I’m co-hosting a baby shower and was in charge of creating the invitations.  We’re having an airplane theme.  Here are the invitations I created along with the envelopes I made (I found the paper at Archiver’s).

A couple of months ago, I ran across a blog post about covering your mouse pad with fabric.  I have a plain black mouse pad (boring!), so was instantly excited to do this.  I used fabric that I already had on hand, laid my mouse pad out, traced around it and cut.  Super simple!  I did use the heat bond mentioned.

For some reason, the tutorial I used is missing all of the pictures, so here is another tutorial that shows the same thing (her mouse pad just happens to be round) in case you’re interested in trying this yourself.

I follow several blogs, but one blog is of a lady who makes most of her kids clothes (and they’re so cute).  I saw a post for a super cute fleece coat.  This lady made a tutorial and sold it on Etsy, so I of course had to buy it.  It was (to my surprise) SO EASY to make (and it was my first piece of clothing)!

I first made a size 3T for Ashley.  I tried it on Brody (they’re about the same size) and it was too big, so I made a second coat (size 2T) for Ashley.  It was a perfect fit and because I used corduroy instead of fleece, it was actually even cuter!  I showed Jason who asked if they made a pattern for boys.  Sure enough, the lady did, so I got that pattern too and made Brody a coat.  Each coat only took a few hours to make.  The buttons were the longest thing to do (making holes and sewing on the buttons).

So, here you go…the three coats I made:

Quick post, only because I thought this was funny at the time (still do).

During the Christmas season, we had many packages being delivered (since all of our family is out of town, they ship our gifts to us).

I happened to notice a package being delivered by a Budget (rent-a-van). I later found out it was via Fed-EX, but thought it was funny that a random rental truck delivered a package.  Strange.  I guess you have to use whatever methods you can, huh?

A few months ago, my Mom emailed me a link to a website that was giving away a free “31 Days of Prayer for your Husband” cards, if you became a follower of her blog.  There were 31 different things to pray for him about along with 2 or 3 scriptures to go along with each day.  This lady made 31 small digital scrapbook pages (4×6 size).  She also makes one called, “42 Weeks of Pregnancy Prayers” that she had for sale in her Etsy shop.  I purchased the pregnancy one (thinking it would be a great gift for pregnant friends) and requested the free prayer cards for husbands after I signed up for her RSS feed.  I then found a tutorial on how to make a handmade photo flip book (on the same lady’s site).

I recently found out a friend was pregnant, so I spent last night putting together my photo flip book.  I sent the digital scrapbook pages to Walgreens photo center and picked them up this morning while I was out and about, then finished putting together the flip book during Brody’s nap. I love how it turned out!  It was so easy to make, just slightly time consuming with the cutting and assembling, but not so bad that I won’t make another one.

Back in mid September, I joined the Hello Mornings Challenge.  It ran for three months, ending in mid December.  This challenge is usually done with groups meeting on either facebook or twitter.  I belong to neither (and found out that many others were in the same boat).  This past challenge, they opened up an email option to connect with each other. Of course, this was the route I went.

I was put with a group of about 16 women.  We checked in with each other daily and got to know each other pretty well.  I was able to go to another level with these women, opening up to them with my true feelings or prayer requests.  It was easy to do because I didn’t know them and we couldn’t see each other.  It felt so freeing.  I felt such a powerful bond with several of them.  We became prayer warriors for each other.  I could go to them with any prayer request (big or small) and got so many encouraging responses and people checking in on me.  What a wonderful group of women!

This Hello Mornings Challenge is starting back up again on January 16 (registration ends January 2).  If you’d like to sign up for it or find out more information, be sure to check out Kat’s Inspired To Action website.  I hope you’ll join me.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

From our family to yours…

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My friend Jodi has started a business.  She is one extremely crafty lady and blows me away with all that she can do.  She has such an eye for the finest of details and lets nothing go unnoticed.  She is the mom of two incredibly cute kids.  She’s battled and overcome postpartum depression and is venturing out to try to make some extra money for her family.

She’s created a FULL SERVICE holiday card business (she also can make custom handmade cards for ANY occasion). All you need to do is send her your holiday letter and your addresses, and she’ll do the rest! She will make or purchase your cards and envelopes, print letters, sign cards, buy stamps, address and mail ALL of your cards. Stress free for you!  Check out her facebook page for more details.

Here’s a quick couple of pics of Brody’s friend Ashley’s present.  Her party was a couple of weekends ago.  Her colors were pink and green polka dots, so I did my best to match the theme.  I even found a tutorial and made the bow out of paper myself (so easy to do).

I’m an avid reader of a blog called, Skinned Knees.  You can tell by the title of her blog, that she has a son, right?  Christy and her husband Paul are getting ready to celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary on November 23rd, so she is hosting the Still The One: A Marriage Challenge.

Here are the details (copied from Christy’s blog post):

Each Wednesday during the month of November, five in all, Christy will post a challenge for that week. The challenge will encourage you to love on your man and find ways to make him feel special. She’ll be participating right there with us and knows our marriages will be blessed by this. The Tuesday night prior to each week’s new challenge, she will blog about the previous week and how it went, and hopes that you will as well and link up on her blog, Skinned Knees. Then during the first week in December, she’d love to interview all the participants (that are willing) and write an article all about it later that week.

If you are interested in joining the Still The One Challenge, let her know! She’ll be putting together a Participants Page soon and would love to include you on it! When you email her, include your name, blog and where we can find you on the web if you’d like. Be in prayer about the challenge and ask God to bless our marriages through it.

I’ve signed up.  Now it’s your turn.