Felt Trees

I'm sure you've seen the "toddler proof" felt trees circling social media- well I decided to take one on.

Here's how it turned out:

This was the final (for my house, I had enough felt that I actually made another for family friends with 5 little girls).

I cut my tree our of the green, and then I sewed the trunk to it, several times to make sure it was secured.

(The trunk was a felt sheet- the ones that come 8.5x11- cut in half.)

Then I googled a few ideas for ornaments. I found a site that had several templates, but I can't find it now- sorry :( I also used a set of Christmas cookie cutters I own as a template.

(These are the first initials of the little girls in our friends' family.)

 I sewed, some hand, some machine, to secure the decorations. I contemplated leaving some changeable, but then thought that they would end up pretty quickly in my twin Ks' mouths so secured would be best. What I did leave changeable was the ribbons for the presents (which I don't have a close up of- other than this one that I added a bow and used a silver Sharpie for definition).

What I had the most trouble with... trying to figure out how to mount it to the wall. :/
I settled on sewing velcro to the tips of the tree branches, and then attaching the other side of the velcro to the wall with mounting tack. Although my twins found the velcro and had fun removing it from the wall, and then found the tack, which they tried to eat. So it wasn't completely toddler proof, and I had to move it to the hall, where they have some time with it, but not unlimited access to it. And I think next time we may use Command Strips instead of mounting tack. But overall not too bad.

Here's a shot of the little ones playing with it to end the post:

That's all for now,
Jo!

New Skirt

This project has been done a while, it's just taken me some time to write it up, sorry.

Here's a new skirt I made for KK.

Look at that twirl!! Isn't it so fun!!

It's really a very simple skirt (and even easier if you use a jersey instead of cotton like I did).
The directions are here (sorry that it take you to page where you have to follow a link for the actual directions, but I wanted you to see the actual skirt instead of just the instructions).

I found the cute circle fabric at Goodwill for $.88- and it was 5 ft long!! That's almost two yards of fabric for less than a dollar!! Hello budget friendly!!

And the under layer of teal came from a mismatched set of pillowcases I was given from my aunt.

As you can see, I made my under level a little longer to show off more of the plain teal. (It's pretty much a perfect middle between the two teals on the circles.) Also, this was pre-hemming, so that's why it looks a little uneven- because it is.

After hemming, I attached the pieces together and then added a thick elastic waist band.

We decided on gold, it almost looks like natural turquoise, between the teals and brown circles with the gold glittery waist- I love it!! (And so does KK!!)

One last shot of the finished project:

That's all for now,
Jo!

A Few Christmas Gifts (Already Handed Out)

Here's a few things I've gotten finished for Christmas.

First off, here's the gifts we made for the teachers.

I'm sure you've seen the pin with hot cocoa in ornaments, that's what we did. And I wrapped them up in another popular Facebook pass-around of a paper plate gift box.

Here's a side shot of the ornaments:

In order, it was dark chocolate, caramel hot chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate mixes.
All the mixes were store bought, along with peppermint chips, caramel bits, coconut flakes, and mini marshmallows- and I used the collection of Christmas sprinkles I already had. The kids chose what sprinkles went with which teacher (with the exception of the caramel because it was a last minute addition) so no two teachers got the exact same gift.

For the gift box I cut a 10" circle of wrapping paper (because the paper plates are 9") and glued it to the bottom of the plate so when folded up you could still see the paper.

Top it all of with tags for descriptions and instructions, since some call for 6 oz of water/milk and others for 8 oz and then a ribbon to secure it all- BAM! Done! After finally getting everything all together and cleaning the ornaments (making sure they were dry was one of the longest parts of the process) they came together pretty quickly. I used a funnel to help fill- how else would you expect, and I had a skewer handy for when it slowed/stopped.

Next, here's the delivery men gift:

Growing up my dad was a UPS man (he's retired now, and this year is the first year he isn't delivering Christmas gifts- he's quite happy about that). Long story short- I know how hard those folks work in the month of December. I remember my dad leaving before I got up, because there were so many packages they had to help load their own trucks, and not coming home until after I was in bed, because he had that many packages to deliver. And most of those memories are from before online shopping became popular and packages became more numerous.

