Lucky B-day Bash

He has a circle nose, it just blends in with the flash.


Kannon's Birthday Party was St. Paddy's themed since he was born the day after. Here is what the party looked like. I put up a "rainbow" with streamers and made Leprechaun hats out of black plastic plates and green construction paper...

and made Leprechaun hats out of black plastic plates and green construction paper.

We painted "lucky charms" on the kids' faces.

Kannon's cupcake-cake. (It's supposed to also look like a Leprechaun hat, if you couldn't tell)

The inside of the cupcakes were rainbow. I got this idea from the Family Fun magazine. The rest of the party ideas were basically from various Google web and image searches. I heart google!
I hid plastic coins around the house and had the kids collect them and trade them in for some treasure treats. The Dollar Tree had a pack of three plastic pots so I spray painted them black to make them like black cauldrons.

For lunch I made simple PBJ's and cut them with a shamrock cookie cutter. I had one heck of a time trying to find a shamrock cookie cutter in this town! I searched everywhere. I went to Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, Dillons, Hy-vee (where there's a helpful smile at every isle...but no cookie cutters), Bed Bath and Beyond, Michaels, and finally found one at a small kitchen store downtown...small was the description of the cookie cutter as well. It sufficed though. Also on the menu was green grapes and limeade.

Rocket Man

Yet another project for Kannon's room. I painted this piece of canvas with acrylic paints last night and it was a lot of fun! I wish I could do this for a living- I think I would be in the poor house though because I wouldn't get very many customers. I still need hem and sew up the sides for the finished product, but it needs to dry first.

This is where I got the idea from.

BLAST OFF!

Hooded Cowl

OK Kenner, here is the belated fullfillment of my promise...think of it as a "Happy St. Patty's Day," or "your- almost- done- with -chemo and- winter- is- over -so -why -don't- you -wear- gloves- and -a -cowl" present. So, this cowl you can wear as a neck warmer or when you want a little warmth around your head and ears, you can pull it up for a hood. This cowl matches the fingerless gloves I made previously

Easter

In Family Fun Magazine this month, they have some inexpensive cute Easter/Spring decorations to make.

Hanging 3-D Eggs made with cardstock and construction paper

Sock Bunnies. I took some of Wade's old tube socks and soaked them in water and food coloring. Then I filled them with some beans and polyfill with finishing touches.

Curley Birds- out of construction paper as well

Art for Kannon's Room

Since we will be moving soon, it has gotten me thinking about what I want to do with Kannon's future room. I had fun making these pictures of vintage mascots with oil pastels. Of course I will be framing them to hang on the wall.

Felt Sack Lunch

I started this project over the summer and just now got around to finishing it. I got the cute idea from Skip to My Lou. Isn't it amazing the difference a good camera can make? Unfortunately, I do not have one of those, so this is what my lunch pics look like. I chose to hand sew the pieces to give more character.

Bologna, Tomato, Lettuce, Cheese, Bread

Chips, Sandwich in the baggy, Sack, and HoHo.

A Bucket of Fun!

My friend received a similar cute gift for her son and I just had to copy the idea! I just used felt, velcro and some poly-fill and made a Mr.Potato Head Doll for the Kan-Man.

It even has a bum pocket!

The only thing I couldn't quite add were the shoes without it looking ridiculous. Maybe I will figure somthing out later.

Valentine's Day

Before pic...I took one sleeve off already and thought, oh wait, I should get documentation of these sleeves.

I was looking at the Grosgrain Blog, and saw a super cute refashion dress she made from a nasty thrift store find. She made her dress to look like this dress from modcloth (I love all of their dresses, they are so yummy and feminine and actually modest, some of them). Well, I also happened to be a thirft store this week, killing some time while I waited to pick Wade up from school and found the above awesome eighties dress that was about 4 sizes too big. I thought to myself, what the heck, I will give it a try. It cost $4.99. I have never custom tailored something before, so I was a little nervous. I have made things from patterns and simple skirts from scratch, but not a fitted dress. I decided I wanted to wear the dress out for our Valentine's dinner and I had one day to sew start to finish- I had to just dive in.

First, I ripped off the ugly sleeves. Then I put the dress on, put pins in necessary places to mark where I needed to take the seams in. I took in the sides, the shoulders, the bust of the bodice, and took out the hem to lengthen.

Then, from the huge sleeves I made little cap sleeves (this was the scariest part!) I wanted to add a bow with the extra material from the sleeves, but there wasn't quite enough to make a sash and I didn't have time to drive to the fabric store. So, I made a make-shift bow...which I will probably end up changing in the future, but it did the job for Valentine's Day.

I'm sure it's not perfect, but I am really excited how it turned out and that I conquered my fear! Wade took awful and unflattering pictures-bad angles. So, I know it doesn't look that great in these pics, but I did get two compliments at dinner, so it must have turned out half-way decent!

Jewlery Display

I had a box where I stored all of my jewelry. That was the problem, my jewelry was only stored because I was too afraid to sort through the mess to ever wear any of it. I was watching the Today Show last week and they had this clever idea to encorporate your jewelry into your room decor so you can actually see what you have an wear it. I took some old frames we had already and then bought a couple more at the the Dollar Tree.

I nailed up some wire to hang my earrings on

Hot glued some gripper to secure my studs

Screwed in some hooks for necklaces and bracelets.

Reverence Book

K is impossible at church. It is getting harder and harder to keep him entertained through the meetings. It's mostly due to the fact he is cranky and wants to lie down for a nap, but that doesn't quite work at church. I decided to make a reverence or quiet book to help. It isn't perfect, but there are some fun activities that might get him through. Obviously some he won't be able to do until a bit older, but might as well give him a head start.

I used craft pellum for the pages and then drew with Sharpies for the background. The accents are mostly felt which is inexpensive and forgiving. I bought dollar store trinkets to use as well to keep the cost down.

A page for a doodle pad and pens




This will also be the "treat" pocket where he can find some snacks

The music notes are attached to yarn so you can move them back and forth along the string
You can turn the "pages" of the gold plates with the rings attached


Magnetic fishing pole and fish

Nephi can move along the rod and the fruit is removable

A mirror
coat puzzle

The coins are velcro-ed on so you can put them in the bank or envelope


This one isn't quite 100% finished, as you can see the pins...but it is the order of the creation with what happened on each day. The numbers are removable and you have to match them to the the outlined number on the page.



Plant the fruit and veggies in the pockets.







Practice braiding

I haven't quite figured out how to bind the book. I think I might just cover a binder with fabric and then hole punch the pages and insert them. That way if I want to add to the book or need to mend the pages from wear and tear it will be less of a hassle.