She

Please excuse my absence on this blog. I had my 2nd baby and have just been loving
this time to get to know this new little girl and figure out how this whole family of four thing works.
Here is my sweet little Scarlett

While I was in Dental Hygiene school, my husband gave me a book. This book was titled "She" and it saved me. That sounds dramatic, but during that time of becoming a new mom and being in a rigorous school program I definitely had some ups and downs.

This book reminded me that I was special and it gave me strength 

to try harder, 

to be better, 

to keep going.

It reminded me that someone loved me.

It reminded me that I love being a woman.

It reminded me that I love being me!

I had forgotten about the book, but recently came across it again.

It was so refreshing to read, and the colors just seemed to brighten my day.

It would definitely make a great gift for a friend, but make sure you get one for yourself too!
Find it here!

a few of my favorite things. . . .

It was my friend's birthday yesterday, and I wanted to get her something.  I always have a hard time with gifting because I want to give the PERFECT thing and I never feel like I know what the PERFECT things is.  After looking through my Pinterest boards for some inspiration, I decided to give her some of MY favorite things, in hopes that she'll like them, too.

Some Boylan root beer and a polka dot straw, Turtles (YUUUUM), Loreal lip gloss, Sonia Kashuk gold glitter nail polish, Yes to Carrots body butter, and Orbit's spearmint gum.

I also added some homemade taffy that we made the night before.

And I topped it all off with a quote from The Sound of Music, "Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things".  printed from here, via the Eighteen25 blog.

And a brown paper bag with some baker's twine, of course.  

I also think it would be really cute to wrap everything in a box with kraft paper.

graduation

Summer has arrived!  Can you believe it!  This year is flying by.  Despite my late planning, we made it to our graduations on time, gifts in hand.  I always seem to wait until the last minute to do teacher and classmate gifts.  Always the day of.   But we made it and now it's all over.  Phew!

The sodas turned out so cute for our second cousin!  Hubbs made a drink carrier out of an old box, and we chose two sodas with black lids, in her high school's colors.  I used black craft foam for the hat and yellow embroidery floss for the tassels.

I loved them so much, I decided to use the soda idea again for Griff's preschool teacher.  But I added some POPcorn and attached a note, saying, 'For a very POP-ular teacher'.  My kids LOVED her (Colsie had her a couple years ago).  Every time I mentioned to Griff that he was soon to be a very 'grown-up' Kindergartener, he'd make a frowny face and tell me he's going to miss her.  : (  So sweet!  So I thought it was a fitting gift.  She definitely IS popular in our house.

OH!  And I made an owl bag to put it all in.  ('Thanks for making me wiser') Idea from Lisa Storms.

I wanted to do something small for my boys, to say how proud of them we are, so they both got a pack of SMARTIES, for being such 'Smartie Pants'.  Idea from It is What it is.

He wanted to wear his fox tie that I made him the other day.  I thought he looked adorable!

And, one other cute idea, that didn't make the cut this year- a jar of cookies ('I'm one smart cookie, thanks to you') from Home is Where They Love You.

Handmade Gifts 4, 5, and 6

For my husband, I did something I've wanted to do for awhile. I think it's a sweet, sentimental gift. You can't go wrong with a shirt bearing the silhouettes of the little ones you ADORE. Am I right?

I was so excited for him to open it because it was made with love and I was really happy with how it turned out.

At first, he thought I'd cheated and just bought him a new shirt. Then, when he saw that it was our children on the shirt, he thought I had gotten it made.

I think the BEST handmade gifts are the ones that don't look like they're handmade, so I counted this as a huge success. He put it on right away and wore it the next day, too!

instructions here. I got the shirt, fabric paint, and paint brush all on the same craft isle at Wal-Mart.

Griffy's first attempt for a daddy gift was this:

but, as you can see, that didn't pan out. It cracked all over the place.

(idea for the rocks came from here, but we used this recipe.

obviously should have stuck with the one that came along with the tutorial, but we were trying to kill two

birds with one stone, since we were already using the other recipe for another gift.)

