Homemade Christmas

It was one of my goals this year to MAKE most of the gifts that we gave out this year. I was actually a good girl and got started way back in October :) But to be quite honest most of the gifts were completed in the last few days before Christmas and several were cancelled all together.

As excited as I was about this idea of mine, I also had quite a few doubts. Doubts of my skills as a VERY new sewer person, and doubts that the people we are giving the gifts to would be happy with JUST a gift I put together. These doubts led to purchasing gifts so that most people got something home made and something bought. And some people just got something bought.

In the end I became more confident in my skills as a crafty gal and the people that received our homemade goodness were very appreciative.

I have been dying to share pics of all of my creations with you guys for the past few months. But couldn't because I'm still not exactly sure who reads my blog and who doesn't (mostly because no one comments uhem). Oh and I didn't get pics of everything but without further adieu:

Altered clipboards for my kids teachers

A lil taggie lovie for my aunt's baby

A big fleecey flannel Nebraska Husker blanket for my stepdad. GO BIG RED!

My Nana collects nativity scenes so I had the kids draw some for her and then framed them.

These are the images I used in my snapfish calendars, digitally scrapbooked.

Not pictured: mini brag books for my brother, Dad & Stepmom, BIL & his wife, and my inlaws. The kids also drew pictures of whatever they wanted for my inlaws and they put stickers on the gifts they gave Auntie and Isabelle. Also, I used wordle.net for my mom & Nana, printed them up from home and put them in a nice frame.

Oh and I also "made" this. The kids got wii toys in their happy meals one day and this one was just screaming for some hot glue & ribbon. Voila a Wii Christmas ornament!!!

Gifts for my bestie's girls

So happy I can finally share these pics! My bestie's youngest, Miss Presley, (yes the one with diabetes), turned 3 this pass weekend. She is a dinosaur loving girl - which I LOVE! - so I got the idea to make her a dino blankie. Someone please tell me why it is so bloody hard to find GIRLY dino fabric? Oy! Anyway, I like to think that this quilt and pillowcase set turned out pretty darn cute! What do you think?

Love those cute lil dino buttons!!!

I also made their Christmas presents. I wanted them ready to go so I wouldn't have to bother with shipping! These are crayon rolls. They hold 16 crayons, and roll up nicely to fit in mommy's purse for those restaurant or doctor's office waits! They each got a coloring book to go with. Super fast, super easy, and very cost effective! This fabric was a $1 a yard at walmart. A yard will make you ALOT of crayon rolls. Oh and I bought several boxes of crayons during the back to school sales - Crayolas for 22cents for a box of 24!

I am SO doing this!!!

Pretty soon I'll be taking this

and doing this

Is it weird that I'm hoping for a stocking stuffed with spools of thread? :)

It's Christmas time!!!!

Thankgiving has successfully come and gone (pictures coming soon!). I (pretty much) fulfilled my quest to respect the turkey! Now we can move on to... CHRISTMAS!!!! Do you love the new bloggy decor? We pulled out the tubs full of decorations today, and we're getting our tree tomorrow! I can't wait :) This will be the earliest we've ever gotten a tree. It's a necessary thing because of my husband's basketball & work schedule, an out of town bday party, and myself hosting a cookie exchange in successive order! I'm ready for it though!
One thing that I've strived for all year is a mostly-homemade Christmas in regards to our family members that we give to. I don't know that it is really a money saver so that's not the point. The point for me is taking the time to decide what to make, taking even more time to actually make it, and then giving it to the people that I love, a token of that love. My husband's contribution to these gifts is the $$ (haha) and my kids' will be helping me make some of the gifts. I'm really excited about and I've already completed a few - our family calendars and my kids' teacher's gifts. Now that my class is just about finished (I'll submit my final on December 9th woohoo!) I will be devoting the majority of my time to completing these gifts. It's killing me not to be able to post finished projects on here but, although they RARELY leave comments, my family does read this blog. So I don't want them to see their presents until Christmas!
Just for funsies, here's the list of things that I still need to create:

1. our family christmas cards/letter


2. a blanket


3. photo books


4. ornaments


5. crayon rolls


6. an apron


7. a few tote bags


8. sewing machine accessories


9. ipod accessories

I don't think I'm forgetting anything but who knows. Then all of this will need to be wrapped of course :) In addition to my kids' gifts :) I'm really looking forward to setting up my lil workshop and also looking forward to my friends and family opening these labours of love.
Are you making any of your gifts this year?

Baby McClane is almost here!

Julie and I have been friends since the first grade (side note - I wonder if my Lacie has a friend now that she will still be friends with 22 years from now? hmmm), we (and another gal - Kendra) were best friends from junior high through highschool.

Sorry girls I couldn't resist! hahaha

We always said I would be the first to get married and have kids cause it's all I ever wanted! :) I was married in 2000 and done having kids by 2003 LOL Then it was Kendra's turned - she was married to Skyler in 2005 and has a one year old lil girl named Ruby. Julie got married to Grant in 2006 and is now due with a lil boy, McClane, on Thanksgiving Day.

They are doing a jungle themed nursery and I lucked upon some REALLY cute monkey kitchen accessories on clearance at Target awhile back - gotta love those lil red stickers. I just knew I could come up with something to use em for!I ended up making her, well the baby, a blanket, a dipee & wipee case, and a taggie.

