New Baby Crafts

I finally did get around to my projects and my baby boy is so glad I did.

Bird Mobile - I've been wanting to make something to hang from Benito's hammock since he can see longer distances now. I saw this beautiful mobile on etsy but there was no way I could dish out the cash, so I made one. I loved all the different types of mobiles but decided on sleeping birds because Martin has a bird mobile and I just thought these "storybook" sleeping birds are soothing and easy to make. I also wanted to put a little bell or something inside the bird, but decided against it since my husband is a lite sleeper.

Taggie Blanket - I saw these tag blankets made with bags inside so they crinkle on Chasing Cheerios (tutorial here) and have to have a few. I used scrap ribbons and found a cute fat quarter to match and waaalaaaa! Benjamin loves it and now between the birds and blanket to keep him busy, I don't know what to do with myself!

Baby legwarmers - I found these long socks at Handcock and thought they'd be cute on Benito's chubby legs.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Vintage Baby Quilts

It makes me so happy to see my baby sprawled out on the blankets my mom saved from my childhood. It's almost inspiring enough to get me started making a few. At least three.

Soule Mamma's New book - Thanks Emily! (Oh and while you're visiting Emily, check out the adorable apron she made Allie)

Just flipping through this book makes me want to forgo sleep for days just to fit in a new project.

Creativity for Kids

I love doing projects that are plucked from our own imaginations and use only upcycled materials, buuuuuut it's not happening lately. I'm really trying to sneak in projects and puzzles into our day which by the way is very hard. So one day I pulled this Christmas gift from my mother in law, out of the closet during Benjamin's nap. The kids LOVED it!! All the supplies was right there, easy to do, cute puppets in less than an hour that the kids played with FOR hours! Then lo and behold, Allie unwraps a birthday present and now we have another one waiting for us when we can grab a few uninterrupted minutes! Create your own BOOK!!! How fun is that going to be?

Spinach Salad

When I was so lucky as to have friends bring me dinner after I had Benjamin, I was introduced to a new salad. It's so simple and easy to make. THANKS Star!!!

Salad:

Spinach

Toasted Almonds

Mandarin Oranges

Dressing:

1T Soy sauce

3T Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 cup of Canola Oil

1-2t. of Sesame Oil

Merry Christmas

Yay we finished our Christmas cards. I know, I know... it's late, but EARLY for us!!

Here are a few more gifts.

Puppy. Tutorial by Martha. Yes, we're on a first name basis. M loves "Frankie" so much that I might have to make another one for the little one this puppy was intended.

Eye pillows. These smell so wonderful.

Play food. There were so many cute ideas out there that I wanted to make them all. I settled on cookies, eggs, bacon, pancakes with syrup and butter, and a sandwich. I also made a reversible apron to go with it.

Some pillows.

Lost

I've been swallowed up or buried in all of my projects. Here's a drive by post with a few completed projects. More to come, I just haven't taken pictures.


Here is A testing out some fleece pants I made her.



Christmas pajamas. Here's a tutorial on how to do the reverse applique on the shirts and here's a tutorial on how to make the pants.



We usually don't get snow in our side of the world so I thought these would be cute gifts for the toddlers and babies. These are hand felted balls with a golf ball size wiffle ball and a bell inside. Here's the tutorial I used.

** Sorry Wendy I should have given the blog that inpired these. ***

Advent

Day 7 - To see Santa

Day 8 - Make ornaments for the tree with friends. We made THESE (I know it's too simple, who needs a recipe, but I like to read the comments) cinnamon ornaments. Super easy and they make the whole house smell yummy for YEARS!!

Day 9 - Write letters to Santa. I helped M with his shapes and A's list says: 1. House 2. Lipstick 3. Doll

Ok ladies, get ready. I have a few projects I've been working on and I'll post them tomorrow. How is your handmade Christmas coming along?

What's going on?

Last week I was a little shaken up. For the first time since I've been active online, I let someone or I guess something change who I am. Not a good thing. So I took a step back and immersed myself in who I am. I love to create, so that's what I've been doing.

