dump truck hoodie

one of ben's best little buddies turned 2 a couple days after his own birthday and we had great fun going to his truck/car birthday party.

a few months ago i made this race car hoodie for another little friend, but once i found the Little Blue Truck book i knew we had to go the dirt road route instead of the race track. (and besides, i was completely out of navy and black felt for the road :))

 these are easy to make- find a picture online, trace and cut it out in some wool/poly blend felt and then sew onto a hoodie from target. 

*for the dump truck i did put a bit of liquid stitch stuff down in the middle of little pieces like the window and the rear bumper. then after it was dry i top stitched it onto the jacket.

this book is super cute with a sweet message at the end. i would have bought a copy for our family too, but i had ben with me and he beelined to a giant board book of Good Night Moon instead. :)

this "2" patch covers the stupid graphic that was already on the jacket.

added a little scrap of felt to make a personalized tag.

all done and ready for the party.

12 Months of Date Nights

first of all, andrew's beautiful little sister got married last week. the wedding was dreamy and lots of fun. today they drive to their new home in oklahoma...tears...

but anyway, before they left we were able give lots of hugs, say goodbye and send them off with some gifts.

when handyandy and i were married some friends gave us a big box with 12 little gifts.  it was so thoughtful and so much fun to have something to open on each month anniversary our first year.

so, we decided to do something similar and do a date night themed box. it took a good bit of brainstorming to think of 12 but here they all are in case you'd like to do something like it. 

** Bethany, if you happen to be reading...STOP ;)

{after i took pictures, i wrapped each gift up in tissue paper, wrote a little hint/description on the tags and then packed them in a big plastic storage bin} if you click on the picture it should enlarge it a bit.

1) something bubbly and holographic heart glasses like these 3) apple cider and pumpkin carving tools from Hobby Lobby

3) white ceramic mugs from Target, pen and instructions printed out 2) marshmallows and cocoa packets

4) Jenga  5) pack of 2 moleskine journals and Starbucks gift card  6) Skittles box and conversation starters- see below  7) pink football from Target and Root Beer

Conversation Starters 

* What is one significant memory or association that includes snow?

*What does your ideal birthday look like? (from beginning to end)

* What is your earliest memory from childhood?

* What are 2 things that happened this week and how did you feel about them?

* fill in blank: I like it best when you refer to me as_____________.

9) microwave popcorn and $1 bill 10) Coldstone gift card 11) trail mix and root beer 12) gift card to Noodles

the thought of having the time/freedom to go on all these dates kinda blows my mind. handy andy and i totally didn't take advantage of all the fun we could have had before our sweet kiddos entered the picture....ohhh well, that's what retirement is for...hahaha. just kidding. i think. ;) 

if you have any ideas for fun/cheap dates, leave them in the comment section. 

now go have yourselves some FUN!

race car hoodie gift

one of our favorite little buddies turned 3 this week and we had the privilege of going to his adorable race car themed party- complete with sugar cookie race cars and tracks and absolutely fabulous chocolate cake.

 for his gift i embellished this little cotton hoodie from target. really easy, not super fancy but still fun.
just felt and buttons. oh, and handy andy would be bummed if i didn't acknowledge that it was his idea to make the track continue through both pockets. {you're so crafty handy andy}

put in some hot wheel cars and we were good to go. ;)

speaking of embellishing hoodies, i just saw these adorable ones sold on etsy. her shop is super cute.
happy monday everyone!

cinched up backpack

My little nephew just turned one last week. He and Baby Ben are exactly 9 months apart. Andy's sister and i planned very hard to work that out.... hee hee. But we are super thankful for this little guy and have big plans for he and ben to be best buddies. 

That said, he had a party this weekend and i kinda scrambled to think of a gift. 

MADE had just posted a great tutorial on how to make boxed-out totes so i started with that. 

Then i decided he needed his name in felt on the front,  another pocket on the inside and some cheater lining.

Then i wanted to add another color so i sewed on the yellow cinched up tie on the top...

 and BACK PACK straps to the back. Everything was done extremely randomly and probably more complicated that it needed to be but i was happy with the result and can't wait to see a toddling little eric stuffing treasures into his pack soon.

and to get him started i made sure this {most adorable} Eric had a new title to add to his collection of Eric Carle's books.

Now, i have to spend a little time on the star of this post. This baby (i mean BIG boy, sorry joelle! ;) is the most expressive and interesting little guy i've ever known. He is full of fun and sweetness but he also has the most extensive collection of absolutely hilarious little faces. He entertained a group of at least 10 adults at his party for nearly 15 minutes with his expressions alone. And those brown eyes with the longest lashes i've ever seen...well, i guess i've seen some like them on his lovely momma.
Anyway, he's just too much cuteness to take.

We were delighted to celebrate his birthday and even more delighted to have him in our family.

yellow baby shower gift

One of my best friends whom i've known since we were little girls is about to have her first baby. I got to go to her shower this weekend which meant i got to put together a little collection of happy gifts.

First of all, the baby's name is Lily, which is my most favorite baby name these days. If we ever have a surprise 5th baby [yikes], her name would be Lillian. But since i'm not counting on that happening, it makes me so happy that i'll get to know and love a little Lily anyway. :)

I knew i wanted to give her one of my dollies, and since this one had a cheery yellow skirt, i decided to find some fun little yellow additions to throw in.
So, in went some fresh lemon J.R. Watkins hand soap, Boudreaux's butt paste and these super easy baby head bands.

