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Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving & Craft Reveal!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving, I know I did! We hosted the day at our house, same as the last 2 years. My turkey turned out perfect, I'm happy to say. I only make it once a year, so I tend to forget what I did the year previous. I need to stop reinventing the wheel and just write it down or something. In addition to the turkey, I made stuffing (of course!), deviled eggs, spinach Parmesan dip, cranberry sauce, croissants with pumpkin butter, and rice pudding. With the dishes that everyone else brought, we had quite a spread. I didn't get very many pictures since I was so busy hostessing and running after the girls. The stamps that I made last week made a cameo at the table:


I think they turned out really nice! We also made the traditional turkey handprint and I tried to make a cornucopia out of D's foot. I think it would have looked more like a cornucopia if I had painted her toes different colors. Still cute, though!



Hopefully in the next week or two, I'll have time to feature the sweater dress tutorial I found. I hope everyone made it through Black Friday alive! We hermited in the house and didn't go anywhere. Perfect day for me ;)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Two Steps Back

I had an absolute armpit of a day today, which is really disappointing because I feel like I've been doing so much better lately. I think D is teething, so she's been in a rotten mood the past few days. Both my kids were painfully slow teethers. Emphasis on the *painful*! D only has her four top, four bottom and four molars in. I noticed her canines poking through this morning, so hopefully we're in the home stretch.

I swear I spent over half the day either crying or trying not to lose my shit. I really need to pay more attention to my personal habits, too. I know I skipped breakfast and forgot to eat lunch until almost 2 in the afternoon. That certainly doesn't help my mood.

N's been getting more possessive of her toys, too. Today she had a huge setup of Littlest Pet Shop animals and a building block city on the couch. Right at D level. As soon as D would come within a 5 foot radius of N's bustling metropolis, N would shriek at ear splitting levels and whack D on the chest. Everyone crying again. I need to make a little D-free zone for N to have her imaginative play time, because that takes up a large portion of her day.

The last recurring trial of the day (really the last week or two) is that D is obsessed with the "potty". I hate to discourage her, but she only wants to play in the bathroom. If I bring the little potty out of the bathroom for her, she wants nothing to do with it. She wants to sit on the big potty and play with N's toys, which inevitably fall between her legs into the toilet. Then she wants to get down and rummage in the extremely un-kidproofed closet. Ten times a day. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that one. Like I said, I don't want to discourage her from potty stuff if she's interested, but I suspect she's just using it as a vehicle to achieve fun times in the bathroom.

Hopefully, the coming holidays will be a bit of a break with A home. We're having everyone over to my house for Thanksgiving, so I'm really excited about that. I have photos of the stamps and the craft we used them with to post, but I'll have to save that for another day. I have to go clean!

Tomorrow will be better, right?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Craft: Home Made Stamps!

So this is my first attempt at a tutorial-type post. I'm making Thanksgiving place cards with the kids (probably just N) later this week and I didn't have any fall themed stamps. I had a mini-epiphany on how to make my own (it's so easy that I'm sure there's an identical tutorial out there somewhere) with stuff I already had.

You Will Need:

Puffy Paint or Glue Gun
Adhesive Backed Foam Sheets
Flat Glass, Mirror or Ceramic Surface
Washable Marker
Scissors

 I'm terrible at writing backwards, so I used the back of a plate to lay out my text.
 Press the foam sheet to the marker before it has a chance to dry.
 Ta-daa!
 I did one word at a time so that it didn't dry.
 These words were a little small for the puffy paint, but I wanted them to leave room for N's decorations on the place cards.
 These will take about 24 hours to dry, so plan ahead!
 For the decoration stamps, I just freehanded some fall-themed pictures directly onto the foam.
 If you need a stamp RIGHT AWAY you can also use a glue gun. It's not as smooth as the puffy paint and the lines are thicker, but it dries in just a few minutes.
 Pilgrim hat!
 Here they all are :)

After they dry, I'll trim them a little closer and adhere them to... something. Maybe I'll get A to cut me wooden blocks. Those small cardboard disposable jewelry boxes would also work well. We'll be using sponges to apply poster paint to the stamps in a few days. I'll update with the finished product in a few days!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Attack of the Toy Fairy

If you've been keeping up, you may have read about the Toy Fairy. I have threatened to leave toys out for the Toy Fairy in the past, and this usually spurs a little cleaning frenzy. N was feeling particularly obstinate the other day, so when she refused to help me clean I said "That's ok. I'm just going to clean this up for you and since you can't take care of your toys, I'll just leave them on the front porch for the Toy Fairy. She'll have lots of fun playing with your toys." I got through three bins of toys before N came to help me finish. Whenever she passed the kitchen window and saw her toys on the porch she got a little sad. The next morning they were gone. That day was fine, but the next morning she wanted to build a tower. I told her that if she helped me clean up all the toys that were out that we could write a note to the Toy Fairy asking for her toys back.

N dictated the note, decorated it and signed the bottom. She even drew a picture of the Toy Fairy in the bottom left hand corner. The little blobs above it are her wings, haha! After all that she *still* had to wait until the next morning to get her toys, since the Toy Fairy (like most fairys) only operates at night when you're not looking. For the most part, she's been better about cleaning up lately. We'll see if this made any kind of impression on her next time I need to pull it out!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Postception?

I know a post promising that I'm going to post a post is a little redundant, but maybe if I put it out there it will actually get done.

I think I want to redesign a *little* to include a crafty section for my blog. It will give me something positive to write about as well as motivate me to craft more and document what I'm making. Coming soon... sweater dress, bear ears, home made stamps, ummmm... maybe a hat or two? Most of these won't be tutorials since what I'm making was picked up from another blog or website, but I'll link back to my source so that y'all can try it out if you want.



I'm excited, how 'bout you?!