A Pet Softie

E LOVES our cat, Gracie.  She wants to pet Gracie and hug and kiss her.  Unfortunately, Gracie is scared of E, so E never gets too close to her before Gracie runs away.  Poor E.  She is completely obsessed with cats, but her own cat will have nothing to do with her....Mama to the rescue!



This Gracie will never run away from E, and she can hug and kiss her as much as she wants!  I know she is going to love this, and I can't wait to see her reaction when she opens it!

To make the Gracie softie, I took a picture of Gracie (this is easier said than done!) and printed it on iron-on transfer paper.  I cut the picture out and ironed it onto a piece of white cotton fabric.  I cut around the image and sewed it right side to right side to a coordinating piece of cat fabric.  I left a small opening for turning, snipped around the edges, and turned it.  I stuffed it, and my mom sewed the opening closed.  Easy and fast!  

It felt really good to finally make this Gracie softie since it's something that I've planned to make since O was a cat obsessed toddler who could never get very close to Gracie!

Easy Crowns for Wisemen (or Wisewomen!)

Both of my girls were wisemen in our church's Christmas program, and they were adorable!  When I first heard that they needed crowns, the thought (very briefly) flitted through my head that I could make felt crowns for them.  That thought was gone before it fully formed because the lady in charge of the play told us we could just get paper crowns from Burger King and spray paint them.  What a great idea!

Here are the Burger King crowns.





I spray painted them with metallic gold paint.





I planned to let O decorated them with jewels and glitter, but we ran out of time and I had to finish them while she was asleep.   I made some squiggles with glue and shook on gold glitter...done!  Both girls love their crowns!




The folks at Burger King gave Grandpa a stack of crowns when he stopped by last week, so I may buy silver spray paint, glue on jewels, and glitter glue for a fun activity in a few months.  Oh, and maybe I'll paint a couple of them pale blue, and we can glue shells on them when we are at the beach this summer, or we could paint them a leafy green and take them with us on a walk along with a glue stick and make an "on the go" nature crown...the possiblibities are endless.  All I know is that we are going to have fun with these crowns!

O's Recent Bento Box Lunch

I was very happy with O's simple bento box lunch last week, so I thought I'd share.  She must have been happy with it, too, because she ate everything!  I was shocked since she usually only eats about a third of what I send (she eats the rest later for an afternoon snack).

She loved her gingerbread man shaped cheese. 



On the bottom layer, she had wheat thin sticks with dark chocolate almond butter for dipping, mandarin oranges, and a Hershey's kiss.  She was SO excited about the Hershey's kiss, and she told me that she ate it first.




On the top layer, she had snow peas and carrots with ranch dip and another Hershey's kiss.  She loves snow peas and thinks it is amazing that she eats peas raw :)

A Book Writing Center for O

While on the way home from school a few weeks ago, O was THRILLED to tell me that she is now working in the writing center.  She loves to write, so she has been anxiously awaiting her chance to work in this area of the classroom.  After hearing how excited she was to be writing, I decided to make a book writing center for her for one of her handmade Christmas gifts.   Here's what I came up with...

I bought this wooden suitcase from Hobby Lobby (I originally planned to put paper dolls in it, but hopefully I'll find another one for that purpose).  It was 50% off, so I only paid 5 dollars for it.  I cut an O from scrapbook paper and decoupaged it onto the suitcase.



I bought a bunch of these plastic pencil cases from WM when they were 25 cents each.  I put velcro on the back of it and on the inside of the suitcase to hold it up.  I filled the pencil case with stickers, mechanical pencils (O has never seen mechanical pencils, so they will be exciting for her), blank labels to use for the titles of her books, erasers, etc



Here's a picture showing the velcro on the pencil case and the suitcase.



I put a packet of lined paper in the suitcase.  O's a little young for this paper, but I know she'll be excited about it and will have fun trying it out.



She's also going to love these glittery numbers and letter stickers.



I made a bunch of scrapbook and computer paper books to add to the suitcase.  I think this will be her favorite part of the gift.  To make the books, I just cut the paper to the size I wanted, folded it in half, and then cut the computer paper to fit in it.  I planned to staple the books, but that wouldn't work.  My mom came to the rescue and sewed the pages together on the sewing machine (while I worked on a gift for E).  I tied the strings at the each end of the book, so that the binding wouldn't unravel.  Once I started making books, I couldn't stop, so I'll be able to replenish her supply often :)



These super cute erasers are a last minute addition to this kit (Thanks to Grandaddy Harry who discreetly purchased them at the Cracker Barrel and slipped them to me when O wasn't looking!).

Christmas Surprise Balls

I made Christmas surprise balls for the girls a few weeks ago, and they are nestled near the top of our tree.  O is SO excited about opening hers!   I'm going to let them open them on December 23, so they won't get overlooked in all of the Christmas excitement. 










E's center gift is a holztiger cat Holztiger Katze, klein, grau.  I started a collection of holztiger animals for her for her 1st birthday.  We gave her a giraffe since we fed giraffes on her birthday.  She'll get this cat and a zebra for Christmas, since she is obsessed with cats and she dressed as both a zebra and later a cat for Halloween.




O's center gift is a pack of silly bands, but I'm sure the chocolate will be her favorite!




I made a Valentine's Day Surprise Ball for O this year for Valentine's Day.  I explained how I made the ball and included a pic of the process in that post if you are interested in more details.

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.