Merida, Brave Merida

Moo and I had a date on the books a LONG time ago to see the new Pixar/Disney movie Brave when it got to the theaters.  We both really enjoyed it.  Moo because it was a movie about a strong, brave, adventurous princess and Mommy...well, pretty much for the same reasons.  I also liked the fact that this one did not end with her "living happily ever after" married to some prince and that it DID involve the MOTHER (for once not an evil step-mother or one who is MIA) and the entire plot of the movie hinged upon the mom/daughter not understanding the p.o.v. of the other.  Great.  Loved it.  Which lead us to this...

And this...

Moo decided she wants to be Merida for Halloween, so instead of buying the $50 costume at the Disney Store (no, that does not include the wig NOR the bow and arrow set) I made one.  We will either cave and buy the wig at Target or make the white headpiece she uses to cover her hair in the movie.  And I will gladly purchase the bow and arrow set because it is awesome to have something like that marketed to girls.  To make the dress, I just found a pattern for an angel costume (large bell sleeves and a giant bell body with an elastic neck), made it in blue and added a large gold band to the bottom.  Then I made a simple gold sash to tie around the middle and tacked it just a bit in the back because it kept coming just a bit undone and sliding down.  Since I just kind of winged it, it ended up being just about two inches too long.  But I'm going to wait to hem it until Halloween because with my luck, I'd hem it now and it would be way too short by then.  This kid grows like a weed!  Happy early Halloween!

Homemade Non-Easter Easter Dresses

Well, I haven't posted in a while.  The Hubby changed his work schedule, which will be changing again at the end of the summer...so much drama...anyway, I'm basically a single mom- with someone sending her money to support the kids and herself.  So I don't get to blog as often as I like.  Someday I'll save enough to buy a laptop so I can blog from the familyroom, which would allow me to blog every day!  Can you imagine?  But for now, I have to wait until conditions are just right to go clear across the house for 20 to the only room in the house wired for internet access.  Frustrating.  Anywho...

Do you remember back in January I posted about some happy mail?  That I got a package of fabric that I had ordered from Hawthorne Threads?  Well I made dresses for the girls just in time for Easter!  Yes, I know they aren't exactly Easter dresses...but I let Moo pick out her own fabric, then I picked out something kind of complimentary for Toots and since when I ordered them I was not thinking of Easter, this was not an issue.  But since I had time and got a wild hair, I decided to bust them out in time for the holiday.  Plus I've always wanted to make an Easter dress.  Of course, it was freezing on Easter so the girls are wearing long sleeve shirts and Toots is wearing leggings too.  I promise the dresses are not as sloppy as Moo is making hers look.  I made Moos' first and followed the pattern exactly, gathered top and front pockets.  Then I modified Toots' little dress to be easier/faster.  I omitted the pockets because she doesn't need them and I actually like the cleaner look as opposed to the broken line the pockets make.  I also did pleats instead of the gather along the yoke.  I thought this would be easier, but I did have trouble keeping the pleats nice and neat while sewing.  It was a faster set up to do the pleats, but totally easier to sew the gathers.  A toss up, I think.  There is a little button at the top/back of the dress which I was proud of since I have never done anything with a button before.  The girls both seem to like their new dresses and I made them in sizes 7 and 3, so that they should last for a while ( I hemmed Moos' up after I finished it so that it would be the proper length.  The main difference between the 6 & 7 was the length.  It can be let out as she grows.)

Moo likes hers so much she wore it to Costco the day after I finished it.  A woman with about 5 kids all under 10 asked if I made it.  I told her I did, she said it was cute, then we went on with our shopping.  After I had a huge inner dialog about why she would ask that?  Does it look homemade?  Is that a good thing?  I thought it came out rather well and since Moo liked it so much I was pretty darn proud.  But boy did that lady ever throw me for a loop.  I never thought I would be bothered so much by something like that.  Now obviously, I don't care if someone else likes the way I dress my kids or whether or not their clothes come from my machine or Target, but I hope that kind of thing doesn't rub off on the girls.  I hope they always like wearing the things I make them.  I hope they always think of how much time and love went into those items...so much more special than a $10 dress from Walmart.  But I guess we'll see in a few years...

