Baby Shower Gift

As you have probably seen before in my blog, I have been making Tag blankets as gifts for friends. We do not sell these in our shop at this time but I have made them at the request of people or as gifts. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, keep reading or you can check out these: Kieren and Makenna’s, Makiah’s and Kylie’s

Another friend of ours from church is getting ready to have her first boy (She already has two girls.) and I am not able to make it to her shower. I was planning to make her a tag blanket, so I got it done this week so that I could deliver it before her shower.

 

Tag Blanket

I also decided to try and put her son’s initials on a washcloth and his name on the matching towel. It was something I had in the closet and never gave as a gift. Sadly the machine messed up on his name on the towel and it didn’t turn out right. The washcloth turned out okay, but I didn’t give it to her because I thought it would be silly to just give her the washcloth.

 

 

Washcloth

 

As I was wrapping up the tag blanket, I realized that I didn’t have a card to go with the gift. Seeing that it was after 9pm and Little Monkey was in bed and Little Monkette was hanging out with me, there was no running to the store to get a card. I checked my stash and noticed that I didn’t have anything that would really work for a baby shower either. So I decided to take some card stock and make a card. I had never tried to do what I was thinking in my head so it was kind of a trial run. Thankfully it turned out okay!

 

Card

I just the letters from some leftover fabric scraps we had and used a glue stick to get them in place. Then I did a zigzag stitch around the letters to help keep them on the card and make it look fun. I took a piece of construction paper and cut it to fit on the inside of the card to cover up the thread and holes from sewing. Then I wrote a message inside. Simple but quite cute if I do say so myself!

 

Time For Football!

Some of the guys in our church have a fantasy football league. Big Monkey is a part of the league for its second year. (Last year he played and came in last and won the toilet seat award.) We are hoping for a better showing this year! One of the other wives had an idea to have a playdate with the kids and make shirts for the guys and the kids to represent their fantasy football teams. We went over to their house this past week and got to work. Everyone was excited that I was coming because they said they needed my creative help. (I tried to explain to them that I am really not that creative. Just about everything I make is something I have found online and just recreate!) The other moms used paint pens, markers and tie dye. I also did one tie dye onesie for Little Monkette. It wasn’t ready to go yet when we left, so I don’t have it back yet.

I also made Little Monkette this onesie.

Cheerleader!

It was simply an iron on that I bought and ironed on to the shirt. I still haven’t decided if it is done as it is or not. I might add some words or her name to it with the embroidery machine or some iron on letters.

This is Little Monkey’s shirt. I made a long sleeve shirt (mainly because when I went looking for plain white shirts, long sleeve was the only thing I could find in his size). I did most of the work at home before we went to the playdate. (Printing a template, preparing the fabrics and getting it all cut out) Then at the playdate I did all the iron on work. I had to sew it when I got it back home. I had left part of the football without the fusible webbing on it so that after I sewed around the edge, I could make it fray some.

Football Applique

Here is an up close of the football, before it had been frayed at all.

Football!

Big Monkey also got a shirt. I had picked him out a red shirt and put his team name on the back with some iron on letters. Then on the front I had also printed a template to use to create the football and the burst around it. I did all the prep work at home also and then did the iron on work at playdate. Big Monkey says that he likes it…but we’ll see if he’ll wear it out of the house at all! (It reminds me of the Incredibles outfits a little bit!)

Front, Close up, just starting the fraying of the black

Back-The name of Big Monkey's Fantasy Football Team

A Camping We Will Go-

This weekend we will be on our first family camping trip. Little Monkey is excited (everytime he sees the camper he says, “There’s the camping!”). I’m sure we will have a fun time, but it is bound to be interesting. Thankfully we have a pop up camper, so we will not be sleeping in tents on the ground. We got most of the camper packed up the other day and will finish the last minute stuff before we leave.

Stock Photo of our camper

We are going camping with some friends from church (and some of their friends). They are all experienced campers, so if we forgot anything, I’m sure they will have whatever we might need! Hopefully this will be the first of many good camping trips. We will probably not be taking another trip for awhile since Baby Girl is on the way! We also will not be going very far from our house, which should be good for our first trip. Although I have been informed that I am not allowed to go home if it is raining.

Next week I should have some pictures for you and a post or two about our trip.

A Promise

The other night we took a trip to BJ’s and Lowe’s. On the way home there was a very cool rainbow going across our neighborhood. It was VERY vivid and a full rainbow. There was also a second one above it that was much lighter but also a full rainbow. It was really cool to see. Little Monkey liked it. I tried to take a picture of it but it not that great. The one rainbow you can see in this photo is the one that was VIVID.

Rainbow!

The Rainbow-A promise to Noah and all his descendants.

⁸” Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”" Genesis 9:8-17 NIV

Diaper Cake

Last night we had a baby shower for a friend at church who is due in just four weeks! I was in charge of some of the food. I brought cookies, veggies, fruit and banana pudding (my first time making banana pudding). I am told everyone thought the banana pudding was very good. I thought it was not like how my mom makes it (even though I did it how she said to) and that it seemed maybe a little runny. It was still tasty though.

I had seen many times before “Diaper Cakes” that people had made as a combo decoration and gift. I had never made one and wanted to try my hand at it. I did some looking around online for some decent instructions and went to work. When I was done I thought it was a little plain but my sister suggested adding some flowers to it. That did the trick. It was very cute and everyone liked it, especially the Mom-to-be. It served as decoration and she can take it apart later and use the diapers once the baby is big enough.

