Gabriel's gift

In the midst of all my gift-making for family and friends, I received a special hand-made gift from my nephew, Gabriel. He's been getting really creative with a certain type of craft, which you'll see below. I think it's great!

From the moment we arrived that day at his house, he kept mentioning that he was still working on a gift and that I was not to go into a certain part of the house. Then, after a long day of playing and hanging out, it was time to open presents. Gabriel's eagerness could not hold out any longer, so I was the first one to receive a gift--his gift of love.

He did some wood burning on a frame, and I love it!

On it, it says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart," Proverbs 3:5. This is one of my favorite verses.

Thank-you, Gabriel...I will treasure this gift always!

He also made some ornaments for a few others, including this one for Quentin. Isn't it awesome?

Coming up...one last gift I made for each family...I can't believe I forgot about this...it is SO. MUCH. FUN!!!

Abigail's scarf

There's somewhat of a craze right now with repurposing items into other things, and it's fascinating to me. Not too long ago, I learned how to make a t-shirt scarf (a picture of that one will be coming next month because I'm doing it for a M.O.P.S. craft). Anyway, there was another style that my sister-in-law and I really liked but had not yet learned how to do. I found the link to a video tutorial here and I learned how to make it. It was so much fun! 

In fact, I made one before I made Abigail's for a M.O.P.S. Christmas party. We had an accessory exchange for one of our games that night. My scarf was exchanged three times and all three gals who "owned" it loved it a lot!:) The last gal got to really keep it, but I've thought about making one for the other two ladies some time. I know they would be so surprised. 

Abigail really likes navy blue, so that's the color I used. I also made a felt flower pin for it if she'd like to pin it to the side. You really must check out the link above as it shows how it drapes so beautifully on a person. I have got to make one for myself one of these days, too! It's a simple craft that gives instant gratification to the maker and receiver. 

Not only did Abigail love it, but her kids seemed to like it as well. :)

Kit's box and nightie

I love surprises, don't you? I think I actually like being the one who surprises more than the one who is surprised. Alyzza has been wanting pajamas for her doll, Kit, but because I was already planning on making her one for Christmas, I down-played it any time she brought it up. And what better way to present this gift than to put it in a special box where all of the other doll clothes and accessories would go in, too.

And boy, was she sooo surprised when she opened up the box!

It's hard to see, but I hand-painted the top of the box with her initials and on the inside, lined it with felt.

Look at that look of surprise....

....and a hug for Mom!

She totally loves it, don't you think?:)

Here she is with her cousin, Annalina, who has another American Girl doll, Kaya. The girls enjoyed playing with their dolls together during Christmas break. And there's Kit with her nightie on--so cute!

This makes my heart smile.:)

Framed Christmas Carol Print

This gift was fun to give to a couple of gals this year! You can find the free printable here, then print on card stock and frame it however you choose. I decided to put a red border around it by gluing the print onto red card stock. The frame and star (it was an ornament; just used some glue to keep it in place) were both from the Dollar Tree, so not only is this decoration so pretty, it's pretty affordable, too! 

Bird Nest Necklace

Don't you love Pinterest? It's a great place to find lots of ideas! When I was looking for ideas for M.O.P.S. crafts, I came across this beautiful bird nest necklace. I knew it would be too difficult to do in a large group setting, so I did it with the steering committee at our retreat. It was a huge hit! 

So....since then, I've made one for my sister-in-law, myself and the other ladies in the family. For Christmas, my sisters, Raquel and Sonia, my mom, and mother-in-law, all received this personalized handmade gift. My mother-in-law chose the colors she wanted while we were together in Tennessee, but for the others, I chose colors and the amount of beads to represent each of their children. Not only did this make a great Christmas gift, but it could be made for Mother's Day as well.

I haven't had a lot of experience with making jewelry, but the tutorial here was wonderful! I felt like I accomplished such a gorgeous piece without lots of hassle. Enjoy!

Alyzza's gift for her teacher

Here's Alyzza's gift for her teacher: a washer necklace. I've seen some tutorials on the web, but when I saw one in Family Fun Magazine, I knew it could be something Alyzza could make for her teacher. She loved it a lot and knew that Mrs. G. would love it, too!

She painted the washer with finger nail polish. After the paint dried, she did another coat of clear nail polish. She selected the ribbon, and I tied it onto the washer. She gave it to Mrs. G. during her class Christmas party. She said that her teacher really liked it--and I'm so glad!

Angel towels

This year for Christmas,  I wanted the girls to make something for their teachers. When I found this idea for angel towels, I knew this would be the perfect gift for Little S' nursery workers and M.O.P.S. teachers.

We had a lot of fun making these. In fact, it was our first real craft to do together. On a clean garbage bag, I put all of the towels (six in all) on top, ready for assembly-style crafting. We stamped a hand at a time, then her foot, all the while giving her an M&M as we completed each step. Then, I finished the angels by painting on their heads, halos and the phrase, "Angels we have heard on high." You could also write, "Hark, the herald angels sing."

Take a look....and by the way, we ended up making more towels for the grandparents and a set for us. The second time, we included Alyzza in the process, so now some of us have precious memories of both girls from Christmas 2012.

