My Valentines.

This year was a fun Valentine's Day because Ingrid was in school, which meant making cards.  Luckily her teacher sent us an email asking parents not to go overboard, no candy or toys, just simple cards the kids made themselves.  I am totally fine with that!  We cut some printer paper in half, folded them into cards, and Ingrid sat and drew with markers and put heart stickers on them.  It took a few days of her doing this little by little, and in the end we had a nice stack for the class. 

 I also helped out at her school the other day.  We made these heart guy bags for them to put their cards in.  It was so funny to help out a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds!  And they all think you're a teacher because you happen to be an adult, so kids came up to me asking me permission to do things.

Of course some parents went crazy anyway and made some Pinterest inspired cards that obviously were not made by the kids themselves.  I do like the paint chip bookmarks, but I was not about to sit and make 32 of them for my kid.  I love that she wanted to sit and draw and create her own cards! 

 

We got her glasses a couple days ago, so now she is wearing them full time.  She is adorable, there is just no getting around it.  And she looks about ten years older when she wears them...

 If you've noticed my square pictures, you can see I have finally joined the Instagram party.  I'm not so much into the sharing part, but oh my god, I love the square pictures!  I love the borders and filters!  Even pictures that aren't completely in focus look better because they look like they were taken with some 70s camera and developed at one of those Fox places, right??

And now it's the weekend and we are going to shop for a stove and a refrigerator.  Possibly paint Ingrid's dresser.  Definitely bathe the dirty children.  And maybe go buy a cake for my birthday tomorrow?  I love cake.  It's a fun filled weekend, woohoo!

Snot.

It has started.  The months and months of someone, possibly everyone, being snotty nosed.  My poor kids are raw from nose blows and drool.  And cranky.  I'm cranky, too.  And it's only September.

 So we have been wearing our pj pants a lot during the afternoons, playing guys and cars with Brendan's old Fisher Price set, finding colorful leaves, and today we did an easy peasy Halloween craft I found on pinterest.  Simple paper ghosts and pumpkins taped to a circle to make a little wreath!  It took us a good long time to do but was super easy and not messy at all.  The perfect craft in my book.

Pay It Forward :)

Our blogger friends Heather and Pippi sent us this sweet little house and dollies yesterday.  Ingrid has had a lot of fun with it, although she swears it's a hat and can't understand why it won't fit on her head...I think this house is so cute!!  I would totally live in it.

This is part of a fun activity of paying it forward.  Heather got a package from a nice lady in New Zealand, I got one from her, and now I want to give one to you!  If you're interested in playing along, leave me a comment.  I'll get five crafty little packages sent out, and you can choose your own five blogger friends to pay it forward! 

Busy Winter Days

Yesterday we stuck around home and kept ourselves busy.  I had a pile of Ingrid's drawings I didn't know what to do with so we cut them into strips and made a paper chain!  When we take it down after the holidays I'll put it up in Ingrid's room.

We also played with the punching balloons we'd gotten for party favors for our party last week.  Ingrid LOVES these things, so entertaining!

And she helped me wrap her presents.  I like this age where I don't have to hide what we got her.  She thought it was great fun laying on the wrapping paper saying "night night" and drooling everywhere...

I got a lot of sewing done yesterday, I just realized how much.  Not only did I finish the apple quilt, but I finished and listed a few more coffee cup holders on etsy, and I made two little aprons.  They are my next endeavor for my etsy shop, aren't they cute?  I have to take some pics of Ingrid wearing one, she looks adorable.  Of course.

It's Christmas, Y'all!

Here are some pictures from yesterday.  Brendan went to work late so I got to get some work done.  We got twinkle lights the other day for our shelf, so it looked all nice and festive. 

I got a bunch of coffee cup holders done for Applesauce Crafts.  Within five minutes of posting them for sale, I'd sold two!  Yay!

I also worked on the goody bags for the party on Sunday.  I need to get more goodies for them, but they are coming along nicely for scrap fabric and ribbon!

And finally, it is COLD here now.  Like windy blustery snowy cold.  I shouldn't say snowy, we only have a dusting.  If anyone's seen how crazy it's been in the midwest, we missed all that...I love how weather works, my family lives on the other side of the state like two hours away and they got dumped on and schools have been closed.  We, however, got the smallest dusting and that was that.  But it's enough for me to realize it really is winter...Ingrid and I got super bundled and took Cody out yesterday afternoon.  Thank god we have the ring sling.  I remember last year I couldn't fit the pouch sling over my coat or hers, it was too much fabric!  But with the ring sling we have tons of room for all the extra padding. 

New Stockings

I finished our stockings today!  I really didn't need to make them but I wanted to.  We have stockings from before we had Ingrid, and she has two other stockings people have given us.  But one says Baby's First Christmas, which it isn't anymore, and the other one isn't actually finished.  My aunt cross stitched one for her and it's gorgeous, but unfinished and I know I won't make it by this Christmas.  Maybe next year!

Good Things.

Good things around here:

A happy girl with her "cool dude" sunglasses. She thinks she is hot stuff with these on!


