11 Favorite Gems from 2011 {project posts}

*I started this post a month ago. This has not been the month for "wellness" in our household...Needless to say, I have been busy. Plus I was kind of burned out after Christmas. Let's hope February is a better month!*

One of the reasons I love keeping this little blog, is because it is fun to look back and see what you learned and what you were able to create- among all the craziness of raising children.  So -for my sake- and in case you missed it- here are my favorite 11 projects from 2011-in no particular order. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  (I'll share my favorite recipe & food finds later.)

( One of my blog goals  for 2012 is to get to know my readers better ! I'd love to see your favorite projects- leave me a comment and I'll come visit :))

 1. DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Heirloom Frames

2.Valentine Love Message Blocks

3. Easter Bunnies from Cardboard Tubes

4. Spring Sign using Juice Lids (tutorial)

5. Child's Art Supply Tote (tutorial)

6.DIY Lego Table

7. IKEA Spice Racks turned Bookshelves

8. Lego Birthday Party Ideas and Toy Story Birthday Ideas

9. DIY Star Wars Ornaments

10. My Big Fat Car Play Mat

11. DIY Summer Wreath

New Year, and a New Blog

Happy New Year- even though we are 11 days into it- it is still new!  If my children will all stay well and doctor free for more than a week, I will get some posts up here!

AND- I am going to start up my "weight loss" blog again--- and open it up to anyone who would like to lose some weight along with me. It might take me a while to get it going- but if you want to shed some pounds with me- I'd love to be blog BFF's. Once I get it all "cute" I'll post the link here if you'd like to follow over there too.

And don't worry- I'll still be posting my Sweets on Sunday on here, and all my other fun gems.

Thanks for reading!

My {DIY} Car Play Mat + cute car mat links

I think I may have finally convinced my husband that I NEED a Silhouette.   Here is my big fat sewing project for my boys- which might be a more appropriate title for this post.  Drum roll please...

This was seriously a huge undertaking and a labor of love. I had to recruit my husband and my mother-in-law to help me cut out the letters a few days before Christmas. And then I was up until 3:30 A.M. on Christmas Eve working on it. Since I originally started this TWO years ago, I decided it was time to just get it done! I would estimate I spent around 30-40 hours on it, possibly more.
You can see when and where I started on this thing HERE and a shower curtain version I made years ago here.

I orginally intended for this to be much larger, but it ended up being about 60 inches by 50 inches. I made 4 panels, and pieced them together with my road, which is 5 inches wide, finished. I used felt for the panels and flannel for the roads. If I were to do it again, I would use the same fabric for roads and panels but I would probably NOT use felt. Felt is not really washable, so I think I would use a canvas or denim fabric,  something washable. Flannel tends to stretch slightly so that is why I would use the same fabric for both the panels and the flannel. Since I already had a lot of it done on felt and flannel, I decided just to keep it the same. It was a learning experience!

I cut out all of the buildings, mostly designing them myself using basic shapes and also looked at some photos when I wanted something more than just a square or rectangle. (Many thanks to the wonderful people who share their great photos- which gave me lots of inspiration.)  I also used Wonder Under on just about everything to iron it to the main fabrics, and then I stitched around the buildings after that. To cut out the letters, I printed them off from the computer, then traced them onto Freezer Paper, and then ironed that onto the felt. From here, I cut them out, and then cut them out of Wonder Under. Yep, that is how  I do it when I don't own a fancy cutting machine. The freezer paper peels right off the felt when you are done cutting and you don't have any marks on your fabric/felt.

 I backed this with the same car fabric  that I used over the gas station. I also added a piece of white flannel between the mat and the backing, which acts like a thin batting. I stitched in the ditch around all the roads, after safety pinning the thing together, trying to avoid any wrinkles or bumps in the fabric. Next time, I would use spray adhesive, as in the kind for basting quilts...but I was tired so we just pinned it.   I then made some binding and quickly machine stitched it on--so it is far from perfect. When you are up on Christmas Eve sewing in the middle of the night, you just want to finish!

Since my boys spend a large amount of time on the floor pretending with their cars, I knew they would love it. And I think I was right. I love seeing my children so happy about something I created for them. I love seeing them happy, period.

Here are some fun links to some super cute car mats out in blog land. Some of these ladies used glue guns to make theirs. Since I am the queen of glue gun burns, I opted to sew mine. But these are all super cute-so take a peek at some amazing cute car  play mats.

Girl and a Glue Gun
Homemade by Jill
Living the Sweet Life
Just Sew Sassy
Oopsey Daisy

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm spending mine taking car of sick children....but at least they can play with their cars inside while they recover! Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a  peek at our Christmas Card this year. I love Shutterfly! Thank you Shutterfly- for our lovely cards! Merry Christmas everyone!