I followed the tutorial from Delia Creates. It's basically just a strip of knit sewn into a loop and then you can change out the clipped-on flowers. Delia has some beautiful variations- perfect for embellishing cute bald baby girl heads. :)

 The beautiful momma-to be (in yellow even!) along with a couple of other great friends. mmmm, girl times are the best. so happy for great excuses to be together.

pinterest skirt

hi there, thought i'd share a simple project i completed this week. i'm mostly proud of it because i got the inspiration on pinterest and then actually did it. i feel like its important to document these kinds of occurrences to convince myself that pinterest really is helpful and not just a time-wasting dream world! ha.ha.

anywhoo, here's my version of this cute little skirt, made especially for a sweet little friend in Virginia.

 And here was the inspiration. i just loved the letter color combination on a simple brown skirt made from an old knit t-shirt. Here's the link to the original: http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2012/02/all-you-need-is-love-skirt.html

And for a little random...here are the girls fetching mail several days ago. 

madeline's faces and toe positions just make me laugh. sophie would never dream of pointing her little toe like that.

these girls couldn't be more different from each other but they still love each other...which is wonderful.

funny story that describes the girls' personalities in a weird way:
last night madeline wanted to wiggle will's loose tooth so she put her hand up to his face to try to feel it. will pushed her hand away but as he did he said, "ick! your hand smells! it smells like strawberry shortcake or something!" Then sophie wanted her hand smelled, so she stuck her hand in will's face and asked him what it smelled like. reluctantly he smelled and then said, "i don't know, i guess dirt." both girls were quite satisfied with his pronouncements.

3 little dollies for 3 little cuties

Say hello to 3 of my favorite little people- my adorable niece and my charming little nephews

For Christmas i wanted to make them something special. So i created a "mini-me" doll for each of them.

This was my first time making boy dolls...i have to say, their little red strip underpants are my favorite part. ;)

Light brown hair, silvery blue eyes and blue overalls for Elias. 

Brown hair, brown eyes and green overalls for Gideon.

And a little blonde hair, blue eyed dollie for sweet Calliope. And a dress, of course, because Calliope is always a lady. ;)

Now, i had a hunch that the little kiddos would probably be fascinated by the novelty of the dolls for a bit but i was determined to "wow" them and i knew the way to their heart was through Angry Birds. Much to Sister's dismay, the 3 have grown quite attached to these new pop culture icons. :) It's really pretty funny.

So, at the last minute i decided the dollies needed some birds too.

I happened to already have these little craft puffs. ( i'm so culturally illiterate, the only colors i thought angry birds came in were red and green! haha). Then i cut out little pieces of felt, drew on them with sharpies and hot-glued them onto the puff. Then i sewed a tiny piece of velcro to the dolls hand and one to the back of the birds so the dolls could "hold" them. :)

It's hard to always know what is going to get kids excited...i know there have been several times we have planned activities or gifts that we thought our kids would love and instead they fell flat...other times we have been shocked at the excitement over the teeniest little things....anyway, its always a gamble.

However, after they had opened the dolls, they each opened their little package of mini angry birds and they were ECSTATIC.  So excited and happy. i got all kinds of hugs and sweetness. i'm pretty sure i could have scratched the dolls all together and they would have been completely thrilled by those little birds that took less than 20 min. to make! Cutest, silliest little kids ever. :) LOVE them.

DIY: Baby Bib

For my adorable little baby nephew i actually made something that i pinned on Pinterest!! (shocking....i know).  So, this adorable baby bib idea and pattern comes from Craftiness is not Optional.

She calls it a Bapron, and its awesome. At least i'm pretty sure its awesome. I've been meaning to make one and try it out on baby ben who has been subjected to pink hand-me-down bibs from his sisters. poor boy. 

 Anyway, i love how it has arm holes so it completely wraps around and protects the baby's sides from spills. Plus it's reversible.

 Also it was super easy. Like maaaaybe 20 min. per bib. And as much as i usually rebel against anything that requires me to measure and follow directions, it was absolutely refreshing to have an {EASY} pattern, follow it and have it turn out the first time without a hitch. You don't have to have any super sewing powers to pull this off.

 All of these fabrics came from JoAnn's in case you're wondering. The solid green and the green frogs are flannel.

 Oh and they should fit both babies and toddlers because the arm holes are big enough and you can kind of cinch it up in the back. So cool.

Anyway, download the FREE pattern and make some today.  Oh and there's lots of pictures of the bapron on a real baby on her site if you're needing more of a visual. Plus she has some cute color combos there too.

DIY: Christmas Pillowcases

I've always thought Christmas pillowcases would be so fun and festive for kids to enjoy all season. The problem is that so many of the ones you can buy this time of year are 1) expensive and 2) kinda ugly.

So, i found this soft green flannel at walmart for $2.50/yd. Then i just used scrap felt and trimmings to personalize them.

Sophie's was, of course, a doggie. Wiener doggies are her favorite. I was going to print a doggie out and then trace it but i can't figure out how to enlarge clipart once i've copied it onto TextEdit. (this is a not so subtle request for some technical advice!) ;) Anyway, free-handing it was easy enough.

Madeline's was a bunny....of course.

And since Will isn't particular about any one species of animal,  i chose his favorite Christmas icon instead. The nutcracker. He took a little more detailed investment than i was planning on, but again, it only took a couple tv show episodes and the whole project was completed. :)

Next year i might add their initials...