Little Miss O enjoyed helping out along the way. This is a good age for tasks such as pouring pre-measured ingredients into the mixing bowl, stirring with a whisk (usually requires help), smearing icing on cupcakes, taste-testing, dancing around with a sugar-high, doing some more taste-testing…

Yum. So, there you have it. I realize I have very few photos of Miss O over the last 6 months doing anything other than eating or playing. Oh well. I swear she runs around and even looks at the camera and smiles sometimes too. Maybe I’ll manage to document that soon as well!

Hope you’re having a great week. If you enjoy baking , try these out! An awesome bonus is that they freeze incredibly well. I froze them and took them out as desired up to 2 weeks after freezing. We just zapped in the microwave for 30 seconds. I’m sure there are better ways of doing things, but this worked really well for us. Let me know what you think!

 Yummy…chunky oatmeal-nut cookies with just the right amount of chocolate… 

…please excuse the random finger-chop in the photo below. I didn’t want you to see how grubby her little hands were, lest it ruin your appetite!

More Heart-Day fun? Last year we made these simple DIY Photo Valentines. And, if you’re looking for more kid-friendly V-Day ideas, you can always check out The Artful Parent (one of my favorite blogs). Mmmm, now get out there and do something sweet for your Valentines!

She looks quite serious when she’s focused (…in this case, focused on eating all the sprinkles…)

This was such an easy food-craft for young children. At 2, O was really able to participate and enjoy this. We picked out the supplies together before-hand and I think that also made it fun for her.

Yep, look out, Family…You’re probably getting these in your Christmas Stockings…

Mmmm…sprinkles!…

Hope you’re having a fantastic Holiday Season! (And definitely check out The Artful Parent for more fun ideas for the kiddos.)

I loved the idea so much that I made one for use with Baby O’s St. Patty’s Day photos in March (Click here to see those photos).

Lately, however, I’ve been interested in the little things…With baby on the way (about four weeks to go!), I like finding simple, sweet little touches I can add around the house…You know, little things that I hope will make me smile several weeks from now when I’m up late feeding the New Guy and am running on little sleep. I decided to try out a mini-version of the flag sculptures, perfect for potted plants.

Once you have your fabric pieces cut out, dip them in your bowl of glue and generously coat both sides with glue. Then, wrap them around a wooden skewer (Note: Skewers are often in the meat-section of the grocery store, near the butcher’s counter, at least in the places I shop).  Use your fingers to gently pull off any excess glue. You’ll want the flag to be covered in glue, but not excessively dripping. Lay it to dry so that it can drip any remaining bits right into your bowl. 

I think you could easily get carried away with various fabrics, ribbons, and even heavy-weight paper…

Here is my festive potted plant…I think it will indeed make me smile everytime I see it…

On Pinterest, I recently saw something similar, for use in a Birthday Cake, and I love that idea too! I might try that out for O’s Birthday party!

Hope you’re having a great week!

Costume “Ingredients”:

1.) Plain White Onesie (I got a 3 pack of longsleeve “Gerber” ones at Target for under $10.) and a Plain White T-Shirt you don’t need anymore (Raid your husband’s drawer of white undershirts!)

2.) Fabric Dye in color of your choice (I use “Rit” dye and I like to do the method where I dye the clothing in my washer/dryer rather than in a pan. It is much neater this way, in my opinion.)

3.) 4 pairs of Adult Size Socks in the color of your choice (Note: it’s ideal if your socks are close in color to your fabric dye of course.)

4.) Two sheets of Felt (the kind that are under a dollar each, at the fabric or craft store) in Black and White

5.) 1/4″-thick Black Elastic from the fabric store

6.) Stuffing from the fabric store

7.) Scissors, Pins, Needle & Thread or Sewing Machine, Fabric Glue (optional)

Costume Directions:

1.) Dye white onesie and an old t-shirt in Rit dye.

2.) Use a tutorial like this one to make a “beanie” hat using the t-shirt you just dyed.

3.) Use white and black felt sheets to make two big Octopus eyes. Adhere to hat with needle and thread or fabric glue.

4.) Choose one pair of socks from your collection and cut off the foot at the ankle. Fold the cut part under 1/4-1/2″ and use pins to temporarily hold in place (See Figures A & B.) Use a needle and thread or sewing machine to stitch the hem in place (use similarly-colored thread if possible). These are your baby’s leg warmers.

5.) Use stuffing from the fabric store (you can buy a bag of it – it’s the same kind one might use to stuff a pillow, for instance) to fill the remaining 6 socks. Make them pretty full, but leave about 1.5″ at the top. I used pins to temporarily hold in place (See Figure C. Also please see note on Figure C - Actually best to pin and sew closed when your sock is laying flat, with front (toes) facing you.). Sew top of sock closed in a straight line (See Figure D.).

