Christmas gifts.... Star calendar and popsicle sticks puzzle

Last week I gave myself a pretty hefty goal.

One homemade Christmas present finished a day.

Every day.

And I almost accomplished it! :)

Here are two projects I did that I LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I made four of these bad boys.

I make calendars every year for the grandma's and great grandma's.

I usually do them online at Walgreen's or shutterfly.

But this year I found this amazing tutorial

and I just had to give it a try!

It did save me money in the end-

which is a GREAT thing.

And I think it turned out VERY cute-

which the grandma's will love.

But it did take a while-

Be warned.

I will say that the author had not added the link to the calendar until the end of my project so I ended up starting almost all the way over which was the best idea because making my own calendar was taking FOREVER!

Then with my leftover pictures I made two of these babies! :)

Finding stocking stuffers for a 16 month old is no easy task.

When I saw this tutorial I was so excited.

My baby girl is going to love it!

She is just now starting to (kind of) understand puzzles

and she LOVES looking at pictures of herself.

Then while I was at it I made the puzzle you see pictured for my

2 year old niece.

I made hers a little harder by putting a picture on both sides of the sticks.

I think this will make a cute "bow" to top her actual gift.

As for her actual gift......

Ahhhh....

I have A LOT to learn about sewing.

I will show you my  first attempt soon

(well as soon as I have successfully finished a

second attempt and do not feel as worried! :)

Hope these little gifts inspire you some!

~Happy homemade Christmas

Floor Cushion

I am REALLY excited about the project today!

I made a cute little floor cushion for Zadie baby as a Christmas present.

Isn't it SO stinking cute?!

I followed a wonderful tutorial made by Susan

at living with punks.

It was simple and took me about two nap times to make.

BUT

Of course I couldn't wait until Christmas to show Z.

Good thing her little memory is short.

I am REALLY going to have to get better at keeping secrets by next year!

Not so sure...

She thinks it might be kind of okay.

And you can bounce on it.... We have a winner! :)

We LOVE our new floor cushion!

And it STILL looks cute even after play time!

That is a mommy winner!



You should totally go make one of these

like - right now!

:)

~Happy holiday gift making!

Baby Blanket

Have I told you yet that I am going to be an Aunt again?!

This will be my 8th niece or nephew!

I just LOVE being an aunt!

I decided to make this newest bundle of joy a baby blanket.

I thought....

Easy peasy, who could mess that up?!

Well, ME!

And, as always, I learned a lot along the way.

I got the inspiration for this blanket here.

Notice the title "EASY baby blanket."

Obviously I have some learning to do :)

I mostly followed her directions except I added and applique.

Here is how I did it:

I printed out the letter I wanted, in the size and font I wanted, from Word.

I backed the fabric I wanted to use for the applique with fusible interfacing and I ironed them together.

I put my letter on top of the fabric and I traced it with chalk.

The chalk came right out with a quick swipe from a damp cloth.

Then I just sewed it onto the fabric using a zigzag stitch.

Lesson one:

This minky fabric is VERY stretchy!

An amazing seamstress I know gave me the best tip- after I finished this project- that I will definitely use next time.

She said to use spray adhesive instead of pins and it will not stretch as much...

GENIUS!

She also said the adhesive will come right out in the wash.

Now for the actual blanket I could ( and should) have used the spray adhesive too

because I REALLY struggled with the stretch in this fabric and

was not entirely pleased with my finished product.

I set out each of my layers in order:

batting on bottom

then the minky fabric

finally the quilt top

(right sides together with the minky fabric.)

Cut each layer to size and then pin (spray adhesive)

the layers together.

For the rest of the blanket I used the tutorial above

which I thought was clear and easy to understand.

Thank goodness! :)

It may not be perfect (or close to it!)

But it is still cozy and made with love!

{It would REALLY help if I learned how to sew straight-

I'm working on it. ;}

So let this be motivation to you today:

You are your harshest critic.

Be nice to yourself and

enjoy the projects you make,

Imperfections and all!

Photo shoot

Hello Friends!

What a BEAUTIFUL day it was today!

I hope you got to spend some time outside if it was as pretty at your house as it was at mine.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted about some props I made

for upcoming family photos?

Well, the pictures have arrived and I wanted to show you how they

turned out.

First I showed you this pendant necklace I made for some maternity pictures.

Well here is the finished product in the pictures...

Hope you like it :)

I also showed you the Christmas tree I spray painted for our Christmas card picture.

To bad we didn't get to use any with the tree...

Zadie didn't feel like smiling ;)

I'll show you a few more ideas from pinterest I tried to recreate.

Warning: You will see bare belly and bare baby booty.

I love this Bubble gum picture.

It is such a cute idea, but it did not turn out quite as cute for me.

I also loved this picture.

I think it is so artistic and tasteful.

Mine is a little more scandalous but I still like it.

This baby picture stole my heart.

I actually like the way mine turned out better.

(Probably because I just love THIS cutie bootie!)

I adore this photo.

We couldn't remember exactly how it went so we kind of improvised.

Here are a few more I just love from the shoot.

(Sorry for the picture overload,

but if you're like me you are ALWAYS

looking for new ideas!)

~happy family photos