By the way, the fabrics are from Hawthorne Threads and the dress pattern is the Ice Cream Social Dress from Oliver & S.  In case you were wondering.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Moo, Toots and Me!

Handmade Mermaids

A few months ago I found the directions for these cute little handmade mermaid dolls from Wee Wonderfuls and found a free tutorial.  Of course, I can't find that tutorial now so I just posted a link to Wee Wonderfuls so you can see all of her wonderful stuff.  So creative that one.

So after deciding that I just had to make them, I, well, made them.  Actually, I waited until closer to Christmas, since I am really trying not to give the girls gifts just because.  So I bought the fabric, followed the directions that I had printed out weeks before and worked on them slowly.  S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I had to wait until Moo was asleep AND Daddy was home to hold Toots, since she is not a big fan of sewing machine noise.  A little bit here, a little bit there and some sewing machine problems (I still have no idea why the machine decided to change tension on me in mid fin) I finally finished late night Christmas Eve.

Cute, right?  The one with the blue hair belongs to Toots and the pink belongs to Moo.  They came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  And I was afraid that I would have spent all that time on them and nobody would want to play with them, but Moo seems to like them well enough.  Toots is still not too interested in dolls, but she did carry it around for a while. 

Mermaid in stocking.  They were just too cute - no wrapping required.

Seems to be enjoying her new mermaid.  Here you can see the size, perfect for little hands.  Not so perfect for bad eyesight and hand sewing.  It was about 50% machine and 50% hand stitching, and my big meaty hands are not meant for delicate stitching!  But in the end, it all worked out and now the girls have some cute little dolls.  Moo even asked if I could make her another one so her mermaid could have a friend.  I think that means it's a hit.  I told her I'd make her one for her birthday (in March) and that she could pick out the fabrics.  She should have loads of fun with that project!

Making Ornaments with Moo

Moo and I decided to make some ornaments after seeing Meg over at Whatever with her SUPER cute flower pearl pin ornaments.  So we headed out to the craft store and picked up one of those bottles of scrapbooking flowers, pearl headed pins and I already had some styrofoam balls from some other project.  I put the bits in a crafty tin (a plastic muffin tin) and we got started!

Moo picked out the colors, we both used pink flowers since one of those jars could easily cover more than two balls.  Then she picked pink pins and I picked white.  I just thought it would be nice to have a little contrast, but it turns out one box of 100 pins covers basically one ball - depending on how many flowers you try to stuff on there.

I was a little worried at first and hesitant to do this craft with Moo, since it does use long head pins and it requires a lot of patience, which Moo doesn't really have.  I finally figured that we could just stop when she got tired of it and pick it up again later.  And I had her put the ball in one of the open spots on the craft tin while she was sticking the pins into it, so she would be less likely to stick herself.  As you can see, she really enjoyed herself.

She was extremely careful and placed each flower on the ball in just the right spot before pinning it in.  We discovered early on that it is kind of hard to remove the pins once they have been pushed in.  I was worried about how easily they would come out - I didn't want them to just drop out on the floor with the baby running around, so I tried it out.  Pretty hard to pull them out when you are really trying, so that was good.  It's also harder than you would think to push them in there.

Moo really concentrated and kept at it until her ball was totally covered.  I was very surprised at how focused she was on this activity.  Probably due to the fact that every two seconds I was telling her what a good job she was doing, how pretty her ornament was looking and how grown up she was to be using very sharp pins so carefully.

Her focused face.  I don't see it often, had to capture it.  By the way, she is still in her jammies since this was about 9 a.m. but she had to "fix her hair".  This is how she did her hair for the day.

The finished product.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  Sorry it's a little blurry, I was using the bad camera and had to turn the flash off since it just whited everything out.  The flowers came in a few different shades of pink and some had glitter on them.  Moo loved her ornament and was VERY proud to show it off.  All in all it was a great project that we just might do again in a different color.  Thanks Meg for the great idea!

Teacher Gift Idea

If you have a teacher to give a gift to this Christmas (or this would also work for an end of the year gift), then have I got the gift for you!  The Teacher Survival Kit!  I saw something similar to this on a few blogs and thought I could tweek it to fit Moo's Kindergarten teacher - who is a Saint, by the way!

