Thursday, January 28, 2016

Handmade Birthday Gift Idea: Francie the Fox!



A little friend of ours has a birthday coming up! She is doing a woodland animals themed party and I asked for a gift idea - a stuffed fox! I had fun translating that into a homemade stuffed fox and made this cutie absolutely free.

The orange chevron was left from this quilt and the gray from this one. Odds and ends finished up this adorable gift!

First, I scoured Pinterest for a pattern or tutorial. I found this one very easy to use and I love how it turned out! The pattern says it is a free download but the site it is on requires a membership so I just held a piece of paper up to my screen and traced it rather than join the site.

As I was making her, I just kept thinking of her as Francie the Fox - so I went ahead and named her!



I included another of these rainbow books to suggest the birthday girl write and illustrate a story about her fox! Won't that be fun?!



One of my favorite things is this little pennant she is holding! It is simply a paper stripey straw with some paper attached with two brads. I hooked it onto her hand with a rubberband and then tied a fabric scrap around to cover the band. Sooooo cute!


If you count the little rainbow book, I spent thirty-eight cents on this gift! The only problem is Rachel is in love with it so I probably need to make another one!



Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Slow Day










 

















Our amaryllis bloomed!
Breakfast read-aloud: Trailblazers: William Tyndale and Other Christian Heroes
Zucchini Pie for lunch! Tea Cookies for dessert!
Napkin rings are part of a fun set of free downloads I am putting together for my book release!
I Love You Deerly free printable
The best homemade chocolate cake!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Chilly Slow Weekend


It was cozy and cold here this weekend! We saw a few snow flurries in the air which is a rare and fun treat!

And, it was my favorite kind of weekend - yummy food, not much scheduled and lots of time to just be home and go slow!

We enjoyed a couple of fires in the fireplace and it was cold enough to enjoy a hot drink!

I finished this little cute fox for an upcoming birthday gift - details coming Thursday.


As for cozy food - we've had chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese, apple crisp (this recipe without the crust), meat and potato pie, beef stew with mashed potatoes and homemade chocolate cake!




The girls have been making bookmarks to go with my book - be still my heart.


And, all three have been creating newspapers from brochures and postcards we got on a family trip a couple of years ago! It reminds me of the scene in Little Women where the sisters all create a newspaper and sit around reading portions! I love this kind of creative play! Samuel was the editor who had to "approve" their prints for publication and he reminded them to add tax to the price of their paper - ha!



Rachel has had her eye on some footie pajamas since around Christmas time and took herself shopping to purchase these over the weekend! Well, I took her but she had saved up her money and was so excited at how cozy they were.


We're about to have an 8 year old boy in our house and I bet you can guess the party theme! I spent some time this weekend getting crafty and making preparations for the coming festivities!


Also, enjoyed a little coloring and reading! I love this quote and look at this amazing before/after with memorable family touches! Love! What did you do this weekend?

Monday, January 25, 2016

Thank you!



Good morning, friends! Thank you so much for all of the support and encouragement on my book! We exceeded the minimum t-shirt order - thank you! Orders are on hold for right now while I get this submitted and delivered to each of you! If there is interest in the future, we can do a second order as long as we need at least 36 shirts.

In the meantime, I'm working on a mother-daughter craft day for late March and a special Mother's Day gift set so keep your eyes open!

The above is a little sneak peek of something I'm making for the gift set!

As for my manuscript, it is in the hands of an editor right now - so the process is moving along!

Appreciate you so much!

Friday, January 22, 2016

T-Shirt Update

Good morning, friends! Hope you have all had a great week, just wanted to pop in for a minute and give a quick update on t-shirt orders! I still need a few more to come in before I hit the 36 shirt minimum order - thank you SO much for all of you who have ordered and sent such sweet and encouraging comments and emails! I will be responding to each one soon! All the details are here.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Handmade and Thrifty Girls B'day Gift Idea


A joint Birthday party for two super sweet seven-year-olds was a fun opportunity to put my creative juices to work and see what fun little gift I could come up with.

The first thing I pulled out was the rainbow stripe notebooks. Have you seen these? They are on the Target Dollar Spot right now - a package of 8 little books is $3 and they are oh-so-adorable!

I grabbed a chalk pen and wrote their names on the front with a little embellishing - so cute!

Next, I pulled out the embroidery hoops. These hoops already had the green felt in them. They were in a two pack {one red/one green} on the 90% off clearance at Hobby Lobby. The regular price was $4.99 {yikes!} but I paid 0.49 for two. I saved the red ones and cutesified the green set! A little embroidery, button decor and fabric scrap garland were finished off with a flourish of ribbons from my scrap jar. 



Now I knew I wanted some fun writing utensil to go with those books. I dug through my gift stash again and found two lollipop pens from a Christmas clearance several years ago. I think these were about $1 each on clearance. I had bought them thinking we might do a Nutcracker theme birthday party for Emily but we never did and I've already given one to each of my kids.

I put washi tape and a little yarn on them to embellish even more. What little girl would not love such a fun pen!?



Lastly, I wanted to add one more thing. I had seen an adorable idea on Pinterest for fabric covered band-aids around Christmas time! We popped in Wal-Mart for some band-aids and a roll of double stick tape. Save your dollar on the double stick tape as it did not stick to the band-aids. In a moment of panic/inspiration I decided to try some spray adhesive I already had and it worked like a charm. Super simple and quick!

And, oh how cute!!! I mean, it would almost be worth needing a band-aid to pull one of these cuties out!



I had two little burlap drawstring bags in my closet, maybe from Michael's dollar bins and hot glued two scraps of red fabric on them to make a "red cross" - so sweet!

Oh, and look at those adorable little tiny doilies! I found an unopened package of them at the thrift store for a quarter.



I found a large glassine envelope in my closet from something I'd ordered and cut in half to make two little enclosures. Two sweet gifts for pocket change! Plus I had fun employing creativity and happiness into these goodies.



While Rachel was at the party and Samuel was hanging out with friends, Emily and I ventured out for lunch and into a charming bookstore! Fun times!