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So yes, we are well into January...and visions of pink and red are on the horizon with the holiday of love just around the corner...but I'm just a wee bit in denial that the Christmas season is indeed over (we finally took our tree down and put away our Christmas records *insert sad tear here*). But as I mentioned here, I do love me a new year and am ready to embark on some great new journeys! The future looks bright my friends!
And that future is starting strong (and busy!) with some super fun illustration jobs, preparation for ALT - did I mention I'm speaking?! - and so much more. But as my blog is also a bit of a journal I feel I can't move forward without documenting just a bit from our joyous Christmas day.
I'm sure I probably feel this way as it is the most recent event, but for some reason, this last Christmas really felt like the best one yet. Just something about it was simply perfect. Perhaps it is because it was one of the few years where we actually awoke in our own home and celebrated the morning with just our own little family. Or perhaps it was because of our perfect new little addition, baby M. Or perhaps it was because all I really wanted in the world was to spend one perfect day just with my dear family, completely focused on spending time with one another. Probably a bit of all the above. But whatever the reason...it was...well...perfect.
We spent Christmas Eve with Jon's parents and didn't get back to our place till late that night, so the boys actually slept in on Christmas morning, which was perfect. Jon made an amazing sausage and egg baked dish to keep our tummy's happy while settling down to open our gifts. I was on top of things this past year and had been collecting gifts for the boys throughout the year and I even had a lot of it wrapped before Christmas Eve. A record for me. It was oh so nice to embark on December knowing that most of the shopping was done (and ended up being oh so necessary as RSV made it's ugly rounds throughout our household). I did however have a number of last minute things to do, such as hand stamp these long john's for the boys Christmas PJ's. I seriously made them on Christmas Eve morning, willing them to dry in time for me to wrap them so that they could open them later that evening. It somehow managed to work out perfectly. And I laughed when A squealed in delight when opening his after his brother...proclaiming "yes! they are different!". Good thing I made two different stamp motif's. Who knew it was so important?
This year was also really great because I feel like the boys really got into the spirit of giving this year. Not only did we pick out gifts for each other but I had the boys really get involved with selecting gifts for my brother's family (we had his name this year). This meant that they had to think of their cousings, go to a store, pick out gifts for them, buy them and go home with no toys for themselves. I was seriously worried about Little O on this one as he's incredibly in love with toys (he feels like they are his friends that he develops deep bonds with). But you know what? He was amazing. He was head over heals in love with this snugly puppy dog that he knew from the beginning was to be for his 2 year old cousin. So throughout the store he played with it, cuddled it and befriended it, but all with the plan of giving him away. And it worked! He loved the idea of him going to his cousins house. He actually understood that this was a special thing he was doing for his little cousin. It was a gift. Amazing (and serious mom sigh of relief here).
Above are the wrapped gifts that they gave to me and I love how excited they were to give. Such sweet boys. Jon let them pick anything they wanted to give me (within reason and budget of course) and A picked out some lip gloss and Little O picked out a brush. So sweet. And it turns outs, just exactly what I needed. I had them pick something for Jon as well so they chose an Angry Birds game for him to play on the IPad (which of course they wanted to play with as well). They also got a few toys for their baby sister.
And OK, I got just a wee bit excited to embark upon the collection of beautiful handmade dolls for baby M. Yes she won't appreciate it for a while yet but I love the idea of telling her the story of her first Christmas and the special doll that she received then. And in truth, she was my little Christmas doll. Our family's favorite gift from 2012.
2012 was a wonderful year for us and we are so excited to embark on a new year with our little family of five. So so many exciting things for our future and I feel incredibly blessed to share it with those that I love and with all of you!
It's a serious winter wonderland outside right now. And that can only mean one thing...that it's time for snowman building!! And OK, yes the authentic frolicking in the snow and assembling Mr. Frosty with mittens and frostbitten noses is a great way to go...but I'm thinking once that in through, we need to come indoors for some hot cocoa and a much warmer snowman building of sorts.
And this simple modern snowman is just the ticket. I was over the moon to find these large blocks at our local craft store (thinking some more mix-n-match um's are in order with these puppies) and knew that our friend Frosty needed to come to life.
We kept it super simple with just a set of eyes, a triangle nose and some buttons. We made them with our favorite craft supply de jour, duct tape, but you can paint yours on if you like. Have fun with it!
