Pictures

I just finished making this gift for one set of the grandparents last night, it was certainly a lesson in patience at times, but I like how it turned out. Have I mentioned I love pinterest . . . such great ideas!

We were busy all of last week hosting visitors. My sister and her three kiddos stayed with us for a couple of days, followed by a visit from my mom. When my sister was here, we had 5 kids 5 and under, and three in diapers. It was certainly busy, but SO fun, and the cousins had so much fun playing together.

Jaymes is checking out his newest cousin . . . makes my baby seem not so much like a baby! *tear*

Jaymes has recently found out just how much fun it is to push the shopping cart all over the house, and he's quite good at running in to things!




Excuse the hair, this was right before his last hair cut. Thing #1 I've found I don't love about having a boy - the endless need for hair cuts. He was doing fine at his last hair cut, until the lady turned a hair dryer on high, and pointed it right at his face, she thought it would help him keep his head still, he thought it was quite scary!

Awww . . .

This and That

It's been a while . . . blogging has taken a back seat, and seemed more like a chore lately . . . maybe now that winter is here I'll be more motivated to blog.

My sweet baby boy started walking a few weeks ago, at the exact same age Isabella was when she started (14 and 3/4 months). He still crawls some when he wants to get somewhere really fast! He's had a few accidents since he started walking, and has bit his lip twice from falling on his face (man, those injuries bleed a lot!). But it hasn't been anything a cuddle from Mommy and his blanky can't fix. He's saying more words all the time, and still loves to show off his sign language.

I've been a little, um, addicted to pinterest lately, and have gotten some great crafty ideas that I want to try this winter.

Since we were married at Christmas time, we got TONS of Christmas decorations as wedding presents. I loved them all, but almost 9 years later a lot of them are starting to look out of date, or are broken (from me not storing them properly - oops!). I didn't want to spend very much, if anything, on Christmas decor, so I found a few ideas.

This one is my favorite! The free printable is located here. I spray painted an old silver frame that I wasn't using anymore, and now I have something "new" to display on the piano at Christmas time.

And I found this neat idea for a centerpiece, I bought some mini ornaments at the dollar store, and put in a large vase, but first I put an empty toilet paper roll in, to take up space, so I didn't have to put in so many ornaments.

This one is not Christmas related, but it is one of my favorite crafty things I've done lately. I painted another old frame, then put a piece of scrapbook paper in the printer to print this off. . .

Once you put it in the glass frame, you can write your meal plan on the glass every week with a dry erase marker, and simply wipe off again. It's definitely a lot prettier than bought dry erase boards!

Our tree is up, we haven't been able to use this big tree for a couple of years because we didn't have room for it, I'm so glad we have room for it now, this was my parents' tree when I was growing up! And Jaymes leaves it alone, yay!! He ooohs and awes over it, but knows he can't touch it.

We had our first snow about a week ago, preventing us from going on the four hour trip to my nephew's first birthday party, we were all bummed we couldn't go!

We travelled to one of Monte's sister's for Thanksgiving. They didn't have any snow, and the temp. got up to around 50 on Thanksgiving!! It was so nice that Monte and I went canoeing on the lake they live on. It was awesome, and so peaceful (and a good workout for these out of shape arms!)!!

Isabella is at her grandparents for the weekend, and it's been VERY quiet around here, can't wait to have her back tomorrow night!

Gobble Gobble

Two little turkeys . . .

Tutorial for the shirts located here, they were really fun to make! Beth made some for her kids, and posted on facebook, so thanks for the idea, Beth!! We love them!

Taggy Blankets

I am a huge fan of blankies for kids. Yesterday, during Isabella's nap, I whipped up this taggy blanky for my newest nephew. There are instructions all over the internet, I used this one at Melisssa Sews that Lenetta linked to. I love how it turned out.

And what would a post about blankies be without a picture of Isabella's pride and joy! She insisted her blanky needed his picture taken as well. If you have spent ANY amount of time around this girl, you know how much she loves her blanky!

