Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Mystery Craft Project: Advent Calendar
I'd never heard of an advent calendar until I got married. I guess I'd seen the movie "Christmas Vacation" where she opens the little doors on her advent calender, but that was the absolute extent of my exposure to them. But for 10 years now, I've been getting the little cardboard chocolate kind from my mother-in-law, Linda, and it's a fun tradition! For the last couple of years, I've thought I might like to buy a nice permanent one for our family, but they can be pricey, so I've put it off. Finally, this year I got on the internet to see what was out there, and of course I got sucked in by Pinterest and decided to just make my own! I looked at numerous styles of advent calendars before I decided on the style that I would like to make. I found a couple of inspirational examples here and here, and then I headed to Michael's!
Let me start by telling you that if you're looking to save money, unless you already have a lot of the supplies on hand, making it yourself is not the way to go. Lucky for me, though, I ran into a friend at Michael's and she gave me some fantastic coupons that saved me at least 25%. Yay for coupons!
What I bought were little paper mache boxes, a few colors of paint, a canvas (50% off coupon! Woo hoo!), Mod Podge, and a bunch of various embellishments like ribbon and little wooden circles.
I started by painting the boxes and the embellishments. The boxes I painted dark red and dark green, and I pained the lids the opposite color of the box. For the embellishments, I added in silver and light green.
At first I left the insides plain, but then I changed my mind and painted them all silver, and I think they look much nicer for it.
The same friend who gave me the coupons, also gave me a bunch of Christmas-y scrap booking paper to use. I started out by tracing around the edge of a lid.
Then I cut it out.
Once I got the paper for several lids cut out and ready to go, it was time to Mod Podge!
If you've never used Mod Podge, it's really fun! You start by painting a thin layer on the surface you want to cover.
Then you paint a thin layer on the back of your paper.
Then you set the paper on your surface and use a scraper to get all the air bubbles out. I actually bought one of those little roller do-dads, and this scraper came with it. I never used the roller, and always used this. It's my new favorite crafting tool!
Here are several lids that are glued down, and have all the bubbles scraped out.
Then you paint a thin layer over the top of everything! It seems weird to be painting glue over top, but it works! You'll want to paint several layers (I usually do 3 or 4) total, making sure each layer dries completely. This project is great for me because you don't have to do one thing for very long. After you Mod Podge a few box lids, they have to dry, so you can go do something else. It's perfect for the crafter with ADD!
This is what the box will look like when you've properly applied the Mod Podge.
You can even Mod Podge over the top of embellishments. In fact, it will keep them more secure. Just paint a nice thin layer, let it dry, and then paint another!
Here are a bunch of lids drying. Don't worry, they'll look pretty once they've dried!
This one is going to be tricky for the girls since they can't exactly read yet! I did various things for all the numbers. I had about half of them made, and was stuck. I wanted to use a Cricut to cut out the rest of the numbers, and I had a friend who said I could use hers, but I was having trouble connecting with her. That's when Katrina swooped in and saved the day! She said she had a Cricut I could use, so I went over to her house and she cut out approximately a bazillion numbers for me! Yay!
This is my canvas that I spray painted silver. It looks a little mottled in this picture, but it turned out looking pretty good.
The next step is to lay out all of your boxes on the canvas and make sure they look good.
This is the finished product on the wall! Each box has something different in it. Some days it's just a couple of pieces of candy, some days it's a small toy (mini slinkeys, Princess band-aids, matchbox cars, chapstick, tiny My Little Ponies, ornaments etc.), and some days it's directions to do something such as "bake Christmas cookies" or "pick a name off the Giving Tree and buy gifts for a child in need."
I love how it turned out, and I'm excited to start this new tradition with my girls!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Clementine Claps!
This morning at breakfast, Clementine started clapping out of the blue. I'd never seen her do it before, but she did it like an old pro. (Then we started clapping for her, and she laughed and rocked so hard, she about tipped over her chair. It was quite hilarious.) Then at church, we were singing a song that some people were clapping along with, and Clementine started clapping again. So this afternoon, I asked her to clap, and sure enough, she clapped like she'd been doing it her whole life. Babies be crazy, yo!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Early Christmas Gift
Are you surprised that I got my Christmas gift early this year? Because if you are, Hi, I'm Alyson, and this is my husband, Jim. Apparently we've never met.
Anyway, the story goes like this. Four years ago, we were flying home from Connecticut, and our camera came in contact with some water and was ruined. Jim promptly replaced it (because he's sweet like that), but my first inclination had been to wait a while and save up for a grown-up camera (i.e. a DSLR). But we got another point and shoot, which was sufficient for the last four years, but I've had a growing itch to get a better camera that takes great pictures.
