Snowman Invites

Last year my son was born 9 days before Christmas. I decided way back then that for his first birthday I would theme his party "Winter ONE-derland". Yes, not very original, I know. And, yes I have been planning it for the entire year. The best part about it is that I was able to buy snowman/snowflake items after Christmas for at least 50% off! I have my napkins, cups, treat bags, plates-most of the important players for a rockin' party. I just have a few decorations I plan to make and I will fill the rest in with color coordinated pieces and we are all set.

 

I always like to make my invitations. If not I at least like to design them and then upload them as a picture. I came up with this idea after much thoughtful consideration. That, and I had designed so many invites that just weren't what I had envisioned. It wasn't coming together. So, I decided to build my own snoman. Out of white cardstock. And connected with tiny pieces of ribbon. Then I drew the faces on myself. And, added a cute paper scarf for something extra :)

 
They fold up neat and cute to fit in the envelopes too!

 

I'd love for you to come back and see what other projects I have in the works for this big event! I wouldn't even mind if you started following me-just to make sure you don't miss anything :)

I spy Christmas ornaments

I may or may not have made these for all three of my little nieces and my children for Christmas this year. I'm also thinking about going out and getting more to make them for my older niece and nephew. :)

I started with large clear ornaments. Yes, they are plastic. When I showed my husband these after I was done the first thing he asked me was "those aren't glass are they?' Yes dear, I am planning on giving five children under the age of 6 a glass ball to play with. I'm that smart :)I found my ornaments at Michael's. Theirs are cheaper than Jo-ann's. The big ones I bought at Michaels are $1.99-a whole dollar cheaper than Jo-Ann's! And, if you use a coupon it's even cheaper!

Michaels is where I also bought all of the little trinkets to go inside of them. Some of my items are foam stickers (don't remove the backing), others are meant to go on tiny Christmas trees, some are charms I found near the christmas crafts and ribbon, the rest are actually buttons. Like sew on your shirt buttons! So incredibly cute! And, they all fit perfectly in the opening of the ornament. I  bought my epsom salts at the drug store. A hug milk carton of them on sale for $4. Anyone have any other recommendations for the rest of them??? I printed off a specific list of what to look for in each one and attached it like a gift tag. Add a pretty Christmas bow (not on my son's though!) and you have the cutest little gifts that are alos bunches of fun

I used my Cricut to add the names with cheap-o contact paper. I've never bought the real vinyl you're supposed to use for crafts. You know, the $9.99 stuff? I'd be afraid to make a mistake of it. I have 30 feet of contact paper in green and red for $2.99 each. Works for me! There's my free tip for the day :)

Well, I lied. I have some more free tips for this project:
Hot glue the tops onto the ornaments. They were kind of loose once I took them off and then put them back on. I didn't want to risk these spilling at someone else's house once I gifted them. Or spilling at my house knowing my children :)
Also, dab the tiniest bit of glue in the  holes in the top of the ornament topper. The holes where the hanger goes into the metal cap. Those two teeny, tiny holes CAN let some of the salts escape if shaken. I'm so glad I played with these for a while when I took my pictures!

 

What can you spy??

 

 

Now for your opinion: would you give these to a 13 year old and 10 year old? I have heard talk of how they used to love the "I spy" type books. Maybe? Maybe not?

 

 

 

The Good Wife

***Ok, that's it!!! Before I start the real content of this post I am asking for HELP! I consider myself a very basic blogger-if you hadn't noticed by my simple and boring blog setup :) But, I can't for the life of me figure this out. I want to reply to comments!!! How do I do this?? Anyone? I have tried figuring it out on my own and have done everything I've read online regarding this topic. Still, nothing works. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this??? Leave me a comment and maybe I can get back to you :/ Thanks to anyone who can help!****

A few weeks ago my husband confessed he was tired of taking sandwiches all the time in his lunch everyday. I was frankly in the same type of mood. Sometimes we buy him some frozen meals he can microwave but we hadn't in forever. Other times he takes leftovers from dinner the night before but even that wasn't happening that often anymore-if someone wouldn't eat so much at dinner maybe we would have more leftovers!!! So, I did a bunch of research and found some ideas for 'muffin tin meals' (that's the search I used) over on the Pillsbury website. They used a can of their refrigerated biscuits and different fillings. I didn't care for their fillings either because I didn't have the right ingredients or I knew they weren't my husband's taste. So, I made my own using their biscuit idea. I had a bag of chicken tenderloin pieces defrosted that I hadn't used yet so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try some ideas of my own out. I buy big pack of chicken and then divide it myself and freeze them in 8's. I only used 7 for these because I put one aside for my son's dinner :) If you do this, you may get more than the 15 I did if you use all 8.


