in which i pretend to be a craft blog

Christmas gets me in the mood to craft. Or maybe just winter in general.

I really wanted to make matching skirts for the girls this year for Christmas. Ana LOVES dressing matching with Katie. Katie's blessing sweater still mostly fits her so I made skirts to match that.



I got them done the week before Christmas and wouldn't you know it, I could not find Katie's little sweater anywhere. I searched all the week before Christmas - still no sweater. So the holiday came and went without taking pictures of my kids in their new Christmas outfits. Finally I resigned to it being lost and ordered a different one from a different store. Wouldn't you know it, the VERY DAY that sweater came in mail I found Katie's blessing one. It's pretty small now, but I put it on her anyway.






Ana really wanted a pillow pet for Christmas. I had a hard time coming around to it. I just couldn't justify spending 20 bucks for a pillow with a head. So I decided to make her a huge owl pillow. Then I found a knock-off pillow pet for 10 bucks and decided to just go for it. But I still wanted to make an owl pillow. So I made Katie a mini one. I love how it turned out!


Last year I made a wreath out of our Christmas Tree's bottom branches. I had so much fun, I thought I'd do it again this year, and then take a crappy picture of it.


Of course I had to make Katie a stocking:



Probably my favorite thing to sew is burp cloths. I know, that's weird. But they are fast, I don't have to think too much, and it satisfies my creative urges. This one was for a friend who is due next month with baby Benjamin.



So there you have it. 2 months worth of craftiness. Now it's out of my system for a few weeks, and maybe I can get caught up on housework. Okay, probably I'll just read some books instead.

girls' room

We have had a few projects recently to get ready for Katie to come and share a room with Ana. We painted a few things: their room, a free old dresser, and some 16x20 frames I got from Goodwill for just a few bucks. We are really happy with how it has turned out so far. And we haven't had to spend much at all.

Here is the crib with one of our wedding pictures printed at 16x20 in one of the frames we painted pink. Also you can see the awesome quilt that Erin's good friend from Rupert made for Katie!


Here you can see the dresser and the other frame we repainted. The thing on the dresser is a little changing table pad type thing for the baby.


Dave finally got around to designing a poster to use in our 2nd repainted frame. He found this quote in his book of quotes from President Monson's collection. It was a lot of fun to do. We are really happy with how the poster turned out! The colors don't look exactly right in this picture because of the lighting, but you get the idea.

yellow umbrella

So, I have a friend named Shaela who is awesome and talented and nice and genuine.

She does some amazing work with paper.

She has a craft blog.

I am always amazed at what she can do. She has been on design teams and has even been published in a scrapbooking magazine.

She is doing a giveaway.

Check it out!

"sew" in the mood and other holiday hoopla

Christmas came and went too fast. Didn't it seem like December was a lot longer when we were young?

The weekend before Christmas we went down to Utah to see my Grandparents and then visit Temple Square, which we have done almost every year since 2004. My Grandpa was pleased with the little gift we gave him: a Christmas ornament of the Wilson Theater, which is where he took my Grandma on their first date.




Then we had Ana's dance recital, which was really fun. (Ana is 2 over from the boy.) The best part was when she watched the other girls dance. She stood in the aisle and danced her way through most of the other dances. It was very cute, if a bit distracting.




Christmas was small and good. I spent a lot of hours making projects and forgot to take pictures that morning. Ana had a horrible time settling down the night before and was up early so was whiny most of the day. But mostly it was a good, happy day (and day after) full of fun, family and food.


Jack's quiet book took about 20 hours. My sister said, "you can make me one." I said, "well it took my 20 hours and so at $10 an hour: that's $200." I also made gifts for my sister and family, so I spent 2-3 hour every night for 10 days sewing. But somehow, it didn't squash my sewing enthusiasm at all. I guess I've just really been in the mood.

I think Ana's favorite thing from this holiday season was something we picked up at DI yesterday: pom-poms. I came home and whipped up this little cheerleader skirt from some extra fabric I had and she has been content as can be. This morning she wanted Jack to be "a team" so we dressed him up and he was carrying around a football that came in his stocking.


Dave and I sat down to reflect on 2009 and set our new year's resolutions. I am anxious for 2010 and all the new adventures that await us. But that is another post...

i'm so domesticated

Wow! This week has been busy busy with domestic-like stuff. And not the "house-cleaning" type, so I guess that's what I'll be catching up on tomorrow.

I was really excited with the kids Halloween costumes. Ana's dress took a lot of work, but I really liked it. Jack's took almost no work at all so they evened out. He didn't want to keep his hat on, though. We went to a Trunk or Treat, which was fun. Jack totally didn't understand the whole "trick or treat" thing. He just thought, "man I just got a sucker and I'm going to stop right here and eat it." I think Ana's favorite thing was going over to Grandma's and helping her pass out candy to all the kids that came to the door.





I also felt extra motivated this year so I made the kids Halloween treat bags. I like how they turned out.



Also today was a family get together with my siblings. I told my sister over a year ago that I would make her some throw pillows. I committed to give them to her at the family party today so I've been working on those this week too. I love them so much, I wish they matched my couch. I also made a fresh-pumpkin pie and a salad for the party.



Whew! Its been a busy week and it was a lot of fun! I'm all in the sewing groove now so I'm ready to start on a few handmade Christmas presents for the kids. Yay!

drop a line

My good friend Shaela, who was my neighbor across the parking lot in Rexburg, blogs HERE. She is truly an artist with paper. Her scrapbooking pages, and scrapbook-y stuff, are absolutely beautiful and I'm always inspired to do more when I see her creations. She's doing a fabulous giveaway. Hurry, you only have until Monday to enter.