More birthday crowns done, with fabric covering the elastic. Looks cute and uses up those scraps.



A grown up bed again! Kind of. We lost a wheel to our bed frame in the move and have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Yesterday Ingrid and I saw someone was throwing their frame away so I grabbed a wheel and took it home. It wouldn't stay in, though, so I was crafty and used some of Ingrid's play dough to make it stick. So, adult bed in that is has real bedding and an actual frame, not so adult because it's stuffed with play dough...


An etsy sale from someone I DON'T EVEN KNOW!! It's always exciting to sell something, but this is my first sale to someone random! How cool that they liked something I made that they would even pay money for it. Yay.

Traditions

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was on last night. I remember watching that every year, and so does Brendan. We recorded it and let Ingrid watch some of it tonight after dinner. She never gets to watch TV before bed, so she was a little confused at first. But she cuddled up on Brendan's lap and I watched another generation starting the Charlie Brown tradition. She is getting so big so quickly!!

I made a couple crowns today. I'm loving these!! They are so cute. I was hoping to get them done for Ingrid's playdate with Allie today, but it didn't quite happen that way. I got them done after she went to bed. So, they are for next time.

Lady's Road Trip

We are leaving for Fremont in a couple hours, just Ingrid and I. Brendan has tons of work to do, and my family is all having a get together over on the other side of the state. So, perfect time for us gals to take a road trip! It's three hours away, which is a long time. For some reason, though, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I think it's because for so long a three hour drive meant driving through Chicago and all the horrible traffic, but this three hour drive is just a straight shot across boring old Michigan, no traffic and just some pretty fall trees to look at.

So...we have the dvd player and Charlie and Lola packed up, and we're off to see Great Grandma and Grandpa, Gramma, all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Should be fun!

On a crafty note, these are some of the first ornaments I've made for Applesauce Crafts. I still don't know how I feel about them. Should they be stuffed? I have a bunch cut out waiting to be sewn and I think I will see what they look like with a little fiberfill in them. Either way, I think they're pretty cute. I just got like five more yards of felt yesterday so I will have plenty to work with :)

Silly Hats and Feeding Bears

After seeing this post from Claire, I had to try to make this Pixie Hat. Ingrid and I took a trip to Salvation Army yesterday and got a pretty green sweater that was half off. I got it home and tried to sew it together, and found that the needle just pulled the sweater down and ripped it. Fun! After reading the manual to the sewing machine, I found a tip to use wax paper under the fabric, so I tried that--it worked so well! I added some ribbon for ties and viola, in ten minutes I had a cute little hat! The spots weren't on the sweater originally--I'm going to blame drool for those.

I used the same basic idea with flannel and a lining fabric and came up with this one:

Ingrid wasn't too pleased to have her picture taken, but she did keep the hat on the whole time we were outside! Personally, I think it's the cutest thing ever...

Unless this is the cutest thing ever:

I looked over at Ingrid today and found her feeding goldfish crackers to her teddy bear. Every day she does something more adorable than the last!!

Our Bruiser

Ingrid tripped a couple days ago and scraped her face up. She just completely face planted into the sidewalk, didn't even put out her arms to try to save herself...So, she has a black eye. It looks a lot better now, but she looked so pathetic when it happened!

We found a hat our friend Hannah made for Ingrid. I got this at a baby shower and it only just now fits. Doesn't it look cute on Ingrid?? And it's inspired me to try to make a bonnet for her, since I keep seeing them and wanting to try to make one.

I've also been wanting to try a felt crown, after seeing Heather make hers for birthday gifts. What a great idea! And our friend Ben is having a party on Saturday, a monster themed party, so I made this for him:


I hope he likes it!

Our Monday (and Book Sharing, Too!)

This morning has been pretty busy. Ingrid attacked, er, pet the cat. It is so funny how Fletcher takes this abuse, er, love. He meows pathetically and yet doesn't try at all to escape...

While Ingrid ate her "wa-foo" I cut out some squares from my box of scraps. Then when she went down for her nap, I sewed them together to make this:

I am just realizing that a couple of the boxes got put on upside down or sideways, and I thought I had been so careful! How do quilters make such masterpieces?? This is going to end up being a lovey or change pad anyway, so it will just be covered in drool or other bodily fluids. I guess an upside down block isn't that big of a deal.

And now onto Book Sharing Monday. Ingrid LOVES all the Carl books. We found two more at the library last week and she's taken to them right away. She'll just sit there and page through, looking at the pictures and talking to herself. For those that don't know, the Carl books are about a baby and the Rottweiler that babysits her. They get into all kinds of adventures and mischief while the mom goes about her business.



My mom saw them and said, "Can you imagine ever letting a big dog like that watch your child?!" Sadly, I can totally see Ingrid riding around a Rottweiler. She loves all dogs, but especially the big ones. Yesterday at the dog park she ran over excitedly when Sampson the Newfoundland came in. He came right up, slobbered all over her, and she smiled like she'd won the lottery. Go over to Serendipity to find out more about Book Sharing Monday!