Baby Shower Banner

I absolutely LOVE these banners! I threw a shower for an adorable friend this past weekend, and decided to go with another triangle banner. I also downloaded these gorgeous vintage number cards from The Handmade Home freebies page to add to the bunting. I love them! Also fell in love the with alphabet card collection. Gorgeous! I'll be adding these to my nursery, for sure.

Please pardon the picture with most of the food eaten! I always forget to take a picture before the guests begin to eat!

Makes me smile. :)

Card Event- February

We're back! Holy smokes. My apologies for the two month (plus) sabbatical from this lovely blog! For those of you who don't know, I am expecting our second little girl (squeal!), who is due in May, on Mother's Day. So I have to sincerely bow down to all you mommies where morning sickness / nausea is a given with each pregnancy. Holy smokes!!!! It totally wiped me out! This is my first experience with it, and wow, it's a beast. So, during those weeks of sickness, it was all I could do to be a somewhat fun mommy and wife, and to show up to the class I taught a couple hours a week with a lesson plan and my students' papers graded.

So, with that wussy explanation, I hope you'll forgive me, and begin to visit our blog again regularly. I'm happy to be back! :)

February's card event was super awesome! Our theme was a classic "Thank You" theme, which is always needed in my card box. Very creative things these girls came up with!

Thank YOU girls for these cuties!

Crayon Wreath Tutorial

Remember how I love wreaths? Well, when my little guy's preschool teacher's birthday rolled around, I thought I should make her a wreath. I had seen crayon wreaths all over the Internet so I tried it out.

Here's what you will need.

2 Embroidery Hoops: Different sizes. Make sure the difference in size will accommodate the lenghth of the crayon being glued to each.
Box of Crayons: The number of crayons will depend on the size of your hoops. 96 crayons were perfect for my project.
Hot Glue Gun
Cute Ribbon: I used ribbon with a ruler print for a school setting.


First, I divided my crayon colors into groups because I prefer my colors on the wreath to nicely transition into one another.

Next, I started gluing the crayons onto the hoops by color. I did a dot of glue on each hoop where the crayon should be placed and stuck them on! Make sure that the flat parts of the crayons are closer together than the pointy tips.

Continue with the gluing all the way to the end and... Ta-Da!

I got a little careless around the greenish area so I ended up with a little funky looking section, so be sure to line your crayons up on your wreath more like the orange and red sections pictured above. Good luck!

Pumpkins!

I fell in love with all these cute pumpkins and all the amazing fabric options! It's a big ticket and low budget decoration, as it uses a small amount of fabric for each pumpkin. I just love them! I found this cute tutorial that is pretty much the exact way I did mine.

Ahhh, I love em!

Toddler Halloween Skirt & Trick-Or-Treat Bucket

This skirt was so incredibly easy, and I made it in just over an hour. Totally worth your time, because it'll be stinkin adorable on your little lady!

It's just three panels, basted and gathered , then sewn to one another. The waistband is just a casing with 1/2" elastic. I'm so happy with it! I made it just big enough that she'll be able to wear it two (maybe three) Halloweens.

This trick-or-treating bucket was super easy too. It's a re-purposed ice cream bucket (not too hard to come by for me) covered in black felt, and stamped with a template from my Cricut. Her name is on the other side. I lined the top of the bucket with ribbon, then tied ribbon knots all along the handle. Super quick, super cute, and would be a fun craft with older kids who can tie knots! Can be used year after year.

Halloween Wreath

 I am on a wreath kick.  I love them...I want them...I NEED them...
So I decided I would make my own Halloween wreath.
All you need is:
a wreath frame,
black satin ribbon,
and
funky Halloween color ribbon.

First, wrap the black satin ribbon around the wreath frame.  Don't underestimate how much ribbon this takes.  I used about 20 yards.

Next, take all your fun colors and cut them in pieces about 6 inches long.  I would cut one first and tie it around the wreath to make sure it's the length you want before cutting all the ribbon.

Then tie the ribbon in knots all the way around the frame.  You don't have to go in an order or follow a pattern.  I just used whatever piece of ribbon I though would look good.

And.... ta-da!  You get a funky little wreath perfect for greeting those little trick-or-treaters!

I'm Committed!

With Christmas just 96 quick days away, I've got to step up my game! My mom has always been so amazing with her Christmas planning; finishing up her main Christmas shopping by Halloween, it seems. She's always as cool as a cucumber all Thanksgiving, and gets to enjoy the days leading up to Christmas because she's so pulled together.

My hope is to be basically ready by Thanksgiving this year. To achieve this, I've got to get started now (since my favorite gifts to give [and to receive, by the way] are handmade)! Alexis' main gift from us is going to be a table playhouse. These are not a new idea, so our generation of mommies can't take credit for this idea. Check out this Vogue pattern from the 1970s!

I'm sure you've seen these all over blog land, and I've fallen head-over-heels for this one from Homemade By Jill.

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

I love the idea of using felt because you don't have to finish edges, and it's so much easier to add embellishments that kids can detach, thanks to velcro, and actually play with. I'm considering making the body out of a cotton material, then adding the felt accents to that.

Thoughts? Tips?

All her little carrots, ears of corn, and apples come off. I love it!

I'm confident Alexis would get hours and hours of play-time with hers. And, it's so much cuter than that cardboard box she played in for 6 months!

The cute girl at Sew Much Ado made this adorable one for her little boy. Boys need playhouses too!