Knock, Knock?

Hello, hello? Anybody out there?

I took a very long break from blogging. I love blogging. A lot. But with homeschooling, personal happenings in life, and everything else going on, something had to give. So, I put the blog on the back burner. Even our family blog has not had as many posts this year.

However, I miss blogging! I miss the connections with creative people online! I miss sharing ideas and learning from other people as well! I don't do this for a career, I just do it for fun. So what if I do not post daily? I might not be able to do it as regularly but I can still share when I would like to!

So if anyone is out there, hi! I am back!

Thanksgiving Printable Props were found FREE HERE! I used them for our Homeschool Group's Thanksgiving Potluck for all the Mamas to get pictures with their kids. They were a hit!

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A Very Scrappy Christmas

Pinterest is rekindling an old love of mine; paper crafting. I know I talk about Pinterest a lot, but it is so fun to bounce ideas around and be inspired. I feel like I do more projects using other people's ideas for inspiration than trying to come up with things on my own all of the time. Isn't the internet so great for sharing?

I saw this cute little Christmas countdown here and my sister in law and I each did a spin off of our own versions. Here's mine. Love this new little countdown!

Then while I still had all of my stuff out and my husband watched football, I made this photo cube cut from a piece of scrapbook I have held onto for a couple of years.  This project all came out of my ahead, but I love the ability to put older pictures on it as time goes on.

The pictures are from past years' Christmases except for the one of my daughter from this Christmas season.

And my sister in law sent me a pin she saw that inspired me to do this very similar version:

And last but not least, another Pinterest inspired craft. We don't have a chimney and aren't really into Santa, but I liked the wording of this and like all of the other projects here, already had the supplies on hand.

Hope some of these can inspire you guys too!

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Do you DIY ornaments?

Pinterest has been inspiring me this year to do all sorts of fun ornaments for our little family tree! Here are some links to do your own DIY ornaments! I won't include pictures of each one here, but if you click on the links you can make see the cute ideas!


The cinnamon ones made the house smell so good. I put a few in the tree and also put some on gifts as toppers. From Martha Stewart

Picture from Martha Stewart

Yesterday, we baked salt dough ornaments so the kids can paint them this evening. Including the obligatory hand print one. Here is the recipe.

We also did these bird seed ones for outside. The kids love watching the birds eating their ornaments that they made for them! They are made with bird seed and gelatin. Recipe here.

And this clothespin nativity one is probably my favorite. There's a tutorial you can buy from Etsy, but I winged mine.

We did these glitter balls too. It was so easy and I had everything here on hand. Another great gift topper! I will post this picture, because I had put it on my instagram :) Here's the how-to

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Advent Calendar

For years, I have wanted a really neat advent calendar. I love the idea of the kids getting little treats every day leading up to Christmas. There's something special about the month of December.

This year, we decided after looking around and trying to find a fun idea, to just build something with the stuff we had on hand. Wood scraps, scrapbook paper I had hoarded from a few years ago, muslin, paint from painting the hallway, and wrapping paper all came together to make this advent calendar.

My husband is a pretty handy guy! I showed him a picture of what I was thinking shape wise, then we cut everything out. I lined the back piece with wrapping paper and then as we painted the pieces, he assembled it all. 

I had this scrapbook paper here from a few years ago. I cut each day out and modge podged them onto poker chips I picked up at the thrift store, then glued them onto each compartment. I wanted the title to be seen by the little ones, so I put it toward the top of the shelf rather than the center. 

For the bags, I cut out a piece of muslin, folded it sewed the sides and made a draw string for it, then freezer paper stenciled each day on them in different fonts and colors. 

Each day has little treats, activities and small toys for them to receive as the days draw closer to Christmas. Can't wait to incorporate this into our family traditions!

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Christmas Pajamas

I'm going to be honest here. I am about to go crazy. I have had sick kids nonstop since Saturday, which means I have not had a lot of time whatsoever for myself, not much sleep and minimum outings outside of my home.

Today I had enough of sitting on the couch. I love my babies and I feel bad for them that they don't feel good, but I am just not a couch sitter. I cleaned up the house that was needing it in a desperate way, and made lunch. Just doing those things helped me so much! And how is it the last day of November?!

Anyway, it's no secret that I am a frugal crafter. I love creating things from other things, reusing what we dont need anymore or what other people have gotten rid of. Some people call me cheap, I think of myself as resourceful.

Every year, we give the kids a pair of pajamas on Christmas eve. Just one of those traditions that a lot of people do. There's something about a comfortable pair of pajamas and going to bed all snug and happy!

We have done matching pajamas in the past as well as fun cutesy pajamas (I was even talked into character pajamas last year).

These were my favorite. Look how tiny these boys were!

This year I wanted to go back to the matching pajamas idea and started looking around. Unfortunately, I couldn't really find anything that didnt cost an arm and a leg, that looked good with both genders and that was in all the sizes I needed!

I was at the local thrift store during their half off day and stumbled upon two flannel king size pillow cases. For   50 cents a piece, I bought them, washed them and started playing around.  This was one of those projects that I went in and didn't know what I was doing with everything, or have a vision at all. I just went for it. I figured if I messed up, I was only out a dollar. I love the results!

I honestly didnt expect to get 24 months, 5t, 6 sizes from two pillow cases but it actually worked! I even had enough left over to applique matching shirts and add ruffles to the 24 months pants. I used pants they already had for patterns and the boys' pants had the pillow case edge so I didn't need to hem theirs.

Then I added their names to the pants as well with a simple embroidery thread. I did it free hand but you could use a washable marker to trace.

The appliques were used using this pattern I found on pinterest  I did a simple zig zag stitch around it after I ironed them on with paper backed fusible web.

