So, I finished up one of the crafts last night & had to show this cuteness! It's just simple wood, painted with craft paint, add the vinyl & paint mod podge all over ... wah-lah! SUPER CUTE! :) 
I've ordered four more now for gifts for next year ... LOVE IT! :)
So right after Lizzie was born, a double seater bench came up for bid at the local auction, and Ryan was sweet enough to go get it for me. $40 was a pretty high price for something at this auction (especially if you had seen it before we painted it!), but he knew how much I wanted it and was sweet enough to get it for me. :) I finally got around to painting it, and now I just have a few spots to touch up ... but I love it! I made a slip covered pillow cover with some yummy fabric my friend gave and I think it looks fantastic right at the top of the stairs ... a lot less cluttered then it was before! :) And just wait until you see the new curtains I made out of the same checkered fabric ... that is ... if ny husband ever is home long enough to hang them up for me, lol.
I whipped up some pants using this tutorial. The pants that I made for 4th of July using the same tutorial have held up really well, except for Hunter's. But he's gotten to that rough & gruff boy stage where he's ripped a hole in every single pair of jeans he owns. Then there is a template for the butterfly shape that I put on the shirt at this blog.
Woah, it's finally over! It may not look like a lot of work ... but with so many little ones under foot, it really took all of my free time to do this party! :)
I bought this digital scrappin' kit and used it for the party invite & to make some cute cupcake toppers. Savannah wanted them to be all the colors of the rainbow ... 
I made tissue paper flowers and put them all around the house,
and arranged butterflies everywhere too (thankfully my Mom was there to help the day prior ... or nothing would have gotten done as easily). 
A simple sign was made to welcome the girls when they arrived. 
I enlarged one of the fairies from the digi-kit and made a pin the wand on the fairy game. 
Large flowers & butterflies were hung from the chandelier
My friend Lacie found a great website for the fairy wings & pre-made wands. And I made the tutu's using this tutorial (although it would have been cheaper to buy them with the fairy wings). Jedi/Elf Robes were made for the two boys using a robe pattern.
She was in absolute heaven having her friends over to play & celebrate her birthday with her. They didn't seem as interested in the games I had planned, but just playing on the swing set.
And now, thank heaven! It's done!
the only thing left to do is check Colton's length & trim his bottoms ... which will take less than 30 minutes today!!! :) YEAH!!! Hunter got 4 pairs, while Savannah & Colton each got 5. The only thing that REALLY bugs about the patterns I used were for Hunter's. They turned out like boats on him .... but thankfully he doesn't mind. Next time I'll try slimming up the sides to the size 5 or a bit smaller, rather than following the lines for a 6. Blogged about here and here. Now to start on this week's goal ... finishing the cowgirl quilt. :)
So my daughter was begging to be a pretty little ballerina dancer. So we enrolled her in a tap/dance class this summer. She's in absolute heaven. But, we keep losing her shoes. So she had to have a pretty ballerina purse, right? :) And since she's in the class with two of her cutest, best-est, best friends I told her Mom I'd make some for them to. We used a pretty ballerina print for the inside and then I put ric rac on each of the girls purses' so they could tell the difference between them.
One hot pink, one green and then I used the leftovers strips for Savannah's purse.
There was enough leftover flannel ballerina print that this week's goal is to use up the flannel I have and make some pj's for the kids ...
I wanted it to be something that would look nice, have all the fun, different prints in the ginger blossom set and still be okay to be used. I know she'll color on it with something permanent at some point, or put her dirty feet on it. And that's okay. It's her blanket, for her to love and destroy.
I used the stripe print for the sashing and the backing is just the sheet that came with the sheet set I got for the mattress. My kids never really use the sheets anyways and the coloring looks perfect. 
When I gave it to her (all finished), she hugged & kissed it and kept telling me, "thank you mommy!" :)
(Blogged about: Here, here, here and here.)
And here's the after:
The fabric was all only $3 a yard from a local home fabric store. The rug ended up being the "inspirational piece" for all the coloring ... reds, greens, browns, & yellows.
Seriously the whole window "mistreatment" took about an hour from start to finish ... love it! :)
Then I did a knock-off version of the temples from the cultural hall website. I was able to photoshop a similar looking version of the St. George temple (where we were married) and even to personalize it for only $3, the frame was $17 ... a lot cheaper than the $200 on-line price tag ($140 at Costco). 
The rest of the odds n' ends were picked up from Tai Pan Trading (in St. George ... love that place!). It helps complete that odd little corner ...
Then the family tree I picked up (for only $2.50 from a Hallmark clearance center a couple of years ago) was put on that little section of a wall on the window.
I love the gold frame that frames it all in.
It fits and fills up the space perfectly. 
And here's the throw pillows (I stole the stuffing from the other pillows). 
We pretty much already had everything, but the total spent was around $100 for all the throw pillows, curtains, frames for Ryan's diplomas, everything! LOVE IT!!! :)
and this was my version ... and my friend Christy who did one on the same day with me. (I like hers better)
An awesome friend of mine cut the circles out for us using her cricut. Then it took us most of a day to lay out the pieces, and get the shapes we wanted. 
We hot glued the buttons down. And we stitched the paper pieces, then spray glued them down. The process of actually adhering the pieces all down took less than an hour.
And the best part is, it's a LOT less than the $150 price tag of Pottery Barn Kids! :)
And I kept this green reindeer fabric as the center square thru the whole blanket. It's so nice to be getting all these blankets & projects out of the closet!!! It's going as a Christmas present to a very sweet family that we all absolutely love. In fact, I just quickly took the photos right after washing it on our way to rush over in the nick of time & deliver it. Nothing like waiting to the last SECOND. Final finished size though was a LOT smaller because of all the cutting & re-sewing, 45x59. Hope they enjoy it! :)
I didn't have enough of any particular blue for the binding, so I alternated every 20 inches with the three blues I had, i really like the scrappiness of that! 
I couldn't convince him of even looking at the other stuff. She did shooting stars all along the large blue border,
stars in the light yellow angel sash and then the first few lines of "Hark the herald angels sing" in the blue sash next to the panel. 
What amazes me about this quilt (besides the fact that it's now done, bound & on their bed ... before Christmas too!) is that the different colors REALLY make the panel look different. Savannah's blanket looks so much darker, while this blanket seems to scream out blue and softness to me. The kids love the blankets too ... which makes it perfect. I think now the piano lessons are paid thru the end of next month (maybe longer) ... thanks Mati! :)
But you know what's the best part??? Having another completed project out of my to-do list & closet! :)
