We are having a bLiZzARd outside! Not like full blown snowed in, but the kind of blowy heavy snow that makes you just want to stay inside your safe warm house! I thought I would catch up on some blogging today. I realized that I haven’t blogged here for almost a week! GASP! Where did that week go?! I think Christmas was in there somewhere . . . and I know I went out of town with my mom, sis, and daughter on a little Girls Getaway Shopping Extravaganza . . . Now you are telling me 2010 is almost over!
So I sat down to do some blogging. Then I got distracted . . . It all started . . . Well, I don’t really know. But I’ve had a really good crafty blog hop session and I thought I’d share:
Bacon Wrapped Lil’ Smokies are one of my husbands favorites. Over at Polish the Stars they serve them at breakfast. Breakfast people. If I served these at breakfast, I think my husband would think he’d died in his sleep and woke up in heaven. (Or he might die from shock that I woke up before him and cooked him breakfast, he’s the early riser in our relationship for sure!)
Remember these cute crayon holders?
I remember seeing them a few places and fell in love with how simple and wonderful they were. I never made mine. But Mandy at Sugar Bee – Craft Edition posted about them today and reminded me of their adorableness.
Which led me to head over to the maker of these cuties, Hedi at Mom’s Crafty Space, where she shared this gorgeous kids table!
Harry Potter Cupcakes found at Cupcakes Take the Cake:
But first I need to find some Harry Potter loving friends to have a party with. Sadly none of my friends love HP quite as much as I do.
If you haven’t noticed yet, I am currently in a Our Best Bites obsessive phase. What can I say I love everything they post about! And it is all super delicious and easy to make! (I was in no way compensated for saying that or talking about their blog a million other times, it’s just the obsession talking.)
Our Best Bites has a lovely round-up of tasty New Year's Eve Appetizers:
Do you see a pattern here? They are DELICIOIUS. You must try them. Now.
Three Ingredient Sweet and Sour Meatballs
I won’t post their whole list here, but one last one (these are amazing, we have had them for dinner a billion times now).
Stayed tuned for some Ash created project posts. I have one I’m excited about, but I still need to save up a few milk jugs . . . Hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas! And continue to be happy and safe into the New Year! (Hopefully you’ll hear from me before then, if not assume we’ve lost all contact with the outside world due to the bLiZzARd!)
Picture a Christmas, is one of my FAVORITE Christmas songs! When I saw this cute little finger play and gorgeous pictures over at Sassy Sites, I couldn’t help but share it with you here.
Picture a stable in Judea.
(put hands together and make like a roof with arms)
Picture a sacred, silent night.
(fold arms and then put a finger to your lips like shhhing people)
And can you hear
(cup your hand to your ear)
The angels near
(sign language for angel which is making like a wing motion)
And see the star so bright?
(shade your eyes with your hands)
Picture the little baby Jesus.
(cradle your arms and then sign for Jesus...pointing
to palms where the nails were with your middle finger)
Think of His life and words so dear.
(point at head then point Heavenward)
Sing praise to Him;
(pretend to direct music and point Heavenward)
Remember Him,
(Point at Head and Heavenward)
As you picture Christmas this year.
(draw Christmas Tree in air with hands and then spread them out for all)
Picture the kind and gentle Joseph.
(pretend to hold a Shepard's crook)
Picture the mother, Mary, fair.
(cradle your arms)
And can you see
(hands to eyes)
So rev’rently
(fold arms and bow heads)
The shepherds kneeling there?
(bend down at knees)
Picture the little baby Jesus.
(cradle your arms and then sign for Jesus...pointing
to palms where the nails were with your middle finger)
Think of His life and words so dear.
(point at head then point Heavenward)
Sing praise to Him;
(pretend to direct music and point Heavenward)
Remember Him,
(Point at Head and Heavenward)
As you picture Christmas this year.
(draw Christmas Tree in air with hands and then spread them out for all)
.......listen to the song here.......
I am up to my elbows in wrapping paper. I went out of the house with several pieces of tape stuck to my clothing. I told Amanda in the toy section at Walmart that she was my hero for finding a toy I really needed wanted to get my daughter. My Google Reader has spiraled out of control. I don’t remember the last time my counter wasn’t covered in some sort of project. I have gone through more hot glue gun sticks than I can count. I’ve never sewed so much in my life. I can’t believe Christmas has snuck on us so quickly. I remember laughing at bloggers for posting/making Christmas stuff in October. Lesson learned. I promise I have some fun stuff to post, at least I think it’s fun, I hope you will too! Just give me a sec ok?
But here’s a quickie.
I’ve seen these lots of different places.
Made using paint HERE at Oopsey Daisy.
Using paper HERE at Homemaking Fun.
Nothing original. But we had lots of fun making our Reindeer Family together as a family. Even the Hubby helped. (Yes, my feet and hands really are that small, freakishly small!)
