Handmade Christmas Recap

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! What? It's March you say?!?! Huh, I'm a little behind. Well, I was looking through my pictures the other day and remembered I hadn't shown you all the handmade Christmas projects. It seems like I'm missing some here - cause I sure did spend WEEKS up until two in the morning sewing. Oh well. Here ya go. (And I'm attaching the links but not to the actual project - you'll have to search for it. Sorry)

A bed for Pipey's baby Ruby. Travel friendly. (http://twelvecraftstillchristmas.blogspot.com/)

A Harvest Collection bag for picking berries, tomatoes, flowers, etc. Lays flat when you open it up. (http://rhythmofthehome.com/archives/autumn-2010/celebration-autumn-2010/)

Lavendar Sachets (http://weefolkart.com/)

Sweet little puppets. (old patterns from my mom's stash)

Little cutie pouches! (http://www.noodle-head.com/)


with goodies inside.

Crocheted kitchen sponges (me - winging it)

Kitchen towels. (Carly made me some for my b day and I'm not sure where she saw it)

OMG the cutest little toddler backpack!! (http://indietutes.blogspot.com/)

Fisher's gift to Piper - he and I made her a fairy wand.

A weighted pincushion with scrap bag. (http://sewmamasew.com/- I'm SO making one of these for me too!)

How cute are these little twig gnomes? (http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/) I've got lots more of these I haven't photographed.

Piper's Fairy Village. Cut by my dad and painted by me. (idea totally stolen from http://www.magiccabin.com/welcome.asp)

Wicked awesome Gnome House! This one is all my dad. Let's just call him Santa.

So there's my handmade recap. I KNOW I've forgotten stuff. Dang. We've really been trending away from the big box store Chrismas and getting into the spirit of it all. It's WAY more fun this way. This has been the most handmade year so far. And next year I'll try not to be so late showing it all to you!

*****

An update on our departure too - while I'm here. We are still scheduled for April 4th. That's just TEN DAYS!! We are beyond excited. We miss James so much! He thought he would be back sometime in May but it looks like those weeks of sitting around in the beginning have pushed the schedule back. SHOCK! So who knows? We just can't wait to get there! I'll keep you all posted.

Love,

JKFP and Bob

St. Patrick's and Welcome Spring

Okay, so I've been trying (in my mind at least) to make my pictures more "blogtastic". It's very likely I'm failing miserably here but bear with me, I plan to get better. (Phase one of that plan arrives in a few days!! You'll see.) I have also realized that if I wait for the "perfect" "Soulemama" type picture... you're never gonna see it, cause by the time I get it I'll have moved on. I'm just gonna give you what I've got. Which is this.

So there I was last Wednesday thinking to myself "self, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. What do ya got?" I had made a few little legwarmers for Piper from St. Patrick's socks that were on sale at Target. But I kinda wanted a "something". I'm not sure if it's the daughter with red hair thing or if I'm just feeling particularly Irish this year. But I did come up with a little awesome. I dug around in one of my fabric hidey holes and found this...

A shirt I wore when pregnant with Piper. It's one of those that even if you weigh 95 pounds you're still going to look pregnant in it. So there was no hope of ME ever wearing it again. But Pipey sure does look pretty in green. So Wednesday night, in an HOUR, I made this.



And she was SO EXCITED about it. I was too honestly. I don't know quite what's going on because this is another thing that turned out pretty much just like I envisioned it. What? That has only happened like one other time. But anyway, she looked way cute in it and totally rocked the SPD! (St. Patrick's Day.)

Sweet little detail on the top.

It was very windy and she's getting a little annoyed. But here you can see the cute little legwarmers too.

And should any of you be worried about Fisher in all this - he seems to have followed in his Aunt Carly's footsteps and is fighting against the system. Green is his favorite color but he REFUSED to wear it "cause everybody says I have too!" So glad I didn't waste my energy making him a dress.

Another fun little thing we did to welcome spring was to make a rainbow ice lantern. I think I saw it on http://twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com/ which is an AMAZING blog!! Anyway, you put a 15oz. size can inside a large yogurt container and fill it with rocks. Then you...well, they'll tell you how at Twig and Toadstool if you want to know. But here is how ours turned out...

Welcome Spring!

There you have it! Some crafty goodness.

Kristin

My Memory

Okay, I thought I'd try my hand at posting about crafts every once in a while. I've got quite a few completed projects laying around I thought might interest you. So if you are here for cute pictures of my kids...this is not the post for you.

I was looking around for something to make the kids for Valentine's Day that they could play with together. I had all these little wooden circles left over from another project and they were just screaming at me. I had also seen similar wooden versions of the memory game. AND, I was wanting to try woodburning. (I happened to already have all the woodburning stuff from several years ago.) So, I put them all together and made this....

