halloween 2014

I'm a week late here, but I feel like I rarely take photos of my girls in their Halloween garb despite their continued cuteness.  This year, I vowed to document it.  I even made Olivia dress up in her costume JUST to take her picture...the other girls were already dressing up for another party.  

Claire and Meredith decided that they wanted to have a theme this year.  Meredith chose to be a detective (Nancy Drew), so Claire went with a robber.  

Claire put together her own costume this year.  She already had the pants, sweater (that used to be mine...gasp!!), and hat.  She made her mask out of felt and duct tape, and she made her money bag from a cheap reusable shopping bag.  So easy.  Loved that she did it herself.  

I wish Meredith could have sewed hers herself. :)  I made her detective cape from a Martha Stewart tutorial.  I've never made anything with the bias tape on the edge.  It was pretty easy to use, and I thought the edging really dressed it up.  She didn't want a hat (which probably saved me a ton of time), so I made her a quick headband to match.  She had a little magnifying glass earlier that week, but it broke, so she had to stick with just her notebook which had a photo of the robber inside. :)  

My little minion. :)  She won the creative costume award at one of our parties.  Yellow shirt and suspenders ordered from Amazon.  We took a sock hat and covered it in yellow duct tape.  With the help of Pinterest (of course!), I added goggles (Ball jar rings), pipe cleaner hair, and printed eyeballs and laminated Gru emblem.  It really was a fun little costume. :)

And my cute little chicken.  Awww.  This one probably came from a resale for less than $5. :)  I love that I can put her in anything and she's happy!  Makes things easy.  The best part of these kinds of costumes is how WARM they are!  I can't appreciate it enough for a little 3 year old on a cold Halloween night.  

{DIY doll bunkbeds}

Meredith absolutely loves playing dolls with Amelia.  They play almost daily and have an entire doll world forming back in their bedroom.  They have an entire story line that involves a queen and horses and all kinds of fun stuff.  

So, I told Josh that bunk beds for her dolls would be a great birthday gift.  I found this post on Pinterest, and I knew that my hubby could get this gift moving in the right direction.  

Needless to say, Josh won Father-of-the-Year.  

I whipped up some mattresses and pillows, and Claire sewed the blankets.  They're not completely coordinated since I just used fabric that I had on hand, but I think they turned out pretty cute!

We made them reversible so that she could have a pretty side or a fun side, and she could make them the same or different.  They were a huge hit!!

 

{celebrating meredith}

Yesterday was Meredith's 7th birthday.  It truly was a fabulous day.  Two years ago, we celebrated Meredith's birthday in the hospital.  Claire was in for one of her fever spikes.  I was so sad for Meredith that year.  Then, last year, I was sooooo sick on Meredith's birthday.  When your mom is 8 months pregnant and sick with the flu and pneumonia, it doesn't make for a very fun birthday either.  

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to Meredith's birthday this year!!  I was praying that we could just have a normal day at home to celebrate!  And, thankfully, we did just that.  

Here's my birthday girl!

Close up of the cake {thank you pinterest}.  Seriously, I think I should go to "making castle cakes" school.  This is my third variation.  I'm wondering how many more will be requested. :)

For Christmas, a friend from church generously gifted her American Girl doll, Josefina {from Mexico/New Mexico}, to us for Meredith.  Meredith was so excited on Christmas morning.  What she has wanted more than anything since getting Josefina is a "Josefina outfit".  So, I sewed her a skirt and a rebozo.  She LOVED it...that's putting it lightly.  

Blowing out the candles!  My mad decorating skills reveal the leaning towers.  This makes for a great photo op, though, as it appears Meredith is blowing so hard that the towers are being blown off the cake! Fabulous.

We ate cake with some of our good friends who have 5 girls {and 1 boy}.  Needless to say, there were a lot of girls running around our house last night!!  So much fun.

I'll end my post with my status update from facebook yesterday:

Happy 7th birthday to my Meredith Ann!  You are the emotional version of me {only magnified...which is both lovely and crazy at the same time}.  Your sweetness is almost unmatched.  And that mean-streak that we experience?  Well, I'm hoping that will continue to work it's way out.

I love your passion for this life.  You wear your heart on your sleeve.  I find the creativity in your artwork absolutely beautiful.  You truly impress me with your designs.

