Is it possible?

Is is possible to have the same child two times in a row?! Matt found this earlier picture of Sydney when she was a week old. The only difference I see is that Aubrey has more hair. Craziness!

Aubrey

Bellingrath Gardens

Last night, we took a trip over to see the Bellingrath Gardens Christmas Lights display. It was beautiful! The whole gardens were covered in lights and the weather was perfect to walk around to enjoy it. Here's just a few pictures. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to take good pictures of Christmas lights in the dark.

Merry Christmas!

Picture with Santa

Sorry for the fuzzy scanned picture but here is Syd's picture with Santa.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 12

These are little fabric candy canes sewn together to make a heart. I thought it would be a good photo prop and a way to use up some fabric scraps. I really have no other ideas of what to do with it after that! haha. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the 12 days!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 11

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 10

Today's craft is sewn stockings. The 3 in the middle my step-mom patiently made. We've always had the Bucilla Stockings. It started with my grandma making the first ones. This year my parents are coming in for Christmas so I wanted some coordinating stockings. I traced the original stockings for the size and embellished them with more felt, sequins, and beads. I made the white with red flowers and the green diamond pattern (all the way in the back). And can you believe we only have 2 days left?! Crazy.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 9

Okay. So this isn't the most Christmasy post. I was hoping to make this little bird into an ornament or something but I can't pry it away from Sydney! This little bird is from Cupcakes for Clara. She makes the most adorable little creatures. I was thrilled when she had her bear pattern in Making Stuff for Kids. I used the bear pattern and transformed some of the pattern to make a cardinal. I was thinking I could make a reindeer too. I just think they are too cute!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 8

What's 12 days without cupcakes!? : ) I wanted to find some peppermint cupcakes and stumbled upon a Sprinkles recipe for Vanilla Peppermint Cupcakes. Even better! Just like every other Sprinkles recipe or mix, it's very good and highly recommended.

In other news, I'm only do one felt food giveaway this year and today it the day. You could win a dinner set and a poptart. Go here to enter a chance to win.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 7

I've seen a lot of silhouette pictures and ornaments lately so I figured I could try it with some birds on pillows. The birds are cut from felt and sewn onto red corduroy. The pillows behind them have ruffles on them. You know, the ruffles you can't see very well in the picture. : ) It's a green polka dot batik fabric. My favorite pillow is the bird on the right - again, Christmas in July anyone?!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6

For this craft, I was just playing around with different ways to wrap presents.

The top present, I stamped Sydney's name with paint onto fabric binding. I really like it because you can totally customize it with names or phrases.

On the bottom left, I took cheap ol' crepe paper and sewed it into a ruffle. I like it, well, because it ruffles - and cheap.

The bottom right present is just as easy. I took paper, punched the edges with one of Martha's new punches, and wrapped it around. This paper lace ribbon is very popular now. So my motto goes "I'm not paying that! I can make it myself." : )

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 5

Ooh, today is my favorite craft out of all the days. I've wanted to make one of these for a couple years now. So last year, I bought a bunch of ball ornaments on sale after Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't buy enough so I had to raid the ornaments I already owned. Not a big deal though. It's just so sparkly and shiny, it's mesmerizing. I have it hanging on a mirror over our couch and I'm debating how long I can leave it there in 2010 before it becomes a little weird. Is it okay to have Christmas decorations out in July? : )

Here's some pictures of the process - just in case you want to make your own. It's super easy, just make sure you have enough ornaments. I'm pretty sure I used more than 100 ornaments. Way more than I expected. I just attached everything with hot glue. There is no right or wrong way either.

Step 1: Take all the "hanger" pieces off the ornaments. Then, I glued the biggest ornaments on first in an even pattern around the Styrofoam wreath.
Step 2: Glue the next size down ornaments on.
Step 3: It's starting to fill in now. I just continued gluing on the smaller ones.
Step 4: This is the finishing stage where you fill in all the extra space with the smallest ornaments you have. Not all the balls are connected to the wreath either. You just glue them all on to one another. You just fill in anywhere you can still see the wreath.

It took me one evening to do this. Easy - I promise. Just don't burn your fingers on the hot glue!