6.) Fold top part of sock down and stitch it, in a straight line (See Figure E.), forming a “loop” through which your elastic can be threaded.

7.) Chase your baby/toddler around to measure his/her waist. Cut your elastic to a suitable length, according to waist size. Thread it through the top of your 6 socks and secure with several stitches in the back, forming a pull-up “belt” for your baby (Added benefit…Diaper changes are easy in this costume!). Note that you can then adjust the placement of the 6 socks around your baby’s waist, once the belt is on.

Have any questions, comments, or want to link to some cool handmade baby/child costumes you’ve made recently? I’d love to see! I hope your week is off to a great start, and that you too are getting excited for the changing of Seasons. XX

The theme was fun because it didn’t constrict us to any one movie or book in terms of characters and imagination.

Above: 1.) I got a pack of 12 cheap-o alien headbands on amazon.com. These were fun for people to wear if they didn’t feel like wearing a full blown costume.  2.) My daughter and I colored alien signs with crayons one day – okay, I did them, but she supervised and added a little here and there.  3.) I picked the color scheme of blue and green (streamers from Target and a few sheets of blue and green craft paper from the craft store helped to jazz up the entry way).

Below: A basket full of silly accessories for guests to play with. Light sabers, headbands & Spock ears are from Amazon.com. The “hypnotic glasses” are from Party City. The Stormtrooper mask is from Target, in the kids’ toy aisle ($8! I thought that was a fun find.).

Below: I made this cake to look as similar as possible (with my limited cake-decorating skills) to one my Mother-in-Law made for Aaron’s 7th Birthday…

Below: And, she sent me some adorable photos of him when he was also about that age, as Robot Man, Space Man and with his siblings as the “Spacemen Family”. My favorite is the one below/far-right where it looks like he’s playing behind the couch with some really cool toy, totally lost in his own world…Above: This is the snack table (before all of the silver star confetti was added). The star confetti helped to make it look a bit more like outer-space. The black is just a set of two black disposable table cloths from Target. Since the material is so lightweight it was easily adhered to the wall with “removable mounting putty” (you know, that white tacky stuff you can buy just about anywhere).

 Above & Below: More labels, for the beer coolers (with references to Star Trek & Star Wars), drink tub, and pizza (“Papa Won’s” instead of “Papa John’s”, referencing Obi Won).

Below: Close-ups of some of the food we served. I’ll put a complete list towards the bottom, should you be planning a similar party, and wanting food ideas…And, what about costumes? Well, we had this fun idea to dress as the Conehead Family (my husband loved the SNL skits). We ordered these silly coneheads from Amazon.com and I tried to make capes like they wore, using $5 fabric from JoAnn’s. BUT, I sort of lost track of time (errr, I was putting it off because I didn’t trust my sewing skills) and I never made the pointy collars. Turns out, they kind of look like aprons you wear at the hairdressers’! But, that’s okay…they worked just fine… So, here we are, the Conehead Couple…

Hey, can you see “Mr. Bump” above? Eeek…can’t wait to meet this guy! Above: My Sister-in-Law and Aaron’s college friend who came in town for the party. My Grandparents…the cutest alien couple EVER!!

Below: My Grandfather…He just turned 90 a few weeks ago! Isn’t he a handsome alien?… Below: Just some fun party photos!…

So, there it is! If you are interested in the food ideas, let me list them here (and note – these are in no way unique…I found most of these online and then just added my own little ideas as needed! I LOOOVE the internet!)…

Beverages:

Beer = Romulan Ale & Spock Bock

Soda = Yoda Soda

(Wine and Water also served, but without clever names)

Snack Bar:

Black Hole Dip = Bean dip (dash of paprika on top), served with carrots & celery

Thermal Detonators = Malt Balls (I saw this, and several other great ideas here.)

Alien Heads = Green Grapes

Rocket Parts = Bowl of fruit…Note, I wanted these to be kabobs and to be labeled “Asteroid Kabobs”, but that didn’t work out, so I went with Rocket Parts. Asteroid Soup could work too…or something silly like that.

Milky Way Dip = Vanilla Yogurt (dash of cinnamon on top), for fruit

Leia’s Buns = Individually-Packaged Cinnamon Rolls

Galaxy Gorp = Kettle Corn (Yum!…These look like asteroids too…probably more than the fruit actually.)

Endor Trail Mix = Chex Mix

Light Sabers = My pride & joy of the party ! Original source is here. I did these in red & green. I first tried it with melted white chocolate and food coloring, but the liquid food coloring ruins the melted chocolate (apparently you need powdered food coloring for this job). Instead, I purchased red and green Wilton brand “Candy Melts” (I found them at Party City). I melted them on the stove top and then poured each color into a tall glass and dipped a pretzel rod in to coat. I laid them on wax paper and kept them in the fridge until the party (they were made a day or two in advance). Big hit!

Galactic Goodies = Mini Cupcakes from the grocery store’s bakery. Half of them had alien toppers from Party City and the other half had Star Wars rings pressed into them (purchased on Amazon). This was so fun because the kids enjoyed wearing the rings around after eating the cupcakes.

Wookie Cookies = Cookies (Yum!). I love this funny space-ship in the center of the cookie tray. I found it at Target the day before the party – It is a sippy cup…seriously. How funny is that? I just took the straw out for the party…voila!

Like I said, these were mostly found on the internet…I’m in no way trying to claim ownership of these fun ideas, but I think it’s nice to detail them all here, should you be searching for Sci-Fi party ideas yourself. I know I always enjoy crafty party ideas!

A very HAPPY HAPPY Birthday to my Best Friend/Miss O’s Amazing Dad. { You’re Out-of-this-World! }

So, I’ve decided to cut myself some slack…I love posting three times a week but, for now, and through the rest of this pregnancy, I’ll continue to post a bit less often. I may also take longer to post photos from my Photography Sessions. With that said, want to see what I’m working on today?…

I’m trying my hand at my first “Granny Square” crochet project…Using a great, free pattern I found here. I hope to make a pillow cover, to spruce up (i.e. girlie-up) our manly-looking couch. In case you’re not sure what I’m talking about, here is a great example of a granny-square pillow cover.

Aren’t they cute? I really like the peachy color paired with the light blue. The yarn is all “Sugar’n Cream”, sold for $1.99/spool at our local Michael’s Craft Store. I intend to make a pillow cover that is 4 squares by 4 squares. I can update the post later to let you know how many spools that takes. (I suspect no more than 6-8 spools total.) A pillow like the one linked to, above, sells for about $45. I figure this craft project (once you factor in cotton fabric for the back of the pillow and the pillow insert) should be more like $20 max to complete. But, we’ll see!

Whenever Miss O gets her hands on a newly finished square she happily squeals and lays her naked baby dolls’ heads gently on the granny squares…So, hey, I guess this makes a good toddler toy as well. Double duty…

In other fun news, some of my photographs were just featured in this really cool blog, “Great with Kids” (translated via Google Translate), here, here & here. It is a Dutch blog, though you should be able to easily translate it in your browser if needed. It features fun craft ideas for the kids and photo tips for parents. I was really excited to be featured here, as I’m a fan of some of the photographers I was featured with, and it’s a great blog all around. You should check it out!

P.S…HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazingly talented Mother-in-Law!! I sure was lucky to inherit such a great MIL when I married Aaron.

Meet the Artists!…Here we have Big Cousin, the careful curator of art…He painted a brown monkey and helped contribute to a group project (a plate for their Great Grandma). He was clean, neat, and perfectly engaged in his craft…

…Meet Little Cousin, quality control expert (making sure the ladies in the shop were correct about the paint indeed being non-toxic), an enthusiastic and experimental artist.

He might have enjoyed the activity the very most out of all of us… …And last but not least…Baby O… She didn’t seem too amused by my attempts to show her the joys of painting on this particular day, but she did love playing with her cousins’ toy truck while they participated in the painting game. Oh, and she enjoyed putting paint on Mommy’s nose and legs of course. That was fun too.

Care to see our finished product?…Drum-roll please…First group artistic effort by the three cousins…  

Well, it was a very fun experience, and I’m sure we’ll do it again! Anyone else make homemade Moms’ Day gifts? I’d love to see pics!

I hope you’re having a great week…TGIF!

Her awesome post inspired me to finally try making a fabric “O” charm for myself. I’ve had this little metal piece just laying around (I ordered it online when I first had this notion, months ago). Not that it’s unique – I know I’ve seen this kind of thing around before. But, I love the idea and I thought I would post the photos here, in the event that you would also like to try it out for yourself. Note that the piece itself took only days to arrive in the mail. And the whole assembly here took less than an hour. So, still time for a last minute gift. I’ll include all of my resources at the bottom of the post…

And some pictures along the way…

Perhaps best of all, I already had Baby O’s Birthstone, which happens to be this exact shade of pink (part of why I love this color). I paired my Initial Charm with her Birthstone and strung them on an 18″ chain. Kind of cute…

Resources: 

1. Metal Jewelry Casing is from here.

2. Fabric is by Lecien, but you can obviously use any ‘ole scrap of fabric that tickles your fancy.

3. Embroidery thread is from Michael’s.

4. Instructions on Embroidery Stitches (yep, I needed it!) can be found here.

5. Birthstone & Chain are from Stella & Dot. (Note: Enter our quick May Giveaway for a chance to easily win $25 credit toward Stella & Dot jewelry. The drawing is next Monday!)

And, lastly, do check out Shwin & Shwin’s crafty blog if you’re looking for some more inspiration! It’s also just a fun read in general. Thanks for checking in & hope you’re having a great week.