These are my favorite ones.

Up close

And everyone can play.

Not to mention it's perfect for travel. That little bag up there is made from my favorite pair of outgrown Pipey pants. (Cut off the leg, sew the raw edge, snip a tiny hole in the hem and string a ribbon to close.) I had all this stuff on hand and made this game up in a little over an hour (woodburning, painting and all) I did seal it with a homemade beeswax and olive oil polish the next day. It's pretty awesome...if I do say so myself.

Kristin

Take a Hike

So I'm making an effort to blog more regularly. I figure if I get used to doing it here, it'll be much easier to keep you updated when I'm in GERMANY!! Yes, we have tickets people!! We are leaving April 4th and returning May 4th. Just a month this first trip. We still don't know where James will go next or for how long. I'm pretty sure he's coming back to Colorado for a few weeks in between but, I guess that could change too. So the phrase of the moment is "up in the air". But not knowing is kind of exciting in it's own way too. (that's what I keep reminding myself anyway.) Who knows?

Anyway, down to business. We went on a little hike yesterday with Rachael and Ruby. Have I mentioned how much my children love the Ruby? They fight over who loves her more and who's "girlfriend" she is EVERY SINGLE DAY. "My Ruby...my Ruby....my Ruby!!" They love "Ruby days". So Rachael and I gathered them all up for an adventure yesterday. We went over to Ute Valley Park. You locals should check it out if you haven't - AWESOME.

The girls.

Checking out the trail. Fisher had decided that this was where water would run through. (He's right by the way.)

Ssshhhh... I hear a woodpecker.

Can you believe this little adventure monkey??



Fisher's adventure hat was cracking me up.

Up high looking at a blue jay.

Pipey and Mom.

It was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning! Fresh air, sun shine and good friends.

Love,

JKFP and Bob

A Day in the Life...

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for letting me freak out last week. I'm feeling much better. I think I just needed to get it out you know! Anyway, that freakout AND my fantastic sister giving me 3 mornings off last week really went a long way. Thank you Carly!!! Lets see... I ran a bunch of errands that needed doing, I got a massage from Adrienne (you locals - she's the very best!), and I went shopping. I got lots of new clothes and feel/look much more put together. It's kind of amazing just how far looking and feeling put together will take you really. So yeah, I'm in a much better place. I love my children but, Mama needs a break sometimes. My friend Joy noted how we should probably give our husbands more credit for keeping us sane. I totally agree.

A little about the kids...

Piper is officially POTTY TRAINING!!! And she's doing great! I feel like I maybe pushed Fisher a little with this so I'm pretty much letting Piper do her own thing. (he was my practice kid after all :) She's mostly rockin' the naked time. Although, she will run for it fully clothed too. Fisher is a pretty big help here too with encouragement in the form of wild applause and high fives. So yeah, we're making progress.

Fisher is amazing. He's had lots of outside digging time lately. He's still convinced he's going to find dinosaur bones. It's cute really. The insane person in me wonders if I could make dinosaur bones out of something (plaster of paris maybe?) and bury them in the yard for him to find. How much fun would that day be?!?!?! Anyway, I have endless collections of rocks that he brought me that were cool. Especially ones that look like dinosaur teeth. (we have a bunch of those) And he's right, they are cool.

So most of these pictures are a little old (January). I'm just giving you all some cute little snapshots into our days.

This may be my favorite Pipey picture ever.

That tiny little speck of pink is a very brave 2 yr old who handles this slide all by herself!

While James was home this was their new favorite activity!

Pipey's first dentist visit. She's was NOT thrilled with the counting of the teeth!

Fisher jumped right up like a pro.

I still haven't totally figured out how this happened. Look closely. Leave them alone for 5 minutes!! Fisher was in there too but he was really stuck. I had to get him out pretty quickly THEN take the picture.

Fisher and Ruby making marble tracks.

Tent construction.

Three sleepy pigs in a blanket.

Oh this was fun! We froze little cups of colored water on the front porch. After they were good and solid, we melted them together to see what colors we would get. Yellow and Blue = Green, Red and Blue = Purple, etc.

This is my FAVORITE way to mop the kitchen floor! She plays and splashes and pours - then the wet towel gets pulled along the floor. Mopping done! (It should be noted here that I have a very small kitchen. I can't imagine doing this with a really huge space.)

Playing with the gnome house and fairy village. These were gifts from Santa this year. (I'm fairly sure a super special elf (that looked a lot like my Dad) helped Santa with these.) And yes, they are amazing.

So there you have a little glimpse into our day. It is sometimes easy to forget how much fun we have around here. But taking time for yourself sure does recharge you and help you see things more clearly. I recommend it.

Hugs,

JKFP and Bob