Boys and their blankies

I have made it a priority to make a blanket for all my boys before they are born (and hope to do so for anymore kids to come!) As soon as I find out the gender while pregnant, I can't wait to go buy my yarn (my favorite kind is this) and start crocheting! 

I have never been pushy on trying to make them super attached to it, but so far Will and Sam's blankies have gotten lots of love from them. 

About a year ago, just out of the blue, Will stopped wanting his blanky at bedtime. I must admit I was a little sad about it at first! Although, he doesn't need it to sleep anymore it is still right on his bedside. Every so often he will pull it into bed with him and wrap himself all up in it, and it sure does make my heart happy. 

When I made Will's blanky my personal sense of style was pretty non existent (there was no Pinterest yet!), and I went with the generic blue's and green for him with a simple double crochet pattern.

Sammy boy still loves his blanky. He has gone back and forth when it comes to what stuffed animal he wants to sleep with (or as of late hard plastic dinosaurs), but has always loved his blanket. I went with a more classic neutral style for his with navy blue and white with the same double crochet pattern.

Charlie boy! He sleeps with his blanket every night, but is still a bit to young to become attached to anything (with the exception of his mommy, that is). My crocheting skills had gotten more advanced since having Sam, so I wanted to do something completely different for his blanky. I decided on a granny square style pattern (I used this one!) with some more funky and modern colors. I love how it came out!

Little bit of Christmas coziness

I am so excited to have a nice full house to decorate for Christmas. I have been especially excited to decorate our mantle (I am pretty much in love with it)! I've had to let go of going all out this year, but we were able to get a few things up. I think it makes a house feel so much cozier. Dean and Will went out with my family to a little Christmas tree farm down the road from their house, and got us a nice big tree!  Dean strung the lights for me, I was able to help a little with the garland and ribbon and Will was awesome at hanging the ornaments. I thought for sure he would get bored after the first few, but he loved it! Here is a look at our little bit of Christmas coziness.

Leaves, pumpkins and a wooden duck tray

It has been awhile since I have gotten crafty, so I was happy to say yes when asked if I could do the decorations for my church's Women's Ministry, Oasis', Fall kick off meeting last week. It's fun to get my creative juices flowin' every once in a while, and Fall decorations are the prettiest and easiest I think! Take some Fall colored leaves, some candles and throw in some pumpkins and funky gourds and you're done! I went for simple. Life has been pretty busy lately, and only getting busier, so I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Here is what I came up with!

Our theme for this year...

The mini pumpkins had votive candles in them. They turned out so cute, and were pretty once the sun went down.

I'm kind of obsessed with making these paper garlands.

I LOVE how that chalkboard tray came out. If I had thought ahead I would have taken a before picture. It was a light wood tray with a duck painted on it that I got at a garage sale this summer for 50 cents. If you look close you can still see the outline of the duck, but whatevs.

My mom let me borrow some of her mum plants, aaaaand I left them in my garage. They would have been the perfect pop of color here by the fire.

Pretty sister.

Valentine Craftyness

So far in my married life I haven't gotten to crazy when it comes to decorating for holidays. I usually get a few gourds and pumpkins to have around the house for Fall. Christmas we get the tree, put up some lights around the house and hang a wreath on the door. No pilgrims. No Easter eggs. And usually no hearts.

It's not that I don't like decorating for holidays. I actually enjoy it a lot! I think my lack of it is partly because we have a small house, and don't have many places to put decorations or I just don't think about until it's too late. Then of course I didn't always have Pinterest to inspire me!

Valentines Day is one of those holidays that has so many cute decorating options, and I always wish I was able to decorate for. But it always creeps right up on me, and is over before I get the chance!

I was quickly browsing "Valentines Day" on Pinterest the other day to get an idea for Valentines Day cards for Will's preschool class, and came across this cute DIY Valentine's banner. I realized I had everything I needed to make it, so I figured, "Hey! Why not!" I worked on it bit by bit throughout the day, but really if I had been able to just sit and do it with no distractions it wouldn't have taken any longer then 20 minutes to make.

So here is my one and only contribution to Valentines Day this year!

As you can see it is NOT perfect. Burlap is a pain to cut evenly. But that's how homemade things should be; a perfectly imperfect one of a kind!

After looking at this picture I really noticed how colorless my little tan corner is. Maybe I will add some light pink hearts to my branches. Kind of like this:

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Here are some other ideas I would love to try someday; Maybe next year!

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Gifts for Will

This was the first Christmas (*Eye roll* Yes, I am still talking about Christmas. This is the last time, I promise) that Will really understood about the whole present thing. We always go over to my family's house Christmas morning, but I thought it would be fun to have some time with just us four opening gifts around our Christmas tree before heading over.

I didn't want to get carried away with piles of gifts. I knew Will would be plenty spoiled by his Grandma and Aunties (which he was), so I just got him a couple things.

First, I made a wooden block memory game. I absolutely love how they turned out!

I used some Jenga blocks I already had, and modged podged scrapbook paper onto it. Super cute right?

Will loves playing with balls, and has quite the arm on him. Even though he already has a plethora of balls around the house, most of them aren't very inside friendly. Like, actual adult sized soccer and baseballs. So, I wanted to make him a safe, softer ball. You know, one that wouldn't knock Sam out when it inevitably hit him. So, I crocheted him one. I know, I know. I am such a cool mom.

It turned out pretty well. I made it bigger than the pattern had it, and I messed up just a little. But thankfully it isn't very noticeable.

Will was very happy with his gifts! He immediately wanted to play catch with daddy after opening his football. We play his memory game almost every day, and Will is just awesome at it. I know I'm partial, but this kid is pretty smart. They also double as building blocks, and teething toys for Sam!