Finally made the girls' blankets

The girls picked out some polar fleece material MONTHS ago for me to make them some blankets. I finally dragged the sewing machine up from the basement so I could make them. You know ~ a nice warm, polar fleece blanket just in time for it to warm up outside! Go me! Oh well. Better late than never. The girls LOVE them. They are so dang soft. I personally want one. Jacob wants a camo one (surprise! surprise!) and thankfully JoAnn's has the polar fleece in camo. Oh and a sale to boot! YAY! He'll be getting one soon.

Jenna's blanket



Jasmine's blanket

Picture Frame Craft Time

I was in Michael's craft store ~ one of my favorite stores....if only I coul get everything I wanted. Oh the baskets alone! Oh wait, back to the story. I was in Michael's getting some things to make a gift for our friends. I was in the wood section where you can get plaques, shapes, letters and whatnot. They have these awesome frames for $1 each! One dollar! Paints were on sale too. Yay! Each kiddo got a frame, two colors and a neat little package of about 8 paint brushes each ($.99 for each of those!).

Here's the pictures.



The finished products!

Not sure what I was thinking with Jacob's colors ~ hard to see his name but he's happy with it!



Jenna



Jasmine ~ Obviously also known as Princess ~ the 58 is her and Daddy's special number. It was Daddy's football number in high school. Jasmine just happened to be born on May 8th, 5/8. Talk about a daddy's girl from day one!

Makit & Bakit

Remember these? The suncatchers that you make yourself? Well Jasmine saw them in the store a few weeks ago and got one. I got one for Jacob and Jenna to attempt to make. Jasmine hasn't done hers yet but Jacob and Jenna did today since the rain is keeping us inside.

Here are the pictures at the process. I think there are little beads everywhere! Oh well.





And the results!

Saturn



Dolphins

Landon's Quilt

A wonderful family friend, actually my mom's Goddaughter, and her hubby are due March 2nd! We are so excited for Jason and Crystal! They found out what the baby is (thankfully! It sure makes gift making so much easier!!).

Being a boy, they are doing a sports themed room. This is the first thing I made for Baby Landon. The front side is sports themed quarter flats and with fleece. The backside is alpine fleece and totally soft! I still have a few more goodies to make him.

A Blanket for Jazzi's Teacher

Jasmine wanted to make a special gift for her teacher. She came up with the idea of doing a blanket. After emailing her teacher's husband, who just happens to be a teacher at the school as well, we found out what colors to work with. Jasmine picked out the fabrics and sewed the smaller squares together. After that, I did the rest. It was just too big for Jasmine to handle yet and her machine couldn't handle the thicker fabrics.



Embroidered with their name ~ The Howingtons



The back embroidered with a special message

Alexandra's Blanket

I just simply love this quilt kit at JoAnn's. The colors are just beautiful and it makes for a great quilt for any little girl. My wonderful neighbors, Justin and Nicki, have a sweet little girl, Alexandra. I whipped this one up for her.

Hope's Lovey

With my awesome machine, I'm able to do embroidery. I whipped this up in a few minutes just so I could test out the embroidery part of my machine. Joanna said Hope loves it. Yeah!

Curtains for the Boys' Room

I finally did the curtains for the boys' room. Only took me an hour so I don't know why I didn't get them done sooner.

My new toy

Since Daddy got a new toy, it was definitely Mommy's turn. Jamie knew I wanted a new sewing machine and took it upon himself with Becky's help to get me one. He got one much better than what I had been looking at. I haven't be able to use it much because I have a pinched nerve in my back and using the computer and other creative things like sewing, put a hurting on my back. It's a super nice machine though and I can't wait to really get into making some fun things.

This is my new baby....

Cool Crayons

I stumbled upon (literally...check out www.StumbleUpon.com) and found this really cool site to make these crayons. Check out Crayon Nibbles!

Here's a pic of creation. The kids love using them and we look forward to making more for the kids and gifts.

Curtains for the Girls' Room

Jasmine picked out some really pretty paint colors for the walls and I found some really great fabric to match. Hopefully I will paint it soon but at least they have curtains! Even better was that I got these in the clearance section at JoAnns! I love when that happens.

NexStitch ROCKS!

I've been trying for months now to teach myself to crochet. I googled sites. I got every book from the library. I could get the first chain on there and then I was completely and totally lost. A friend suggested a site to me. Upon checking out the site, I found another site that had actual video tutorials. OK, great. I've found these before. A stitch or two and that's all they show you. Nope, not this one. This one shows you about 10 stitches. She walks you through it. Again, I had been trying for months and couldn't get it. I watched the first video once. I grabbed my crochet hook and yarn and sat and watched it again. I did it! I finally had it. So I watched another video and got it again! I totally love this site! NexStitch ~ check it out if you have been wanting to crochet but just couldn't get it! It's like having your grandmother sitting next to you teaching you.