Little Lamb Baby Shower

I think this theme is so sweet! Can you just picture how cute a baby's nursery would be all decorated up like this!?!  Here's all the pics on my latest baby shower.

Well, I made these up in Photoshop but I couldn't decide which color combination I liked best..... so I printed up and sent out some of all three!

BTW, the lamb image is actually from the Cricut Cartridge- Paper Doll Dress Up. It's an accessory to the nativity paper dolls. It's so darn cute though right?!!

This is the "Little Lamb" Diaper Cake I made. I put fences and tufts of grass throughout it and lambs sticking up here and there.

There are borders of grass around the fabric of each layer then wrapped with coordinating ribbon. I also have little silk rosettes tucked in by the fences.

I made a spring for the Large Lamb on top to sway back and forth on. It looks like he's jumping over the fence! It turned out so cute! I was really happy with it! The trees are a nice touch too I think.

I threw this baby shower for my friend Janean who was there with me when I tackled my first Diaper Cake and Carriages, so I thought she would really appreciate it if I made them for her too! Here I have the lambs all tucked in with their hands/feet sticking out! Okay- obviously they aren't hands and feet, what are they called? Hoofs? Hooves? I mistakenly called them paws on one occasion! :-) Hee Hee!

I made some ruffled crepe paper streamers with my cool new ruffle foot attachment for my sewing machine! It also made making the ruffle bum onesies I have done a few of SO EASY!!!

The Baby's Name Banner and "Its A Girl" Banner.

This is the table set up in the entryway at the baby shower. Has Guest Book, Guessing Game, and Party Favors displayed on it.

I made the Guest Book like a mini scrapbook. Each guest wrote a note on a small scrapbook page that I inserted into the album.

 Guest Book Front Cover. Back cover is an extra Invitation (not shown).

 I set up a little guessing game on the front table. It wasn't really planned out, I just ended up with a lot of extra marshmallows after filling the party favor bags, and had an extra tree and grass pieces left over from the Diaper Cake, so the idea was born.

How many do you think is in there? Someone at the Baby Shower actually guessed one number away from it!

 These little guys are note/picture holders. They each have two clothespins glued onto the back of them.

These were the party favor bags. Honestly, I don't know who eats marshmallows plain for a little snack, but I couldn't resist the fluffy sheep-like texture so I did it anyway. Wait- what am I talking about?!! Aren't Marshmallow Pops all the rage now?!!  :-)  I started with white marshmallows, but they just weren't as cute as I pictured in my head, I think the pastel ones turned out really nice.

The little bags are cut out from my Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More Cricut cartridge. They ended up being about 3 1/2 inches tall after cutting the zig-zag top and folding down. That's the same lamb from PPDU Cartridge again, and the "Thank You" is a stamp.

The Fuzzy Sock Cupcakes I made to give as game prizes. They have a little red button on top, which is hard to see...

There was a pretty clever game I had never heard of before, which was surprisingly difficult! What they did was hand out a blank sheet of paper to each person and you had one minute to rip out some kind of shape that has to do with babies....BUT you had to do it behind your back! Seriously it was hard! You know me, as perfect as I always try to make things, mine was BY FAR the WORST!! Some people did really great little tear out babies and dolls, binkis, etc. I was trying to make a rattle, and ended up with something resembling a bra! Melissa was pretty clever and left it a rectangle as a baby wipe! Ha!

Okay back to the party, so Janean has Celiac's which is a gluten allergy, and we made sure that everything at the party she could eat. That meant a lot of fresh fruit and veggies, some cheeses and gluten-free crackers, and a few gluten-free desserts (from box mixes). My friend Ashleen (from Alaskan Baby Shower) made all the food for the shower, it was delicious and so pretty!

She made some yummy little cakes that she decorated with pink sparkling sugar and a stencil I cut for her on my Cricut to match everything with the same lamb design.

I made some napkin rings and decorated some cups...

And of course, I made her a mobile with cute little lambs and 3-D flowers.

I love the view from below!

