Ornaments from the boys...

One of the last projects on the list was for the boys to make ornaments for family. Keeping it simple, we busted out the popsicle sticks, paint, glue and embellishments.

Tyler painting his reindeer.

Cody painting his trees.

Ta-Da! Pretty quick, if you factor in the drying time for the paint and glue.

Marble Maze games

The homemade marble maze game. The idea for these was found in the Family Fun magazine, here's the link to it on their website, totally worth the time and effort. Started off with scrap wood from FIL's stash, a new box of nails, a ball of rubber bands, tempera paints and marbles. Depending on what you have available this is a relatively cheap project, just takes a bit of time for the painting.

The scrap wood was not smoothest and I worried about splinters.
Solution = felt and a glue gun.

Pouches for the marbles from my fabric and ribbon stash. The cord stops cost around $2.50 for a pair.

Super Hero Capes...

Yay, the last of the sewing for gifts finished with these! Super hero capes for the boys.

Here's the pattern: http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57

Finished the boys' pillows over the weekend, but still need to stuff them. Then I just need to finish putting together their maze games and I'm done! (Well, still have some pretzels to dip)

The other two...

Here are the other two bottle holders, finished this morning...


List is getting shorter!

Over the shoulder, bottle holder...

One down, two to go....

These are for my brother/sister-in-laws here in CA. Made to fit the large Nalgene bottles, but with the drawstring, will accomidate most others as well. Nice for walks, or shopping, or just out and about, not wanting to hold your water bottle in your hand. The pattern came for the book "Sew & Stow" by Betty Oppenheimer.

More coffee cozies...

Finished the rest of the coffee cozies last night, glad to have the hand work finished!


To be finished list:
3 water bottle shoulder bags
2 big floor pillows
2 super hero capes
2 marble games
Bits of baking and details for goody baskets
Finish labeling Christmas cards, they buy the stamps to mail them.
Find a big jar of sanity!

Ponchos for two...

A friend asked if I could make a pair of ponchos for Christmas gifts, here they are. Love both the prints. (And Cody was a good sport!)

Bugs and flowers...

Space and rockets...

Yep, I really need to find some money and start selling these, so easy and so functional!

Totally finished floor pillows...

So I know I've posted this before, but these are two of the four totally finished and stuffed. Stuffing being the harder part I didn't bargain for. The final solution was two extra firm, queen size pillows, then a bit of stiff chair foam/batting to fill in the gaps. (This stuff was a bit more pricey than I was thinking, but had a coupon)

Now to find my big, bike bags to wrap them in.

Something to keep the coffee cozy...

In an effort to give some green gifts, reusable, personalized coffee cup cozy. This is one of five that I'm making.

For mom, love's the lighthouses.

Scrapbook Yearbooks

A tradition continued, a scrapbook for both sets of Grandparent's of our year, going from Nov-Oct.

Christmas 2009, getting the ball rolling...

Here we go!

Floor pillows

This is a hangover from last year, ran out of time. This year I'm making them for my boys and my niece and nephew. They are a pieced together top, simple rectangle sides, and a canvas back. There's a zipper along one side so you can remove the inside and wash the covers. As far as the insides, I'm still working on that. The current plan is to use two bed pillows, wrapped in batting to add some bulk and keep them from sliding around.

One of the boys' Malibu Monkeys print pack.

Nephew Cody's pieced together on the wall.

The back and zipper that will be on all four.

Ashlee's pink and purple volleyball set.
This is the basic idea of how they look finished. This is stuffed with pillows that are too small.

Lots of things in frames this year, mainly pictures of the boys. I found frames at JoAnn's that are for 2 4x6 photos, stacked, and I'm going to put two wallets of Cody and two of Tyler in each 4x6 spot, with a nice accent paper behind.

Here is a sign I made for my SIL Danna, cut out with Circut.

Throw blanket for my brother, will be tied on the way up to Boise.

My favorite find of the week came from Target for $6.?? a piece. Mugs for the boys that are customizable. These are a lot like the ones you can get at Starbucks, but are only 8oz, perfect for kids. You can log onto their website and they have templates you can add your own pictures to, then print it and cut it along the lines to fit into the cup. I've been searching for something for the boys and these are perfect! Here's their site.

The ball is rolling for the annual goody bags as well, applesauce is done and waiting, and the cookies are baked for Boise. While up there, my mom and I are going to bake poppy seed cakes to add to the mix.

More to come!

A couple of presents...

My good friend Jennifer celebrated her Birthday on Wed so this is what I put together for her.

They have a great summer garden, so I found nice baskets at Michael's and decorated them with some help from Cricut.

The top one says "Garden Fresh" the bottom says "Fresh Picked Delights"

Inside the top basket I arranged party plates and napkins to go along with some sugar cookies. These are one of her personal favorites.

Another friend asked me if I could make a poncho for a friend of theirs for her Birthday. Her daughter has been modeling it before/after swim practice and her friend thought it was neat. Fleece selections are a little scares right now, but polka dots are always in style.
Thanks to Cody for being my model, even if he was surrounded in pink.

Crafty, Where are you...

So I've been in a crafty slump. Haven't touched a scrapbook, Cricut, sewing machine or anything else, not for preschool, in a weeks. I'm working on that though.

Here's my busting out the crafty project for the week:Summer wardrobe for the boys. I did 7 shirts for each of the boys, including a Ty's preschool shirt that was nasty with paint stains and a green on green shirt for St Patty's for Cody.

Next on the list is Cody's party invitations, hopefully to get done this weekend.

Slow start for 2009

So here sits my crafty corner, a little barren at the moment. I'm going to start working on some scrapbook things this week, at least get my photos re-organized. You can see a stack of blocks by the wall, a hopefully soon finished project for an internet friend, just have to stuff and hand sew them closed. The boys' robes are back at the sewing table, needed to make the arms a little bigger, the were way too tight. After stitching around the ends by hand, they will be ready to go for PJ night at school tonight.

So it's not been real busy in the crafty corner, but it will be soon enough. I was good and started to search out some projects for the year, so that's made me feel a little productive.