My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway

I was recently given the opportunity to download My Memories Suite Version 3.0, a digital scrapbooking software, so I could review it. And they offered me another copy for a lucky reader. More details soon--I know I'm so excited for my first giveaway!

Busy errands and things

First I have to start by saying Happy Birthday to Amy over at One Artsy Mama. I am participating in her BIG Birthday Celebration by donating my needle felted Dala horse for her giveaway. She is giving away 17 ornaments to 17 lucky readers. Go over and check them out for a chance to win.There are really some beautiful ones. I'm having trouble picking my favorite.

Now that Hazel is finally feeling better, we spent the morning running errands. Most of the errands had to do with Hazel's birthday party. Hazel's birthday is New Year's Eve, so we always plan her party for the first since people are off. This year since it is on a weekend we are actually having her party on her birthday, but in the morning so we won't mess up anyone's New Year's Eve traditions.

Every year we have had a large themed party for Hazel. For her first birthday we did a cupcake theme because I feel in love with some plates that said "Our Little Cupcake Is Turning 1." I searched everywhere for cupcake things and this was the year before cupcakes were in. I found very little, but did find a template to make paper cupcakes for favors filled with pink and purple M&M's. Needless to say we had cupcakes instead of birthday cake. My mother knitted her an adorable cupcake hat from a pattern I found in a magazine.

For her second birthday our theme was Tea for Two. We had a tea party. I made finger sandwiches and lots of tea and sweets. I had people sign a paint your own small tea set when they came. And on top of her cake was another paint-your-own tea set--this one mini that my nephew and I painted. (He painted and I adjusted the colors a bit so there wasn't so much black.) Again there was not much out there for tea parties yet. Now I see them everywhere. I seem to be a year ahead of all the trends. I did however find at Michaels on Clearance garden tea cups with attached saucers for thirty-nine cents each and bought enough for the favors. I filled each one with two tea bags and a small tea cup note book. For the older kids I had paint your own tea cup, but unfortunately, all but one was sick and unable to come.

So for her third birthday, I think I already shared, my theme is nursery rhyme. Come on after making dish and spoon costumes for Halloween could I pick anything else. I found some great paper at the Christmas Tree Shop for twenty five cents for twenty five sheets. Then I thought about rhymes for the invitation. This is what I came up with:

Isn't the paper perfect? Now I'm working on decorations, food, and activities along with the theme. I bought some strawberry tarts from Yankee Candle on clearance for adult favors and plan to make scented (and possible glittered) homemade play dough for the kids.  I want to have different stations like pat-a-cake with some homemade play dough, a Jack be nimble jumping contest, Humpty Dumpty Puzzles, photo ops with a Hickory Dickory Dock clock and a tuffet and large spider for Little Miss Muffet (and make a white bonnet like she wears).

I'm also helping a bit with the planning of a friend's son's first birthday party. The theme is Winter One-derland. I'll share more on that another time.

Do you do theme parties?

Happy Halloween!

I will admit I really do not like Halloween. As a Christian it feels strange to celebrate it. Yet I see how fun it is for the children, so I celebrate it. I do love seeing the kids dressed up. Though I do have to admit since getting married and living in a neighborhood where the kids gets bussed in to trick-or-treat it has lost some of its appeal. (Literally we see people we have never seen before with cars following them through the neighborhood and go through at least 6-7 bags of candy before we turn off our light. Last year we gave out the candy Hazel had gotten because we ran out.) I find it even stranger that so many people put so much time and money into Halloween decorations. Hazel is still just beginning to get the idea of Halloween. She still does not like wearing her costume much, but at least this year we got her in it.

My Little Spoon

Craft at Party

Saturday we went to Hazel's school for their Halloween Party. It was a fundraiser for the eighth grade class trip. For a $5 entrance fee we got drinks and a snack and to play some games for prizes as well as do a craft and hear a story. Hazel refused to wear her costume when we got there. When we finally got it on her and got a picture of the two of us in our costumes and the party ended. However we had seen just about everything without the costume, and she had a great time.

Craft at Party

The craft was very easy and very cute. They had orange jack-o'-lanterns pre-cut out of paper so they would fold in half with a front and back. Using a glue stick they had the kids spread glue on the orange paper and then glue a piece of tissue paper (pre-cut in circles the a bit smaller than the pumpkin) on. They were given the choice of colors for tissue paper and could use two colors (one on each side). Hazel chose orange and yellow tissue paper.

