Cute gift idea

So I had my sister's family this year for Christmas. I wanted to do something fun and creative, so I decided to send them Build a Snowman Kit. I had heard about these from my SIL a few years ago and then a lady at church was talking about them, so I picked one up for my sister's family and for us. I bought a plastic jar to put all the pieces in and made a cute little tag. I think it turned out adorable! I added a super soft and snuggly snowman blanket to the package along with a little book for their baby. Now we just need a little snow!

A Homemade Christmas.

We decided to draw names this year for Christmas on Kent's side and the one stipulation was that the gifts had to be homemade and inexpensive. Well, for SOME reason, the girls and kids ended up with homemade gifts, but the guys all had store-bought gifts! Hmmm. . . imagine that! ;) Oh well, it WAS kind of hard to think of what we could make for a guy, except maybe food. We also exchanged families on my side, so I put together a cute hot chocolate-themed gift for my brother's family. It included the hot chocolate ornament you see, some mugs, a couple different gourmet hot chocolates, candy canes, and some chocolate/peppermint dipped marshmallows.

Clockwise: hot chocolate ornament (made in Enrichment - I'm not near that smart to make that up on my own!), I Spy quiet bag for my two nephews (also got the idea from Enrichment, but I fancied mine up a bit more), a necklace and earrings set for my mother-in-law (made with the help from a lady in my ward who does this as a side business. I LOVED how they turned out!), chocolate/peppermint dipped marshmallows, and flower hair clips for my niece (I made a set for Morgan, our new baby, a friend of Morgan's, and her new little sister too!)

It was a lot of fun to make all these gifts AND very affordable! I wouldn't mind doing it again!

The nesting begins.

I love these nursing aprons and wanted one for myself, so I followed this super easy tutorial and made one in a few short hours. I totally wish someone had thought of these when I had my other three kids because I got so tired of having to hide out while nursing in public and having my baby kick off the blanket. For some reason, the tutorial forgot to mention hemming the sides (unless I missed it somehow!), so I had to do that after I thought I was done, but it didn't take long at all.

It called for 3/4 yards fabric, but I had bought 1 yard to use, which made it WAY too long for me, so I decided to fold it up and make pockets with added burp cloth material on the outside of the pockets. It turned out so cute and I love it! I have a little extra material so I might make a little diaper holder to match. I made some burp cloths for a friend, so I decided since I had it all out I would make me a couple as well. I really enjoy making cute, handy little things like that!

Monogram bow holder

So, I was looking for something to hang Morgan's flower hair bows on that I made and I came across this stinkin' adorable hair bow holder here. My wonderful friend, Ashley, does vinyl lettering and made me the "M", along with sending me some cute quotes for my next apt., which I am SOOO excited to use! I think this turned out so cute and it was SOOO easy to make! (have I said so enough?) I hadn't made anything for a while and was itching to use my creative side a little, so I was able to fulfill that need by making the flower bows and this cute holder. Now I can't wait to put my creative decorating skills to work once we move. I've got this really cute idea that I can't wait to put together!

To-go diaper and wipes carrier

So, I couldn't post this until I knew for sure my friend had received it. I was looking for another little homemade gift I could make to add to her baby gifts and I found this online (I can't find where now, otherwise I would have posted a link). The idea and design is fairly easy and simple, but it took me a bit to get it like I wanted. Now that I have done it once, I think it will go faster the next time, like all my new projects I try out. Anyway, I think it turned out adorable. I just used a cloth place mat and some cute ribbon and velcro. It's best to use the thin fabric and I sewed a line down the middle to sort of separate the two compartments. I didn't follow the pattern exactly, but I think the way I did it is more sturdy and attractive. It is a cute and compact way to be able to throw into your purse some diapers and wipes once your baby is old enough not to need an entire diaper bag. I just love the fabric! I should have bought all they had because they were on clearance, but they are probably out of them by now. Darn, wish I would have thought of that sooner. I love making homemade things, as long as they are fairly easy and not too time consuming.

All settled in . . .

Well, we are here in Carmel and are pretty much settled in. We've been to the ward, which is the Westfield Ward, 2 Sundays now. Harrison actually stayed in nursery this past Sunday during the last hour! He wouldn't have anything to do with it the first Sunday. I was afraid we would have to revert to taking turns again every Sunday. Hopefully he'll keep enjoying it! We love the area - so many cool things around here! The kids and I had an awesome adventure-packed day today, but I'll have to talk about that tomorrow. The kids' last day at Sommer was about a week and a half ago. Here they are waiting for the bus with some neighbor kids they love playing with. This is the little girl who cried when she found out we were moving!



I went in and took pictures of them with their teachers and class. As I started to leave Morgan's class and go to Tyler's, I just started bawling! I tried to get myself back together by the time I got to Tyler's class, but I still had tears in my eyes. It took all I had to keep it all in. Tyler's class wrote letters to him, which were so sweet. They all said he was their best friend and that they were going to miss him so much. I picked up their art projects from the office and again, started getting emotional. We truly will miss the area and the wonderful teachers, school and neighbors and friends we met. We have been tremendously blessed to have lived here.