And shh don't tell, but one of the shirts was a 50 cent yard sale find, one was a hand me down from a sibling and the other I did have to purchase. But since I only put 1.50 into it, I figured a 5 dollar shirt was ok. 6.50 for matching pjs? Works for me!

Can't wait to see them all matchy and snuggly on Christmas morning!

I linked up at these great blogs!

 
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I miss blogging.

I often struggle with blogging here because I don't ever want to come across as unrealistic or bragging. But because the point of blogging to me is to share ideas as well as help people be inspired like I am often inspired by other bloggers, I have decided that I really honestly enjoy blogging and talking to other bloggers and having fun sharing crafts in the online crafting community!

So baby, I am back!

Which is fun right? Because it's that time of the year that I love crafting the most! Christmas gifts and decorations!

We keep things pretty simple in terms of decorations and gifts, often trying to give as much handmade as we can and have been working a little bit at a time here and there for the past couple of months.

I will leave you with a picture of our simple little tree, complete with some new handmade ornaments I worked on this weekend, the tree skirt inspired from pinterest, and our handmade tree topper we put every year.

all pictures were taken with my phone. just gettin' real with ya.







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Socks aka stockings

With a new addition to the family, I had to make a new stocking this year to add to our other ones. Sometimes its still hard to believe we are a family of five! I had bought plenty of extra felt last time so I didn't even need to buy anything for this project, and used one of the previously made stockings for a pattern.

One of Ellie's nicknames is "daisy" so this is her personalized stocking, or sock, as my boys call them. These are so easy to make because they are felt, and felt is so fabulous because it doesn't fray!

I also have a kindergartener who felt that the cursive J looked like a "b" and asked politely if he could have a "Jaden" instead of a "Baden" for a name. It's so exciting to see how well he is picking up on his reading! Smart guy.

It was also pointed out that we have an extra hook on our holder and that he needs another baby. A boy this time please, he asked. Ha!


Sorry for the blurry pictures. I am on medication right now that makes me really shakey and I was too lazy to get the tripod out. 


Thanks for looking! :)
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Happy Thanksgiving 2010

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Welcome December!

Well hello there, December! 

Where did November disappear to? That's ok, it was kind of a difficult month. So was October.

Time to focus on you, December. This month, the final month of 2009, will be better.  

Hard to believe that this month we will complete our family and meet our sweet baby girl.  Everything in her room is ready, set, go! The boys can not wait! The date is set, and we will definitely have a 2009 baby. I am full term December 14th, but we dont expect her to be here until December 29th. (Looks like we will be ringing in 2010 via hospital lodging.)

The house is decorated, "Jesus' birthday songs" are playing (according to my smart boy), Christmas cards are sent, the gifts are very slowly appearing under the tree (I am a little slow at shopping this year and sadly will not be making many handmade gifts) but we continue to focus on what the true meaning of the season is. The greatest gift given to us. How easy it can be to forget this!

Welcome, December. Make yourself at home and stay awhile.

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February 2nd Class at Devine Memories

Valentine's Wall Hanging- $12 d0llars  6:30-8 pm Call Devine Memories and sign up today!

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While my husband's at the Cardinals game...

I could be doing a whole bunch of stuff I need to get done...but I think wihle the boys are sleeping, I am going to use this Sunday as a true day of rest. I just got home from a great true Italian meal that my dad made (with 4 courses!) so I am totally stuffed. The boys are finally resting for the first time since their eyes opened this morning (whew!) and I need a break.

I do want to share the class samples from the upcoming Sweetheart workshop I am a part of teaching at Devine Memories on Saturday, February 7th. The class is 6 dollars, or $35 for 7 classes!!

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Pot Holders W/ Apron

I am loving pot holders right now. The problem with pot holders though, is that (mine at least) get stained up, burnt up, and just well loved.

I made a set of four of these for my sister in law...and now I want to make more! I looked at one of mine, and went from there with it.


I plan on making a lot more, and will post a tutorial with the next batch!

(and here is the matching apron that my sweet sister in law was nice enough to take a picture of me for!)

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Headbands

I have seen some great patterns and ideas for headbands lately. Check out here and here for some!

I kind of did my own thing though, and made about 10 and gave them away in two sets of five. I did ribbon headbands and cloth headbands. They all were the same concept: a band of fabric or ribbon with about 4 inches of elastic sewn on to make a band. I was bad though and didnt change the thread out from black. Thats ok, its not shown when you wear it.:


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Plush Rocket Ship

I finally get to post some of the Christmas gifts we made! Sadly, I slacked and did not take pictures of everything. (such a slacker.) I will post them all this week.

Here is the rocket ship I made my son and my nephew... I got the idea here The fabric, felt and thread all came from Grandma Eloise! I thought it was pretty cool!

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39 Lemons.

That sounds like the name of a band, doesn't it?

39 lemons is actually the number of lemons we got off of our first harvest on our lemon tree! We started this tree when it was just a tiny five dollar stick at WalMart, and 5 years later, we have made 5 pitchers of juice and still have enough to do more!

Speaking of juice, I *won* a juicer Christmas eve at my parents! We have been juicin' fools every since! 3 pitchers of a citrus juice (grapefruit, lemons and oranges..all local from family and friends' trees!), apple/pear/banana juice (requested by my sweet brother), and 2 pitchers of lemonade.

Christmas Eve's Remington Chiller:

I know I look haggard..chasing two boys in a nonchildproof house, making two cakes and wrapping the rest of the gifts while doing laundry, and cleaning up Christmas eve will do that to a girl.

But then.....

Mmm!

My "Naughty" shirt is one we made last year...my "nice" husband's lights up.

(picture from 2007, which just goes to show how haggard Christmas makes me look!)

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