Wreaths: Valentine's Day & St. Patrick's Day

Thanks to pinterest, I've been interested in making wreaths for holidays lately. I got the inspiration for my Valentine's Day wreath from the site and copied it exactly. I got the inspiration for my St. Patrick's Day wreath in a dream. Random, I know.

I love love love the way this turned out. 

This one I am not thrilled with. I feel like it needs something else but I'm not sure what. Maybe a shamrock up towards the top? I don't know. Thoughts/opinions? 

Here's a close up of the rainbow I made for it

Our 6th Anniversary

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. We like to follow the traditional anniversary gift ideas for each year and this year happened to be candy/sugar. Anyone who knows Matt knows how perfect that was! So I set out to the store to find six of his favorite candies. I wanted to make a candy bouquet for him. Unfortunately, some of his favorite candies were not the easiest to work with but in the end, I think the bouquet turned out nicely. I just wasn't able to include the Red Vines in it.

To make the bouquet I used a flower foam, craft sticks, and a hot glue gun. I glued two of each candy onto one stick so there would be no "back" side to them. Then I stuck the sticks into the flower foam. I lined the bottom of the vase with skittles in a rainbow pattern -- or at least attempted to! It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. Then I put the Starburst on top of that. I had to stick the flower foam all the way into the bottom of the vase for stabilization so I put a small piece of tissue paper underneath it so it wouldn't look so ugly. I think it turned out pretty cute, especially given what I was working with. What do you think? 

Pinterest Project: 4th of July Wreath

It was my first attempt at making a wreath and I have to say, I am very proud of myself for how this turned out! In fact, I think I like mine better than the original :-)

The Challenge: 
4th of July yarn wreath created by Naptime Crafting

                                                                   Source: naptimecrafting.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

The Supplies: 
-straw wreath form
- red, white, and blue yarn (I used "I love that yarn" brand)
- 2 packages of white star buttons (can't remember what brand I bought)
- hot glue gun
- scissors

The Results: 
My wreath!

What do you think??? 

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{Top Ten Tuesday} Pinterest Projects I'm DYING To Make

My mom always decorated nicely for holidays when I was growing up. Even simple holidays were a big deal for us. So holidays have remained a big deal for me. I try to decorate as well, though I don't have as much of an eye for it as she does. So needless to say, many of my "MUST DO" projects from pinterest are holiday themed. Here are a few that I think will be making appearances around my house soon -- I hope!! And I'll be sure to update with pictures of them when they are completed :-)

• Fourth of July Wreath {some variation of this}

Source: naptimecrafting.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Family Initial Sign

Source: delightfullynoted.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Mitten Snowman

Source: thenshemade.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Easter Garden

Source: abidingwithlove.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Easter Egg  Garland {I wanted so badly to make this this year but I felt too guilty taking all those paint samples! I'll have to stock up a little at a time to make it for next year}

Source: modernparentsmessykids.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Halloween Boo Sign {I am absolutely positively making this!!! I think I'll start soon!}

Source: thenshemade.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Un-Paper Towels {I have wanted to make these for awhile. Adorable REUSABLE "paper" towels. Time to green up the kitchen!}

Source: etsy.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Quiet Book {I want to make one of these so bad. But they are a lot of work. And my kids probably wouldn't care much about it anymore}

Source: fortytworoads.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Embroidery Hoop Turkey

Source: gwennypenny.com via Emily on Pinterest

• Valentine's Heart Tree {Came very close to making this last year but couldn't find a tree I liked}

Source: griffithsrated.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

What a Pinteresting Idea

I've been on Pinterest for awhile now, gathering ideas of things to do and make. One of the first pins I had was for this button wreath and I knew immediately that I wanted to make one of my own. I finally finished mine today - it's my first pinterest inspired crafting. What do you think?

Original:

From MathaStewart.com

Mine: 

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{Almost} Wordless Wednesday: Sensory Block

Here is a sensory block that I made for Jordan. I think it turned out pretty cute and I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm thinking of making a few more for some friends babies.

testing it out

a gummy smile - the baby seal of approval

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The Great Freezer Defrosting

We recently had to defrost our downstairs freezer. This wouldn't have been a huge deal except for the fact that the freezer was overtaken by frozen milk bags. I had over 100 bottles pumped and frozen and would have been more than devastated if they didn't survive the defrost. Since breastmilk has to be used or discarded 24 hours after thawing and cannot be refrozen, we had to make sure it stayed cold. We borrowed two big coolers from my in-laws and the help of Mother Nature. For once, I was thankful for the cold and snow.

The coolers were big enough that we expected to use one for milk and the other for the rest of the food. We brought the smaller (but still BIG) cooler downstairs and filled it overflowing with bottles. But, there were more!!!

Matt then transfered the bottles to the bigger cooler. They were still overflowing. We had to put some bottles in the next cooler. In the end, we used the two big borrowed coolers and two small coolers of our own. We also stuffed our upstairs freezer with as much as we could as well. And a couple of things just sat outside in the snow by themselves.

The freezer was finally defrosted and at 12am we were able to bring everything back downstairs and begin organizing the freezer. Unfortunately, the milk got all mixed up during the moves so we had to resort by date and time. However, working together, it didn't take too long this time. We decided to count them while we were at it. Final count: 116 bottles

Thank you Girls, thank you.

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Bean Bags

Last week I got myself interested in making a set of beanbags for Jacob. I was inspired by my friend, Adrian, who mentioned making some for her son. So off we went to the fabric store.

I decided to do each of the primary colors in his rainbow themed toy room and make two of each. This way we would end up with 10 bean bags - perfect for learning numbers! And with all of the colors, they are perfect for learning colors as well. Thanks to my former-teacher mother, it's always all about education over here.

I cut the fabric at 19 cm by 19 cm. I simply made a visual of how big I wanted them and added a few cm to each side to allow for stitching. I did it in cm because Jake was napping and our yard stick is in his bedroom. Measuring and cutting are my least favorite parts of sewing.

I sewed around three edges and part way around the fourth edge. Then I flipped them inside out (it didn't matter too much which sides were up and down because the fabric was the same on both sides - though one side did have my pen marks on them!) Once they were flipped I filled them up with rice. I used rice because Adrian had mentioned using rice and I thought it was a good idea. It made them really squishy, plus if they break apart on accident, it won't be a big deal. If either Jake or the dog eats them, neither will choke or get sick on it. Once they were filled to how squishy I wanted them, I pressed the unsewn edge down and sewed once more all the way around the bean bag. This time, I did not take the needle out of the bag for corners.

Here is the finished project. I think they turned out pretty good! They aren't perfect but Jake doesn't care. And for my first attempt at anything like this, I am pretty proud of myself :-)

Home Improvements

Since we're "stuck" here in this house, I have a bug up my butt about some things I'd like changed/fixed up. So here is my on-going list of home improvements I'd like to make... none of which will probably happen any time soon but a girl can dream, right?

- Repaint toy room

- Put up back-splash in kitchen

- Redo kitchen cabinets

- Put in a shower door instead of curtain in our bathroom