Isby Blue

Luke had his 4th birthday party last weekend. He chose a 'monster' party. Because I love crafts, I got the idea to have the kids make monster softies and finger puppets. For the softies, I stitched up some fleece monster blanks and then cut out some facial features (mouths, eyes, lashes, etc). At the party, the kids glued on their choice of faces. For the finger puppets, I stitched up the main "body" and cut out felt pieces- eyes, mouths, arms, etc. The kids designed their monster and glued the features onto the puppet's main body. They seemed to be a hit. Especially the plushies. Even a couple grown ups made one.

The kids had a blast decorating these presents for family this Christmas. They had so much fun that we may have just started a new Christmas tradition!

I use to make my kids Halloween costumes- back when there were fewer of them to dress. Now, to be honest, there is no way I have time to make 5 costumes! So I keep a goal of making at least one every year. Aside from last year, I've been doing pretty good at keeping my Halloween goal- this year being no exception.

This year Emily made the request to be Claire Bennet of the TV show Heroes. It was actually a bit easier than I expected. I thought that since I didn't have a pattern that this would have been much harder. Thankfully I was wrong. What made this even better is that I had most of the materials already (bias tape, transfer papers, elastic, threads). The shirt cost $6 and the fabric around $4. So, all in all it ended up only costing me roughly $10. Not bad at all!

To make her top, I bought a white long sleeve v-neck at Old Navy (what luck that they had one!!). I then removed the sleeves and dyed them scarlet and sewed them back onto the shirt. I found the Union Well's HS Wildcats logo and did an iron on transfer onto the shirt.

For her skirt, I took her measurements and made a wrap skirt with the edges cut at angles to create the "v". I used gold and white bias tape for the trim and made an elastic waist. She wears little white bike shorts underneath (found them at Gymboree).

I got my order in from greenbeanbaby and can I just say- OH MY GOSH!! I love it all! I'm already buzzing with ideas! She really did spoil me, I think! Emily loves her prints and cant wait until I hang them up in her room! She just loves Ellia's works. What can I say? The girls got taste! Thank you Ellia!!!

*I posted about this in my family blog as well

This is pretty neat. My sister just told us about this. Its kind of last minute but I thought I'd share it with you anyway. Since Rocky and Jacob will be gone all day Saturday for Jacobs Weboree, I plan on taking the remaining kids to the Zoo. Luke has been asking me to go again for what seems like forever. It should be fun! So get out and check out some museums or visit relatives at the zoo!

This weekend I got to play a bit with the lathe on my sons new Playmat 4 in 1 wood working tool (for kids) and I am hooked! I made this little peg person in no time at all. This was the first time I used a lathe and ohhh was it fun!! I can just imagine what I could do with Rocky's "daddy" lathe! Ohhh the possibilities! Rocky just better watch out because I might just snatch his lathe away. Hmmm...Maybe he should consider getting me one of my own.