more handmade Christmas

Here are a few of the gifts that I made this year! It was really fun and might become a family tradition! I just might have to start in June next year! I was cutting it a little close this year!

This is the boy's bachelor pad! They both love playing with the houses when we go to toy stores so I thought it would be fun to make them a little man house instead of a doll house...the bed room looks really similar to theirs, there are posters on the walls in the great room of things they are interested in right now...Herbie, Barney, Thomas.... there are two little floor pillows with their monograms on the just like the over sized floor pillows in our play room, there are two flat screen tv's on the walls one in the great room and one in the little room on the bottom right where there is also a hot tub and a basketball goal on the wall...Don't look to close because this one isn't all the way done yet....I will post more later when it is completely finished! This is a family matching game that I made for the boys!

My mom and sister got reusable grocery bags that I painted for each of them with little scarves and kitchen towels that I made for them too....

This is the finished house/fort thingy that I made for the boys! You slide it over a card table...this is the gas station side...the pumps come off and the boys had lots of fun gassing up their cars and big wheels!

The Market side...all of the food is attached by velcro so they can go shopping!

The house side....each side has something that is personalized for the boys...lots of the details are either their birthdays or special numbers, initial....

My two little twin nephews have a Safari themed play room so I painted this for them!

handmade Christmas

I decided to make a few of my gifts this year! It has been so fun...a bit stressful...but so fun! I saw these little felt houses on ETSY a while ago and really wanted to make the boys one...these pics were taken before it was finished and there is one more side that looks like a little house...I will take more pics on Christmas morning...Here is just a little peek at what has been taking every free moment lately! This is the little gas station side "Jarvis 66" instead of Phillips 66.... the gas pumps are attached by velcro so the boys can take them off to play...

The Market side... this one took the longest! Most of the food is attached with velcro and there are two little brown sacks so the boys can go shopping! I tried to do some things that they like a lot...there is a loaf of bread, eggs, milk, ice cream sandwich, doughnuts, carrots, bananas, candy....

The Post Office...this side has a little mail bag with two letters for each member of our family...they are all color coordinated and each person has a little pouch. this will teach Sammy his colors and teach Jack the spelling of our names....

I have made lots of other things too...I just can't post them until after Christmas...

give away

I am doing a give away on my pink ink blog. Go leave a comment!

Christmas Home Tour

I love the way that homes look all decorated for Christmas! It makes me kind of sad that it is only up for one month! Here is a little home tour of our house decorated for the holidays...We have a little Christmas tree (top left) in the kitchen that is all home made ornaments. The boys can touch it and not break anything and we made little laminated pictures of all of our family! I love this little tree!! The other pictures are of our play room! There is also a picture of the chair in the entry way...I made this little pillow in 2006. It is Jack's little hand prints and foot print making a reindeer....
Here are a few pictures of our living room decorations...

This is the boy's room...we always put some fun sports themed decorations in their room and bathroom....

I have the sweetest husband in the world and he let me paint my kitchen PINK! I love our kitchen...it is one of my favorite rooms in the house! I have collected lots of fun pink Christmas decorations over the years and now they have a perfect little home in the pink kitchen!

Address Pics

I saw something similar to this on another blog & thought it was super cute... I bought a set of keys at Hobby Lobby that looked old...
then I printed the addresses of all of the homes that we have lived in (all two of them!)
then glued the key to the paper and put it in a frame....
I think they are kind of fun...and a neat way to remember the homes that you have lived in!

handprints

I did these the other day and they were super easy and inexpensive!

I bought the oval frames at Hobby Lobby. (50% off)

and then painted the boys hands with black paint and stamped them on a blank white paper.

I added their names and ages under them and I think they look so fun on this little shelf in the kitchen! The whole project was about $13.00

garage sales, a green chair, and a glue gun

I LOVE garage sales! I have found some of my very favorite things in my house at garage sales!!

Last September I found this beauty...Before
It was only $10.00 and it only took me one night and a glue gun to turn it into this...

After
Bob is never as excited as I am about my garage sale treasures...

this day I had bought quite a bit of stuff...it was all packed in the back of the mini... we looked a little like sanford and son....he left to go to a football game that evening and when he returned I had recovered the whole chair with a hot glue gun!!! The whole project probably cost about $15.00 and I love it! It is not perfect at all...but it sits in the entry way and nobody ever sits in it..so it doesn't really have to be!
I actually got the idea to do this off another blog and thought it was a great idea!

You can seriously do anything with a hot glue gun!

A fun pillow!

I saw these fun little chalkboard pillows while I was out shopping the other day...

they were a little pricey...so I thought I would make one...

I'm kinda wishin' I would have just bought one!

I love the way it turned out and I think it will be so fun to write little messages on...

but the chalkboard fabric was a little stiff and really hard to sew on!?!?

I am thinking about making a few for Mistletoe Market.

I have this fun chair in my front flower bed and I have been wanting to make a pillow for it but couldn't find the right fabric...

I think this one will be perfect!

family tree

This is a little family tree that I painted for my mom for Mother's Day this year! Very easy to make and it looks darling hanging with all of her family photos in the hall! I haven't made one for our house yet...but I really need to! I think I might make mine a little bigger than this one and leave a few branches so we can add a few pics to it over the years!

This is my new blog...

I have a passion for families,

decorating, crafts, doing fun things with my kids...

anything that goes into

making a house a home!

I hope this blog gives you lots of ideas of

fun things you can do as a family!

I thought that I would start today with a recipe...

My mom has been making these pancakes a lot

lately and they are so yummy!!!

berry cream pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon butter, melted

cream filling

(my kids aren't crazy about this part, so I just serve theirs with syrup)

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries (or berries of your choice)

* in large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

in another bowl, whisk egg, buttermilk and butter. stir into dry ingredients

until moistened.

*pour batter by 1/3 cupfuls onto a greased hot griddle. turn

when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook

until second side is golden brown.

*meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl,

beat the cream cheese, confectioners sugar and

vanilla until smooth. spread down the center

of each pancake; top with berries. fold pancake

over filling. makes 8-19 filled pancakes.