Parade PJs

I really wanted Molly to have a cute pair of Thanksgiving PJs to watch her first Macy's Day parade in. Only everywhere I went looking for a cute girly pair all they had were plain boyish ones. So I ran to Hancocks and bought some fabric.


Then I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest.

And here's the finished product.



I can't wait to see her on Thursday morning!

The 12 Days of Halloween

I said in a previous post. that the thing I'm most looking forward to about being a parent is family traditions. Continuing the ones that our family's have passed on to us and creating our own family traditions. I was looking around on Pinterest for an advent calendar. I didn't want to use the store bought punch out candy kind. I wanted one that focused on things that we can do together as a family. I also wanted one that was easy to store throughout the year so that I don't have to remake it each year. I found this idea that used a fabric paper chain.




Then I decided that I didn't want to wait until Christmas. So I decided to create one for each of the different holidays. While I didn't want to do the entire month leading up to Halloween, Thanksgiving etc. I still wanted to do something to celebrate each holiday and so the 12 days of Halloween was born.

Layer fabric, heat bond, & felt.

Cut into strips. The tutorial called for 7x1 inch strips but I'd say 9x1 inch would look better.

Attach velcro to each end and form a ring.


Our first activity was footprint art so I thought it'd be really cute to use it to "hold" our chain.

Inside each ring there's a strip of paper with a family activity. Here's the list of things that we'll be doing starting today with footprint art.


12. Visit the Pumpkin Patch
11. eat Halloween Pizza
10. Mail Halloween Cards to friends and family
9. make halloween hand/foot print art
8. Make Halloween Rice Krispy treats
7. wear halloween PJs
6. "BOO" the neighbors
5. carve pumpkins
4. ghost pancakes for breakfast
3. Eat pumpkin icecream sandwiches
2. Photo shoot in costume
1. wear orange

This is the list for this year. In the future we'll add things like choose your costume (from McCalls/Simplicity pattern book), bob for apples, watch a scary movie, read ghost stories by flashlight. I like that some will be classics that'll never change and some will need to change as she grows. I'm workin' on the list for Thanksgiving if you have any great ideas.

Here's the finished Thanksgiving and Christmas chains too!

Happy Birthday Jenny--Cake in a Jar

Sunday was Jenny's birthday! To celebrate we all met out at Carlos and Charlies on the lake. I wanted to spice up her gift a little more than the cute jewelry and matching flip flops I found but I wasn't sure what else to do. And then...I saw it on Pinterest...where else...

So I ran out to the Dollar Tree to get a jar, candles, and a cupcake mix (I know it's the same as a regular cake mix but I didn't want to be wasteful so I bought the smaller box).

I made the batter just like the box said and poured it into the jar (after I'd sprayed it with PAM) and baked.




While it was baking I used my Silhouette machine to cut out a cute Happy Birthday tag from some pink vinyl. I also tied some candles and a fork with a ribbon to tie to the top of the jar. Once the cake was cool I iced it and added sprinkles.




And since you can't wrap ice cream I attached these candies



Everyone had so much fun. It was a great opportunity to spend time with friends, eat great food and celebrate Jenny (and the Mavs...even though we're Spurs People)!!

Linking Up With:

Gettin' Crafty- Magnetic Board

I'm a little behind but today I decided to try my first link up with the ladies over at www.thegirlcreative.com

I took a small cookie sheet that I got from the dollar tree.

Covered it with cute scrapbook paper...

Tossed some magnets on the back of cardstock I ran through the printer...

And poof! I have a really easy way to make sure my weekly cleaning schedule actually gets done!

Gettin' Crafty---DIY Candy Wreath

Rustin's out of town for the next few days so I'm going to take advantage of the empty house to do a little crafting. I used to make this as birthday gifts for my girl friends back in high school/college. I'd completely forgotten about it until today. I was trying to come up with a homemade gift for my Sunshine sister at work. So I ran through my favorite store (Dollar Tree) on my way home from school today.
Here's what I picked up:



*3 bags of individually wrapped bubble gum (any candy will work- jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, whatever candy fits your color scheme as long as it has an end you can tie your ribbon to)

*1 roll of curling ribbon in a coordinating color (300 ft.- who knows if I'll use it all but just in case)

*1 iron ring (I had to run next door to hobby lobby for this- they have a few different sizes so pick your poision...just make sure you have more candy the bigger you go)


All you do now is cut pieces of ribbon about 3 inches long. Tie one end of the ribbon to the candy.



Then tie the ribbon to the ring.



Curly the ribbon that's sticking off the ring.



Repeat until you can no longer see the ring. I hope the pictures make this a little easier to follow so you can make your own.



I was thinking of using the pink/ pale blue tootise rolls for a baby shower wreath or maybe using regular tootsie rolls with red ribbon as a Good Luck present for Ashley's next soccer game. What candy are you going to use??