Morgan and Mrs. Ferling:


Morgan with Lily and Laney (I'm not sure which is which!):


Mrs. Brown, their reading teacher and bus driver:


Morgan is queen for a moment!


Tyler with Mrs. Stanton:



My roommate, Jeni, from Purdue who lives about 25 minutes away came over on Monday to help me do some unpacking and watch Harrison while I registered Tyler and Morgan at their new school. Since Morgan wouldn't be able to go until Wednesday (they have full day with tuition and the free program MW full day and Friday 1/2 day), we planned on having Tyler start that day too. Well, we went over to my parent's house on Tuesday to hang out a bit and go to BouncerTown, but Tyler started feeling "car sick" on the way there. We weren't at BT too long before he really started having a huge headache and then threw up as we were leaving to get some Tylenol! Come to find out he had Strep Throat! Luckily when we went back to C'ville for the closing on Thursday we were able to get him into the doctor and get some antibiotics. So, Tyler missed a whole week of school and then today they had a Flex day (snow make-up day), so they didn't have school today either! Tyler is finally going to be able to go to school tomorrow - for about 3 weeks. oh well. Amidst all my unpacking, organizing, setting things up, etc, I was able to make a teacher appreciation gift for their teachers and since the closing wasn't until that afternoon we were able to take them the gifts and visit their classes for a few minutes. You would have thought they had been gone for years they way all their classmates surrounded them and hugged them! It was so cute. I started getting emotional again in Tyler's class and one girl asked me what was wrong. I told her I was just getting emotional and she asked me what that meant. It kind of made me chuckle.

Thanks AGAIN Hilary for the CUTE idea!!! The "S" was a little tricky to figure out, but I got it.

Oh and on top of having to get settled in, Kent stayed in Lafayette the whole week so that he wouldn't have to drive an hour to school everyday. I don't blame him at all and we managed, but I sure was ready to have him back by the end of the week! Our closing went smoothly and we did a little happy dance after it was all over. :) We are officially rid of our house now!!! We drove home thinking we could relax and enjoy the evening, but that was the farthest thing from the truth! Kent flushed the toilet and all of a sudden tons of water (luckily ONLY water) kept spilling out of our toilet and seeping through the walls into the laundry room and closets! Our neighbors also had problems, so they had a plumber come out and clean out the drain. It took quite a while, so ALL our towels got soaked and we had to keep mopping up what the towels couldn't soak up anymore. Luckily it didn't damage anything and we were able to get it all cleaned up fairly soon after they cleared the drain pipe. I had to re-wash (I had just done a load of towels) all the towels and mop the floors. We were exhausted by then to say the least! I have learned by trial and error (quite often!) the basic layout of the area and which roads lead where and run which direction, etc, etc. There are some pretty cool things around here. Downtown Carmel is really cool. There is an Arts and Design District with all these sculptures of people from different eras portraying different poses as they enjoy the downtown shops. I'll have to take some pictures and post them. I found a fun park/nature center right down the road that we enjoyed going to today. We also went to the library (which has a little cafe' right as you walk in and a little bookstore next to the cafe') and got our library cards all set up. Yay! I can finally check books out "legally" now without paying an arm and a leg for a library card! Before, I had to use Tyler's (he could get one b/c he was a student), but they figured out I was checking out books for me too, so they put a hold on his card so I couldn't anymore - how lame! Sorry, that is just a sore subject with me! I've heard there are all sorts of free sprinkler parks around here, so I am ready to have a FUN summer here! We are in awe at the GINORMOUS homes around here!!!!!!! Seriously, what do you DO with all that space!? Even if we COULD afford a home like that, I would TOTALLY feel like I was flaunting my money!!!! I just want a modest home that is comfortable, cozy, isn't a cookie-cutter house, and one that allows us to do things together both at home and on vacations, etc. Here is a little re-fashioning I did thanks to Heather and Candy's ideas at our Relief Society night! Thanks girls for the inspiration!

I got this plain-Jane ugly cork board at the Goodwill and spruced it up with a little paint! I love how it turned out!


I had been needing something bigger and longer to hang all my necklaces on, so a lady at the RS meeting suggested using an accordian hat rack, hanging it slightly angled so that the necklaces didn't touch each other. What a great idea! Now my necklaces aren't all tangled up and I can actually see what I have! I love cheap, creative ideas!


Well, Kent is in Lafayette again this week for finals, so I am staying up much later than I normally do, enjoying quiet "me" time! I really should get to bed so I can get up and get Tyler to school. I still have a list of things to do, but I was itching to do a little blogging, so I'm glad I got a post in today. More on our fun day coming soon!

Mother's Day Part 2

I was finally able to make my mother-in-law's bag, but I had to make two pages - one on each side of the bag! She has 17 grandkids, and there's still more to come b/c two families have only had one baby and one brother isn't married yet! I thought my SILs would like to see how it turned out for Carol. She's such a sweet lady who would do anything for anyone and is so patient and understanding! She puts up with a lot more than I would, that's for sure! What a great grandma and mother-in-law she is!