Lastly, I decorated a clear box from Michaels to match all the Baby Shower decor and filled it with the Ruffle Bum Onesie, and two Stretchy Headbands with Flower Clips.

And here's me. Hope you liked my all my fun Party Ideas! Thanks for stopping by!

Oh- I also set up a facebook page for my Party Planning stuff. Check it out and "Like" me for lots of updates on parties and ideas and such!

Remember the Cupcake Box Tutorial?

So, a super talented lady at Create Me Pink found my cupcake box tutorial and put a cute new spin on it! She even made a video tutorial to show you how it's done! It's a little long, but totally worth it if you want to make one. Go check out her blog and see all the other cute stuff she's made too!

Create Me Pink: Valentine's Day Cupcake Box

It's Officially Ours!

Today we bought our first home!!!!  I am so excited I can barely think straight! There is still so much to do before we actually move in, but at least now we can get started!

Anyways, here are some pictures of it "as is". I will post more pics as we do our updating.

The Front

The Entryway............ and we have a beautiful glass front door!

The 1st Front Room........... with a wood burning stove.

The Kitchen............... the kids love the chalkboard door!

The 2nd Front Room.................... with built in desk unit on one side.

Laundry Room/ Bath Room............ a little weird that they are combined, but oh well.

Master Bedroom................. with bathroom and walk in closet.

Ethan's Room............ it's kind of long and narrow, but it's bigger than this picture makes it look.

EmmaLee's Room............. with two closets! (Perfect for storing all her medical supplies!)

And............ My Craft Room!!!!! The color is hideous now, but I have something special in store for it!

So that's it. That's my new house! Thanks for all the congratulations from our wonderful friends. We will miss you all, but it's definitely time we started out on this chapter of our lives.

Missing

Missing:

1 large nondescript cardboard box.
Color: Brown
Contents: Christmas presents being sent to family members in Utah
Last Seen:In Anchorage being accepted by the U.S.P.S.
Location: Airport Post Office
Delivery Confirmation: Yes
Date Mailed: December 19th
Expected Delivery Date (per postal service): December 23
Days Missing: 14

If found please deliver directly to the address that has been CLEARLY typed up and taped SECURELY to the top of package. If delivered by a U.S.P.S. employee....... demand an explanation!!! (Not like they'll have one anyway but someone should be expected to apologize.)

Apparently even if you pay for Priority 2-3 Day Service the postal service won't even go looking for your package until it has been missing for 30 days. That's really sad if our family doesn't get their Christmas presents until the end of January.

Almost like last year when it really was my fault for procrastinating and getting the box mailed late. I thought I was doing better this time by giving it a week to get there... Maybe next year I'll shoot for mailing it a month in advance.

Here's the sad part for you- I can't post all the seriously awesome presents we made on my blog until this box shows up! Otherwise it wouldn't remain a surprise for the recipients!

Nativity Blocks

These are the Nativity Blocks that we made at a church activity. I was asked to cut out the vinyl for them with my Cricut. One of the ladies already had a block that she was given a few years ago and she just wanted to be able to "re-create" hers. I was able to photograph the sides of her block and import the pics into Make The Cut to cut out with my Cricut.

I changed a few of the images from what her original block had. Actually the only images we kept the same were the Star and Shepherd scene. I added the city of Jerusalem and the 3 Wisemen. Her block featured an Angel instead of the city, and some kind of animal in place of the Wisemen.... i think it was an ox... or maybe a really big, weird looking sheep... i don't know. Anyways, I didn't think that was necessary so I switched it. The angel actually was necessary since he's a huge part of the story... so on my block I got to keep the camels, which I love, but the vinyl for all the other blocks had an angel instead of camels.

Anyways, they turned out super cute!

And in case anyone has ever wondered.......... you actually can run your Cricut for 2 days straight only stopping to change out the mat and not have it overheat! In fact it wasn't even warm!

Yay! I bet that's great news to all you obsessive crafters like me who don't like to sleep...... and when I must sleep, I set my alarm to wake me up so I can change out the mat and get it back to cutting.

Okay...... truth be told...... I am a serious procrastinator.  I had to cut out vinyl for two days straight because I didn't realize that Make The Cut would cut out so much slower and I seriously had.....52 x 6.... 312 + ..... 144 x 6 .... 864.....= 1176 pieces to cut out. Yeah 1176. Ha Ha! You'd think I'd learn right?  :-)

**Edited to add**

If you would like the cut file for these (for personal use only) please leave a comment with your email and I will send it to you. (It does not contain the image of the camels but has an angel instead.) It will be an svg file so you can use it in SCAL and MTC.  Thanks for all your interest!

New Mobile with Baby Carriages

My Newest Mobile:

I made this for a friend to match her baby's nursery. She requested something in greens and pinks.


I surprised her and made it to match the baby's quilt by adding baby carriages to it.

This is the quilt the baby's grandmother made. It's beautiful!

I tried to make the baby carriages as similar as the ones on the quilt. This carriage is from the New Arrival Cricut Cartridge. I welded a flower to each wheel in Design Studio to replace the spokes and make it look like the wheels on the quilt.

Here's some views from the bottom looking up. (the baby's perspective) :-)

And some of the flowers close up....

All the flowers on this mobile are 3-D. The carriages and dots are double sided, but flat. To make the small flowers I used 4 of the same 1" punched flowers, folded in half and glued to each other. The larger flowers in the center of the mobile have 6 pieces and are 2 1/2" big.

My friend loves her mobile, and it was the sweetest thing that she almost started crying when she saw it the first time. She hired me to make two... so now I'm off to work on the next one!

EmmaLee Update:

So, I guess it's been a while since I checked in and updated you on EmmaLee's status.

Obviously, she just turned 6. (See Ladybug Party post) And she's in Kindergarten this year, and loving it... i think. She likes the learning, and the reading and writing... but making friends, not so much.  I'm sure she's got a few nice kids that she plays with. But I don't hear about them. She only tells me about the mean ones. It's really hard hearing her tales of the comments kids make and their actions towards her.  She's been hit. But I guess some 5 and 6 year old's still do that anyways right? And that particular time I don't believe it had anything to do with her being different. Sometimes she says no one would play with her at recess.  Is my kid that outcast that everyone runs away from at recess? I remember that kid from when I was in school... it's sad, I really hope she's not.  She has such a sweet and fun personality, why would any kid not play with her because she's red? So what. She's red. Get over it already. But that's hard for kids i guess. They just want to fit in and be accepted. Sometimes I feel like saying "Poor baby, how can I protect you from this?" I feel so powerless when it comes to these situations. The younger kids are quicker to accept her and move on, but the older kids that she sees in the halls, on the bus, etc. They speak before thinking. They're ignorant, and don't care to learn why she's red, it's easier to make fun. Ah, the insecurities of children. When you're pointing at someone else, no one looks at you. Well this post wasn't meant to be all about school and the gripes I have about other kids...

Her hearing has come a long way since this post. She has had only normal hearing screens since then. And her glasses have really helped... Helped so much that she decided her eyes were fixed and didn't have to wear them anymore.    :-)   Of course me being the mom, I still made her wear them. Until... she had an eye exam at school, given by the school nurse, and failed the test wearing her glasses! What the ? "Okay, you don't have to wear them anymore."  Funny thing is, the glasses actually helped her look....normal? Somewhat.  The frames covered her (non-existent) eyebrows. And drew attention away from her lack of eyelashes. Weird how a little hair on your face makes a difference. Her eyelashes have grown out a few times and we always make it a big deal, about how beautiful they are and how pretty she looks. Hmmm, I wonder how that reaction might be affecting her when they fall off....

We haven't had a major infection since this post. But we have had quite a few "almost" infections. It's like when I see that trigger happen, I feel this intense full-body panic. Fight-or-Flight adrenaline type of nerves and anxiety. Right away we usually see signs that it's getting worse, so we do everything we can, praying it doesn't come back. Luckily, they have all gotten better after an exhaustive overuse of ointment. But it's still scary. I don't even want to think of going down that road again. I can't stand to see her hurt like that last time.  Unfortunately, one of the (many) triggers we discovered was urine.  EmmaLee requires more sleep than most children her age because of her disorder.  Her body tries to heal and repair itself during sleep, although it's pointless since her skin doesn't "heal".  Sometimes it seems as if she grows a whole new layer of skin during these sleeping hours.  Anyways, she has been night-time potty trained for a long time, but every once in a while she'll have too much to drink at dinner, or sneak a cup of water at bedtime (which we don't allow) and wake up in the morning soaked in urine.  She just sleeps too heavily to wake up in the night. So the urine just sits on her skin all night and BAM, as soon as she wakes up she's in pain from it. Infection type of pain. We actually have a classification for "infection pain" since it's such a specific type of hurt. We haven't experienced anything that hurts her more than that. So it's back to Pull-Ups at night-time.  But, even when she wets in those we still see a reaction. I feel like the water police at bedtime, hovering over her making sure she doesn't try to suck water off her toothbrush for a drink! It's sad. And mean. But I gotta do it.

During the night all that skin repairing underneath causes the top to get really dry. Which is why her bath must come first in the mornings. Before food or playing. Mostly because when she awakes she is extremely uncomfortable and dry. The skin on her face becomes so dry and tight that it cracks if she talks or smiles, and opening her mouth to eat is out of the question. Well you can imagine that poses a small problem concerning breakfast and having time to eat before going to school since the bath takes over an hour.  So, she drinks her breakfast. Through a straw. Nothing gross, not like pureed food or anything, haha! Just Pediasure in a can, we still call it her "formula". She gets up to 4 formula cans a day if she wants. She drinks two in the bath, has one at school, and the other is optional once she gets home from school, but we usually just eat a snack when she gets home. 

So the other day EmmaLee tells me right before we are about to walk out the door to get on the bus that she's hungry. Well there's no time by that point to do anything about it so I said "Sorry, but you're gonna have to wait until snack time at school". She whined again that she was hungry and decided she could just ask her teacher at school for some peanut butter crackers. I told her "No EmmaLee, you need to wait until everyone has snack. It's not fair if you get to eat an extra snack and no one else gets to." So she gets to school, and what does she do. She asks her teacher anyway.

Then I got a call from her teacher. Apparently EmmaLee has been "hungry" several times in the mornings and "Is she eating breakfast at home?". "Yes, she drinks two cans of Pediasure for breakfast while she's in the bath and occasionally eats some peaches or pears, but there's not really time for anything else because her bath takes so long." The teacher suggests that maybe we need to wake up even earlier to make time for breakfast because she might be going through a growth spurt right now and needs more than the formula. Hmmm, I think it's more likely that she just wants to eat a snack but who knows. Drinking two cans of formula fills her up and sometimes she can't finish the second one because her tummy hurts from drinking so much so fast. But it is liquid and maybe it doesn't leave her full for very long and it's not like I'm going to deny her food. The teacher was very nice on the phone, but I really felt like I got scolded. Like I was an inexperienced mother who needed to be told that children need to eat. I'm sure it wasn't meant that way, but I totally started bawling when we hung up. I'm pretty emotional sometimes. I know I'm not a perfect mom, but I hate feeling like I'm a bad mom.

I bought some Eggo Waffles and now she's eating breakfast everyday, and although I was giving her food before, i guess eating fruit in the bath a couple days a week wasn't enough since she obviously didn't consider it her breakfast. Now we sit at the table to eat, sometimes all decked out in her snow gear so when the bus pulls up she'll be ready. There's not always time to finish, but at least I tried. Waking up earlier really isn't an option for us. She needs that sleep... and let's face it, I can't drag my butt out of bed any earlier. I hope she's not still trying to get a snack when she gets to school....

Other than that, she a super happy little girl. She misses her brother while she's at school all day, which of course means there's total pandemonium in my house when she gets home and the two of them reunite. They start rough-housing and jumping off the furniture....crazy kids! Lol! She gets to go on a field trip with her class tomorrow. She's really excited for that. That's pretty much it.

Wow! She's growing up so fast!