Disney Shirts :) - Signing Off for the next week!

So I slacked off and didn't make my own patches for our Disney trip, but I did buy some at Joann's and hand stitched them on! Two per person and I used a coupon for all 12 of them! I got some on black Friday so they were cheaper, I probably spent about 25$ on them but they saved me a lot of time and stress! I think they turned out great! Here's a picture of a few of them:

OH and I'll be signing off blog land for the next week while we go to California! We are so excited! My friend is getting married so I get to go to her sealing and then we get to spend 3 days at Disneyland/California Adventure and a day or two at the Beach! Brycen is SO excited to make a sand castle! Hope everyone has a SPECTACULAR New Year! I'll be sure to show off our fun finds and pictures from our trip when I get back!

Broken to Cute - Toddler Rocking Chair :)

My wonderful and amazing father was driving down the street the other day when he drove by this broken kids rocking chair. He came home and didn't think anything of it. He mentioned it to me and I was like "Heck yes!", so he and my husband went back up the street and snagged it :) the front dowel that connects the two legs was missing and one of the legs had fallen out. So he went to work on it. He found a scrap dowel and stained it, glued the leg back into the chair. Clamped it, then screwed the dowel into place to make sure it was sturdy :) The seat has a spot on it, but it is a nice little chair! I plan to make a cushion for it next week so that you can't see the spot on the seat.

Here's the spot on the seat:

The front piece that my dad stained and screwed in:

I didn't take a before picture, sorry! But can I just say I am so lucky to have such a great dad! The boys love it! We gave it to them for Christmas, both boys LOVE it!
Here's Cooper going through his stocking with my Dad while sitting in it:

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

"I'm Bored" blocks!

For my nephews this year I wanted to give them something creative and fun. I found these cute blocks on "Say it on the Wall" vinyl company a while back and was so excited to make them for my nephews. Almost every time they come over they say "I'm bored", so hopefully this will help!

Now I just need to get together all the fun stuff that they can do and put it in a bin for them. Some of the ideas include: making play dough sculptures (need to make play dough), make a puppet show (i'm going to include some fun stuff for paper bag puppets), read a 1 chapter of a book (i'm going to throw in a few books), make paper airplanes (i'll include paper) anyways, you get the idea, it's a bunch of fun ideas for them to do. They just roll the blocks like dice to see what they are supposed to do :) If you want the full list of what's on the blocks just leave a message with your e-mail and I"ll send it to you :) Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread house!

We got a recipe for a homemade gingerbread house from a wonderful friend! So my sister and I set out to make them! I made the dough, she baked it and cut it, and we split the candies :)
Brycen had SO much fun making the gingerbread house:

He LOVED putting all the toppings on:

and ta-duh! a fun gingerbread house :)

Candy Cane Cookies :)

It's a terrible picture, I"ll have to take a better one once I make more this week :) But we LOVE these candy cane cookies, they are a favorite of mine that my mom made every year growing up! Here's the recipe if you want to try it:
Candy Cane Cookies
1 1\2 cups butter
1 1\2 cups sugar
(mix)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
(mix with above)
4 cups flour
1\2 tsp baking powder
(add to above)
~divide into 2 parts
2 tsp red food coloring
(add to half)
~refrigerate for 30 minutes
~Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes

SO cute!!!

My mom came home with this super cute purse/bag, it's adorable! Her friend made it for her for Christmas!

I pretty much wanted to make one as soon as I saw it! I LOVE the flower! and I LOVE the fact that it's reversible, here's the inside:

The flower is put on with a safety pin so that it can be used on either side, how fun!
PS: Here's the tutorial I used for the patchwork ornaments, they are SO cute! http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/2010/12/patchwork-ornaments.html

Easy Favors/neighbor gifts :)

We had a cute little joy school group come over yesterday to do a little nativity play and sing a few songs. They were adorable! They did it for my wonderful grandparents who thoroughly enjoyed it! My grandma wanted to do a little treat for them to take home. I didn't have time to make cookies so I picked up a box of oreos at costco - it had 10 rolls of oreos in it :) for $6.57

Then I rolled the rolls of wrapped oreos (I didn't open the oreos) in cellophane and tied the ends with a ribbon. I wanted to use fatter ribbon and attach a little note but that would have taken more time than I had, so for a 10 minute project they turned out pretty cute! I used green cellophane:

Patchwork Ornament!

Okay, so here's my one pitiful picture of the ornament I made, they look cuter in a bunch but I haven't had a chance to make anymore, so here's my one pic that I promised :) Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Letters to Santa!

