January Crafty Goodness

EDITED TO ADD: Yes, this is open to anyone...the only thing I ask is if you do not know me personally let me know how you came to know about the event. (ie, friends, sisters, dog kinda thing). I don't want any crazies coming...so as long as I can follow the chain to someone I know...then you are welcome to come! Let me know if you have any questions!

It has been almost a month since Christmas, and I have yet to post about it. The season seems to go as fast as it comes. We spent lots of time with family, and loved every minute of it. I promise to post about it soon...for my own records, but right now I wanted to let you know about another "Crafty Goodness" Night at my house!

January 29, 2010

at

6 pm till Whenever

Check out all the fun stuff!

Orders AND money need to be in by Friday, Jan. 22nd.

Send me an email at crissybug {at} gmail {dot} com, and I will send you an order form with all the private info and extra details on it!

We will also be having a MEXCIAN themed potluck...so start thinking of a yummy dish to bring along!

* Be Mine Blocks, 'Be' Blocks, & Please Knock Sign are provided by Cami at From Hands to Home*

*Decorative Sign & Decorative Tile are provided by Shelley at Simply Words*

Crafty Christmas

This year turned out to be quite the year for making things. It is fun to create things, but most of the time I sign up for things...go to the event, and then never fully finish the projects. I am proud to say that I completed many things this year! I made this adorable little nativity set at Jaylee's craft night. I have to say it is one of the cutest things! We do have the Little People Nativity also, but this is fun for the kids to play with too. My craft night was a success...It was fun to have so many people over just working on stuff. I didn't make any money, but that wasn't the point. I just wanted to be able to offer alot of different things, and then work on them together...because really...I hate doing this stuff alone. It is so much better when you have someone to talk too. The blocks above are double sided...so they work for Thanksgiving too. It was a fabulous idea from my new friend, Cami! You can see all her fun craftiness over at From Hands to Home. She has some really cute stuff, and she is really fair in prices.
I also did this triple frame at my Craft Night. Shelley put alot of hard work at putting them together. I think it turned out perfect!
A few weeks ago this popped up on Cami's blog. I just had to have one. A few of my friends also ordered them, and we got together one morning and worked on them. It was fun to see the different varieties. Stephanie painted hers all red, and Becky brought some scrapbook paper, mod podge, and some blue paint. They all turned out awesome. I just wish I would have taken a picture of theirs. It fits perfectly above my stove...It makes me smile everytime I walk into the kitchen.
One of my favorite projects this year was these "P.J. Pail's." I went to Home Depot, and bought some empty paint cans, and then mod podged the paper onto it! The idea is this...I give my kids new pajamas for Christmas every year. That is the present that they open every Christmas Eve. From here on out...I will 'wrap' their PJ's in these cans. I also went to the Dollar store and picked up a little photo book (the ones that you can insert pictures into), and printed out all the past years of them in their "Christmas PJ's". The can doubles as a little time capsule...so every year they will open their pj's, and then be able to look at themselves through out the years. I forgot to pick up a paint key while I was at Home Depot, but next year we will also 'hide' the key on the tree so the kids will have to find it in order to 'open' their present.My final project for the season were the stockings. When Shawn and I got married we were given some stockings. They worked fine, but when I started having kids...every year I thought about making stockings. I would get annoyed every year when Santa had a hard time putting things in them, and ended up leaving half of his 'stocking stuffers' outside of the stockings instead! But every year...I never got around to it.

This year I had an epiphany. When Sydney and Thomas were born, my cousin Karma was making these beautiful 'minky' blankets. She made each of them one. Sydney's was purple dot minky with a Tinkerbell satin back. Thomas's was green camo minky with a brown satin back. They absolutely LOVE them...so I had the idea to make each of their stockings to MATCH their blankets!

My sister, Cathy, just had a neighbor make her some stockings...and they were just the right size. Big (wide) enough to fit things in, but not overly large. So I borrowed it, and cut out a 'pattern' for me to work with. Then this Wednesday, Karma and I went to work cutting out the stockings.

Yes, they aren't the most 'Christmasy' of stockings, but I LOVE THEM! Here is a close up of mine. The nicest thing about it is if we have more kids...I can just make a new one...and they will all match!

Yay for FINISHED projects!!!

Merry Christmas!

From our Family to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope your day is filled with joy! We plan on opening presents, eating breakfast with Shawn's dad, and then visiting his grandparents later in the day. For once it will be quieter than usual. (We normally have Christmas with my family too...but we did it early this year YAHOO!...I think I am going to suggest it again next year!)

Say Cheese Twice

Like I said before, our family shoot with all of Shawn's family didn't fair well with my kids, and left me wanting a better pic of 'our little family'. Jamie's Father-in-law has about an acre of property where he stores alot of 'valuables'. We decided that would be a perfect spot to for our family.
Jamie is a mother to 6, and now 7 of some of the cutest kids around. Since this was a much more informal shoot...she brought her kids along to play while we shot a few pictures. Her oldest ended up being a major help. In order to get my kids to look at the camera, AND smile, she had him stand behind her. He ended up picking up piles of leaves and threw them on his own head. My kids found it hilarious as you can tell in these photos. Their giggles had me laughing too!My kids are notorious for some silly faces...so glad she captured these.This car is probably one of the coolest things I like about this location. The color and the vintage-ness of it all was perfect!And of course this was my favorite...I did end up doing a little photoshopping though...In a rush to get out of the house, I forgot Sydney's bow. So I ended up clipping it out of a different pic, and adding it. Silly I know...but I think it turned out okay! Here is the original. :o)Thanks again Jamie! You are seriously talented! I would recommend her to anyone!

Can you say 'Cheese'?

A couple months ago, my amazing friend Jamie, agreed to take pictures of all of Shawn's family. I have to say that she did an amazing job with such a large group. She found this fun little 'business park' in downtown Tempe that was a perfect backdrop for the pictures.It still makes me laugh thinking of how we got the kids to go from this... to this...really. It still isn't perfect (with everyone looking), but crazy that it turned out at all! By this time the kids were totally done! She was able to capture some great shots of the kids. I was surprised at how well some of these turned of out Caden because that morning he had a 104 degree temp! Luckily it broke a little before the pictures, but he still wasn't 100% himself. I love his blue eyes in this one.Little Miss Sydney has turned into quite the poser. I don't think there was one picture of her I didn't like. We are really going to have to look out for this one!
I can never get enough of Thomas. It makes me a little sad seeing how big he is getting. I loved how Jamie set some of these pics up. The only problem about doing a photo shoot with a large group, is that sometimes people 'check out' before you want them too. Especially when there is so many people to photograph. During this shoot, my kids did not want to cooperate...so Jamie was nice enough to take more pics of just my little family a couple of weeks ago. Since I have already overloaded you with pictures I will save that post for tomorrow. (Although you have a sneak peek of that photo shoot from my header

All I have to say is I absolutely LOVED the way they turned out. Thank you Jamie!!!!