Hair Bows

I don't have little girls... I have nieces and two of my best friends have girls, so I live vicariously through them! This year for Christmas I wanted to do handmade gifts for these lovely girls in my life... there are two 3 year olds, one 1 year old, and two under one. So I came up with making hair bows... fueled by my obsession with Etsy.com and my friends (different friends) who were making hairbows for their little girls. So, I set out to get all the materials I needed (spent way too much on little stuff and ribbon I am sure) and made all these lovely bows for my favorite little girls!! I can't wait to give them all their gifts at Christmas. -- Now they are all given so I can post about it!!

I also made hairbow holders. I bought some cutouts at Michael's and Hobby Lobby that were pre-painted and added ribbon. They will look super cute in the girls' rooms (or closets, wherever they hang them)!

Last wreath of the season

My entire mantel... notice my "Wise Men still Seek Him" (another blog find)

I wanted a fun way to display cards this year and I needed something to hang over my fireplace (awesome to have one in our new house- even if we don't have any wood), so I scoured the pages of the crafting blogs I belong to... I found two that I really liked this one from Clover Lane and this one from Craftiness is not Optional. I couldn't get the supplies for the first one, so I did the clothes pin wreath instead... actually, I was going to do BOTH, but I didn't have time to drive an hour to a craft store to get the supplies I would need... plus, we moved and we aren't getting as many cards this year... hmmm...

Here is my example of the clothes pin wreath. I don't like my bow.... something I have to work on, but overall I love the outcome. A bonus was that Jman got to practice some small motor skills while we were working on this wreath, because he strung the beads for me. :)

Neighbor Gifts

I wanted to find a fun way to share the holidays with our new neighbors. I decided I wanted to make gift jars, after looking at tons of sites and recipes, I decided to use this one for oatmeal chocolate chip from Poofy Cheeks (click on cookie name for link to recipe). I changed the order of the ingredients... I put the brown sugar and then the white sugar. I tried it the way the recipe said to do it and the white sugar went all the way down and I didn't like the look. So, instead I put the brown sugar on top of the chocolate chips and packed it down slightly around the edges. Also, I didn't pack any of the ingredients down until the end if I needed to. It barely fills up the jar the way it is.

I had a couple of bags of holiday M&Ms, so I added those to the mix, it gave it a little color.

I made two of the snowball jars, because I had some pecans. This one does not fill the jar... I would think of doing it a little differently for that one. But overall I like the looks!

This is the snowball recipe... you can see that it doesn't quite fill up the 1 Quart jar

I made up the jars and put on the recipe tags and a little gift tag (get it here). I decorated a few of the jars with some snowman stickers I got for $1 at Walmart. The jars are also from Walmart (only $7.50 for 12!!). It was a very inexpensive gift, but I think it's thoughtful and fun!!

Fabric Wreath

I LOVE this wreath!

I got the fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and it didn't take too much time... I made a pretty big wreath so it took about 1.25 yards of fabric. I chose to only use 3 different kinds of fabric, because that was what I could find in the fabrics I liked (50% off though). I got the idea from Polka Dots and Pizza. She made a tutorial that you can take a look at. I wish I had a pinky blade for my roatary cutter, because cutting all the squares was hard on my fingers!!

5 little snowmen...

Another crafty day... easy crafts, but fun to know that I am accomplishing some things! This one is for Jackson's stocking and if I have time I will be making them for my neices. :)

I made this "snowman puppet" from a little white stretch glove. I found them at JoAnn Fabrics for $1 for the pair (you can make 2 out of each pair!). I got the idea from Mommy's Treasures, she made pumpkins and monsters. I think my little monster is going to love the "bloves" (gloves).

Here are a couple of poems I will be attaching to the gloves.

FIVE LITTLE SNOWMEN
from this site:
Five little men all made of snow
Five little snowmen in a row
Out came the sun and shone all day
And one little snowman melted away.
Continue for 4, 3, 2, 1

Five Little Snowmen
from this site:
5 little snowmen sitting on the ground, (pat hands on floor)
the first one said; "oh my aren't we round." (make circle with arms)
The second one said; "there are snowflakes in the air." (wiggle fingers above head)
The third one said; "but we don't care." (shrug shoulders)
The fourth one said; "lets run and run and run. (pat hands quickly on the floor)
The fifth one said; "I'm ready for some fun." (smile)
Whew went the wind (blow)
and out came the sun (make circle with arms over head)
and the five little snowman knew their fun was done.(pretend your melting)

Five Little Snowpeople

from this site:
Five little snowpeople, jolly and fat. The first one waved a big, black hat. The second one clapped his hands in the cold. The third one's eyes blinked and rolled. The fourth one stamped his feet up and down. And the fifth one turned around and around.

