A Ruler, Some Shoes, and a Toothbrush Holder

The title says it all. So I'm going to get right to the pictures and you can see for yourself.

Here is the growth chart ruler I made for the kids. I added the name to the side with vinyl. I'm glad I wrote down all the measurements from the bathroom doorway before we moved out of our other house. I got those all transferred to this and now we can just continue to use this no matter how many times we move.

Yet another pair of baby shoes. I wonder how many pairs of these I've actually made over the past couple years. Everyone loves them and I love that they actually stay on the baby's little feet. And it's a bonus that they are so easy to make.

I was honored to be able to throw a baby shower for dear friend of mine. I made these cute decorations from paper circles sewn together. I cut the circles with the Cricut in various sizes and just stitched them together with my sewing machine. Another friend made the tissue pom-poms. Aren't they great? 

We were getting ready to go on our annual trip to Arizona for Spring Training (Go Giants!) and I had seen a clever idea on Pinterest that involved using a towel or washcloth to make a holder for the toothbrushes. I thought it was brilliant! No more plastic baggie! So before we left I stitched one up. 

I made mine differently than the original one I saw. I used a hand towel and made one side bigger for the grown-up toothbrushes and toothpaste and the other side shorter for the kiddie stuff.

The kiddie side just folds over the larger side and then the whole thing rolls up and ties with the ribbon. It was actually very convenient. I think I am just going to buy designated travel toothbrushes and toothpaste that just always stay in this. Then I can just grab it and go.

I know it wasn't too much, but it makes me feel better just getting something on here. Hopefully next time I post there will be more.

For Cute Little Feet

This must be the year for having a baby. Seems like everyone I know is having one. So that means a lot of baby presents! This pair of booties is an original pattern I created using THIS tutorial as inspiration. I say "inspiration" because the video is in Portugese. So I watched it and got the general idea then made my own pattern. My superstar-friend, Sadie, was expecting her 5th (can we say Super Mom!) and pinned that video on Pinterest and asked me to make them. Being that she and I go back to Kindergarten, and they were really cute, I couldn't say no. I just need a picture of the these cuties on those adorable little feet. (Hint hint Sadie) Maybe sometime soon I'll get the pattern on here for others to use. Would anyone be interested in it?

After I made the first pair I liked them so much I decided to make a similar pair for another new baby girl. This one I decided to do in all white. I stuffed them with tissue paper so you can get the idea of what they are supposed to look like. The long ribbon is to tie them up ballet style. 

This next pair of shoes went to the same little girl as the all white slippers above. There is a story behind these. The past couple years, we have held a Service Auction at our church and all the women donate items or services to be auctioned off. Services like babysitting or house cleaning, and things like homemade bread or quilts. I donated a pair of custom leather-soled baby shoes. The girl who bought it was expecting her first baby and had just found out it was a girl. She was excited and told me that they were using purple a lot for the baby. So I used the purple leather that I scavenged from an awesome pair of purple leather pants I found at Savers. I happened to have quite a bit of purple fabric in my stash so I had a hard time choosing which I liked best. I thought the purple ribbon across the top was a nice touch. I hope she enjoys them!

This last pair is the same pattern again as the slippers above, but done in brown. So many baby girls!! I love it! I chose not to make these with the ribbons tying up the ankle. Just a cute bow on the top of the foot. I love coral and brown together.

I am so blessed to have so many opportunities to use my talents. I hope these gifts are loved and enjoyed by those who received them.

More Goodies

Got a few more photos uploaded so I thought I would post them here for you to enjoy.

I made these cute little John Deere tractor shoes for a friend who was having a little boy. I'm always thankful for the awesome fabric stash I've built up over the years. It allows me to make cute things that are perfect for the receiver at the last minute.