You have taught us about choosing our battles.  You have taught us that some children HATE socks {and that's putting it lightly}.  You are oozing with quirkiness.  Your fashion sense is lovely.  We love you oh so much and can't wait to see where you take this sweet life of yours.

some.stuff

Can I just tell you all that I'm feeling incredibly blessed today?! Josh and I are getting ready to go out on a date tonight for the first time since who-knows-when...seriously. I'm soooooo excited!! We're hitting a local pizzeria and going shopping. One of the best parts is that we're having one of the best babysitters EVER watching our kids. Thanks Laura! :)

So, check out this absolutely adorable nursing cover and covered wipes container that I made for my sister-in-law, Kay:

I was secretly hoping that she wouldn't like the pattern, and I could keep them for myself! Didn't happen. I'm considering making the same one for myself because I just love it! Is that weird?! I'm sure she wouldn't care. I'll have to check out my fabric options again and see what I think.

Happy Monday to all of you! Have a great week!!

baby.bedding

I made some baby bedding a couple of weeks ago for a friend (not for myself!). She brought me a picture that looked similar to this, and I went with it. Honestly, it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be! :)

I loved making the blanket, and I can't wait to make a similar one in a smaller size. I just wanted to cuddle up under it! I love the nubby fabric on the bottom...one of my favs.

I must say, I'm inspired to make bedding for our baby after this! It'll be my winter project. :)

an.apron

My blogger buddy, Myah, asked me to make her an apron. Of course, I said yes! But, I asked her if I could make her one that had been brewing in my mind for a while! I warned her that it was a bit "June Cleaverish," but she assured me that she was a bit June Cleaverish. (She is, too,...she's the one that irons her hubby's work shirts! Although she does it while drinking wine...I don't recall June sucking down alcohol while doing her chores, but I'm sure she felt like it from time to time.)

I'd seen several online that I'd liked, but I didn't quite know how to go about making this one. I had a couple of other projects that were ahead of it, and I was completely nervous since I'd not made one before!

Overall, I was extremely pleased with it...by far my most intense project. And Myah loved it, which made me extremely happy! :)

birthday.gifts

We attended a birthday party last month, and instead of purchasing gifts this time, we went the homemade route! I made some felt shapes for the little guy...

And a memory game (13 sets of matches) for his big sister...

I am becoming more and more of a homemade fan! I was thankful to have all of the supplies on hand for both projects! The only thing that I purchased were the containers to put them in...I picked those up at the dollar store. Gotta love that!

The felt shapes are just two pieces of felt sewn together with the edges trimmed up. This is a great activity for church, quiet time, or pretend play.

The memory game is made out of card stock, scrap material, and hot glue. You could easily do this with scrapbook paper as well, but I don't scrap!

I found both of these online, and I hope to make them again! My girls played the memory game several times before we gave it away! Quality control! :)

makin'.stuff

We know so many people who are having babies! I've been busy making nursing covers and tag blankets. I'm in the process of making an apron for my blogger buddy Myah! Yay!

a.couple.of.gifts

I made this...

and this...

for my sister for her baby shower last week! It was my first attempt at the nursing cover as well as the covered wipes container. They both turned out better than I expected!

Jill gave me the freedom to choose any fabric (which is a little scary when you're buying for someone else...no guidelines), but she loved it! And I loved it too! I had chosen something else initially, but then this caught my eye right. Loved it. And bonus points: it matches her diaper bag perfectly...didn't even plan it!

Only 1 more month, and we'll get to meet Baby N! Claire and Meredith refer to her as Baby Clairadith. So cute.

felt.food

I know a little girl who is turning 6 next week and just might get a little felt food for her birthday! (We'll see how much time I have for a top-secret project!!) Isn't this stuff adorable? See more at homemade by jill.

This post is just for Jess!

pillow.covers

Before:

After:

Yes, Jill, they're done! My sister asked me to make some pillow covers for the pillows that came with the couch that she got (for FREE!) from my parents...they're nice like that. She put a couch cover on it and needed new pillows for cheap. I think she spent less than $5 on her fabric....right out of the remnant bin.

So, I made some. Goodness, people, this is such an easy project. The instructions said that it only takes 20-30 minutes. Seriously, if you've got fabric that doesn't need to be "straight" because of the pattern, it doesn't take long at all!

Here's where I found the tutorial.

***If you are going to attempt this (which is a great project for newbie sewers), you should pin the cover before you sew it. Once you have sewn the short sides of your fabric, wrap the fabric around the pillow (inside out) and pin it in the middle so that you know where the folds will land. It works WAY better than just guessing. Trust me...I learned the hard way.

 

reusable.bags

My friend, Julie, who has been my friend since I was 5, sent me 30 $1 bills for my 30th birthday. It was so sweet of her.

