Hair-Bow Picture Frame

(If you are my friend, Shelley Olson, DO NOT READ THIS POST)

My friend Shelley and I have been trying to get together for months to exchange Christmas gifts for our girls. It's almost April and we still haven't done Christmas yet. But, we're both busy and our girls each have gotten sick many times and it just hasn't happened. I got her girls' some hairbows for Christmas. I wanted to make something to hold the bows but I hadn't found anything I liked. I tried painting wooden letters with their initials and they just weren't turning out well. I finally saw something on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. I had ordered a yard of fabric for a baby gift for another friend of mine (that's another post) and had just enough left over.


Isn't that cute? I'm really happy with how it turned out. I cut a piece of cardboard and wrapped it in fabric. The hardest part was trying to adhere the fabric to the cardboard. I tried staples, rubber cement, and hot glue to no avail. I finally used a Scotch brand ATG gun, which is like a paint roller for tape, and it worked perfectly!

Spring Break Crafts

This week has been Spring Break here and to be honest it's been painful. Sydney really needs that almost-daily trip to school, in addition to ballet. I had booked this week full of play dates and special trips and then...we all got sick. Gross cough, nasty booger kind of sick. Not really compatible with playdates. Monday night just after we got the girls in bed Sydney started sobbing. She kept saying her ear hurt and I figured it was an ear infection. Those always seem to strike at bedtime, you know? She was pale, literally shaking with pain, and couldn't stop crying. Fast forward a few hours and she's still a mess and so tired and just when I was thinking I needed to take her to the ER she finally fell asleep. The next morning I took her in to her doctor and the poor girl, her ear drum had ruptured! She was very brave about it and the antibiotics they gave her probably helped her cold she's had, too. So needless to say, we have gone NOWHERE all week except the doctor's office and I am ready for our normal schedule to be back, please. To pass some time yesterday we did some crafts. Remember those beads that we all played with as kids that when you iron them they melt and you can make shapes out of them? Well, Sydney got a ginourmous bucket of those beads from IKEA and we went to town.


I also wanted to do an Easter craft so we made little Easter chicks with the girl's painted hand prints for the wings. Here is Sydney's.


Here is Savannah's. She did really good with the first hand print but then smeared the second one. Oh well, it's still cute and they had lots of fun!

Chocolate Bunny

I set up a few Easter decorations last week. I have some more and I'll make some more this week during spring break, but here's a look at what I've done so far.

This is the shelf in our kitchen eating area.


I love my new apothecary jars that I got for my birthday (Thanks, mom!). These little eggs were made by my aunt, who passed away, when I was little. I love putting them out each year and remembering her.


Love these letters. $2.50 for the whole set at Target!


This is on the little table in my entryway. I love these little speckled eggs. I got them in college and use them every year. The bunny is new this year. Doesn't he look like a chocolate bunny?


Melissa cut this bunny for me on her cricut machine, then I threw him in a frame and voila, a chocolate easter bunny pic.

Embroidery Hoop Fun

I heart these so much:

I love the older looking, more vintage fabrics that were used. I think they are so pretty and I plan on making one immediately. My friend Alisa has one in her baby's room, too, isn't it cute?

I just love these. I'm going to have to exercise serious restraint to not cover all my walls in them.

Washi Tape Link-Up Party

Linda over at Craftaholics Annonymous is doing a huge post on March 30 with Washi Tape crafts. If you've done any projects with Washi Tape, grab the button above and link up with a picture of your craft and she'll feature them on her site. Have fun!

So far this pitcher is the only thing I've done with Washi Tape, but I do plan on decorating some Easter eggs soon with some and I can't wait!

More Snow!

Yesterday, on the first official day of spring, we had snow! Of course I had to bundle the girls up and take them out first thing in the morning before it all melted.



The night before it really started coming down when I was on my way home from an evening work meeting. I got home after the girls were in bed but I went in and got Sydney up and carried her to her window to peek outside at the falling snow. She had no idea it was going to snow so she was so surprised! We had such a nice moment, her all snuggled in my arms, looking outside at the falling snow. Snow is magical, I tell you. It makes everything better!

St. Patrick's Day

Aw, aren't they so stinkin' cute?! They each had St. Patty's day hairbows in and Savannah had a shirt that was Sydney's at that age. It just fit her still, Sydney wore it at 15 months and Savannah is 19 months! Those two girls, I love them so much, they are my lucky charms!

Making Messes

Before I had children I was blissfully unaware of how gosh darn messy they can be. At our house, we only have meals and snacks at the table, and nowhere else. I have enough to do without picking up cheerios in the toys and vacuuming up ground in food and crumbs from the carpet. This has always worked really well for us until one day last week when Savannah realized she can now reach up on her very tippie toes and pull down her snack bowl. This is how I found her.


What a little stinker, but a cute one! That same day she did the same thing with a bowl of mashed potatoes I had put on her highchair for dinner. Now I wait until she's in the highchair before I put the food on her tray!

Sydney's class studied the letter "V" a few weeks ago and they got to make volcanos to bring home. She was so cute and so proud of her work!

