wood you like to craft - stars

This month's project was an awesome red, white and blue lantern made with stars. And all the other ideas were just fabulous!! You can check them out here.

However, they changed it up a little. You don't have to make your own version of the project, but they are giving a theme that you can make your own project from. When I saw the patriotic lantern and heard this month's theme was stars I immediately knew I had to make the flag that's been in my mind for months.

I made an extra to be part of my mother-in-law's birthday present. :)

I really like how they turned out. I cut some strips of wood down to the appropriate sizes. Painted. Sanded and banged them up a bit cause I wanted them to look antique-ish. Stained. Sealed.

If you take out the drying time, this was such a quick project.

Super quick, super cute. ;)

Maybe some day I'll make one of the super cute lanterns. :)

wood you like to craft - tool box

This month the project was a tool box (which I just loved!! especially filled with the tulips!) and then the other projects were just wonderful too.

 I almost made a long one, but as I was thinking of where I would put it, I decided I wanted to make small ones that could be lined up together to look long or separated to go on my kitchen window sill in between herbs (if I really ever get the courage to try growing some) or other decorations. I also wanted to make more than two but I knew I shouldn't push my luck with Brock.

I cut all the wood by myself :) all while Brock was taking his longest nap ever! (Otherwise I don't think I would've completed this even by now.) After putting them together, I painted them all white, sanded some of the paint off (not enough) and then stained over it all. I love how the stain looks darker (you can't even see it in my bad pictures) on the small parts I sanded the paint off. As I keep doing these projects, I keep learning more and more and someday I may actually be able to call myself a 'crafter'. ;)

Yes, this is just another one of my horrible pictures, but I wanted to show where they will actually be going. 

Wood You Like to Craft - Candlestick Rabbits

First of all let me say I SO wish this post was announcing the birth of our new baby. But alas, here it is only one day from my due date and still no baby. It really doesn't seem fair that I still have to go all the way to my due date (or later! GRR!) with my 5th baby. I guess since this is my last pregnancy, I should just enjoy it, right? Yeah right! I've been 'enjoying' it for 9 months now. This is ridiculous!!

Last month (although it seems like yesterday) I made the "No Soliciting" sign for the craft group "Wood You Like to Craft?". I don't think I did a very good job explaining it all, so here's a little about it from their site -

"Wood you like to Craft? is a bloggers craft group.  We have gathered four fun blogs that have a love for wood crafts.  Each month we will be creating one project selected by the "host."  Then each of the other bloggers will take a turn showing their variation of the same craft."

I love it because as much as I dream about being able to sew, it's still so intimidating to me, and wood, paint, and tools are tons of fun to work with and there's so many ways to change things up a little. Plus it actually motivates me to make things. I have a list a mile long of all the crafts I'd like to make someday, but this forces me to get it done. And I love that!!

This post shows the fabulous original plus the variations all the others made. You really should take a quick peak. It's amazing what they all did!

Here's what I came up with. It was a lot cuter in my mind but I'm still pretty proud of it. ;)

Easter Bunny with Eggs

Didn't realize when I was making them that my piano would now be covered in candlesticks... I think I have some rearranging/new decorations to come up with.

Maybe one day I'll learn how to take good pictures. You know with the right lighting, angles, etc. Until then. Oh well. 

craft attempt

My attempt for the Wood You Like to Craft (a blogging craft group). I had to do a much simpler version because I was trying to use only things I had on hand and not spend any money. (Which I succeeded at.)
I chose to do "No Soliciting" because starting like 2 weeks ago we start getting salesmen like crazy. And I usually try and be polite and listen to them, especially since Seth had to do something similar for a while and I know they're just trying to earn money, but (and maybe it's just cause I'm pregnant) they are driving me crazy. So hopefully this will deter at least some from knocking... wish me luck with that! ;)
Also, the picture is really bad because it's hanging inside until Seth helps me find a way to get it outside.

I love this!

So I somehow came across this blog today and this awesome woman was sharing a tutorial on how to make the following. I loved the idea! She said she could do it for you if you just emailed her a picture and were a follower. You can check our her tutorial here or even ask her to do it for you. :) I commented on her post that I was bummed I didn't have a good vertical picture. She sent me an email and said she could try cropping a picture for me. How awesome and generous was that?! So I emailed her a picture and she sent this back so fast!

I love it! I do think a wedding picture in black and white would probably be my favorite picture to put with it, but since I'm such an old lady and got married so long ago, I don't have any wedding pictures on a cd or my computer. But nonetheless, I love it and can't believe she just did it for free cause she's awesome!

my attempt at being a copy cat crafter

I've seen these banners all over the place and thought they were so cute, so I decided to try and make one. It was somewhat easy but definitely took some time. The boys were very excited to help me. When Seth came home, Peyton said "Dad! Dad! Dad! Look what I made!"


'
Peyton needed to take a picture all by himselfI decided it's probably better as a decoration for a party, than just normal holiday decorating. But still not bad, in my humble opinion.

Snowflake Ornaments

For Easton's class Christmas Party I volunteered to bring a craft for the kids to make and found a cute idea for making snowflake ornaments. I think they turned out so cute!

The top one is the one Aunt Vannessa made while she was at our house and the second in this picture is the one Easton made at school. (One of the best in his class :)
I had Cole and Peyton make some at home so I could take them to the school for examples. I didn't tell them what to do, just put the objects, glitter and glue on the table and let them have at it. :)

These are the 3 Peyton made all by himself! I didn't help him with glue or glitter. I was so amazed at what he did. If you notice in the top one, he even did little dots of glitter glue! He's only 2!

These are the 3 Cole made. I absolutely love the one with only buttons. So cute!!

A great Christmas idea for your hubby...

There's this blog I follow and LOVE! She is so creative and has so many great ideas for dates and romance with your husband. She just posted the absolutely cutest idea for a homemade present for your husband and I love it so I wanted to share it.


Check it out! Date of the Month Club from Love, Actually

P.S. She has at the bottom that you can purchase (for $9.99) everything she's already done, which I'm not suggesting, unless of course you'd like to. If any of you are going to make it, let me know, maybe we can help each other out and not pay the money, cause I'm not going to pay anyways, even though that would be nice.

Christmas Fun

I asked the boys if they wanted to write letters to Santa. Easton got so excited because he had never done it before. It was really funny to hear what they wanted to say, because I had no idea what to expect.

Peyton saying "chesse"
Cole getting "too tired to write any more so you have to mom"
Cole's Letter to Santa:
Dear Santa,
When are my presents going to come? B.O.B. Wrap presents in boxes. I love mommy. And I love Easton and dad and Pey Pey and myself. Love Cole

Easton writing his letter
Easton's Letter to Santa:
Dear Santa Clause,
I don't know what I want for Christmas. You can choose, I want it to be a surprise. I'll save you some cookies and milk and some napkins just in case your hands get dirty, and you put the whole cookie in your milk and then you put in your whole hand. You can't slide down the chimney because it's not a big square. You can just come in the door, just try not to wake us up because what if I see you? Drive carefully. Don't crash. And can I know the magic words that make the sleigh and reindeer go?
Love Easton

Letters all decorated in envelopes
Another night we made snowmen. I didn't really have any specific ideas as what to use for them but the boys really wanted to make "snowmen that can be inside". I just grabbed a bunch of craft stuff and they pretty much put them together on their own. I was rather impressed. Peyton's ended up being a couple styrofoam balls with a ton of holes in it. He kept pulling them apart and sticking them back on the toothpicks, always acting like he had created a masterpiece.