The Magical Halloween of 2016

I know I’ve already put these up on facebook but I always have to add them here :) I had so much fun with our costumes this year – love me some Harry Potter!!

I was sorted into Hufflepuff on pottermore.com and I made John take the sorting quiz before making his costume and he got Hufflepuff too! Nathan was a Gryffindor quidditch player and Spencer was our snowy owl. (aka the most adorable owl you’ve ever seen) ;)This is Spencer’s camera face. I promise he smiles. And he actually liked his costume. He started taking the hat off after a while but didn’t have any problems with wearing his outfit. I modified THIS pattern, you’ll recognize it from the year we did Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday :) I wish I’d gotten a picture of the back, his wings totally spread out and it was so CUTE!
My little quidditch player :) I used THIS pattern for all the robes. Or it was more of a set of instructions with a picture of what the pattern pieces were supposed to look like and you had to use your own measurement and draft the pieces yourself. It wasn’t too bad though. I made Nathan’s out of fleece so that he would be nice and warm. Again, I wish I’d gotten a pic of the back, it has his name and a large 3 on the back as his jersey number :)
I made them both little treat bags and they enjoyed trick or treating at all the cars. Spencer liked to put his candy on the ground, then pick it up and put it in his bag. Little weirdo ;) I’m terrible at night photography, so I didn’t get a picture of our trunk, but we had a Hogwarts banner and I strung up battery operated tea lights up with black thread. The black thread was really hard to see so it really looked like the lights were floating on their own. And we had some of our favorite Harry Potter soundtrack songs playing in the car. It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself!
Hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!

Quiet Books For Summer Trips

So we are going on a trip to CA to see John's family this summer and I've been working on my bag of tricks to keep our crazies entertained on our 5+ hour flight out there (and of course, the 5+ hour flight back...). And since most of you know I love felt and quiet books, the biggest project on the list was quiet books for each of them. Overall it's taken me 2-3 months to get all the supplies and make all the pages, AND finally cover and bind them, but I am thrilled with how they turned out!

We have blue for Spencer, and red for Nathan. I used THIS tutorial to make the cover and bind the pages. Aren't the buttons a fun touch?

Here are the pages I made for Nathan's book. I had a lot of fun picking out pages for Nathan, now that he's at an age that he can really get/do the different activities. I also managed to find ideas/patterns that went along with his interests. :)

I've included links to where I found inspiration or patterns for each page, though most of them came from this amazing book that I bought a couple of years ago - it would be a great place to start if you're thinking of making one of your own!

Title Page/Sock Matching Page 

Sock Matching Pattern from this book.

The laundry basket acts as storage for the loose sock pieces too!

Number Match Cookie Page

I'm particularly partial to this page. ;) The sheet pan pattern came from this book, the oven page inspiration was found HERE. I used magnets on the oven door. 

Color Matching Gumball Machine/Artist's Easel Pages

Gumball machine pattern found in this book, but I adjusted it a little based on inspiration found HERE.
Artist easel pattern found in this book.

Car Mat Pages (Spencer also has a set of these pages)
Pattern found in this book.

Simple Puzzle Pages
Patterns found in this book.

Button Maze/Zipper Pages
Pattern/Ideas found in this book.

For the zipper page I added some beaded zipper pulls - they needed to be a little bigger for little fingers!

Minion Dress Up/Truck Button Wheels Pages
Minion Dress Up pattern found HERE.
Truck Button Wheels pattern found HERE.

Isn't the Minion one so fun!? The pattern includes several other props, like a mustache and a santa hat ;)

Bag of Letters/Name Spelling Pages
Inspiration found HERE

I included letters to spell his first and last names.

Build-a-Car Page
Inspiration found HERE

And here are Spencer's pages! It was a little trickier to decide on pages for Spencer, as he's not quite a year yet. So finding developmentally appropriate activities was challenging. I still think a lot of it is a little beyond him, but at least it will grow with him and the novelty of it should entertain him for a few minutes, right?!

Title Page/Color Matching Popsicle Stick Pages
Inspiration for popsicle match page found HERE

I painted the popsicle sticks with non-toxic finger paints.

Bead Counting Pages
Inspiration found HERE.

Build-a-Robot/Toolbox Pages
Build-a-Robot pattern found in this book.
Toolbox pattern found HERE.

Simple Puzzle Pages
Patterns found in this book.

Texture Pages
Inspiration found HERE.

Monkey Finger Puppets/Shape Matching Pages
Monkey Page inspiration found HERE, though I used the finger puppet pattern from this book.
Shape Matching inspiration found HERE.

Ribbon Pulling/Zipper Pages
Zipper idea found in this book
Ribbon pulling inspiration found HERE.

Peek-a-Boo Mirror page
I made a similar page in Nathan's church quiet book, but I can't remember where I found the idea...

I used pre-quilted fabric for the covers and bound the pages with 1.5in book rings.

The back also has a handy zipper for loose pieces - which is nice because I got lazy at the end and didn't feel like making 2 extra storage pages for the extra pieces I found myself with. (I also wanted to show you the buckle page I added to Nathan's book last minute ;)

Ta-da!! And there you go! With so many pages for each of them, I couldn't fit them all into their covers, but I guess it works out so that they have new pages for the trip home. I can't wait to give these to them on the plane!

A Birthday Project - Felt Playmat

Whew! My big birthday project for Nathan this year is finally finished!

I had actually wanted to make this for him for Christmas last year, but I think he'll enjoy it even more now that he's a little older. I bought the pattern on Etsy HERE.

I think it turned out so fun!

It's really big - almost 2 yards long!

I think the cones are my favorite :)

We've got a boat...

An airplane...

And a helicopter! I love how detailed this one is.

The pattern included several buildings. The hospital has a helicopter pad at the top.

A couple of gas pumps. You can pull out the nozzles and fill up with gas. :)

The car wash is my favorite building!

You can see the little scrubbers inside here :)

The fire station.

The police station.

A towing and repair shop.

A nifty bridge goes over the pond.

And there's a hangar for the airplane.

All the buildings conveniently fold up flat for storage.

I think he's going to love it! I'm so excited to give it to him in May :)

And MORE felt fun!

I've had these projects finished and pictures taken for a couple of weeks now, but I just hadn't gotten around to posting them yet. So I'm finally here with my next installment of felt toys.

**And please forgive me my poor photography/lighting. The best time to take pictures is during naptime and I have yet to find a spot in the apartment with good lighting...**

First up: The Blue Plate Special!

This one was sooooo fun to make! It was huge, but I love the finished project! I had already made the tomato soup and the milkshake, but there was plenty to do to finish off the whole pattern.

Apart from a burger and fries, we have grilled cheese to go with the tomato soup, spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread, meatloaf, and mashed potatoes

The hamburger is one of those ones that if you can get the whole thing in your mouth, you get your picture on the wall or something, and we can't forget the fries! ;)

The banana split is definitely my favorite from this group.

Order up!

Ever since I found this pattern, I have been so excited to make these. I got to go back to my pastry school roots and make French Macarons!

Don't they look just like the real thing?! Although they don't quite make the 1/3 cookie, 1/3 filling, 1/3 cookie ratio (little skimpy on the filling, yes?), I absolutely love them and I love the colors I ended up using.

Yum!



Last for this post is a very cute little picnic lunch set. It was pretty intense putting the picnic basket together, but I love how it turned out! It even has a matching picnic blanket to go with it!

The juice box is actually my own design, but I thought it went perfectly with our picnic lunch!

All packed up and ready to go!

Can't forget cookies for dessert!

I'm switching gears a little with my next big felt project. I found an adorable pattern for a car playmat that I am working on for Nathan's birthday. Can't wait to show you!