Christmas Crafts

  I got my craft on again this year! It took a little motivation, but I finally did it.

 

Chase's sillohette ornament.

Tanner and Chase's first year ornaments. I don't think I'm going to do this every year like I was planning. We'll see.

Finally got Chase's stocking done! I've since changed the Christmas lights to bells with holly leaves and berries though.

Chase's first Christmas hand print ornament.

Blankies

  I've been noticing that Chase doesn't have as many home made blankets as Tanner, so I've decided to catch him up a little bit.

I have been on the search for skull and crossbone flannel since before he was born and I decided to just give up on that idea and went with stars.

It is the same size as Tanner's so they are pretty cute together.

I also made another frog blanket a little while ago but forgot to blog about it.

They turned out so cute and I hope he loves them and will use them for years to come!

Getting My Craft On.

I have really been wanting to do a few projects before this baby gets here. 

I wanted to make a new car seat canopy. The one we already have is made of flannel, and since he is due to be here pretty soon and it's starting to warm up, I wouldn't want him to get cooked.

I also wanted to make him a rag quilt as well as a skull and cross bone blanket like I made for Tanner. 

My plan was to make a rag quilt the same size as the one Tanner has and the skull and cross bone blanket the same size and style but with the back being a dark blue or something so it's not exactly the same.

I went on a hunt for fabric for all of these projects and didn't have any luck! Finally I found some really cute fabric for the car seat canopy. I also settled for frog fabric for the baby's rag quilt (which I also wanted to do skull and cross bone but frogs were my second choice). But I cannot for the life of me find any skull and cross bone flannel out of SEVEN fabric stores I have been to. Pretty frustrating, but I decided I can just wait on it and keep my eyes open.

So here are my finished products! (all of them took me about a day or 2 to finish each. What can I say when I get a bee in my bonnet?)

I am pretty excited about this car seat canopy. The fabric is SO cute and I am so happy I found it. There are so many different types of canopies out there, like with windows, split down the middle and things like that. But I just wanted to do a simple one. I love it.

Here is a close up of the almost finished product of the frog rag quilt for the baby.

Finished frog rag quilt. Tanner just had to get in the picture. Plus you can also get a sense of how big it turned out. WAY bigger than the rag quilt Tanner has. woops.

So since the baby's quilt turned out so big I decided to also make Tanner a new one! Tanner and I went to Hobby Lobby with my sister-in-law to look for fabric for her since she is also pregnant to make something for her daughter. While we were there Tanner all the sudden yelled "TOMMY!" I looked at the fabric where we were standing and sure enough Tanner had spotted Thomas flannel! I couldn't pass it up.

I thought this picture was pretty funny. As I was working on this quilt, Tanner brought over his little Thomas figurines and set them on the table by me. It looked like they were supervising. Plus the baby belly looks pretty cute as well I guess.

Finished "Tommy blankie." It is the same size and pattern as the baby's. So at least my OCD is satisfied with these.

Oh ya! Kollin also found Iron Man fleece one day while we were grocery shopping and mentioned how cool it would be to have a blanket out of that. So I said I would make him one and helped him pick out the back color. I got that one done in one night.

Maxi Dresses

I have looked everywhere to find a Maxi dress that I liked. I either never found one that had the look I wanted or it was way to expensive. So I decided to make my own!

This was the first one, so therefore not the best.

Getting a little better but still not perfect.

As good as it got and I love it!

Silhouette Ornaments

I am so excited with what I just did!

I have been trying to think of ideas for DIY ornaments I can do for our children each year for Christmas. I finally found a beautiful idea on Pinterest of a silhouette ornament on a glass ball ornament.

It was a white glittery ball with the silhouette mod podged onto it. I decided to do my own twist on it....

I am too lazy and frugal to go out and buy more glass ornaments (I also am afraid of years down the road not being able to find the same kind every year). So I decided to make them from scratch!

Salt dough is the easiest stuff in the world to make ornaments with. Plus they will have that homemade feel to them.

The salt dough recipe I used is:

1 cup salt

2 cups flour

1 cup luke warm water

That makes a whole bunch though. So if you are only making a few ornaments at a time like I did, cut down the amounts. A lot.

I ended up using: 

1/4 cup salt

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup water

And even this was too much. It ended up making 4 ornaments when I only needed 2 this time. Just so you have an idea of how much it will make.

I forgot to start taking pictures until after they were cooked, so stay with me here....

I rolled out the dough and used one of our normal drinking glasses as a cookie cutter. This way they can all be pretty much the same every year. Then I used a straw to cut the hole for the string.