So I always get a gift for UPS, FedEx, and the mail man (because they work hard for you all year long- lets face it, they're at your house at least 5 days a week). This year, I ordered from 3 stores online for Christmas, I did one site-to-store, and one store passes to USPS from the shipping company so they never made it to my door, so I only had FedEx and the mail man. (In case you didn't know, FedEx and UPS both have 2 people on the truck during December to make things move faster.)

Anyways- this year I did a reusable coffee cup, filled with hot cocoa packets, hand warmers, and a few candies (Reese's, Caramel Kisses, and Melt-Away Mints this year) and added a felt scarf cup cozy. Last minute I decided to add a skewer flag with a "Merry Christmas" on one side and "Thank You" on the other. It's made of Christmas themed washi tape.

Neighbor Gift...
I don't have a picture to show you, because I was so excited to finish my first Christmas gifts that I wrapped them up before I got a photo, but here is the idea I used. I made a snow man, a Santa, and an elf for each set.
The candles I found were shorter so they took a minor tweaking, but not too much. And then I wrapped them up in a wine box, because they fit perfectly with tissue paper wrapped around each candle.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Birthday Snacks

KK turns 10 next week (it's seems like just yesterday my tiny little baby was born).

However, that means snack for the class. Her class alone only has 16 kids but they are often with the other 4th grade class which has another 15, and she wanted snacks for both classes (which she always does but doesn't always get). My only preference is to not be completely full of sugar- if you remember KL's last birthday was fruit, granola, and yogurt parfaits, which you would remember from the yogurt pops we made out of the extras. 

So we went online and looked for a few ideas but ultimately chose something of a mix of others- matter of fact, it's trail mix.

I came up with 4 "flavor" categories (sweet, salty, fruity, and grains) and then came up with 4-5 ideas to fit these categories, and avoid class allergens. From that list, I let KK choose 2 options from each category. When we took them in today, each kid will get to create their own trail mix choosing one item from each flavor selection. 

Here's the ingredients she chose:

For sweet- candy corn and candy pumpkins (I informed her they taste the same but she insisted)

For salty- cheddar crackers and Bugles chips

For grains- Multi-Grain Cheerios (or the store brand version of) and Honey Granola

For fruit- Raisins and Banana Chips

We served them in paper lunch sacks we always have on hand (for crafts most often) that we cut down a little so they're easier to reach into. And we scooped with  3 oz. paper cups. 

Here's a few shots: (only of my kids and the one's I know their parents won't mind, of course)

I was only able to get pictures of KM and KN, because KK finished passing out the snacks and left to hand out the extra to EVERY. TEACHER. IN. THE. SCHOOL. (Seriously- I didn't see her again until I went looking for her because the class was getting ready to leave.)

If you're looking to repeat here's a few other options:

Sweets - M & Ms, mini marshmallows, chocolate covered sunflower kernels

Salty - pretzels, sunflower kernels, peanuts (if allowed), almond slices, popcorn

Grains - Chex cereal, Teddy grahams, Life cereal, Kix cereal (and any of the cereals could be of the frosted variety if you want to add a little more sweetness)

Fruit - really any dried fruit will work: craisins, dried apple chips, dried blueberries, white raisins, coconut flakes

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Catching Up

I've officially finished the bathroom remodel (KL put me on a deadline so she could regain control of the TV in the toy room- which was unplugged to charge drills and run the extension cord).

The only "crafty" thing from there was a refinished mirror. Much like the medicine cabinet, we had one on the door in a wood finish that needed to be changed to black. This one was easy though, just a little sanding and then painting- viola!
Before:

 After:

Also, I may have an addiction to making hair bows.
Here's a few that I've completed recently:
Homecoming week included a school colors day, which meant orange and black bows, which I found I only had one ribbon of each color, so each girl got to choose points or loops (KK chose point and KL chose loops):

Then I made these because I had a rough week and crafting is my outlet. I just took a look through Pinterest to get a few ideas and here was the outcome:

Here's a close up of the flower, just because  I think it's deserved:

Other than that, I'm working on Christmas gifts so I can't post those yet. But once I finish the current project my next is just a skirt for my daughter so that will be post-able.


That's all for now,
Jo!