happy birthday to my niece and nephews!

Part of our summer vacation took us for to my SIL for her kids birthday! Hard to believe they are already two, hand to believe Carson is already two! She threw a cute little ice cream sundae party with pools for the little kids to splash around in. The weather was amazing! My SIL is planning on home schooling (God grant her the patients and strength for that one!) so I jumped at the chance to make them something educational. For their birthday last year I made them a cloth book about colors and one about shapes. The down fall is there are three of them and sharing at that age.... well you all have kids and you can all relate! I really liked the idea of a busy book, partly because I never finished Coltons and partly because I always have so many ideas running though my brain that its hard to nail down one design for anything. I came up with a basic idea of an ABC book  but I really didn't want to make 3. So I came up with this :

The thought it that they can either read it like a book on mom and dads lap or they can lay it down open on the floor and all 3 of them can play at one time! The pages were a combination of fabric printing and and fun interactive thing. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

The connect the dots is fabulous! It makes a bone for the dog! (I imagen sometimes I will do a whole book like this!)

The rocket slides up and down and Im pretty sure Carson did this page a few dozen times before I wrapped it up.

This one the rain moved up and down like an abacus, but my favorite part is the traffic light because it is a pocket that holds a bunch of felt vehicles that drive around the S page.

Im hoping to make a few and put them on Etsy. We will see I always make things as gift but never seem to find the motivation to put them on Etsy. I think I have a hidden fear of failing. Here are the kids enjoying time with their cousins.

We had a really good time up there. Hope we dont have to wait another year to get the kids together... now how am I going to top this cool book for Christmas :)

Merry Christmas... and happy birthday to me!!

Oh my this month has just been crashing down around me. I did a wonderful challenge with my friends with some amazing good deeds that were done. Challenging them to make the last 27 days of me being 27 a random acts of kindness over load.. and over loaded with awesomeness it was! We had a steller nutcracker birthday party...


the fallowing day my big brother took his own life :(....
that pretty much put a giant hault in everything else of grandness that I had planned for the month. My head was and still is in a fog.. I keep sitting down then forgetting what I am doing or what I have done. We had a VERY VERY SMALL cookie party because we had already had plans for it and figured the kids needed to be around people who were happy since we have been so so sad.It was a nice gathering of our close friends and it was a happy time
Brooklyn has her first ballet recital. Which was so cute and she was so so excited! after words we went out to dinner .. because we all deserved a treat.

. We threw my side of the family christmas dinner and that was very very somber. Each day we keep getting better but loosing someone like my brother was a very hard and very unexspected blow. I didnt take the time when making christmas gifts to blog about them or make tutorials but I have lots of picture that I will upload soon. For christmas my hunny got me a new super awesome mixer... oh yeah look for baking madness to over take my blog here shortly. And then for my birthday, which was yesterday (the 27th ) I got a serger. Yeah for sergers... but to be honest it scares me so Im just going to look at in sitting in the box imagening all the wonderfullness that Im going to make with it :) Well I better get back to cleaning up from out crazy christmas but I will leave you with a glimps of cuteness
Christmas morning! Look at those cute matching PJ pants and New hoods I made.. oh and those happy kids!

baby dress up so cute!

My best friend making christmas wrapping awesome!

With 4 kids santa had to put the tree in a new spot to get all the gifts around it


My birthday gifts

12 days before christmas day 10

Last night we had a major melt down over a pokemon game that got erased. Im not sure if it the aspergers that made it unconsolable but it was a hard night for us. We did manage to get the #10 one done but not with out tears and grumpyness, so this day wont be as rememberable. We found this really cute tutorial and copied their grinch pills. Here is our tag


And here is Brother bear holding them because he didnt want to me take a picture of him...

We used some big green tick tacs because they were the only ones we could find at 3 stores... who doesnt eat the green ones.. and who the heck eat the orange ones?!

Hopefully tonights gift will be better... we are going to make pepermint bark ;) wish us luck...

12 days before christmas break: day 1

Today we are starting a new tradition. When looking for new ideas last year for teacher appreciation week we found a cute post about doing 12 days of Christmas gifts for teacher. I made a mental file that we had to do it. So a few weeks ago I sat down with my oldest and we came up with some great ideas for his teacher (he goes to a charter school and they have no home room teachers) My Little kids also wanted to get in on it so we came up with some fun classroom gifts because each room has 3+ teachers and given the season my husband was not on board with that idea ;) (however since deciding to do it I think we will wait to next year to do it with the little kids because I don't have enough time to sew up there ideas ... which I feel guilty about but I have to be honest about how busy work is and how limited family time has been cut anyways... but Im sure they will end up with a gift basket of some sort)
Although I loved the 12 days of Christmas idea since we wernt at school the 12 days we decided to go with the 12 days before Christmas break, which turns out worked perfectly because it starts today on Monday and ends next Friday! So with out further ado




We took some frapachinno bottles that we use for parties, spray painted the lids black. Justin made all the pieces and cute them out, we glued them to the bottle and tied on the tag. We filled them with a bag of lifesaver mints, because to be honest these teacher have been lifesavers for us! Keep fallowing me for next 11 days before Christmas break to come!




I bragged about myself on these cool blogs:

Friendship Braclet Kit

Remember when we were little and we use to make friendship bracelets while we watched Boy Meets World. A piece of tape holding our sting in place and we braided and dreamed of being Topanga. I have a verp special girly in my life who is about to hit that phase where you look at them and they are no longer little kids.. they are actually kids :( we just went through that with our oldest and its a sad moment for a mama but its been great fun watching this wonderful lady grow up. I found a cute started kit at Joanns the other day and decided it need a little homemade betterness so this is what I did.

Supplies:
Cute paper
Mod Podge
a clip Board
Fleece
hot glue
The whole project take about 15 minutes to make, I had all of this stock on hand (dont ask why but I had 4 clip boards sitting around...)


First take the clip off the board, one side came off with just a little screw drive the other side I had to break into my husbands tool box to use the battery powered screwer thing.
Next trace the board on the paper getting as close in as you can you dont want any over hang.


Next cut it out and trim if you need to.

Then Mod Podge board (note here if you use a thin paper you better have a roller, try to use a thicker piece.)


Screw the clip back on. And admire your work. I added these cute little letters to make it more personal.

Next outline and make a pouch out of fleece. (im sure any fabric would work, denim might be cute, think pocket..but I liked the stretch the fleece had so I could stuff it with thread)


Make sure you make the flap long enough to over hang. I didnt get pictures but I hot glued it on and added some Velcro to keep it closed.


Ta-Da.. a perfect gift for a perfect girl. ... no more tape required

Christmas cookie Party invite!!

This year will be our 3rd annual cookie decorating party! Im so excited because my kids decided what the theme would be, How the Grinch stole Christmas!! Im in such luck because I have stuff left over from Dangers birthday! Of course I flew straight to pinterest to get some ideas.. and to be honest I was kinda surprised there wasn't more, and google wasn't helpful either so I guess Im going to wing it... here are the invitations I came up with!



Its going to be so much fun! We are lucky because our living room/dinning room just happens to be painted red! and almost everything thing else will be red and green. We are in the midst of our December rush so we had to have it early morning because Brooklyn has a ballet recital that afternoon and we have a huge family Christmas party at our house the next day, not to mention the weekend before the party is Brooklyn's birthday and two other birthday parties the day before that... busy busy busy. So having the simple color pallet should make it a lot quicker to come together. Im just going to do some finger food because the kids will be decorating. Speaking of decorating my kids wanted to dress up Who style... so I think decorating ourselves is going to be just as fun... I for see a lot of auqanet in our future. My husband who never ever ever gets Saturdays off just happened to get that Saturday off so it is going to be all hands on deck... I wonder if I can get him to go as the Grinch?

Our Elf on our shelf... and day 1 recap of my last 27 days

Santa sent the kids a great big box filled with a very small elf, who we decided doesn't go on a shelf! (wow I just made our cookie party invites and im all Seuss-ish) Anyways my kids woke up to a package and inside was an elf I had picked up last year on clearance to do elf on the shelf with (we considered buying the book and the elf but at $30 a pop... not a chance and Milton (our elf complete with letter from Santa) is so much cute! And as an added bonus, Milton had a few brothers in the clearance bin with him to I snagged extra encase he wanders off (or becomes a puppy snack) We also started our advent calendar a day late. We have a really nice wooden house that we fill each night because my kids can not refrain from opening the door. Their newest rationalization is it fills each night because Santa is magic (because he went to Hogwarts.... yeah my kids are the biggest nerds I know) So here is Miss Brooklyn with her newest best friends Milton!




