cell service, I at least wanted to love my pillows. (I also got a new mattress for my bed.)

So in April I made three pillows.

This is how my children took to arranging them this summer. They only had to arrange the pillows three or so times a day since they were constantly throwing them on the ground, as previously discussed. They would have to clean the living room before any request was granted.
Here is my low light close ups. I would tell you this one is my favorite, but then I would have to say this about ever one, except for the one I just finished...

 Everyone loves these goldfish. I get so many complements on this pillow. Its to make up for the fact that I am so busy keeping my children alive I can't even bare to take care of a fish!

 I have had this material SO long waiting for me to make something with it. It was good, I won't go into any detail but I needed to make this pillow so I could move on.

 All my couch pillows, I think my kids have a better arrangement with only three. I really don't like my newest pillow, I love the material, but its just not right.

The Last Pillow

Remember these two pillows?
And then this one, and that one and this one?

Well I had one more pillow form waiting, waiting for six months for me to finish it.

My husband asked why are you making another pillow? We don't need another pillow, which he had a point. All of our pillows are always on the floor because we have three kids and kids have a radar in their head that says, what a pillow is on the couch I better throw it on the ground. I can only assume that radar is connected to the radar that says, what a book is on the ground let me go out of my way to jump on it.

Also when lots of family members sit on the couch there are too many pillows, but if dad or mom lays on the ground then heaven forbid each person doesn't have their own pillow on the floor to lay with. So reason speaks we should have six pillows. Which we now have!

But really I made the last pillow because I had the form waiting and waiting and waiting. It was taking up valuable craft space and so I figured the last form should be downstairs taking up my husband's valuable couch space instead of my craft space...
He honestly didn't think this was a valid argument. But my 8 year old and 5 year old absolutely love the new pillow. Which is funny because I really don't.

Baby Costume

Just thought you should know if my baby was a girl he would be dressed up in a candy corn outfit.

And heck it would be cutest pillowcase dress and had you've ever seen. But he's not, he's a boy and I honestly have no idea what he is going to be.

This is not my dress or creation, I found it on pinterest.

Not having a costume idea is normal for most but heck we are three days into the month I should have this planned.

This is like a repeat of his name, after two boys I ran out of ideas that didn't start with a J, N, Z, A or B. (Sure I could have listed L, but heck there were no boy names I liked with L.) I could list a half a dozen J and A names I love.

After two boys I've run out of ideas, a dinosaur, a rhino, a gnome, Harry and Ron. Really what else is there? A skeleton that's what, but I couldn't find his size in PJs that I thought were cute. I didn't want to waste money on a costume that couldn't be reused in some way. Can you believe the stores are almost all sold out of Halloween clothes/pjs? Two days before October, and the stores were sold out, when I asked about sizing, the merchants looked at me like I was crazy for expecting his size on September 29th.