Spring is here

I am loving the longer days and the sun shining through the trees in the evenings. Kids playing outside and happy. It makes me so thankful to live where we are. We had a great Easter weekend - Sabrina had a birthday and we got to hang out with both sides of the family.

This is the digital scrapbook page I pulled together to remember Easter. My first digital spread all by myself! I used an Ali Edwards template to help make it easier and I'm hoping it'll go faster next time.

Now I need to work out a new process and work flow for processing my pictures. I would like to be able to import the pictures, review them and mark my favorites and tag them, then edit the pictures I like if they need it, and then share them with my friends and family or print them at Costco.  There has to be a more efficient way to do that. I like how iPhoto organizes the photos, but don't like how they make another copy. I think I'll download Picassa to organize and tag the photos, Photoshop to edit the pictures, and then pull them into iPhoto to facilitate sharing.

More projects for valentines

I ran across a couple more ideas that I think you are going to like!

How about a personalized flip-book from Color Me Katie? Super simple and won't cost you a thing.

You can find lots of creative gifts that are hand stamped and personalized at my buddy Carissa's etsy shop here. (I found a super cute gift for my sweetie but don't want to spoil it before the holiday!)

Lots of great ideas here too.

And over 30 printable valentines are listed here for you to use.

On a related note, I finished making my heart garlands and they turned out so cute! I brought them to our local parent fair to decorate our MOPS booth and they looked great. I also made simple pendants that were super cute too. What do you think?

My friend Kelli dropped of a Vera Bradley catalog with lots of pinks and reds in it and I used a heart punch and some invisible thread to pull this together pretty quickly. 

And for these I just cut a 12x12 piece of scrapbooking paper in half and then folded those in half, identified the center of the open end and used my paper cutter to cut out a triangle. I threaded some cute red twine through the center and secured with double sided tape. I cut out the letters on my Cricut using Sure Cuts A Lot software and Gill Sans font.

Hoping you are inspired!

Valentine Goodness

I don't like to make a big deal over Valentines day, but it is nice to focus on your sweetie and tell them you love them. And the kids love holidays. It is crazy how much they anticipate each holiday. We started a tradition last year of having a fondue dinner together on Valentines and it was very fun. I made some chicken, asparagus, sweet potato fries, and pita triangles to dip in a cheesy gravy I made. And we cut up strawberries, bananas, apples, and brownies for a chocolate sauce that I made. It wasn't fancy, but it was very delicious and silly.

Sabrina liked it!

For those of you looking for a cheap and easy valentine for your kiddos check out this free printable valentine and little bookmarks. These would be so cute with candy hearts in celophane bags for class or teacher gifts. I love the owl theme!

More cute printable vintage valentines for you:

Or if you wanted to get fancy, you could whip up these a-maze-ing valentines:

Feeling crafty? How about making some tea towels?

Or maybe a beautiful wreath made out of fabric roses?

Or this adorable garland made from magazines.

 

Or leave your sweetie a simple note with heart shaped paper clips?

Have fun!

Take a fancy picture of your tree

For those of you with fancy cameras, you should try taking a picture like this. Full instructions are here.

Miniature knitted ornaments

My mother-in-law asked me to gather some free patterns for her so she could knit up some quick ornaments. I thought I'd share what I found on Ravelry to inspire you.

 

 

More fun ideas for the holidays

How cute are these little gingerbread houses? You can download a pattern and see the tutorial from notmartha here.  They are based on the recipe for these amazing gingerbread snowflakes from Martha.

Don't want to do all the work to make the houses and put them together? Buy these cute cookie cutters and be done with it. The cookies sit on your mug!

Need a partridge in a pear tree to round out your holiday giving? How about this beautiful linzer cookie?

Looking for some last minute knitting projects? These are two of my favorites that I've seen in the last two weeks.

I love this destroyed cowl. Pattern is a free .pdf on Ravelry here.

You can wear it long like this or around your neck twice more like a scarf.

Who wouldn't love these bunny slippers? CRAFT magazine offered up the free pattern here.

How about a quick project for a little kiddo in your life? Here's a free pattern for a felt crayon holder.

Are you inspired?

Make your christmas lights fancy

Learn how to use a manilla envelope to make your lights pretty here.

Advent calendars

This year we were excited to get Playmobil advent calendars for the kids. They seem to love them. But the obsession on 'stuff' this year is a little out of control. Maybe it is just preschoolers, but I'm guessing that it only gets worse. For some reason I thought the toy calendars would be better than the cute chocolate ones, but they are still focusing on the stuff and not what we are counting down toward (ie Baby Jesus!). So next year I am going to either make a felt advent calendar like this one:

[Instructions for similar one here.]

Or I am going to make an activity one using baby socks like this one:

Instructions here. I love how simple this is. I was thinking I would fill it with activities for us to do as a family or to help prepare for Christmas. Any tips?

Creative gift tags

Here is a great little gift card that looks like a vinyl record. You can see the tutorial here and download .pdfs of the artwork so you can make your own.

Make something cool: coffee sleeve wreath

What a great way to reuse coffee sleeves! I love simple crafts that you can do with the kiddos, and there is no reason you couldn't use other textures of cardboard from the recycle bin. Check out the detailed turorial here.

Make something cool: gift card wallet

Are you giving gift cards for Christmas? Add a home made touch by making these cute little wallets.

Peanut Butter Balls

We discovered these delicious candies this year. The kids love helping me make them and they are great little gifts too! Instructions are here.

More holiday things to make

I have a few more things to add to my list...

• Snow globes
• Rock animals

I'm sure there will be more that we come up with!

How can you resist these?

make something cool: mitten ornament

I saw this pattern last year and didn't get around to making them. I love this little ornament and am hoping to squeeze it into my holiday crafting this year. You can find the free pattern here and see how the oliver + s folks are using them for an advent calendar. Cute!

Thanksgiving activities for kids

I was just printing out some fun things for us to do today with my preschool aged kids and thought I'd share.

• Activity placemats and another one here
  
• Pilgrim booklet (reading and coloring)
• The colors I eat on thanksgiving booklet
• Other booklets
  
• More printables

Have a great day with your families!

Thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving I'm hosting in a very long time. And I'm getting excited. I've simplified the menu this year and am only making the things I care about most:

• Turkey & gravy
• Stuffing
• Sweet potato casserole
  
• Cranberry sauce

Everything else (rolls, drinks, pie, etc.) will be bought this year and brought by my parents or in-laws. Possible exception - I think my mom will bake a Marionberry pie if we are lucky. Yeah!

But as I look around my messy house, I'm realizing we are hurting on the decor front. And I haven't thought about a gratitude project so I need to get crackin'. Some good ideas for decor (I mainly care about the table at this point - it is a little late for everything else!):

• Mayflower centerpiece
• Turkey placecards and more here
• Quick natural placecards (I actually have a handful of these I picked up outside the knit shop a few weeks ago)
  
• Finger puppets
• Awesome corn husk votives
  

Things to make for christmas

I love being crafty, but things get so out of control before Christmas. Thought I'd make a big list of all the things I want to make before I figure out what I will realistically have time to make. Here goes (see how overwhelming this is?):

• christmas garland
• dinosaur play mat
• snow globes
  
• ornaments a la skunkboy or adorable felt toys
• fabric crowns or maybe felt?
  
• knitting projects: 5 hats and surprise?!?
  
• christmas card wreath display
• kids craft: gumdrop pops
• activity books for kids: coloring pages, connect the dots, etc.
• kids craft: Snowflakes and snowmen
• kids activity or gift: vintage paper dolls
  
• microwave caramel corn with chocolate chips added at the end (or nuts, white chocolate, coconut, orange zest, cinnamon, etc. depending on how i feel)
  
• peppermint cocoa or layered
• peppermint bark popcorn or peppermint candy brownies
• pin cushion gift with pinecone elves
• black apple dollies
  
• christmas countdown garland
• photo advent calendar
  
• christmas planner for gifts (another one made from index cards!), and printable forms for getting organized
• gift tags and photo gift toppers, as well as mitten clips

Other good ideas:

• sock or glove critters
• piggy mittens (pdf)
  
• drawstring bags using up my cute stash of fabric
• repurposed t-shirt pants
  
• christmas tree scrapbook
• gifts in a jar, including smores in a jar
  
• monkey bread
• christmas sayings, and kitchen gift sayings for cards
  

Things to do for christmas

In the spirit of celebrating family, here are some of the things I'd like to do this year:

• Put up the tree thanksgiving weekend and being decorating house
  
• Plan weekend in leavenworth
• Write letters to Santa
• Family game night weekly
• Christmas movie nights
• Bake christmas cookies and decorate
• Christmas stories with kiddos
• Picnic around the fire
• Fondue night
  
• Make a snowman
• Video chat with family
• Christmas eve at Grandma Peggy's with the aunties
• Christmas morning with Auntie Lindsey & Uncle Brett
• Christmas dinner with Grandma Maria & Grandpa Keith (and family)
• Hot cider and cocoa
• Christmas carols
• Family service project, operation christmas child
• Make peppermint cocoa to share with friends
• Eggnog french toast
• Craft projects
• Send out christmas picture
• Write a letter
  

December Daily Album

I've decided to create a December Daily scrapbook album before Dec 1 and got a great start on it yesterday. I am so inspired by Ali Edwards and love her sense of style and imperfect approach to capturing everyday life.

More links to projects and products for my, I mean your, inspiration:
Another December Daily album done in July in preparation.
Holidays in Hand class by Jessica Sprague - which I am also planning on doing this year.
Journal Your Christmas with email prompts

My goal is to slow down this year - be intentional about creating christmas magic, focus on experiences (not stuff) and savor every moment. I'm hoping these projects will help!