Mosters and wizards and ....Pilots?

This year was absolutely crazy for Halloween.
It seemed like a ton of stuff was piling on top of our lives and we couldn't stand still to deal with it.

My kids couldn't decide what they wanted to be - I usually have their costumes at least started by the beginning of October. My younger son knew the day after Halloween LAST YEAR that he wanted to be a wizard - and told me - but then forgot until the last minute. My older one wanted to be an astronaut - but we couldn't figure out what to do about a helmet. We tried a motorcycle helmet - but it was just too heavy for his skinny little neck.

I was helping plan a children's primary presentation for our church and needed to help organize and be at practices. Not that I was much help with my little one - but I wanted to try and put in the effort.

In the middle of all this, my dear Grandma passed away. That left me to deal with family things - which really weren't hardships since I love my family and want to be with them.

My husband - who is the creativity behind our Halloween costumes- was taking a class at the University and wasn't around as much as I'd have liked.

And the number one reason it was crazy this year was my precious little 10 month old - who loves to hang on my leg until I pick him up. This happens whenever I sit down at the sewing machine. I would have loved to put a lot more details into the costumes, but I ran out of time. Frankenstein's Monster. Don't you just love the bolts in the neck?

This is Gandalf (NOT Dumbledore).

A Wizard and a Monster.
My sweet little pilot baby. Love those new teeth!

A doll , a turtle and a ball

In my family, 3 of my sisters and I had babies within 6 months of each other. Three little boys and a girl. I wanted to make baby gifts for them since I am getting a little more confident in the sewing area.


I made this "black apple doll" for my niece using this pattern I found at Martha Stewart. I sewed the eyes and mouth on - since I knew that it would probably get a little wet from a little mouth - and I didn't want the paint to come off. I even sewed in a tag that my husband created for me.


I made these turtles from this pattern I found at Make it and Love it (one of my favorite blogs). My littlest loves his - as it is made out of different textured materials and it makes a great teething toy!



I also made these fun taggy balls (pattern from this site (obsessively stitching)- another favorite!) I've given a few of these away as gifts and the babies seem to love them.




I also made onesies with the baby's first initial on them - but I wasn't able to get them all together to take a picture!

Angry Birds

Tonight was a nephew's 3rd birthday. He loves playing his grandpa's iTouch and he LOVES playing the game angry birds.

I found a tutorial at Obsessively Stitching and decided that I could make that for him. I made the red bird and the pig. They turned out great! I now have requests from my 2 oldest (I'm sure the youngest would request one if he could talk!) to make the whole gang. Not sure what I've gotten myself into - but I'm loving the way they turned out!



I added a tail to the red bird, and shortened the beak. I also added a lower lip to the pig - I think they turned out really cute! Almost makes me want to try making more fun stuffies!

Little Piggies

W came home from school with a note asking parents to please donate 22 items for the kids to "sell" in class to learn how to count money. Every day 2 of the kids get to sell their items while the others in the class count out the right amount of money to "buy" the item.

W decided that he wanted to sell something made out of clay. Since he isn't the best clay animal maker - he asked me to "help" him (make the animals for him). Anyway - we decided that we would make some little pigs.

I though I would post them on here since they turned out so cute!







Don't you just love their curly tails?

Another Quiet Book

Tonight, we are having a service auction to help raise money for the youth of our church to go on a camp called Helaman's encampment. For the auction I decided to make a quiet book (since I have a hard time leaving the house with a newborn).

I decided that this time I would make an ABC book, and here are pictures of my completed book:

I was pretty happy with the way that it turned out. Maybe, sometime soon, I can make one for my own children!

The Quiet Book

This Christmas - our family got to buy a gift for my husband's brother's family. They have two older children (10 & 9) and then a little 2 year old girl. She wouldn't have any fun with games or movies that we could pick out so I decided to make a quiet book for her.

Thanks to all the many ideas that I found on the internet and various blogs, this is what I created:

The front was made up of 11 different fabrics of varying textures and colors. It took me a long time of changing letters and re-cutting different fabrics to finally come up with this combination. I laced it together with a yarn needle threaded with ribbon. Hopefully it stays together!



The first page is an apple tree and basket to put the picked apples in. The apples have snaps on the back.


The next page is a clock with moving hands. Page 3 is a treasure chest with a thick plastic dubloon that my boys donated from their toy treasure chest.

Page 4 is a purse with a button closure. Inside I made a little pink wallet to hold a variety of cards. The next page is a learn to braid page. If she wants, my niece can put hair thingys in the purse on the previous page. It makes a good storage spot!

My personal favorite was the drivers licence card. I'm sure that she won't need Id anytime soon - but she loved the fact that her picture was on a card.

Page 6 is a mail box that opens up with a letter inside. The next page has clear and yellow beads for counting.

Here is the letter. When you open it up - there is a few pages of pellon that I drew pictures on. It turned out really cute. The tutorial for it is here: http://skebba.blogspot.com/2009/09/little-letter-needle-book-tutorial.html

Page 8 is a butter fly that you can flap it's wings. Not much to do - but she likes butterflies and it has lots of sparkly parts to it. Then there is a flower page with button flowers that can be removed.

I got the inspiration for this page here: http://quietbook.blogspot.com/2009/06/page-14-15-oven-cupcakes.html. I love how it turned out!

Next was an ABC page. It took forever to sew on the velcro to the letters and the page.

I made a lace tying page next. I loved the shoes - and it turns out that my nephew (same family) has a pair just like them. The Noah's ark page took a long time. I hand sewed all the little finger puppets that go in the zippered pocket. I made a rabbit, snake, lion, mouse, deer, pig, panda and chick. Not the normal variety that you usually see for the ark, but I was going for what I thought was a variety of colors and the easiest ones I could make!

The next page was a winding down page of two little girls being put to bed. My niece's hair is blond and her older sister has brown hair - so she was quite excited to see "herself" and her sister on this page. The last page I made was just a pocket in case you have to gather everything that was taken out quickly. You can store things in this pocket and re-sort them out later.

Anyway - I need to thank my mom for letting me browse through her fabric supply. This whole project hardly cost anything!

I am so excited about how this turned out! It took me three months to do it start to finish, but the look on my niece's face when she opened it was definitely worth it!