*Update* Thanks everyone for your kind words. A few added notes. I hung it by a ribbon that I "threaded" through the wreath and the ornament balls. I used a 12" inside diameter foam wreath.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 4

The "see-through" scrapbook paper (aka lace cardstock) is all the rage so I figured why can't you do that with fabric. My idea: a table runner! I was hoping you would be able to see the table underneath the snowflakes. So I took a big area of fleece fabric and cut out the snowflakes. It's all one piece of fabric. It took a lot of patience, planning, and time to cut everything out. It was pretty flimsy after I cut out the snowflakes so I decided I needed to sew it onto some fabric for stability. So there went the "see-through" idea! haha. Oh well, I still am really happy with how it turned out.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 3

Great kids craft from Martha Stewart's staff. Unfortunately, it's an old idea so I can't find the link anywhere so you guys can get the template. Sorry about that. It's just felt, glue, and candy canes. Sydney loved making them.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts - Day 2

Some sweet treats for today! Is making homemade marshmallows and hot chocolate crafts? They are in my book.

The hot cholocate recipe is delicious and I will probably never have to buy the store bought packets again. The marshmallows are a lot of fun to make but super sticky when you make them. You get to cut them in lots of fun shapes too.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts

So I wasn't sure I was going to do my 12 days of crafts this year but I just couldn't help it. Who knows maybe one of my "look what I made" days will be a baby! Wouldn't that be fun?

Anyway, the first craft is my felt food Yule Log or Buche de Noel. Jen, my sister-in-law, gave me the idea. Not that I've ever made a real one. I think sewing one is probably a lot easier. Either way, they have been a big hit in the Etsy shop.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We kept it very low key this year which was really nice. We ate the exact same dishes as last year and watched the Aggies play a good game against tu. They didn't win but I give them an "A" for effort! I have absolutely no pictures from Thanksgiving so I will leave you with my newest felt food: an avocado. : )

"Staycation"

We've been a "staycation" since Matt has been back. Everyday, we've been going places and doing things all over town. The weather has been beautiful so there have been many morning walks and afternoon bike rides too. Here's just a couple pictures of us at our mini-Seaworld.

Isn't this funny? She is patiently awaiting the dolphin show.

I have been trying to perfect a from-scratch cinnamon bun recipe. The first time I made them, they were good. The second time, really bad! Thankfully, the 3rd time is a charm. These came out perfect! Now that I have the dough down, I'm going to experiment with all sorts of yummy fillings. Unfortunately, they aren't a low-cal food so the practice times are far and few between. I think I'll make them again for Christmas morning.

With the cream cheese frosting melted on top.

Now, onto the fake food. I made this custom order for a Grasshopper Pie. I am just tickled with how it turned out. So tickled, I had to blog about it! : )

He's Home!

Some of you know, some of you didn't know that Matt had been deployed to Iraq for 4+ months. Well, he finally came home just a few days ago! Yay! Syd and I did good while he was gone. Thanks to my parents who let us crash with them for 3 weeks. Thanks to family and friends who came to visit us. Thanks to my friends who would call and email to check up on me. And thanks to my friends who graciously watched Sydney so I could go to my doctor appts.

Since Matt's been back, we've been doing all sorts of things. Matt took Sydney to the beach the other day and I was alone in my house for a few hours! It was fantastic! What did I do? I crafted the whole time - uninterupted. : ) Matt has about a week and a half off now so we'll be doing all sorts of fun things. Today we went to our county fair. Matt totally spoiled Sydney with rides, games, and sugar. First up: the ferris wheel.

Cotton candy.

And for those of you who have been to Ohio, they had Ritters at our Florida fair! I couldn't believe it. I'm pregnant people, of course we had some. : )

The prizes from the games. I have no idea what drew her to the giant crayon.

Roller coaster. The same one from the Texas State Fair too.

Sydney just loves to ride on fair rides. Here's a version of the tea cups.

Have a good weekend.

Few More Halloween Pictures

On Saturday, we went with some of our friends to a couple festivals. It seems like every church was having a festival with Halloween being on Saturday. Fine by us. Lots of free things to do. Here is Sydney with a face painted heart on her cheek.

And here she is in action at a Trunk-or-Treat.

On Saturday night, we went around the neighborhood with our friends. Sydney knew exactly what to do. She really had a great time. On Sunday, she was asking when she could go again! haha. Thankfully, it's only once a year.

And one more closer-up picture of her costume so you can get full effect of the cupcake liner and ruffles.