Toy Story Toddler Backpack for Kaleb

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I end up carrying something like 3 or 4 bags to church, or a ginormous bag that I have to dig through to find anything.

Most of that luggage is devoted to my little one. His changing things, back up clothes, medical necessities, snacks, books and toys. 9 times out of 10, we'll only need the last three things, but if I neglect to bring ANYTHING that will be the day I need it. Without fail.

So I decided to make a little toddler back pack for him, so he can carry his own essentials.

(I still take charge of the diapers, and clothes and boring things, but his snacks and toys are at his fingertips) And I  knew it had to be TOY STORY, of course.

My problem was, I couldn't find a pattern I really liked. And I'm DEFINITELY not up to making my own pattern yet. 

So after a lot of searching and pinterest hunting, I found this beauty on I Think Sew.

It didn't have any zips, it was lined and it was just the right size.

What do you think?

It took me about 6 hours to finish (from first cut to last stitch) and it does its job nicely.

Some of the directions in the patter were a little confusing, and some I just ignored (like it said to trace the pattern on the back side of the fabric, then cut it. I just pinned it the front and cut around) But overall I'm very happy with it!

Kaleb seems to like it too.

Its difficult to get him to stop moving.

Homemade Gifts, Handmade Presents

This holiday season, I decided to make all of our gifts. 

I knew there wouldn't be that many. We only get gifts for the children in my family and a white elephant gift. In Blake's family, we're "assigned" a sibling's family (but we also get goodies for the rest of the kiddos)

Heres a rundown of everything I made:

(as I get around to posting the tutorial or pattern review I'll link it back to this post)

1.  Wallet for Blake.

2) Birthday Board for Grandma

2. Fabric, foldable doll houses and Peg dolls for our niece and two little cousins.

4. Braided scarf and bracelet for our sister in law, Becky

5. Princess Peg Dolls and Bag for a white elephant

6. Balance Game for my brother and cousin - Blake did most of work for these - We actually made another one specially for Quinn, but I didn't get a picture.

7. Alien and Ninja Peg Doll "Roll Ups" for two cousins and a nephew

8. Beach Blanket Tote for my little cousin (sorry for the crappy color)

9. Monster Plushies for Lincy and our baby cousin.

10. Lemon Sugar Scrub and Lemon Shower Bombs for our second white elephant

... and a couple of framed pictures for Grandparents.


It was a lot of work but SO much fun! So much fun,  in fact I've opened up my own ETSY store and have most of these projects listed. I'm not counting on making money, just hoping to have more fun projects to do, funded by others that I don't have to keep. :D

Painted Paper Doilies : I Love Our "Us"

I felt crafty.
I was also inspired by all the Pinterest amazingness, I thought I'd try to create my own little project. (though I'm sure someone else somewhere has done something like this)

I used grey, green and brown acrylic paint.
(I just bought the cheapest kind)

I bought regular paper doilies in two sizes and painted with my handy little roller

I tried out different positions for the doilies on my blank 12x12 canvas

I also got large silver letters from the scrap booking aisle at Michael's 

Placed the letters in their position before I stuck them on

I had to tape the large doilies around the corners of the canvas, but used spray adhesive for the rest of them
and used spray Modge Podge to give it a glossy look.

Doesn't it look lovely on our Television cabinet?

Heres a closer look. I let the canvas lay over night on its face, that flattened out any doily curling.

Michaels was having a HUGE canvas sale, packs of 7 and 10 for $15 and less depending on the size. I'm unsure if its still going on, but I also made our kitchen wall canvases with them
(I'll blog about that little project next.)