Peppermint Brownies

For the last M.O.P.S. meeting of 2012, the gals put together brownie mixes. I had first planned on having them put together cookie mixes, but when I saw this idea, I knew I just had to do it. Sure, it was a splurge on the peppermint chips, but it was well worth it! They are soooo yummy (you can enjoy these any time of the year for sure!)

Instead of using canning jars, we used holiday treat bags that you can buy at Hobby Lobby, Target or Walmart. It was a great idea from one of the gals on the steering committee and I am thankful for it. It saved us a lot of money!

I found the tutorial for these here. It also includes the link to print out the labels. The front one that is shown above is super cute, isn't it? The second label is placed on the back and it includes the directions and further ingredients to put these yummy treats together.

These mixes make great gifts for a neighbor, teacher or friend. Enjoy!

Cupcake liner Christmas trees

Every year, our church has a Christmas party that my husband puts together. There's always great food, fun games, a gift exchange and lots of laughs! I've always enjoyed decorating for it each year as well. I like to pull in some help from others, and this year, it ended up being that Alyzza was my special helper. 

We made these super cute cupcake liner Christmas trees:

I bought cupcake liners at the Dollar Tree and Walmart and used styrofoam tree forms for the large ones and card stock to make the tree form for the small ones.

Some of the packages included cupcake toppers, so for some of the trees, I put those on the top. It took us a few hours to make fifteen or so of these, but it was a fun project I enjoyed doing with my big girl.:)

Wouldn't this be an awesome thing to do for a Valentine's Day event as well? You could use red and pink cupcake liners and still put some fluff around it to represent snow since it's a winter holiday.

For the step-by-step on how to make these go here. Have fun!:)

Christmas traditions, old and new

I love traditions, don't you? Here, I will share things that we've enjoyed doing the last couple of years, and then I'll share two new traditions we've begun with the girls during Christmas. I know this is kind of late, but with our trip to TN, and getting back into the swing of things, I'm now getting back into writing again. So, enjoy the next several posts with Christmas goodies and gifts we made. Perhaps you can tuck away the ideas and use them for other celebrations and next Christmas.:)

Last year, we began the tradition of having the girls choose out their own ornament for the year. Their name and year are written on each one, so that they'll have a collection of their own when they are grown. This year, we bought them at a thrift store for 99 cents each! Little S chose the horse and Alyzza chose the sparkly bunch of grapes (below).

Christmas lights around town are so much fun, aren't they? We went to Boulder to see this spectacular showcase of trees:

And now for the new ones...I heard about a "Journey to Bethlehem" event at one of my M.O.P.S. meetings and knew that we should go. It was held at the church where we have our meetings. I put it in as one of our advent calendar activities, too.

If you haven't been to something like this, search for one in your community. We experienced the story of Christmas, and the girls got to enjoy some fun things, too. Alyzza loved the headdress and the clay ornament she got to make!

This stocking was a fun idea that came together between me and Alyzza. It's called "Stocking Mail." We wrote notes to each other and passed them by placing them in the stocking and hanging it on each other's doorknob. It was always a great surprise!

What traditions do you enjoy with your family? I'd love to hear about them!

Our new advent calendar

This new advent calendar was created by putting together ideas from two different sources. The looks of it, made from a mini muffin pan, came from Family Fun Magazine (of course!:). It is sooo cute; we just love it! 

For the circles, I used leftover Christmas wrap from last year. Then I glued them onto magnetic sheets. The circle magnets that cover the holes are approximately 2-1/2 inches in diameter, but you might want to measure your tin to see if this measurement works. You want to cover the holes completely, but you don't want a lot of overlap between all of the circles. I stamped numbers onto the smaller circles made from scrap booking paper. They measure about an inch in diameter. 

Here's a look at this fun project....

The directions say to fill each hole with a trinket, candy or fun thing to do. While I like those ideas, I also wanted things that were meaningful....meaning that I didn't want to fill it up mostly with candy and trinkets!

I started thinking about the Christmas traditions that we like to do and wondered if those could be put into this calendar. Then, Money Saving Mom  shared with her readers a sale on a DVD and pdf book. For only $10 including shipping, I bought the Why Do We Call it Christmas? dvd and the book, Everyday Emmanuel from this website. 

The book is mostly comprised of ideas on how to celebrate advent by focusing on the real meaning of Christmas and making precious family memories. Using some of their ideas, I listed 24 things that I wanted to do with my family this season. Some only take a few minutes during the day, while a few are fun outings and projects to do together. The girls will still get a treat here and there with the piece of paper that says what we'll do, but it isn't the focus. I like that they look forward to each day's event, but they're not getting too hyper with that upcoming party or event. It's always a "last minute" surprise and it's great!:)

Here are the things we have already begun or will do. If you know our girls and see them regularly, please don't tell them! Shhhhh......


