Christmas Count down

Okay I was going to wait until I had a chance to take some pictures but decided that if I waited I would not get this posted.  So pictures will have to come later.  Tomorrow is the first day of December!  So I wanted to share with you one of my favorite ways to count down to Christmas.  We have several different advent calendars in our home.  But I think this is one of my favorite.  Every year I take 25 children's book about Christmas and wrap them each up in Christmas wrapping paper.  I then number them and put them in a basket.  Each night one of the kids gets to open a book and we read it together.  By the time Christmas day comes we have read 25 great books all about Christmas.  There are several reasons that I love this.  One I am a book addict.  Two I find it is a great way to teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas.  We have books about Santa in there but most of the books are about Christ and his birth.  I love it and the kids love opening a book each night.  So this year I will try to share with you each night what book was opened.  If you can find 25 books about Christmas in your house then get wrapping because your kids will love this new tradition! 

Busy Sewing

Wow, I just don't seem to make it on this blog lately. I really have good intentions and lots of things I want to write about. My life has been busy! Along with everyone else. I work 2 jobs plus being a mom and all my sewing projects. Lately I have been sewing reversible capes and selling them to friends and others on etsy for Christmas gifts. As of today I have sold 8 plus made 3 as gifts for birthday party's.

Along with capes I have also been making super hero shirts that match. I have an order in for 12 of these. 6 Batman shirts and 6 Superman shirts. If that's not enough I am also making cute crayon bags and offering them to friends and others on etsy.

So I have been busy sewing. I also still have pajama's to make for the kids for Christmas and skirts for Christmas also. Here is the thing. I love to sew. For me it is an almost therapeutic way to make myself sit down and relax. Sounds crazy huh! Well it is true. If only I could find more time or time with less interruptions. Oh well I will continue sewing, working, and being a mom all at the same time because I love it all! So I hope to be able to get on a post more often but I am making no promises at this busy time. Thanks for stopping in. Hope you are having a great Holiday Season!

Ironing Board Cover

I hate my ironing board cover.  It is always falling off because it ties at the end.  Well my son I decided to decided to pull on one of the strings until the other string was lost somewhere in the middle.  So I broke down and sewed a new cover.  I found a great little tutorial here.  And this is how it turned out in the end. 

Even my husband was happy about this.  He has been cussing the old cover for sometime.  What I love best about this is that it only took my 30 minutes from start to finish.

Batman to the Rescue

My little boy turned four recently and all he has talked about for the past year was having a batman birthday party.  So we did it and I wanted to just share with all of you a few things I did for it.  I was on a major budget for this party and I think I was able to really keep the costs low.
First off I made each of the kids Batman shirts.  I love the dollar Store because they had these shirts.  And then I just added the batman symbol.  I used a template for it from here.

Isn’t he cute.  My daughter made me do pink shirts for her and her girl cousin. 
I also wanted to make masks so I made my own template and then just cut them out of black construction paper.  I then hot glued so thin elastic to them.

I had originally planned on making capes for the kids but that was not in my budget so instead I used black garbage bags that I also got from the dollar store.  The kids loved it and most of them wore them the whole time.

On to the bat cave.  My son really wanted a bat cave.  I was originally going to use a canopy like you use when camping and then put tarps on the sides and have things hanging down.  Then this morning as I was looking at how long that would take I opted for an easier route.  I used our pop-up sun canopy and just added streamers and bats hanging down it was a big hit and super easy.

For the cake I just did a chocolate cake with yellow frosting.  I then cut out a bat in wax paper.  I used this wax paper cut out as a guide in.  Filling it in with chocolate sprinkles.  I think it turned out cute and it was simple and easy.

For the goody bags I made super hero coloring books.  You can find the instructions here.  I didn’t have book binding tape so I used black masking tape.  I think they turned out really great.


We had a really great time and I think all of the kids will remember how much fun they had.  What I liked most is that I tried to keep in somewhat Simple and Cheap Cost effective :)

Searching

Maybe you remember the skirt I made for my daughter to wear on the first day of school.  I love this skirt and I want to make some more.  However, I can't find any more Chenille fabric like I used on the bottom.  I have search the Internet and search at least 5 different fabric stores.  All with no luck.  So if anyone out there has seen this and knows where I can get some please let me know.

Fall Wreath

I know it has been awhile but life gets crazy and busy right?  Well I am mostly settled into the new house I only have about 8 or 9 boxes still hanging out inside the house.  Slowly I am adding things to the walls.  I felt that my from door needed a fall wreath.  So I went to the dollar store and for about $6 I got all the supplies I needed.  I just hot glues the leaves on and I think it turned out pretty good. 

Unpacking

We moved this last weekend into a different house.  Needless to say my life has been turned upside down and I am still trying to climb out of boxes.  The upside to this new house is that the Master Bedroom is bigger so I will be moving my sewing area out of the closet.  I am very excited about this.  Our Internet isn't hooked up yet.  Once it is I will try to get myself together and back to blogging.  It doesn't help that my baby turned one and she is a full on toddler and into everything.  I think I blocked this stage out of my mind from my other two.  It seems a little harder this time. :)  It doesn't help that she has been walking for 4 months.  Just the other day I found her standing on the kitchen table.  Scary!!!!  I don't love the climbing.  But maybe I will get some sewing and crafting done soon.