Homemade Christmas 09: Last One!

To wrap up my posts on Christmas gifts, here's one for the boys! I made these blocks for Bradley, mostly, but also gave some as gifts. This was Brad's only Christmas present from Mom & Dad, so I wanted to give him lots and lots to stack!

I think I did too many, though. It took me hours and hours to make these, plus hours and hours of help from my sweet aunt and cousin. My sister, mom, and dad also donated some time and skills for this gift. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE how they turned out. It's just that now it seems like I spend forever picking them up all over the house every day. No really, that's a good thing. Both Miranda and Brad love to play with them. Brad's favorite thing to do is knock 'em down and Miranda favorite is to look at all the pictures and letters. Here is a picture of her making a "train" as she calls it. I hope these will be a favorite toy for a lot of years.


Here's some details if you want to make some:

You can buy blocks already cut and sanded, but they are expensive. (A local wood place I checked into would have cost $1/block, and craft stores didn't really even carry very many or any at all.)

Home Depot has a 2"x2"x8' furring strip for $2.32. I bought three of these, so yea--I made about 150 blocks! I should have bought a higher quality wood, though. (Jeremy suggest poplar wood, and I think it wouldn't have cost much more, either.) My dad cut these into blocks using his miter saw. Some of the blocks splintered a bit and some even ended up not square shaped, so I couldn't use a few of them--so definitely look into a harder wood like poplar.

Next, I sanded them using my mom's belt sander. There is no way I would have sanded that many blocks without a power tool, but if you just buy one piece of wood, maybe 50 blocks wouldn't be too bad to sand by hand...

After that, they were ready to finish! At this point, I still hadn't made up my mind completely about how I wanted them to look, and I played around with some paint, but decided I loved the look of Mod Podged pictures the most. I wanted to combine the beautiful look of this from Martha and still have letters on them like these from Homemade by Jill. So what I came up with is to cut out pictures from magazines for four of the sides and then letters/numbers on two opposing sides. I found a variety pack of alphabet stickers at Walmart for under $5 that made the letters/numbers easy and much neater than hand painting them.

So next I cut out billions of 2x2 squares. Okay, technically, I cut out 592 little squares. And they weren't exactly 2x2. Not to bore with details, just make sure, like my Dad did, when you cut them, that they will be sqare. (You have to account for the blade cutting away some of the wood). So what I did is traced a square onto cardstock that I used as my pattern for cutting out pictures, so that I knew it would exactly fit the blocks.

Next I Mod Podged all those little squares onto the blocks. Then I put the stickers on. Finally, I layed them all out in my basement (with windows open) and sprayed a sealer on them, turning them a few times to make sure all sides got a good coat of sealant. And finally, done! And well worth all the effort, I'd say.

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Eight

Another thing Jeremy and I did for Christmas gifts this year was cook some meals for people in our family. I bought a bunch of containers that each hold 3 cups, perfect for a quick lunch or dinner for one. All the containers were the same size and shape, so they stacked really well and we just gave them to everyone frozen already so they could pull them out when they were ready. I also made labels for each lid with the food on it and their first name, in case they took it to work.

We wanted a variety of foods, so we made Corn Chowder, Chili Verde Burritos, and Pasta with Marinara Sauce. Each person got about 8 containers, so only about a week or two of meals, but I think each was appreciative. A couple of them really loved it, so we might do this again next year. It's nice to get something homemade, but still really usable.

We made a gingerbread house in January because

we didn't have time to fit it in during December

but still I wanted the Halloween candy purged from the cupboards

and I needed something fun to look at after the Christmas tree came down. (Which we just took down last weekend..)

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Six

Note: The following posts numbered six through three are all actually just part of the felt play food I made for Miranda and some of her cousins/friends. I was just too overwhelmed to put it all into one long post, so I broke it down.

This is what started it all for me--the making of felt food. I never had a desire to do it--it seems so tedious, and actually kind of stupid I'll admit. BUT I saw this free pattern for a felt sandwich and chips on SnazzleCraft. How I ever came across her post/tutorial will remain a blogging mystery. Never the less, thank you for your inspiration, SnazzleCraft!!!

I loved the sandwich idea--something for the kid to DO, rather than just take itchy bites of felt (you know at least Miranda really bites this stuff, despite my trying to her to pretend.)