1. Christmas party put on by our foster care agency
2. What God Wants for Christmas, part 1 (an interactive nativity by Family Life Publishing)
3. Buy the girls their Christmas ornament for the year
4. Give mailman a holiday treat
5. What God Wants for Christmas, part 2
6. See the Christmas lights in our community
7. Go to Journey to Bethlehem (an event put on by the church that hosts our M.O.P.S. group)
8. Make gifts for school teacher, nursery workers and MOPS teachers with girls
9. What God Wants for Christmas, part 3
10. Finish making presents and wrap gifts while listening to Christmas music
11. Watch new Christmas movie, Why Do We Call it Christmas?
12. What God Wants for Christmas, part 4
13. Dad and Alyzza have a coin club Christmas party/I will help Little S buy presents for family
14. Play Christmas game/Uno
15. Build paper nativity set and/or decorate church reception hall for party on Sunday
16. What God Wants for Christmas #'s 5 and 6
17. Alyzza's Christmas program at school
18. Put on a Christmas puppet show
19. Make treats for neighbors
20. Christmas caroling and give treats to neighbors and possibly shut-ins
21. Our Christmas (we are going to TN in a few days....)
22. Drink yummy peppermint hot chocolate
23. What God Wants for Christmas, #7
24. Special activity to do on the plane trip to TN (probably a busy bag or activity book)

Other ideas can include....playing together in the snow (we just haven't had any in a while, but probably will put it in and take something out of my list), make snow ice cream, read a Christmas book, etc. We have begun reading Christmas books when we do our reading time, since we have so many to choose from, and it's fun to read them all during this time of year.

So, there you have it! A fun new way to do an advent calendar while keeping it meaningful, inexpensive and full of family fun!

More to come on some of the projects and recipes we will be doing as part of this calendar's events....stay tuned....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our Christmas decorations have been up for a week now, so I thought it should be time for a little tour....

If you were to visit our home, this is what you would see hanging on the door. Then, moving around the two front rooms, you'll see....

...this tree and snowman garland,

our kid-friendly nativity set I made for a M.O.P.S. craft,

a snowman nativity set, a snowman countdown and some scrabble tiles that say, "O Come let us adore Him,"

Winnie-the-Pooh window clings sent to us in a fun package from Q's parents,

the nativity set my mom gave me 13 years ago that began my collection of nativities (see how many you can count from this post!),

the nativity advent calendar that we are enjoying already,

a new way to hang up our Christmas cards using some wide candy cane ribbon,

(a close up view of my first card; it came from Alyzza:)

a nativity picture made completely from fabric (I love handmade touches around our home),

a few knick-knacks,

blocks that spell out, "Merry Christmas,"

an interactive nativity set and a Precious Moments one that plays music,

Noel blocks, mini trees and a Willow tree angel,

three wise men with Mary and baby Jesus,

an angel collection on top of one of our book cases (two of the angels are handmade gifts from friends),

our Christmas book basket (we're enjoying reading from this collection already!),

a light-up snowflake (another gift from Q's parents),

snuggly snowmen that the girls can play with,

and finally, a snowman village on top of the other book case. The picture of our tree didn't come out right, but another one was shown in my last post with Alyzza decorating it.:)

Did you count how many nativities I have? I just love having that as my theme at Christmas time. After all, Jesus is the reason for the season! 

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone...and that the Christmas season is here! Here are some fun activities and crafts we did over the Thanksgiving holiday.

I found these paper place mats at Target for the girls to do before breakfast one morning. They had fun coloring the turkey, doing a maze, unscrambling words and writing down what they were thankful for.

Of course, Little S just scribbled away (we didn't know what she was writing, but I'm sure she did). She had a crayon in one hand while holding a spoon in the other!

Alyzza made this costume at school and had fun wearing it all weekend.

I don't remember what spurred this idea on, but I ended up doing a quick craft for Q and Alyzza. I made these rubber band shooters out of dowels and clothespins (a fantastic idea from Family Fun). They had a blast, and of course, some of us got caught in the middle of it all (I need to make one for myself, too!)

a close up view of this fun, handmade toy

I found this banner at Target, too. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, we started these links of thankfulness.:) It was fun to see what the girls would say. Little S said she was thankful that Jesus gave her water and then said almost the same thing about milk the next day. It was too cute!

Little S and I went on a short walk and gathered the best pine cones we could find.  I made this trio of owls for her. She chose the craft out of a fall-themed Family Fun book that my secret sister at MOPS gave me. Alyzza chose the craft below out of the same book. If you haven't noticed already, I really like Family Fun. It is the source of so many of our creative endeavors around here.:)

Here is Alyzza's pilgrim pal. We started off working together, but then I had to finish it later because we ran out of time. He is made out of a toilet paper tube, felt, yarn, pipe cleaners, colored paper and a bit of aluminum foil.

On Thanksgiving morning, Q read the story of Squanto to the girls (and yes, that's a bow in Daddy's hair, compliments of Alyzza).

After nap time, we drove to Loveland to have Thanksgiving dinner with Q's cousin and her family. This acorn squash with beet soup was the appetizer. After that, we had so many dishes to choose from to complete our meal. And of course, we kept some room in our bellies to enjoy some pie. We all had a fun time together and hope to get together again before too long.

A family tradition we have is to set up the Christmas tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving. The girls were so excited and helped Daddy put the ornaments on, while I put out some of the other things. Do you want to see how it all turned out?

Come back soon and find out!:)