Jack's blessing weekend

This weekend was a very cool weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Twin Falls Temple Open House. Ana was so excited to go inside the Temple. She was very good during the tour, too. We told her that mommy and daddy got married in the Temple and that she could, too. Since then, she's been saying, "I get married in Temple." I hope she remembers that. It is such a beautiful place. Yesterday was Jack's blessing day. I am so grateful for a husband who holds the Priesthood. With family in town, the whole weekend has been very family-oriented. What a blessing to know we'll be with them forever!

our little man in his blessing outfit. isn't he cute!

siblings

our little family

Ana in her new dress I made (with a lot of help from my mom).

A close up shot

Wow, its been a while.

Okay, I've been really out of the blogging loop. We're still living with Dave's parents. Its been pretty good. Our apartment is coming along. We'll probably be a few more weeks out. Ana's been sleeping in the computer room so that cuts out my usual computer time to get all caught up on blogs. I've missed it! Here's whats going on.

They flood irrigate their back lawn here. The one time it was warm enough to play in it, Ana loved it. At first she was a little concerned with the water coming into the yard, but she got over it.


They have cows right behind their house, too. Ana loves to go stand on the ditch "bridge" and watch the cows. She'll say, "come here cows" and wave to them to try to get them to come closer.
My mother-in-law has been hand quilting her entire life. She quilted us a beautiful quilt when we got married and Ana also has a grandma quilt. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to learn. We finished this quilt yesterday. My first few stitches were awful, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. It'll be fun to do another one.

Pillow Talk

My sister has asked that I make her some throw pillows for her living room. I'm really excited for this new sewing project, but I need some advice/direction.

What kind of fabric is best for home decor? What's a good price per yard? How big is a standard throw? Is piping essential?

So, any help from my blogging buddies out there would be great. Or just point me in the direction of some great websites or patterns. Dark green is her basic color, and I kinda want to mix and match, with different sizes/shapes and maybe piece the front of some. What do ya'll think?

And the winner is...

Amanda Reynolds!!!! I'll be sending her a pack of hand made Valentines, like these:

I had a lot of fun making them and might just make me some too!

I loved reading all your comments. Keep 'em coming!!!

Baby Blanket

I made this baby blanket for a friend/neighbor who recently had their first baby. Although I didn't go a great job on the stitching, I thought it turned out cute. I made it double layer since it winter. I love the pinks!

Cards

Our ward does a card club. I just joined for this month and actually it was the last month its going on, but it was fun to do the cards for this because it was both thank you and Christmas. We meet and exchange cards that we all made. Strangely enough, I had a doctor's appointment so I just dropped my cards off. Here are the cards I made.

The Christmas one is a little different than I envisioned, mostly because my sewing machine wasn't working and I didn't feel like trying to figure out what was wrong, but I still like them. Then I see the ones the other girls make and I'm not very creative, but its still fun to do them. I usually have a simpler style then others.

Happy Halloween

Ana is still a little young for trick-or-treating, but our ward didn't do anything for Halloween, so we decided to have a Halloween Party with a few friends. We dressed up, played the Wii and ate good foods like little smokies and chips and salsa. It was really fun! I couldn't find our camera, so I'll have to wait for my friends pics to show my costume, but I got Ana dressed back up this afternoon and let her play in the leaves. (Can you belive its November and its not snowy?) Her hair doesn't look quite the same as it did last night, but as soon as I get a picture from our friends, I'll post it and you can see mine and Dave's costumes, too. (I like any excuse to dress up.)

I made Ana's skirt. Its supposed to be a poodle skirt, but I decided to do a flower instead. I was dressed up 70s, and I was trying to convince Dave to do another decade, but he wasn't up for it.

After the photo shoot this afternoon, I felt good enough to go for a walk, so I bundled Ana up in her coat and walked down the street. It was cold, but really refreshing!

Cute Magnets/Thumbtacks

I loved making these magnets/thumb tacks at my mom's house. They are easy, cute, fairly cheap and kids can do them too. Here's how if you don't already know.

Materials needed: Clear flat marbles (found at any craft store and Wal-mart. You can get small ones or big ones. I use small ones.)

Scrapbook or other design or colored paper

Modge-Podge

Glue Gun
Magnets or Thumbtacks

Step 1: Place a marble on the paper where you want the design to be. Trace and cut out

Step 2: Modge Podge the bottom of the stone. Press the paper onto the stone, design side down.

Step 3: Modge Podge over the top of the paper. Let dry

Step 4: Hot glue a magnet or thumbtack onto the marble.

Tada!

We made mostly magnets with bright blues and pinks at my moms. I made these ones at home and did some with thumb tacks since I use a cork board a lot. I made these 6 in less than an hour. Cute way to add holiday accents to your home.

*i love*

the fall this year. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm really enjoying fall this year. I used to not like it because it meant winter was coming. But Ana still likes to play outside so instead of staying in lamenting the cold-ing weather, I've been outside and its actually quite nice. I'm looking forward to the falling leaves, getting one of Amy's pumpkins, and Christmas. And I realized that I like to wear my sweaters, sweatshirts and my coat that I got for Christmas last year.

I also love: my bracelet that I made with my sister's beading stuff. I wear it with pretty much everything. Pride and Prejudice (the book). Just finished it for the 2nd time. Love it!

My apron

I finally finished my apron. I really like how it turned out. My kitchen is red, so that's why I chose to do my apron red. Here I am modeling it (even if its not the best picture, you can see the apron.)

Blankets

I made these two baby blankets instead of doing homework. But it was a lot more fun and I like how they turned out. The blankets are single layer and then I made a matching burp cloth that is double layered. 

I love the bright colors of this one, and I love polka dots!

As soon as I saw this pattern, I had to make a blanket from it. I love the monkeys!

I have a few more sewing projects for the summer. I'm excited to have the time to do them all.