Lucky Kitty

Dollar General Wreath

It all started when my buddy Vickie invited myself and our friend Jen over to make holiday wreaths...

 
This is the 'before' pic of our supplies.  Each of us brought a huge bag of goodies and no one had a plan... a perfect recipe for crafty goodness.

Since our playdate was after work, I didn't have a lot of time to shop for my supplies, but thankfully, there's a Dollar General on the way to Little Man's escuela...

It became a mission to see if I could make a cute wreath out of things found at the dollar store...

Did I succeed?

 

I think it turned out pretty cute! 

Materials used were 4 bunches of ribbon - two red, two gold - $.79 each, 10 'poinsetta' bows - 2 for $1.00, and one string of red glitter pom pom garland - on sale for $1.50. 

Not too shabby... maybe even a little chic... :)

A tree fit for a toddler...

We've always loved having a real tree for a Christmas tree for many many years.  I've made it a bit of a mission to have a great collection of personalized special ornaments for these trees as I didn't have those sorts of traditions growing up.

This year, however, our house has been invaded by a creature the likes of which had never occured to us... he's a Man-ster... he's a Toddler-saurus Rex... he's 18-months of pure fury... Weighing in at 24 pounds and 4 ounces... He's our sweet baby boy...

 

...and he's not very fond of Santa or Christmas...

We knew that he would absolutely destroy any sort of Christmas tree situation, so, we had to get crafty... and get crafty is exactly what happened...

It all started with some holiday themed scrapbook paper and cookie cutters...

 

The Hubs and I drew the outline of many different holiday shapes onto the different papers.  Then, he spent hours and hours and hours cutting them out... glad I missed this part.  After all were cut out, we made ourselves a tree shaped collage of sorts on our 'why is there a door in the middle of this wall' closet door...

 

 I think it turned out perfect!  Little man has inspected it thoroughly and determined that since it does not pose a danger to him and will not get him into any trouble, it isn't really worth the time to fiddle with it... :)

 

Craftzine presents...

My holiday embroidery patterns!!!

 

I used them here on some festive napkins, but the possibilities are endless for these patterns.

Check out the feature and download the patterns over at Craftzine now!

Happy Holidays!!!

Have paper, will decorate!

Recently, three of my friends and I hosted a baby shower for our buddies that just adopted their baby girl.  I highly recommend planning a party as a group - it helps even out the workload and each person can focus on their particular task.

My assignments included invite design, cupcake toppers, and general cute-ri-fying.

First up, invite design.  Yeah, I know, you can just go buy invites at the store, or better yet, save a tree and use a pre-designed e-vite template, but what's the fun in that?  Isn't it better to design your own?  Yes, yes it is...

 
 

So, once we had our invite design, we automatically had our theme and colors too...

I decided to see how many things I could make with a few packs of cardstock, a glue stick, some die-cutters, my completely awesome Martha Stewart circle cutter (I heart you, Martha), and some ribbon...

Check it out...

Cupcake toppers-

 

Small welcome banners...

 

Large welcome banners...

 

Small tags for flower vases (also tied these around all my plants outside and then promptly forgot to photograph them)...

 

Each project was super easy, super quick, and super cheap.  It's amazing what a little bit of paper and a smidge of craftiness can add to sweeten up your party decorations!

Turkey Day Bibs for Tots!

We were oh so lucky this past Thanksgiving when our dear family friends invited us out to Fredericksburg, TX to spend the holiday at a ranch house. 

Last year, when every holiday was 'baby's first', it was easy to find accessories and outfits to mark all of our special occasions.  This year, however, being 'baby's second' holiday season, has been a bit of a challenge.

Not one to give up so easily, I decided to make Quinn and his baby buddy Clover some special bibs - just for Thanksgiving.

Instead of trying to find the perfect pattern, I thought I would just wing it, so, I drew an outline around an existing bib...

 

Freehanded my embroidery design...

 

and voila! Baby's Second Thanksgiving bib.

 

Had to add the pockets - our little ones tend to drop lots of things and if it lands in the pocket, well, that's what we call 'seconds' at our house...

I think the babies were pleased...

 

 

...or maybe just distracted by all the delicious choices we had at our dinner...

I am so glad we were able to spend Thanksgiving with such good friends and that our babies got to dine in style!

P.S. Homemade cranberry sauce is the total baby jam...