This year's Halloween costumes were fun to make. Donevan wanted to be Captain America. Evan found this great mask and shield and I made the rest of the costume. He was pretty excited about it. Clara is somewhat obsessed with Toy Story so I thought she would love to be Jessie the Cowgirl. I was right. I made the shirt and stitched some cow print onto some of her jeans. The hat was a clearance find, but was brown so I painted it red and white. The wig was, of course, red yarn.

Iris wanted to be an Oregon cheerleader so that's what I made. She loved it. I was a little sad that they didn't let me choose what they were going to be this year, but it was still fun to make exactly what they wanted.

My adorable Captain America!

My sister suggested that for Christmas she would like a Family Home Evening Board, but I didn't want to do just a regular FHE board with the tags with everyone's names that hang on the pegs. I decided that I would make it a chalk board. That way if "Mom" needed to do more than one task, she wouldn't need more than one tag. Does that make sense? So I painted a board with chalkboard paint and cut the vinyl on my Cricut. I also attached a clothespin to hold a piece of chalk on the side. It has a sawtooth hanger on the back so it can be hung on the wall. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I'm really behind on all the birthday cakes I've made, but this is the most recent so as I find the pictures of the others I'll post those as well.

This is obviously for Clara's 2nd birthday. Remember how I said she loves Toy Story...well here is more proof. I looked all over Pinterest and other blogs to figure out a cute way to do a Jessie cake. There are so many good ideas out there. In the end this is what I came up with. I really liked it and Clara loved it!

I was debating on what I should do for the cupcakes. I thought about red hats, green aliens, etc. but finally went with the cow print. It was easy and really went with the whole "Jessie" theme.

Well...that wasn't much, but as I go through more pictures I'm going to keep posting. I really want to get all my projects on here so I can always remember them. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Long Overdue

Wow! I knew it had been a long time since I had posted anything on this blog, but I had no idea it had been THAT long. I'm ashamed.

To be honest, I was getting really discouraged. Pinterest and all the other amazing blogs out there made me feel very inadequate. I couldn't see people wanting to look at my dinky little blog when there are so many other incredible blogs out there. But I finally realized I wasn't really doing it for other people. I was doing it for me. I wanted to keep track of the things I create. So even if not one single person reads this, I will continue blogging. It makes me happy and it gives me satisfaction knowing that I created these things.

Well, enough of that!

Here are some photos that have been sitting on my computer just waiting to be blogged about.

Here are a pair of cute little shoes I made for a friend that had a baby girl. (Doesn't matter that the baby girl is now a year old.) I used THIS pattern. I've used it a couple times and they always turn out cute.

Another pair of baby shoes made with grey leather on the bottom. I've had a lot of friends having babies this past year. I've used THIS pattern so many times I should print out another copy. It is so easy to use and I love these shoes since they actually stay on and little ones that love to take their sock off can't take these off. 

Like I said, a lot of babies. Yet another pair of leather-soled shoes. The tops of these shoes were made out of a bed sheet I bought at the thrift store. I really liked the pattern and thought it would make a cute skirt but I really like it for these shoes.

I co-hosted a baby shower and one of the activities that we did was have everyone make a hair accessory for the new little girl. My friend for whom the shower was for already had two little boys and was looking forward to having a girl to dress up, so I thought she would love having some cute hair things to start her collection. It was a huge hit. These are all the adorable things that were made.

 I had a friend give me a big piece of this cute pink camo fabric. I had been trying to think of something to do with it. Clara had this onsie that was to short and it happened to match the pink in the camo fabric perfectly. So I took and cut the bottom of the onsie off and made it into a dress. I love how it came out.

These are the booties I crocheted for Clark's blessing. I found the pattern HERE. They were pretty easy to make and they looked so cute on his tiny feet.

The next couple crafts were some of the things we made for Super Saturday in 2011. I have loved being in charge of that even though it is so much work. I know everyone appreciates having these things to make for themselves or loved ones.

The first is a monogram tile. I cut the vinyl on my Cricut and we used 12"x12" tiles. I bought the little easels at the dollar store.

