Travel Neck Pillow

Here is Aaron's carry on bag. He packed it ever so carefully, making sure not to forget ANYTHING. He even made a little bag tag that I laminated for him. We leave for the airport in 2 hours. The house is clean, our bags are packed....and Aaron has a new neck pillow for the trip now. He and I sat down and sewed up a couple of these this morning. His is the orange one and was the first one we made. We didn't want Dallin to feel left out since he isn't flying to California with us so we made him one too. His turned out AWESOME. Obviously Aaron's was the trial run, but he loves it and won't let me make him another one. I added velcro so that it could close securely and cozy around their neck if they choose. These will be great in the truck too when we go on trips. I found the idea here.
We'll be back in a week and a half!

Only a Day Late!

Our new advent calendar is done! I think it turned out cute and was a joint effort between Derrick and I. He cut out the wood and metal for me and I painted the wood, then mod podged matching paper to it. The numbers were cut out on my Cricut as well as the circles for inside the candy tins. I found my candy tins at Joann's in the wedding section. You can buy 25 of them in a tote for $19.99, but I had a 50% coupon so it made it much more affordable. I glued magnets on the back of each one, filled the tins with candy and we were done. The kids like their calendar and now all I need to do is hang it up!

It's December!

Which means that it is the first day to use our new advent calendar that Derrick and I are making...the only problem is I haven't finished it! As we speak, Derrick is cutting the metal for me and I am going to finish it tonight. It'll be a day late, but that's pretty good considering all that has been going on lately.

I made some cinnamon applesauce ornaments to hang in my kitchen. I love how they smell and how my house smells when they are baking in the oven! 1 part applesauce, 1 part cinnamon. Mix and form into a ball. Roll out to 1/4" thick between 2 pieces of waxed paper. You might need more cinnamon to make a dough consistency. Just add a tablespoon at a time. Cut out shapes, poke a small hold in each one with a straw (for hanging) and bake on a cookie sheet @ 200 degrees for a few hours or until dried. This is much faster than letting them air dry which is what most recipes say to do.

I bought this wreath a few years ago after Christmas in the clearance section. It needed help and I'm still not sure on the verdict, but it was a free project for me this year. The berries were falling off and there were lots of bare spots. I had some little apples from another wreath that I had made years ago. I glued them to fill in the bare spots. It looks pretty on the front door and festive with the bright red colors.

Thanks Becki for letting Brianne post pics of your front door on her blog. I totally stole your idea and ordered that vinyl for mine too :)

Felt Mr. Potato Head from Make It & Love It

I was going to make this cute Felt Mr./Mrs. Potato Head as a Christmas present for Kaylee, but since Kaylee, Aaron, and I are now flying out to California in 3 days I thought it would be a great toy to have on the plane with us. It was super easy to make! I only needed to buy 3 sheets of felt to finish it since I have a lot of felt scraps. I made Mr. Potato Head accessories as well as Mrs. ones.
I found the idea on Make It & Love It. She said the only thing she'd do differently next time is to make a pleated pocket vs. a regular one to hold more. So I did that. It holds all of the parts perfectly. I hope the kids like it! I need to bring lots of items to keep them entertained during the 8 hour flight!

Tis the season for....a cardboard coloring house!

Derrick bought one of these for Dallin when he was 15 months old. We had fun coloring and playing in it that December and it was great since it folds up for easy storage. We got it out throughout the year as he got a little older and he colored it more. Finally after 2 years it was beaten up pretty bad, so it was chucked.

I ordered one for the kids this year from Target. It qualified for free shipping which is great since it is 11 pounds! With 3 kids that love to color and use their imaginations, it is worth every penny and will provide hours of entertainment as they create their very own gingerbread house! The one we ordered this year isn't Christmas oriented like the one we had in the past. The other one had candy and gingerbread men on it, but this one will be just as fun.

Cheese Ball

Here he is! My turkey cheese ball. I am so happy with how it turned out! My friend told me about one that her sister-in-law makes every year. I was having a hard time picturing it. She said that she formed the head with the cheese and it was more flat with the crackers coming out of the sides and she used veggies for the face and feet.

I thought that by just making a ball and adding a face to it that it would work too, and it did! I made a felt face and attached it with a skewer. Then put crackers and pretzels in it for the feathers and loaded up the platter with more crackers.

I don't like cream cheese (I know I'm nuts) and won't be eating the cheese, just the crackers, but I wanted to make it anyways because all of the kids at our Thanksgiving dinner will enjoy picking it apart.