Sunday we went to church. We skipped the Boo Breakfast due to the snow and a bad night of sleeping, but made it to church. Then we came home and had lunch and tried to get Hazel to nap, but she refused. Then we took her to some friends' houses and my mother-in-law's for trick-or-treating. She wore her costume somewhat to the first two houses, but refused to put it back on after that.
Then we came home and carved Hazel's first jack-o'-lantern. She helped me scoop out the seeds and goop. Then she used the scoop as a pretend knife and pretended to carve it. She looked so serious while she did this--I couldn't resist taking pictures.

Add caption

Today we have a busy day. Hazel is going to my mother-in-law's for their Monday playdate. Then I'm picking her up to take her to the special Halloween story time at the library (where costumes are expected since it ends with trick-or-treating at the various desks). Then after lunch and a nap I will take her to a few of our neighbors' houses. Since Steve got stuck working nights because of the storm again, I will than have to be home to give out the candy. Not sure how it will work to get her down with all of that going on, but we shall see.

The dish and the spoon!

What are your plans for Halloween? Hope you have a happy and safe one!! Remember to have your kids leave their candy for the Pumpkin Fairy!

Exciting day

Today I am honored to guest blog at SewHappyGeek. You may remember I was the winner of Jenna's blogiversary giveaway which was her Square It Up! pattern and fabric to make it. Well after I made it, I decided I wanted it bigger so it could go on our bed. Her pattern was so easy I had to make more. I made one for Hazel out of various nursery fabrics including her favorite nursery rhymes and story characters and I had leftovers from that so I made a baby quilt.  Here are a few pictures to check out and then you can head over and visit my guest blog.

Our Queen Size

Baby Quilt

Hazel's Quilt

As for our day, I messed up on a doctor's appointment which I thought I had this morning, but apparently I missed it on Monday. Oops!! So Hazel is with my mother-in-law, and I have to go get her to bring her back to the doctor since her cold has moved into her chest and her cough does not sound pretty. After that hopefully she will nap and then we can do some crafts to post tomorrow. I've also been working on my angels for the angel swap at we bloom here. I'm also thinking of what Hazel can do for hers. She is also participating. Want to join us?

And of course I'm working on our Halloween costumes! I have most of Hazel's body part done, now I need to figure out her head gear which will be the bowl of the spoon. I am working on the decorations on the front of the plate right now for mine, but mine is much easier. Don't worry I will share pictures. Have a great day!!

My Adventures in Needle Felting

One of Hazel's favorite books

So last spring I became fascinated with needle felting. I looked at the books and saw such interesting things you could make with them and really fell in love. I first found a little kit to make a fish. It seemed easy enough. I changed some of the colors so it would look more like the Rainbow Fish (from the book by Marcus Pfister which we highly recommend). I'm going to eventually make Hazel a magnet fishing game and make this fish as one of the catches. I also bought some silver sequins to make it more like the Rainbow Fish.I haven't added them yet or done the mouth.

My Rainbow Fish

Next I found Wool Pets by Laurie Sharp at the library. I tried a few animals from there without much luck. I showed my mother my attempts and we agreed I did not needle them enough.

Next I found this great book full of inspiration and know-how. I wanted to try to make everything. I attempted a bird, but again did not needle it enough. Then I put it all away for a few months.

The other day I pulled out my supplies. Actually I pulled out the roving to make the fairies and while it was out I decided to try some needle felting again. I started small. I made a flower (with a mold) to attach to the dish. I liked it and made some to go all the way around. Then I did a little heart for the spoon. I was very happy with the results.

The Dish

The Loving Spoon

After these successes, I decided to try a few from my book. I had fallen in love with the tea cup so I decided to be daring and try it. I liked the results though I did not have enough of the blue roving to make another cup and saucer.

Then I had seen on line at The Magic Onions a tutorial to needle felt a pumpkin. I did not have much orange roving, so I decided to hold off on trying this. However, I decided to try an apple on my own. I figured I had plenty of red and different shades of green to give it a try. I followed the directions in the book on how to make a sphere and expanded it into the apple shape. Then played with colors to get different shading and added a stem and leaves and even put a little dark brown on the bottom for the core/flower piece. I was very happy with it.

So I think I have overcome my fear of needle felting and am looking forward to trying more with it. First I need to get some more supplies. Enjoy your weekend!

My Apple Creation

And the dish ran away with the spoon (again!)

