Pumpkin Carving

Sweets for the Sweet

I always seem to forget the boys' preschool teachers around holiday time.  It hasn't been until B started going that I noticed how caring they are.  Every time I drop him off he cries (and he's been going twice a week for 5 months now).  The only way I can escape is when one specific teacher holds him.  Each time this happens it dawns on me how she will have to comfort him, distract him, and help him ease into the classroom setting all the while little ones are at her feet.  It's a lot of work.  One of C's teachers always makes him feel special by calling him her "Dinosaur" and giving him extra attention.  It has definitely opened my eyes to all that they do.  So I wanted to let them know that we appreciate them by giving them something small for Valentine's Day. 

I got the idea from A Thoughtful Place  She used the jars as a tool to help her kids' save money. 

I bought the glass jars at the Dollar Tree, the felt hearts came in a pack of four from Hobby Lobby, and I used about 6 bags of candy (Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's Minatures, chocolate crispy hearts, chocolate cream filled hearts, and chocolate covered marshmallows).  Overall, I spent $18 (making it $4.50 each).

When Life Hands You Trash Bags...

...turn them into ghosts!

I've been under the weather the past week and over the weekend while watching children's Halloween themed movies, I turned 2 trash bags into 4 ghosts for one of our trees.   Threw on a "Boo" glittered sign from Target's dollar section and voila!

Waiting to Fall

I'm sure I have mentioned this before...my favorite season is Fall. It didn't use to be, especially growing up. But having boys both born in the autumn months and after living in Hawaii where there wasn't such a season, it has grown to be my favorite. All of August I've been dreaming of those cooler temps, the gorgeous tones of yellow, orange, and red on the trees, wearing sweaters, drinking hot coffee, feeling the crispness in the air, and hearing the crunching of leaves (okay I really could go on forever). I'm anxiously waiting for September 1st so I can break out the fall decor and go purchase mums. In the meantime I decided to do a craft to get me ready for the change, as if I wasn't ready already.

Thanks to Pinterest I stumbled upon this wreath:

 Source

I have seen these yarn wreathes before and didn't think they were all that great.  But for some reason this one stuck out to me.  I couldn't get it out of my mind! I actually laid in bed, as I was trying to go to sleep, thinking about how to execute such a wreath.  And because I'm OCD crazy, the next morning I zipped on over to Hobby Lobby. 

I bought a straw wreath, yarn, felt, yarn needles, and thread...all for $8.18 (did I mention the above is selling for $45?).  Naptime I started wrapping the yarn.  That's when it clicked why this simple wreath is sold for so much, wrapping yarn in an OCD precise, neat way is extremely time consuming. 

I sketched out some leaf shapes for a template to be used on the felt.  That's where it didn't turn out as I had hoped.  Perhaps I didn't have "the" touch that the person who made the one above did.  The next day I remembered I had some fake leaves I had used in last year's decor around the house.  Yep, that made a world of difference.  I used pins to stick them on there; after hours of yarn wrapping I decided I could reuse the base of the wreath at Christmas if I wanted (I was not going through that again!)

Simple and pretty.  The yarn reminds me of a sweater.  I have a cute ribbon that I'm going to use to hang the wreath on one of those removable wall hooks.  I plan on hanging this on our back door that's in our living room. 



My Brain is Rotting

I need to find something to do.  A craft or a hobby.  Something inexpensive.  Not being in school for almost 2 years now is driving me to pure boredom.  I love my boys, obviously, but there is only so much playing I can do.  I need something fun for me. 

I found photos in another camera of the last "craft" I did.  Camera strap covers for a few friends.  It was fun til Susie (my sewing machine) and I didn't get along any more.  She can be a real pain in the bum! (Although I'm sure it goes both ways) 

Maybe I should just start taking some more classes and finish up this degree!

Customized Room Art

My grandfather gave me the painting last year.  It was done by his first cousin, which would be my third cousin, while he was in college (so it's like 40+ years old).  My grandfather's other cousin was going to throw it out so he saved it and brought it home with him.  During one of my visits to see them last year he asked if I would be interested in taking some art work off his hands, well I am never one to pass up an option like that!  I think my grandparents have impeccable taste (he was an architect after all).  He showed me a few and I was immediately drawn to this one because of the train and the train tracks, very fitting for C's room.

 

It sat in C's closet for months.  Due to it's large size and need to be re-matted and framed, I put it on the back burner.  I'm cheap.  There I said it.  And honestly I didn't want to spend the money to have it done, but knew I could do it myself.  This week Hobby Lobby is having their mats on sale 50% off.  The largest premade they sell is for a 11x14 picture.  I didn't realize how big the painting was until there was still some showing behind the mat.  I had, in the garage, an old picture we use to have in our guest room (nautical themed) that we weren't using any more.  Perfect size frame for the mat.

Did you know you can reuse those frames? Yep, you totally can if you have a screwdriver and a hammer (and if you're real picky about the backside of a frame no one will see because it's on the wall, I'm sure you can buy that brown tape too).  I unscrewed the wire, cut through the tape (only on 3 sides), pushed back the staples, and pulled out the cardboard backing.  Windex'ed the glass and switched out the art.  Put the backing back, pushed down the staples, rescrewed the wire, and pow! new art!

I didn't want to cut the painting so I folded back the excess.  My grandfather would probably freak if he saw this!

I also found some cute dinosaur and vehicle scrapbook paper...so what did I do? Framed them!  The soccer art is from Target on clearance from $14.99 to $3.74 (reason #378 why I love Target).