I LOVE target! I am a target-a-holic! So after Christmas last year my cousin and I went shopping in the after Christmas sale! We found these cute letters to santa:

They were about a dollar (75% off) and it has 5 letters to Santa with envelopes! I can't wait to do this with Brycen this weekend! It'll be so fun, he's finally starting to realize who Santa is! Okay, so I didn't get my patchwork ornaments done today but I promise to show you pics tomorrow of them! Instead I helped make 36 pillowcases, so excited that I know how!

Yarn Ornaments :)

I bought some ornaments at The Dollar Tree:

Then I wrapped red yarn around them for about 5-10 minutes (each) and voila! Some yarn ornaments:

The yarn cost $2.50 and the ornaments cost 1$. So $3.50 for 7 homemade ornaments is pretty good right :) Oh, and the best part is that the ornaments are foam - which means kid friendly! Oh yeah! Awesome! I'll post pics of the patchwork ornaments i'm still working on tomorrow!

Killing Time at JoAnn's...So NOT a good idea :)

This afternoon my boys and I were waiting to meet my mom in town (we live 30 minutes away from all the shops, so it's pointless to run home and go back), we had 45 minutes to kill. So we went around the whole store looking for fun stuff! Future projects will definitely be coming from this trip! I found this super cute apron:

I saw it and was like "SWEET, now I don't have to make an apron for Brycen". Brycen modeled it for me, I asked him if he knew what it was for and he told me "to make food with":


It was $5.99, more than I wanted to spend, but it's pretty cute and I've been so busy that I don't even have time to make one, so this will have to do for now :)
I bought these fun christmas prints and hope to make a christmas table runner for next year...yes, I said next year :) There is no way I"ll get it done before Christmas so it will have to wait till next year. But I hope to make it in January or February:

I bought 2 other print too, so I'll have to figure out which ones go together and then go from there :)
I also bought a bunch of different colors of felt, I already have black, red, orange and white; So i added to my collection:

I"m hoping to make some finger puppets for my boys next week with it! Hoping being the key word!
Okay, so I had a little party for the kiddos last thursday and here are the pics of the crafts that they did:
The classic Reindeer Candy Canes, Brycen thought they were pretty cool!

The kids decorated Santa's face with cotton balls to create his beard:

Pinecone ornaments! The best part was the glitter!

I made some patchwork ornament over the weekend and started some yarn ornaments, but I gave the patchwork ones away as a gift, BUT I am planning on making a bunch more for more gifts, so I should have some done by tomorrow and then I can post a picture :) Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

New Background! Pics tomorrow for crafts!

Okay, so I've had a background from cutest blog on the block and I LOVED it! Seriously, it was my favorite! BUT it didn't show up over half the time I got on, so it had to go. Picked a new background from shabby blogs :) Not exactly what I want but it's still somewhat festive!
Camera News! My husband found it today! Yay! Except...we already ordered a new one, which means....I get a new camera! woot woot! Okay, so it's basically the same camera but newer, it's an Olympus Stylus 7030, pretty simple, cheap and basic. But my camera is an olympus FE series from 3 or 4 years ago and it's been great! So hopefully this one will be just as great with some newer features that I can have fun with. Someday I'll get an SLR camera, but my husband says I have to take a photography class before we can invest in one. So maybe in a few years!
Anyways, I've had some fun making a few things this weekend and I"ll be sure to post pictures tomorrow!!! Hope everyone is having a SPECTACULAR weekend!!!

Homemade Ornaments :)

Okay so today has just been one of those days...my camera and cell phone are missing!!! Yipes!!! So I don't have a cute picture to show :( But I made some cute patchwork ornaments, here's the link to where I first saw the idea:
http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/2010/11/handmade-christmas-at-creation-corner.html
Hopefully I'll find my phone and camera soon!

Diaper Clutch Giveaway - go check it out!

There's a really cute blog that I follow called the Mommy Diaries, she has come great ideas, she's currently doing a giveaway and you should all go enter! Here's the link: http://jjreynoldsfamily.blogspot.com/2010/12/diaper-clutch-and-my-first-giveaway.html#comment-form

It's a SUPER cute diaper clutch!

Hot Cocoa Cupcukes!

I work with the youth at my church and it is SO much fun! So tuesday night we had a little Christmas party, my sister wanted saw this idea a few weeks ago and wanted to make them. Since she was super busy I decided to make them :) It's supposed to look like a mug of hot cocoa. You use a pretzel piece for the handle, icing them with chocolate icing, then I used a ziploc bag with the tip snipped to plop the white icing on (which is supposed to look like marshmallows).

They weren't perfect, but they turned out okay :)

They tasted yummy though!

Snowman Army!

