Lap Desks (my kids favorite Christmas gift)

I made my two oldest kids lap desks this year for Christmas and they LOVE them.  The lap desks and the eye spy bags are definitely their favorite gifts (or at least the ones they have used the most thus far).  I also made one for my niece who is a little older then my two and she loved it as well and her mom says she not only uses it to read and work on but she turns it over and uses it as a pillow!  I used chalkboard paint for my two little ones and my youngest son wanted to know where his was.  I felt so guilty but since he is not as into coloring as the other two are i did not think he would want one.  So i guess i will be making another one very soon!  So far they have mainly used them as chalkboards but my oldest son, who is 5, has used it to do his homework on and loved that he could now do it on his "lap". 

This one was made for my Niece Jalyn who is almost 7.

The next two were for my two oldest, Dalten 5 and Kayden 3.

And here are my cuties using them for the first time.

2011 Resolutions

I normally do not do resolutions other then the normal i need to lose weight, but that sentence comes out of my mouth every month not just on new years!  I have decided to join the flock of bloggers who are making their lists in hopes that really thinking about what i want this year and writing it down will help emplore me to accomplish them. So here it goes;

1. Lose weight (haha i had too)
2. Every month change one thing about my diet plan to get it on a healthier track. If i can do more then 1 a month great but my goal is just for one thing. These things inlcude things from a list of advise from my friend Elizabeth, she is very knowledgable in this area and i trust her assesments on food.  Not sure where i will start but i better figure it out soon!
3. drink more water, which goes hand in hand with drinking less diet soda!  I love water and i am not sure why i tend to forgo it for diet coke? Hopefully i can change that this year.
4. Be less critical of my craft projects so that i can start selling them for extra money.  Selling things has been a goal of mine for quite some time but i see a flaw in everything i make and feel guilty charging people when i dont think it is perfect.  I also feel really guilty charging people more then it cost me to make it.
5. Get better at woodworking.  This kind of goes hand in hand with number 4 but i would really like to get better at woodworking skills.  I would love to make things i could sell to people and i am talking about decor for the house, the yard and possibly one day even furniture!  I am slowly building up my tool collection and hopefully will be able to master each one of them!
6. Start looking into buying a home.  We want to own a home so badly but have been waiting till i am either working again or really close to it.  I have told Darren though i want to go ahead and start looking into a loan so that we can get an estimate on whether he could get approved or not, how much we could get approved for and then advise on what we could do to up that price, example build more credit, pay off certain things etc.  It is hard knowing what you should do to fix things when you are not sure what is on your credit or even what your credit score is.  They may tell us we need to wait till his truck is closer to being paid off or all the way paid off.  But at least we can start forming a plan and working toward that goal!
7. Reach my 5K goal!! My first 5K was supposed to be in Oct but of course i slacked off and was not ready and have not really gotten back on the wagon.  This is something i truly want to accomplish as i have always wanted to be a runner and i think this would be a HUGE stap toward a healthy life style for me.
8. Cook more home made meals, though if i start changing our eating habits i will have to anyway.  Dont get me wrong, we dont eat out very often as we do not have the money for it but i tend to make a lot of easy things that can go in a microwave or lots of pasta dishes, you know super easy things.  I tend not to make a protein, carb and vegetable like you are supposed to and i really want my kids learning to eat the right way now so they do not have the same weight issues as i do and the possible health issues i could eventually get.
9. Start back to church!! This should actually be my number 1 and i have been saying this for way to long now.  I always seem to think of an accuse as to why i cannot go but i am really doing my kids a serious injustice by not introducing them to God now.  I do talk about him but not nearly like i should or like they would learn in church.
10. Spend more quality time with each of my children. I have had one date night with Dalten so far but i would like to switch off doing that with each of them.  I think they all need their mommy to themselves every once in a while.  And this next story i am going to tell you is a big part of why i dont want to put that quality time off!