You just get a jewelry supply organizer, tackle organizer, anything with a bunch of small cubbies in it that closes securely, then go to town filling it with things you think your teacher would need and appreciate!  I went with a red, white and black theme, but you don't have to use a color theme at all.  I just liked the look of everything matching.  I went with Sharpies, pencils, large and small paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and magnets.  I also added a headache medicine (after a day with 30 5 year olds, I would need those), some chocolates (because they are yummy!), some breath mints (mainly because they were red, white and black) and some heart stickers because she gives the kids a sticker when they are leaving if they were good in school that day.  An easy way for the parents to see if they kid acted up or not. 

Then I got a cellophane bag and some ribbon and there you have it!  I also added the apple post-it dispenser because she is ALWAYS sticking post-its on everything and every teacher needs an apple for her desk, right?  So cute.  This gift was not too expensive to put together, but making two or more would be more cost effective, as I was left with a bunch of paperclips and chocolates and such that wouldn't fit in the bins.  So make one for each of the teachers in your life and spread some love this Christmas!

P.S.  All items used in the bins were purchased at Walmart, as were the bins themselves.  The decorations and the fancy pencils were from Michael's craft store. 

Operation Christmas Child - Building Boxes

 So a few weeks ago I wrote a post about Operation Christmas Child, then I started having problems with my computer - iPhoto specifically.  But now I'm back and I think I have the problem figured out, so let's get on with the show!  Operation Christmas Child, as you can see, is something Moo and I like to do during the holidays.  I slowly gather things all year long (note the small plastic tubs) when they go on sale or when I find them at a good price.  Socks, school supplies, toys, books, stickers, anything fun.  Then in November, we get to pull those boxes out and build our gift boxes.  I also collect shoe boxes during the year to pack our gifts in (note the large brown box full of shoe boxes). 

 Moo grabs a shoe box and goes down the line of tubs, filling the box with all sorts of goodies.  I should point out here that each tub has a different focus.  One has socks and tee shirts in it.  One has hard candies.  One has hair brushes, headbands, clips and the like.  One has stuffed animals.  One has school stuff like crayons, pencils, sharpeners, stickers, paper.  One has soap and washcloths.  You get the idea.  So Moo gets to pick things from each bin to fill up a shoe box.  Then she does it again until we are out of shoe boxes!

The last step is for Mommy to wrap the boxes and for Moo to draw pictures to send with her boxes.  This year she drew a picture of herself with what she imagined the person getting the box to look like and wrote "I love you" on each.  She said she wanted them to know that she was sending them a present because she loved them.  So cute.  Then we close them all up and take them to a drop-off location.  This year it was at the Crossroads Church, not too far from our house.  When I printed out the labels on-line, I also signed up for notification when the boxes were delivered so we could find out where they went.  And I just got notice that they ended up in Malaysia.  They sent some photos of kids getting their boxes and it was great to be able to show Moo just how happy her boxes made those kids.  If you are looking for a way to make your Thanksgiving or Christmas a little more meaningful, look into sending a shoe box to a child in need.  It's a wonderful thing to teach your children how to appreciate what they have and realize that not everyone is so lucky.

Operation Christmas Child

Please don't forget to pack your shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child!  Collection week is coming up, beginning November 14th!!!!  That's REALLY soon!  So get out there, pack a box for a little boy or girl and bring a smile to a child this Christmas. 

We love the Veggie Tales series of books and movies designed to teach children basic Bible stories and morals in a fun way.  That's where we first heard about Operation Christmas Child.  We loved the idea of packing a box of love for a kid halfway around the world who had never gotten a gift before, who had never held a book before and who thought that nobody cared about them.  So we started packing shoeboxes!  Last year was our first year and we sent two boxes - one for each of my little kiddos.  This year, we are sending FOUR!  I don't know how, but I ended up with a lot of stuff!  Enough for four boxes with some left over to save for next year.  I would send more boxes, but there is also a recommended donation per box to help cover the cost of shipping the boxes.  It is all tax deductible, but I can't afford to spend a ton of money on shipping right now!  So anyway, four boxes it is!

If you would like to get involved with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child (and I would encourage you to do so) click on the link HERE to go right to the Operation Christmas Child page to get started!  I'll post some photos later today if we get all the boxes packed, or tomorrow if it takes us until then to finish them up.  Moo is going to draw some pictures to include in each box and I'm going to write a little note to tuck in as well.  This really is a great thing to do with your family, especially right now since it's getting close to Thanksgiving.  We use this time to talk about how lucky we are and that some kids aren't as lucky.  Some don't have families to look after them, some have families but don't have enough money to even buy enough to eat.  We go shopping (even just to the dollar store or Walmart) to pick out needed items (soap, toothpaste, socks) and fun stuff (hair clips, coloring books, bracelets).  Then we come home and pack the boxes, talking about how much fun the kid will have when they open the box.  It's a great way to show your kids that giving can be just as fun as getting. 

Ok, enough chit chat!  I'm off to back boxes, teach Moo and Toots about giving and the spirit of Christmas and about being thankful for all that we have!  I love this time of year!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Moo and Toots!

Well this month has just been crazy!  With Toots turning one, making homemade costumes for two little trick or treaters plus Mommy and Daddy, out of town visitors staying in the guest room for a week and volunteering at school for a field trip to the pumpkin patch and the Halloween parade and party I haven't had any time to do anything NOT related to those activities!  I promise to come back here and post about the costumes and trick or treat bags (both homemade), Toots and her party (very cute vintage circus parade themed) and all the rest just as soon as I slip into a coma for about 3 days.  I feel like that's what I need right now!  And then it all begins again with that magical and dreaded month - November!  I love November, it means the start of my favorite time of year, Thanksgiving, family get togethers, Christmas decorations come next, with holiday gift making/shopping and all of that.  Then is New Years and my Anniversary.  Yup, got hitched on the day after the whole world parties.  I like to think they are all celebrating my anniversary.  That's not self-centered, is it?  And though I love the start of this season, it also is something that I kind of dread.  It means lots of extra cooking, cleaning, rushing to finish knitting last minute hats, sew last minute mermaid dolls for stockings and trying to figure out what to get for Moo's teacher, the neighbors and all those other people you feel like you want to give something too, but have no idea WHAT that should be.  A little stressful, but fun at the same time.  So stay tuned in the coming weeks for updates and ideas for gifts to make for family and friends, crafts to do with the kids and delicious food that only comes out at the holidays!  Be back soon!

Oh and tonight is Halloween, so stay safe if you are going trick or treating!  And don't eat too much candy!  Well, TRY not too eat too much candy, if you can.  Who am I kidding?  I'm going to go to town on that stash once we get home!  Come on, the baby can't eat her share!  I'm going to have to take one for the team and force myself to eat her haul.  It will be hard, but I'll do it.  For the good of the family, of course.

Saturday Night Live Fans Unite!

Am I the only one who is stoked to see this hit the shelves this holiday season?!?!  It seems I am.  There is a huge controversy around this ice cream and the choice by Ben & Jerry's to sell a flavor with such a cheeky name.  Frankly, if you're old enough to read this and understand the double meaning, you've already been corrupted and should not find this offensive.  Some people are arguing that it's wrong to let children see this.  What?  There isn't a gross picture on it or anything.  And like I said, if you're old enough to read this, you've heard WAY worse things than this at school.  Not to mention the fact that it is hidden in the massive wall of Ben & Jerry's flavors in the supermarket.  If you are standing in the ice cream isle long enough for your child to read all the names of the ice cream flavors Ben & Jerry's makes, you are spending WAY too much time buying ice cream.  Not to mention the fact that if you are concerned that your child would "get" it, doesn't that mean that your kid has already been exposed to vulgar humor?  I mean, it doesn't say Sweaty it says Schweddy.  If I told my child what this said, without giving her the meaning behind it, she wouldn't get it.  She would ask "What is a Schweddy Ball?"  Then she would ask if she could have ice cream.  Point being she wouldn't get the joke.  If your kid gets the joke, they don't need protection from this ice cream.  Maybe you protesters should think about that.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween...

