A Hoppy Day

Leesy's great-grandmother made her the cutest frog carrier, cap and boots so I just HAD to share!

Here's the little cap
and Leesy even provided a little smirk for the camera

Here she is in the carrier

This would be Bper showing off the lovely
matching scarf for me and the cute little
booties (which he stole from Leesy before
I could snap the picture).

Valentine's Day Mini Garlands

One of my favorite holidays is Valentine's day so it
 only seems right to have some fun decorating for it ;)

My sister passed along this post from another blog, Whisker Graphics for some mini Valentine's garlands. Whisker Graphics even included the template making it impossible to resist making them. Once you see how cute they are you won't be able to resist either.

Honest.

Here are the ones I made :)

I cut out all the cute little letters and hearts

then I decided to cut out some
hearts to put behind each of them

...giving it this look...

I hole-punched both together
instead of gluing anything down

strung it with some cute pink and white yarn

and TA DA!
A fabulous and totally cute V-day garland!

Many thanks to Whisker Graphics
for the fun template and idea

Embellished Skirt

I choose some bright fabric for the
embellishments since this was for my 13 year
old SIL and she has a very bright, funky
personality. I choose a simple thread pattern
for the flowers and petals and sewed them on.
It was as simple as that :)

Embellished Jacket

I wanted to put a little more thought and effort into as many Christmas presents as I was able this year.

Now I only made it to home-making three of them...but that was three more than last year ;)

Here is a jacket I bought and then embellished for my shabby chic sister-in-law.

Step one...Take a plain jacket and spend
three hours playing with different embellishment
ideas before you actually find the one you want to do.

Here it is embellished. I added two-fabric flowers, a wooden
button and two fabric covered pocket flap buttons.

A little more up-close and personal

Just the flowers

These are my favorite part of the jacket hands down...but
I guess that's obvious...though just look at how fabulous
that wooden button looks ;)

-- The Flowers --

'Heart' Prints Cards

With Valentine's Day coming up I started to think about sending some of our family personal little cards from the kids. I love all the different cards using their hand prints especially since grandparents, aunts, etc. can see their growth as they look back and compare them.

The first one I tried was to make a heart using the palms and just
four fingers. It worked cutely, however not everything I was hoping.

I thought this one turned out pretty good and even made
a little rhyme to write around the hands:

Roses are Red, Violets are blue,
Here are ten fingers to the count the ways we love you!
Inside a heart that's meant to say...
You brighten our day like a sunshine ray.
Happy Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so the rhyme is cheesy, but it's from the kids and I wrote it on the fly. Cut me a little slack ;)

Bibs & Blankets!

Baby girls!!!

Do homemade gifts get any more fun?!

A friend of mine is due just a couple weeks after me and her baby shower is this weekend so I made her two shoulder saving cloths (i.e. practical, long, burp cloths) and a cute little bib.

I made one with a straight edge, pretty
stitch and little rosy embellishment

and one with a scalloped type edge,
fun stitch and rosy embellishment

The bib was so simple, I just used one of my
kids bibs for the template, added a seam allowance,
choose cute little embellishments, sewed
it all together and added a snap.

The back was just a plain pink,
but it's still reversible.

See? Awesome length and width for real moms
with babies who really spit up :)
None of those 10 x 5 rags they call burp cloths ;)

Christmas Kitchenette

Made from an old nightstand
with plywood attached to the back

Silverware baskets were added to the bottom right
side to hold all kinds of kitchen goodies.
On the top I added hooks to hang pots, utensils, etc.

The left side is a towel rack & pot holder made
from the leg of a cookie cooling rack I cut up for the oven.

I used a wooden J and spray painted it silver.
The bowl was just a plastic bowl
with a shower drain in the middle.
The burners I traced on and we screwed
down some replacement oven knobs.

The curtain on top I made VERY quickly, it's all
straight stitches and simple lines. Put up with a tiny
curtain rod found at walmart.

I took apart the drawer, attached the front with hinges, added a
magnetic piece to keep it closed, and cut down a cookie cooling rack
to the inside of the oven.

I added a little basket behind the curtain to hold toys.

Toys nicely hidden away behind a pretty little curtain.

and that was my husband and my Christmas present to our sweet children this year!