Recently I started doing research. I wanted a fairly basic DSLR camera (I don't need a fancy pro kind), and it came down between the Canon Rebel eos t3i and the Nikon d5100. I did a lot of research online, and even polled my Facebook friends. At first I was leaning toward the Canon, but then the Nikon started to pull ahead in my mind.
Jim is the type of guy who likes to spoil his wife, so he decided to combine our Christmas gifts from each other, as well as our Christmas gifts from his parents and go ahead and get the camera, since we found a good deal on Black Friday.
Already I can tell the picture quality is far and away better than my point and shoot (they're not dark and grainy, and actually look great indoors!), and I can't wait to learn how to use it to it's full extent. When I was in high school, I was on the yearbook staff and learned all bout ISO and f-stop, and even learned how to develop and print pictures. So I used to know some of this stuff. Hopefully it all comes back to me. (Not that knowing how to develop pictures will matter at all!)
Anyway, here are a few pictures of my munchkins with my new camera. Merry Christmas to MEEEEE!!! (and Jim)
We put up our Christmas decorations today, so here's Lily by the tree.
This little munchkin slept in her clothes. She skipped her nap on Friday, and when we were driving home from the Swaims at about 6:00, she fell asleep in the car, and stayed asleep aaaalllll night.
My college friend, Angela, has an etsy shop and makes stockings. I had her make some for us, and I LOVE them!
My daughter, Elton John.
Look who's starting to pull up!
I love the color saturation on the outside pictures.
I set up our Little People nativity scene on one of our book shelves. Lily has been playing with it nonstop ever since.
Look how clear this is, even inside! I love it!
Anyway, the story goes like this. Four years ago, we were flying home from Connecticut, and our camera came in contact with some water and was ruined. Jim promptly replaced it (because he's sweet like that), but my first inclination had been to wait a while and save up for a grown-up camera (i.e. a DSLR). But we got another point and shoot, which was sufficient for the last four years, but I've had a growing itch to get a better camera that takes great pictures.
Recently I started doing research. I wanted a fairly basic DSLR camera (I don't need a fancy pro kind), and it came down between the Canon Rebel eos t3i and the Nikon d5100. I did a lot of research online, and even polled my Facebook friends. At first I was leaning toward the Canon, but then the Nikon started to pull ahead in my mind.
Jim is the type of guy who likes to spoil his wife, so he decided to combine our Christmas gifts from each other, as well as our Christmas gifts from his parents and go ahead and get the camera, since we found a good deal on Black Friday.
Already I can tell the picture quality is far and away better than my point and shoot (they're not dark and grainy, and actually look great indoors!), and I can't wait to learn how to use it to it's full extent. When I was in high school, I was on the yearbook staff and learned all bout ISO and f-stop, and even learned how to develop and print pictures. So I used to know some of this stuff. Hopefully it all comes back to me. (Not that knowing how to develop pictures will matter at all!)
Anyway, here are a few pictures of my munchkins with my new camera. Merry Christmas to MEEEEE!!! (and Jim)
We put up our Christmas decorations today, so here's Lily by the tree.
This little munchkin slept in her clothes. She skipped her nap on Friday, and when we were driving home from the Swaims at about 6:00, she fell asleep in the car, and stayed asleep aaaalllll night.
My college friend, Angela, has an etsy shop and makes stockings. I had her make some for us, and I LOVE them!
My daughter, Elton John.
Look who's starting to pull up!
I love the color saturation on the outside pictures.
I set up our Little People nativity scene on one of our book shelves. Lily has been playing with it nonstop ever since.
Look how clear this is, even inside! I love it!
Friday, November 23, 2012
Clementine Crawls!
Clementine has become quite the crawler these days! She's been crawling for a few weeks now, and she gets faster and stronger every day! She's even starting to try and pull up! Despite Goo's best efforts to hinder her, here is a video of Clementine crawling!
Oh, and here's one of a giggle baby!
Oh, and here's one of a giggle baby!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Today was a fantastic Thanksgiving day. We went over to the Shelton's house again, and were joined by the Judd family as well. Since Ty had to work the night before, we decided to have an evening meal, which was actually pretty nice because I got to cook all day and didn't feel rushed! We had more food than we knew what to do with, and had an absolutely delicious meal. Nobody choked, threw up, peed themselves, fell down the stairs, or dived on their pregnant belly, so I'd call the day a success!