(I just love that argyle print sweater on her, she looks so grown up!)



This volcano project was really easy and fun, I think we'll probably make another one this summer.

Button Art

I've been decorating for Easter this week. I had to stop temporarily because a.) me and the girls are sick and I just don't feel up for doing much more than laying around and playing around on Pinterest and b.)I ran out of craft supplies. I did muster up the energy this morning to order some pink buttons to make this delightful picture:

Isn't that cute? I can't wait for them to come so I can give it a try. Stay tuned for pics.

Tea Bags

This coming May Melissa's twins will be three. THREE. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was throwing her a twin themed baby shower, which was a blast to plan and do. I thought I would show you one of the cute things I had at her baby shower.

These are just little stickers that are printed and placed on tea bags. This would be something super cute and easy to do for a gift for Mother's Day or a small hostess gift.

Washi Tape Easter Eggs

Last week I posted about Washi tape, which is an awesome craft tool. I absolutely love using it, it's super easy to work with. I found these pictures online and I will definetely be doing this when we decorate eggs this year.



Have you ever seen the website Craftaholics Annonymous? It's an ah-mazing website for craft lovers. She posted this picture today of plastic eggs with Washi tape, which would be an awesome kiddo project.

I love how she put them on Rolos!

Santa Cruz

I thought I would take a break from the crafting (and cake) pictures to share with you all some pictures from our recent trip to Santa Cruz. The reason for our trip there was very unfortunate; we were attending the memorial service for Chris' sweet grandma June. We really had a nice time seeing all of the extended family. We hadn't seen most of them in a few years and only a few of them had met Savannah. We enjoyed remembering Grandma June and looking at lots of pictures of the family while we were there. We flew down and the girls did great on the airplane.


One of Chris' cousins has a daughter just a month younger than Savannah and the little girls had so much fun playing together! Savannah was a...challenge on this trip. I well remember how challenging Sydney was at this age, too, so I know it's a phase and it will pass quickly. It helped to have a cousin her age that she could play with.


While we were there we went down to the beach for the most beautiful day!

(For Marilyn's friend, Summer, in Oklahoma: I read your post about being afraid of the ocean, but look at how mild it is! The ocean is the BEST thing EVER!!)

We had to bring a LOT of stuff with us on this trip with the carseats, food, toys, and multiple sets of clothing for every day with the multiple memorial services/receptions and play clothes. So it was natural that I would forget something and I forgot beach clothes. So yes, the girls are in their jammies on the beach. It is what it is.


At least we didn't forget to pack Buzz, right?


We had the best time at the beach!




There was a British restaurant there that we went to dinner at one night. I saw this outside and thought I'd try to get into The Ministry (if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't ask, but if you do know what I'm talking about, isn't this AWESOME?!).

Chocolate Cake

I know that it's national craft month and I've been posting lots of craft pictures, but it's also my birthday month and I wanted to share with you the chocolate cake I made. I saw on a recent Pioneer Woman where she made this 4 layer chocolate cake for her husband's birthday and I decided to give it a try. Her's was a lot prettier than mine, but here it is:

Yum...And I covered with chocolate curls, also a Pioneer Woman recipe and super easy.


I had a little helper to help me with the frosting. She wanted to beat her own (pretend) frosting, too.


I have to admit, after I made it I put it in the fridge to set a little and I kept opening the door because it looked so amazing and made my fridge smell heavenly. Doesn't it look good in there, right next to my Velveeta?

Gift Idea

I saw this today on Pinterest.

I love Pinterest. Love with a capital L. It.Totally.Rocks and I get tons of inspiration every time I sign on. I saw the above bow holder on the cousin of my Oklahoma friend's page (were you able to follow that? Me>>>friend in Oklahoma>>>her cousin). I am totally making this for a baby girl gift.

Who Wants to Par-tay?

Sydney is going to a birthday party today for some friends of her's from school. It's a party for a boy-girl set of twins. As you may know or have guessed from my previous posts about birthdays, I love a good party. Sydney is particularly excited about this one because she gets to wear a princess dress to it and oh man, that is big for a five year old. I really wanted to do something fun and cute for their presents, and I found an idea on Pinterest using denim pockets. Here's what they look like:



I think they are so cute! So fun and so original. If you decide to do this yourself, please note that only pockets from kid's jeans look cute. I know because I tried a pocket from my big-ol' butt first and it looked huge, but an old frayed pair of Sydney's jeans worked perfectly. Like I said before, this party is for a set of boy-girl twins, which is a first for our family. We know a set of boy twins and a set of girl twins, and it makes it easier when shopping for gifts when they are the same gender. But boy-girl twins? I had no idea what to get for them. Besides the fact that boys are a mystery to me and I never know what to get them, I wanted to get them gifts that at least coordinated, but didn't match. Here's what I came up with:

Squirt guns and a Star Wars kite for the boy and a princess bubble wand and a princess kite for the girl. I am totally inspired now to come up with some more cute crafty gift bags!