Yes, it's getting to be that time again!  And since Moo has been stuck home for the last few days with a cold I've been looking for ways to keep her busy that are rather sedentary due to her fever.  She asked to get her nails painted black for Halloween and I guess I'm a bit conservative or something because I don't think little kids should wear dark colored nail polish.  Not red or black or dark purple, nothing too adult and nothing too goth.  So I said a big N-O to the black, but countered with orange.  She thought for a second and said it sounded too boring.  So I argued that jack-o-lantern fingernails certainly weren't boring and she'd probably be the envy of her class with such interesting Halloween fingers.  She was sold.

Just a bit of orange polish, then a little Halloween magic with the old Sharpie and viola!  Jack-o-lantern fingernails!  I was thinking about doing something similar for myself for the Kindergarten class party I'll be helping out with next week.  For mine, I was thinking black polish and using the french manicure white pen to make little spiderweb lines.  The other option is purple polish, white web lines and a dot of black in the web to look like a spider.  I just don't know what I'll go with.  So many choices, so few weeks out of the year where you can do this stuff and not look insane.

A moment of silence...

...a moment of silence for 9/11. Though I didn't know anyone personally, that day of loss shook me to the core. Tragedy, bravery, fear, love, loss, hope, courage. So many running in to help those who could not run out. You are all my heros, you who died for no reason, you who died trying to save others and you who are left behind to deal with the loss of loved ones. I will never forget.  I will tell my children.  You will live on and your sacrifice will always be remembered.

Happy 4th of July!

What can I say?  It's well over 100* outside so we're stuck in here trying to be as patriotic as possible.  I'm  really feeling the crazy nails right now.  American Flag inspired fingers as modeled by Moo.

So is Moo.  She just loves them.

Moo has decorated herself for "America's Birthday Party"

Happy Independence Day!  And Happy Birthday America!

"The Best Party Ever"

Party Games...

Mediating a grown-up water gun fight...

Finding and tasting a variety of leaves and grasses...

Three kiddie pools to explore, a tub of water balloons, a tub of water guns and a tub of fishing poles....

Cheese pizza...

and sun bathing (while watching out for tan lines)...

Equals "THE BEST PARTY EVER!"

Easter Sunday

Well today was Easter and boy, do we love Easter in this house. Moo remembered it from last year and knew just what to expect. Though for some reason, she thought you could ask the Easter Bunny for certain things, like Santa. I tried and tried to tell her this just was not done but she wouldn't hear of it. So every night she asked the Easter Bunny for a LaLa Loopsy Doll.
Excited as she was to find all 14 eggs, in slightly harder places than they were hidden last year, she couldn't wait to find her basket. I mean REALLY COULDN'T WAIT. When she finally spotted it peeking out from under her art board, she ran to it faster than I've ever seen her move. I'm surprised the camera even picked it up. Needless to say, she LOVES her LaLa Loopsy Doll. Apparently the Easter Bunny does take requests. Wish I had known that when I was a kid.
And we can't forget Toots. She wasn't up for any of the egg finding, but thanks to sissy she got all the eggs with her name on it. Moo even found her basket for her. Toots is really into the Little People Milkmaid and Cow & Calf set. Apparently we may have a little farmer in the family after all.
Daddy worked today, but was able to stop by for a few minutes to see the girls find some eggs. He got to see Toots on her first Easter and Moo zoom through the egg hunt in about 20 seconds. Not a bad morning. Too bad nobody wants to eat the Easter egg salad...now what to do with a dozen hard boiled eggs?

Getting ready for Easter

The final product ended up pretty groovy, if I do say so myself. Let's see how we got there...
Toots spent her time trying to figure out how to get into a plastic egg. She needed to be ready for her first hunt. I think a bit of practice was a good idea...she never did figure it out.
Moo and the Easter egg spinner machine-thingy. It was a lot of fun the first few times, but like anything you pay $5 for at the Walmart, it crapped out after about the 5th egg and Daddy had to take over spinning duty.
I think this was right about when Daddy had to take over. At one point, Moo was standing on her chair, trying to get as much weight as she could on that little spinner button but it just wouldn't spin.
Our Easter decor! Moo used her superior design sense, Daddy used his handy scissoring skills and I used my hot glue gun to make this stunner of a holiday wreath out of a diaper box and some Dollar Store eggs. I think we might need to add a few more next year to really fill it out. I think we're ready for the Easter Bunny!!!