Nursing Cover

Back in February we threw a baby shower for my little sister. She was pregnant with a little boy (who was born last month!). I flew in and we had it at my mom's and dad's house. It turned out really beautifully. 

As part of her gift, I made her a nursing cover. It is one of the fastest and easiest things to make. Definitely under one nap time. Hopefully she likes it. I love love love the fabric! It's feminine yet masculine, perfect for using with a little boy while not being overwhelmed by the boy. 

Superhero Shields

So... keeping up with this blog is difficult. I don't really do a lot of extra crafting these days because keeping up with my sweet little ones is busy enough. But alas, i can still try to catch up :)

A few months ago my sweet little boys wanted super hero shields. They got capes from their Grandma for Christmas and my oldest wanted a shield to go with it. (side note: He really says "to go with it" and it's really cute. Imagine reading If You Give A Moose A Muffin and you will get his "to go with it")...

So i decided to improvise. And i thought I would share with you how i did it. I don't have any pictures, but it's pretty easy.

Things you need:
-a bowl
-a box
-pen
-box cutter/razor thing
-duct tape
-paint
-paint brush
*optional-vinyl, silhouette

1) Grab your box. Take your bowl and put it on top of the box. Trace the bowl with the pen. Put the bowl back on the floor.
2) Cut out the circle using the box cutter. Also cut out a rectangle about half the diameter (or the same length as the radius) and about 2 inches wide
3) Cover the cut out circle and the rectangle with duct tape. You should now look like you have a shield of sorts.
4) Bend the rectangle into a box shape to use as your handle. Tape it to the back of your shield.
5) Now this is where i used my silhouette to cut out a Superman and Captain America logo. You could easily freehand it, but whatever you do, place it or stencil it onto the front of your superhero shield.
6) Paint it.
7) I used a light layer of laquer over it so that the paint didn't scratch off.
8) Let your kids play with it!

Valentine's Wreath

My friend Annie and I often get together for our kids to play together. A lot of the time we try to make or do a craft. She is INSANELY talented and always comes up with the best ideas! Annie came up with the idea to make wreaths out of hangers (we were both a little low on craft fund budgets). So she made these out of a cloths hangers. She wrapped it in fabric scraps and then some of that shelf lining stuff. Amazingly clever, right?!

We then made lots of flowers for our wreaths. I don't get to make many flowers with 3 boys and so it was fun to make a TON of flowers! I love them! I just love how they all look piled on there!

The final wreath. Isn't it pretty? We sure had a lot of fun! Thanks Annie for such an awesome idea!

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday Dress

My good friend's daughter turned one and i wanted to make her a present (selfish, right?! How could I pass up an opportunity to make something girly?!) I love this dress pattern. I've made it once before. The main fabric was from Joann and the yellow was a remnant from my sister's quilt.

I added a bow to the front instead of a button and I just love it. I wanted to blend the two colors and it was just the perfect touch. I love it!

Hopefully she will get lots of wear and tear out of it as the weather warms up!

Santa Advent Calendar

I grew up with a wonderful advent Santa. He was our favorite. We would rush every morning in December to put our little hearts on Santa. It was always a fight for who got to do it next...

So i decided i wanted to make one for my own kids. Originally we were supposed to do it as a girls day at my parents but it didn't happen and i wasn't really too surprised about that! :) So when i got home i went right too it!

My mom traced her original and i used it to cut out of a 2x6 board with my jigsaw. I then bought the hearts on etsy for a seller (if you want to know, they were FABULOUSLY helpful!)

I then painted him and put the nails in. I really love how it turned out. You take a heart from Santa's sack each day and put it on the nail. He is a pretty happy looking Santa. It just makes me happy to look at. 

Merry (late) Christmas!

My coffee table refinish

I refinishe our coffee table. It was a labor of love. I should look up a before, but i'm being lazy right now :) I just love how it turned out. It took over 5 months to finish so i am proud of the fact that it is done (oh and i did have a baby in those 5 months...)

It was the first time i have ever refinished something and i was constantly ordering a new product or back to the store to make it exactly how i wanted. I learned SOOOO much. Refinishing is a TON of work but it's really fun. And for solid hardwood construction we would have paid a heck of a  lot more...especially since the table was free to us from my parents.

I am sure it will get destroyed again slowly by my boys, but then I will redo it again. My next refinishing will be our kitchen table and then our new TV stand. The only hard thing about refinishing pieces you use is that you can't use them while you refinish. Hopefully I will be faster with those other pieces! :)

Crochet Gifts

A friend of mine found out last fall that her (at the time) 5 month old son had cancer. And not a good cancer. A very bad form of Leukemia. It broke my heart. I really wanted to be able to help, but i knew that being 1,000 miles away would make it really hard to do much. So my husband and I decided we wanted to send them a few small gifts. Nothing too much. But one thing i really wanted was to make something for all the kids. They have 4 little kids all under 5. Yikes, right?! Luckily they are now close to family so that is amazing. 

This all happened over a month ago, but i'm slow at blogging! haha The snowman hat was for the little boy with cancer. He looked really really cute. I was just happy to be able to do something...

Their two year old is just a few days younger than Eldon, our two year old. So i made him a football hat. It wasn't perfect and it had a lot of issues, but i did my best. And i think it looks good enough :)

I love making crowns. And my boys love crowns. They are always jealous when i make them for someone else. My friend has two girls about 5 and 4 and I thought they needed crowns. Every girl needs a crown! So i made two crowns. The pink one was manipulated by me into a new pattern and i like how it turned out! Yay!

I sure hope they like all of them! I just wanted to do something :)