Carson's Christmas Ornament

 I love this idea that has been floating around Pinterest. I really wanted to do it last year with Carson's little newborn self, but we never got around to do it. I thought about just doing it now with his foot, but I wanted his littler footprint. Not the bigger one he has now. I thought about scanning in his newborn footprint they took in the hospital (used with black ink), but I didn't want the ornament to be black. And I have no clue if there is a way I can change the color.

Well, last Valentine's I made this for Cory.

This has been on our fridge since February. Cory will NOT let me take it down! ha ha. He loves it!

Carson was 2 months when I did that--good enough. So I scanned in his little foot and printed it on vellum.

I actually sorta screwed this little project up at first. The first problem was that I was using the matte finish and not the gloss finish of mod podge. And I put mod podge on both the back and front of the foot print. Bad idea! That made the paper crinkle really bad and it just looked awful with mod podge slathered over the top.

So, I printed a new one and looked up the best way to mod podge vellum to glass. Only apply mod podge to the back! It was as simple as that. Then I wiped around the edges with a wet paper towel to get rid of the excess mod podge. 

It turned out great!

I added his name and birthday to the back too. :)

Baby Leggings.

Baby leggings are not just for girls. 

Boys can rock them too. I seriously want to make 10 more pair. These are so fun and easy and fast to make. Here's the tutorial. Now he can crawl around without poor hurt red knees.

Basket liner and lamp shade re-do.

So, I really have been trying to keep myself busy and occupied. I've been baking and crafting and reading and watching Pretty Little Liars. Anything to keep me from thinking about Eden too much. It has really been helping me. If I start dwelling, I start crying--and I can't stop. So this past month I've done a few things to keep me going.

I've been wanting to re-do a lampshade for awhile now. My friend Nicole was having a yard sale and was selling the perfect lampshade for my project. Thanks, Nicole! Here's what I did:

I messed up the first time I attempted this. The top of the shade is a little smaller than the bottom, so it was a little tricky. I can't find the exact tutorial I saw. But if you search Pinterest I'm sure you'll get the idea. This was so fun and I love how it turned out!

I used the extra fabric to re-do a basket.

The ugly before and much better after. This was way easier than I thought it would be. And it was really fun. If I had more fabric, I'd do it to the other baskets I have. I didn't have a tutorial for this one--which I'm proud of. I just ripped apart the original and used it as a pattern. :) I felt very crafty once I was done.

A Year of Crafts

I am happy to announce I successfully accomplished my goal of at least 1 craft a month for the 2011 year.  Here is what I did for December.

Burp Cloths!

These were fun to do!

I made Carson a tie out of my wedding dress for his blessing. I got the tutorial here.

I measured the neck a little small. Oops. It worked out anyway.

We somehow managed to forget to take pictures on his blessing day. Which was a bummer because I wanted a picture with my family! We had to re-dress Carson and frantically take some pictures. You'll have to excuse the terrible pics. The child would not hold still. Also, my wonderful friend Marci made him some pants to wear. Thank you again Marci! You are great! It was a beautiful blessing by the way. Cory did a wonderful job preparing.

Our Carseat Cover Project

Welp, we did it. We made a carseat cover. This has been a goal of mine for a long time and I'm happy we accomplished it. Cory helped me a ton. He loved doing this one with me. It was a lot of fun to work on this together. We didn't follow a tutorial. I read a bunch and got the general idea. It took us a few trys to get the right measurements for our particular carseat. Once we finally got that figured out, it went pretty smooth. We did fleece on the inside and a thick fabric on the outside. We added rick-rack and buttons as embellishments and we love how it turned out!

Cory's Amazing Accomplishment

So Cory has been looking for a new pair of jeans. He found some he liked but they didn't have the size he needed. He decided to get a longer pair and somehow make them shorter. We YouTubed how to hem jeans and found a great video! Cory spent the next hour or so hemming his jeans "the professional way." I didn't help him one bit. He did it all on his own! Not that I would be much help anyway. I have never hemmed anything in my life. I am so proud of him. This is why we bought a sewing machine. Cory was happy with his purchase and we didn't have to find a tailor. Props to Cory! I'm super impressed! I took a bunch of pictures of one leg hemmed and one not. I'm really proud obviously. 

November Craft

I'm such a copy-cat. But I couldn't help it. I mean, this turkey was too cute to pass up. Why aren't there more tutorials for cute turkeys out there?!? Turkeys could be one of the cutest decorations. And why do we go from all these fabulous Halloween ideas straight to Christmas? I for one enjoy Thanksgiving. I remember at home in Utah we would have this ginormous poster of a turkey running--more like sprinting if you can imagine. My mom would put it up every year. She thought it was the funniest thing.  Now I wish I had something similar to put up because it is pretty hilarious. Until then, this cute turkey will have to do. Here is the link to the tutorial.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to get a 2x4 in the right size. And I felt dumb going to home Home Depot and asking for a huge 2x4 to be cut down so small. We did end up going however and while I was snooping around in their scrap wood, I found a small enough piece to work with. And I thought I would just grab a paint stick on my way out as well. They didn't make me pay for those either. So this little project cost me next to nothing!