Toddler Sites

I offered for a friend to put up a few of the websites I have found for activities for kiddos. Here are a few sites that I have used. :) Enjoy!

http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/

http://activitymom.blogspot.com/

http://ucreatewithkids.blogspot.com/

http://jadaroo.blogspot.com/

http://sandtopearl.blogspot.com/

http://www.kids-meal-ideas.com/

http://momentsofmommyhood.blogspot.com/

http://www.alittletipsy.com/2010/10/preschool-at-home.html

http://maddiemadechristmas.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-11-20T12%3A43%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7

Bowling Boys & Girls

I get Disney's Family Fun magazine and they always have such great ideas in there! In the October/November issue they had these little Bowling Boys. My little guy is ADDICTED to bowling. He is even in a league (for 2 year olds, he never gets more than 50)! So I thought this would be a perfect stocking stuffer for him!! I am making them for all the little boys in my life and even the little girls! They are really simple and inexpensive!! I'm making the Jman a second set to keep in the diaper bag... I hope they keep him occupied at the restaurant!!

I found my little bowling boys at this esty shop. But you can also get them from this website. I tried attaching the ribbon with Terrifically Tacky Tape, but I think that hot glue works better and is easier. I cut a whole bunch of ribbons (I got a bunch of these ribbons from the $1 section at Target) Then I used sharpies to draw the faces. Very simple!! You can seal them with a little spray, but I didn't do it this time. Maybe next time... I just ordered 200 more little men (makes 20 sets) from Caseyswood.com (I got my first batch of little men from this etsy shop, you can buy them at Michael's, but they were more expensive than the other places online) so I can make them for the rest of the people I want to make them for... I only made 5 sets for Christmas.

To make the gift I put the 10 little men and the ball in a baggie and attached a little directions (see below).

Yarn Wreath

So I finally tried one of the 1,000 cool ideas I found online for Christmas ... this does not mean I have any of my Christmas presents finished... ha ha!

I found some really cool wreaths on all the crafty blogs I follow... but I thought I would like one of these yarn wreaths. I found tutorials here and here. I bought all the stuff to do this wreath from Polka Dots and Pizza... but I definately need to get my Christmas presents finished BEFORE I can start on this one!!

I decided to use a 10 inch straw wreath for 2 reasons 1) it was only $2.79 at Hobby Lobby, so if I didn't like it or never got to it this winter, I wouldn't feel so bad. 2) I wanted to go small so I could have time to finish it! I used Sugar 'n Cream cotton crochet yarn called Misteltoe (mostly because it was cheap and had all three colors I was looking for on 1 roll... red, green, white). Anyhoo... I really like how it turned out. :) I finally was able to finish it last night when my 2 year old had finally headed to bed and was actually STAYING in his bed!!

Things I learned from this wreath:

1. Thicker yarn might be more expensive, but it won't take as long to wrap! :)
2. The wreath needs to be covered before you put on the yarn- I saw someone use some batting. I think it would make it smoother, the straw sticks up and makes it uneven.
3. It's imporant that you look at the back to make sure you aren't overlapping the yarn, because it will leave gaps.
4. USE the GLUE GUN A LOT!!

Deer Hunting

We were lucky to have my family come visit last weekend! It was Deer hunting, so the big boys were all off hunting. The little boys and us girls stayed home and played! We did go to Decorah for a big Walmart trip... always the excitement! Here are some pictures of the family's visit. Boys with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Leslie- Jman is watching a Christmas movie, can't be torn away... :)
I took about 15 pictures and this one is my favorite... it captures what these boys do!
Boys with Grandma and Aunt Jenny.

Gum drop tree

Yesterday, Jackson and I created a gum drop tree. I found it on this blog Jada Roo Can Do. I also saw it some other place and thought it would be cute. I thought I would be different and use green and red Christmas Bells. Yeah, big mistake! Jackson has since destroyed the tree by taking all the candy off and eating it (taking out the toothpicks- Thanfully). I should have used the spice drops... no one likes those. Oh, well, next year! The cute decoration lasted 1 night at least!!
Maxwell at age 4weeks!

Jackson fixing "Baby Jesus's house"- by the morning he had broken the whole thing!!