Joe the Elf, 2011

Last year, Joe the Elf came to visit our house for the 2nd year. Our oldest son LOVES Joe and is already asking if he will be coming back to visit our house at Christmas. Last year, I undertook the task of documenting Joe's appearances around the house. All the pictures were done with the phone...you get the jest of what we were going for though. Enjoy!

A good elf always cleans up his mess! 

Joe brought a special message from Santa with him.

Each Christmas Eve, Santa visits our house and takes Joe back to the North Pole with him.

Safe with Santa till next year...

Halloween Craftiness

The month of October was crazy around here. My son wanted to do "Halloween Stuff" all month long. He decided he is the "Biggest Fan of Halloween." I'm not sure what the fascination with the holiday is, but I indulged him when I could.

Roundup of some of the stuff we did.

Painting a picture frame.

Mine is on the left. His is on the right. He designed it all by himself.

"Vampire Teeth"

When I dragged out all the fall decorations, I had some bats left over from Trunk or Treat last year.
I surprised my little guy with decorating his room with them.
It's really the small things that make him so happy!

More paint.

Halloween masks and "spooky birdhouses." Thank goodness for the $1 isle!

Jack-O-Lantern quesadilla for lunch.

Frankenstein rice krispie treat for the preschool Halloween party.

Of course, we had to decorate a pumpkin. The choice was obvious....a storm trooper from Star Wars (my four year old was a Jedi Knight and the 18 month old was Yoda). My life revolves around Star Wars right now.

Package Pals (What I Sent and Got)

In October, I participated in my first "crafty swap" with Jamie over at C.R.A.F.T. It was so much fun. I got paired up with a package pal and we sent each other some cool stuff after we got to know each other a little bit. Here's my recap of what I sent and what I got from my new pal Laura.

What I sent...

Laura likes to make jewelry, friendship bracelets with her daughter, the colors green and blue and sunflowers. This fall, I was at a pumpkin patch with my kiddos and took a picture of the sunflowers. That was the inspiration for the artwork. I found a cute quote about sunflowers and added that to the piece. I found some sunflower recipe cards, beads, thread and a stamp for her continued craftiness.

What I got...

I got some fabulous stuff from my new pal! I opened my package and just kept 

opening little things. It was great!

Halloween stuff that I can decorate with my kids.

A fabulous reversible bag for the Fall season. It is perfect for me!

A friendship bracelet (with my favorite colors).

I love to bake so she sent me some cupcake liners and colored sugar.

Maybe the best part....chocolate! :-)

I'm looking forward to the next swap in February already! Thanks for checking in!

Fall Art

I love the Fall and decorating for the season. A couple years ago, I went to one of those paint along places where they teach you step by step how to paint a "work of art." I happened to go and paint a "Halloween" or "Fall Pumpkin" picture. Of course, after that, I had to have more art to hang on the wall with my lone pumpkin. I've added to the collection last year and again this year. I really wanted to involve my family and document "us" somehow. Here is what we have done so far....

My first "Fall Pumpkin" piece of art that started everything.

 

Last year, we did this ghost print with our footprints. It is simply amazing that I got my
wonderful husband to cooperate. Arts and crafts aren't typically his "thing."

This year's creation was a pumpkin patch of sorts. I used the palm print of each of our
hands for the pumpkins. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I labeled all of our pumpkins so we would remember who is who in years to come! 

FAMILY Wall Display

I saw this idea on Pinterest way back. I have a blank wall that needed something on it and I thought this would be a great addition. I didn't have any two by fours laying around or any vinyl, so I went outside the box a little bit. I found some great wooden square tiles at Michaels and had a wood burning tool from a project a little while back. I thought I'd try my hand at wood burning our family names.

I did this particular project a few months back. It has been hanging on the wall for months. It has needed something else on the wall with it or for me to do something with the tiles. I finally figured it out (for now anyway).

I had to figure out how to arrange all our names on the wall so everything looked aesthetically pleasing. Lots of trial and error. I made a template from Excel with lots of boxes and then just started plugging in our names.

I used my Cricut machine to make a template for the letters. 

This was my first attempt. I had these tiles that I liked a lot. I had picked them up at a craft store a long time ago. When it was time to do the project, I went to the store to find more like the three I already had and no luck. I had to find something else that would work.

These are the wood tiles that I found. They were perfect for wood burning.

I used my template and traced the letters on each wood tile.

Got the wood burning tool hot and ready to go.

Finished tile. Repeat A LOT!

I'm not one for lots of holes in the wall so this is the method I went with for all my tiles. They have been hanging in the heavily travelled hallway (with a 4 year old and 17 month old being the primary travelers) for months now. I haven't had any of the tiles fall or pulled off the wall yet. I count that as a success.

Here's the finished product. On the off white wall, I felt that there needed to be some added color. I contemplated staining the tiles, adding photos or art work. In the end, I just let the tiles "live" in the hallway for a while till I figured something out.

The other day, I decided that I would add some artwork to the wall to see how it looked. I'm pleased with the added color and the fact that the art represents our family as well. I'll just do something else once Halloween is over.

The black and white piece are actually our foot prints made into ghosts that we did last year. The other piece is our "family pumpkin patch" made with all our palm prints that we did this year.