With Love Christmas Card

Turn your favorite pictures into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas At My House in Photos

 I am not a very good blogger during Christmas time. I LOVE this season!! And there is only so much time and so many things to do, so blogging and the computer are lower on the priority list. BUT...

I thought it might be fun to show you a few photos of our Christmas this year. And I need to post this, so when I look back and remember that we never got our outside Christmas lights up, I will also remember all the wonderful family fun we had. In our family, Christmas is about Jesus. BUT we do teach our children about the Savior all year, so at Christmas we also like to join the festive fun. Looking through my photos, there were so many fun things we did with our family, and in preschool, I just don't have time to post it all. So here are just a few photos of some fun things we have done. Hope your Holiday is festive and fun at your house!  Enjoy!

 Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best...wearing a Santa hat and coloring a Christmas picture is one if those simple pleasures.

 Every year we get an ornament. This tree has all those fun ornaments, as well as the ones the kids have made in school or that we may have from our childhood.

 I was going to create a new way to hang cards this year, but time ran out. I do love Christmas Cards!!

 Of all the cool Advent Countdown Calendars we have, these are their favorite ones. For a dollar each, Trader Joe's has out done me... My kids love these!

 After decorating the tree this year, I realized I had forgotten a few important things, that needed to go on first. But I was not going to undo the tree for it. And so... I decided it looked pretty anyway. I love silver and red- even if the latest trends say blue and gold or whatever...I finally bought a tree skirt this year. I know it is just dots. But I love pok-a-dots. love them. And maybe the reds are not exactly matchy. But it works for me.

 For the past 7 Christmases- I have been pregnant or nursing so I had to show you why- isn't he cute?

 Again, Trader Joe's wins..with their Gigantic Gingerbread Boys, and even their Gingerbread houses...it is always a hit each year.

 I can't even begin to list the fun preschool adventures we had this season. Some days, we did paint, and frosting in the same day. It was so much fun and I love finding new things to do. Sigh...that will have to be a future post.

Each year, I try to have a "Kids and Cookie" party. We invite a few friends, and decorate sugar cookies.

 Probably the highlight for our family this year so far, was traveling North to play in the snow and ride the Polar Express. The snow was so fun- that I almost missed it. I actually wanted to move back to the snow. (and I kind of still do...)

I hope you are having a joyful holiday season! I have so many gifts to finish so I will probably be a little busy. Thanks for reading! Happy Holidays!

Handmade Star Wars Ornaments {DIY}

 I love Christmas Traditions. We have "the one" where you give your child an ornament, that  reminds you of some events of the past year. This is the year my boys really took an interest in Star Wars. We had Star Wars costumes for Halloween this year. We are also having a little bit of a Star Wars Christmas (sshhh don't tell) this year. I looked and looked for some cute ornaments, and could not find any I really liked. SO, after a long late night last night, I made up these. I had to do 4, since I have 4 boys...and these took long enough, so I think I'll stop at 4 for now...although with Star Wars...I'm sure they will want more.

If you are interested in my "sketches" or patterns, please let me know- I'm happy to share....mostly I just looked at pictures on my computer and cut up shapes. ha ha. But I did draw out the basic parts.

Hope you are having fun getting ready for Christmas. I have about 4 or 5 more projects to do!

It's going to be an "EPIC" Christmas...if I get it all done!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Scented Playdough

 Last night I started out making Peppermint Playdough from the Idea Room for my preschoolers. I originally had the idea to make it 1/2 red and 1/2 plain, and twist it into candy canes and wrap it up in cute bags for 10 little ones. Well, I found an easier idea in the process. I ended up making  3 colors, and formed it into "Christmas ornaments"- as in the above photo. I cut a piece of a sparkly pipecleaner and inserted it into each one to make it look like those pretty ball ornaments.
Here is the what I did:

Christmas Playdough:
For RED:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 TBSP. Cream of Tartar
1 1/2 TBSP extract (peppermint for red)
Red food coloring (quite a bit to get a red color)
1 cup water
Combine dry ingredients in a sauce pan. Add liquid ingredients, except for food coloring and stir over medium heat until a soft ball forms. Add the food coloring and knead the dough until the color is distributed evenly.
FOR GREEN: Add MINT EXTRACT instead and green food coloring
FOR WHITE/PLAIN: ADD PEPPERMINT EXTRACT and no food coloring
Extracts can be found in the spices aisle at your grocery store. I found mine at Wal-mart for a good price.

This was my Christmas gift for my preschoolers. Playdough can be a mess, but the thrill for the children is worth it to me. My kids had too much fun making "Christmas pancakes" with it. And yes, there was a big mess to clean up. My sweet husband took care of that part!