Let's get started with a basic for the tots--PB&J! Start by spreading the peanut butter...
then the grape jelly...
and press the bread on tight! Yum! I can taste it now... But if you're in the mood for something, say more healthy, how about a turkey sandwich with everything on it--swiss and cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce--and when I said 'everything', Miranda always likes to include the peanut butter and jelly too!
P.S. The chips turned out so cute, too--definitely a favorite with the kids. I added an inner lining of plastic (from an empty bag of wipes) so the bag really makes crinkling noises as they pull their chips out. But I don't have good pictures of it. Check out SnazzleCraft's posts if you want to see how adorable they are.

P.S.S. You may notice, if you happen to read all the felt food posts, that there aren't a lot of healthy food choices. I want to say that I did try to make some fruit--I even bought a pattern from an Etsy Seller--(whom I won't name,) but hated how they turned out. I did an apple and a banana and they both looked ridiculous, so I called it quits on doing healthy food. It is just for play, after all, right?

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Five

Who wants cake? That's actually what Miranda told Santa she wanted for Christmas when we visited him--and no prompting from me on that! I was excited for her to see them. This is a pattern I purchased from Etsy, by Little Crickets. (I want to make some of her pancakes/breakfast food next!) Loved the cherry pie. And the chocolate cake. And the birthday cake--okay, all of them!

I did deviate away from the pattern on the birthday cake a little--adding beads for sprinkles instead of stitching. And on the chocolate cake I changed the colors because I liked the dark chocolate look better, and changed the top from a raspberry to a chocolate shaving.

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Four and Quick Tutorial

These are the felt cookies I made for Miranda. (I'm sorry the picture is really terrible.) I started on these after the sandwiches, which were fun at first, but then got very boring to sew. These cookies were a fun outlet after that! I had initially thought to just do an Oreo, but ended up scouring Google for more and more pictures of cookies to create.

I was a little surprised that some of my fellow crafters guessed what I was making when I posted a sneak peak back in October. I thought it looked like parts to a robot or something! Anyway, I made up all these cookies myself, so here is a quick tutorial for some Windowpane Cookies.

Materials Needed:
Light tan felt (less than half a sheet)
Red felt (scrap piece no bigger than 4"x4")
Sewing Machine (but these could also be hand sewn, too)
Scissors
Pinking Shears

1. Cut out two matching squares or rectangles of the tan felt. These are about 3"X4.5". I made a few, though, and ended up liking the square ones better. Cut those about 3.5"X3.5". On one of the pieces, find the center and cut out a window, about 1"X2", rounding edges in.

Then cut out a red piece (half an inch smaller on all sides) than the tan pieces.

Here are all three pieces:


2. Take the top piece with the window cut-out and the red piece and sew together in the middle, staying as close to the window as possible.

After sewn, your cookie would like this on the back side.

3. Place all three pieces together now, sandwiching the red piece in the middle.4. Sew around the outside edge, leaving about 1/4" to 1/2" edge.
5. Trim the edges with the Pinking Shears to make the edges scalloped. (I'm sorry I don't have a decent picture of this final step, or the final cookies with their scalloped edges. Oops.)

But here's the happy ending that really matters:
And I can't tell you how happy I was to find two little cookies in the "oven" later this week. It makes all the splits in my fingers and the naptimes spent sewing more than worth it!

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Three

These were inspired by this cute children's cookie making kit at Target. It has a rolling pin, whisk, spoon, and six holiday cookie cutters. I was going to just toss it in with the other felt food, but then I could visualize Miranda trying to roll cookies out of kitchen towels or something else random, so I decided to make her some cookie dough.Did I mention this was the last project to be completed for Christmas? So, I wanted it to be a quick, no-sew toy. Funny how this is her favorite food item to play with--not the cakes that I spent hours on...Anyway, I rounded out a piece of light brown felt, traced some shapes from the cookie cutters, and cut away. Then I cut out some coordinating pieces for frosting (rounding their edges a bit). Last, put sticky velcro on the pieces, and then...
Enjoy a plateful of holiday cookies--low calorie, might I add!

Quick Updates on the House

Here are a few pictures of the progress made last week on our new house. The biggest was the flooring that Jeremy finished in our bathroom and bedroom. The tile is not travertine stone like I LOVE, but I do love that it was a really, really good deal (from Tile for Less). It was very tricky to find a cheap tile--that I liked, of course--that would coordinate with the shower tiles, the cabinets, and our bedroom flooring. Fingers crossed, I think it will all come together nicely. Second, the downstairs bath is complete except for paint, which will be done with all the other rooms in the near(?) future. Jeremy's dad is so amazing, he's putting in a lot of hours this week getting things ready to paint!! Here's a close-up of the travertine tile counter top, just for kicks.

