Meet The Ingalls Family...

Since O and I (and E...although she usually falls asleep) have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books for the past 5 or 6 months (we only have one more to go!), I thought she would love to have a set of Little House on the Prairie dolls and a covered wagon for Christmas. 


I thought about adding more detail to the dolls, but I think I'm going to wait and get O's input before adding anything more to them.  After I finish the dolls completely, I'll paint them with a layer of Mod Podge to seal and finish them.


I searched and searched for a covered wagon and finally found one on Etsy at Tweet Toys by Willow Baus.  The wagon wasn't exactly what I wanted, so I emailed and asked for a custom order.  They made it just like I wanted it, and it only cost a few dollars more.  (I love that about Etsy shops!)

The covered wagon even came with 2 little people.
 


But they had to move over to make room for the Ingalls.






I really enjoyed painting these dolls, and I hope that O loves them.

Velcro Ball

  The girls and I had a fantastic time playing with this velcro ball yesterday afternoon. 

To make this activity, I cut small pieces of sticky backed velcro (the sticky side) and put them all over the ball.  When I was making it, O was wearing a fuzzy hat that I knitted for her on a round loom.  I threw the ball at her head and it stuck...the look on her face was priceless!  After that I thought we probably shouldn't use the hand knit hats because the threads pull out with the velcro.  I thought the knit hats from the dollar section of Target would work well, but they really didn't.  I think the knit is just too flat.  However, we had a great time trying to get the ball to stick to O's head.  The novelty of having a ball thrown at your head and actually doing the throwing was very entertaining for both of them.




The gloves (from the dollar section of Target) worked well for catching the ball.




O's tutu worked best of all!




I saw this activity somewhere last winter...probably either in Family Fun magazine or on a blog.

Molly Monkey

I'm trying to share all of the handmade gifts we've made over the last few months just in case anyone still needs ideas for Christmas gifts.  Here's one that I meant to post months ago...
My mom and I made this sweet Molly Monkey for E's 1st birthday present.  The pattern and directions can be found at mmmcrafts.   This monkey was surprisingly easy and quick to put together for E's special gift.  Thanks to mmmcrafts for providing this free pattern!   

Christmas Playdough Gift Sets

These Christmas playdough gift sets have been in the works since last Christmas.  I started gathering my materials on the day after Christmas when I bought LOTS of Christmas cookie cutters (at least 50% off retail price). 

During the summer, I found the perfect 4 oz canning jars for storing the playdough.








I found the perfect rolling pins at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago (I planned to make rolling pins from dowels that I  was going to cut and sand, but these were inexpensive, and they saved me a lot of trouble!). 





Yesterday, I bought Christmas sprinkles and emptied the sprinkles out for later use.  I filled the containers with red, green, and yellow yarn to use as icing and beads to use as sprinkles on the playdough cookies.  What fun!

Homemade Playdough

O and I have had fun making chocolate and sugar cookie playdough this week.  We love making playdough...it's almost as much fun as playing with it!

O loves to mix everything with her hands.  She leaned down to get a good whiff of the cocoa and breathed in a little too much cocoa dust!  This playdough smells divine!




Here is the chocolate playdough recipe.  (I was going to include it in this post, but that seems silly since I'm in a hurry :)

The day after making chocolate playdough, we made sugar cookie playdough.  The recipe is similar, but we left out the cocoa and added vanilla flavoring and white glitter.  We also cooked this playdough on the stove instead of pouring boiling water into the mixture.  Here is the basic playdough recipe. 

O really enjoyed pouring and mixing in the glitter!

Personalized Paper Dolls AND Another Giveaway!!!

I saw these personalized paper dolls on Sandy Ford Design on Etsy and fell in love with them.  I emailed Sandy and asked if she would like for us to review a set.  She agreed, and I emailed her a picture of O.  I was so excited when she emailed me the paper doll and clothes!  (O was excited, too, of course!)

Sandy started designing these dolls last year when she was trying to think of a great non-plastic gift for her daughter's 5th birthday party.  They were such a hit that she started a business from it!

Immediately after seeing O's doll, I knew I'd need to order a set for E.  Since they are pdfs, I can print both dolls for both girls.  Also, if we lose or tear the dolls or clothes, we can just print more...I REALLY love that aspect of these dolls!




I printed O's doll on magnetic paper, but I liked it so much on lightly textured cardstock that I haven't even cut it out of the magnetic paper yet (I think I'll save the magnetic paper dolls for Christmas).
 


I wasn't crazy about the idea of using the tabs to hold the clothes on the doll, so I was excited to find the idea of using a sticky strip at the Lily & Thistle website.  The sticky strip works great!


I'm so excited by all of the things that I can make with these dolls of my girls.  Their personalized Christmas ornaments for this year will definitely be paper dolls!



Another great thing about these dolls is that Sandy is so great to work with...I emailed her several times to ask if she would make minor changes here and there to make the dolls perfect.  She did this happily and without hesitation.




As soon as O saw the paper dolls, she asked if we could get on to look like Laura (Ingalls...she still so obsessed with Little House on the Prairie).  She'll be getting a set of "Laura and Mary" paper dolls for Christmas, and I know that she is going to have so much fun having a doll of herself play and interact with Laura and Mary.  We may have to write a new book...Laura, Mary, and O! 




Sandy is offering a free paper doll set with color in costumes to one lucky reader.  Go to Sandy's Etsy shop and take a look around.  Come back here and tell me what you liked over there.  I'll randomly choose a winner on Wednesday.

Cloth Christmas Napkins for the Kiddos

My mom and I are finally making stuff with the tons of Christmas fabric that I buy each year (75% off) after Christmas.  These sweet child sized napkins were our first project.  I cut, and she sewed.  We make a good team :) 

Color Matching with Peg Dolls

This rainbow peg doll set is another one of E's handmade Christmas gifts.  I think she is going to love it!



I bought the peg dolls and cups from Hobby Lobby.  They were 50% off, so I spent a total of about 3 dollars.



I painted the dolls and cups with liquid watercolors (from IKEA).



This was a fun and simple gift to make for my sweet girl!


Edit to add:  Check the fit of your dolls and cups before painting.  You may need to sand them a little, and you'd much rather do that before painting them!