Mummy Pillow

We are all set with our costumes-it's only been two years in the planning. My little guy is so excited, we went with a family theme of star wars this year.  I loved getting out my Halloween decorations this year. I've taken pictures of our kids in costumes and put them in festive frames-one for each year our kids have dressed up. Now that my oldest is 8 we have quite a few fun frames around the house for Halloween.  This year I was looking through the PB catalog and came across a cute mummy pillow.  I wasn't about to fork out $39 for it-so I grabbed an old white sheet and made my own.

The eyes are black and white felt. Then I pinned the strips of fabric to the 20x20 square of white fabric. I also stitched the strips to the square-just on one horizontal edge so the strips would not droop. When I walk in my front door these eyes are there to great me. 

Happy Halloween!

Pectin Free Crab Apple Jelly

The two oldest are back in school-full day. Can I just tell you that half day kindergarten kind of rocks your world? We survived and had a great summer. My little baby finally has some chubs-apparently failure to thrive is a real thing and it is scary. Nursing Pumping and feeding take up most of my time now-she's almost ready for solids-yippy!

My hubby's aunt called us a few weeks ago to see if we wanted to come pick some crab apples. She said she had a recipe for some easy crab apple jelly. I've never heard of it, but was intrigued.

 It is a time consuming and amazing process. The children were also able to step right in and help.

The smells in my kitchen were divine too.

This recipe also uses less sugar than your typical jam.

Just in case anyone has some crab apples they need to use, here is the recipe:

Enjoy!

Early Arrival

My sweet pea arrived a few weeks early. I was kind of expecting her to arrive early. I had another c-section, and things went much better this time around. 

Our family is complete now, and we are enjoying this new little addition very much.

Night Owl Invite

My oldest is turning 8 this year! We are marveling at how she is starting to become a young woman-yet still be so silly.

In our family we only do a huge "friends" birthday party every 4 years. Her birthday isn't until the end of March-but... 12 of the 20 kids in her school class have birthdays in March, I'm probably going to have this baby in the next 3-4 weeks, and her birthday will be in the middle of spring break.  All good reasons to bump up the party a few weeks.

We also don't do sleepovers in our family. I saw an idea to have a night owl party-where the guests get all the fun of a sleepover, but go home to sleep at their house.

Here's the invite I made. I used word to make the owl and branch.

The Front:

Back:

I had them printed through Costco. They had an option for a double sided card-stock card with envelopes.

Ric-Rac Love

I like simple festive decorations, and I like pillows.

To help our pillows join in the valentine's day decorations I made this pillow using drop cloth and fuzzy ric-rac.

 You can see the nine-patch pillow I made in the background.

This didn't take very long to make and is simple and festive-all things I like.

Toddler Peplum

My little 20 month old is not so little. She is fitting into some 3T clothes-just for length. I finally broke down and bought some leggings to get us through the rest of winter, hopefully. But I needed a cute shirt to go with them.

 I drafted a pattern using one of her shirts. I didn't finish any of the edges, but I like the curl they have.

She likes the heart on the side.

The other day I made up some pajama pants for my little guy and when I had him try them on she was right there waiting for her turn. When I didn't have something for her to try on she went into a total meltdown and even took off her shirt. Hopefully in a few years she will still like homemade clothes :D