Plan B, a canvas painting. Griffy loves drawing and painting and doing anything crafty, so I was actually happy that Plan A failed, because I think this gift was more fitting. Daddy loved it, of course.

I found the canvas at Wal-Mart in the craft section. They came in a set of three FLAT canvases.

And, from Colson: Angry Birds. I ended up pretty much doing this project by myself, but he was happy to pass it along to his dad and claim it as his own. Silly boy. In his defense, he had been a little sick that day, so I know he wasn't feeling 100%.

We didn't get much playing in, before baby took over, but Hubba took his Angry Birds to work, so we'll be able to play with them when we visit him.

instructions here, but I ended up just using my hand to make the pom poms. I think that method is easier and quicker. There's probably more trimming involved to get the right shape, but I'll take trimming over wrapping any day.

I had Brad open Colson's present on Christmas EVE because I knew what Brad had made for the boys and I thought it had potential to make Colson feel a little trumped. . . . .(to come)

{handmade gift 1, 2 and 3)

Handmade Gift 2 and 3

For my two boys, I felt like I should give the SAME gift. For one thing, they can play with them TOGETHER, but aside from that, no matter how hard you try to get them both something unique, it will always turn into a competition for who's gift is better.

When I saw these tiny little bows and arrows on Pinterest, they just SCREAMED 'little boy adventure', so I knew I wanted to make some for my boysies. I can't wait to see their little faces when they open these. Instructions HERE.

I also made little pouches to put them in. I'm kind of a funny sewer. Sewing is not one of my strengths. I'm a little too impatient to take my time and do it right, so I always just jump right in without any instructions. Which is ironic because it ends up taking much LONGER, trying to re-do all of my mistakes. But, alas, they eventually turned out! {I stuck half of a toilet paper roll inside of them, to give them shape.}

(see handmade gift 1 here)

Another bow headband

Christmastime brings out my crafty side. I can't stop making things. I made another bow headband for a friend. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn in Autumn Red. I discovered this yarn when I started reading People Webs and I LOVE it. It really is so soft. Perfect for scarves, headbands, and blankets. It's my new fave.

I linked up to Small Things.

Another Chunky Circle Scarf

You can expect to see more of these scarves on this blog. I can't get enough. They're really easy to make and they're just so cute and cozy!! I love them. I made this one for a friend and I think I'm going to make one for the boys' music teacher, too. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn in Sunshine. Click HERE to see it in creme.

Oh! And baby wore her new hat last night. We went to see the lights at Temple Square and, even though I'm still going to wrap it and give it to her on Christmas, I didn't want her little ears to be cold. I could NOT, for the life of me, get a clear picture, so this is what you get. I think it looks quite cute on her.

Handmade Gift 1

As I mentioned before, in my family each one of us is making something for the other family members. For my little Penelope, I decided to make a hat that my friend, Kim, told me about. It's an Anthropologie-inspired hat. (There's a flower on there, but it kind of blends in with the hat. Can you see it?)

I love how it turned out! I already tried in on her (because she doesn't know the difference between being surprised on Christmas morning or not) and it's a little big, but it still looks adorable! I used Caron Simply Soft yarn in Light Country peach. For the scalloped edge, because I like the 'daintiness' of the anthro hat, I used 'America's Best' size 10 crochet thread in Light Peach, and a 3.25 mm hook. You can find the pattern HERE.

Sneak Peak

Christmas is sneaking up on us WAY too fast! I wish I could freeze time.

Each one of us is making something by hand for each one of the other members in the family. Here's a little sneak peak of my gift for the boys.

It doesn't look like much right now, but I think they're going to like it and I'm a bit excited about it. I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Teacher gift

Griff's Christmas gift to his preschool teacher this year, was this adorable snowman. I got the idea from the talented Sarah, of Sarahndipities.

