Shout out to Mah' Peeps!

As usual, I planned out the holiday WAY in advance and was out shopping for Easter Basket 'goodies' two days before the holiday!  Whew - glad I didn't wait until the last minute.  So I had no problems finding Peeps in exactly four colors (a different one for each kiddo) but when it came to selection of cute stuffed rabbits to add to the baskets, the selection was abysmally limited.

I even called Mark from the store to ask if it was fair for Dean (obviously) and probably Paige to get stuffed animals in their baskets but not Blake.  He's not that into 'stuffies' anymore AND there was just nothing at "Tarjay" that suited him.  He's out of the Webkinz-phase and the rest there were just, well, ugly.  So inspiration struck and I decided I had PLENTY of time to sew something for each of them.

Friday afternoon, I started hunting for cute tutorials and patterns out in blogland.  I found all of these cute bunnies and other Easter-y animals (and, seriously, check out these great blogs):

Oh, but then the clouds spread, light shown down and I swear I heard angels sing when I found these:

So I stopped by Hobby Lobby on my way home and conveniently found fleece in the same four colors of actual Peeps I had bought for the kids.  It was meant to be, I tell ya.  I started with the bunny and then made the chick.  She's right - even though the chick has more pieces and more seams than the bunny, it is easier to sew.  By Saturday evening, I was running out of time and even though I would have loved to make a bunny AND a chick for each of the kids, it just wasn't happening (at least, not if I wanted to sleep at some point). 

I asked Mark's opinion and he's a little old school - he preferred the chicks over the bunnies.  And (like I said, meant to be) the *real* marshmallow Peeps I had bought were the chicks as well.  The store didn't have the bunnies left in all four colors.

So here they are!  I didn't embroider the eyes - I used paint and a pencil eraser.  Shortcut City, baby!  They turned out REALLY cute - I was very pleased with them and the kids thought they were pretty neat too.  I'm glad we have four different colors so everyone knows which one is theirs.

I still have enough fleece to make the bunnies next year.  Since they seemed harder to find in stores, though (the marshmallow ones) - I may have to plan a little further ahead next year.

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Kids' Valentines

Just wanted to share the Valentines the kids (and I) made.  I had found a lot of neat ideas online and we looked at a bunch of them together and then Paige and Blake picked out the ones they wanted to use.

This is a huge idea all over blogland lately and they really did turn out pretty cute.  Blake liked the idea of taking a picture of him with a fist oustretched, then cutting a slit in the picture above and below his hand and sliding a lollipop into it.  We taped them on the back for security.  These would have benefitted from being glued to some cardstock first, but we just used the photos as they came and it works ok too.

Paige saw these printable iPhone valentines that wrapped around a box of conversation hearts and really liked them, so that's what her classmates are getting today.

I usually do some kind of special Valentine's Day meal, but haven't planned anything yet and don't have any ideas... so maybe I'll just make some chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert tonight and hope that is 'special' enough. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Random Thoughts of a Blog Stalker

It was probably mid-2008 when I started reading a few blogs.  Anyone that reads blogs knows that reading one leads to another (probably via a link) and it's possible to literally get lost linking from one blog to another - clicking "next page" or "more posts" to see everything each blog has to offer, then following a link to yet another blog... et cetera ad nauseum.

I have always loved making new things, trying new crafts, etc.  It wasn't until I started finding all of these blogs (first making them 'favorites' and then becoming a 'follower') that my list of 'to-do' projects became unattainable.  The list of projects I've seen and said "Oooh!  I want to make one of those!" is probably in the thousands.  I've bookmarked, downloaded, and read more tutorials for projects than I'll ever have time to make... even if I didn't have four kids, a full-time job, and a life!

I'm making an effort, though.  Here are five of the projects I'd added to my 'someday' file that were completed in time for Christmas.  I've added a link to the 'inspiration' blog for each of them.  Go forth and stalk!

All the kiddos needed new hats for Christmas, of course. 

Erika got a Jack Skellington (from Nightmare Before Christmas) hat.  Here's the pattern, and I just used a basic adult beanie pattern to start.

I thought a Super Mario Brothers mushroom hat would be the perfect fit for Blake (and he has probably worn his the most out of all of them since getting it).  Pattern here.  This was my first time doing a pattern within the stitches.  It was hard... lots of loose ends inside the hat... but he loves it!

As shown in this post, Paige has taken a liking to all things Sock Monkey after we made one for her.  I found this pattern and just new it would be the perfect hat for her.

Little Dean... I just wasn't sure what to make him.  He does, like many a toddler, love Elmo though.  So when I saw these patterns for Sesame Street beanies... I just had to make one.  The others may follow, in time.

And lastly, the other project I made for Dean as well.  He loves to tie his beloved 'blankie' around his neck and make a cape out of it.  So when I saw this reversible super hero cape... I just knew he'd love it.  And he does!  We call him Super Dean when he puts it on and runs around the house. 

The pattern was super easy! Disclaimer: Keeping it real, here.  I didn't take pictures when I first made it, so this is what it looks like after use and being shoved haphazardly into a toy box... wrinkles and all!

 Next week maybe I'll post my 'want to make' list with links to some of the projects.  Anyone interested?

Next project, though, I do believe needs to be a dog bed for poor Miss Eden.  She must be tired of contorting herself to fit into a cat bed.  Anyone have a good pattern/tutorial link?

