A Giveaway and a quilt

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone had a magnificent feast with the ones you love & care about! :)

Okay, so I did something a little intimidating and a lot of crazy. I signed up for Sew Mama Sew!'s giveaway on Wednesday! Eeeek! I'm nervous about it, what if nobody wants what I'm willing to GIVE away? That aside, I'm excited about the idea of giving something back to the blog-land that I get so much inspiration from. Check back on Wednesday to see what the goody is! :) Then Miss Mati finished up the first nativity quilt for me and I absolutely LOVE IT! :) *We're trading quilting time for piano lessons. To see the last quilt she did, click here.* Mati seemed actually apologetic about it, but she did exactly what I asked ... not to put too much time into a blanket that is only on their beds for one month out of the year. It is fabulous! She did these beautiful leaves all along the outside border & Christmas trees in the large red stripes. Then swirls and stars with outlining on each & every single little character and animal in the nativity panel.I. LOVE. IT! I tried taking pictures to show you all it's amazing-ness ... she used contrasting thread with the back and hopefully you can see the see it, it's just so perfect!

Okay, I have a LOT of work to get done for the giveaway and that upcoming craft fair in only two weeks. Come back on Wednesday for the giveaway!

Christmas tree (wip)

So we have a 15 month old boy this year. Which means, no ornaments below his reach. Every other time I've just forgone ornaments on the bottom of the tree, but it seemed so bare! So I picked up two boxes of those shatterproof ornaments and put them on tonight, I think they add a nice red touch to the green tree. And then tomorrow we'll add the rest of the ornaments. Now when there still isn't anything really in reach, at least it won't look as obvious. LOL.

Thanks for the excitement about the baby. We're pretty thrilled and now that I can regularly feel lots of little kicks and movements I must admit I've been a lot more relaxed as a Momma. :)

I've almost fully decorated for Christmas and I'll have to post some photos on that later, but right now it's time to focus on that big holiday next week! Eek! It's going to just be my little family of five and I'm thrilled with the idea of getting to do this special holiday just us ... not that extended family isn't great, but let's all be honest ... sometimes it's better to be on our own. LOL.

I looked around for some fun ideas and finally settled on a fun, kids table. I was going to go really fancy, but this seems smarter with the kids and they are actually acting interested in it all. We're doing a big butcher paper table cloth, tied napkins w/ crayons and Hunter helped me pick out some graphics from here. And we've made cute little name tags.We've been working on our gratitude tree and it's been really fun hearing the things the kids are grateful for each day. Today Hunter was grateful for his home (because he said he loves his family ... awwww), and Savannah has become obsessed with shopping & stores lately, so her's was malls (and she's only three!). Here's our tree from last year (premade digi-page from here):

Then I really love this turkey idea as a snack for the kids ... I'm trying to make it as easy as possible, so a lot of the meal won't be "hand made". The pies will be via Costco & probably the rolls too and my stuffing will be from a box, but we'll still keep busy that day. Does anybody have any other fun ideas?

Look-ee here!

I had a miscarriage between my 1st & 2nd child, so we don't really announce too much usually until I can feel the kicks and see the baby. Well, yesterday was my first Dr.'s appt. at almost 17 weeks (don't even get me started on that one), and today we went and got a 4D ultrasound done. It's a boy! Savannah's a little disappointed, she wants another girl ... maybe next time. ;) And for those of you doing the math ... that's almost a 20 month gap between Colton & the next ... finally I can pick up cute matching clothes for the kids! YEAH! :)

And the stress has begun ...

Glad you like the box! I think it's really fun. :)

And as for stress ... well ... my husband is completely against me on this. And when we talked about it yesterday, he let me know that he would readily be there to say I told you so, LOL (he wouldn't dare). For what? Well, Thanksgiving Dinner of course! His idea of fun would be to take THREE little children to a restaurant to enjoy our meal. He of course would enjoy his dinner I'm sure. I would only get it to go. The kids aren't bad at restaurants, in fact they've gotten a lot better. But, Thanksgiving is a whole new level of waiting to be seated, fed and keeping them happy. I'd rather have a happy family day at home.

It's going to be just my little family of five for Thanksgiving and that feels like a perfect holiday. There is so much to be thankful for this year and I plan on making it special for all of us.

So I've been looking for fun ideas. So far, I love the idea of butcher paper & crayons. Then I have been seeing a TON of different ideas that seem like fun. I liked the idea of a pilgrim boat for name tags. And I have these darling little Turkey placemats from Pottery Barn. There's only three of them, and I was going to try and get more, but they were going for over $40 USED on ebay (no thanks). But I don't want it to be cheesy either, you know? Any fun, kid friendly ideas?

Exploding Scrapbook Box

So I saw this idea here on etsy and LOVED it!!! I have never really delved into paper scrappin'. I do digital because it's cheaper for us now and I can print multiple copies ... and the whole, "no mess to clean up" really is perfect! So I was very intimidated to try this, but I love the end results. We have a church craft night coming up and I'm teaching this to the other gals in the group, it should be lots of fun!

Unplanned crafty break

So I did not plan on checking out for the past three months ... but am finally feeling a bit better and am ready to tackle Christmas. We got into the craft fair, it's December 13th down at the Water St. in Henderson. So I have been taking mounds of felt and turning them into this ... That's just one part of the four sets I have to do! These things are taking WAY longer than I ever imagined ... hopefully they look cute & sell! :)

Then another little side project (when there is free time that is) has been this ... Each year for Christmas the kids each have their own Christmas tree in their room and their own Christmas bedding. But every nativity I have ever gotten them has been destroyed, eaten or lost baby Jesus. So when I saw the cute nativity panels last year from Nancy Halverson, it seemed perfect! I bought enough of the fabric to make six twin size blankets (when it was on clearance for $4 a yard). I have wanted to make cute, individual blankets for each child ... but have run out of time! And finally realized that Miss Mati will do a great job quilting them for me (check out the quilt she's already done!), they are only on the bed one month or so each year and it's time to just get them done!