Melissa's 30th Birthday

Ok, I have both kids asleep. I'm going to hurry and make a post before one, or both wake up.

My great friend Melissa turned 30 this November. Luckily, I'm younger than her, but still panicking a little because 3-0 is coming up for me next year. I'll deal with that later....

I wanted to make her a cake because I haven't made one in awhile and there was something I wanted to try. I know that her favorite color is blue and her favorite flavor is pumpkin. Ok, a blue cream cheese frosted pumpkin cake. Not the most popular flavor, but hey- it's her birthday!!

I liked how it looked. I had trouble frosting it and ended up with waaaay too much cream cheese on it. Next time, I'll make sure my cake has more time in the fridge first.

Isn't she cute??

Holiday Wrapping Paper

I am lucky enough to be home with Jake and Max 4 days a week. Because of my goofy schedule, I am actually home with them for 6 days in a row. It works out well because by the time the 6th day rolls around, I'm ready to send them to "school." : )

We need something to keep us busy during the day so someone (who will remain anonymous (JAKE!)) stays out of trouble. This week we made Christmas wrapping paper for our friends' gifts.

I saw the idea on some random website, but instead of using white paper (I have none) we used grocery bags. And instead of hanging the pictures on the fridge, we used it to wrap gifts. The idea was to use pine branches as paint brushes. So I ran out in my pajama pants and slippers and clipped two little branches off our poor little tree.

This was fun, cheap, and kept him entertained for oh, about 15 minutes. That meant enough wrapping paper for 3 gifts (only finished 2 for the picture). But that's perfect for what we need. I love that he's proud of the wrapped gifts under the tree. He points to them and tells everyone he MADE it!! That's my boy!

Peek A Boo Bags

This is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. I have seen a ton of tutorials for these bags and never really thought I wanted to make them. But while in Seattle, I bought one for Jake. They are actually really neat little bags! There is a list of items, and you sift the bag from side to side looking for the object. You can play little games like find three objects that start with A, or race to find things first. Since it is a quiet toy, it is great for car rides and church. Heck, I've even sat and played with it!

So of course I had to copy it. I made 5 bags total to give as gifts. The necessary components were pretty easy to come by. Sturdy fabric (I used corduroy- some use fleece so you don't have to worry about fraying), vinyl (a shower curtain liner), charms, white pellets, and matching thread.

The bags themselves were easy to cut and sew. I double stitched the edges so the contents won't end up in a little throat! The pellets were in the doll section of the craft store- I'm not really sure what they use them for. The charms were harder to find for a reasonable price. I ended up using little erasers from Nobbies. They came in a huge bag which worked out well for all of my little bags.

I stitched in strings to tie the instruction card to. For that, I took a picture of all of the objects in the back, shrunk it down, and printed instructions on the back. Office Depot did a fine job of laminating them for me. I'm pretty pleased with how the cards came out. I can't believe they only took me one try!!

I'm very happy with the bags and I think they will make great gifts. I guess we'll see...

Oh, and this is what happens when you leave a camera laying next to your project. A two year old finds it!