Ornament Balls

I'll keep this simple since I can assume that everyone is as busy as I am. Why can't December be like 45 days long? My friend sent me a couple pictures back at the end of November of the ornament balls she made. I died! They were adorable! So I ran out and bought everything I needed and made them that night. Super cute and super easy.



Elf on the Shelf Ideas

We received our elf last year as a gift from our favorite Grandma Karen. The kids named him Elfie but we never really got around to using him last year. This year, I pulled out all the stops because I knew the kids would get such a kick out of him. And, sure enough, every morning I hear them laughing and giggling about where Elfie ends up.

Day 1: December 3rd

On our first day, we found Elfie hanging from our lights in the kitchen. Savanah laughed hysterically while saying, "Elfie is so berry silly!"

Elfie also brought a letter with him. I found the letter heading on the Elf on the Shelf website. I used the letter to remind the kids about Elfie and that he was watching them for Santa.

Day 2: December 4th



 We found Elfie having a little snack on the second morning. Everyone knows that elves love to eat sweets and drink maple syrup. Elfie must have been pretty thirsty!

Day 3: December 5th

I am pretty proud of this one. Landon brought home this blow up guitar from saving up his points in speech. Elfie got a hold of it that night and was serenading the ladies. He is one smooth elf.

Day 4: December 6th

Elfie decided that our family pictures were a little boring. So he found a dry erase marker and "fixed" them himself. Thanks Elfie!

Tomorrow's Elfie is already in place. He has a message for the kids, reminding them to be good. They are having a slight problem going to bed lately. Gah!

*** Apparently I was quite awake when I scheduled this post. I chose 7pm instead of 7am.

Letters for Santa

I found this cute, little bucket in the Christmas craft section at Hobby Lobby. Originally it was only $1.99 but I got it half off making it even cheaper. I thought it would be a cute addition to our tree and something the kids could put this letters to Santa in. I cut the Dear Santa part out with vinyl on my Cricut. The font is super cute, because it has ornaments hanging off of the letters. I bought it off of Lettering Delights. If you haven't checked out that site you must! Such fun fonts.

The Stockings Were Hung

I went a little unconventional this year when hanging our stockings. We have a fireplace but I didn't want to add any more clutter to it. We also have a small blank wall that needed some love. I stewed and stewed, until...

I had an idea! I called a friend and asked for a branch from her tree. We have exactly one tree on our property, and since our house is only a few years old, the tree is a wee little one. My friend thankfully obliged and brought over a HUGE branch. Like half a tree! So I hacked it into more manageable pieces and found one I liked.

I hammered in some nails and was about to call it good. Enter my genius of a mother. She suggested that I add a little more character with some fake snow.

Off to Hobby Lobby I went and a $1.25 later I had some "snow". I slapped it on with a plastic spoon and let it dry for a few hours.

I truly love it! LOVE it!

Now to add vinyl over the top?

Christmas Mantle

I was so excited to decorated for Christmas this year. It was really, really hard for me to wait until Thanksgiving. I might not have made it. Maybe I decorated the day before Thanksgiving? Pretty close right?

My mantle last year was nice, but a little plain. I found a few new things to add this year and it is coming together. Still love my clock. And my new owl pitcher. Everything is still really simple with muted colors, but I love it.



Can you believe that owl was only $6? And it is huge! I might have picked up one for my sister as well.

My favorite piece from my Christmas decor is definitely this sled. I picked it up at the Christmas Store at Garner Village for about $10. A close second favorite would be the stars I snabbed at the Yellow Rose in Prosser after Christmas for half off.

And the ever changing wreath with our friend Elfie. Quite an original name isn't it? My kids are clever!

I swapped out the ribbon for this nice, velvety one I picked up at Hobby Lobby. And I added a little bird friend, which my sister informed me was creepy looking, but I love him!

Ridiculous Recipes

I absolutely adore Starbuck's Caramel Apple Spice. It is so very delicious! So when I came across this copycat recipe I was pretty excited. My only issue was it took a long time to cook, so you really have to make sure you plan ahead!

Jingle Bell Frame

I found this pin on pinterest a few months ago and knew I wanted to use it for Super Saturday. I kept it more traditional for the ladies at Super Saturday but wanted something a little more fun for Savanah's room. The link on pinterest doesn't lead anywhere, so not sure who the original creator was.

 

I bought the shadow boxes at Joann Fabric when they were 60% off. Shadow boxes can be a little pricey and Joann's seemed to have the best prices. Mine are the 10x10 inch frames. The Jingle bells were purchased at Hobby Lobby when they were half off. I was able to use one container of bells for two frames.