We have a Thanksgiving tree. I loved this idea I saw on Beauty that Moves. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I hate that it's stomped over to get to Christmas. Hubby and I have really emphasized being thankful for all of our blessings and we try to verbalize it as much as possible. To write it is different.

Here are a few of Allie's contributions.

I finished my Advent calendar. I made the envelopes with scrapbook paper and inside each envelope is an activity we'll do to celebrate the season of Christmas. Here's where I got the idea and here's our list of activities. I LOVE the idea of really celebrating and not feeling like I was drugged the whole month of December and then wondering what happened on December 26th.

1. Decorate tree.

2. Set up nativity and act it out as we set it up.

3. Make an Advent wreath.

4. Holiday in the Park (local festivities).

5. Read St. Nicholas book (still looking for a good one) and set out our shoes.

6. Celebrate St. Nicholas Day - this is one of Hubby's traditions since his family is from Belgium. I'm going to try and hunt down a few recipes from his BonMama's recipe book.

7. Museum of Fine Arts - free today and they have an exhibit on how different cultures celebrate around the world.

8. Make ornaments - This will be with our playgroup and I'm deciding between the clove oranges and cinnamon ornaments.

9. Write a letter to Santa.

10. Make wreaths and candy canes for the tree. M and A can both do this AND I made them when I was a kid!!!

11. Hang mistletoe and start kissing.

12. Heritage Society's Candlelight tour (local tour of Christmas lights).

13. Visit Santa and watch the ice skaters in the mall.

14. Pick a star off the Be an Angel tree, buy gifts and wrap.

15. Make gift tags for presents using potato stamps.

16. Make gingerbread men.

17. Watch a Christmas movie (maybe Charlie Brown?).

18. Call grandparents and sing Christmas carol (We Wish You a Merry Christmas - gotta start working on it now).

19. Drive around and see Christmas lights.

20. Read Christmas books and drink hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.

21. Make tamales with my family.

22. Cookie baking party. Friends come over and we all bake, eat and listen to Christmas music.

23. Discovery Green (local) watch ice skaters and try hot apple cider.

24. Bake and decorate a cake for baby Jesus.

A Christmas gift for my new niece. Baby legs and baby shoes. The baby legs are super easy and I've made tons for both of my kids. I bought women's knee hi's for $2 and I think they look adorable with the shoes. The shoes were really easy too, once I learned what interfacing was.

Ok I think that's enough for today. I'm kinda cheating on next month's challenge, but if I didn't start until December, I wouldn't get it done. I'll elaborate more, but for the sake of recruiting I'll post some of my ideas on a homemade Christmas this year. Think about it. Maybe all of your gifts can't be handmade, but how about 5?2? maybe just one to start with this year.

Just a glance

We've been busy.

Planted a new tree. The city was giving out oak trees and we decided this beauty would be perfect in our yard.

First ER visit. Shortly after planting our tree M had an accident and had to get his finger glued shut. He was true to his name and hardly cried.

A puzzle for A. It has 5 other nature pictures too.

Our nature table. Today we made pine cone turkeys with our friends and the kids LOVED them. A had to see hers again before she took a nap.

Crafts

Overall for the last two weeks, I'd say we did pretty good. Last week, thanks to some friends we managed one craft before I got sick. A loved making her pumpkin and stuffing it with seeds. M even joined in a painted a little. The week we made monster rocks thanks to a post by Little Birdie Secrets on Crafty Crow and we painted pumpkins. We also, just played with paints, and helped Mimi carve her pumpkin and make pumpkin empanadas.

Too many crafts???

Yeah so even though I slacked off when I had the stomach bug, I have to say that I've very proud of all three of us for being more artistic this month? I've learned to appreciate how thoughtful and creative my children are and I really loved the calmness that came with creativity. Yay for us! Buuuuuuuuut, and you know that has to be one, A is now demanding that we paint or create everyday. I love it and hate it all at the same time. On this day, Mommy said we were not going to be able to paint until our friends came over and A had a different opinion on the order of our activities.

So guess what pops up when you google,

Q:"How to get fabric paint out of fabric?"

Anyone????

A: "You can't!!! It's FABRIC!!!"

Seriously.

They're done!

