Gifts and Craft Ideas

(Listening to 106.9 FM Christmas music right now, woo hoo!)

First off…I have had much better luck the past two days with the kids. In our tiny apartment, with all of this rain, one of the few things I can find to give them time apart is watching Sesame Street early in the morning (while mommy and daddy are still sleeping) and letting them play some of their computer games. It may sound like a waste of time, but as long as they’re having fun and not fighting, I am happy for now!

So, I have a few ideas, and I am excited for Christmas to come. I have some fun gifts planned. One for a family member, and it’s called an ‘exploding box’.

No, it doesn’t involve TNT.

It looks something like this:

With the help of one of my lovely Design Team ladies, I was linked to an easy tutorial. You can check it out {HERE} if you want to. I want to fill mine with photos. I’m not telling who I’m giving it to!

As for other gifts, I showed you the puppets for the kids in my last post. Jaycen is getting some cool Star Wars stuff and Brooke is getting Barbie stuff. How do I know? I have connections with the big man in red! *wink*

Oh and I have a gift planned for hubby. I ordered it last night. It can take up to several months to make…but I will show you a picture when it arrives!

Some tips for gift-giving…

Think of what your friend or loved one really  likes. What’s their favorite food? Color? Movie? What do they love to do? For example, one year I got my father a fish-shaped oven mitt and stuffed it with Hot Tamale candy, because he loved cooking, fishing, and Hot Tamales. :-)

If they love movies and popcorn, why not buy their favorite movie, and stuff it in a little metal bucket with some bags of popcorn? Or get a theatre gift card? You don’t have to go all out, just think of something simple and creative that you could put together…after all, if it comes from the heart, that’s all that matters!

Okay, enough of my gushy ranting, haha.

Here’s another idea I have…I mentioned it yesterday.

Shrinky Dinks!

Do you remember those? (click HERE to see their website) I had some ‘Pound Puppy’ ones in the 80’s. An idea popped into my head the other day to make shrinky charms from my digital stamps.

Something like this…

 
(This is from the Missbluebirdandoscar Etsy Shop)

I would probably do single charms, and maybe some phone charms and bookmarks or something. Maybe just charms. Who knows! But I also want to get some Shrinky Dink kits for the kids too. I think that would be a fun craft!

Anyway, I will write again soon. Have a lovely day! :-)

Time is Fun when your Having Flies…

Okay so I had mojo going with my posts and then it went POPCRUNCHFIZZzzzzzzzZZzzzz…

I blinked and a month went by! Hmm…a review of some things that have happened since I last wrote.

The kids did a trunk-or-treat and dressed as Nintendo classics for Halloween

 
We saw lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) at the Point Defiance Zoo…well okay, no lions, but there were sharks. DUN-DUN…DUN-DUN….

 
It snowed… (hoping for more!)

 
…and we got a new, itty-bitty Christmas Tree. Trying to start fresh this year.

 
A few other updates, in no particular order (though I numbered them because numbers look fancy!)…

1. We made a gingerbread house last night
2. We had to get a Feliway for the cats (they’re crazy)
3. We got a bird feeder for the Juncos and Chickadees
4. I have been doing artwork like a mad-woman
5. We got the kids their first Legos
6. We finished homeschooling for this term
   (Brooke is becoming a great narrator…though her copywork seems to be lost when she writes for fun)

A few things I am wanting to work on…
(more numbers, yay!)

1. Getting our house more de-cluttered
   (the front room is looking tons better)
2. Actually participating in The Toy Society
3. Putting out some Operation Nice cards
   (I keep forgetting…haven’t done it yet!)
4. Blogging and uploading family pictures more!!

…and of course, being as manic as I am, I have a ton of ideas for things to make. I still need to finish Jaycen’s crochet teddy bear, and I am still considering making a little shop for those. I am also considering making little ‘charms’ with Shrinkie-Dinks out of my stamp designs. …Why? Because Shrinkie-Dinks are fun!

Now for a cool spirit-of-giving story…

 
Here are some puppets. I mentioned wanting to get puppets together for the kids for Christmas. I don’t have time (or the sneakiness factor) to make them by hand, so I ordered this cute set from Oriental Trading.

They came…and they are just as cute as they look (my hand can fit in them too, which is a big deal)…but got no lion…and 2 giraffes! This made me sad, as Lions are Brooke’s favorite animal. So I called Oriental Trading. Guess what they did? They didn’t ask for pictures or any other kind of proof…the gal on the phone apologized and they’re sending out a WHOLE NEW SET for free, saying that we can keep them all. Isn’t that amazing?