That is the end of my list and hopefully at the end of the year i will be able to say i checked off all these things!  On a sadder note, much much sadder.  A girl i went to highschool with died, along with her husband, on Christmas Eve night.  Their 8 month old daughter survived but is in the hospital with many fractures, bruises and two broken legs. I cannot seem to get this story out of my mind.  She was not a friend of mine but i know exactly who she is. She was the all american girl that you wished you could be like.  Super cute, smart, pom squad.  Her husband just graduated from texas A&M with his PHD and was on his why to being an up and coming scientist.  I can't help but think about where they were going or coming from, did they just have their babies first Christmas? or maybe just finish getting those last minute gifts?  I also keep thinking about how that poor baby will never completely know her parents or have brothers and sisters or will never be able to celebrate chrismtas without thinking about the tragedy that took place.  I am really trying to get over this story but it haunts me and i think it is because my worst fear is that i will die and not see my kids grow up or vise versa.  i could not live without my children and the thought of someone else raising them devestates me.  Anyway please pray for the Steigler and Goodpasture family and then love on your family because you truly never know when it is your time to go.

Finally posting some of my Christmas projects

I am so excited about some of my projects, i still have more to go but i wanted to post some pictures of a few of the things i have made this year.  I really hope my family likes the things i give them, personally i find homemade things the best kind of gift but that could just be me. =)  First up is this nativity set.  This is my absolute favorite. I saw it at Under my Umbrella, which is such a fun blog! She is very creative. http://undermypolkadotumbrella.blogspot.com/2009/09/nativity-patterns.html  She was nice enough to give us the templates and everything.  I of course had to do it the hard way since i am out of ink and i could not get them to enlarge so i free handed them by looking at her pictures. ha  She also does not have the stable or anything so i made that and attached it to the board with a piece of dowel. (i just drilled holes in a board i cut for buttom and then holes in the bottom of stable so that it comes apart). I also attached the angel with a dowel and attached the North star to the angel with some wire.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out! I am making myself and my mother in law one as well. (yes still lots to do before Christmas!!)

These next 3 things i made for Darren's boss, our friends the Nalleys and my brother and sister in law the Halls.  I really hope they like it.  I wish i new the colors of everyones decor so i could personalize them a little better but i am hoping i picked fairly neutral colors. 

I made this sign for My step sister Kimberly and her husband, I need to make one more for my sister in law Debbie Ann as well.  this particular project i saw at Mine for The Making..http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2010/02/name-blocks.html  I of course just used paint and not vinyl, one of these days i will win a sillouette! lol

This next sign i made for my step sister Kori and her family.

The next pic is what i made Daltens teacher. 

This last picture i am posting i made for our guys handmade gift for our adult dirty santa.  It took me forever to figure out what to take but i like how it turned out. In fact i am making one that says HOGS football for my sisters fellow as he is a huge Hogs fan and has his own mancave to hang it in. =)                    

              

Finals are done!!

Well i can FINALLY get back to my crafting as i took my last final last night. Sometimes i could just kick myself for not finishing school before i got married and had kids. =) Live and learn!! Anyway here are just a couple of the things i did in between homework and studying. I am working on LOTS of great things but i cannot really post them until after Christmas since they are presents. =)

I found a tutorial for these cute trees at Shanty 2 Chic.....http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/2010/11/ruffle-christmas-trees.html I however do not have a ruffler foot so i did it the super long way and "ruffled" them by hand. I still love the way they turned out and the colors match my home beautifully. I wish i could leave them up year round!!

This next post i saw an idea for somewhere and i cannot remember where. I hate it too because she has a link to a really cute kissing sillouette you can use. I however am a big dork and wanted to personalize it with my husband and I. We did our pics seperate lol and he had no idea what i was doing. He was wondering why i made him look down for a side view picture. ha Poor guy, he must hate having a wife who is always doing something to embarrass him. lol

 Here is what it looks like on my book shelf.

I really want to add some of these super cute tissue paper trees i found at Mine for the Making. http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2010/11/tissue-paper-trees-tutorial.html  I want to make one the same height as the picture and then smaller and smaller. I think a gold, red and green tree would look pretty next to it and make it not look so lonely up there!

Gamestop contest

Anyone who actually knows me, knows i havew a gamer husband.  So i am entering this contest for him.  He would sh*t a brick if i gave him this on christmas morning! lol

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme




TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.



1. What is your holiday wish for your family? My wish for my family would be that we are heatlhy and happy and that my children understand the full meaning of the holiday and know that, though the gifts are a great bonus, they are just that a bonus!