How to Make a Hooded Bath Towel

I got this idea from one of my friends, she makes these towels for baby gifts, I think it is such a great idea for toddlers. Isabella is always freezing after a bath, "Please warm me!!" she yells over and over. She's too big for the boughten hooded baby towels, so these work perfectly. And they are SO easy.

Buy one regular sized bath towel, and either a coordinating washcloth or handtowel. If using a handtowel cut it in half. Center the washcloth (I actually used a fingertip towel for this one) over the bath towel on the top edge, with right sides together. Pin and sew one seem across. Notice the little hand, it was hard to get this shot, the best one without her in the way. She's my little "helper" . . . always.

Pin the top edge together and sew across.

Turn right side out, and ta da! You're done . . . it's SO easy! I love making these! These towels are probably her favorite thing I've made for her to date.

You can add all sorts of embellishments. On this one I added satin ribbon along the edges, and also made her initial out of the ribbon.

How to Make a Cloth Book . . . and other winter projects

Warning: This will be a long post, if you're not interested in sewing you might want to skip it.

I was wanting to make a cloth children's book for my friend's baby, so I looked long and hard on the internet for some kind of pattern. I got a few ideas, but there's not a whole lot out there. So this is what I tried.

I used quilters batting to stuff between the pages in order to make them stiff. I attached the letters with Liquid Stitch.

And here is another one I just finished tonight for Monte's niece's first birthday this weekend.

I used a stencil and fabric paint on white felt for the letters, then zigzaged that onto the fabric. Make sure all your pages are completely assembled before sewing them together.

This is just an applique I bought, then handsewed on.

I cut the grass and flower stems from green felt, then attached it with Liquid Stitch. Then I sewed the flower and butterfly buttons on. The "cloud" is some furry trim I attached with Liquid Stitch.

I found these in the trim section in the fabric section of Wal-Mart. I hand sewed the top section only of each of them, so they can be pulled and dangled.

I used quilters batting between the pages of this book too. I also sewed a couple of layers of tissue paper in between to make it sound "crinkly".

And here are the rest of my projects I completed this winter.

I use this big tote bag to pack up Isabella's things for overnight trips. I bought the bag, and cross stitched the design on.

And as I've mentioned before, I'm a little obsessed with purses! I decided to make some, and see if they will sell at my garage sale this June. Who knows, maybe I could make a little money on them.

And that about wraps up my sewing for the year, other than some more purses I want to make. I'm looking forward to spending my free time outside for the next few months!

She's all girl

Since Isabella doesn't need this anymore to get around, but she still likes trying to carry all her trinkets, I made her a little purse/tote last night. She even brought it to Church with her this morning with her rosary and some books in it.

Monte and I were talking yesterday about how different it's going to be if we ever have a boy (and I hope we do). Isabella loves to watch me get ready, do my hair, put makeup on, and then I pretend to put a little blush on her. She loves having her hair brushed (the little that she's got :). And she spends a good portion of her day playing with her baby dolls, feeding them, patting them, hugging and kissing them, making sure they are covered up with blankets, etc. Like I said, hopefully we'll add at least one boy to our family someday, but if that's not in store for us, I will gladly take more girls as well! And for now we'll just keep on playing babies and doing our hair! :)

New Slippers

In an attempt to warm my always chilly girl, I decided to make her some slippers. The pattern is located here. It's a little hard to see, but she's sporting a lovely mullet in the first picture. Usually, it's curly in back, but she had hat hair - thus the mullet. Very stylish.

The Book Nook

A few days ago I posted about Montessori. I finished my first project, Isabella now has a little reading nook right in the living room. We don't have a bookcase yet, so for now her books are just in the basket.

It didn't cost anything to do this! I made my own pattern for the bean bag chair, then sewed it from some curtains that I didn't need. I stuffed it with packing peanuts that I got free from the post office. And this is the picture I framed for her, which I just printed off and put in one of the 12,000 frames we got as wedding gifts.