I'm so thankful for my sweet little family, and for wonderful friends.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I'm so thankful for my sweet little family, and for wonderful friends.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Tattoo #4
I finally did it, folks! I got my Clementine tattoo!
Back when Goo was born, my friend Katrina said she had been wanting a tattoo for quite some time, and would go with me to get one when I got my Goo tattoo. Because of extenuating circumstances, she ended up delaying for a while. Luckily, you can always count on me to have another baby, so Katrina and I got to be tattoo buddies this time along. Even though we'd been planning the blessed event for over two years, we decided kind of spur-of-the-moment on Tuesday night to go for it today! I arranged child care for the two older girls, but took Clementine with me, since both of the other girls have been there when their mom got inked in their honor.
Look how happy she is!
Katrina went first. Show how much pain she's in!!!
Her tattoo ended up awesome awesome awesome!
Now it's my turn. Do I look nervous?
This is the transfer placement. When I'd originally imagined it, I'd imagined it facing me (upside-down from how it is now). But when he drew it up, he faced it out, and I loved it. Ironically, Katrina had the exact same thing happen to her where she'd pictured it facing one way, but the artists recommended it the other way. I guess they know what they're doing!
See how much pain I'm in. Oh the agony!!
Did I mention Santa Claus did my tattoo? Clementine kept smiling at him, and he said that babies always love him. I said maybe it's because they thought he was Santa Claus...and I really don't think he appreciated that comment much. :)
AAAAHHHH!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! They always turn out so much better than I could have imagined them! I actually drug my feet about his one for a loooong time (I had Lily's done when she was 2 months old, Goo's when she was 4 months old, and Clementine's when she was 8 months old) because I couldn't picture *exactly* what I wanted. Of course, all I needed to do was get an artist to draw something up...duh!
So here are my other two baby girl tattoos when they were fresh ink.
Lily's is a lily, of course.
Grace's :)
So now I have 4 tattoos. I think I need a Harley or something...
Back when Goo was born, my friend Katrina said she had been wanting a tattoo for quite some time, and would go with me to get one when I got my Goo tattoo. Because of extenuating circumstances, she ended up delaying for a while. Luckily, you can always count on me to have another baby, so Katrina and I got to be tattoo buddies this time along. Even though we'd been planning the blessed event for over two years, we decided kind of spur-of-the-moment on Tuesday night to go for it today! I arranged child care for the two older girls, but took Clementine with me, since both of the other girls have been there when their mom got inked in their honor.
Look how happy she is!
Katrina went first. Show how much pain she's in!!!
Her tattoo ended up awesome awesome awesome!
Now it's my turn. Do I look nervous?
This is the transfer placement. When I'd originally imagined it, I'd imagined it facing me (upside-down from how it is now). But when he drew it up, he faced it out, and I loved it. Ironically, Katrina had the exact same thing happen to her where she'd pictured it facing one way, but the artists recommended it the other way. I guess they know what they're doing!
See how much pain I'm in. Oh the agony!!
Did I mention Santa Claus did my tattoo? Clementine kept smiling at him, and he said that babies always love him. I said maybe it's because they thought he was Santa Claus...and I really don't think he appreciated that comment much. :)
AAAAHHHH!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! They always turn out so much better than I could have imagined them! I actually drug my feet about his one for a loooong time (I had Lily's done when she was 2 months old, Goo's when she was 4 months old, and Clementine's when she was 8 months old) because I couldn't picture *exactly* what I wanted. Of course, all I needed to do was get an artist to draw something up...duh!
So here are my other two baby girl tattoos when they were fresh ink.
Lily's is a lily, of course.
Grace's :)
So now I have 4 tattoos. I think I need a Harley or something...
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Name Change
I subscribe to a couple of news networks where you get an email when there's breaking news. I get NewsOK, and ABC news (ironically, I don't get any local news alerts). Anyway, I got a news alert today for this article. The story is that this person had a sex change operation (female to male), and wanted to change her name to a female name. Apparently in the beginning, the courts wouldn't allow it since she was born male, but the story is that the courts relented and let this person change their name.
I don't necessarily want to get into a big discussion about sex change operations, but I just thought it was really weird that they rejected the name in the first place! I mean, we live in an age where the huge baby-naming trend is to give girls names that are traditionally boys names, like Riley or Bailey or Charlie. We also live in a country where there aren't huge restrictions on what you can name your child (in some countries, you're pretty restricted). So it's strange that the courts had anything to say about it at all.
