How I Got My 3 Year Old To Give Up Her Binky!

Like many of you out there, I have a very strong-willed, stubborn three-year old with a loud voice of her own!  Since she is likely my last, I admittedly was a little more lax with her when it came to giving up "baby" things - the binky (pacifier) being no exception.  Recently we attempted to have her give it up on her third birthday.  I thought this would be the perfect time since she understood she was getting to be a big girl.  This concept worked for about two weeks; then the binky slowly made it's way back into our lives! 

As this past Christmas approached, our elf Christopher made his appearance.  Both my girls are very excited about Christopher and whole-heartedly believe in him.  Christopher returned to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve - so my husband and I told our little one that Christopher also wants to take her binky's with him so they can be given to new babies.  My little goofball thought that was brilliant and made a point to place her binky on the fireplace Christmas Eve so Santa wouldn't miss it!

Christmas morning while my oldest ran as fast as she could to the Christmas tree in the living room - Caitlyn went the opposite direction to fireplace in the family room to see if Santa took her binky!  She has not asked for it since (knock on wood!) 

 





Did you have a creative way to get your toddler to willingly give up their pacifier?  I would love to hear them!!

Winter Tulle Wreaths

I can't believe it's near the end of January! The end of the year into the next year is always so busy and just goes by so fast. Before I start on Valentine's crafts, I wanted to share some of the tulle wreaths I made for the winter.  So many possibilities with tulle wreaths!

Time to start the Valentine crafts!!  Stay tuned!

 

Happy Crafting! 

Owl Ballerina Birthday Invitations

Well, Caitlyn's third birthday has come and gone - but was a successful ballerina theme!!  My lovely friend who had the brilliant idea for the Tinkerbell invitations created these beyond adorable Owl Ballerina invitations for Caitlyn's party. There's nothing I love doing more for birthday parties than having a personal handmade way to celebrate the day!

 

The back of the invitation said "Come Dance and Twirl with the Birthday Girl" and then of course had space to enter the party details. 

It was a bit of a challenge to get the invitations in an envelope for mailing though!  I ended up folding her little arms in so she fit in the envelope.   Thanks to Jessica for making these for my little ballerina! 

Happy Crafting! 

Spooky Halloween Tulle Wreath

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! I've been so busy the past few weeks with getting ready for the craft show; I almost forgot to make my Halloween wreath.

I think because I waited so long to make my wreath, my selection of decor to add to it was limited. However, I was able to find some black roses and spider ribbon; and it turned out pretty cute! I was able to get the Halloween ribbon and black roses on clearance - so overall this wreath only cost about $8 to make!  Not too shabby!!

 Materials Needed:
- 1 Spool of Black Tulle
- 3 Black Silk Roses
- 1 Spool of Halloween Spider Ribbon
- Purple Silk Flowers
 - Purple Silk Flowers and Embelishments
- Hot Glue Gun

Maybe next year I'll spruce this wreath up a bit with some cob webs!  

Happy Halloween and Happy Crafting! 

Autumn Tulle Wreath

Time for another wreath!  This time I made an autumn wreath for a friend at work.  I love how it turned out, so I will definitely be making one for myself as well.

My favorite part of autumn is the colors; I wish we could have colors like this all the time. For this wreath I decided to stick with chocolate brown, orange and off-white/cream white tulle.  I wanted to compliment all the beautiful autumn colors in the ribbon and the embellishments.

Materials Needed:
- Styrofoam circle wreath
-  Spool of brown tulle
- Spool of off-white/cream tulle
- Spool of orange tulle
- Wired pumpkin ribbon
- Autumn leaves floral pics
- Hot Glue gun

 

 

Overall, I'm pleased with this one!  I might change things up a bit when I make my own - I'm thinking of leaving the orange tulle out and sticking to just brown and cream.  In any case, my friend loved it (and her husband was thrilled she could take down the Easter wreath, lol!). 

 

Happy Autumn and Happy Crafting!

 

 



Emboridered Birthday Tablecloth

Some 7 years ago, a friend of mine asked if I could embroider a tablecloth for her son's first birthday.  She had the beyond brilliant idea of putting his hand prints on the tablecloth every year!  I thought this was such a cool idea, I knew I had to do one of my own when I had kids.

So, fast-forward now 7 years - I made a tablecloth for Madailein's first birthday and have attempted to put her hand prints on it each year.  With Miss Madailein it was a struggle because she detested the feel of paint on her hands!  I could  not get hand prints the first year, the second year ended up being only one hand; the third year started to get much better!  But, I have this awesome keepsake of each birthday. 

This was one of the first things I embroidered, and boy can you tell! 
In the middle of the tablecloth, I embroidered "Happy Birthday Madailein" and then her birth date, surrounded by some cute birthday designs.  In each of the bottom corners of the tablecloth, I embroidered balloons and cupcakes. 

(Please ignore the wrinkles!  It's been folded for a few months!)

I usually have the tablecloth on the gift table and it looks so adorable with all the hand prints at the bottom!

With Caitlyn, I totally forgot to make a tablecloth for her first birthday - so I decided to do something different for hers.  Stay tuned for that in October!

 

Happy Crafting! 





Back to School Tulle Wreath

We are one week in to the new school year!  I can't believe my Madailein is in the first grade - I remember being in first grade myself and it doesn't seem so long ago!!!

To kick off fall and school starting, I decided to make a Back to School tulle wreath to grace our front door.  If you've missed my other tulle wreaths of the  year, check out the Valentine Tulle Wreath and the Easter Tulle Wreath.  These are so easy to make and I have so many ideas for the autumn and winter; I can't wait to make more!

Materials Needed:
- Styrofoam circle wreath
- Spool of red tulle
- Spool of yellow tulle
- Spool of blue tulle
- Back to school themed ribbon - I choose one that looks like a ruler!
- Pencils and crayons for embellisment
- Wooden apple - I found mine at Pat Catan's in the wood decorating department
- Hot glue gun

The tulle was cut into strips approximately 7" long; then tied around the weath.  Once all the tulle was tied on, I gave it a trim so the pieces were even all the way around. 

 

 

Add your ribbon, hot glue the pencils, crayons and apple - and Voila! Another adorable tulle wreath for around $10!!

My plan is to leave this wreath up until around the middle of September, then make a fall tulle wreath - so stay tuned for that one!

 

Happy Crafting!