I've been wanting to blog this...

This is a quilt I made my dear friend Jen for Christmas. She really loves it and I'm so happy about that.
The back is a vintage sheet I thrifted months ago and just happened to match perfectly. Love it when that happens :)
This is my favorite block. I added some quirks to several blocks to make it interesting and it worked, it's very fun to look at :)

And, totally unrelated, this is a video of Kelby rolling over for the first time! Casey's narration makes it kinda funny :) My sister-in-law made all the kids these HUGE fleece blankets for Christmas and this is Kelby's that he's laying on. They all love them, thanks Aunt Cindy!

A Lovey

I made my little guy a blankie for Christmas.
I think he likes it :)
Aw, he's so precious.

We're Ready

We have been in a wonderful flurry of Christmas projects around here. Casey put together the girls' play kitchen the other night and it's soooo cute, we cannot wait to give it them. They are going to love it so much!!!!! (Yep, those are the instructions he's holding up and yes, he did use them!)
I've been having some fun doing Christmas projects with the girls. It's fun now that they are getting old enough to enjoy things like this. We made these little reindeer ornaments today out of their hand prints and they both thought it was pretty fun. Natalie went on to play with her scissors, scraps of paper and a glue stick. While cleaning up the scraps later, guess what I found? Yep, some lovely locks of her hair. Stinker. Thankfully, she didn't do too much obvious damage.

Here's a fuzzy one of my happy boy, just for fun :)
This was our craft last week--paper- bag-gingerbread-men-garland. I cut one for each of the girls and they colored them and then I taped them together and hung them on our kitchen island-thing.


Then I showed Natalie how to make a paper bag puppet and she named her Poppy and thought it was the funniest thing ever!

There's a short update for you! After Christmas, I will try not to be such an absentee blogger!

A Good Day

Yesterday we woke up to lots of snow and 1 degree temperature outside :) so we did not venture out to church. We stayed home and had such a lovely day. Natalie made cookies with me while the littles took naps. I picked Peanut Butter Blossoms because there is plenty for her to help with. She unwrapped all the kisses (after she found out that's what they were called, she gave each one a kiss after unwrapping it) and she rolled the dough balls in the sugar. Then she helped put the kisses on after baking. She also dipped a wet finger in the sugar a few more times than I probably realized :) Good thing we don't care about family cooties.


There was some dress-up.

and some Christmas Spirit (or pouting, where Layla was concerned.) This one's for you, Granny and Papa.

I think I'm in love

I've been working on this birthday present for Layla for a few weeks now. (She turns two on Jan. 4th.) I finally finished yesterday and I could not be happier with how it turned out! It is way cuter than I ever expected it to be and I've been dying to share it here. My sister bought this pattern at least a decade ago, so it needed some updating. I quilted my own fabric and made my own bias tape. And, I embroidered the faces on instead of transferring them. The little pocket on the front of the carrying case holds the little dresses. A few things made this project really special for me. First, I made all the clothes out of the girls' baby onesies, dresses and receiving blankets. Second, Natalie was glued to my side throughout the entire process and every day for the last week, she has woken up asking when we were going to work on Layla's special surprise. It was so sweet. I think Layla is going to LOVE this and that makes the labor-intensiveness of it so worth it. An added bonus--I didn't buy any of the materials new, it was all stuff I had on hand. I got the main fabrics at a garage sale last summer for $1!

Can you guess what I did last night?

That's right, it was a wrapping frenzy. I've never minded the gift wrapping, I actually really like doing it. And I'm still drooling over this great wrapping paper I got a Hobby Lobby :) Half off, too! Casey's still trying to teach me to wrap gifts perfectly, with perfect corners and no bubbles on the bottom. I'm getting better, but just like he learned from his mother (another perfect gift-wrapper,) I learned from mine, who used a glue gun whenever she could get away with it. Done is better than perfect, right mom? :)

Candy Mold Crayons

Finally, a Christmas gift I can blog about, assuming the little ones who are getting these for Christmas do not actually read my blog :) I noticed a box of candy molds in the basement here at my parents' house (my sister had a candy-making phase) and thought that some candy mold crayons would be a very frugal gift for the kiddos in our lives. I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but here's how I did it: Peel 4 or 5 crayons in the same color family and break them in pieces. Put them in a paper cup and stick them in the microwave for 5 or 6 minutes. Immediately pour them into the candy molds and let them sit out on the counter until they cool and fall easily out of the molds. The freezer makes it even speedier. Natalie thinks this is pretty cool and she helped with the peeling and breaking.

Lt. Casey

My hubby became an officer in the U.S. Army and this is the paper from Washington to prove it! I am so proud of him. He works so hard for our family and wears many, many hats, including full-time student, 2nd lieutenant, UPS supervisor, loyal friend and above all, he's a wonderful daddy and husband. This is the beginning of the next chapter in our lives together, since after he graduates school next semester, we will be going back to active duty military. There were times when we didn't think we'd make it through school, but we are SO glad now that we stuck it out!
Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving weekend. Natalie was sporting a Dora band aid on her head all day, since she can't stop scratching her forehead. It's looking a lot better now, though.
This is our little friend Cloe. Her dear family lives in Mexico and is visiting for the holidays, so we got to visit with them on our way home last Saturday. Natalie and Cloe have so much fun together. They are only two weeks apart and are each other's first friend.
This is the view on the drive home on Monument Hill. There really is no place like Colorado, it's just so beautiful here.
We decorated for Christmas on Sunday and the girls love looking at all the ornaments. I had to post this picture because who can resist these baby legs????

