Christmas Pillows

We have been doing a little decorating around our house and I am very excited about my new pillows. They are so fun.

For the one with 3 snowflakes I just crocheted some easy snowflakes and stitched them down. I used this tutorial but there are lots out there.

For this one I just cut snowflake shapes out of felt and stitched them on. Even easier. And I love how they turned out.

Anyway, that was my little holiday pillow fun.  I just love this time of year.  Now I need to finish the rest of my Christmas projects so we can finish decorating our house.  Fun!

Fall Decor

I have seen wreaths made out of pool noodles and I wanted to give it a try.  So I made this creation inspired by this idea.  I loved the black tulle but I just wanted to use what I had on hand.  I think it turned out pretty well.

I also made these fun pumpkins for my mother-in-law for her birthday.  Amy had a blast helping me paint them.  They went together really quick and turned out fun.

Here is another little craft I made for my mother-in-law as well.  This cute little turkey.  Amy liked playing with it.  She's silly.

And those are a few fall crafts.  Now I want to make some Christmas ones. :)

Halloween Costumes

This year for Halloween we all dressed up as characters from Peter Pan.  It was all inspired by this cute costume idea for Derek.  I thought it was cute and showed Amy and she loved it.  Then she wanted to be Tinkerbell and it just went from there.  Here we are all dressed up at the ward trunk-or-treat.  I made my costume and the kids.  I sewed the ruffle on a shirt I found for Devin and we bought or borrowed the rest (Thanks Val!)  Lots of people didn't recognize Devin until they saw him with the kids.  I guess the dark curly hair was a big change for him. :)

Amy looked so cute in her Tinkerbell outfit.  I made her a little leotard with sleeves that she wears under the tutu and then we tied a sash around her waist.  I velcroed the wings on the back so they didn't bug her sleeves and finished it all off with some killer Tinkerbell slippers.  I think they are my favorite part.

She had fun wearing it for the trunk-or-treat, Halloween, and even a little party at her preschool class.

 Gotta love those shoes.

Derek was Peter Pan.  I made every little part of his costume.  It came together so quick and I think he looks so handsome.  Too bad he didn't like keeping his hat on.

 Or his shoes for that matter.  But you get the idea.

 Ahh, don't they look so sweet together.

 Best buds.

Sorry for the picture overload but I think they just look so cute.  Thanks again to Nativa for taking all these great pictures for us.  It was hard picking my favorites!

And there you have it - our 2012 Halloween costumes.  Now what should we be next year?

Pretty in Purple

I don't know about you, but I just love making fun new dresses for my little girl.  Although she isn't so little anymore.  Ahh!  Anyway, it had been awhile since I made her one (Easter) so I decided I should whip her up something fun for the fall/winter.  Here is what I came up with.  The best part is - she loves it!!  It helps that it's purple. :)

The back is my favorite part.  Ooh I just love all those ruffles and that bustle.  Killer!

Here is the headband I made to match.  I was inspired by this idea.

It looked so cute in her hair. 

 And that is Amy's new dress.  She wore it this Sunday and everyone thought she looked so cute.  The best part was that she was happy with it.  It's fun making my little girl smile.  I love you Amy.

Christmas Stockings

Every year for Christmas I have tried to figure out our Christmas stockings and nothing has seemed quite right. I made some out of felt when we were first married and have kind of out grown them. Last year I was leaning towards using fun holiday fabric. But as I was browsing the web these super cute sweater stockings caught my eye. And since I love repurposing things I knew this was right up my alley.

My next problem was how to get my hands on some sweaters without breaking the bank. And I am proud to say that I paid $4 for one sweater and the rest were free (a local church was having a free clothing get away and I hit the sweater mother load). I got 14 stockings out of them. Awesome! Definitely my kind of project. Here is how mine turned out.

The one on the far right is Amy's.  She found that sweater and loved the sparkly bows.  She said it looked like her. :)  I lined my stockings with canvas just so that the sweater wouldn't stretch out when they are filled up with goodies.  Here are the ones I was able to make out of some free sweaters.  I sent them to my sister to use for her stockings this year.  She gets to line them though.  He he.

This was one of our stockings.  The sweater was kind of plain but I liked the color.  So I dolled it up a little bit.  I added a cuff and crocheted a white edging along it.  I also used this tutorial to crochet the snowflake.  Then I hand stitched it on with some thread.  Didn't take too long and now it looks better.

Here are some other extra stockings.  I figure as we have more children I can pick from these and have them already done.  Why not when they were free right? 

