Some favorite cheap decor!

Of course I love my Halloween blocks. The vinyl cost me 5.00 and the wood/paint about 2.00!
If you want to make some, I'll hook you up with Kathy for the vinyl.


I saw this at Potterybarn 4 years ago and I put one together every year. I used to find the sticks outside, but now I use the same ones each year. NOTE: put the sticks in the vase first, cause you cant shove them down in the candy corn.

I usually have a bowl of pears, but during Oct and Nov I change them out for pumpkins. Sometimes I do them the Martha Stewart way with modge podge and glitter, but most years they are just pumpkins.

OK, I love fall candy...It is kind of hard to do this with kids nowadays, but I still keep a couple jars around. I stuffed the middle of these jars with newspaper or paper towells so I didnt have to use so many bags!

The Birthday Book

So, this has been my latest little idea/craft. I saw a really cute birthday calendar book at anthro and almost got it. I didnt because I figured it was missing one thing: a place to keep the cards!

So, I went and made my own (took all of 30 minutes!) I showed it to a friend and she said it would make a great gift, so keep that in mind.
You will need:
*13 pieces of double sided 12x12 scrapbook paper that coordinate, you could also use 8.5x12, you'll just need 2 of each
*13 pieces of vellum
*that red super sticky tape from any craft store (it is thicker than normal tape and not as wide)
binding...I did mine at office depot for $5.00

Cut all the paper to 8.5x11. Then cut the scraps to 8.5x3.5. Put them in the order you want them and tape the scrap of the next paper to the back of the paper before (I know that doesnt make sense, but look at the pic) ONLY tape the outside edge and the bottom because the binding will keep the inside together. Make up a word document with lined 1-31 with the month at the top. Change it for each month until you have all months printed on the vellum. Print an additional vellum sheet that says "birthday book" or what ever you want for the front...get it bound, and WA LA!

Ok, so my plan is to fill this out with birthdays, make a word label document with all the people I would like to send cards to, and at the beginning of each year (or in Dec) buy 20 cards or so, stick the label on and file them. Then, at the first of the month, fill out the cards and send them all. It could work right?

more wipe cases

I can't say I'm getting better with practice, but I think I'm burning myself less!

Just when you thought shoes couldnt get cuter...

Ok...I AM IN LOVE! I love love love these new designer baby shoes! Foxpaws are the new designer shoes hitting the best stores...and guess what, another great Utah based company! I am so excited I can hardly stand it (partly because I know and love Tanna and Cara, 2 of the 3 Fox girls of foxpaws) but mostly because they really are adorable!
They are all leather, rubber soles, hand painted...
And super stylish!!!
They have 2 great boy shoes, but with all the cute girl styles Im really excited to be having another girl! Yeah! You can get them at babinski right now or find out how to order online. I have an inside scoop about a new spring style...and lets just say they wont disappoint!!!

Fall Hot Chocolate Shower

You may be starting to think about your fall get-togethers or showers, so here are a couple of my favorite ideas from last year!Think simple! This was a shower for a friend that was around 8:00 in the evening.


The hot chocolate bar is always the main attraction for me. We had the hot chocolate maker going in the kitchen and brought out fresh glasses of hot chocolate. (You know Ive also done it with a coffee urn serving hot water, and had guests mix their own hot choc. from a variety of flavors.) You need mini marshmallows, coconut covered marshmallows, whipcream, and flavored chocolate covered spoons (so easy to make). Melt milk chocolate chips and dip plastic spoons in it...then dip the spoon (or just the tip of the spoon) in peppermint candy, cinnamon, or coffee. Yum!

I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes with fresh whip cream and bought different flavor doughnut holes for the refreshments.

Of course caramel apples were perfect for fall. These ones werent my best, I cant remember what I did wrong. But, they were cute anyway!

Easy Magnets 001

I am telling you, I may be the last person in the world to find out about things. Remember when magnets and magnet boards got big a couple years ago? Well, since then I have been wondering where to get magnets! Finally the other day I told Mir that I needed some, and she said "are you kidding...they are so easy to make." So, a trip to Michaels and 15 minutes later, I have a little collection of them!

1. small clear stones (mine are about an inch, you can get bigger)
2. scrapbook paper
3. clear glue (I am finding many uses for Modge Podge)
4. magnets
5. hot glue
need I say more?

I didnt use super strong magnets...I think next time Ill use the silver ones that are super magnetic!

working with Modge Podge

How many times have I looked at the Modge Podge bottle at a craft store check out line and wondered what it was? Many! So, I figured it out and boy am I glad I did! It is transparent glue that dries clear (for those wonderers like me) and it has about 2 trillion uses! My sister decoupaged a desk with old tattered pages of an english novel...it looked so cool.
My first experience with it was for these little babies. Rob and I bought some funny old prints in paris this year, for about one euro each. I loved the pictures...but knew they would lose something behind glass in a cheap frame. SO, I bought 3 8X12 canvases, trimmed the pics down and decoupaged them to the canvas. SO easy...and yet my guest bathroom loves the result! I was so happy to find a way of displaying the pictures without taking away from their content.
Hooray for Modge Podge!

My first wipe case!

I guess Im sort of a "plain jane" sort of girl. There are SO many baby crafts out there...and most of which, I dont feel like I need. When I first saw this I knew it was something worth having! I have a wipe case in my diaper bag, church bag, car, and purse. I usually just throw in a couple diapers when I go somewhere. Anyway, my friend Kristin sells them and hers are beautiful. (you can find them here)
I convinced her to teach me...so here is my first one!

As you can see by the wavy lines, I havent perfected mine yet!

Ribbon embroidery

One of my Favorite sweaters that I bought at Harolds 7-8 years ago (yes, I still have clothing that old in my closet) has ribbon embroidery all over the front. In different colors and widths, the satin ribbon creates a beautiful arrangement of flowers. Anyway, last year I saw a whole article about ribbon embroidery in martha stewart, where they show how to do flowers, leaves, carrots, raspberries, etc. I cant find my article right now, but I got a little anxious to try some...so, here is my first go.

I dont exactly know how you would mark the sweater for a whole array of flowers. I just eyeballed these couple. I think you can actually find patterns for this old victorian artform online...but I havent looked into it yet. I think it would be so pretty on little girls' cardigans.

I just used a needle with the biggest hole possible (you are probably actually supposed to use an embroidery needle. Then you just make your design and tie the backs. That's easy...right?

the bow sweater...

Em and I saw this at Anthro this week and thought it was pretty cute. So, since we are super crafty we decided to make our little rendition! Im sad I dont have a picture of it on Emmy cause it is SO CUTE! Mine doesnt fit perfect because of my increased waistline, but Ill be sportin this baby in January!

So first we bought SUPER cheap cardigans at the mall. Then went to michaels and bought a little set of matching ribbons, plus some extra thin white ribbon.

tied TONS of little bows (not as many as the original design, but enough for our version), I hot glued them on first so they would stay (just a dab in the middle) then hand stitched the bows on.

and wa la! It was a fun little project for our last night together before she had to go home.