I stuck them in the oven at 200 degrees for between 45-60 minutes, all the while checking on them since it's unpredictable depending on how thick you make them and what not.

During this time I took a profile picture of Tanner and loaded it up to my computer. I also found a picture of this time last year that was a perfect profile as well. THAT was a miracle.

I put on a movie that I know he likes and waited until he was sucked into it to snap the picture so he wouldn't move. I'm sure treats or someone being goofy in front of him would work too.

The picture above I'm pretty sure I remember Kollin entertaining him somehow.

Since we don't have a printer that works at the moment, I traced the silhouettes right off my computer screen onto baking parchment I have (it's pretty much trace paper). I held up the drinking glass to the screen over the pictures to size them correctly. I also added his fohawk from another picture for the 2012 one. I may even do it this way in the future whenever we do have a printer. It took out one whole step!

Then I cut them out and traced them onto the ornaments with a pencil.

With a small brush I went around the outline with black acrylic paint so I could get all of the little details and not fudge it up. Then filled in the head with a larger brush.

And then the opposite with baby blue (or any contrasting color) on the outside and back of the ornament. I made sure to really go over all the little nooks and crannies really well since it is pretty much impossible to get salt dough smooth. Ok, so I'm sure you can with sandpaper or something, but I opted for a more natural look.

After they were good and dry I wrote his name and the year onto the back of the ornaments with a skinny Sharpie.

Then added ribbon through the hole to hang, and wha la!

I am SO happy with how they turned out. I really could have made the 2012 silhouette smaller so his hair wasn't in the hole, but by the time I realized it was too big I was done with all the tracing and cutting of tiny details. I still think it turned out cute though.

This will be so fun to do this every year for all of our kids and be able to see the little changes in them as they grow!

Homemade play dough

We made some homemade play dough today.
I got the recipe from this blog.

Tanner is loving it now that he's figured out that it squishes.

This stuff turned out so soft!

Learning Time! Pipe Cleaners and a Pringle Can

I've been finding fun learning activities on Pinterest and other sites lately and figured I better start doing them!

This is our first little game.

The idea originally had a strainer, but the one we have doesn't have round holes and just small slits. So I improvised with a Pringles can.

I poked holes in the can and had Tanner stick pipe cleaners through them.

He loved this little activity and will help develop his motor skills further!

I also loved my hair this day, so had to post a picture of it.

The back of my hair wasn't great, but still pretty good for my first try!

And this picture is just dang cute.

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Well the tree is finally up!

I found the cutest idea for baby's first Christmas ornament on Pinterest.

 It was a little bit of an adventure getting the perfect hand print, but after about 3 tries it worked!

Happy Heart

We did it!

We are officially married.

Kollin called me his wife today and it actually stunned me a little bit.

It almost made me cry because it made me so happy to realize that I am his wife and he is my husband!

Here are some pictures we snapped with my camera, so they are pretty rough. I can't wait to get the others back and see them. So excited!

Kollin's boutonniere I made.

 My veil that I also made.

 The ring bearer pillow. Yup! Made that too.

 Tanner's boutonniere. Also made by me.

(he got a little restless during the ceremony)

 My bouquet. You guessed it. Made that too.

 Something Old.

My pearl necklace that my mom and dad gave me when I was 8.

 Something New.

My rings!

 Something Borrowed.

My mom's ring that my sister now has.

 Something Blue.

Shoes!

 My sister Bippy and me.

 Our cute little family.

Tanner also wore a kilt, but this was near the end of the night and he was so done.

(baby kilt pictures to come!)

 Bride.

 Husband and Wife!

It was a beautiful wedding and I can't even describe how happy and full of joy and peace I am about this.
Kollin is literally the man of my dreams and he has shown me that fairy tales can come true.

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

- Dr. Seuss

I love you!

xoxo

An agfhan for my Tanner.

Back when I was pregnant, I started this project. I gave up and never finished it. I ended up figuring out that I was using the wrong hook (those things have too many labels on them and I thought I was using the right one), and also the wrong stitch since it had been so long since I had tried to crochet anything. I am blaming this all on pregnancy brain just so I don't look like the total idiot that I am! oh... wait... crap.

Recently, I decided I would give it another try. I unravelled the old squares and reused the yarn. I also got creative and made some of them skulls and not just all stars. LOVE!

 Today I FINALLY finished it! I think it turned out pretty darn good for my first one.

 I even got a little more creative and did a little "I love you" note in one of the squares. awww

 And just so this post is not all about this afghan, here is a hilarious picture I caught of Tanner the other day. We laugh anytime we look at it. He is such a little silly head!