I was also under the impression that a person could freely change their name to whatever they like. Princess Consuela Bananahammock...or, ya know, Crap Bag for example.
I don't necessarily want to get into a big discussion about sex change operations, but I just thought it was really weird that they rejected the name in the first place! I mean, we live in an age where the huge baby-naming trend is to give girls names that are traditionally boys names, like Riley or Bailey or Charlie. We also live in a country where there aren't huge restrictions on what you can name your child (in some countries, you're pretty restricted). So it's strange that the courts had anything to say about it at all.
I was also under the impression that a person could freely change their name to whatever they like. Princess Consuela Bananahammock...or, ya know, Crap Bag for example.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Lil' Climber
I was doing dishes in the kitchen today, and when I came back into the living room, I was greeted with THIS!
Clementine had figured out how to crawl up onto and over the bottom of the coffee table. It looks like we may have another climber on our hands!
Clementine had figured out how to crawl up onto and over the bottom of the coffee table. It looks like we may have another climber on our hands!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Mokki does the Sloppy Swish
Jim and I watched a SNL episode that aired a couple of weeks ago, and I was dying laughing at this video. SO RANDOM! Plus, I happen to think Kenan Thompson is hilarious. (What's Up With That never fails to make me laugh.)
I can't imbed it, but here's a link to the video.
Mokiki
I can't imbed it, but here's a link to the video.
Mokiki
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Happenings of Saturday
Today is my Twilight marathon for all of us Twi-hards. Or maybe we're Twi-lites since we didn't stand in line for the premier this time. Or maybe we're Diet-Twis with Cherry because we did watch all four Twilight movies in one day.
You be the judge!
Anyway, we watched the first one, took a break for Ada's Pampered Chef party, then headed back to my place for three more movies!
I realized two things at Ada's Pampered Chef party:
1. I have a lot of Pampered Chef stuff.
2. There's still a lot of Pampered Chef stuff that I want. That stoneware thingy that cooks chicken in the microwave? Genius!
Anyway, before all the festivities kicked off, Goo and I spent some quality time trying to get a good face-squish picture.
Which isn't easy when you have a wiggly kiddo and need one hand to squish and one hand to take the picture. We ended up giggling a lot.
Goo's attempt.
And there it is! The perfect face-squish. The one I'm going to send into her high school yearbook for a baby ad.
Have I mentioned that Clementine is crawling? Well she is. She started about a week and a half ago getting a couple of knee movements in a row before she belly flopped. Now she's an old pro. I need to get a video. It's still a bit of a chameleon crawl with very measured movements, but she gets around! She also knows exactly where to go when she sees a box of Cheerios on the floor!
Oh hey mom...'sup?
This is her "I'm off to do something even more mischievous" look.
During the first Twilight movie, Jen brought Julianna over to play with Lilypie (they're only a couple of months apart in age, and in the same pre-school class...taught by Jen!) I have a wonderful husband who took on 3 little kids and pumpkin carving! What a guy! The kids got to scoop out the seeds, then they got markers to mark where they wanted Jim to carve out eyes and whatnot. Jim tried to be as true to their markings as possible...
...which is how you end up with pumpkins that look like THIS! (From left to right it's Goo's, Lily's, and then Julianna's.)
You be the judge!
Anyway, we watched the first one, took a break for Ada's Pampered Chef party, then headed back to my place for three more movies!
I realized two things at Ada's Pampered Chef party:
1. I have a lot of Pampered Chef stuff.
2. There's still a lot of Pampered Chef stuff that I want. That stoneware thingy that cooks chicken in the microwave? Genius!
Anyway, before all the festivities kicked off, Goo and I spent some quality time trying to get a good face-squish picture.
Which isn't easy when you have a wiggly kiddo and need one hand to squish and one hand to take the picture. We ended up giggling a lot.
Have I mentioned that Clementine is crawling? Well she is. She started about a week and a half ago getting a couple of knee movements in a row before she belly flopped. Now she's an old pro. I need to get a video. It's still a bit of a chameleon crawl with very measured movements, but she gets around! She also knows exactly where to go when she sees a box of Cheerios on the floor!
Oh hey mom...'sup?
This is her "I'm off to do something even more mischievous" look.
During the first Twilight movie, Jen brought Julianna over to play with Lilypie (they're only a couple of months apart in age, and in the same pre-school class...taught by Jen!) I have a wonderful husband who took on 3 little kids and pumpkin carving! What a guy! The kids got to scoop out the seeds, then they got markers to mark where they wanted Jim to carve out eyes and whatnot. Jim tried to be as true to their markings as possible...
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