My mother-in-law has a great after-Christmas tradition where she brings out all things wintery and snowman related to keep the after-holiday blues at bay. I love this idea. And our simple frosty block friend is just what we need to keep us merry and bright, even when the tree comes down.
What about you? Any after Christmas/New Year traditions that help keep your spirits up? I'd love to hear what you do and any great tips you might have. Thanks!
School is out for winter break and if you are like me, you need fun activities to keep little hands busy, busy, busy. Well expert figure skaters, Sebastian and Sadie, are here and ready to help with that!
To get started, purchase the download here for only $3.99, complete with both figure skaters and three tree shapes. Print out the figure skaters (I recommend using fine art heavy card stock or taking the file to your local print shop for the best quality of print) and cut them out. Cut out support tabs and glue long vertical strip to back of skater for support. (I find it's also helpful to add a piece of thick foam or cardboard for additional support).
Now using hot glue, adhere magnet to the bottom of the flap of skater
Once the glue is dry you are ready to try out your new skater on the "ice"!
To create your ice rink, take a large discarded cereal box and place it on it's side. You may cover it in white butcher paper before hand if you like, leaving one end open. Create slits in the box where you'd like your trees to go. Print out tree shapes. (You can keep them as is or cover them in black duct tape as we did here). Place large tongue depressors to the backs of the trees. Now you are set to place your trees within the slits you created in your large box.
Place your skater a top the box and than place a corresponding magnet
within the cereal box and directly below the skater. Magnets should meet
up. You are now ready to move your skater around on the ice! So fun!!
These make a great stocking stuffer or craft/toy to play an create with friends and family members during these winter months! Hop on over to the shop to get started on your very own skaters now!
(download will be emailed to you after purchase)
If you are like me you relish the season of scarf wrapping, boot wearing and cocoa sipping. And if you have this cute little handmade bear mug greet you each morning with your favorite warm beverage, well 'tis the season to be jolly indeed!
So head on over to Design Sponge for this weeks DIY gift idea. This little guy is so super simple to make. I promise. You'll be able to mark off quite a few gifts on your list with this furry buddy!
And because we know you might still have a few last-minute gifts to check off that list, we are sharing not one, but two DIY's with you this week! This no-sew hand stamped scarf is the perfect thing to make in an afternoon.
And don't be afraid to let little hands help with the gift creating and
giving. But be careful, they just might look so cute in your creation
you'll have to keep one just for them.
Good morning friends. It's snowing outside of my window as I type and it's looking like it just might be a white Christmas indeed. Yippee! Which means, after the snowball fights and snowman building, it is the perfect time to come inside, sit snugly indoors and create with my Littles.
I don't know about you but this time of year often brings about a case of the sniffles. Which means we have have number of tissue boxes lying around the house. Well the Littles and I discovered just the thing to do with them. Make a little Christmas village, using glitter and duct tape of course! So that is just what we did.
To make the structure of the roof tops, we just cut up a few other tissue boxes (or any other discarded cereal box, etc.) and created the roof shapes atop the tissue boxes. We then proceeded to cover them with the duct tape and then had lots of fun decorating them!
We were so excited to find this gold and silver glitter tape, from Martha Stewart, at Michaels, and knew right away that it needed to be used in our little village. I love how it makes the shingles sparkle and come to life (and an extra bonus - it's really easy to cut).
I also played around with our hole punch a bit and was able to create polka dots with the gold duct tape by spreading out the tape onto parchment paper prior to punching. With a little finesse, they turned out great! (In fact we have updated our duct tape cutting methods altogether. If you lay it out on the parchment, you can get a really nice clean cut with scissors and create just about any shape your heart desires! Best thing about it: the Littles can be more involved in the cutting stage now! Yippee! I'll have to do a tutorial of this new cutting method on the blog soon).
And our little vintage wooden angel is just the perfect friend to inhabit our little village. Makes me want to create a few more wooden friends for her to carol to.
And how cute would it be to cut out the window and door shapes and then add a few battery operated tea lights or even a strand of white Christmas lights on the inside? I just might have to do this variation in the next day or so. Would be so magical indeed!
Hi friends! Today I'm sharing with you my love for all things alpine and snow peaked with this cozy little mountain pillow for your home. Head on over to Design Sponge for the full tutorial!
