Our Elf on the Shelf

I finally got an Elf on the Shelf. Finally. I had been wanting one for awhile. The kids named him Jack.

Here he is- photo via my phone.

The other two kids left but I read the story to P. When I was done she crossed her arms, stuck out her bottom lip and demanded to know why we had to get that stupid elf anyway cause all he was gonna do was tell on her.

The first morning after his arrival, we found Jack perched in the Christmas tree. P was excited to get up and see where he would be.

Imagine my disappointment when a mere twenty-four hours after Jack's arrival, P announces that all she has to do is touch him and he will lose his magic and then he can't fly to the North Pole and tell Santa on her. She also decided that we already had presents under the tree so we didn't need any from Santa anyway. How does a four year old come up with this stuff? Hi-lar-i-ous!!!

Salt Dough Ornaments

I decided to make salt dough ornaments with the kids the other day. The recipe I used was:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Mix flour and salt together and add water

Mix until doughy then knead until it is smooth (about 10 min.)

If it is too sticky add more flour or if it is too crumbly add more water

Roll out flat to the thickness you want your ornaments to be

Use cookie cutters or whatever you have on hand to make shapes

Bake at 250 degrees- it can take 20-30 min up to a couple hours to bake depending on the thickness.

I used some funky homemade cookie cutters cause I don't have any.

Next time I think I will use a glass to make better circles.

Some of the finished product:

P's hand print and brother's fingerprints.

These don't look nearly as pretty as others I have seen on the Internet, so I think I need to try again.



I put the dough we didn't use in a baggie in the fridge. I think I need to try again.  ; )

Christmas Card Pics

I had been planning on shooting pictures for a Christmas card since Thanksgiving but just never got around to it. So the other night I made the kids put on coats and stocking hats and pose in front of our tree. I was planning on doing outdoor shots but that didn't happen.

Cowboy/ninja child.

P not looking.

P with a funny look on her face.

P missing from the picture.

P pretending to sleep.

Finally...

Dress, KU headband, and Spiderman socks

This morning for school P, who usually refuses to wear pants anyway, insisted on wearing a cute shirt and skirt with leggings under it. I tried for pants just because it's so cold here- brrrr! Along with the skirt she had to wear her sister's KU headband ( which I was ok with even if it totally didn't match- Rock Chalk!!). And.... her brother's spiderman socks. I didn't even fight her on it. I was just happy she didn't try to go without socks. The other day she tried to insist it was ok to wear her tennis shoes without socks (EW!) when it was twenty degrees outside. That was a fifteen minute fight right there just to get socks on her. I was going to post a pic of her outfit but the second we walked in the door she took most of it off and is now watching cartoons in her underwear...

I hate Walmart

I know I shouldn't get on here and blast Walmart, but I just can't help it. I hate Walmart. If I had any other options in my small town I wouldn't shop there. Their clearance prices are a joke. The checkout lines are always a mile long no matter how few people are in the rest of the store. Today I went and got a dog house. They were on the top shelf and I couldn't find any employees to help. Finally after awhile of looking, I had someone paged. After about twenty minutes of waiting, I decided to climb up and get it myself. Finally after I had gotten it down (just to have the price checked because it wasn't marked), a manager walked by. He checked the price for me, got me a different one down, carried it up front, and then even had someone come up just to check me out so I didn't have to wait. Overall my trip to Walmart this morning wasn't pleasant, but that one manager's courtesy helped to make up for it.


On a more hilarious note, I got my daughter home from preschool and she is rambling about whatever comes to her four-year-old mind. She asked, "Mom, how did you get me in your tummy- cause it didn't feel like you ate me". What!!!! How freakin' funny! Sometimes I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.

Feelin' the love

Sitting on the floor in front of the tree eating chicken nuggets and watching a Winnie the Pooh Christmas show.

On the way home from getting said chicken nuggets while sitting at a red light:

 P- "Mom, if you don't wait til the light turns green you will have to go to jail, right?"

Me- "Sure, I guess."

P- "If you had to go to jail Mom I wouldn't care. I would miss you, though. But I still wouldn't care."

Me- "Thx, P. I love you, too."

Old window frame, melted crayons, and beads

Here are a few new projects I have done recently.

