Mother's Day Gift - Key Chain

Every Mother's Day I like to give the grand mothers a special gift from my daughter. Her first year I typed out a little poem and added her painted foot prints in the shape of a heart, last year I typed out I Love You with a clip art flower on some sturdy card stock and then let her water color to make it special (she was very into water coloring at the time). And this year my sweet husband realized that we could take a skill that she's good at, putting beads on a pipe cleaner and turn it into a special gift - enter the personalized key chain! This is a great last minute gift that you and your kids can make too!

Christmas Gifts My 6 Month Old Daughter Loved

I've been looking at lots of gift giving guides trying to get ideas for the kids in my life, and I've had a realization. Often I'm looking at these gifts wondering just how much the kids will actually use them and love playing with them. So I decided to write a first hand review of the toys my daughter received over the past two years and share with you her favorites that we can highly recommend for the kids in your life, starting with her first Christmas.

How to Make Pretend Tea Bags

I have a quick and easy sewing project for you today, the cutest little pretend tea bags! I made these as a gift for Carolyn's 2nd birthday and oh how she loves them!

Flax Seed Neck Pillows

Flax seed neck pillows make wonderful gifts and are oh so cozy!

Tea-riffic Cups Gift

Recently I was teaching a long-term substitute assignment in preschool with some awesome ladies. When my time was up I wanted to give them each a gift to let the know how I felt, so I came up with these fun cups for them.

Creating a Garden for Grandma

For Mother's Day I wanted to create something special for my Grandma.  She means so much to me and I wanted her to feel cherished.  I started describing to Ben my intentions of creating something small that could fit in her little apartment, but something that would be meaningful.  He came up with the great idea of making a miniature garden!  And here it is!

Crayon Artwork

My MIL is an artist, she is where Ben gets his amazing artistic genes from.  That's why this year's Christmas gift (like many years previous) had an artsy flare to it!  We created this custom crayon initial "C" for her.

Crochet and Knitter Ornament Gifts

Need a creative ornament for that crafty person in your life?  Look no further here is an excellent (and easy to make) idea for all knitters and crocheters!

My New Teacup from the Teacup Exchange

I received the cutest teacup from Kati for the teacup exchange.  Check out those owls!

Homemade Lavender and Rose Potpourri Sachet

I always thought potpourri was fancy and had to be made from expensive ingredients, boy was I way off! For my Grandma's birthday this year I wanted to give her something handmade and heartfelt.  So I came up with the idea of making her homemade potpourri sachets from the flowers in my backyard!

Baby Audrey Gifts

My cousin and his wife were just blessed with the most beautiful little girl named Audrey!  I was unable to attend her baby shower, which worked well for my baby gift-making procrastination.  With her birth quickly approaching I had to finish up her gift pronto.

Seashell Vase

Summer is such a great time to incorporate some beach into your decor.  This fun craft actually began as a gift for my mother.  I came across something similar and loved it, but had a little bit of sticker shock.  So I decided to make my own version, and it would be that much more special as a gift because I made it!

Easy to Sew Fleece Baby Blanket

When someone is having a baby girl I instantly want to knit a cute little sweater or a blanket.  I always feel that these items will be cherished by the little girl as she grows.  A little boy on the other hand, I worry will not value a knitted sweater with bows on it.  That is why I like to make them fleece blankets.  You can see previous baby gifts I have made here and here.

Here is part two of Jamie's baby shower gift.  The nursery will be ocean themed, so this blanket should fit right it!   I chose a nice fleece (ocean print) for one side of the blanket and a soft flannel (solid blue) for the the other.  The last baby blanket I made was with two layers of fleece, but I decided that might be too heavy, that's why I swapped it out for the flannel instead.  To find my length I doubled the width of the printed fleece and had my flannel cut to match.

How to Sew Baby Burp Cloths

Baby burp cloths made from cloth diapers is an easy and quick to make project that makes a very thoughtful gift for a new mom.

At other baby showers I had seen people give diapers turned in to burp cloths at gifts and decided I wanted to make this useful gift for my cousin Jamie.  Not being a mom yet, I had no idea that there were different types of cloth diapers available.  I sent Ben to the store with the request of white cloth diapers and this is what he brought home.  This tutorial is for others out there who have made the same mistake as us, there is hope! 

Just Because Gifts

Everyone enjoys a "just because" gift, including myself!  I recently received one in the mail from my totally awesome bestest mother in law!  It literally just came in the mail one day in a nice big envelope.  Quite the nice surprise!!!!

You didn't think I was going to give away my last name and address did you!?!?! ;)
And yes, those are stickers spelling out my name! Hehehe  FYI Ben's mom calls herself Mo, short for Mom...

Inside the envelope were all of these beautifully wrapped packages.  They were so much fun to open, each of them had something fun written on them!

Here's a close up of one of them, Mo is so creative with some brown paper bags and some stickers!!!  I tell ya, she can take anything you give her and craft up a storm!!!

After everything was opened here was the loot.  Check out all the goodies for my students!  I added them to the treasure chest (except the doilies and post-it notes - not exactly a kid treat, but perfect for me) and the kids went crazy!!!

I love my second mom so much, she knows me so well!  Boy, I couldn't have married a better family if I tried!  I know that she is the reason I have such a wonderful husband...  Thank you Mom!!!

Handmade Baby Gifts

My cousin Jamie is pregnant, hooray!!!  We don't know the sex of the baby yet, but that doesn't mean that I'm not already starting the brainstorming of gifts to make her!  More to come on all of my ideas...  In the past I have made other gifts for my cousins when they had babies.  Here is a sampling of what I made, once I realized it was a good idea to take pictures of them:

A knitted sweater and cupcake hat, from one of my favorite knitting books: Itty Bitty Nursery