And those are my Christmas Stockings.  I am happy with how they turned out and can't wait to use them this year.  I am excited to get working on some other Christmas decorations too.  Is it bad that I am in a Christmas mood already?  I hope not.  It's fun. :)

Rapunzel Hair

Amy loves to wear dress up clothes.  It's funny when she does because she wants us to call her whatever Princess she is dressed up as.  She even has to wear matching panties. :)  So I have been wanting to add a few things to her collection.  To start, I made this fun Rapunzel hat.  I followed this tutorial.  It turned out really cute.

Here is the back.  I love how long it is.

 

After playing with it for awhile, it was obvious it wasn't going to stay on her head.  And it was hard for her to get on.  I used an old t-shirt as the base instead of the nylons and I think it was too slippery or something.  So we went on to plan #2.  I followed this idea instead.  This one stayed on much better.  However, I made the hat way too big the first time around. Once I tied the hair knots on it stretched.  Oops.  Obviously this wasn't going to work.

So we tried yet again and I made a smaller top.  Much better.  Now her cute little Rapunzel hat was complete. - or so I thought. :)

 

It was kind of bothering me how it didn't look like hair on the top.  So I took some of the hair strands out of the back (every other one) and tied them down the middle of her head instead.  Now she could have some hair on the top of her hat as well.  It worked nicely. 

It's far from perfect, but it's a dress up accessory so it doesn't have to be.  Right?  I had fun making it for her even though it took 4 tries to get it right.  Serves me right for taking such a long break from crafting.  I'm out of practice.  Hopefully I can get back into it and get some things done.  I have birthdays, christmas, a house to put together, and a new baby to get ready for.  I hope I can get it all done.  Wish me luck!

Bookshelf Makeover

Our bookshelves have been falling apart. See picture below. I have been holding out hoping that we would get some new ones but I finally decided to do something about.

I found some breadboard at Lowes, painted it, and screwed it to the back. Now it's much sturdier and it looks better too. I thought about painting it another color. I love how that looks. But figured I would just stick with black for now.

One day I want to make them look like these bookshelves. They look great. Anyway, that's the latest. Glad I finally got them done.

Christmas Projects

Here are the projects I was working on for Christmas presents this year. I made these fun countdown blocks for my MIL. The bottom block is painted with chalkboard paint so she can change the word out for whatever the occasion is. She is a teacher so I figured they would come in handy in her classroom.

Every year I do a scrapbook page for my mom and MIL to outline our year. Last year I forgot so they got two sets this time.

And this year's layout.
I also made this necklace for my SIL Val. I am going to have to make me another one because I love how it turned out.

I made this blanket for Derek for Christmas. I quilted it with my sewing machine by sewing tiny circles around the minky dots. Hopefully you can kind of see them in this picture. It actually went really quickly.

Here is a shot of it all laid out. Derek loves it and always starts to laugh when I lay him on it.I made this wallet for my SIL for her birthday. Here is the tutorial.I just love the inside polka dot. So cute!
She is also getting this nice brown necklace that I made. I think it turned out pretty nice.
I made these earrings for my MIL for Christmas.
I also made this growth chart board for my SIL Val for Christmas. I love how it turned out and can't wait to make me one! Here is a close up. I can't find the tutorial of how I painted it. Sorry. If you really want to know you can ask me. :)
Here is a shot of the whole board.
I made this traveling sunhat for my mom. She can take it with her anywhere or use it when she gardens.
I also made superhero capes for my neices and nephew. I used this tutorial. Here is the inside.
And the backs. So fun!
And those are my projects. I had fun making everything this year. But now I want to work on projects for me. Hopefully I can find some time to do those now. There's a long list. :)

Devin's Christmas Countdown

For years I have been trying to find an advent calendar idea that I liked. There are so many out there it's hard to choose a favorite. Well, this year I was inspired by this great idea. It's an advent calendar for your spouse. Every day you write down a compliment, service, or even a fun activity you could do together. I knew that Devin would love this so I just went with it. I grabbed some scrapbook paper and got going. Here is how it turned out.

To make all the envelopes I used this tutorial. I am just going to slip in pieces of paper for each day so that every year I can reuse the cards. As the kids get older I can use it as an advent calendar for them with lots of fun things to do in it, but this year I figured Devin needs a little love. :) On the weekends I will put some fun things we can do as a family in it so that the kids will still be involved.
Anyway, here it is hanging up on our wall. I like how festive it looks.

And just in case you are wondering, this is the advent calendar I am doing with Amy.