 

Start by opening up the back of the frame and gluing a piece of paper to the inside of the frame back. I chose a bright pink, sparkly paper from Hobby Lobby. Next, fill your frame with about half of the bells in the container (about 37 bells for mine) and try to arrange them before putting the back on the frame. This is because the bells will fit snugly in the frame once the back is on. Lastly, wrap your frame with coordinating ribbon. I used dabs a hot glue to keep it secure to the frame.

Cut out the words "jingle all the way" with vinyl and a super cute font and slap it on the front of the glass. I definitely suggest using transfer tape with vinyl because it makes it about five thousand times easier.

 

Savanah was pretty excited when she woke up and found it in her room. Now Landon has requested a boy one, better get going on that!

Dinner Menu

I love organization. And I am constantly looking for new ways to be even more organized.

My wonderful mother made this dinner menu for me about a year ago. She cut everything out on her Cricut and made it to match my kitchen. I already had a frame that was distressed with red, so it was perfect.

 

You simply write on the glass with a dry erase marker and wipe it off week after week.

It sits nicely on the counter where I place my cookbooks while I cook dinner. Such a cute and personalized gift you could easily make for family and friends.

Ridiculous Recipes

I watched one of my friend's little girls the other day and as a thank you she brought these with her. Once I saw what they were, I quickly hid them from everyone else in the house. I love, love, love, love, love anything s'mores. And I am pretty sure most people know that about me by now. They were delicious!

This Just Pinned

 

I saw this printable at my friend's house the other day and just think it is so stinking cute. You rarely see countdowns to Thanksgiving. I especially love the spot at the bottom to add what you are thankful for. I am printing mine off as we speak!

That Time I Made a Costume

I loathe, and I mean really loathe, making cotumes. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I do not like wasting my time making a costume that I should be able to just buy. Old Navy makes my favorite costumes. They are cute and warm and really inexpensive. I picked up Savanah's back in August because they tend to run out. 

 

Old Navy costumes only go to size 5T, which means that I have had to find other costumes for Landon the past few years. Which also means that I have had to resort to buying the cheap looking, polyester kinds, which really are not that cheap! Not this year. This year Landon insisted on being a spider, and I just couldn't find a spider his size anywhere.

So what's a mom to do? Begrudingly make one...

Some googly eyes glued to a beanie, and tubes of black fabric stuffed with batting and strung together with embroidary floss. Ta-Da! The easiest spider ever. Not the prettiest, scariest, or even the coolest, but definitely the easiest. And he loved it.

Make Your Own Crayons

I have seen a few other bloggers make crayons before and have always wanted to try it out. Jill has made some super cute ones over the years. She even links you to where she bought the molds. I didn't plan ahead as well as she did, but it still worked out.

I was asked to plan Landon's class Halloween party this year. While looking for things to put in little goodie bags I walked past these ice cube trays at Dollar Tree. Bing! (that would be the light bulb going off in my head)

I grabbed our giant bag of crayons and got to work separating them by color. The worst part was definitely taking off the wrappers. Granted I did think of a more efficient way. I used a steak knife and slid it across the crayon vertically. Then had the kids peel the wrapper right off. Such a time saver!

Making crayons is fun!

I filled a small pot with water and brought it to a boil. Then I threw the crayons into the can and mixed them until they melted.

 

Making sure to ALWAYS use an oven mitt, I poured the melted crayons into the molds. I let the molds set in the freezer until they were solid.

They all popped out pretty easily. The only issue I ran into was that left over crayon was stuck in the molds, so it left some crayon residue on the other colors. I think it gave the skulls some character. Kind of like marble.

Fun, new crayons that the second graders loved!

 

Side note: I could never get the crayon out of the ice cube tray, so I just tossed it.

A Very Pony Party

The little diva turned four! Such a big day in our house. She has so much personality it can sometimes be scary. But we definitely love this girl.

 

We decided to throw her her first friend party. Even though I was pretty sure that nothing would compare to spending her third birthday at Disneyland. She picked a My Little Pony theme. She is big into MLP right now. We kept it simple, mostly because I was recovering from the stomach flu and Shawn was still dealing with strep. It was a fun week in our house.

There was a lot of rainbows and pink considering most of her friends are boys. I don't think they minded!

I seached high and low for a pony shirt that she could wear to her party. I looked everywhere. In stores, online, I even had other people looking for me. I could not find a dang pony shirt. Yet, my friend was able to find one for Shawn. Strange.