2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? Christmas Eve night we go look at christmas lights at our big display places.  Then we come home and open one gift (pj's), leave milk and cookies for santa, and put reindeer food down outside.  Christmas morning we wake up and have some great family time while opening the remainder of our gifts and then head out to the in laws for a full day of family fun.



3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?  I know this sounds a little odd as it is not material but i would wish for the power to finally overcome my food addictions so i could get to a healthy weight for myself and my family.



4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?  We listen to alot of christmas music and dance around the house.  We also spend more time together driving around looking at lights.  My kids love it as much as me this year so it has been even funner. =)



5. What games did you play with your family growing up?  When my sister and i were little we got an atari.  We had so much fun playing with that untill we got a little older and finally got a nintendo.  I will always heart mario brothers. =)



6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?  Looking at lights before celebrating Christmas.  Unfortunatley my family did not really have any traditions, which i think is why i have so many now that i have my own kids.  i really want them to have things they can carry on to there families one day.



7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? I know most people say somewhere warm but i would love to be in the snowy mountains with plenty of food and drinks and firewood snuggled up nice and cozy with my family.



8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?  My husband already has about 20 games picked out lol but i cannot remember them.  i would want an x-box and the new x-box excercising games.  I love the idea of not having to hold a remote while doing it!

My Christmas Wish List

So i thought i would put a little Christmas wish list together.  Things i really want, will never get (at least as a present ha) and that are out of a price range someone other then my husband would get me anyway.  This list will more then likely serve as a reminder for me so i can know exactly what i want to get myself when i have spare money.

First up is this juicer. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000050FB5/ref=s9_wishx_gw_p79_d85_i1?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3536K9OWIOQUD&colid=KJWTAX3GFRM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=1T3MCDEF6ABCQWK0Y8AW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939291&pf_rd_i=507846  such a great price and i have heard it works really well.  I would love to start jicing as my family does not get near enough vegatables and i would love for us to get better at it.  I am thinking with "juice" i could make this happen. =)

Next up are tools.  I love doing wood projects and it is kind of hard when all you have is a borrowed jig saw and a borrowed circular saw.  These are just a few of the tools i really want!!

I of course need new things for the kitchen as well.  These should probably go at the top of my list but since i like crafting more than cooking it's not. haha

You can never go wrong with craft things for me.  I would take scrap fabric, bottons, plastic containers you have saved, glass jars, paint, wood, pretty much anything because you never know when you can use it!  In fact the more i look at craft blogs the more i kick myself for some of the things i have thrown away. =) here are just a couple of the 1000 things i am wanting.  First up is punchs, scallop punches and circular punches. I want some in all sizes. this would make life so much easier when crafting!                                                     

Pinking shears!!

My New Favorite Find!!

Can i just say i LOVE this idea.  I am totally jacking it and hope that in the future i can talk my crafty girlfriends into doing this with me and maybe even my sister in law. (hint hint Jess)  I think it would be so much fun to have a group of girls doing christmas crafts together, especially this one.  Not to mention with this one you get to ensure yummy treats daily till Christmas. How can you can go wrong there? lol You could also do so much with this.  if you didnt want to do a seperate countdown with words you could make a really cute countdown board to hang this from.  So many ideas there from chalkboard paint and embellishments to two rows of beautiful scrapbook paper with numbers on them to flip over each day.  I can't wait to see what i come up with.  Since i just found this however i will be working on the hanger for next year. =) I found this at Bunch of Craft. http://bunchofcraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-days-of-christmas-crafting-day-4.html

Fabulous Finds Friday

I have been neglecting this blog this week as i have been bsuy busy busy with school and crafts.  hopefully i will get some completed this weekend so i can actually post some. =)  i dont know why i cannot just do one thing at a time. =)  Anyway here are a few fun things i would like to try my hand at.

Is this not the CUTEST. I want someone to have a little boy just so i can make this for them. NOT in these colors though, in fact my husband would die if he knew i even posted this. lol He is OU through and through! I found this at Grace Violet...http://www.graceviolet.com/2009/01/how-to-make-taggie-football.html

Here is something i am going to make my daughter.  I think it is so cute!! I found it at Ruffles...http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/10/tutorial-easy-no-sew-flutter-cape-with.html  Check out her site, she has a cute little model wearing it for us. =)

And last are these cute ornaments i am going to have the kids make. I thought this would be a pretty simple project for all ages and it does not cost a lot to make. =) I found it at Craft O Maniac...http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/2010/11/baked-christmas-ornaments.html

What I am soooo Thankful for!