October Craft

I love making Halloween decorations! There were quite a few things I wanted to do. Here is what I ended up doing.

I got the "BOO" idea from here.

I had a little trouble with the candy corn. They were a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I struggled through. They did not look professional by any means but they are still cute! I got the tutorial here.  Oh! And the vase I got at Hobby Lobby. It was clear glass. Cory told me to paint it black and I'm so glad I did! I had a lot of fun with these!

September Craft

This is the big moment we have all been waiting for... 

I mentioned we were doing something HUGE for the baby's room...

We are finally done!

Check this out...

Before...

After...

We took apart, sanded, stained, glossed and managed to put this back together. When I say we, I really mean Cory. We switched out the dowels for straight ones because we think it looks better. We also ripped apart the cushion and put on brand new soft fabric. You may notice there are only 2 stitching lines on the top cushion instead of 4 like before. Again, we thought it looked less old-looking with 2. I will be the first to admit a lot of blood, sweat, tears, cussing, frustration, stress, time...etc, went into this chair. We (more like I...) had a lot of  mistakes during the sewing part of this project. There were quite a few things we had to re-do.

We got help from this tutorial. I like to stick to instructions. Especially since I'm not the world's greatest sewer. But when things went horribly, terribly wrong, Cory would say, "Why don't you do it this way instead." Then I would hear my stubborn self say,"Well that would never work!"We ended up scraping the instructions for the top cushion because let's face it, sewing is not my thing. Who would have thought fabric glue and tracing things with a disappearing ink marker would make things go a whole lot smoother. I like to call some of Cory's sewing ideas "The Man Way" even though they always go better than "The Right Way." Now the foot rest is another story... I don't think we'll do that. We haven't even touched it.

We are so glad this project is done and over with! I don't think we will ever do anything like this again. Even though we originally only paid $20 for the chair, I don't think it was worth it! Ha. But it is an amazing feeling to step back and think, "Wow, we actually did all of this."

August Craft

I know I said I probably wouldn't be doing something for August but this just happened to work out. Um, so everyone keeps telling us how bare our walls are. We didn't think they were really that bare. Apparently, we were wrong. Consequently I decided awhile ago how I wanted to do some kind of wall art for our poor walls. One day, I went to the dollar store and found a few things that looked like this...

I almost forgot to take a before picture. Which is why there is Mod Podge smeared all over this little piece of work.

I thought how perfect they would be for my wall project. I slapped some scrapbook paper on these beauties and voila! Now, I had originally done just 4. (the blue and orange) But Cory said it would look much better if we added 2 more. Of course he was right. We are pretty satisfied with the results. 

Now hopefully our friends won't think our walls are too bare.

July Craft

So.... Here's what I did for July.

A grocery bag holder!

I had been wanting to make one for quite some time now. It probably would have been cheaper to just buy one somewhere. But I needed more sewing practice. And I really love the fabric.

I am not sure where I want to hang it. So for the past month it has been hanging above our trash can. And as you can see, it is already bulging with bags!  HERE is where I got the tutorial.

I'm not going to put a craft up for August. We have been busy doing lots of baby things. Right now, we are in the midst of a major craft. I'll post about it when it's finished. Hopefully it will be done by October. But don't worry. I'll make up for my lost August craft. I am definitely planning on doing lots of Halloween stuff. There is so much I want to do! I told myself I'm not allowed to start any Halloween decorations or crafts until September. One more week until Spooktakular September!

20 week pics + May & June Crafts

I'm 20 weeks!!! Yay! Here are my 20 week pictures for those who don't live near me. We find out the sex this week!

I have finally gotten around to posting about the past couple of crafts I have done. Honestly, I didn't do anything in May except lay on the couch. I did these two in June to make up for May. And I even broke out my sewing machine for the first time ever! The first one I did was a maternity band found here.

 This didn't turn out how I expected. It doesn't seem to fit me right and it seems big. Maybe I'm not big enough to wear it. It may have something to do with the type of fabric I used. I think the fabric is too stretchy and too thick. I may end up making another one and if that is the case, I will definitely use a different fabric. 

I also made some adorable bookmarks. I found the tutorial here. I made a practice one and sent another one to my sister Eden for her birthday. Thank you Rachel for the scrap fabric! 

I was not too happy with either one of these. Those corners were hard. If I sew in a straight line, I do alright. It's when I need to curve or turn when I sew that things go askew. I wish I was perfect at sewing without really having to try. But I'm not.