Teacher Gifts - Coffee Cozies and a Gift Card

I have several other Christmas crafts I made but I haven't posted yet because I keep forgetting to get some decent pictures!  I need to wrangle those kiddos this weekend to get some and will post them next week.

I made the kids' teachers Coffee Cozies this year and included a cup (I just asked for them when I bought the gift cards) with a $5 gift card inside.  They turned out really cute!  I made three of the brown/turquoise fabric.  Paige also has one male teacher and I was originally going to come up with a different gift for him.  However, it was the evening before the last day of school before the holiday break and I hadn't ever picked up an alternate gift.  So.... I dug around and found this faux-leather that I bought at Halloween to make Blake's boots and wrist-thingies from for his Halloween costume.  I used a brown houndstooth on the inside and it ended up looking very manly :-)

It wasn't what I had planned for him but I'm happy with how it turned out and hope that he can and will use it.  If not, at least he got the giftcard too.  Here they are all packaged up and ready to go.  I included a personal note from Mark and I as well.

And while I'm posting, let me throw in this cake I made for my nephew's BDay last month.  His party didn't really have a 'theme', but my sister-in-law was taking all the kiddos go-carting and one of Nate's favorite video games is ModNation Racers, so I just took inspiration from the game cover.  He was happy and it sure was yummy, so I call it a hit!

I apparently need to work on my 'writing names on cakes' skills as well as my counting skills.  I started putting down little 'stars' of frosting to stick the candles in to - put down 12 'stars' but only needed 11.  We'll just call that extra one a decoration, shall we?

I'll get those pics taken this weekend and will post some more crafty-goodness next week.



Handmade Birthday Gift - Bella hat from Eclipse

One of Paige's friends has a late December birthday.  They're always hard, especially because money is usually tight right around that time.  She was having an "Eclipse" themed party (Team Jacob, of course) and I proposed that we make her a hat like one Bella wore in the movie.  It's this one, from the camping scene:

I found a crochet pattern online here and whipped it up in under 2 hours.  It came out pretty good, I think.  Here is Paige modeling it:

The ribbed brim should have been a little longer, but I was adjusting the size as I went for a child's head, so couldn't go as far down.  Paige said the BDay girl liked it, wore it while they all watched the movie, and then even did a "Hat Dance" during that scene.  When we wrapped it up, we included a print from the movie so she understood what she was getting.

Score for handmade gifts!  Enjoy!

Ridiculously Absent...

I haven't posted in over a month.  That's just plain pitiful, I know.  No excuse other than the typical ones... busy with family, with work, with the holidays, etc.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving even though we ALL passed around a yucky stomach bug the weekend before.  The week before Christmas we went to visit Mark's grandmother Lora in Snyder, TX.  It was a very nice visit and eased some of my roadtrip-with-kiddos-anxiety.  They did very well and really had a good time.

Christmas was just excellent.  I think everyone was really happy with everything.  I had a LONG list of handmade projects I was going to gift this year, but my sewing maching really started acting wonky the last few months so I started and failed many times.  I abandoned some, but still plan to complete others, but my handmade gift giving was a little limited this year.  I'll post what I did get done separately.

However, after hearing me lament about my crappy second-hand machine, Mark and the kids all decided to get me a new Janome sewing machine for Christmas.  I'm still in the 'playing with all the cool features' stage with it, but expect to be doing a lot more sewing soon.

All in all, all is well and I hope to have much more to post for this year.  My wonderful sister-in-law Kim went out with us one weekend to do some family pics for our Christmas cards.  We got some good ones.

I do hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2010 and is looking forward to great things to come in 2011.

Last of the Halloween costumes

I kept hoping I would get some better pictures of Blake's and Dean's costumes.  Once we finally got everyone all dressed and ready to walk out the door for Trick or Treating I couldn't find my camera anywhere.  We ended up just getting a few bad pictures on Mark's cell phone.  Really bad quality, but all I've got.

Here we go... Erika and her friend were going to an Anime Convention on Halloween weekend - Oni-Con.  Erika changed her mind.  She had initially planned to be someone else, but then changed to Sailor V from the Sailor Moon series.  Here's the inspiration:

Her friend wanted to dress as Luna from the same series.  Here she is:

So we based Erika's costume on a cheerleader pattern.  The skirt is not quite right, but I definitely didn't want to go without a pattern for this one.  She ended up painting the glasses and the shoes to get the right colors.  Brittney's was just based on an a-line dress pattern.  I would have preferred something with a fuller skirt, but the girls picked out the pattern so I went with it.  It looks a little "Wilma Flinstone" to me, but they were happy and actually got stopped by several people at the convention - people asked to take their pictures.

Blake wanted to be Ezio from the Assassin's Creed 2 video game.  This was probably the most ambitious costume but actually came together fairly quickly.  The white tunic is a boy's dress shirt - I sewed the red fabric underneath and then cut through the shirt to make the stripes.  The gray is a small man's dress shirt.  The cape is made from some faux-suede and then red satin on the inside.  The shoulder piece is just craft foam (as is the belt medallion) and then the wrist and boot pieces are made some from faux-leather.  I was able to get a few closer pics of the pieces after the fact.

 And here's Blake:

I ended up running out of time (ugh!) so poor Dean got the "Sweats, Felt and Glue Gun Special".  I actually did scour the Halloween aisle at WalMart on the morning of and could not find a single boy toddler costume in his size.  Good thing, though, as he turned out to be an adorable puppy.

Everyone had a great time and all was a success!  I plan to start much earlier next year - maybe like in January!!  Happy Belated Halloween!