Trying to get a picture of all 4. lol NOT HAPPENING! haha My dear husband and 3 great kids.

 My baby boy Daven., 2 years old

 My Oldest son Dalten, 5 years old

 My baby girl Kayden, 3 years old

They make my heart complete.

Teacher Thanksgiving gift

I don't know if you are anything like me but as a stay at home mom i am broke quite often! Especially around the holidays when i am making tons of deserts and presents.  So here is an idea for a cute teacher gift just to let her know you appreciate her and are thinking of her.  I know gifts for teachers are not required but i like to give them something small on every holiday (and something bigger for christmas and end of year).  Something holiday themed.  I will start posting the crafts i make for each holiday.  i can tell you now the st. patricks day one is super cute!!  So anyway last night Dalten and I made this cute little card for his teacher.  Word of warning, i AM NOT and artist and i HAVE the worst penmanship known to mankind. lol  But it's the thought that counts, right? =)

Dalten had so much fun making the "leaves"  he chose the colors and where to put them at. He liked making the leaves fall to the ground. haha  I was hoping he would make it fuller but he said it was complete. lol

With this we gave her a watchamacallit as this is her favorite candy/chocalate (which we discovered from our start of the year survey we gave her) and a filled Cornucopia.  We filled this waffle cone cornucopia with peanuts, pretzel m&m's and marshmellows.  here is a picture of it but i already had it in the sack and used my phone but i got the idea from this tutorial here http://ourdailyobsessions.blogspot.com/2010/11/edible-cornucopias.html  This is such a cute idea and actually what i am taking to my Thanksgiving celebration for all the kiddos, along with turkey poop, which i got from Mine for the Making http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2010/11/turkey-poop.html =) so cute!

Finally a few finished crafts and a semi turkey clip tutorial

I made this cute little wreath for my door for the holidays.  I thought it was cute simple and cheap, which is what i am going for at the moment since all extra time needs to be spent on Christmas!! =) I do have to say i have a few picked out i am definitely going to have to make that will stay up the whole year!  I threw some green felt around it to show where it will hang but i will be getting cute ribbon to hang it with NOT FELT. =) Oh also i saw this idea somewhere in blog land but as my last post said my lap top died along with all my favorites. boo!

I was also able to finish a really super cute christmas gift that i am dying to post on here but since i have family that reads this i cant post it. =(  I'll have to after the holidays!

Does anyone else have a gamer husband?  I do thats for sure!!! And i am getting pretty tired of seeing his game room look like this:

So i have finally done something about it!!  I decided to make this CD holder for his wall with his favorite football team.  Now I am sure this could be a lot cuter (especially if it were for a girl haha) but i used all on hand items.  The only thing i bought for it was some extra black ribbon as i ran out halfway through and even though they FINALLY have sooner ribbon i opted not to spend extra money on it.  I mean i love OU but 5 bucks for a thing of ribbon...NOT happening!  My hubby has not hung it up yet so you dont get the finished look with CD's in it but here is what it looks like.  i thought it turned out cute. =)  Boomer Sooner!!

Okay so a girlfriend came over last night to shoot the bull and work on crafts in the process.  I had mentioned making turkey hair clips for our girls so she picked up some things she thought would be cute.  i had figured i would use ribbon but when i saw her idea i liked it so much better!  So here is a small tutorial for it.  First go out and buy these along with some brown, red and orang felt and some googly eyes.

Choose your colors and then cut off the thick pieces to glue to your turkey body for the feathers.  For the turkey body we just cut 2 peanut shaped pieces out of brown felt. roughly about 2 inches but i think mine was a little more.  We just free handed them so we both had differnt sizes but i thought the size looked cute on my daughters head. =)  Here is what it looks like gluing them on.

