My lack of a Christmas letter led to this…

So I didn’t get a Christmas letter out, I didn’t even get my Christmas cards/photos out :( I started a few of them, but didn’t have time to finish them. This card was my inspiration, (it’s is taken from the Family Fun website and you can find the directions HERE), but I couldn’t find any candy cane stickers.  One of the joys of living in a small town and having three children so you don’t brave a trip to a larger town to get the stuff that you “need”…  So I improvised…  and came up with this… Imagine it with the same snowman as in the above picture!  The snowman is actually an ornament that you can hang on your tree!!!  How cute are they!?!?!?!?  Since I couldn’t find candy cane stickers, I looked around for anything that I could cut to make it look like candy canes, and found some candy cane wrapping paper.  After about 45 mins and only 10 cut out candy canes I gave up and tried something else.  I had these letter stickers from another project so I put them on this stripped scrapbooking paper and brought it to a copy place in town and had them copy them for me.  Then I made the snowmen, hot glued them on and we were good to go!  (I did make about 15 of them, and hand them out, but if you weren’t around when I had them you missed out!!!) 

This is the picture that I put in the cards, and even if you didn’t get a Christmas card you will be getting the picture (or at least most of you will!!!) Of the pictures that Katie took of the kids I think this is my favorite because NO ONE is looking at the camera!!!  There are other cute ones, but I like this one!  And since everyone has asked where I got the outfits here is the info!  Nevaeh’s orange shirt came from Gymboree, the cream sweater was Target, and her brown pants are a Target pair of flared leggings.  Aubrie’s shirt is actually a 3-6 month dress from Gymboree and she also has on Target flared leggings.  Wyatte’s sweater came from Target and his pants from Penney’s.  And even though not matchy matchy, they are coordinated! 

I have been reading blogs that have the top few things that have happened to them or that they have done in the past year, and while I can come up with a couple my lists aren’t nearly as exciting.  I will work on a post with those and you can look for that later tonight or tomorrow…

Right now I am off to make a treat to bring tonight to the party at the church and then we are off to some fireworks to ring in the New Year!!! 

 

Happy New Year!!!

Wyatte Turns 5

Since Wyatte’s birthday fell on a school day I decided to make cupcakes and send them for snack.  I looked around the internet, but didn’t find anything that I liked.  So I came up with this!  Isn’t he cute!??!?!??!?!  This is what I started with, a circus peanut.  I cut some off the bottom so that one end was up higher than the other. (I enjoyed that part!!!)

Then using these wonderfully expensive cake making tools (yes I am talking about the pop can and fork!!!) I frosted the circus peanut green.  Then I cut a jelly belly jelly bean in thirds, and used the two ends as nostrils.Then I frosted over them.  Using another jelly bean, this time only cut in half, I made eyes.  Using white sprinkles I added teeth and wala!  Cute crocodile cupcakes!!!then I put the whole thing on a blue frosted cupcake, and there it is!  I think they turned out pretty cute.  They did take me a while, so if you are going to try them budget out a little more time than normal!!!

 

Grandma Linda was wonderful enough to bring Wyatte to school and pick him up afterwards, so that I could get stuff done for Wyatte’s family party that was that night.  Grandpa Stan came over for lunch and brought presents for all the kids!  Aubrie and Nevaeh got books.And Wyatte got a camo shirt (that in these pics is the wrapping paper!)Inside was a camo coat, and in the hood, sleeves, and pockets were all kind of treat!  A camo hat, gloves, and TONS OF CANDY!!!

 

 

 

Here is the start of the crocodile cake that I made for him family party, and am going to make again when he has his friend party in January (there is WAY to much going on in December to have a party so we are just doing it one weekend in January!)Here is the cake that I kinda went off of.  Not the same in any aspect, but it gave me a starting point…The feet are cupcakes, with marshmallow claws/toes (I used french vanilla snowman ones, trimmed a little bit because that seemed the easiest) The eyes are strawberry marshmallows, frosted, then another snowman cut a little, with a blue mini m & m’s as the pupil.  The nostrils are parts of french vanilla marshmallows, frosted, with brown mini m & m’s.  The teeth are the marshmallows, cut into slivers…For supper I made a version of Penne Alfredo.  I loosely followed this recipe for Alfredo sauce, cooked penne noodles, used a deli rotisserie chicken and stirred it all together and then baked it for a while.  When I make it again I will double the sauce, it was a little too dry for my taste, but was great!  I did add minced garlic, and onions.

Then it was time for presents.  He got a truck with horse and trailer, a farm lego set, a marshmallow shooter, a monster truck, a book for special school papers and pictures, flashlights, and a digger/truck magnetic puzzle, and a sweatshirt and warmup pants.  I am sure I am missing something, but…

I can’t believe that I have a 5 year old.  Crazy how the time goes by.

Craft Challenge (kinda)

My camera crapped out on me last night, and so instead of having pictures of the things that I made for this month’s craft challenge, you have to look at the pictures that I got the ideas from.

My mother-in-law gets GREAT magazines that I love to browse through.  In the past I have never had the money to actually buy anything from them, but it was fun to dream.  Well now that my hubby is back to work I could order some things from them, but the only things that I really liked I decided that I could make!  So off to Walmart (we don’t have a “craft” store in town, and with three young kids you don’t make any extra trips out of town, unless you have to!  So I made do with what I found!!!

This was the first picture that I fell in love with.

Taken from The Country House catalog.

Or at least the mittens!  For these I got some off white flannel and dyed it burgundy (stained the tub in the process!!!) I made them smaller than they are in the catalog and because of that they were really hard to sew, so I used some super glue for now, and have to figure something else out if they start coming apart!  I got some tiny clothes pins and some twine to hang them on.  Don’t quite know where they are going to end up finally, but they are sure cute!!!

Next I saw this frame, and loved the idea, but not the whole thing…

Taken from The Country House catalog.

I found a wood frame at Walmart, stained it with a light stain, and then started picking out papers.  The first one I did is green and blue, the second one I did is the same color scheme as the one in the picture, and then I have papers cut out to do a black and white one, and a beautiful gray/silver patterned paper.  No words on them, at least for now.  I would like to be able to change the pictures if I want, and not be limited to a certain type…

Last but not least, was this idea.

I couldn’t find tags like this in Walmart, but did find some scrapbooking “scrap” pack that had tan/brown cardstock in it.  So I found a couple of tag patterns in another scrapbooking pack that I got, and traced them and then cut them out.  Darkened the edges (used some stain and some gold/bronze paint), used some of the circles that are used to strengthen whole punched holes (do you know what I am talking about !?!?!?!) and painted them a gold/bronze color and put them at the top.  I painted Merry Christmas on mine, but have plans to make at least another set with a different saying.  I also got some thin crafting wire to string them together.

All in all I was pretty happy with them all.  If I get a new camera, or figure out what is wrong with my old one I will take pics and share them with you all.

Can’t wait to see what everyone else has done!!!!!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

 

**** Whoops!  Forgot to add in the link to Blue Eyed Blessings! So here it is!!!  Go check out some of the other Christmas Crafts that everyone has made!!!!!