Crafting Catch-Up

I guess it's time for another crafting round-up post. It seems like I haven't done a lot lately, but I have a few things to show you since my last crafting post.

First up is a little sundress and bloomers that I made for Chloe. I used the free pattern from Made by Petchy. It is super easy to make and I thought the outcome was pretty cute. I also made another one in some super cute fruit fabric, but I can't seem to find a picture of it.

We were having trouble with the kids wanting to color during church. Markers were out of the question and crayons were still getting all over their clothes, not to mention breaking in their bag. I decided that colored pencils would probably be the cleanest, least messy option. I came upon this great free tutorial from Skip to My Lou for some paper/pencil holder projects. I made one for each kid. I was pleased with how easy they were and with the end results. They are so practical and cute. This was my first attempt at machine applique. It went pretty well, but I am still definitely a beginner in that area.

As you can see, they both love these!

For Mother's Day I made our moms matching tissue holders, eye glass cases and coffee cozies. (I don't have a picture of the glasses cases.) I made them all using free online tutorials. The tissue holders were from Bella Dia. The eye glass cases were from Amazing Mae. And the coffee cozies were from House on Hill Road. All three were very easy to make and so much fun. I loved doing little projects that I could finish in one short sitting.

I ended up enjoying making them so much that I went a little crazy and made them for several friends and myself. :)

For my cousin's daughter's first birthday I made a little outfit with a matching hairbow. The skirt was made from the Oliver + S free pattern. I bought the t shirt and appliqued on a butterfly that I cut out from the skirt fabric. The hairbow was a little tricky, but looked really cute in her hair.

My father-in-law made these great doll cradles for all of the granddaughters for Christmas last year. So for our niece's first birthday I made a little bedding set for her cradle that included a mattress, a quilt and a matching pillow. I was really pleased with the results, but I have yet to get around to making a set for Chloe. It will get done one day!

In addition to the cradle set, I also made her several hair clippies. Grace is teeny tiny for her age, so I made simple ribbon clippies instead of big bows so that they wouldn't over power her.

My most recent project was for a dear friend who was getting ready to have her third baby just a week after her little girl's second birthday. I made a pair of sister Molly Monkeys from mmmcrafts free pattern. I was able to find a couple of sets of fat quarter fabrics that were cute patterns and in two different color ways. I wanted to make them coordinate, but they still needed to be able to tell them apart.

And of course, I can't end a post without a couple of pics of my babies.

After the holidays, I will probably have a lot more projects to report on. Right now I am working a quilt to go on Chloe's bed (for when she moves out of the crib). Hopefully I can quit procrastinating and get it finished soon!

Halloween, Birthday, Halloween

This time I am not going to start out this post with an apology and a promise to do better. I can't believe that it has been close to two months since my last post, but our lives are kind of crazy right now. It seems like things have been kind of non stop and I know that the next couple of months will only be even more hectic. Hopefully I can squeeze in several posts, but I just can't make promises. :)

So, today is about Halloween and my birthday. The Halloween holiday started out with an event called "Hall-zoo-ween." It is an event held at our local zoo and this was our first time going. There was a long treat or treating path through the zoo, face painting, a costume contest, a magic show and plenty of food tents. Unfortunately, all of the animals were put away for the night, so we only got to see the giraffes and some monkeys.

We didn't enter the kids into the costume contest since they just had store bought costumes. Chloe was a ladybug and Colby was Dash from The Incredibles. Cute, but nothing too original. :) We went to the magic show. However it was so boring that the only good thing that came out of it was an excuse to sit down and get into the candy!

The following weekend we went to Huntington to celebrate my birthday with my family. We arrived Friday afternoon and dropped the kids off at my parents' house. Curt and I then went out to a movie and dinner and then stayed overnight in a hotel. It was the best thing I could have asked for! A whole night with my husband, we don't go on dates nearly enough!

Saturday we went back to my parents' house where we had a small birthday party with my grandma, aunt, uncle and cousin and her family. It is kind of a tradition and always a lot of fun! The kids' favorite place to play:

Colby and Izabella actually posing for a picture!

Of course I had a lot of little helpers opening my presents. :)

One of the few pictures of me with one of my babies. (Please ignore the pregnancy double-chin. Gag.)

Every year my mom makes a red velvet cake from scratch. It is the most delicious cake in the world. Colby thought so too.

After the party and dinner, the little kids put on a Halloween costume fashion show for us all. It was too cute! Unfortunately, by that time in the evening they were getting tired and wound up so it was really hard to get good pictures.

The weekend after that was actually Halloween. Curt's parents were able to come spend the weekend with us. We had a blast! Saturday started out with pumpkin carving.

I drew the designs and Curt did a lot of the actual carving. I had drawn a ladybug for Chloe's pumpkin. It had several small holes, and my smart engineering husband thought of using a drill. It worked perfectly!

Then in the evening it was time for Trick-or-Treating. Chloe loved it, but Colby's shoes were hurting his feet so we ended up only going through about half of our neighborhood. We still had a good time though. Here they are with their pumpkins right before the candy gathering started.

October was a really fun month, and November is shaping up to be a good month too. Hopefully it won't take another month to get a post up, but remember I'm not promising. :)

Grace Turns 1!

A few weeks ago we made the trip to Lafayette to celebrate our niece's first birthday. We had a great time with lots of family, presents and cake. Of course Colby had to have a front row seat to all the action.

Chloe, on the other hand, was not so impressed. Instead she passed the time hanging out on Nana's lap.

Mommy (Julie) and Grace opening our presents.

Colby somehow also managed to come away from the party with a gift of his own.

This was the cake for everyone to enjoy. The first one pictured was just for Grace.

Grace started off kind of timid, but it wasn't long before she got the hang of the whole first-birthday-cake experience.

She wasn't too happy when the cake was taken away.

The rest of the weekend was spent having cousin bonding time. Here are Colby and two of his cousins, Joseph and Luke. They were "working" in Nana's flower beds.

And what post would be complete without a couple of eye candy pics? :)