Ok, we are hooked on Hey Diddle Diddle here. Yesterday when we were out running errands Hazel turned to me (while we were holding hands) and said, "Let's run away. You are the dish and I'm the spoon." She repeated this a few times during the day. I decided it was time to make her The Runaways. I found the pattern at Happy Together. I changed a few things like adding arms and using 100% wool felt instead of fleece. Hazel loves them. I should also note that I did not follow the instructions carefully and wish I had on the spoon more so if you are going to do it, follow her instructions. Overall they were pretty easy to make and I know she will love them at least while she is on this kick. I'm thinking I may try to make a dish and spoon costume for Halloween. Hopefully this year she will be willing to put her costume on. Last year teething made it impossible to dress her up.

I updated these adorable guys with some needle-felting. You can check them out here.

How to ride out a hurricane...

Well Hurricane Irene came and went. We spent the day home trying to keep busy. The only time the tv was on was to check the weather and when Hazel was sleeping.

And the dish ran away with the spoon

One of our first activities was to make Hey, diddle diddle mobiles. We got the print out from Free Kid Crafts. You need to print out 2 for each mobile, but one needs to be the mirror image. I did this by saving it as an image and putting it into Word and flipping the picture with the rotate tool. Then we colored and cut out. We added in the arms and legs to the dish and spoon and gave them extra long strings to run away on.

The little dog laughed to see such sport

The cat and the fiddle...the Cow jumped over the moon

Next we danced. Hazel finally wore her Beatrix Potter twirly skirt (and wore it today to nonni's house).

Where the pattens came from

And during nap time I finished a new outfit for her. I made the pants Saturday night. And finished the top yesterday. Unfortunately we had a potty training accident before we went out today in it. These patterns came from Little Girls, Big Style by Mary Abreu. Very cute clothes to make for girls sizes 2-6. Definitely recommend this book if you like these styles.

Our final craft of the day was to make flower fairies. We got the instructions from Family Fun. Hazel loved doing this though she needed a lot of help. We made three each and she took them with her today to show Nonni. I'm thinking she can use them in her fairy garden to play. Plus it used up some of the extra supplies we had from the fairy garden.

Flower Fairies

Now the hard part of the hurricane (or any storm) is on me. I have to entertain Hazel and keep her quiet while her poor father sleeps since he worked overnight. The one draw back of working for the power company is when the storms hit he is called in. Oh, well. Today she is with Nonni (his mother) and tomorrow I'll make some playdates or something. The weather is beautiful now, so I'm off for a walk. Enjoy!

Hey, Diddle, Diddle...And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon

Hey, diddle diddle

The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such sport

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Hazel has fallen in love with Hey, Diddle, Diddle and many versions of the story in different books we have read. In particular she loves the dish and the spoon. In one of the stories (more about the cow than anything) she likes to point out where the dish and spoon are in every picture. So I got to thinking about how easy it would be to make a dish and spoon with her.

Mine

Supplies needed are a paper plate (I used a small one), a plastic spoon, three pipe cleaners, small googly eyes (optional) and larger ones (also optional), glue and/or tape, and crayons, markers, paints, stickers, etc. to decorate.

The Spoon:
Cut one pipe cleaner into two pieces: 4 inches and 8 inches roughly. Use the 4-inch piece to be the arms on the spoon by wrapping it around the spoon a few times. Then use the 8-inch one to be the legs. Wrap it around the bottom of the handle and bend it to look like legs and feet. Glue the small googly eyes on the top of the spoon (or draw eyes) and draw a mouth. Decorate as child wishes.

Hazel's creation

The Dish:
Glue one pipe cleaner across the back of the plate to be the arms. Bend the last pipe cleaner in half and twist the top to be legs and then glue to the bottom of the back of the plate. You may want to tape both of these to secure until the glue dries. On front glue on googly eyes (or draw them) and draw a mouth. Then decorate the plates. I used a cow sticker and drew on a moon for the cow jumping over the moon. Unfortunately I didn't plan so I didn't have dog and cat stickers.

Finally I attached the hands of the dish and spoon since they are running away together.

Books to use besides any Mother Goose book:

• And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens
  
• Moonstruck: The True Story of The Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon by Gennifer Choldenko
• Hey Diddle Diddle by Kin Eagle (I picked this one up at a used bookstore for only $1.29)
• The Adventures of The Dish and The Spoon by Mini Grey

Please note I provide the link to Amazon only so you can see the book and whether it is available new. In no way am I supporting that you buy it there. Also, I listed these in the order of my favorites among them.

Now, we are off to the library for Move and Groove. Enjoy your day and stay safe this weekend especially those of us on the East Coast.