I know this might not seem a big deal to you, but in this day and age with everything so big and instant (and electronic) it was so nice to experience such trust and kindness in the spirit of the holidays.

I will write again soon! (hugs to you all)

Felt Cuteness :-)

I haven’t sewn for a while. I made the kids’ little quilts for them when they were very little, and a queen-sized jeans quilt for hubby about a year or so ago, but since then…not a lot!

To side-track a bit, our Library has a little puppet theater that the kids can play with. It’s the first thing our kids navigate to when we go there (forget looking at the books, they want the puppets!) so I have been dying to get them one of their own.

I searched today for a theater and some puppets. Most options are expensive…it’s crazy! But I finally found the CUTEST little free pattern at ‘Sweetie Pie Bakery’…check out this picture…

Like I said this is a free pattern (click here to see it). It just uses felt for the puppets, fabric for the curtains, and a little tension rod that you put in a doorway close to the floor. How cute and simple is that?? I hope to be able to find & collect the felt I need to make this for the kids for Christmas!

The gal that made this pattern also has an Etsy shop, and I am horribly addicted to Etsy so I went to check it out. She sells the cutest little felt patterns there, and some pre-made cuteness (like the candies below!).

 
I wish I was creative enough to think up something like this! I might be, I don’t know, haven’t tried it for a while. :-) My next project with it will hopefully be the kids’ puppets, and then someday the sock monkeys I never finished.

(those should be cute…I bought stripey tube-socks to make them with! *smiles*)

Anyway I hope you all had a lovely weekend. :-) Talk with you again soon!

The cat stole my wallet…

Okay, you are all going to think I’m weird. Well, maybe not. But I can’t resist the cuteness. First little owls for your computer, and now this! I found this kitty bank on the website where I hope to purchase a USB owl from, and this is just the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

I want to get one for the kids. I won’t even tell them about it. It will come in the mail and steal their coins. I can see it now – they will just crack up!

Here’s the video from their website…

See you next time!

Teddy Bears, Art & Playmobil

Okay, I just can’t resist teddy bears. I really love the plush, soft, floppy ones that say ‘hug me’!

Yesterday at Blockbuster, Brooke and I spotted a sweet little movie-star bear with eyelashes, a dress, a beauty mark and sunglasses. I got it for her – it was just too adorable. Brooke hasn’t set her down since!

(Of course Jaycen loves his puppy as much as Brooke loves her new bear!)

Today I hope to start crocheting a teddy bear pattern I bought the other day from Planet June. I ordered some eyes and noses from her store too, and I can’t WAIT for those to come in the mail.

(Here’s a picture from her site of the pattern I purchased…)

 
It’s amazing how such simple things can make me smile! Yarn, stuffing and bits of plastic can make the CUTEST things.

The kids have been doing lots of art lately. I got them some fun Crayola kits a week or so ago, and they taped a bunch of their Halloween crafts on the door!

 
(A Vampire bear with a bat friend!)

…and of course, with my stamp designing I do every day, Brooke loves sitting down and using one of mommy’s older Micron pens to do her own designs. :-)

(Little witchy cat with a spider on her hat)

…but some of the most fun we’ve had so far this week is a re-enactment of the story of Julius Caesar and his ventures against the Britons. I pulled out the kids’ Roman & barbarian Playmobil toys and built the white cliffs and beaches.

Check out this little army of Britons…Rome doesn’t stand a chance!

   
(Brooke had to throw in the lion and tiger, lol)

That’s it for now…I hope you’re all having a lovely mid-week!

(hugs)

Night Owl (and the CUTEST Thing!)

I am a night owl.

So much so, in fact, that I cannot seem to find enough hours in the day and so I stay up so incredibly late that it’s invigorating until I have to wake up in the morning…at which point, I feel like a grumpy bear waking from hibernation.

My brain doesn’t even TURN ON until the evening, folks.

I envy cats for their cat naps and owls for their daytime slumber fests.

Mr. Owl, can I join you in your tree?

Now, for some unbelievable cuteness. I found this when I googled for owls. Beware, if you are a compulsive buyer of things that are adorable, then call the shop-a-holics hotline, because this is SO cute that it should be banned.

(…at least in my opinion)

I actually found myself looking for spare USB ports on my laptop, and thinking of ways to make the cats go without cat litter so that I could afford this little guy.

*sigh*

Oh little owl. You tempt me so.

(…as for today’s homeschooling – icky symptoms kicked in from my usual night-owl-ism, so we listened to Beethoven, did some practice reading, and did our normal temperature chart for the day. I should show that to you sometime. *smiles*)