 This is a crayon roll for the kids. I liked this design because it held the notepad with it not just the crayons so it's all in one and you're not having to hunt down some paper to use the crayons on.

We also made I Spy bags. I actually need to make a few more of these. My kids found this one in the toy box recently after about a year and were so excited by it again. I took pictures of all the things I put in each one so that they can look at the pic and try to find each of the items.

We also made children's art display boards. Again, I cut the vinyl on my Cricut and we hot-glued the clothes pins on. Ready to display all the amazing child-made art.

These are handy little things. We took hot pads and turned them into kits for whatever. I use mine as a fist aid kit. But I could see putting sewing or knitting supplies in one. Maybe even a make-up bag. So many possibilities.

I made this wreath after seeing a couple different versions of the "candy cane wreath" online. My first wreath. Not too bad.

 The kids and I (mostly I) had fun making these snowflakes. I didn't even use any patterns. Just cut 'em out freehand with my scissors. Lets my creative juices flow.

Well, I have more pictures that I need to get on the computer, but that makes me feel better to get something new on the blog. I am going to continue posting so I can remember all the things that I have created. Hope you enjoy seeing them as well.

I've Been Busy

I know I've been absent from this blog for the past little while, but it's because I've been busy getting ready for a cool family photo shoot that we did and also I've been trying to get all the crafts ready for our Super Saturday which is in a couple weeks. So I will be posting a lot of pictures soon. Right now I am going to post some of the items I made for the photo shoot.

We have been wanting to get family photos done for a long time and have just never taken the time to do it. When we finally made the appointment with Chris Talbot to get them done, we started thinking about what we wanted to do for them. We knew the location, but we weren't sure what to wear. We had recently purchased a 1947 Plymouth and thought that would be a lot of fun to use in the photos. So we decided to make it a 40's themed photo shoot. I started looking around trying to find something that I could wear that would fit that theme. There's not a whole lot out there that isn't really expensive. So I started looking at patterns instead. I found this pattern and thought it would be perfect. Especially since it was from 1947.

So I bought it and some fabric and gave it a try. I couldn't find the fabric I was looking for, but this print caught my eye and I thought it would look nice. It was a fairly easy pattern, but a little tricky in some areas. I am actually impressed with myself. It doesn't look very good on the hanger but looks pretty good on and is really comfortable.

Next I had to decide what to do for the kids. What kind of clothes did children wear in the 40's? I looked online and got a few ideas. I knew Donevan needed a hat and I happened to have a pattern for the perfect hat. I lucked out and got a huge piece of suiting type fabric at Saver's for like $2. It was about 4 yards! Score! I used that and was perfect. It makes me happy to see how cute he is in it and even more happy that he actually likes to wear it.

I made his pants out of the same fabric from a pattern I scored from Grandma Jessie a while ago. They ended up being a little big, but I'd much rather them be too big than too small. I was very pleased with myself, because this was the first time I actually made a pair of pants with a fly and belt loops and everything.

For Iris' dress I used a pattern I already had on hand that looked somewhat like the ones I saw online. Generally the dressed in the 40's were a lot shorter (think Shirley Temple) but I liked this pattern and knew that the brown fabric would be adorable. Not too fancy, but really cute.

And now you all get to see what all my hard work was for. A week's worth of sewing for this:

I'd say it was totally worth it. These pictures will be some of the most memorable because of the story behind it. I love how they turned out and am getting excited to make them into cards to send out for the holidays.

See, doesn't it look way better off the hanger? My sister gave me the idea to add the sweater. (Thank you Haley!) And I was trying to figure out what to do around the waist. It just needed something. So I swiped my skinny black belt from one of my blouses and used that. It was perfect. Evan looks so handsome. I think he needs to wear suspenders more often.

Anyways, those are a few of the projects that have been keeping me from the computer. I will work on getting all the other crafts on here too. I am getting really excited for Super Saturday. If you want to go HERE you can see the crafts we chose to do this year. I think we picked some good ones. I will take photos of all the ones I make and post them later.