September Special

Golly Gee!  Is it September already?

I'm starting to run a monthly special on Facebook ("like" my page HERE) and through my ETSY SHOP.

I'm starting to gear up for the fall season and for Halloween!!  It is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm running a Halloween hairbow special this month and next month I'll be doing Halloween shirts!  I can't wait to get them going.

For this month only, you can get all three of these hand-embroidered felt hair barrettes for only $8.  Contact me via facebook and I will set up payment and ship them out!  You will have plenty of time to build your girl's spooky halloween wardrobe around these cute little guys.

Valentine's Day Wreath

Here is my front door decor for the month.

It was so easy to make, I want to do one for every holiday/month!  Husband might disagree, but our door MUST be festive all year round!

I'm linking up to these awesome ladies!

Get your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

Lotte's Advent Calendar

I did a guest post over at GLUESTICKS on Friday.  I was going to wait awhile to post this here, but it is dated material, if you will.  I told you about it in my thankful post, but if you didn't take the jump and see it, here it is....


Lotte is 2 and a half and it is the first Christmas she is able to understand the magic of it all.  So I wanted to give her a calendar of her own to help countdown until the big day!

This cute little guy is in her room above her bookcase.

I didn't want it to be too expensive or too heavy to hang so I made it out of Balsa board.  It is only $3.00 from the craft store, and it can be found in the modeling section.

I used Martha Stewart glitter paint (AMAZING STUFF) on clothespins that I already had in my stash.  Everything is hot-glued together in a sort of random fashion.  The circles where cut from my Cricut and I hand drew the numbers on.

I couldn't find the "perfect ornaments" so I picked up a bag of vase filler from the craft store ($4.99 with a 40% off coupon!).  I made them into ornaments with a straight pin, some glue and ribbon.  If you have ornaments around those would work too, or making them out of felt would add a great touch.

Every day in December she will wake up and put a new ornament on her mini Christmas tree.

This advent calendar is something we will have for years to come and I can't wait for the many Christmases filled with wonder and excitement!

Linking my advent calendar up to these jolly good hostesses!
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
DIY Under $5 @ A Little Tipsy
12 Days of Christmas @ Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive, 365

Christmas Organizer & Make Your Own Tabs

This year I have printed out and am going to be using the Organized Christmas planner.

They have over 40 different printables that help you organize your Christmas Planner.

Some examples include:
Budgeting
Party Planners
Weekly Planners
Ornament Journal (My favorite...keep track of yearly additions!)
Decor Planner/Inventory/Storage
Gift Ideas and Master Gift List
Card List
Black Friday Planner
Meal Planners

I put all of my planners into a 1/2 inch binder and made a little cover page.

On the inside I separated my planner into 6 different sections.
Lists-all of my to do lists
Money-budgeting
Mail-card mailing lists
Food-baking and menu planning
Home-decorations and home chores
Journal-ornament and traditions

I am in love with how organized my Christmas is going to be.  It makes me feel relaxed and happy.

Do you like my tabs for my organizer?  I made them myself...sorry for the terrible pictures!  It was LATE!

Here is how I made them...I cut circles from my card stock and folded them in half.

I measured and drew a straight line where I wanted the tab.
Then I used my exacto-knife to cut that line.

Slip the circle into the cut line.  I used zots to secure the folded circle together.  Quick, Easy and perfect for my organizer!

I'm linking my Christmas Organizer to these LOVELY and GRACIOUS hostesses!
Get Your Craft on @ Today's Creative Blog
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Kid Gifts

I have a few things for my kids that I am going to be making.  The first up on my list is our new play kitchen.  We re-loved an old used one last year.  Lotte has been playing with it all year.  But last week we scored the biggest yard sale find EVER!  It's a new 3 piece wooden handmade kitchen.  I'll do a whole separate post and reveal later!

Here are some of the things that I have found around the internet that I plan on making as well.

Lotte LOVES to use a pop up tent in the living room for "movie night".

This one is compact, easy to make and adorable to boot!

This guy is going to be super easy to make.  I know that we will have lots of fun, especially now that Lotte is really using her imagination.  If this is as easy as I'm thinking, we might make one for a friend's daughter too!

