Baby Rag Quilt

I finally got around to making and finishing a baby blanket for the Mystery Baby.  I made a strip rag quilt.  And he has a Ty Pluffies monkey (Dangles) who I'll take his picture with each week/month like I did Little Guy and his alligator.

front

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Cub Scout Bird House

A few weekends ago, we made a trek to the Boy Scout store and Buddy picked out this bird house to build to complete one of his Wolf requirements.  Little did we know, in volved zero hammering and nailing and all gluing.  He picked out the paint colors and together, he and B sanded, painted and glued.  Then they came up with a system to bracket it to some wood pieces (Buddy got to use a drill) so that it will be easy to remove when we move so we can take it with us.

Fourth of July Wreath by Princess Sparkley

6/27

Using this as our guide, Princess Sparkley (with some touch up work by me) created a Fourth of July wreath today for our front door.  Instead of using a foam wreath, we used a quilting hoop I got off Freecycle awhile ago.  And all the fabric was stuff I had from abandoned or leftover projects. 

Christmas Decorating

I'm not usually in the habit of decorating so soon after Thanksgiving*, but I'm hosting book club at my house on Thursday, so for Family Home Evening last night we decorated (everything but the tree). 

I got to hang up my stockings board you'll remember from here.  And, I created a Christmas countdown all on my own, sort of... I got help from  this and this. 

Here's a zoom in on my countdown.  Behind each number (which I'll upgrade as soon as I decide what I really want them to look like) is an activity such as: drink hot chocolate, warm PJs in dryer before bedtime, drive around to see Christmas lights, bake cookies, etc.)  The kids helped paint or cover the clothes pins, come up with activities, and colored the numbers for me.

*Last year, we went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and I was hosting book club at my house just a day or two after we got home, so we actually decorated before we left town, BEFORE Thanksgiving.  That's given Princess Sparkley some crazy ideas.

Pinterest Fall Projects

Thankful Tree idea from here





Leaf Garland idea from here



Crafting

If you haven't yet discovered Pinterest, it's a very cool site where you "pin" the things you like and share them with your friends.  Sort of like bookmarking a webpage, but it's all stored online.  I told my sister-in-law about it and she said she didn't know if she should thank me or curse me. 

The first picture I made at Souper Saturday (a craft day at church). I was told by one of the people in charge of the projects that they chose this project especially for me because they knew I'd been wanting to make one. So true! Love it.  I saw it on a blog somewhere, before I discovered Pinterest.

This second picture is a craft I "pinned" and then my friend (E.J.) pinned it as well and set up a craft night where I went over to her house and we made them together.  Basically, she did all the work and I showed up with the knobs for mine.  But we had fun crafting together.

PJ Shorts

This is my first attempt to sew clothing (other than two skirts I've made for Princess Sparkley) and a pair of shorts I sewed in 5th grade or so.  PS's turned out best although the waist band is really low, hipster-like and if she gains more than three pounds, they probably won't fit her.  All three of their shorts would probably stay up on their own without the elastic waistband.  And now I've learned from my mistakes (hopefully) and I have three more pairs (one per kid) to sew this week.

 

From here, here and here.

 

Easter

Easter Prep: 

Saturday our cousins stopped by.  We fed them homemade pizza and dyed Easter eggs together.

Matchy Easter:

I sewed Princess Sparkley 's skirt following this pattern and Little Guy's tie following this pattern.

Princess Sparkley asked why B and I never try to match the kids, so this year we did.

Easter Bunny:

Egg Hunt:

Valentine's Day

Valentine Bunting
(I ended up moving the little bunting to my bookshelves.)


This was Princess Sparkley's creation from Hello, Cupcake! that she got for Christmas. We were supposed to use an old Valentine box but I found this tray that was perfect at Walmart for $1.50.






We adjusted the recipe and made brownie cupcakes instead of cake. And I added a Valentine themed cake bunting.


Little Guy made these Valentines to give away, stuffed full of jelly beans.


Buddy's Valentine idea came from here.


Princess Sparkley got her Valentine idea from here.



Our friends had us over for a little Valentine party.
[Buddy, E, PS, H, Little Guy, and S)


Oh, and they had a huge hill in their backyard and even though the snow was melted their sleds were still out. Buddy discovered you could still "sled" down their hill.








And, apparently PS can hula hoop. This wasn't one of her best runs but it's the only one I got on film. And, you didn't get the full outfit because it was such a warm day, she'd stripped some of it off. The outfit: two shades of pink striped pants, socks that are nearly identical shades of pink and also striped, gold shoes, a long sleeved pink waffle shirt covered in various colors of pink and purple owls, over top of that, a yellow Snoopy t-shirt she got for Valentine's Day. AND, over the pants, she was originally wearing the bright pink and brown flowered bubble skirt I sewed her for the Cherry Blossom Festival last year. And I took her out in public like this. And to the doctor's office!

Frosting!

We made cookies tonight and frosted them with the new cookie and cupcake decorating kit Princess Sparkley got for Christmas from Grandma L.

Tree Pillow

Sorry, couldn't post this until after Christmas presents had been opened
... presents made with love for Grandparents.


Grandma and Grandpa L
(button tree = top two right hand corner pictures)
Idea from here.
The big kids helped sew on some of the buttons while Little Guy dumped all the buttons out, sorted them and handed them all to me. I think for my kids' ages and abilities, we should have done something more like this or this. Or just made a smaller tree with less buttons. I didn't realize how out of hand and heavy the fabric would get with all the buttons.

Grandma and Grandpa M
(embroidered tree accented with fabric markers)
Princess Sparkley started this as a project at Activity Days at church. She designed it herself, embroidered it, and colored in some of the intricate details she'd designed with fabric markers. Then we were out of town for Thanksgiving the week they finished it and I never heard back from any of the leaders on what to do... so we just made it into a pillow our way.

Candy cane pillow. Idea from here.
We made a set for each set of grandparents. Each kid drew me a candy cane that I used as the template for one pillow per set. PS's candy cane is the red ho-ho-ho one. Buddy's is red and white striped. Little Guy's is red, white and green striped. Buddy and PS and even Little Guy helped stuff the first set of candy canes. Then they lost steam and I finished up that set and the second set.

Tree Skirt

I decided this year we needed a real Christmas tree skirt. Not a bunched up fancy place mat or scrap of fabric. So, with the help of this, I created my own version:




The two smaller pictures on the bottom right are different stages of creation.

Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of the other side. I used a cute green flannel with tiny trees in little red and green wreaths so if I want, it's reversible.

Getting Ready for the Fourth of July

We made these following Marie at Make and Takes instructions.



Princess Sparkley made everyone Fourth of July Bug headbands.








We made drawings of the Statue of Liberty following this and this.
(Hat Tip: The Crafty Crow)



We made these sugar cookie, patriotic, fruit pizzas.