goody bags

My big girl is turning 4! This is the first year we have done a 'friends' party for her, and she has been super excited. I kept it small, just her four joy school friends plus one other good friend from church. As a 'goody bag' I made these drawstring pouches for the kids - Bug insisted the boys get Hello Kitty on theirs too.  

I could not find any Hello Kitty fabric at any of the stores I went to, but my favorite thrift store came through for me and I found a scrub top to cut up, hence the patches.

Mr. Gunny Bag

It was my week to teach Joy School again, and in the lesson they introduced "Mr. Gunny Bag". He "eats" all the toys that are still left out after you clean up! There is a cute song about it in the lesson & Bug is terrified he'll eat her toys, so maybe this will be a little incentive in our house to pick up all the toys at the end of the day.

To make him, I just did freehand fabric paint for teeth, eyes & eyebrows on a pillowcase - since I made it at 9:30 the night before school, I opted to keep it simple and I am glad I did!

Muffin Tin Monday

These girls love their muffin tin lunches!

{linked up here}

Nothing super exciting today, with no theme I just gave them what I found first...

Kiwi, ham sandwich, apple slices, marshmallows, raisins & yogurt dip

I feel like I have finally recovered from my quick trip to California to see my Grandpa, and am feeling creative again... time to pick up my sewing machine from the repairman and get to work on something fun!

.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.

We have been working with Bug on letter recognition and writing, so I made up these mini 'i spy' bags for her joy school friends for Christmas gifts. They measure just 3 3/4" square and have the alphabet in little colored letter beads inside, perfect size for taking out & about!

copycat

I have been super busy over the holidays, and it seems like i have had a hard time getting any projects finished. With the start of a new year, I am ready to finish {some of} what I started in the last month or two... I saw this post over at Samster Mommy and knew I wanted to make something like it. So, I browsed the J.Crew site until Bug started jumping up and down because she NEEDED this shirt:

I picked up two plain shirts and got to work! I only found silver sequins, so that's what I used, but I think the contrast is still great. I ended up stitching each sequin on with two stitches, so it was super time consuming.

I got the shirts for $3.50 each and split a $.97 package of sequins between the two, so total cost for two shirts: less than $8. Score! Much better on my pocketbook than the J.Crew original!

I enjoyed doing these so much I am thinking about making a goal of embellishing a plain shirt for each girl every month... just wondering what my craft time will be like in April with three kids! I am now 25 weeks along and super excited about having a BOY!

{my little sister - 22 weeks along - and I finishing up Christmas shopping a couple weeks ago. thinking maybe these cousing will need matching boy/girl quilts?}

Christmas skirts

Nick's mom had a yard of this awesome velvet left over from a project and let me have it to make the girls Christmas skirts. I was super nervous, as she paid over $60 for the yard, but how could I not use such great fabric? I made my own simple pattern by tracing a skirt that Moo has and I think it turned out great. There is an elastic casing in the back and the flat front panel in the front. I love how it twirls!

Merry Christmas, Olivia!

Bug was digging through a pile of my fabrics this last week, found a piece she loved, and declared "We can make this a baby quilt for Olivia for Christmas!" And so we did! I let her pick the fabrics, and although they are not my first choices, I am one proud mama. She also 'helped' with the entire process of sewing on my lap. I hope her baby doll loves it!

... and she was done with the photo shoot...