One of the hostesses, who house the event was at, used her gift as decoration too. It was very cute. She had gotten a handful of clothing items for the baby girl and hung them up as if they were on a clothesline drying. At the end of the shower, we took them all down and sent them home with the mom-to-be. I believe she enjoyed herself, as did the guests.

More Lacing Cards

Our church has a donation board that lists items that they would like to have for different ministries. Generally it is stuff for the kid’s programs (we have LOTS of kids!). A while back I saw that they wanted some lacing cards for the kids. I told one of the children’s leaders that we could easily and cheaply make our own. You may remember this post where I showed you how I made some for Little Monkey.

I had recently seen some other blogs where people had bought pre-cut foam shapes and just added the holes for lacing. I was having a hard time finding shapes that were cut out of thick enough foam. If the foam is too thin, it will not last very long. I came across some foam wands at the Dollar Tree and thought I would give them a try. I tried taking out the wand part but it just messed up the foam section. So I decided to cut down the wand to make it smaller and cut off part of the ribbon.

Lacing Cards!

I made these yesterday and then went and picked up some more supplies to make a few more! I had some star shaped ones but had some issues with the holes and so those are out! Hopefully these will last a while before we need to make more. I am going to make a few more and try to space out the holes a little more (kinda like on the yellow heart one) to make it easier for the younger kids!

Here are the rest of them! I wasn’t too sure about the crowns, but I figured we could make them work. (Crown of thorns, Kings in the Bible, etc.) I guess we’ll see what the children’s workers think!

More Lacing Cards Done!

Oh and if you are wondering about cost…
3pack of Foam Wands at the Dollar Tree $1 each
8pack of shoelaces at the Dollar Tree $1 (gives you 16 laces since you only need one per card!)

So it comes out to about 39cents per lacing card!

Little Monkey Funny

I wanted to write this story down because I thought it was cute and wanted to remember it.

This past Sunday we were helping clean up after church and I told Little Monkey that we were going to go see Grandpa at lunch. He got very excited and said, “I want to go to Chick a lay.” I thought this was pretty funny because we don’t go to Chick-fil-a THAT often and Little Monkey can only eat the fries from there. (Which he has had ONCE and liked when we went to a birthday party for a friend.)

Little Monkey with his waffle fries for the first time!

Sadly I had to let Little Monkey know that Chick-fil-a is not open on Sundays (of course that seems to be the day EVERYONE wants Chick-fil-a…I think it has something to do with wanting what you cannot have.). He told me again and again that he wanted to go to “Chick a lay.” There is actually a guy at our church who is an operator of a Chick-fil-a. Some people call him “The Chicken Man.” I told him that Little Monkey asked to go to his store the only day it isn’t open! He was happy to hear that he wanted to go there and that he can actually eat something from their store.

We finally finished cleaning up and headed out to meet Grandpa for lunch. We were going to Oakwood. We pull into the parking lot and Little Monkey says, “What’s this? Where’s lunch?” I told him that this is lunch. This was where we were meeting Grandpa. He says, “But this isn’t Chick a lay!” Nothing gets past this kid! Sorry Little Monkey, once again, Chick-fil-a is not open on Sundays. Maybe one day this week we’ll have to head over to Chick-fil-a and get Little Monkey some waffle fries.

(Now that I’ve written this, I’m betting that most people won’t think it was that funny or even care. But I don’t care what you think! I thought it was cute and wanted to remember it!)

Happy Easter!

What a great day today is. Our plan is to go to church and then hopefully stop by the fire station to see Big Monkey who has to work today. I am also planning to take a few pictures of Little Monkey and I in our (hopefully) Easter best. Little Monkey will be wearing his special Easter tie and I plan to wear a new dress. (This may also give you a chance to see the baby bump that has been popping out!)

We hope you have a great Easter and remember what the day is all about.

Packing Up

Today we will head back home to reality. We had a nice time at the beach and even got a good amount of work done for the craft show. We still have plenty more to do. (I was hoping to be a little farther along…but yesterday I spent most of the day hiding out in the dark with a bad headache.) We have begun to pack up all the items for the shop, as well as our clothes and such. We are going to have some lunch and then probably look to head out towards home. We have to make a stop to find some wooden buttons for a special order we have on etsy also.

Otherwise I think that’s about it. I’m ready to go back home (except for the fact that Mom won’t be there to take care of Little Monkey and make all our meals). Big Monkey did some work in the backyard while he was home, so it will be nice to see what he got done. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we plan to go to church and then probably to see Big Monkey since he will be working at the fire station.

A Tie For Easter

The other day I picked up some fun Easter fabric from the remnant section at Joann’s. I thought it would make a cute tie for Little Monkey to wear to Easter Sunday services. I paired it with some green and white stripe fabric that we had on hand (also a remnant purchase). The tie ended up very cute and Little Monkey loved it. He wanted to try it on as soon as it was finished and he wouldn’t take it off until it was time to put on his pajamas! He also had to make a special call on the webcam to show off his new tie to Grammy and Pops. You may recall this post about the first set of ties I made. We have also since made a tie for one of Little Monkey’s friends. We have added the Easter tie to our Etsy shop, in case anyone is interested in one for the Little Guy in their life.

Here is Little Monkey modeling the tie for you: (And yes I know it doesn’t match the shirt at all….but the kid wanted to wear it!)