Here are pictures from her shower and of the gifts I made:

Kendra & I

Kendra's daughter - Miss Ruby Tuesday The Mommy to be and I

Showing off the taggie I made

Here's the quilt - the middle applique is actually half of a tea towel found at Target!

And here's the matching taggie

And her's the dipee & wipee case - the monkey face is actually a potholder from target :)

I also gave her 2 terry cloth hand towels from Target that had the lil monkey on them. I figured she could use them as changing pads or burp cloths! Oh and inside the dipee & wipee case was a lil travel wipee box that I put McClane's name on. Cursing myself for not getting a piture of it! It was simple but really cute :)

Ya know what my problem is???

No no not THAT problem! Sssshhh
I've realized that I spend ENTIRELY tooooooo much time reading (and rereading) other people's blogs and no where NEAR enough time updating my own! Again, I am a whole month behind in documenting our lives and sharing pictures GRRRRRRRRR and honestly, I have NO clue when I'm going to have time to get caught up! :(
Oh and I also realized that while I documented my son's birthday I didn't do a BIG birthday post like I did for Lacie. Eeek the curse of the 2nd born rears its ugly head! LOL
Ok I'm off to do some sewing for Mr. McClane! Happy October!!!!

A Baby Gift

I recently busted my hiney to put together a baby shower gift for a sweet gal pal of mine. I am really proud of the outcome but boy was I cursing myself for not just getting a dang Target gift card! LOL Jk I really am proud of it and am glad that she will have something special and handmade to use with her new sweet lil guy.

So here are pics of the taggie (my first ever!), a lil lap blanket, a dipee & wipee case (also a first!) and a couple of burpclothes (decorated cloth diapers). The blanket and taggie are backed with navy blue flannel. I had plans to sew an additional burpcloth and a bib to go with this set as well but it just didn't happen! :(

I have another baby shower coming up in a month! Better get sewing :)

More Sewing

Last week I went to Joann's 3 times! My husband and kids weren't too thrilled but I was! :)

Trip #1 begat my very own sewing machine thanks to my darling husband! And of course some fabric.

Trip #2 They were having a fatty sale so I went back to get a bit more fabric

Trip #3 The sale was still going on so I got some MORE fabric - it's an addiction I tell you!

Some of the results of all this fabulous fabric was a baby blanket and a dress for Lacie. Both of which I am pretty durn proud of!

I'm taking a break from sewing for awhile for a few reasons. I want to work on my latest project (more on that to come), and dive into the 6 books I brought home from the library yesterday. And on top of all that we have Lacie's birthday, the big 4th of July bash, and getting invites made and mailed out for the kids combo party next month! But I am dying to tackle another baby blanket and a matching dipees & wipees case for a gf that's expecting. Luckily she's not due tell the latter part of the year! :)

**ps** I had to upload these pictures ONE at a time! Durn blogger!

Look What I Did!!!

I didn't have any more fabric to make blankets out of so I went digging through my stack of stuff to be hemmed and found this skirt that had been handed down to Lacie but that she had never worn because it was just way too short (holy run on sentence batman!) then I pulled out some zebra fabric that I had used as a table runner for a baby shower a few months ago, added some ribbon and voila!
I'm so impressed with myself!!!!

Ignore the crazy hair and mismatched shirt, it was just a quick model so I could get these pictures posted :)

Sew Crazy

After the costume making extravaganza my mom left her sewing machine here. I had overcome my sewing angst and remembered that I had bought some fabric a few years ago that I had never used. So I thought I'd try my hand at a couple of blankets for the kids. It wasn't so hard! Well I did hit a few stumbling blocks and these puppies are no where NEAR gift appropriate but I am learning and getting braver by the day.

And now,

I'm addicted!!!!

These are pics of the kids and their blankets. One side is cotton and the back is a flannel.

I am working on a really cute project right now that I'll hopefully finish this weekend and be able to post those pictures. Eek I love it!

Mammie to the Rescue!!!

David and Lacie signed up to do the Daddy-Daughter dance number at her recital this year. We knew this would entail a few extra practices and additionaly costumes. What we didn't know, was that we were expected to MAKE Lacie's costume. As in buy the patterns, fabric, and SEW it all together.

Crazy dance teachers say what?

Yah, Mommy doesn't OWN a sewing maching because Mommy DOESN'T sew!

Oh and by the way, we found this out just 2 weeks before the DRESS rehearsal! EEK!

So, even though I'm 27 years old I STILL call MY Mommy when I'm in a crisis :)
And true to form, she came to the rescue!!!

I picked up the materials and she brought her sewing machine over and we had a family sewing party.

She said she wanted to teach me but I was not learning very well. It was actually quite comical! Luckily my SIL was there to help Mom out where I couldn't.

At one point when I was being "taught", mom even said "Don't make me go get Isabelle!" - You know, my 5 year old sister? Yah she knows how to sew better than me!

After it all was said and done, we had an ADORABLE Lil Miss Muffet costume for Lacie to wear.

We have been jokingly telling her that she is GOING to be Lil Miss Muffet for Halloween!