To end on a good note, my next post will be on our ultrasound! We can't wait! :)

April Craft

I was going to post this with my May craft but I haven't got around to finishing it yet.

But I really love this wreath I made for Easter.

I found it HERE.

Cory helped me quite a bit with this one. I had a hard time wrapping those eggs at first. And of course, Cory was better at it than me. No surprise there. Once I got the hang of it, I took over. 

This project took me FOREVER though! Good thing I had a lot of free time on my hands or I would not have finished it.

At first I wasn't so sure I liked how it turned out. But now I love it! It's about time to take it down, which makes me sad. I can't wait to put it up next year!

March Craft

Ok. So I love wreaths/door hangers right now. So I went with another one for March.

I know this is a terrible picture.

I found it Here. I really wanted to add something to it though, so I found some stickers I really liked and added the "LUCKY."

Dec, Jan, & Feb Crafts

So...... One of my New Year's goals is to make at least one craft project a month. I recently discovered how much I love making crafts. In December I decided to start off a little easy and just make a hat for my sister-in-law Amber for Christmas. I made one for myself first to make sure I remembered how to still make hats from a loom. I bought some cute flowers to go with them. I think they turned out great!

I made Amber the one with the white flower

For my craft project for January I decided I wanted to make a Valentine's Day decoration. I found the cutest topiary HERE. It literally took me the entire day. But it was so worth it! I love this topiary with all my heart. I found the pot at Hobby Lobby. I did a few things a little different. Instead of buying a ball of the green foam and buying foam for the pot, I found topiary ones already made! I also didn't paint the dowel. I liked it unpainted.

The foam for the pot fit a little funny in the actual pot. So I put ribbon around the top and it worked out just fine! Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?!?

Amber came over and made a craft as well. She made a really cute wreath.

My favorite are the doves. So adorable!

I love the Valentine's crafts so much I wanted to keep this going in February as well. I also wanted to make a wreath. There were so many options I had a hard time figuring out what type of wreath I wanted to do. I went with this... The tutorial is found HERE.

I had trouble with this one. I honestly could not find a Styrofoam heart wreath ANYWHERE! Even after various trips to multiple craft stores. So I had to improvise. I ended up purchasing a big rectangle of Styrofoam and cutting out my own heart. I do not recommend this. Once all the glue dried, it was very fragile and ended up breaking into 3 different pieces. I was super mad. I had spent a good amount of time on this wreath and I have to admit, a tear or two came rolling down my cheek. But with the hot glue gun and a little finishing spray used from my last project, I was able to fix it. It now hangs proudly on my front door. I am 75% confident it will not break again. But next time I'm going with the real stuff.

I hope I get around to making something good next month. It'll be difficult, but I can do it (I hope). And since Cory bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, the possibilities are endless! So look for my next project next month :)

Lately...

I love fall. The smells, leaves, weather, everything. This is my favorite time of the year. I am also reminded of when Cory and I started dating. We did lots of Fall time activities. And..... Tomorrow we will have been married for a year and a half!! So, congrats to us!

So I know my birthday was over a month ago. But I got a birthday card from Benihana. So we went a few weeks ago. I have always loved Tepanyaki but Cory had never been. So we went and it rocked. Cory loved it. Unfortunately, I was getting over an infection when we went. So I couldn't enjoy this dinner as much as I would have liked to. But it was still magnificent. They took our picture! I think ALL restaurants should do this.

I look like a poor cancer patient. Cory looks like he is doing his ill friend a favor by taking them out for dinner.

 So... I checked out one of my old YW leaders blogs. Her name is Chelsea and she is super cute. She made the cutest earrings out of buttons and I just absolutely had to try it. So I did. But somehow my little craft project turned into Cory's little craft project. He told me we had to get a saw from Home Depot so he could complete this craft project. When we got home, he immediately went to work. He loved it. And I loved that he wanted to make me earrings. They turned out great! Thanks Chelsea for this fabulous idea!!!

Because I love Fall so much, I wanted to make a lot of Fall time treats. Last weekend I made these pumpkin cheesecake things with a ginger snap crust. I thought they were delicious. But Cory did not. We ended up having a small Halloweeny party last night. Me and Cory and Amber and Warren made some great stuff....

A & W's Monster Claws. (Chicken Fingers)

Cory's Halloween eyeballs ( deviled eggs)

A & W's pumpkin cake!!!

My homemade wassail. It smelled SOOO good!

And my pizza mummies. Don't laugh. They tasted good at least.

Trevor and his girlfriend Karin stopped by and made us muddy buddies! Delicious! We watched the Halloween Charlie Brown. Classic. Me and Trevor used to watch it all the time! Cory bought me a 3-pack of Charlie Browns. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. All-in-all we have had a great month. We are excited for the holidays. And we can't wait for Black Friday.