Mother's Day gift

So I was finally able to finish my mom's Mother's Day gift (thanks for the idea Hil!) and post these pictures since I gave it to her yesterday. It was very simple to do, except putting all the pictures together on Photoshop, which my very sweet friend Bethany helped me with. There was no way I would have been able to do it if it hadn't been for her! Thank you so much for all your help, Bethany!!!! I loved the way it turned out!!!

Cute Closet Organizers

This is my latest baby shower gift, of course its not my own idea! The instructions I had said to paint it all white and then mod podge the scrapbook paper and stickers to it and tie a ribbon to it (just in case you can't take the rod off or its too big). But after doing that, I noticed the back of it looked kind of dingy and got clumps of dried mod podge on it, so it looked kind of bad. I decided to just mod podge the paper to the back too and it made it look much nicer. So next time I'm just going to skip the painting step (which will cut down on the time to make them too!) and just mod podge the paper directly to the door hanger. Anyway, I LOVED how they turned out and everyone at the shower was so impressed!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and last year my friend made these cute gifts for her daughter's teacher and bus driver, so I decided to steal her ideas this year. She got the idea of the pill box from Skip to my Lou. I wasn't for sure what to get Tyler's teacher, since he is a guy, so I thought the pill box was nice and neutral. :) I also got the cute rice pillow poem from Hilary too. I figured after being with about 20 1st graders, he might need a nice heat compress to relax a bit! :)

This is what the poem says:

This little pillow filled with rice,

Is such a comfort oh-so nice.

Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes on HIGH

and kiss those aches and pains good-bye.

Apply it to the troubled spot,

the heat will ease the pain a lot.

Or warm those little toes, so cold,

You'll find this nice to have and hold.

Or freeze it for a little while,

And fix that boo-boo up in style.

Instead of a compress made of ice,

Use this pillow made of rice that

feels oh so nice!

And of course we couldn't leave out his bus driver! She is so concerned about the safety of the kids and I really appreciate that!

Relief Society Enrichment Craft Night

We had an AWESOME craft night for Enrichment this month (thanks Candy and Kate!!!). We made these cool tiles out of vinyl lettering and floor tiles - so easy and so beautiful! A friend of mine was walking past the shop where they ordered the vinyl lettering and saw an example like this that the owner had put in his window display - except it was the "Be's" quote from Pres. Hinckley! Of course, he didn't realize that it was a quote from the prophet b/c around here that's not very common, so it was really cool that out of all the quotes to choose from he chose the one from Pres. Hinckley to display in his window! He's being a missionary and not even knowing it! :) Anyway, way cool.

Most of the decorations for the picture frames were holiday themes, but I found this little round sticker that said "A day to remember" with brown and blue dots on it - and I thought it would be perfect for a frame for Tyler's baptism next year! I was going to make the black one with stickers and what not from the stuff there, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted, so I ended up copying what my friend did last year with some of her friends, although the colors are a little different. I think they both turned out adorable! I also made this cute pink and green charm bracelet for Morgan.

It really was a lot of fun and we were able to get pretty much all of it done that night - as well as socialize instead of being so focused on trying to get as much done as possible that night! Way to go R.S. presidency! I like your way of thinking! :)

Cute idea . . .

I got this off my friend's blog and I could resist doing it - it was so easy and such a fun idea! I made one for a lady I visit teach as well as one for a family Kent home teaches. You can't read the first word on the note, but it says "wishing you smore and smore fun this summer!" Just thought I would pass along the idea in case anyone needed something fun and creative for a gift idea!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Yesterday was the official Teacher Appreciation Day, so Monday night I made caramel corn and put together these little gifts for Tyler's teacher and bus driver (who also helped him with his reading group). I found the cute plastic popcorn container at the Dollar Spot at Target a while ago and had seen the "corny" saying at the Family Fun web site. I also decided that I would make a card and bag for Kent too, since I think the teachers at the middle school don't get much in the way of acknowledged appreciation from the administration or whoever. I stuck it in his backpack that night and he called me Tuesday morning before I left for work to tell me thanks. It was an unexpected surprise for him. :) I had Tyler sign his own name (it was late when I finished the card to his bus driver, so I had to finish it in the morning) and give it to them when he saw them Tuesday morning. Even though the official Teacher Appreciation Day has passed, it is celebrated this whole week, so go ahead and let the teachers of your kids know how appreciated they are and what a great job they are doing! It will make them feel appreciated, loved, and needed! (I know - since I live with a teacher! :) )

Yet ANOTHER cute idea!

Once again, my friend Hilary comes to my rescue for having a super-cute idea to use. She used it for Valentines Day for the ladies she visit teaches, but I decided to do it for Easter. I ADORE these CUTE pails!!! I found a variety of them at the $1 spot at Target (where she found hers) and just had to pick up a few. I am loving polka dots! Such easy, in-expensive little gifts!