I started with 2 cans of biscuits and I sprayed my muffin pan with a boat load of non-stick spray. I didn't want these beauties to stick after all the work I would be doing:

 I flattened each biscuit in my hand first. Then I simply pressed it in to the muffin tin like a bowl, just waiting for my delicious filling!

 I came up with three different varieties and collected the supplies I would need for each.

 I diced my chicken up and mixed it with my above ingredients. I used one of my normal kitchen spoons and dropped a spoonful into each biscuit cup.

 After topping them with a bunch of cheese they went into the oven for about 15 minutes.

 And, they came out perfect! And, they smelled amazing too!! They popped right out of the muffin tin with just a bit of help from a butter knife to lift  an edge for me to grab.

 After cooling on a wire rack I wrapped them each individually and labeled them. Now, my husband just has to open the freezer, pick his taste for the day and walk out the door for work. I can't wait to hear how he likes them.

 Do you have any other ideas for fillings?? We are trying to come up with some I could make with ground meat as well as more chicken ideas. What kind would you make?

Every pirate needs a parrot

I was so excited for Halloween this year. For my kids, of course. I began thinking of costume ideas last year-when I was still pregnant. I always thought it would be cute to do some type of 'group' costume with my kids. They are so going to appreciate it when they are teenagers and look back on these pictures! :)

But, I couldn't come up with an idea that seemed 'perfect'. Then I found a cute lion costume for my son at a mom2mom sale for $5. It is one of those full bodysuits with the hood/head. Very warm and cozy, so I bought it.

Then I found the absolute perfect costume for my daughter and she really wanted it. It was a boys costume but it was in great shape and was a high quality costume. For $5 (yet again) at a garage sale. I was content with the idea of them each being their own 'thing' when an idea hit me. And, I got to work.

I bought a red hoodie and some sweatpants at Wal-Mart for my son. Hoodie was $6 and pants were $3. I used a 20% off coupon for all of my felt at Jo-Ann's so that saved me some big money too. I went ahead and bought 1/2 yard of each color since I figured I would be able to use leftover anyways. I made sure to buy it when it was $1.99 a yard too!

I started doing this a different way but scrapped that once I tried to assemble it all. It would not work out so I won't even show you any of those pictures. I moved on to this idea after some tears and a lot of thinking....


I used a brown paper bag to make my pattern. I simply measured the sweatshirt from the top shoulder seam to the bottom of the sleeved-before the cuff. Mine was 11 inches and I made it 12 just in case. I drew a twelve inch triangle on the bag and then added my scalloped sections and figured out where each color would be:

 I then cut apart the whole pattern. First the whole triangle and then each section. I cut each colored piece out individually. After the green top piece I made sure to trim a little bit off of each side of the remaining ones to ensure it would fit in between the pieces above it. Starting with the green top I cut TWO pieces of each section except the bottom red one-I only needed one of those. Using my glue gun I glued the top of each piece together but left the bottoms separated for now...

 I then added the next section, sandwiching them between the one above it. I continued this method for all of the sections-gluing the last one red piece between the pieces before it.

 Once each wing was complete and dry I just glued them to the top shoulder seam about a 1/2 inch away from the hood seam. I also added a tiny bit of glue in the middle of the wing and then glued it down at the wrist really well.

 I cut a big oval out of white for the belly and cut it in half. I carefully glued it as close to the zipper as I could get so it still looked like one piece.

 I 'freehanded' the tail pieces. I cut three shapes out of red and then layered the other colors on top of them. I didn't do them uniform or from a pattern because I wanted a bit more of a feathered look. I glued them all together and then glued them to the bottom of the back of the hoodie.

 I wanted a really cool beak but by the time I got around to that part I was feeling tired and worn out so I went for simple.  A yellow triangle glued to the rim of the hood. Add some white and black circles to the hood for eyes and we were set.

 

 

Aren't they the cutest, I mean meanest looking pirate and her parrot?! :) I can't wait for Halloween!

 

 

I'm up for the challenge!

 

YAY!!

Homemade Treat Bag

For my daughters very first Halloween she was 9 months old. That year I made her her very own Halloween treat bag and we've used it every year. Well, my husband is the one to carry it really. She carries a smaller pail and he empties that  out after a few houses so it isn't too heavy.

And, because I do for one child, I will always do for the rest. It's a middle child syndrome kind of thing. If you aren't a middle child I doubt you'd understand it. If you've never wondered why you were the only child in the family NOT named after a family member you'd never understand. My parents set me up for this complex :) They really did love me and still do-even when I complain about being the middle child.