What's a diy-er to do? Make one herself. I have an awesome program for my Cricut that you can't get anymore because of legal reasons... (cough). I found a pony shape online, Twilight Sparkle to be exact, and uploaded it to my program. I cut the shape out on a piece of scrap vinyl and adhered the vinyl straight to the shirt. I used my vinyl as a stencil by peeling off and throwing away the middle section. Once the vinyl was secure I used glitter fabric paint to fill in the pony figure. I decided to peel the vinyl off pretty soon after painting so the vinyl and paint didn't stick. I let the shirt dry through the night and it was ready to go in the morning.

A very happy 4th birthday to our baby girl. I cannot wait to see what you do in this world!

Excuses, Excuses

I don't really have any new excuses, just life got in the way. I have been crafting up a storm, but sadly, or not so sadly, it has been for our big Super Saturday at church. Now that all that is behind me (big sigh of relief) I am ready to start crafting for real. I have a ton of stuff to show you. Espeically all the fun things we did at Super Saturday.

 

But for now you can all bask in the glory that was my hilarity this morning.

I will only say this...they have been worn A LOT the past few years, therefore they have been washed A LOT. And that I better NOT be getting chubby!

(hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!)



Sickies

Excuse us while we get over strep throat and the stomach flu. We will be back shortly.

This Just Pinned

If you know me at all, then you know that I am not a fan of cake, but more specifically frosting. Gag! I was intrigued by this pin I found the other day, though, so I gave it a try. Verdict: It was de"light"ful. Emphasis on the light part. It reminded me a lot of marshmallow fluff. Which, if you know me at all, then you know I LOVE that stuff.

When Life Catches Up

And kicks you in the butt! That is how my last few weeks have been. I have worked pretty much everyday, got put in charge of our church's craft day, have my normal church calling to worry about, and have a couple costumes to make. Have I started said costumes? No...

I will make today short, since I have to leave for a Halloween party with my young women.

 

I made this shirt using a dress pattern. I truly HATE patterns. I hate the flimsy paper, I hate the directions, I hate the fit. I much more prefer to make up my own. But I started this dress last year, and never got around to finishing it. Mainly because I didn't have enough fabric. It sat unfinished for a long time and it was driving me crazy. I finally threw my hands up and made it a shirt. There are so many things I would have done differently, but it is what it is (my little sis hates that saying).

 

So, for now, it makes a nice shirt. I do love the material. So fall-ish and corduroy, even if it is snowing outside.

 

PS I said hate a lot in this post. Not a word we usually use around our house.

PPS or is it PSS? Savanah looks especially Asian in this picture. Her Aunt Te' would be proud!

Name Plaque

Before we had kids, Shawn decided on a name for a baby girl. He was adamant about it. He heard the name from someone that came into the bank and instantly fell in love with it. When we got pregnant with Landon he told me I could pick his name, if he could name our daughter. A while after we became pregnant with Savanah, and he cashed in his chips. I guess it is a good thing that I loved her name, too!

The only other thing he insisted on was only having one "n" instead of the traditional two. Fine with me. Although, even after almost four years, I still look at her name and wonder if it is spelled right.

Once we find Savanah a bed, this plaque will hang from the foot board. I saw something like it at Pottery Barn and really loved it. Again, once we find a bed...



I also divafied this paper mache' star I found. Just a little paint, ribbon, and some glitter. Am I alone in thinking that glitter makes everything better?

Halloween Week: Books and Bottles

I have my more cutesy Halloween decor on my sofa table. The kids' countdown blocks, my ceramic figures, and these fun books and bottles. The books were as simple as covering thrift store books with paper and embellishments. We made them one craft day while still living in Utah. Aunt Nell found the awesome labels and I found the spiders at Wal-Mart.

 

The jars were found in a consignment type store in Utah. We printed out more labels and I burned them up a little for effect. My sister added some liquids to her bottles, but I never got around to that.

 

As much as I love my vintage decor that covers most of my house, I still like to have some more kid friendly decor that the babies can appreciate.

Halloween Week: Spider Web Frame

My friends and I decided that this would be an awesome craft night project.

I hung it on the door that leads down to our basement. I cannot, for the life of me, get a good picture of it. They are all dark.

 

If you decide to make one, realize that the Rustoleum spray paint takes a long time to dry. Most everyone had to take their stuff home from our craft night and finish it later.

Now that it is hung, I wish I would have added more cross strings. I only have eight but I like how Dana has twelve. It looks a little more finished, don't you think?

Halloween Week: Wreath

This wreath was kind of a pain in the butt. Like an itchy, pins wouldn't hold the burlap, pain in the butt. Thankfully it will stay up ALL year long.

I found this clip-on spider from Wal-Mart for a little over a dollar. He is huge and I love him! After Halloween I can simply unclip him and put something fall-ish in his place.

 

Although a pain, the wreath is pretty awesome!