This one is an old window frame I found outside under our carport. I took the screen off and strung a wire across the top. The snowflakes are cardboard from Hobby Lobby- I covered them with fabric. I put a couple small nails in the back where I wanted the wire, wrapped one end of the wire, hung the snowflakes, and then wrapped the other end. Now when I want to change the snowflakes to something else I just have to unwrap one end of the wire from the nail, hang the new stuff and re-wrap it! Never-ending possibilities- snowflakes, birds, letters...whatever comes to mind!

This one is a combination of two other things I have done. The crayon art and rosette headbands. I took green, yellow, and brown crayons and broke them in small pieces. I melted them with a hair dryer, then took fabric rosettes and hot-glued them to the canvas. This one is an 8x10.

These wrap bracelets I have seen all over the place, and some have been kind of pricey (especially the designer ones). So, as usual, I decided I could make them myself. These are the very first two I have done.

These were all just quick shots this morning to get them posted- so please forgive the quality of these photos! : )

Rambling...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and survived Black Friday! We had a great day Thursday and didn't go out until 7 for the 8 am sales at Walmart- and the toys I wanted that went on sale at 10 the night before were still there!

I have a couple new projects I have been working on lately. I will post those with pics sometime next week (it takes forever to prepare and upload photos with my netbook, which is all I have to work with right now). That's a big part of the reason I think I'm not motivated to post more because it takes forever and I get frustrated so I just don't do it. I'm trying to get better at that!

Have a great weekend!

Bird's Nest Pendant

My latest crafty endeavor- the bird's nest pendant. I have seen these online and, as usual, decided that I could make them myself.

 I used copper wire and several different sizes and styles of beads.

This one I left shiny- the other two I oxidized.

These can be done with any type of wire you want it to be made of and whatever beads you choose, I was gonna use blue beads to look like robin eggs but I didn't have any on hand. Boo. Oh, well. I hope you like them!

I love fall

I love fall. I love it when the temps get cooler, the trees change color, pumpkin lattes, and for us SE KS folks- Neewollah! I was gone last weekend and when I got back, all of a sudden the tree in the neighbor's yard was blazing orange. Beautiful!

I snapped this yesterday morning as I was leaving to take P to school. I couldn't resist.

At the pumpkin patch

A couple weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch with my daughter's preschool. They had a blast!



In the corn bin.

 

The hay bale slide!

Next week...

I just realized that I haven't posted since Oct. 7! OMG! I have totally been neglecting my blog. If anyone actually reads this, next week I will actually write a real post. I need to get caught up on editing pictures and then they will be up- hopefully anyway. See you next week!

Fearless

Motivation- well, I don't have any right now. I have been slacking on everything including on posting. I need to finish some headbands, put laundry away, etc etc. On the plus side, I made this last night.

(This photo was taken with my phone and placed directly here- so pardon the quality.)

I stamped FEARLESS on a brass washer with my stamps and trusty hammer. I colored the letters in with a black Sharpie (this actually works really well). Then I just strung some random seed beads and wrapped it around the top a few times and tied it off. Now I just need to decide exactly what I am going to do with it- necklace, bracelet, key chain...The possibilities are endless. Now if I could just find that motivation...



Legends of the Phog

Last Saturday we went to the Legends of the Phog game at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. It was an exhibition game where former KU players returned to play for fun. It was also my first trip to Allen Fieldhouse. It can only be described in one word- awesome!

These first couple shots are from the museum inside the fieldhouse.

The court.

It's starting to fill up!

The action begins...

BEWARE!

Needless to say, I was happy to finally make it to a game. It definitely won't be my last!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Go KU!

Fabric Rosette Headbands

I've been making these headbands lately so I just thought I would share the process. It's pretty easy for those that like to make things yourself.

First, cut a few strips of fabric. You can do pretty much any length or width- I usually do anywhere from 1"-3" wide, depending on how big I want my rosette to be. I usually just cut a strip the length of my piece of fabric. Strip size will determine how big the final rosette will be. The longer and wider the strip, the bigger the rosette.

 

   Just dab a bit of hot glue on the wrong side of the fabric and fold it in half width wise.              

Roll the glued end tightly about three times. This will be the center of the rosette.

Then start twisting the fabric as you wrap it around the the center. Every few twists secure it with a drop of hot glue.

 

Just keep twisting and wrapping until you have a rosette as big as you want, securing every so often with a drop of glue.