{Materials Used}
Cardstock (Light brown for antelers, dark brown for head, white and black for eyes, red for noses)
Ribbon (hanging and girl bows)
Raffia (for hair)
Glitter (for noses)
Wire (hard to see in the picture, but Daddy is wearing glasses)
Markers, scissors, glue
{To Make}
Trace foot for head.
Trace hands for antelers.
Cut out eyes, noses, antlers, heads, glue together.
Add embellishments, bows for girls, glasses, hair. I busted out the hot glue gun for the raffia, and ribbon.
Mommy
Baby
Daddy
Quick name that tune! Question (non-craft related, totally off topic, of course), is My Favorite Things, from the Sound of Music really considered a Christmas song?
Back on topic. Some of my favorite Christmas stuff from Blogland:
Ruffled Christmas Tree Shirt @ Stuff by Ash
Yes, I am including myself and my own project. It really is on of my favorites!
Gift Card Snow Globes @ One Charming Party {via Gordon Gossip}
To answer the question I know you are asking, “*We tested these gift cards after a week and they still worked. However, we don’t recommend leaving the gift cards in the water longer than a week.”
Hands OFF Santa! @ Brandy's Crafts
Such a clever idea! I finally ordered some vinyl to cut with my Cricut. I’m so excited!
Holiday Photo Booth Props @ Paper and Cake
So simple and soo cute! I wish my two year-old was more cooperative.
Christmas Scripture Word Tree Printable @ The Fickle Pickle
Finally got mine printed. Our Sam’s membership expired in Novemember, so I printed it at Walmart. Holy cow! Never again. There was such a huge line. Everyone was waiting to get their Christmas cards.
Snowman Kit @ The Fickle Pickle
This is not a picture of the whole kit, but it was my favorite! I love the bright colors and the details on the hats.
Aren’t the tags adorable! I will not repost every picture here, you must hop on over to The Fickle Pickle and see the adorable “carrot” noses and all the other cuties that come in the kit. If she was selling these, I would totally buy one!
I’m am sharing this post at:
Head on over and link up your favorite things too!
In this household a new holiday means a new shirt for the Little Miss! It only took me halfway to Christmas to make it! But once I sat down and got started it went really fast, like two hours tops.
This is what I came up with (and a matching bow, or course):
It looks super cute on to, if you can get your model to hold still . . .
{Materials}
Shirt (ours is a 3T)
Ribbon (I used about six different color/styles. Some of the ribbon I had on hand by the spool, some I bought at Wal-Mart by the yard. I didn’t use more than a yard of any, more like 1/2 a yard of most.)
Sewing machine (optional, would be just as easy to sew by hand.)
Needle and Thread
Pins
Heat n’ Bond or double sided fusible interfacing
Iron
Scissors
{To Make}
To start I collected my ribbon and laid it out to get an idea of what would look best.
I started with the bottom of the tree, cut an 18 inch piece of my ribbon.
Ruffled the ribbon using my sewing machine, set tension as high as it will go and stich length as long as it will go.
Cut my next piece of ribbon about 1/2 an inch shorter, 17 1/2 inches. Ruffled. Cut the next piece 1/2 an inch shorter, 17 inches. Ruffled. Continue until you have cut and ruffled all your pieces. I ended up with nine layers.
I laid my ribbon out once more on my shirt to make sure I had enough ribbon layers to make a tall enough tree.
Trace a triangle/tree onto paper side of Heat n’ Bond. My triangle/tree had a six inch base and seven inch sides.
Pin layers onto Heat n’ Bond. Follow the instructions on the back of the Heat n’ Bond package. Follow these very carefully. Iron the back/paper side. Do not remove paper side until you have cut out your shape. Otherwise it will be a disaster and your shape template with be gone. But if you do mess up, you are smart, just use your noggin you can figure it out!
Remove pins, cut out tree, remove paper. Pin tree onto shirt, iron tree onto shirt. To be safe I turned the shirt over and ironed the back, instead of the front where the ribbon was. Then turned it over and ironed the front, but placed a towel over the tree. I was worried about the ribbon melting to my iron. Irrational fear? I say, better safe than sorry!
Instead of sewing around the edges and across the layers with my sewing machine, I did some sewing by hand. I didn’t want my ruffles to get all smooshed down. I fanned out the sides of the tree a little so it didn’t look so much like a straight triangle. I just put a small tack stitch in each ribbon then sewed across the ruffle about a 1/2 inch by hand.
Last step is to add a tree trunk. I used a piece of brown ribbon, cut it about 3 inches, folded it in half, tucked the top unfolded edge up under the tree and hand sewed it down with tiny tiny stiches.
Last but not least I added a bow on top of the tree. Just a simple four loop bow, like you would make for a girls hair bow.
This morning when we finished doing the Little Miss’ hair I decided that no bow we had would do, so I just HAD to make new one to match her cute new shirt!
{Some tutorials that might help}
I kind of followed this tutorial where she made a ruffled candy corn shirt.
Making ruffles with your sewing machine.
I’m linking my festive shirt up to these holly jolly parties this week!
Plus a few more:
I’m linking up to these holly jolly parties this week.
Plus a few more:
