~Leprechaun Trap~

So for Ethan’s preschool class we were to build a leprechaun trap…what the devil is that?  We didn’t have a hot clue!  So www.bing.com later and we had an idea…unfortunately we left it till the last minute and it was already Ethan’s bedtime.  So off to bed goes Ethan and who builds the trap?  Why of course Mommy!  I think it turned out alright, hopefully he doesn’t get called out for not participating in the construction of it!

Leprechaun Trap VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Teacher Christmas Gifts!~

I love crafting and love it even more when I have lots of time to do it…Hahaha….who has time?  So instead I have a love affair with my Silhouette SD and the creativeness it allows me!  On Wednesday night I was having two fits because Thursday was Ethan’s last day of school before the Christmas break and I didn’t have even a card for the teachers!  So I loaded up my Silhouette program and searched for something just right and came out with these:

~Teacher Christmas Gifts!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I stamped the back with Merry Christmas and wrote From: Ethan.  I put little baggies inside with really, really good chocolate truffles, packed them in a box and sent them off to school.  They sent a note home that they liked them…who wouldn’t love truffles in this eh?  Unfortunately I had all kinds of computer issues last night and didn’t get any treats made for daycare like I intended so they got chocolate chip cookies instead.  Hope the kids enjoyed them today at their Daycare Christmas party!  It’s a couple days till my 1st Annual Grounds-Rogers Christmas Party and the plans are starting to come together!  I don’t know when I’ll sleep before then but I’m having a tonne of fun so that’s all that counts right?  If you’re coming can’t wait to see you!

~Halloween Treats~

Ethan is a lucky boy and has 2 Halloween parties this year!  One for daycare and another at Preschool.  I love doing treats for his parties, it gives me an excuse to be creative and crafty.  I’m so busy however that the creative ideas are farmed from the blog world and then I recreate them.  This year I’ve been seeing so many great ideas for treats that I was having a hard time deciding until I stumbled on a post on Living Locurto and knew I had to make it.  Brains.  Yup, ooey, gooey, bloody brains!

Here are the ones I made:

Brains in a Jar VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Thanks to Amy at Living Locurto for the printables and the inspiration! These are sure to be a hit with Ethan’s buddies at Daycare!  For Preschool I decided to stay away from anything home baked…it would probably get chucked by most parents anyhow!  So instead I used an idea from It is What it Is and made a fun bagged treat. 

~Halloween Treats~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’ve got one more to do for the cashiers at work for Monday.  It’s cashier appreciation month at work.  I’m pooped for today though so I’ll do them over the weekend, Monday is the last day.  They are getting chocolate pumpkins in baggies with a label, they will look the same as the pumpkin teeth, just a different saying/colors/graphics.  I have so much fun doing this…it takes time and money but I genuinely like doing it…I hope Ethan appreciates it as he gets older!

~Halloween Haunted House Craft Night~

We broke out a family craft night tonight after supper!  I picked up the Haunted House foamie kit a few weeks ago at Micheals' and decided that we would put it together tonight.  Randy engineered the project, Ethan had designer status and I supervise while recording for posterity.  Silliness aside, here's the pics of our fun project!

Haunted House craft VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Click on the pictures to see them better!

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~

We didn’t let the rain and wet and cold get us down…we dug out some fun crafting goodies on Saturday and got right down into it!

We did a little finger painting:

Finger Painting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then we moved onto what Ethan calls ‘craps’…sticking foam stickers to paper.  This time I pulled out a huge poster paper for him to decorate and just dumped a pile of foamies on it for him to go to town.  He had a blast and it is so good for his fine motor skills!

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had fun! Before we went on holidays we had done some bigger crafts.  We did a couple of the Home Depot kids workshop kits!  Ethan got to use a hammer and help glue them together and then got to paint the one.  He had a lot of fun!

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We love to craft Ethan and I!  Here is his little craft area in my office!

Ethan's Craft Area VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I hope he continues to like to play with me…it allows me time to get creative as well and not feel guilty about it!  Let me know if you ever want to come over and craft with us!

~Crafting~

I promised myself when I got the Silhouette that I would get into my craft room and play more often.  It’s hard when I’m working every day but I’ve found that even if I sneak in there for half an hour a night I feel better.  This weekend past I went into my craft room for pretty much the whole day on Sunday and had a blast!  I used my Silhouette, my Zutter, my printer, and all kinds of tools I haven’t used in awhile. 

I had been surfing the night before and ended up finding templates for creating my own daily planner.  Now I LOVE planners, something the nerd inside me loves to use!  Unfortunately I spent a lot of money on one last year and it ended up not getting used as much as I’d like when I changed jobs.  So I wasted that money! 

With my new job now a lot of my planning is done electronically so I don’t find myself writing things down as much.  I sync my work Outlook with my Blackberry and it keeps me going!  It works but I still wanted something for personal stuff…

So I made this:

February Planner VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It’s fun, and has a monthly planner, to do list, menu planner, shopping list, and blank note pages in it.  It took me less then 3 hours to whip it up!  Love it!  I will mostly use it for planning our house stuff, activities, menus, shopping…If I like it then I will make a bigger one that will last a couple of months at a time.

~Welcome Wreath~

Well you will remember that I said I was using an idea from Tatertots and Jello to make a wreath for our house.  Well I bought all the stuff I needed for it right away and worked on cutting a kajillion burlap flowers for a couple of nights.  That stuff is seriously itchy!!!  Anyhow I found some fabric that I liked and cut those flowers out another night.  I spent one night making the actual flowers and stopped when I had 27 done.  I needed over a hundred and it was taking FOREVER!!!  So I set it aside for about a week and during a particularly boring conference call I had to take the other night I finished it!  I LOVE how it turned out!  There are a few things that I learned from making this one that I will apply to a next one that I make but what a super easy, fun project!

So this is my final result:

 

I went with just a simple Welcome message on a piece of twill that says Live Long, Laugh Often, Love Much.  Here are some closer shots of it!

 

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So next time I will just use two types of fabric and will make more just burlap flowers.  It was hard to layer it without having too much of the same look concentrated in one spot.

The unfortunate thing is that I can’t hang it on my front door.  My screen door is too close to it and it won’t fit between them.  So I’ve just hung it at my entrance for now.  Anyhow, I can’t wait to do another one, I like the idea of updating it for the seasons.  I have lots of ideas now!