pom flower necklace

First of all,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Look what I copied from Little Miss Momma! Isn't it so cute!? We had a new member join our Christmas celebration this year--my brother's girlfriend-- and I wanted to make something special for her since it was her first Christmas with us.

The only changes I made to Little Miss Momma's tutorial were:

1. I hot glued (I'm making a 2nd one now and I am using a cool-not hot- glue gun and it works even better--no burnt fingers!) all the flowers on a piece of felt for the backing instead of having a few separate pieces.

2. I used a necklace chain I already had. After shortening it (cut it with a wire cutter), I sandwiched the necklace between the circles of felt and the backing felt. Worked like a charm!

3. I was not looking at the photos of Little Miss Momma's necklace when I made mine and mine turned out a little fuller. I think I used 12-15 circles for each flower. I actually like both ways equally well.

I just noticed I am wearing a grey striped shirt like Ashley...that was a total coincidence. I wasn't even planing on photographing the necklace the day I wore this shirt, but then I realized I needed to actually wrap the present, so I needed to take photos of it first!

I like it! Thank you Ashley!

p.s. I totally think the low heat glue gun is the way to go...I burnt my thumbs super bad while making this necklace and had to ice them all night before the intense pain went away. In all my 20+ years of glue gunning I had never burnt myself like that before and I don't wish it on anyone! So lesson learned, use the low heat for project like this!

mittens on a string

 One day a month or so ago my son and I were going to go on a walk...but the age-old issue came up...i knew his mittens would get lost. So I quickly found an old drawstring and sewed the mittens onto the ends of the string--instant old school mittens on a string!

I'll let the photos do the talking...even though they are poor photos and i can't even crop them since I got a new computer for Christmas and I don't have editing software installed yet!

tada! no more lost mittens...the old school way!

This is a fab idea too!

last minute Christmas bag

First let me say that I realized today that I have had over 1000 visitors to my humble little blog since I started a counter on August of this year. That may not be a lot compared to other blogs, but I am amazed! Thank you for stopping by!

Now, on to the last minute Christmas bag. I am giving our son all of the stuffed animals for Christmas that I kept from when I was a child.  I did not really play with them, I stared at them, so they are all in great condition. Some even with tags on them still. (I guess I was a weird child). I washed and dried them all and then I needed a way to wrap them. I have kept all of our son's receiving blankets--there are some really modern and cool ones out there nowadays! I could not bear to part them with, so I used 2 of them to make a bag for the stuffed animals.

When we were kids my parents had Santa bags for us--you know for the larger presents, so I figured this would be a nice tradition to start with our family AND it's reusable. I love not wasting paper when possible.

Here you can see both blankets.

I used an old stained shirt with this cute bear on it as an applique and the tree trunk is made from the sleeve of that same shirt. The tree is made from a knit receiving blanket the hospital gave us when we brought our son home. It has sentimental value and I'll be putting our son's presents in this bag when he's 16 and way too old for a little bear blanket bag!

On the top I added a little ball fringe. I had just the right length left over from the birthday banner, so I knew it was perfect!

The photos aren't perfect by a long shot, but it's difficult to get good photos of a bag full of lumpy stuffed animals! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

awesome fabric wall inspiration

The husband and I went to San Francisco for our anniversary and we passed by this accessory store that had the most awesome bunched/ruffles fabric walls! I did not catch the name, and I did not want to drag poor hubby into yet another store, so I took these pics from outside of the store while we waited for our trolley.

 

If there is ever another little one around and she's a girl, I want this to be on her walls..except it may get too dusty!

silhouette tea towels gift

For Christmas this year Grandma and Papa are getting a silhouette tea towel of our son's profile. Silhouettes are all the rage and I've been meaning to create something with a silhouette, but I didn't know what. Then I figured a tea towel would be a good way to display it without it being in a frame.

You can get flour sack tea towels at Target, WalMart, fancier places like Crate and Barrel or cheaper places like the Dollar Tree. I noticed they are all pretty thin and pretty comparable in weight.

I took a photo that I already had of my son's profile (think of all those photos where you tried to get a face shot, but the kid turned their head!). Since I can never figure out my wireless printer connection and my husband was not around to fix it, I held up a piece of white paper up to my computer screen and traced by son's profile. Then I transferred that on to freezer paper and cut it out. Then I simply followed the same directions for freezer paper stenciling.  I favor dark grey over black, but bright colors like orange would look pretty cool too.

I added a band of bias tape on the bottom of one and for the other I added large black ric-rac. I'm pleased with the way they turned out.

I've made 2 more silhouettes on a blue fabric that I was going to make into pillows, now I am reconsidering. I am thinking of adding one to an apron for my mom and dad. Still not sure yet. Ideas?

I love how his little hairs stick out in the back! So stinkin' cute, that boy!

update to play nativity

update to play nativity 

My mom brought over some walnut shells so Baby Jesus finally has a manger to rest his sweet head.

The "blanket" is a cotton ball cut in half over a little piece of knit (a stained t-shirt of my son's) hot glued (a lot) into the walnut shell. I decided against a top blanket so that Baby Jesus could still be seen and recognized as such. Baby Jesus was then hot glued on top of the blanket.

 I added little (shortened) painted toothpicks to the bottoms so the walnut shell would be stable. I used a lot of hot glue to (hopefully) ensure they would stay on through rough-ish play.  

I plan on using this walnut shell technique (if you can call it that) for a future project, so stay tuned.

ornament wreath & nativity

These ornament wreaths are all over blogland. I told myself I did not have time to make one this year, but when I saw these silver ornaments 8/$1 at Target, I could not pass it up! Plus I did need something to layer over our family room mirror, so I said heck with it! I'll do it! To add to that, the ornaments are shatter resistant! Awesome!

So while my husband hung shelves in the living room for my nativity, I put this together. SO SIMPLE! It took all over half an hour--including vacuuming up all the glitter that fell off the ornaments!

The hardest part was untwisting the hanger at the top near the hook--that took needle nose pliers. The rest was just stringing them on. On one website it suggested gluing the tops on the ornaments. I did not do that (pure laziness), but it would have been a good idea since the balls kept popping off when I was maneuvering them around the wire hanger. Now that it's hanging up, it seems a-okay!

at night time

What it takes:

39-55 ornaments (I used 38 since one was broken in the pk and I made the hanger a little smaller)

1 wire hanger

1 ribbon

That's it!!!

Here is our nativity (I received it as a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle about 15 years ago.  It's from Costco, can you believe it?). I love it!

I've never had a proper place to display it- especially now with a child who is very curious. I really wanted some Ikea shelves and I finally talked my husband into it. He even put them up for me! We bought 3 of them, but 3 looked a little heavy for the first room you see when you walk in our front door.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HE IS BORN!

nativity

I wanted a nativity my son who is 2 years old could play with, so I set out in search of something I could make. I found these peg people at the I used to be a Tree shop on Esty. I bought all "Grandmas" (for the robed effect) and a baby.

The Wisemen

 Sheppard and sheep (got to use my sheepie again!)

 Joseph, Angel, Mary and JESUS!   I still need to get 1/2 a walnut shell to glue Baby Jesus in because he is very small and could be swallowed by a 2 year old!

Hence the reason the nativity is way up on a shelf right now, waiting for that walnut shell manger.

After I painted them with acrylic paint I Mod Podged about 3 coats to protect them from little hands. I did this instead of spray painted clear enamel because Mod Modge is non-toxic.

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. Our son is napping,so when he gets up we'll see what he thinks!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Update: Baby Jesus now has a place to lay his sweet head!