My son will celebrate his first Halloween this year and he will be 10 months old. ,And because he is the only boy in my family (one sister and three girl cousins) I wanted to do something very boy-ish. After thinking it over and over and over I decided I wanted to use bats somewhere in the project. And, I was going to paint it on there with a freezer paper stencil. This was only my second attempt and thankfully my second success. I don't have a cartridge for my cricut with bats on it so I cut this out by hand. MY hand. With just an exacto knife. Grrrrr.

You can see near the top peak on each side of the "M" where my cutting got a little skewed. Those aren't supposed to be blobs. They are supposed to look like bones. The font is one I found for free online weeks ago. It's called 'bikerbones'. I thought it looked and sounded masculine enough.

I used simple black craft paint and left some spots not completely darkened to give it a worn, edgy kind of look. Did it work?? Do you see it? I of course gave it a quick shot of the hot iron to set it and hopefully it's now permanent.

I added some halloween ribbons and fabric scarps tied at the handle just because it was bothering me how stark white it looked. I like it but I am sure someday my man willl take them off before heading off for treats.

I think it's great and the best part about it is it looks pretty much like I imagined it in my head!
Don't you love when that happens?

I will be working on the little man's costume this week and hopefully will have it posted next week...I'd love for you to stop back in to see it!

Bewitching

Last year I made myself a Halloween headband for the holiday, you know since I was pregnant and not dressing up. I love to dress up for Halloween but haven't done it in years. I wasn't planning on making another headband this year until a nice trip to Jo-Ann's last week. And by nice I mean a leisurely, calm, quiet, walk up and down every aisle if I wanted to by MYSELF kind of nice trip.

The handy husband said he would run to the Wal-Mart across the parking lot with the kidlets and get the milk and coffee we had run out of. Who needs romantic movies? Chivalry at its finest.

It was like being on vacation! :)

While perusing all the craft supplies I could ever need (and quite a few I never will, but still I looked because, hey, I had no time limit!) I came across this little cutie.

I am pretty sure it's for a doll. I think it was $1.99 or something and since I had one of those 20% off your total purchase coupons I bought it. And, to show you just how tiny and cute this thing is...

it fits on my finger!

I went through my stash of supplies and embellished it a little. I used the same black netting stuff from last year and added some orange ribbon and I made a little fabric flower out of some orange and black polk a dot fabric from yet another past project. I found this black, sparkly headband in the value bins at Jo-Ann's-the ones where you stand in line for the next available cashier-for $1! Perfect!

 

(I hate being in my own pictures but it was naptime for everyone else in the house:) )

 

I think it's cute but I may try making another one. This one is for a cute, silly witch I think. I am thinking one for a chic witch, a classy witch...maybe lace, feathers, glitter or sparklies of some kind? How would you decorate a witch hat?

And, because someone woke up from his nap in the middle of this, how cute is this little goblin??

 

I'll be saving this to put on display when he graduates high school :)

Inexpensive Halloween 'wreath'

I just made this for my door this year to replace my harvest theme wreath that I used to hang from September through thanksgiving. I made this from very inexpensive materials and most of them I had on hand already.

I always say that I wish I was one of those people that could look at something and say "I could turn this into a.....". Sadly, I am not. I usually get my ideas from other people who can do that.

 But, not today!

I went looking at my local Dollar Tree for some inspiration and found an orange halloween platter with jack-o-lanterns all around the edge. I then picked up this sparkly 'Boo' decoration at Walmart for $1.97 (I eventually removed the pumpkin piece from the letters to be used elsewhere in the project)

 I found these really cute pieces at Christmas Tree Shops for $1 each!! I knew I could turn them into something around my house. I got three-the one I used in the wreath isn't in the photo...oops :) Those ribbons are actually about three feet long-I cut them off for the wreath and re-used them in another capacity but I am still thinking of where these two could go with ribbons intact.

 Add some scrapbook paper and here's my wreath:

 

 

I love it! I had never made the paper pinwheel things before but once I figured it out it was simple and I am so happy with it. I used three pieces of twine (tied together for extra support) as the hanger....just hot glued to the back of the platter. Those ribbons are the ones I cut off of the $1 ghost decoration in the center of the big pinwheel. The pumpkin in the other pinwheel is the one I cut off of the 'Boo' sign. Because I had the twine and paper already in my supplies I only spent $3 on my wreath.

Now, go to your local dollar store, thrift store, wherever you like to shop and find your own inspiration and turn it into something other than what it was intended for! :)

I'm participating in this week's challenge!