This afternoon I made 17 snowman can's for my mom to take to her church class that she teaches every morning. We put some candy in them for the kids! The snowman can's are for the boys, and then we made necklaces for the girls, I'll post pics of the necklaces tomorrow. Here are the pics of the snowmen:

Some of the faces look a little goofy because I was just trying to hurry and get done. Here's a close up:

They're not perfect, but they turned out pretty cute I think! I spent almost 5 hours working on them, my wonderful visiting teacher helped for almost 2 hours, didn't realize they'd take so long, but now they're done :) Just need to tie a ribbon around the top!

Matching Pillowcase and PJ pants!

I was able to make matching Pillowcases and PJ pants for my boys yesterday :) We do PJ's every year on Christmas Eve for the kids, I'm super excited for them to wear these, I think they turned out SO cute! Here's the pillow case:

and the PJ's:

I think they turned out pretty cute! :)
Here is the link to make the PJ's: CLICK HERE
Hoping to post a tutorial for the Pillowcases next week!

Vinyl Sale! Check it out!

Hey everyone, just bought some SUPER cute vinyl! It's normally 8$, but for the next 26 hours you can get it for 4$ each! It comes with the "Notes" vinyl and the scroll design on the bottom of the plate! Isn't it CUTE! The shipping is $1 no matter how many you buy! It would make a great gift! The plate was only $3.50 at Walmart, it's a great gift! Just put a dry erase marker with it and VOILA a great gift for super cheap! I just bought 4 :) Can't wait to get them! Just go to GroopDealz.com

Heard about it through this blog: http://lovestitched.blogspot.com/2010/12/vinyl-sale.html

Week to date!

Okay - So far this week I have been able to check off a bunch of stuff off my December to do list:
-hosted a craft night
-hosted a cookie exchange
-made christmas cookies with my boys
-went christmas caroling
-got a few of my projects done, hopefully i'll get more done next week
-mailed my christmas cards

Overall I think it's been a GREAT week!!! Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Gift Swap - I LOVE it!

Last month I signed up for a gift swap on http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/
Basically you send a gift to someone and they send you a gift! How awesome is that!!! So last week I sent Donna a Menu Plate, and yesterday when I checked the mail her gift to me had arrived, I was so excited to open it, and even more excited once I had opened it! Here it is:

How awesome is that! I can use it for our Disneyland trip at the end of the month! Plus the mickey face is safety pinned on so I can use it for anything! It's perfect! I LOVE it :) ...can you tell! The inside of it is super cute too:

The gal that I swapped gifts with has a sewing business called Daringly Donna, she has some SUPER cute stuff, you should check it out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/daringlydonna
On another note, last night at the craft night one of the gals made a pair of pj pants for her daughter, but she didn't want the scraps, so I was able to make a pair of pj's for my two nieces! I love the fabric!

Now I better go clean so that I can get my cookies made for the cookie exchange I'm hosting tomorrow :) Hope everyone is having a great Friday!

Dollar Store Goodies!

For Brycen's little Christmas Party this year I was trying to spend under 15$ for the 3 activities that the kiddos get to make and some small goody bags for them to take home. So I came up with these goodies for the goody bags! I figure they don't need much, so while I was at the dollar store I found these little tiny goody bags, some chocolate santa's, sixlets and foam stickers:

So it $7 for the goodies, but they turned out super cute!

Here's what the inside of the bag looks like:

I put 3 Sixlets in each baggy, a chocolate santa and a handful of stickers.
The little activities they get to make are Reindeer Candy Canes (which cost $1.88 to make 12, I already had the pipe cleaners for the antlers and I got the eyes and nose for .99 cents each at michaels, and then the candy canes were .88 cents at walmart). Then I'm going to print a picture of santa and let the kiddos decorate his face with Cotton Balls (they cost 2$ for 2 bags), and then they get to make pine cone ornaments (I bought glitter for them to decorate, $1.50 with a coupon, and the pine cones were free, and I have extra ribbon they can use to hang their pine cones). So the total comes to about 13$ plus tax! And I have enough stuff for a Christmas party of 12 kids! How great is that!

Cute and Simple!

Had my super fun craft night last night and tonight, had a great turn out! It was SO much fun to get together with other gals and chat and craft! So in between helping everyone with their crafts I was finally able to get these nativity blocks done!!! I got the vinyl for free 2 months ago when I won 20$ to "Say It on the Wall" vinyl company, they had SO much fun stuff!!! These little vinyl pieces were only .75 cents! How awesome is that, the wood probably cost about a dollar and I already had the paint! So a super cheap, fun, easy and CUTE craft! Still deciding whether to keep all three or use them as gifts! I'll post pictures from the craft night tomorrow!

Quick Pic!

