The Flying Monkey

For Halloween this year our little guy was a flying monkey. I've had a few ask me if I made his costume. The answer is yes and no. I created his costume but only handmade some of it.

We found the cute monkey costume at Party City. It was there that my husband suggested our little monkey could be a flying monkey. So we went with that and found some wings we could use. Then I made a little hat and vest out of leftover felt I had from my playhouse. There you have it-a Flying Monkey!

The whole family

Going Batty

(Note the Q-tip hidden in his sock. Just in case!)

Life is a little batty these days with a 15 month old running around creating disasters everywhere he goes.

Our house has gotten a little batty as well.

I found this over at MADE. She has some lovely pictures. You can get the pattern here over at Country Living.

Happy Halloween!

Pinwheel Skirt

The pinwheel skirt was not the easiest project I've ever come across. I found this project on U-create by a girl named Leanne who has a blog called Elle Apparel. When I saw this skirt I thought it was awesome! To think she just created this skirt without a pattern means she has some serious talent. So creative and different. I'd never seen a ruffle/pleat done like that. So I told my mom we should do it together in California. Well I'll fess up now and say my mom really did the majority of the sewing. It took us awhile to understand all the directions because some pieces of the construction were not part of the steps so we had to fill in the gaps. This is when sewing gets stressful. The material got rather thick and broke a couple needles as well. I could have never done this project alone. I definitely would recommend a more experienced seamstress (like my mom) to do this skirt.

In the end I'm happy with the final product. My mom rocks at sewing and she wasn't completely satisfied with her finished product because she wanted it more perfected. Ha, I could have never done this. I probably would have taken a baseball bat to my sewing machine before I had finished this project. Thanks mom again for your amazing talents. Maybe one day those skills will magically grace my being. Until than more mod podge, nic nacs, and simple sewing for me.

Apple Sauce Jar into Pumpkin Face

I've been saving up apple sauce jars, peanut butter jars and other jars to make a little pumpkin patch for my living room. I found this idea here. I love kids crafts.

Happy 80th

My grandma is one of the sweetest and most loving individuals I've ever met.

Every year for Christmas she gives each family a calendar with all of our birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Each year we get a birthday card from her and those that marry into the family also get a birthday card from Grandma A. I love that she always remembers us, even if the card is a few days late I know it's coming.

My grandma just turned 80. I decided it would be fun to put together a family photo calendar for her. My grandma had 7 kids so the calendar starts with the oldest child's family and goes down from there.

I used shutterfly.com to make this calendar. You can customize dates and add different backgrounds. I only wish they had more picture layouts or an option to customize. I hope she enjoys our calendar to her!

Projects I like but don't have the skills or patience for so I make my mom do it

Once I started noticing those cute quiet books at church I knew I would love to have one for my son. I also knew I would rather my mom make it than myself so I asked her if she would do it for my son's birthday. You can tell many hours of love went into this book. Thanks mom for an amazing quiet book we will always cherish. Check out her book below.

Check that off the wish list-Summer Scarf

I've created a wish list of crafts I would like to do and a summer scarf was one of them. Well I ended up being a side-kick with this project. My mom and I visited this huge fabric store in California. They had tons of cottons and other fabrics for under $2 a yard! This project required half a yard of fabric, regular thread and elastic thread. I've never used elastic thread so I let my mom work with the elastic since it was her sewing machine and lets face it she's much better at sewing than me!
I look sort of mad or concerned in this close-up pic so please ignore my funny face. For a tutorial go here. I got the tutorial from Made.