Thursday, September 22, 2011

Crochet Baby Boots

 I saw these on Pinterest and knew I HAD to get the pattern. What baby girl should NOT wear these? There are SO many babies being born in my life this year, specifically baby girls (not to gloss over the sweet baby boys, but for the sake of the post, I don't think they would be interested). Some dear friends adopted a sweet baby girl (Samara) this week (and has already received a pair with pink buttons, I will see if I can get a pic of her wearing them). My wonderful childhood friend had a girl this week (Finley). My dear sister-in-law could be having a baby girl at any moment!!!! Here is my question. Could a baby living in Hawaii or Texas even use boots like these?
So adorable! (Thank you for overlooking my annoying use of parenthesis and CAPS in this post).

Monday, September 19, 2011

Lego Party- Pinata!

 I will add on a step by step tutorial on how to make this Lego head pinata in another post.
Have I killed the Lego theme by now? I saw this great idea for a Lego head pinata (which is what Liam requested). I liked the scared face. He is about to get his brains knocked out!
 Liam was so excited about it. Again, I got some video of the boys hitting the pinata, but they aren't very good. Note to self: next time take stills of the pinata slaughter. The funnest image would be the candy all flying through the air, but you never know when it will happen. That is why it is so fun!
The bottom broke off. Travis sporting the Lego look.

Lego Party- Cake and Decorations

 Cake and Decorations are my least favorite aspect of party planning. I love baking. I love decorating. For some reason they always stress me out the most. I think it is because I have unrealistic expectations that I am unable to make happen.
I found a couple of super cute ideas for Lego themed cakes here and here but knew there was no way I could pull them off. So, it doesn't matter what I had planned, this is what happened. I was trying to get my cake out of the pan to cool. It slipped out and landed on the counter in pieces. I got it put back in as best I could. But this is what I had to work with:
 I decided to cut squares out of the usable parts and turn them into "cupcakes".
 Then I surrounded them with chocolate Lego bricks. Piped some colorful frosing on them.
 Put some chocolate minifigures on top and some candles and Happy Birthday skewers.
At least they tasted good and the boys were thrilled. They played with the minifigures and built with the chocolate bricks. So I am happy with it, even if it wasn't the original plan.

I won't even include a picture of decorations. Streamers and balloons. You could tell it was a party.

Lego Party-Games

When the kids got here they just jumped on the trampoline for the first twenty minutes which was fine with me. Boys sometimes scare me with the amount of energy they have.
The first game we had planned was one that I ALWAYS played at my birthday parties growing up. Each person gets a name pinned onto their back that they don't know what it is. Then you ask questions to find out who "you" are. I did Lego characters. They had fun doing it.
We did a Guess How Many Legos game where they have to guess how many Legos (did you figure that part out?) in a jar.
Next, we did a Design your Own Minifigure game. I had drawn a blank Lego Minifigure with Sharpie and made copies. I didn't know if they would enjoy this as much as Liam and I did, but they were really excited about it and so creative! They stuck with it longer than I thought they would. Some of the boys were so careful about their designs. They all turned out really great and funny.




I borrowed the Lego game Creationary from a friend and we played a bit of that. Then after gifts and cake (another post) the boys started the Lego movie, Clutch Powers. I thought that since the party was 3 hours long that they wouldn't mind some down time.
After watching some of the movie we went on a treasure hunt. Another tradition from my growing up party days. I did pictoral clues. Every boy got a chance to find a clue. I did take some videos but it is just of a bunch of boys running from place to place. Nothing is quite as fun watching the excitement they feel trying to find a treasure, which in this case, was the pinata (hidden in the dryer).

Lego party-Goody bags

Filled these little babies with Lego soap, Lego gummies, and Lego chocolates. Also they put their pinata candy and other things (prizes, drawings) in them.
Just Sharpie on Dollar Store yellow bags.

Lego Party- lego mold! Soap, chocolates, and gummies!

While searching for Lego party ideas I came across this tutorial for making your own Lego brick mold. I was instantly hooked. It took some talking down to decided that I didn't need to make it, I could just buy a mold. So I found these that I liked on Etsy. I got a lot of use out of them and will be happy to share the love with others.
 Lego minifigure gummies! These were so fun to make and super fun to peel out of the silicone mold. Also, they tasted great and were really chewy. I ended up using this tutorial that worked great!

 The soap was also fun and easy to make. I just melted glycerin in the microwave, colored it, scented it, and poured it into the molds. Much like these soaps I made last Christmas. Super easy.
 I love the look of glycerin, even if it doesn't lather terribly well.
Finally I bought some Wiltons candy melts and made a bunch of chocolate Legos. I also made minifigures, but didn't take a picture.

I packaged up all of these little goodies into cellophane baggies and sent them home in the goody bags.
Oh no! I also made ice but forgot to get it out at the party!

Lego Party- Invitations

 I printed the info onto yellow paper, then cut the cards into minifigure heads. Then I had Liam choose what faces he wanted me to draw onto each one. The Sharpie worked great!
Liam had a Lego minifigure book with tons of Lego stickers that we used to decorate the envelopes, inside the invites, and also use to close the envelopes. There could be no doubt about the theme!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Repurposed dress to skirt

Someone gave us this little corduroy dress that is cute, though really not Zoe's style. She does have a skirt that she loves and wears all the time. So I thought, why don't I make the dress into something she can wear.
I took the favorite skirt and laid it right on the dress, cutting it out with some extra for seam allowances (also I made it a little longer so she could wear it with tights as well as leggings). Put on a waistband and a zipper and button in back. Some little detailed pockets in the front, done.
So, I thought it looks really cute on her. She has not worn it yet. In fact it took her over a week JUST to try it on (I was going crazy, but I have learned not to push  :) She doesn't have a lot to wear it with. I don't know if she will wear it, but at least I got it out of my system.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Fabric Necklace



A friend was making a prototype of this necklace (following this tutorial) for a Super Saturday project, so we figured it out together yesterday. It was so cute that I came home and had to make one. 
I didn't have any yellow felt so I backed it with a royal blue that I liked at the time, but am wondering about, now.
Let me just state, I could never have enough felt. I would love a lifetime supply of beautiful wool felt in every color. Then I wouldn't have to settle on a "maybe will work" color. mmmmm, birthday maybe? Along with a new camera that doesn't wash everything out with it's flash.