Basic Handbag

This is a basic handbag that I made for my sister, Valeria's birthday next week. I got this pattern/idea from www.thediydish.com. It was super easy to make too! I like how big it is... I just might make one for myself and use it as a diaper bag =).

Personalized Name Pillows

Car Caddy

This is a car caddy that I made for one of Jocelyn's friend Ben. Ben loves cars and when we babysat him he would always say, "cars, cars, cars." So when we got invited to his birthday party, I thought it would be fun to make him something to put his cars in. I got this idea from this website: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/12/cozy-car-caddy-tutorial.html.

Finished Felt Playhouse

Here is the finished product! I finished it around on Saturday 12:15 AM (the day of the birthday party). It was all worth saying up and finishing the playhouse because Jocelyn was so excited to see it when she woke up! She thanked me and hugged me for making her a house of her own.

The kids can crawl through the doggy door and the bone is removable.

This is the side with the window. You can pick the strawberries and apples. There is also an owl hidding behind the tree knot... I'll have to post a picture of it later.

Felt Playhouse in the Making

Here are the sides of the felt playhouse before I sewed them together. I forgot to take a picture of the other side.

Front door with mail box and flower pot.

This is the window with the strawberry bush and apple tree. The ladybug is removable.

This is the garden with corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and carrots.

felt playhouse

So for Jocelyn's 3rd birthday I am going to make her a felt playhouse. I'm getting ideas from all over and trying to combine different ideas. I just ordered the fabric from fabric.com so hopefully it will come sometime this week. I already planned what I want on each side. It is going to fit over a card table that Jacob use to use for studying. I'm in the process of planning out how big I want everything. I'm using graph paper to plan things out and to make sure everything fits right. I finished graphing three of the sides, and only have one more to do. One side is going to be the front door with a mail slot and a pot of flowers. The other side will be a window with half a tree which will have apples to pick. Next the other side of the tree will be the next panel along with a dog house. On top of the dog house I am going to put a cat =). Natalie loves cats. Then the last side is going to be the garden. I want to have a corn plant, tomato plant, lettuce, and carrots. Hopefully the garden side will fit all of my ideas that I have. It's the last side that I haven't planned out on graph paper yet. The graph paper is nice because I can see everything in proportion to each other. I am way excited to get this all finished!

here is the site that first gave me the idea that I wanted to make one of these!
http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

Spring Photos

These are the dresses that I made for the girls. It's their new spring dress (made from fabric that I had leftover from me making dresses/ties for my family for a YW project!). The girls were so excited to wear their dresses outside! Here are some of the pictures I got of them... let me know which is your favorite!

Slippers

Our apartment does not have any carpet at all and our floors are extremely cold! I wanted to get some slippers for Jocelyn and Jacob, but decided to make some instead. I only finished Jocelyn's so far. I made them out of an old towel of mine and used puffy paint on the bottom to make it less slippery on our floors. Oh, and since Jocelyn had a hard time keeping them on, I sewed on some elastic to help them stay on her cute little feet.

Jocelyn posed for all of these pictures all on her own.

top view

side view
back viewbottom view

Fleece Hats

Since the weather here in Urbana is getting colder and colder, I decided to make Jocelyn some fleece hats. We are trying to save money so I just took some fleece hats that I never wear anymore and used that fabric to make Jocelyn's hats.

Here are some pictures of the hats I made. Jocelyn does not like it when I put the hats on her, but I think she is starting to not mind so much since we have to put it on every time we leave the house.

Our Halloween Adventures

For Halloween this year Jocelyn was Minnie Mouse. She was so cute we had to bring her as many events as possible to show her off! =) There were so many free Halloween events here that we had to go and check them out.

The first event we went to was held at a store called Meijer. It is kind of like a supercenter Walmart. We decided to take Jocelyn dressed up in her costume since we were already going there to buy groceries. Meijer handed out candy around the store and they also had free samples of food. There was also a costume contest, but we were too late and were not able to enter. Jocelyn got her picture taken and we got two copies of it with a Halloween magnet frame.

After the trip to Meijer, we went to the Halloween party that was put on by our housing staff. The party was more geared to older kids, but Jocelyn liked going there and eating the snacks they offered.

Our family picture. I wore a shirt that said "Bun in the Oven" and Jacob wore a chef's hat and an apron that said "The Bun Maker."
Jocelyn dancing to the music.
Our friends from playgroup and cooking club.
We let the mom with the baby borrow Jocelyn's pumpkin costume from last year.



The Monday before Halloween, Jocelyn was able to decorate a pumpkin with stickers at playgroup. It was nice of the playgroup to give us a free pumpkin!

All of the fun toys Jocelyn played with at playgroup that day after she finished her pumpkin.



That same Monday night, we decided to have family night at the Champaign mall. The mall had a Halloween event planned. Everything was free. They had trick-or-treating and free games for the kids around the mall.

We took Jocelyn around in her stroller to get candy from the different stores. We forgot to bring her pumpkin pail to collect candy, but luckily I had a little brown paper bag in my diaper bag. =)


The mall also held a costume contest. We entered Jocelyn in the 0-2 years old category. We didn't make it to the top 10, but the bee next to us did... I think Jocelyn should have made it.


Me taking Jocelyn across the stage for the Judges to see. Jocelyn was too scared to walk on her own, but Jacob said that she waved to everyone when we went across the stage.

Jocelyn waiting for the Judges to announce the results.


On the actual day of Halloween we attended our church Halloween party. Jacob signed up to bring chili and it was a contest. Unfortunately we did not win, but it was only my second time ever making and eating chili. Jacob and I really liked how our chili turned out, even though we didn't win. We got the recipe off of the internet.

Here is a collage of all the pictures we took that night. We took a picture of Jocelyn's bum with her skirt up to see the panties she had on. It was so cute. There was also a guy dressed up as Willy Wonka. Jocelyn enjoyed trunk-or-treating, but wanted us to hold her the whole time. She even tried to say "trick-or-treat" and said "thank you" when she got candy. This little girl is growing up so fast.

I also liked the ballerina pumpkin that was carved by someone in our ward! I thought it was such a cute and creative idea.... I had to take a picture of it!