Then, I was like, what do I send her for her 30th? I can't just turn around and send her $30. Josh said, "You should totally (he probably didn't say 'totally') send her 20 $1 bills and tell her that she doesn't look a day over 20!" While, I liked this idea, I thought I should give her something more personal. :)

So, I sent her 3 of these:

Yes, 3 lined reusable shopping bags. I wanted to make her something...now that I love to sew. Everyone is getting handcrafted gifts from now on...not really, but if you want something, you'll just want to put in your request. (Yes, Jill, I'm working on your pillow covers.)

Anyway, these are by far the hardest things that I've made, but I must admit that I use the two that I practiced with a lot (and they turned out pretty well for practice ones). If you put a pocket on the front, they can fold up into themselves so you can throw one into your purse or diaper bag. So nice.

If you want to try them out yourself, I found the tutorial right here.

 

pin.cushion

Here's my pincushion. I'm going to spellcheck this in a few minutes to see if pincushion is one word or two. It will be correct once this posts. Back to subject.

My mom has a pincushion with the sewing box that I kind of took from her. She doesn't use it, so I'm just trying to make use of the things that she doesn't use. I figure I'm doing her a favor. Back to subject.

So, she had a pincushion that I'm pretty sure that she made. I'm sure it was cute at the time, but it had definitely seen its better days. It was too sad to even post. Back to subject.

So, I found the cutest tutorial for a pincushion HERE and whipped this one up. I did it while we were on our girls' weekend. Some of the other girls liked them so well, that I whipped up 4 of them in one sitting and passed them around. Super easy project for those of you learning how to sew! I hope you get to make one!

 

tag.blanket

This is one of my new favorite baby gifts, and after the third one, I think I've figured it out! I've learned that it pretty much takes me at least 3 times to get a project to look the way I've hoped. (By the way, I saw a tutorial for this, but I didn't save it because it was pretty self-explanatory. I would link it, but I don't know where I saw it! )

The first time I try really hard, but typically it looks like a complete beginner project. The second one will look pretty good, but a perfectionistic quality comes out in me and it isn't "quite" right. (This is the point where Josh accuses me of being crazy...no one will notice that one of the stitch lines isn't super straight. Then, I proceed to remind him that his pot is calling my kettle black. He's one of THE most perfectionistic people I know...he worked on one 4 inch piece of trim in our house for like 3 hours: SERIOUSLY!) Back on subject....by #3, I'm good to go. I've figured out what things to watch out for and it turns out pretty well!

So, Amelia has trial #1. Jenna has the pretty one #3 (pictured at the top). That means that #2 is up for grabs...it would be an outlet mall special. Looks good at a glance, but not quite right up close. It just doesn't lay quite right because I had to fix a spot that wasn't quite right. I had to fix it either way, and I didn't know how the fix would turn out. It was ok, but I just couldn't bring myself to give it away for a gift when it would only take me only a short bit of time to make another that would qualify for the window display.

#1 was pretty sad...I didn't even take a picture of it...plus it was a different fabric (which was part of the problem).

Here's #2 (which you can win in the next post!)...this is it's "good" side:

So, how can you go about getting your very own outlet-quality tag blanket???? Check out my next post!! :)

crayon.roll

You guys, I have completely fallen in love with sewing. This is one of my favorite new projects. It was pretty easy and didn't take up too much time. I think I started the project in the afternoon (probably after lunch). And I was finished by dinner. And, I still was doing mom things now and then :) as always. I'm guessing that I'll be able to do the next one in an hour or so from start to finish.

I made it for my new niece who is coming home from China in January! We can't wait to meet her! The material matches her bedding.

There is supposed to be one more crayon in the roll (all the way on the right), but I sewed the opening a little too small. Next time, I'm shooting for 16 crayons!

Becoming Domesticated

Ok, well, I'm officially trying to become more domesticated! It's kind of working :) I'm taking a few steps in the right direction. With Josh at the new house so many hours of the evening, it gives me time to browse the internet. I stumbled across a blog that I love! It has inspired me to craft a few simple projects. My attempt is this adorable little burp cloth. There are actually 4 of them. I took the template that the blogger had included, and I made it my own. Her template was a "peanut" shape, and I've recently been looking at some new burp cloths on Babies-R-Us' website that are a kidney shape. I altered it a bit, and the result is the cute little burp cloth shape to the right! I've only measured, cut the fabric, and pinned it. I think the hard part will come when I plug in the sewing machine! My mom said I could borrow hers which could prove scarier than it sounds. The last time I sewed something on her machine, I broke three needles....it was the fabric (and the operator!). Anyway, I'll update you on the results of the burp cloths once they are complete (good or bad). I may be finished as early as Friday.

Regarding the house: The primer arrived today, and Josh was going to begin priming this evening. Progress, progress, progress....love it!