Ok just a few short posts to catch up. The Halloween costumes are done and ready to party! A and I are going to be Indians ( I know it's Native American, but it sounds better to say cowboys and Indians) and M is going to be a cowboy. Hubby was supposed to dress up too, but true to his nature, he chickened out changed his mind. So here is all my hard work.

A's costume- I made the dress, A made her necklace and headband and the moccasins are second hand.

M's costume - I made the chaps, the boots and pants are vintage, thanks to Uncle Jorge and Uncle Renzo (one from each), the belt is second hand and the hat and shirt are from Target.

My costume is too wide to look cute on camera, although I do think it looks cute on me. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

The challenge review

Last week was great! We did some crafty stuff, but A was also able to let loose and be artistic.
Here are some of my favorites.


Craft stick shape book - I placed a bunch of different size sticks and glue in front of her and she decorated it how she wanted. Then we talked about what she did and she told me they were shapes, so we labeled them.


Pocahontas head band - I asked her to paint things that Pocahontas likes and the results were birds, water and a racoon.


Bird feeder - This was an activity we did in playgroup and M and A LOVED it.


Scarecrow - This was more crafty, but we talked about hay and what it's for, what pretend means, and the parts of the body. Doesn't A look thrilled??? After all the "itchies" and Momma's sneezing fit, they were done with the scarecrow.



So we've one more week to go. I know we're going to paint pumpkins and make monster pet rocks, but I want to go out with a bang, so does anyone have any great ideas??

Arts and crafts

Last week went ok. Just ok. I was really grouchy all week so our arts and crafts time didn't get as much time as I want to give.

These were my favorites this week:

Making spiders.
Making a necklace for her PocaNONtas costume.

The challenge

There are many moments in my life when I have enough time to sit back and reflect on the decisions I've made, what is says about me and the person it makes me. When I was younger, I would reflect on my friend choices and the seriousness of the sins I confessed. In college, I would think about the classes I was taking and events I was participating in and how it would effect my carrer and my mark on the world. In this era of my life, most of my reflecting centers on my role as a mother and the choices I make that effect who my kids will grow up to be. Some days are not so good and other days, I lay down, very proud of the decisions I've made. I know the ups and downs are very normal for motherhood and most every mom I know goes through something like this on a regular basis. I just read Life with Boys this morning and Becca was talking about cherishing the good moments and wanting to erase the not so good ones. I KNOW exactly what she is talking about!

Ok, so the result of all this reflecting is crazy husband a monthly challenge!!

This month (I know it's late) is to do something artistic with my kids everyday. Last week we had a playgroup at our house and a friend of ours brought REAL watercolors! Not the crusty-and-impossible-to-paint-with-dollar-store paints. The kids loved it!! I was inspired so I've made an effort to pull out some sort of craft every day since then and my children's inner artists are flourishing from all the attention.

Pirate Princess Party

Yay our Pirate Princess party was a hit! A had the best time and is still asking if we can do it again. Here are a few pics of the the party.

Pirate Princess Invitations - Tiffany did an awesome job again!! More on them here. Birthday Banner - This was just construction paper and left over foam skulls.

Pirate Princess Pinata- We have a local pinata place that custom makes them for TONS cheaper than the tiny ones at party city.
Pirate Princess Decorations on the Table - Michael's and the dollar stores had their Halloween stuff out already.

Treasure chest - I had all the kid's hats (Michael's), beads & rings(local party warehouse) and eye patches (I made these with felt and elastic) in here. Balloons - I ordered these from www.celebrateexpress.com along with the plates. I just filled in the rest with hot pink and black.

Cake - It didn't turn out how I expected, but the kids loved it and I loved that it was done! Party Favors - I made some booty bags and threw in a few chocolate coins. More on these here. Hot dog Pirate ships - I uploaded the instructions on how to make there here.

Super A - My mom make A a cape for her birthday!!
Pirate wench - My aunt dressed up like a pirate and help tatto the kids! They loved it!
Pin the patch on the Pirate - We were all set to play, but it was hot and I couldn't get the kids all in one area so we passed on it. Buuuut my mom and dad did a great job making the poster and we'll save it for halloween!

Fun times... ARRRRR