Homemade Christmas 09: Part Two

I made robes for Miranda and some of her cousins. I got the idea because my one sister just moved to a new house with a community pool one block away from her house, so they go swimming all the time in the summer (who wouldn't?) These swim robes are perfect for wrapping up the little ones as soon as they get out of the pool and they stay on better than towels for the walk back to the house.

I should have taken pictures of all of them, they turned out so cute with the terry cloth and coordinating flannel hoods/ties!

Homemade Christmas 09: Part One

This year I made A LOT of presents for Christmas. My mom actually sewed these up for me, though, and I love how all the fabric/ribbon combinations turned out. (She was a lifesaver with a couple of my gift endeavors this year.)

It's a wrist strap with keychain. It's wonderful for helping locate your keys in your purse and keeping hands free for errand running.

Since I didn't quite make the Christmas deadline on these, they turned out as New Year Gifts. The tags say: "May your New Year "key" happy and bright!" and "New Year's Resolution #7: Simplify trips to the mailbox! Done."

House: Before and During Pictures

Do you like to see before and after pictures of room makeovers? I LOVE it. Especially when it's my own house!!

Just to back up a little--we are moving sometime in January. We got a tudor-style home built in the late 1970's that has some fun character and charm, but needed some paint, a little new flooring, and lots of wallpaper torn down. So we've had the home about a month now, and ever since, our family has hardly seen Jeremy, who's working extremely hard and long hours between his job and fixing our new home. Can I just say again how amazed I am at him that he can do everything from plumbing to carpentry? Also, many, many thanks to our parents and friends--Backus', Olsons--who have given up hours, even days to help out at our house.

Nothing is exactly completed yet, but here are some 'before' and 'during' pictures to show until I get some 'after' photos!

Bradley's Room Before: Small room, lots of wallpaper.
Bradley's Room Now: Still a small room, but feels lots bigger with wonderful built-in bookcases framing the window and five-foot wainscoting (moldings). I bought a cute little bench from IKEA that will sit under his window and he'll have Pergo flooring to help the space feel larger, too.

Miranda's Room Before: A fun room with some character (like Miranda herself :)

Miranda's Room Now: A fun room with lots of charm (also like Miranda)
Here's a fun one--Main Floor Half Bath Before: Dark 1970's cabinets, tiny broken tiles, old and also broken countertop.
Main Floor Half Bath Now: Same sink, new faucet fixture. BEAUTIFUL travertine tile. Painted cabinet. New mouldings, even framing the window so nicely. New light fixture (sorry no picture). Ceramic floor tiles the previous homeowners generously left us that match the kitchen tiles (sorry, no picture of that either...) This bathroom looks completely different for so cheap--it makes me giddy! Jeremy will probably have this bathroom completed or nearly completed today!
Dining Room Before: Beadboard, mouldings, and chair rail all unpainted. This room was an after-construction addition, and I love this room. It will fit our huge kitchen table so well. It has lots of windows and french doors that lead out to the fun side yard. All this room needs is some paint to those moldings!
Dining Room After: So much better! And it still gets one more coat of paint.
Family Room/Play Room Before: HUGE room, technically bedroom upstairs. This is a really fun room, too, and it doesn't need tons of work. Well, it could use new carpet, but with little kids soon to be crawling all over it, why waste the money?
Family Room After: Minus the wallpaper. Okay, not a huge change, but I HAD to include this because it's the only work I've done myself on the house. That wallpaper was so stubborn and Jeremy and his mom gave up on it. So I borrowed some official Wallpaper Remover chemical from my cousin, and said good-bye to those to those rosy flowers!

Finally, the Master Bedroom/Bathroom Before: Wallpaper, stained carpet, small bathroom. This bedroom is actually larger than our current bedroom, but the bathroom was anything from exciting. It was actually my least favorite part about the house. The shower was newly redone, and not bad, but the two closets were small and odd and it had only one old sink.
Master Bedroom/Bathroom Now: You know how some people can look at a house and see all the potential there? Jeremy is very good at this, luckily for me. He has fixed all my concerns about the small bathroom and lack of closet space.

Here's what he did: He knocked out one of the closets that was next to the sink so that we could have a double sink vanity. See that little towel holder on the right wall? Same one that was there before. This sink area had carpet under it before and will soon (this week) have tile there.Then, he made me a built-in wardrobe in the large bedroom! I'm excited about my new closet. And it's going to have lots of shelves at the bottom for lots of shoes--which I may or may not happen to have... Oh, yeah. He also knocked out an empty space that was at the end of his closet to make room for some shelving in the bathroom--perfect for towels.
And yes, the toilet is currently in the shower.

Is is just me, or were Kix bigger when I was a kid?


No. I think I was just a lot smaller the last time I ate them.