I found a recipe online and tweaked it. This makes a lot! But since it is made from cream cheese, it will store for a while in the refrigerator. I realize that it is late for anyone else to try this for Thanksgiving, but you could easily make this for a Christmas potluck, as a ball or shape into a snowman :)

Easy Cheese Ball

3 packages of cream cheese

1 package of dry ranch mix

3 1/2 c. shredded cheese, whatever you like

1/3 c. diced green onions

2 c. almonds (toasted)

Mash cream cheese in a bowl. Add next 3 ingredients. Form into a ball shape and roll in nuts. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 8 hours (to allow ranch to distribute evenly...otherwise it'll be too salty).

Serve with crackers.

Thanksgiving Place Cards

I made these place cards for the kid's Thanksgiving table this year. This is the first time we have gotten together with friends for Thanksgiving in probably 5 years. We usually keep it small with just our family for the holidays, but think that it will be a lot of fun!

I used my cricut paper doll cartridge to make these cute little figures and color matched the hair for each child. Aaron keeps asking why he can't carry his around. I told him he needed to wait until Thursday, then he can carry and bend it all he wants :)

Tomorrow I will be busy making pies and this fun turkey cheese ball! My friend, Tanya, said that her sister makes a turkey shaped cheese ball every year for the table and the kids LOVE it! I saw a picture online (below) and think that I will pattern mine after it. I am not going to put cheese detail on the crackers....that's just too much effort, but I am going to make a cheese ball and put lots of crackers and pretzels in it for feathers and wings. We'll see how it turns out!

Advent Gum Packs!

I made these little gum advent books for my piano students. I have two right now, sisters, who are 13 and 11. They are so sweet and I wanted to make them something instead of just buying candy. Since I didn't have any Christmas card stock I used a girlie theme instead. I hope they like them!

Each day they can pop out a piece of gum! And what teen or pre-teen doesn't like gum? The foil gum pack slides back into the case. Each book holds 2 foil packs for a total of 24 pieces of gum.

The book is secured with 2 sets of velcro dots. Each foil pack was wrapped in a piece of cardstock and then glued on a larger piece of cardstock.
A fellow Coastie chick shared this idea. She found the tutorial HERE. The ones in the tutorial are absolutely ADORABLE. Check them out!

Stuffed Hamster---yes you read that right!

Have you ever googled "hamster softie tutorial" or "plush hamster tutorial"?.....probably not. But if you ever get the thought....lol, don't waste your time. Nothing comes up as I found out this morning. Aaron was sitting next to me as I was looking at a craft blog earlier and saw one of the Zhu Zhu pets mentioned on there. A woman had made her child a little sleeping bag to go with her Zhu Zhu hamster.

If you haven't heard yet, Zhu Zhu pets are the "IT" toy this year. The one people are fighting over for Christmas.

Aaron LOVES hamsters and guinea pigs. He is getting a guinea pig Webkinz for Christmas in his stocking and I thought we were good in that area. He saw a commercial the other day and thought the Zhu Zhu hamsters were pretty awesome. Then he saw a sleeping bag for one on the craft blog and said, "Oh! I want one of those! Can you make me a stuffed hamster? With fabric?"....Yeah, I'll whip that right up ::cough, cough::

Then I thought about it and decided to try to make one. Crazy. My attempts with 3-D stuffed toys haven't always worked out well in the past.

Here is what I came up with. A stuffed potato with eyes and ears. At least that is what it looks like, but it did end up kind of resembling a hamster too and Aaron LOVED LOVED LOVED it. He is sleeping with it right now in his bed with the little sleeping bag that we made for it too. It didn't take very long and we used scrap fabric. Aaron also asked for a little orange scarf.

So there you go. A homemade Zhu Zhu pet. One of a kind. Now when someone googles "stuffed hamster", they'll see ours. Not a tutorial, but at least a picture :)

Marble Magnets!

My friend, Tania, taught me how to make these fun magnets a couple of years ago in Kodiak. We made them for the parents of the kids that we babysat that year. They turned out so cute! I love being down in the lower 48 around the holidays. It is SO MUCH EASIER to find craft supplies! We couldn't get these marbles on the island, so her sister sent her some from Maine. Now all I have to do is go down the street to Joann's or the Dollar Tree store---and spend a lot less---no shipping!

To make some of your own all you need to do is brush a thin layer of mod podge on the back of the marble (on the flat side). Apply a circle of scrapbook paper, a photo, or a little crayon masterpiece (like the one Aaron is doing below).

Let dry. Then add a magnet onto the back using some tacky or all purpose craft glue and let dry. That's it!
Here are some with paper behind.
Aaron's crayon drawings. He made these as gifts.
Photos

Kaylee loves playing with the photo magnets on the dishwasher. She likes looking at family pictures and pointing to each member. She gets excited every morning when we come down the stairs and I stop and let her look at the family collage frame on the wall. So these are perfect for her.