My husband is the one who ended up making it all. Which is good, because he's more artistic than I am. We used a small rolled oats container. He made the top hat out of black paper (the brim is just the lid from the oats). He covered the can in white printer paper, carved a little piece of wood to resemble a carrot, let Griffy paint it orange, drew the basic shape of coal with a black sharpie and had Griff scribble them in. Then he made some holly out of paper and attached a note with some of my yarn that read (like Sarah, of Sarahndipities),

'We 'tissue' a Merry Christmas and a 'Handy' New Year!'

On the inside, we put tissues and hand sanitizer (things she can use in the classroom). When we were buying them at the store, Griffy did NOT like our idea. We finally got him to agree by telling him he could also pick out a candy bar for his teacher. So he picked out the Twix. (We cut a slit in the bottom of the lid, and stuck the Twix bar inside. So there's a little surprise for her in the hat!)

And I actually tested a pattern for Sarah a few days ago, so I had the brimmed hat that I made for that, and stuck it in along with everything else.

When she opens the lid:

After making the snowman with daddy, I think Griff finally understood where we were going with all of this and he LOVES it. He was just a little worried in the store. He wasn't sure we knew what we were doing.

I love how it turned out. Check out Sarahndipities for more inspiration and click on my link (#106)!

5 little monkeys swingin' in a tree. . . .

I was invited to a baby shower for twins, and I knew I'd crochet a couple of hats (because that's just what I always do for baby showers) but I wanted a little something more, so I did what I always do. . . .I called Sarah. She never fails to help me out when I need advice. We make a good team, she and I. SHE makes things, tells ME about them, then I copy her, and I post about them! It all works out. She taught herself to crochet and that's why I started. She learned to knit so now I want to learn. Basically I'm the little sister who's always trying to be like my big sis. She's usually the inspiration behind my projects and I think she needs more credit.

Back to my story.

So I called Sare and she directed me to some adorable little finger puppets on Homemade by Jill, which she had already made for a friend AND for her own little ones.

I LOVE them. They're so cute. I only had time to make them for my friend, but I DO also want to make some for my children. Christmas present?

I printed out the cute little monkey song and made 5 little monkeys and a crocodile (no pics of the croc though. oops!)

I also made a little bag to put them in. I REALLY just made it up, but if you've never made anything like this before and need a little help, surprise surprise, I was looking through our posts that hadn't been published yet and SARAH had already written one up with these links:

http://thecreativeplace.blogspot.com/2010/10/tuesday-tutorial-drawstring-bag.html

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/02/18/a-drawstring-bag-tutorial/

I told you we make a good team. Hope you don't mind, Sare!

The piece of fabric I used was 20 in. x 10 3/4 in. in case anyone's curious. I only used that one piece for the whole project, so the finished bag was half that size. Sorry I didn't make a tutorial but check the link above for some helpful info.

The finished bag.

And I made each monkey face a little different than the last, just for fun.

the end.

ps did you enter the giveway yet?

Beehive Bazaar- Mother's Day gift?

I stopped by The Beehive Bazaar this afternoon and picked up some treasures. A little something for my mother-in-law, here. For my mom here and here. Mango salsa from her. (She's right. It's 'to-die-for'.) And two bookmarks ('I AM A CHILD OF GOD' with the boy silhouette) for the boysies, from this shop.

I think I'll be making another visit (this time more selfishly) tomorrow with my sister. I've got my eye on this store, these beautiful pillows, and these necklaces. SO many cute things to choose from! Don't miss it!

Thanksgiving Point barn - Tomorrow from 10am-10pm and Saturday from 10am-8pm

Mother's Day. . . .

is right around the corner. Don't forget about the woman who is quite possibly the biggest influence in your life.

A mother has many roles in life.

for the cook. . . .

{anthro}

for the gardener. . . .

{anthro}

for the journal-writer. . . .

{anthro}

for the decorator. . . .

{anthro}

for the optimist. . . .

{via 'erin jane's illustrations' on etsy. this shop has so many cute prints. including a family tree. it's worth a look.}

for the stylista. . . .

{anthro}

{armelle jewelry on etsy}