Saturday, October 31, 2009

halloween felt flower



i didn't buy my kids any halloween clothes this year so i made my little doll an accessory this morning to add a little orange to her white & black for halloween.





a sweet little felt peony flower using this quick and easy tutorial. (special thanks to my sister for buying too much felt & blessing me with it!)
 
   

i attached it to a pin so i can swap it out between a hat, headband, or clothes. she likes it!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

gender neutral baby shower: owl theme


my sweet sis-in-law is pregnant with baby unruh... coming late november! alli and i hosted a baby shower for april with an owl theme.










pictures of max and april in felt owl frames ($2 martha stewart kit at big lots)















along with the cake our brunch menu was fruit salad, mini muffins, sausage breakfast casserole, and little smokies wrapped in crescent roll





instead of a game we did custom iron-on onesies for the baby. this picture is a little blurry but it says "MAX + APRIL = me". we also had everyone add a little heart iron-on on the bum and write their name on the heart so that when mom and dad are dressing the baby in these cute things, they will know who created each one.(this one is from april's sister... soon to be aunt karen)

onesies and iron-on's can get expensive- especially since we were planning for about 25 shower guests. a couple of months before, i started collecting packages of onesies at joanns and michaels with my weekly 50% off coupons. i also used a coupon at michaels and bought package of iron-on transfer paper for $6. i searched  google images to find fun gender-neutral pictures to decorate the onesies. some, like the one here, are just text that i typed in a word document. i suggest using fun & unique fonts. i love collecting fonts and there are some great available online. my favorite fonts always come from dafont.com  i printed the images from my home printer onto the special paper and cut them out for shower guests to choose their favorite!




racecar party

we took a road trip to florida to help caden celebrate his THIRD birthday. it was tons of fun (minus the 16 hours in the car-- each way. just ask kate.)





the birthday boy:
 i made his shirt using fabric & wonder under. just iron your fabric to one side of the wonder under. cut out the shape. peel the backing off the other side. iron the shape to your shirt. stitch around the shape and you have a super cute, custom piece!

the details:
a racing pennant from ebay with some letters (all star font) printed off the computer, cut out and taped to the pennant for a birthday banner.

erin picked up some disney cars movie party blowers from walmart. she created her own "happy birthday caden" labels and stuck them over the cars decoration. we peeled high school musical stickers off cheer megaphones from the dollar tree for instant traffic cones.



decorate your own pinata bags-- stickers from oriental trading co






the eats:



my sister made this awesome race track cake. the race track and checkerboard pattern on the side are fondant. the grass is a delicious buttercream frosting tinted green and piped with a grass cake tip.



stop light jell-o jigglers - chocolate car pretzel rods - street scene table scape



happy birthday sweet caden!

kate right now.

kate is 11 months old -- really 11 1/2 now-- just 2 more weeks and she is a 1 year old!


these are things i want to remember about kate right now:
- she is cruising around everything. she loves being on her feet and is almost ready to walk!
- she loves to eat! her feet start kicking when she gets in her high chair b/c she knows it is chow time! she eats left handed. she has never refused a food, though wasn't too crazy about spinach the one time she had it. usually she shovels food in faster than i can cut it up for her. she signs "more" but hasn't ever signed "all done" b/c she never is!
-she adores being outside. especially now that fall is here and there are leaves on the ground to play in. she never tries to eat them, but will hold and throw them.
-she loves looking at books and being read to.
-she loves music. especially country :) if she likes a song on the radio she will wave her hands up and down to the beat.

-she will climb up and down the stairs by herself.
-she says "momma", "bye" and waves. whenever i open the garage door she starts waving and saying "bye bye bye"
-she is very funny! we can tell she is going to be silly just like owen. almost every day she crawls around with a toy in each hand and one in her mouth.
-she l.o.v.e.s playing peekaboo. she played by herself at a friends house, taking a bucket on and off her head.
-she loves playing with big brother and adores his attention. he loves to hold her hands and help her practice walking.
-she has 4 teeth with 2 on the way. her 2 bottom teeth came in at 8 and 8 1/2 months. in the last couple of weeks she got 2 more teeth- lateral incisors- the teeth on either side of where her top front teeth will be. it looks like little fangs. just in time for halloween! we even carved our pumpkin with "kate teeth" this year: