Category — DIY

My new favorite spot in the house, some flowers from B and the beginnings of an Easter bunny.

Last year I made Declan a bunny for his first Easter basket. I followed this pattern from Martha, and by follow I mean I looked it over and said to myself oh, I don’t need to print that out, I can totally free hand it. And I don’t need to read all the steps, it can’t be that hard. It came out okay, except I couldn’t get the arms on right so one may or may not have quite a few stitch lines in it trying to keep it on…

Anyways, I am thinking a homemade bunny may be an Easter tradition (I say now, on Easter number two with one child. Ask me again on Easter number ten with three children. Yes Bryan, I said three.) Here are a few I have seen around and think could be doable.

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This is Declan’s second Valentine’s Day, but his first in daycare and his first for needing Valentine’s Day cards. (Some would argue that you don’t need cards in daycare. Some that aren’t me. I will use any excuse to make something!) I had grand plans involving lots of crafting, as seen on my Pinterest board, but they were shot down and deemed too girly by my (loving, wonderful) husband. Apparently G.I. Joe cards were in order, but there were no original ones to be found. This left me no choice but to craft something up! Declan and I went to Michael’s craft store, gathered the goods for about three different cards and settled on some blank white robot cut outs. A little coloring and a saying found on one of his pairs of PJ’s and we had ourselves some crafty, boy-ish cards!

So, you know you are officially an adult/parent when your response to how was your weekend?! is Great! Saturday we bought a new car seat! What did you do?

In other news, I finally updated my shop! A few weekends ago Bryan sensed that I needed some me time. Time at home alone where I could do some sewing/crafting without feeling guilty for not cleaning or doing housework. If you are a parent you probably understand. Time home alone, and time during naps, its like a race against yourself. How much can I get done in 30 minutes? An hour? Two hours? (Who am I kidding, Declan has never taken a two hour nap in his crib.) For instance, Bryan took Declan with him to Lowe’s and Stater Bro’s yesterday. In that hour I cleaned both toilets, started laundry, picked up the insane amount of toys in the living room, took a shower, did my hair and makeup, got dressed, and  probably another thing or two. I didn’t sit once. I felt pretty accomplished afterwards. Quite possibly a personal best. Okay, that was a total tangent. The purpose of the story: Bryan gave me time to sit. And sew. And enjoy my hobby. It was really nice. So now the shop is updated and I hope to keep it up. Maybe just one or two cards a week (month?), enough to satisfy my sewing cravings.

I am getting started on Declan’s first year photo book before procrastination sets in.

Editing photos of my new cards. It’s amazing how a lens can make cards look so pretty.

The shop should be updated soon!

With the family party behind us it was time to start planning party number two, the friend party! Declan has six or seven daycare buddies ranging in age from almost two years to three months and  we also have other school friends that are a little bit older (pre-school to second grade or so). Keeping kids in that wide of an age range entertained with the same activities is nearly impossible so we decided to do a super low-key play date at a local park this upcoming Saturday. I wanted to do a cute invite but was low on time so I put to use some of the extra striped straws and some of my washi tape to make little flag invites. These were taken as I put them together on my pump breaks at work on Friday. When I picked the little man up from daycare that afternoon I placed a little flag on each child’s clipboard for their parents to find Monday morning. Easy, fun and free!

I took the type from his family party invitations and re-worded it for this party. I created a little pennant template with four to a page and printed them on card stock.

I used double sided tape to adhere the flag and cut the ends.

Green striped washi tape was added to the edges to help hold it together (and add some cuteness, of course).

And viola! Little flag invitations.

With round one of Declan’s first birthday celebrations behind me I am feeling pretty good! The family party went well and I will have all of the pictures from it tomorrow! Today I wanted to share the invitations I created. This first party was a family party which meant I was only sending out about ten invitations. This allowed me to be a little more creative and include the candle on the outside, with the entire thing going inside a bubble mailer.

If you follow the Pinterest board I created for Declan’s birthday you saw all of the Noah’s ark pins. I really wanted to go in that direction but just didn’t have the time. Instead I focused on the colors green, blue and yellow, party hats and crepe paper. Since Christmas was less than a month ago I let guests know that they didn’t need to bring a gift, but that if they did to bring a favorite book or movie.

I am very pleased with how they came out!

Declan’s first birthday party (round one: family) is this weekend. Here is a peek at the preparations going on over here.

Now that all of your shopping is done (wait, it isn’t? you better get on that) it’s time to wrap! I made this tag download last year and hope you will find it useful!!