When Kate Pruitt, of Design Sponge, asked me if I wanted to contribute a few DIY crafts for us older "kids", just in time for the holidays, I jumped at the chance. You know that I'm completely enamoured with kids crafting but I welcomed the chance to kick up the sophistication a notch.
This week I will be sharing with you how to create your very own Bleach Dotted Clutch. This would seriously make the most perfect gift and trust me, it's very easy to make.
Hop on over the Design Sponge for the full DIY. But be careful, you just might fall in love with this so much, you'll want to keep it for yourself!
(and OK, since I just can't help myself, you could do this with the Littles too - particularly the 8 and up crowd. Just supervise the bleaching part. Otherwise it's seriously a great "learn how to sew" project! Perfect little pencil pouch.).
I love Thanksgiving. Really I do. But I have to confess that I wasn't planning on doing much with it this year as I have been rather overwhelmed with work and the new baby. I actually like how Thanksgiving melts into Christmas as I feel like the spirit of thanks should be felt during the Christmas season so to me they naturally go together. I don't even mind the Christmas decorations everywhere and holiday music playing on the air mid November.
Well this got me thinking. I may feel this way but how are my kids going to appreciate gratitude if I don't do something to foster the spirit of giving thanks? So I decided to come up with this simple last minute place mat designed to give them a way to express their thanks on this special holiday.
You might notice that this resembles my gift to Jon I made a few years back. It's such a fun and simple idea I decided to apply it to the upcoming holiday. To make this I simply stitched together two sheets of brown packing paper. I then cut out a number of white paper flags in varying sizes. These were then straight stitched onto the mat.
And that's it! Give your guests some pens and let them express their
thanks while you are finishing up those mashed potatoes and that pumpkin
pie!
And you'll get a kick out of seeing what your kids come up with. Mario, among many other things, of course made the list for this little guy. Love it.
And if you are looking for another last minute Thanksgiving craft, our turkey feather headbands are a great, easy craft to do as well!
As soon as little O turned one I decided it was time to follow in my mother's footsteps and start sewing our very own handmade Halloween costumes. So for the past three years, we have been trying to do just that. There is something special about a homespun costume - and for those of you who don't sew, it can easily be created from boxes, paper, and more found objects. I just think there is something special about creating and wearing something original and hand crafted.
For us we like to have our costumes later become great staples for our imaginative play costume box. So more often than not I like to sew them, so that they last and can be easily stored. Last year the boys asked to go as a pumpkin and Perry the Platypus. And let me tell you what. That platypus has been worn quite a number of friends and family members alike. It's probably been the number one requested dress up item in our home. And the pumpkin? Well, I love that one so much that I'm keeping it nice for baby M to wear again one year.
In 2010, the boys went as knights. We had a lot of tun with these and even themed Little O's 2nd birthday party around them. By basing these off of a vintage art smock, they were not only simple but easy for the little guys to wear...over...and over again.
That year I also decided to share a simple DIY ghost cloak that you can make from a sheet. And trust me, if you don't have a costume idea made up and ready yet, you can totally make this one the day before (or even the day of!) Halloween.
2009 was the year I began all of this sewing madness. I actually wanted to start sewing as soon as A was born but I think it took having number two for me to really be inspired. I kind of get into themes. And really you only have so many years before you can get your kids to theme your costumes. Or at least that's how it's played out in my house.
So in 2009 the boys went out as a sailor man and an octopus. I started the costume with a fringed white beard...that lasted for about three seconds (A wasn't into how it felt on his face).
So as much as I loved the beard (it still comes out for Santa Claus impressions) we nixed it for a simple, younger, sailorman costume.
And what's a better side kick for a sailorman than a squigly red octupus? I can't deny that I was seriously in love with how my little baby O looked in this costume and was proud to have created it completely on my own (no pattern). And I seriously can't wait until baby M can fit this, because I'm very sure that I've not had enough of it yet.
And this year? Well stayed tuned to find out! I mean I now have three costumes to create! So you'll just have to keep a drift to see if everything turns out as planned.
What are some of your favorite costumes from years gone by? And why? Any of them handmade? I'm still in awe of my friend Sarah's darling gumball costume, found on Inchmark, made for her daughter. Seriously so innovative. You can see more of what is inspiring me costume wise via my Hallow's Eve Pinterest board. And can you believe that the haunted holiday is upon us!? EEK!!
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