Our Family Portrait- Cross-stitched

Remember the cross-stitch family portraits I made over a year ago?  I finally got around to making one for our family.  It's a great project to work on while I wait for Grace to be finished with her ballet class. I love how it turned out!

Bubble Print Wrapping Paper

 Harris has been really excited this year about wrapping gifts.  He has even made colorful wrapping paper!  In one of our craft books is a "recipe" for making bubble-print wrapping paper.  The process was fun and the gift is certainly wrapped uniquely (perfect for a grandparent!).

A Recipe for bubble-print gift wrap

In a shallow bowl mix together 1/2 cup water, 1-2 tablespoons red paint*, and 1/2 tablespoon dishwashing liquid.

Put a straw in the mixture and gently blow to make bubbles.  Blow until the mixture almost rises over the edge of the bowl.

Put a piece of paper over the bubbles and hold until several bubbles have popped.  Move the paper and continue to blow and pop bubbles until most of the paper is covered.

Let the paper dry.

Repeat the whole thing with green bubbles, let dry and wrap!

*In the picture of the materials used I show children's washable paint.  This is what we originally tried to use but found that the color didn't show up in the bubbles.  We ended up using regular craft paint.  I also changed to a shallower bowl than shown.
  

Mr. and Mrs. Pillowcases

This morning I took a bit of time to work on a project that I've had in mind to do for a while- Mr. and Mrs. pillowcases!  Whenever we take our own pillows on a trip I alway attach a clothes pin to my pillow because otherwise I can't tell mine and Bryce's a part.  I dearly love my husband but I'm very attached to my pillow!  I thought of taking them to be monogrammed but I decided to try my hand at embroidering them.  I love how they turned out!

Are the stitches even and perfect?  Not even close, but I sort of love the homemade look of them!  The project took me a little over an hour to complete and now I'm thinking of all the other pillowcases I want to make.  Wouldn't they be a fun wedding shower gift?

A Sweater Pillow

Remember this gorgeous pillow?  I'm still enjoying it immensely, so much so that I thought two would be better than one!  I had an old wool sweater that was a little too tight for comfort and I mentioned to my Mom that she should try to make a sweater pillow.

I think that her pillow turned out even more beautiful than the original!  Ruffles get me every time!

Our Presidents

Yesterday, I had planned an activity or two to do for President's Day, but when the day rolled around I found myself without the proper materials and/or ingredients.  Instead, I saw a post on Design Mom that had a lovely letterpressed poster of all our past presidents.  Even though I thought it was darling I really have no need for such a thing.  However, I did think that it would be really fun to have the children create one.  It turned out to be a great way to talk a little bit about the presidents and how each one brought something different- looks and otherwise- to the White House!

On a large sheet of construction paper we pre-drew the heads for the children to fill in (I got the idea for the heads from this post).  For each President we looked his picture up on the internet and read some fun facts  and stories about him from So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George and Our White House.

Both children did great with sticking with this project, though Grace definitely drew more Presidents.  We had fun picking out patterns (there was a string of bearded Presidents) and changes in style (powdered wigs and ruffled shirts to gray hair and ties).  It was also fun to see how the children would add in details such as wrinkles for the oldest President ever elected and a handle bar moustache for the only President to also serve as Chief Justice.

Owie Doll

Thank you friends and family for your kind phone calls, emails and comments about Harris' procedure yesterday.  It will be a couple of days until we get the biopsy results but we did get some preliminary good news!  The doctor said that Harris' esophagus looked healthy (compared to the last scope) and that there were no furrows or inflammation that he could see.

Are you ready for adorableness overload?

My Mom made Harris an Owie doll to take with him to the hospital.  Owie dolls are amazingly resilient because they are constantly being bruised, scraped and broken and yet they always have a smile on their face and the ability to make children feel better.

I first saw the Owie doll on Ikat's Bag Esty store where she sells the dolls.  I was thrilled to discover that she also sells the pattern to make your own Owie doll. I always assume that my Mother can make anything I ask her too and she can- which is a happy thing!

One of the neatest things about Owie are his band aids.  They are velcro that stick to him and come off without pulling the fabric (I had to order the fabric online).

He wears a hospital gown that ties in the back.  Harris loves that my Mom also made him some white "underwear!"

Owie has a medic bag to hold all of his medical supplies- band aids, bandages, a cast, and an arm sling .  My Mom is also making Owie a head wrap and an eye patch.

Harris absolutely loves his Owie!   He took him to the hospital yesterday where everything that was done to Harris was done to Owie- the nurses were even nice enough to give Owie his own arm bracelets!

My Mom asked that I never ask her to sew anything again.  You don't suppose she's serious do you?

A birthday and a painting

Yesterday was my birthday and 38 was the new number.  At various times in the last year I have worried about getting older and all that entails, but this year I've determined that instead of getting down about my new age I will embrace it and be happy that I am getting older!  After all, the alternative is much, much worse than a few new wrinkles or a sagging anything.

Also, I'm realizing there are some benefits to getting older.  Recently, I went in for my annual eye exam with some complaints of everything being blurry while I was wearing my contacts (I've worn contacts for the past 15 years).  I was assuming that my eyesight had taken a turn for the worse, but after the exam the Dr. gave me news of an eyesight miracle- my vision is now almost perfect!  Apparently, as you get older a muscle in your eye can start to relax and your vision can actually improve!  How unbelievable is that?

The children gave me a new painting for my birthday.  I LOVE it!  Grace drew the frog and Harris drew "me."  I've already hung it up on the green wall and it looks perfect.

Christmas Scrapbooks

It turns out that my Mom was way ahead of the recycling bandwagon.  For years and years my Mom (and sister too) has been making Christmas Scrapbooks out of Christmas cards.  (as always, click on pictures to make them bigger)

I believe the scrapbooks were originally the brainchild of a dear family friend, Bevy, and my Mom has improved a few verses and tweaked the layouts a bit.  The books are actually alphabet books about Christmas and each verse has "scenes" to go along with the theme.

The books turn out beautiful and are just lovely to browse through.  I think that any child my Mom makes one for should count themselves as lucky!

P.S.  Friends far and wide give my Mom their Christmas cards to use.  However, I'm not sure what's going to happen since picture cards have become so very popular.  Fortunately, she has hundreds of cards as backup!

Grandparents gift- a calendar

For the past six years the children have made homemade gifts for their grandparents.  When choosing what they will make, my goal is for the present to be something that their grandparents can use and enjoy.

This year we made calendars.  We divided the year up between Harris and Grace and they each drew 6 pictures to go with their assigned month.  Originally, I was planning on using zazzle to make the calendars but about 10 minutes into working on it I was already frustrated and realizing that it was going to take awhile to put together.  That's when our Mac swooped in and saved the day!  On a whim we decided to try the calendar option in iphoto and within 10 minutes (no exaggeration) we were done and it was ordered.  I believe that it turned out beautifully!  I thought I would share with you the pictures that Harris and Grace drew for each month (plus, we didn't order one for ourselves and I want a record of them!).

January

February

I love the groundhog sticking up from his home!

March

The leprechauns make me smile!

April

May

The three people on the ground are myself and the children's grandmothers.  Harris wanted to include them for Mother's Day.  He also wanted to make sure that I realized he put me in a skirt!

June

The is a picture of the children's school but my favorite thing is the couple who are celebrating their anniversary (that's us!).  I love that he has a gift behind his back!

July

How great is the person diving into the pool?

August

September

Again, the children's school from Harris' perspective this time.

October

November

Harris' handprint turkey.

December

I love the rooftops at the bottom.