You can see we just glued them on one at a time on one of the peanut pieces.  After getting them glued on we took the other peanut (body) piece and glued it right on top so it looks like 1 complete body with feathers in the back.  We then glued on googly eyes, a teardrop red felt piece and an orange triangle piece for the nose and then glued a clip on back.  Here is the result. =)

Happy crafting!!

bloggy yumminess of the day

Okay so i lied.  I did find something this week that i just have to share.  If you like eggnog and you have not seen this post you are about to love me!! I have tried 3 deserts this week that sounded soooo good i could not stand to wait.  Of those 3 there is only one that my entire family LOVED!!!  In fact they are going to be a part of my holiday desert collection from now on and i am even making them for my family next week at Thanksgiving.  So if you have not seen this recipe at Making the World Cuter head on over there now, make them, and enjoy the yummy goodness you have created!!

http://makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com/2010/11/eggnog-cupcakes.html

Fabulous Finds Friday or not

So i thought i would start a new thing and do a Fabulous Finds Friday where i list my favorite things i found that week.  However, last night my laptop decided to stop working so all my fun finds are gone and with three kids i dont have time to find them all again. =(  Hopefully a friend of ours can get it up and going because i have soooo many things i want to try saved under my favorites.  A lot of those are things i wanted to make as Christmas gifts!!  So anyway you will now have to wait till next week for my fabulous finds. =)  I am having a craft party tonight with a couple girlfriends of mine though so maybe just maybe i will actually finish a project (i have about 3 or 4 started lol) so that i can post about it this weekend.  Time to get my booty in gear for Christmas.  School is making me run behind!!

Printables

Hi guys, Kara over at Mine for The Making is sharing some printables with us.  She has an awesome blog with many great craft ideas, in fact her blog is where i won my first (and only so far lol) giveaway.  It is the beautiful family est. sign i posted about a few posts ago.  Anyway today she has a subway art printable that i will definitely be printing out.  I have been wanting some subway art for awhile now and this one is just perfect!!  I am also printing the hot chocolate one as i LIVE for hot chocolate in the winter time and it is just darn cute!! But really all of them are so go over there and check them out!! Here is her link.  Sorry i am not cool enough yet to know how to just show her name without showing the whole link. lol 

http://mineforthemaking.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-printable-4-christams-subway.html

Things i have made part 2

Okay so this is all i am posting. Believe it or not there is more but i will just have to keep up with them now. =) Some of these things are things i have found on other sites but it has been so long i have no idea which sites to link them back to (even though i dont know how to lonk anyway ha). So i am sorry for not giving credit where credit is due. I will make sure on future posts to have that info.

This first picture is of some reindeer i made for family 2 christmas ago. I actually made 3 and the one not pictured is my fave but it was already with its owner when i took a pic. Also not sure why its blury like that but you can tell what i did. I was quite proud of these and am mad i did not make one for myself. Guess i better go buy a couple of garden posts. =) BTW when i gave these out i had one Uncle ask my husband how much i actually did, now is that sexist or what!! The only part i got help on was cutting the angle on the head because i do not have a tool that goes all the way through i had to turn it over and i could not get it even for the life of me!! i SOOOOOO need more tools. lots and lots of tools, as i LOVE wood working!!


I made this for my husbands desk and i love it. I already plan to make lots more with different sayings on them.

I made this for my moms bookshelf. It looks really good up there!

I made these leaf pillows from a fellow blogger. She is so smart, she found these placemats at walmart, ripped open a seam and filled them up. I just had to copy!! They really make my house feel like fall.

I love this headband though its not a great shot of it. It has 3 petals and 1 bead in the middle. I also made a cute yellow one with three smaller beads in the middle that i love too. This is also from a fellow blogger. Sorry i dont have their link. =(

I dont know why this is sideways but il go with it. You can tell what it is and its all out of t-shirt scraps. I have learned not to throw away anything these days. =)

Kayden likes to put this one in the middle of her forehead and tell me its a head light. lol

Minnie ears for Kayden and her cousins on our trip to Disneyland this summer.

This is a travel cars kit for the boys to play with in the car. I believe you can google car cozie for the tutorial on this one. I think this may be a christmas gift for some little people i know!

Here it is opened up.

A felt crown i made for a friends son. (i actully made 3 for all her sons)

Not a great pic of my two little ones but this is Dalten in his birthday crown. It has the numbers 5 on the side and this is Kayden in her St. Patty's day dress i made her.

Some crowns i made for the J's. =) My nephew and niece Jaxen and Jalyn.

This is a bracelet i made to remember our troops. I also made a pink ribbon one for breast cancer.