On another note day 1 of my last 27 days of being 27 was great! I realized I will be over my 27 planned Random acts of kindness quicker then 1 a day so Im hoping now to get some where around 100 in :) and one of the best parts is that I have lots of facebook friends accepting my challenge and doing awesome stuff too!
#1 I helped an old lady carry out her dog food at the dog food store
#2 I donated all the cash (I only had $3 but its better then a frappachinno) I had to a dog food drive they were having.
(I surprised my cousin and the ladies she works with the Starbucks, but I didnt count that one)
#3 I left change on all the pay phones at the supermarket we shop at because I always see people on them and I was hoping maybe it would inspire someone who really needed to call someone to pick up the phone and call,
And I did it on the way into the store, on the way out of the store this couple stopped me and said they had watched me put the money up there and they said I was really inspiring and it made them feel so good to see someone doing something like that... the promised to keep my 27 days of good deeds going!

Im 'sprakling' with genius!!

I like my crafts like I like my men... glittery!! ha ha ha ha ok a lame twilight joke but still can you tell im extra excited for the movie tonight? I dont know why I dont blog more about the things I do... I think it has to do with the fact I come up with a great idea then google and realize everyone else already had the same great idea. Not that im not a crazy 'pinner' and recreated of all things wonderful, but sometimes I feel like because someone else did it I shouldnt blog about doing it. But that all changed last night when I was smacked with a great idea, actually I was trying to come up with some holiday stuff and this ran me over. I was almost like a deer in head lights when I googled and didnt see anyone else doing it, then I thought BLOG IT!!

I love this time of year! I go straight from my fall/halloween high right into Christmas joy. I love baking and the music and the magic the season offten offers. But my favorite thing is when they forecast snow. I get that happy crazy feeling inside me and seriously cant sleep even if its a light dusting. We dont get snow like we did when I was little but every time it does snow its like magic, the world get so quiet. Snow also smells amazing, it smells cold and special. So while we patiently wait for our snow to come we make paper snowflakes from printer paper and dream. My kids love making them. Every snowflake just as different as the real ones. My house off ten looks like a blizzard hit it during the winter, so why not capture that fun more permanently?

So in all there awesomeness here are our snowflake shirts!


Here is what you need:
Heat and Bond
Glitter
scissors
an iron
and something to put it on (we did shirts but im doing hand towels and scarf for christmas)

Cut the head and bond into any size squares, fold in half then in half again (Ok im assuming you know how to make a paper snow flake but just in case lol)
Cut out your design, making sure not to cut off the folds.
See how pretty!


Now Lay on your shirt and iron over heat and bond (Iron on the paper side, just in case that wasnt apparent


When it cools, peal off the paper. You should be able to feel your snow flake.
)





Pour glitter on printer paper a little bigger then your snowflake and a pretty thick so the paper doesnt stick to your shirt


lay shirt down over glitter and iron on back. I ironed a little longer then I normally do since it was two layers.

I let it cool then lifted my shirt up and shook off the extra glitter
(NOTE: I HAVE SINCE FOUND THAT IF YOU PUT THE GLITTER ON YOUR SHIRT (NOT SHIRT ON GLITTER) AND IRON ON THE PAPER IT STICKS WAY WAY WAY BETTER)

TAAAA DAAAAA


Glittery snowflake and mine didnt come off in the wash!!!
(Note since you glitter in on the paper just slide the extra back in the tube for the next one!!)





And I bragged about myself here:

my darnnit moment

So today I had my kids make my cousin some orniments because her pathtic little fake tree is all lonly in her apartment. So I got some platic globes, filled them with filler dots I got from the inside of a stuffed fish that was in the trash pile (one again im cheap, but you can call me green) painted their hands with modpodge and covered their prints with gliter.. now it looks like they are having a snow ball fight on her tree... but darnit i didnt even think about taking pictures to show you how to do it untill I was done... so this is what you get!

The is my table while they are drying... but still cute none the less...

Stuffed with Stockings!!

So want to know what I did this weekend? I got a christmas tree... we normally wait untill after my daughters birthday party (her birthday is on the 12th) then we get one... this year I have to much to do in a little time so we bought one from the boy scouts down the street instead of tromping out to the woods but I figure Carson is only 5 months and I just didnt want to tote him arond this year.. there is always next year! So we popped up our tree in no time, and I started sewing. My gram dies a few years ago and ever since our family has spent less and less time together, christmas day when she was around was always at her house, with our homemade stockings on the mantle. .. I miss my gram. So this year I invited everyone to my house to start a that side of the family get together again, which involved sewing stocking the way Gram did for us, im only 16 stockings in but at the same time ive already done 16 stockings.....

PS I hate felt now... my dream of being a felting queen has expired!