So I haven't actually ridden off into the sunset...

I've been a wee bit scarce around here of late, and it will be just a wee bit longer before I can get back to regular posting, but I have a good reason. First of all, the holidays were CRAZY, but in a good way. But it's had me busy mostly every day, between photo shoots, finishing up Christmas gifts, and attending multiple family and work (Nick's) events. And then there was the tea. Sawyer somehow managed to knock a cup of tea halfway across the couch onto my poor laptop, which I was actually using at the time. Fortunately it's still under an extended warranty protection plan, so it's being sent off to be repaired, which I'll certainly be glad to get done, but in the meantime I'm without means to post photos, a circumstance that isn't quite conducive to being a successful craft blogger. SO...hang in there for me. When I get back I'll be posting all about the Christmas gifts I made, as well as a few other crafts I've got lined up. Happy New Year!

Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange

Twice a year Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous hosts a Handmade Gift Exchange. This is so much fun! If you've never participated in one of these, I highly recommend giving it a whirl. I wanted to show you what I made for my partner Lauren, and what she made for me.

Here's what I sent Lauren:

First I made her some of the Christmas gift tags we did for the Ladies Craft Meeting at church a few months ago.

I also made her up a set of one of a kind cards like these.

I made her up a set of cute pillow boxes. Tutorial here.

And I sent a few pieces of handmade jewelry.

A pair of coiled bracelets. Tutorial here.

A pair of silver wire wrapped earrings. "Tutorial" here.

 

I had a lot of fun making the earring card for these.

These dropped bead earrings, tutorial to come.

And I sent her a 12 x 12 pillow cover featuring the title of my favorite Christmas song.

I really hope she loved everything!

And she sent me this AH-MAY-ZING Christmas wreath!

Isn't it gorgeous?

I just love these colors! In fact, I have a Red and Aqua Board on Pinterest, and this beauty is going straight there as soon as this post goes live!

Thank you, Lauren - I love it!

And thank you, Linda, for hosting this awesome exchange again!

Thanksgiving Outfits

Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful! Phenomenal food, a truly wonderful time with the whole family together, and babies, babies, babies! This year the 5 and under set included Lily - 5, Sawyer - 2, Levi - 2, Lawrence - 1, and Adelaide - 6 1/2 months.

A few weeks ago my sis-in-law and fellow Pinterest addict Rachael and I were oohing and aahing over some cute little dresses online, and we decided that we should make matching Christmas dresses for Lily and Adelaide. Then we decided that we might as well go ahead and come up with something cute for them to wear for Thanksgiving. And if we were going to make the girls matching dresses, we couldn't leave their brothers out. So we decided to make Sawyer and Levi matching turkey shirts. And of course if we were going to make them for Sawyer and Levi, their cousin Lawrence was going to need one too. And if Sawyer, Levi, and Lawrence were going to be little gobblers, then we certainly had to make one for Jackson, their honorary cousin. You can see how my crafting gets out of control.

So anyway, Rachael, my sis-in-law Leah (Lawrence's mom) and I got together for a day of sewing, and we made dresses for the girls and shirts for the boys.

I made Sawyer a turkey onesie like this for his first Thanksgiving when he was not quite 11 months old. I've mentioned that he was a preemie, and while he's all caught up now, for a long time he was very small for his age. I just have to show you what a ridiculously cute, tiny little turkey he was in 2012. This was a 3 month onesie.

Gah! Why isn't he so tiny anymore?

Anyway, we decided to make peasant dresses for the girl with their initial appliqued on them. We followed this tutorial, and let me tell you: Mind. Blown. This was SO easy! I'm going to make tons of these! In fact, it's what we'll make for them to wear for Christmas too, and I already have the perfect corduroy pulled out to make one as a Christmas gift for Lily. And I plan on making a matching one for her doll. I also made one for my friend Amy's little girl's birthday, and I barely got it out the door without Lily claiming it, despite it being 3 sizes too small for her lol.

Please excuse the picture. I ran out of time to shoot it at home, so I snapped a quick pic of it laid out on the Jake and the Neverland Pirates coloring table at the party. :)

Here are Lily and Addie in their matching dresses and headbands.

It's hard to see the monograms here, but Lily's has an L and Addie's has an A in brown corduroy just above the hem on the right side.

And the turkeys...

Want to see the back? Here you go...

Which of course quickly turned into this:

Not to worry, soon they were best buddies again. :)

The shirts were just purchased black t-shirts with turkey faces and feathers hand cut from eco-felt and just sewn on with a straight stitch. We even freehanded the pieces. Easy peasy!