Reusable Monster Bags Done!

3 reusable trick or treat monster bags
Costume for Felicity
Bee costume for Kian

Yea!  I love crossing things off lists.  Even small lists.  Here's my completed bags. 

They were so easy to make.  No pattern used here.  Just creating as I went along.   My favorite way to sew.  These bags cost 70 cents each to make....tops.  Each took two full pieces of felt, a scrap of ribbon from my ribbon scrap box, scraps of felt from old projects for the eyes, teeth, and polka dots, and old shirts and stretch pants for arms and legs.  I love using old beat up or stained clothes in new projects.

 Lissy's monster's limbs were once stretch pants.  I hate stretch pants.  I admit it.  But these were stained hand me downs anyways. 

The boys' monsters' limbs were once Logan's stained shirt.  Instead of being thrown out, they made perfect and free monter limbs.

The candy goes straight into monster's open mouth.

Garden Friends

We've had lots of praying mantis encounters in our yard lately.  The kids have loved observing them.  One even welcomed herself into our home so we caught her and put her in our terrarium to observe REALLY close for a while.  The best part was releasing her back into our garden.  We set her on a tomato plant and decided we probably wouldn't know she was there had we not just put her there, due to her camouflage (that one was green, unlike the brown one pictured above).  They are so interesting!  We noticed that they lay down their antennas when they feel threatened, just like a cat or horse do with their ears.  And if we snuck up on the side of them, they'd turn their head towards us and look at us with their antennas laid back.  So neat.
We were studying birds at that time in school and we talked about how birds eat praying mantis.  Logan drew this "Mommy guided drawing" (where I show him step by step directions on my own paper and he follows on his paper to do it himself) of a small list of things birds eat, including our praying mantis.

Logan's caption reads, "Birds eat bugs, praying mantis, and worms."

I do hope, however, that our praying mantis friends are still in our garden and have not become bird snacks.  I just LOVE child directed learning like this.  I sure learn a lot more that way, and I hope the kids do too.  It sticks with them longer, I know that for sure, because they talk about those past experiences a lot.  

Easy Peesy Lemon Squeezy Baby Doll Clothes

If you have BASIC sewing knowledge, and a little girl who loves babies, you MUST give this a try.  I got the tutorial from Obsessively Stitching, which you'll find on my blog list.  But I still thought I'd show you my pics and a few pointers I learned while doing it. 
You all met "Ugly Naked Baby" in an earlier post.  Well, I decided to give him some clothes.  Using the tutorial, I put an old NB sleeper of Kian's on Ugly Naked Baby, inside out.  Then I pinned around the outside of Ugly Naked Baby.  Then I slipped Ugly Naked Baby out of the pinned sleeper, sewed a line following my pins, cut excess away, hemmed the arm holes, and Felicity had an outfit for Ugly Naked Baby in 20 minutes tops!  So easy and you should have seen her expression!  She was THRILLED! 

I have 2 tips. 
1) Pin your pins in the direction you will be sewing.  This may be a stupid tip but just remember, I'm a self taught sewer.  I learn by trial and error.  Point the pins tip first.  This will make it easier to remove them as you sew.  There's lots of pins so this helps.
2) Make sure the back of the sleeper is nice and smooth before pinning.

Grammy, I guess he's now deserving of his name.  Josh.  No more Ugly Naked Baby in this house.  Ok, I'll admit, Ugly Josh would be fitting.  But at least he's not naked. 

Handmade Holiday 2010

I'm so excited to be joining in with Tonya of Plain and Joyful living with her Handmade Holiday project.  I just ran across her amazing blog yesterday.  It's listed in my side bar if you want to check it out.  I've been working on my own handmade Christmas for a few weeks now, not knowing that there are groups of woman/families online doing the same thing and joining groups to share and showcase their handmade gifts.  How wonderful!  So I joined right up and finished my first project last night.  I don't have pics yet because I just hate taking pics in my dark house at midnight.  They look so blah, but that's when I get all my sewing done.  So I will take pictures soon and post them here.  In the meantime, I just wanted to share Tonya's blog with you and just share how excited I am to not be the only one out there who thinks her kids are perfectly fine with handmade gifts instead of loads of store bought stuff.

Birthday Buddy Baby Bumblebees

My niece and my baby boy have birthdays just a few days apart.  Kian turned 1 (sniff sniff) and Audrey turned 2.  I wanted to make them each a little lovie so I decided to FINALLY try a Bit of Whimsey Doll pattern.  I'd lurked that etsy store long enough!  I decided to try the bee pattern first.  So here they are, Kian and Audrey's birthday buddy baby bumblebees.

I think they're keepers.  And they were easy and fun to make. 

Half Homemade Halloween

I'm aiming to do a Half Homemade Halloween.  Why not a full homemade Halloween?  Well, I'm pretty sure Logan is going to want to wear the dragon suit his cousin gave him.  He's obsessed with dragons.  Most days, he says he IS one.  And I think Felicity may just end up wearing a collaboration of things from the dress up box.  I don't know.  We're still working on it.  So here's my short sewing list for my Half Homemade Halloween. 

3 reusable trick or treat monster bags
Costume for Felicity
Bee costume for Kian

Thank goodness it's a short list because I just finished all my sewing for Kian's first birthday (post on that to come soon I hope....as soon as I find time to edit pics), and my niece also had a birthday and I sewed for her too.  That leaves me less than a month to do my Halloween sewing so thank God it's only a Half Homemade Halloween.

Bittersweet Tears

I'm not a crier.  My husband knows that if I'm crying, its a BIG deal because I generally only cry when our babies are born. 

But today, I will cry. 

My baby boy is one. 

They will all be happy tears, but most will be bittersweet.  Why?  I can't fully explain it even to my husband.  And trying to would only frustrate me because words would only make my reasons sound less than they are since words just can't describe a mother's heart. 

But oh.......I LOVE this boy!  How one can look at their one year old, so happy all the time, and not believe an amazing loving Heavenly Father created him is beyond me.  My baby boy didn't just happen, he was CREATED by a Father so loving, he molded Kian in HIS image.  That makes me love the Lord so much more because if I look at my baby son, His mere image, and feel near perfection......I can only imagine God's perfection. 

Thank you dear Lord for this boy.  You have blessed me to tears.

Kian and I about to leave the hospital

Kian with my Papa, his namesake, who brought his

harmonica to the hospital to play for Kian just hours after
his birth.