New Shoes

I made my boy some shoes yesterday. I've made so many of these, I can whip them up in about half an hour now. He watched from his swing while I sewed :) They are from flannel scraps and they are warm and perfect and they stay on his feet. Maybe I'll make him another pair to go with the tag blankie I'm making him for Christmas.

We had a nice weekend in Colorado City with Casey's family. His brother is moving his auto shop to a great new location and I didn't want to stay home by myself while Casey went to help. It's always nice to have a change of scenery once in awhile. We're going back down for Thanksgiving so I'll have another whirlwind day getting ready. It takes A LOT of effort to get all of us down there. We have to take sooo much stuff just for a few nights.

Happy birthday to my dear hubby today! The big 2-8 :)

Natalie is wearing undies on her head right now. I asked her why and she said it's her Cinderella scarf so she can go feed the chickens. Silly girl.

I know my posts have been few and far between lately, but really, can ya blame me? Besides having three little ones, the few projects I have been working on are Christmas gifts and I can't share them here yet. So, if I don't post until after Thanksgiving, I hope all of you have a blessed week and are truly Thankful for the Lord's gifts to you. If you need some help being thankful, here are some great posts about giving thanks on Femina.

What a Potato Head

Natalie and I were having some fun with Play-Doh the other day. The tub of Mr. Potato Head pieces was close by so this is what happened :) I came across this picture the other day on Let's Explore. Another great idea for potato head parts, especially if you're trying to avoid the pumpkin mess. I think we'll try that next year.

Remember my one lonely cupcake ornament from my last post? Well, they've multiplied, as you can see.
And here's a fuzzy, but still great one of Layla, just for grins :)

Hey, Cupcake

I've been busy making these little cupcake ornaments for Christmas gift add-ons. The pattern is in Sew Pretty Homestyle Christmas, a pretty good book if you like the cottage-country look like I do, although some projects are too cutesy for me. There are two sizes of these little guys, so the bigger one might make a nice pin cushion. Pretty easy, but after making one following the instructions, I did all the rest my way :) Other than that, sewing has been scarce. Such is life with a three-month-old, although he is getting better at day-time napping.
I have some links to share today! Here is one for an article that has been somewhat life-changing for me, so maybe it can encourage some other mommies too. I don't agree with absolutely everything on her site, but there is definitely some good stuff there.

My sister gave me an iTunes gift card for my b-day and I had SO MUCH fun browsing iTunes that night. She included a list of some of her favorite songs and I bought a couple of her suggestions and a few that I liked. Here's a few of my favorites:

1. Jason Mraz, I'm Yours
2. The Weepies, Gotta Have You
3. Seth Kallen w/Melody Gardot, My Sweet Darling
4. Colby Caillat, Bubbly
5. Jonas Brothers, Lovebug

It's okay with me if you want to make fun of me for liking the Jonas Brothers. I'd love to check out some of your favorites, since now I'm on the hunt for good new music, so please share in the comments!

Happy Birtyday to Me!

Well, yesterday was my 27th birthday and it was wonderful! Casey had school all day yesterday, so we got to go out on Saturday. We ate at Olive Garden and then went to Anthropologie, where I bought the beautiful butter dish (in the third picture down there) I've been coveting for months. (They sent me a birthday coupon in the mail!) Yesterday, I had some friends over and had some more b-day fun. Becky and Melissa made me this cake and Angela gave me another installment to my Willow Tree Nativity. My set is almost complete and it's so beautiful. AND, my lovely friend Jen made the owl pin cushion, which I LOVE and also a knitted dish cloth. My Aunt gave me a great stamp set and some paper (no picture, sorry!) and Becky gave me Fandango bucks, yay! And, of course, I got some much needed birthday money ;) So, thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday special.

The Pumkin's Demise

This is what becomes of our carefully-decorated pumpkins year after year. This time, however, the little guy was brave enough to eat it in broad daylight, with the front door open, so Casey got a picture. Oh, well. We had a great time at our church's harvest party on Friday night. I made Natalie this fairy dress out of a thrifted sheet several weeks ago. I went ahead and let her play with it, hoping it would last until Haloween, and thankfully, it did. Layla's wearing the clown costume that I originally made for Natalie a few years ago. Since we lent it out last Haloween, it's gotten lots of great use, which is great, 'cause it's so adorable. I think it's one of those things I'll always keep. And, finally, Kelby was wearing a pumpkin outfit, but I thought he was getting too warm, so I eventually took it off and stuck him in my sling, where he slept through the rest of the party :) It has been uncharacteristically warm here for a Colorado October--usually we plan costumes around tights and jackets, but not this year! I have some more different stuff to share, so more tomorrow--if all the little ones cooperate. And they should, since tomorrow is my birthday, after all!

May Farms and some Mongolia-related things

We took the kiddos to Byers to the May Farms Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. It was SO nice to do something as a family, since Casey has been so busy this semester. The girls had a blast, but Kelby was not thrilled about the wind :) We picked out a little pumpkin and while Layla was holding it on the way home, she took a nice bite out of the stem and was just chewin' away. They decorated our pumpkin with markers and stickers the next day (the easy way to do pumpkins, when you don't want to clean up the carving mess ;)



On another note, I think I've mentioned here before that my parents live in Mongolia. Yes, that's Mongolia. Anyway, my mom has a wonderful post on her blog about a Mongolian woman who runs a ministry there teaching other Mongolian women how to quilt! It's amazing and they really do beautiful work. Go visit and be inspired. I'm sure they would appreciate some of your scraps, hint, hint! :)
THEN, I was at the Angry Chicken today and she posted about these felted wool slippers from, guess where, Mongolia! Mom brings her grand kids these slippers all the time, so it was super cool seeing them on some one else's blog. All this to say, crafting is universal!