THIS is from a series Skip to my Lou is doing.  You should check out the rest of her gift ideas!

These are too easy not to make.

Here is how Stitching in the Dark made hers.

This is going to be for my 2 older nieces.

HERE is the tutorial for what it all includes.

I also see some felt food in my future as my niece is getting our "old" kitchen for Christmas, and Lotte's bestie is getting a kitchen too.  There are sooo many patterns and coolness out there for felt food.

I'm sure as I spend the next day or two hammering out my list my gifts will get more narrowed down, and I'll maybe find some new ones.

What are you making for the kids?

*Spoiler Alert* Friend Gifts

If you are a close real-life friend or family member...PLEASE avert your eyes!  I'm going to be posting some of my favorite ideas for gifts and you might find out what you are getting.

I have a friend or two who would like this gift.

You Can Make This has a free pattern for this darling apron!

This one is for my adult girly cousins.

HERE is an awesome tutorial for making a braided scarf from t-shirts!

I definitely need to make a cute pincushion and personalized pins for my crafty friends.

HERE is a free pattern.

And No Big Dill has a tutorial on personalized push pins.

Co-worker gifts.  So easy and useful.

Here is a free tutorial.

These will be for some of my friend couples.

Everything Etsy has a cute roundup of embroidery hoop art.

Well if you are a "real-life friend" and read through this anyway, do you have any requests?

Halloween Pillow Case Dress

Last year for the pumpkin patch I wanted something cute and girly for halloween.  Everything I found was obnoxious or not feminine enough.  So I found some cute fabric at Joanns and made a VERY simple pillowcase dress.  It was exactly what I wanted.  And the pictures turned out amazing.  I will never forget how fun this day was.

 Not quiet walking yet,

 But SO big!

 This is the first picture of Lotte and Brother.  We didn't know he was a he yet, and she was so cute.  I would say, "Where's the baby?" and she would rub my tummy.

 And she would lift up my shirt every time to see him! 

Kisses for the baby.

What. A. Day.

Oh and I am going to be linking this up to a super fun link party that Maggie at Mid Western Sewing Girl is hosting.  She loves Halloween and is doing a week long party with a halloween themed link up...she has even hinted at a cool prize pack!  You should join in too!

Easter Recap

We had such a wonderful weekend!  I loved all the family time and I loved celebrating Lotte's first Easter as a big girl walking!

On Friday we bought our new table and chairs/bench!  After we set it all up in the dining room we died eggs.  We used the box the table came in on the floor.  I figured it would be a messy experience. 

On Saturday we had my family over for deserts.  I made cookies earlier in the week and each of the women in our family brought a pie or cake.  Here was my springy set up.

I used the free printable from The Pink Ink Doodle in my blue frame, and I basically copied Sweet Sugar Belle for my cookies.  They turned out better than I expected, but if you look at her amazing work you will never be 100% pleased with yours.  This picture doesn't show all my mini cookies, but there were 70 minis and 3.5 dozen regular cookies.  I had a blast decorating them.  My family really enjoyed eating them!

That's my mom admiring them in the background!

On Sunday morning we got up early to have breakfast, hunt eggs and get ready for church.

Little girl's breakfast...Bunny shaped toast, her name Easter egg, plain yogurt with her special holiday topping (bunny pastel marshmallows).  The most fun was the pink milk with a silly straw! 

Here she is hunting eggs in the living room because it has been raining for a week!

The Easter Bunny hid their baskets in the bathroom!  Silly Bunny! 

Last year I convinced my husband to allow me to order Lotte a Pottery Barn basket.  But it was too late and they were out of the ones that I wanted.  So I found this basket at Michael's for $13.00.  A friend at work has an embroidery machine and was nice enough to put her name on it for me.

I found a matching basket this year for Brother!  It was 50% off when I bought it.

Things were a little different this year and we couldn't have Easter Dinner at my aunt's house like normal so we had brunch up at the country club.

 Lotte and one of her favorite cousins.

 LOVE this picture

 Here is a picture of her full dress.  So perfect.

And just so you know...Brother was there too!

After brunch we spent time with my husband's family and we came home much earlier than normal.  We just hung out the four of us all evening.  It was a perfect weekend.  I hope everyone's was as nice as ours!