Okay, so I have been busy all day and didn't get around to taking pictures of what I've been doing, so here is a pic of my adorable niece that I took a week or so ago :) Isn't she cute! I'll post the fun projects I've been doing tomorrow!!! Hope everyone has a great night!

$3 Wreath in 10 minutes!

I keep seeing all these fun wreaths that people have made, so I wanted to make one too! I wanted to make one that my 3 year old could help with, so last week we drove past a little park that had a bunch of pine cone tree's (these tree's aren't very common in Vail,AZ), so we had a lot of fun going around the park finding all the pine cones we could! I really didn't want to pay money for pine cones, so I was super excited when we had found a whole bag full! We used the little ones on the wreath and we're going to save the rest of the pine cones for Brycen and his friends to decorate at his little Christmas Party next week! Tomorrow I"ll post about the fun things I am planning for the kids to do next week!
Okay, so back to the Wreath! I bought a 15ft pine garland (it's really thin so I ended up using the whole thing), an 18" round wreath and a small bunch of red flowers and berries (it came with 3 berry pieces and 4 flowers)! I found all of these at the dollar store, so it cost $3!

I then wrapped the garland around the wreath while the hot glue gun was heating up, then I put the glue on the flowers, berries and pine cones and Brycen pressed them onto the wreath and voila!

It's super simple, but we had a lot of fun making it, and the best part is that it only took about 10 minutes! Which is perfect for a 3 year old with a short attention span!

Sorry about the bad lighting for the pictures!

Magnet Quote!

I am lucky enough to work with the youth at church, and we get to have weekly activities! So for this weeks activity I had the opportunity to come up with a small craft for the girls to make! How awesome is that!!! Okay, so here's what they get to make:

and check it out (it's a magnet!):

This was made possible with the help of WONDERFUL friends, who I am SUPER indebted to! They have helped me out so much! They were the wonderful people who cut the vinyl for my craft night too! It's a mother daughter team, here's the daughter's craft blog:
http://kissingfrogstoo.blogspot.com/
and the mom's craft blog is:
http://uniqueinspirations.blogspot.com/
If you're interested in checking out their fun stuff!

So excited for Christmas!

If I haven't already said it...I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!! What time of year could be better, the chilly outdoors makes you want to snuggle up with some hot cocoa (with mini marshmallows of course), a blanket and a good book! Need to find me a good book....maybe this week sometime! I am getting SO excited for this week! Wednesday and Thursday night I have my way fun craft nights, then Saturday I'm doing a way fun cookie exchange! Okay, so we didn't get the mantle completely decorated, but here's a pic of what it looks like so far:

as soon as Brycen saw that I was taking a picture he jumped in :)
On another note, I LOVE Jim Shore decorations! So does my parents, I think they rubbed off on me! But if you're not familiar with Jim Shore, here is a picture of my favorite Jim Shore ornament!

I snagged this one 2 years ago on New Years Day!!! I was SOOO excited when I found it, I waited over an hour to buy it! I got it for 6$, which is an AWESOME deal for a Jim Shore ornament, it was originally over 30$! But Dillard's had all their Christmas Decor clearanced, with an additional 25% off the sale price on New Years Day. I am a HUGE fan of sales obviously :) I am actually terrible when it comes to sales, especially such great sales!!! So my reason for this post is to show you my favorite ornament and to say, think about saving a little money this christmas season and go shopping after Christmas for next year, you'll save SO much money! I do it almost every year! I have seriously saved hundreds of dollars on gifts and decorations by shopping this way. So that's just a thought :) Another store that has great deals after Christmas is Target! Well I promise to get back to deals and crafting this week, I've pretty much slacked off this past week, SORRY!

Shopping and Decorating!

Okay so I of course had to go shopping this morning, it's black Friday after all! My husband and I actually went late last night, and then I went again this morning! Oh the joys of shopping! I got these awesome 3 in 1 cake stands as wedding gifts (they cost 9.99$ and then I got an additional 20% off, so they came to $7.99 plus tax! How awesome is that!

I got some cute and simple long sleeve shirts for me and kids, just need to do some simple embellishments and then I'll post pics!
Last night my husband and I went to Toys R Us and got this way fun, cute and awesome little sofa for the boys! They absolutely LOVE it! (will post pics of this soon too, since I accidentally deleted the pics I took...darn it!)
But here's a quick picture of the boys having fun playing with the wrapping paper I got today:

Now to the decorating...we got the tree up today!!! So excited! My favorite decor though is the mantle display, we'll hopefully get that done tomorrow and I can show you why I love it SO much!

and MERRY CHRISTMAS! I love this time of year, it just feels so magical!!!