Thinking Christmas Gifts

I'm finished with Christmas shopping!!!

Yay! [and I didn't even get to do any Black Friday shopping because my wallet was lost (I was convinced it was stolen) So I called and cancelled all my cards and pouted for my inability to shop yesterday. Then I remembered I took the kids to Chick Filet Wednesday for lunch which was the last place I used my wallet, so I called last night on a whim and they had it and I felt like a really big idiot for pouting and crying and wasting our entire morning on looking for a wallet that was so lost I knew some scum bag stole. (Sorry scumbag that doesn't even exist.) (And hello, giant run-on sentence).]

It was much easier than ever before!

This year we decided to only buy toys for the kids in our families, and gift pictures of our kids for the rest of our families. The time has come when it's just simply what we can afford.

Plus I always bake for everyone anyway.

 [shout out delicious apple pie with my secret= Caramel sauce]

So all of the little ones in our lives are having a LuLeLo's Melissa and Doug Christmas, and Santa may bring Adeline and Gideon a little something extra [a fishing pole and a baby Simba toy]. 

He did, after all send us a Labradoodle early!

A cute one, at that.

I would have liked to do some handmade gifts like I often do, but honestly I just don't have the time.

So I thought if you might be looking for some handmade gifting ideas, I'd link some for you here.

 These are owl tag toys for baby with a tutorial too.

I forgot about these until I noticed in my blog stats that it's a link that has been revisited often lately and even been pinned a few times on Pintrest.

Haha, I'm kind of a geek, and I told my husband something like this,

Me: "OMG you know how people like me pin cute things they want to do or buy on Pintrest?"

Him: "Yea."

Me: "Those owl tag toys I made the babies for Christmas last year have been pinned like 8 times by no one I know, isn't that cool???????"

Him: "By no one you know?"

Me: "Yea, that means they didn't feel obligated to like them, they really actually did."

Him: "Cool."

Haha, another link that has been popular on my blog lately is these DIY hooded towels, which I made two years ago, and can I say still are holding up fantastically and are the favorite bath time towel picks.

I need to make some for Gideon!

This post has a link to an easy apron, freezer paper stenciling for a onesie or tee shirt, and a couple of easy bibs and burp clothes you could make really quickly.

I think I might actually do an apron for that Santa stealing Christmas game gift thing for our Bible study group. So I'm glad I reminded myself of that.

Gah, dork.

Okay, well I have presents to wrap, paper snowflakes to make, and a diaper to change.

Our Christmas tree is up, and although normally my Christmas spirit is in full gear on November 1st, this year it took a little longer.

No worries, I'm on my game now.

My Christmas game.

Just call me,

Mrs. Clause.

Peace.

Owl Tag Toys

Christmas is a comin' so a craftin' we will go!

I love handmade gifts, so I try to make the time each year once the weather starts getting chilly to sit down and make some gifts from the heart. 

I have a 3 month old little nephew who will be around 5 months old near Christmas.

So what does a 5 month old like?

They like soft, colorful things, and they love to put things in their  mouth.

SO 

I made him a little tag toy, and since owls are cute and trendy right now he'll be getting a little boy owl. 

[Haha, Erica here's Jack's Christmas present <3]

 I thought I'd put up a real simple tutorial for any DIY Christmas gift makers out there. A tag toy in any animal shape is perfect for baby and can have endless variations.

Materials used:

-freezer paper

-coordinating fabrics

-felt

-coordinating ribbon

-jingle bells

-stuffing

-fabric paint

I used freezer paper to cut out my pattern pieces since I was making more than one toy.

Freezer paper is awesome and durable for homemade pattern pieces. Just label them, and pick them up in a large folder when your done, and you can reuse them whenever you need.

These are the key pattern pieces you'll need. I cut the eye, body, and chest pieces on fold so that they'd be symmetrical. 

This is just an idea of what the pieces look like as they open up and go together. Do whatever sizes you want, just make them proportional. My owls came out to have about a 6-7 inch body from top to bottom. 

Cut out all of your pieces. You want to cut 2 bodies (front and back) and 4 wings (front and back for each side). Of course cut out 2 eyes, and you'll only need to cut out 1 chest and 1 nose. 

Start by sewing the chest piece, eyes, and nose onto one side of the body.

I used my sewing machine, but hand stitching would be just as good if not better. 

If you have some Heat and Bond or Steam a Seam or whatever then it works much better to iron it onto your fabric and then sew. I happened to be out, so I just pinned the fabric on which worked just as well. 

Pin folded ribbon to one side of the owl's wing if you decide you want tags here. Sew front sides together leaving a small opening to turn right side out.

Once you flip it out to the right side, the wings look like this, tags facing outward. I decided to stuff the wings and put a little jingle bell inside each one for a little extra noise appeal. 

Once the wings are stuffed I just pinned them to the inside of an owl body along with any tags I decided to add just like I did to the wings. 

Sew it all closed, and sew a zig zag seam to enforce around the body. 

I used fabric paint to paint the little black eyeballs instead of fabric. I wanted to use buttons, but since it's a baby gift I opted to just use the paint to prevent any safety hazards. If you do use a button though, make sure and super enforce it. 

I think they came out super cute, and I'll for sure have to make some more for my little man in a few months. 

DIY Hooded Towels

Those baby towels aren’t cutting it anymore.

Addie’s too long to wear the hood, and the thin towel doesn’t even dry her off without becoming soaking wet.

Solution:

Big thick comfy towel.

Oh yea in girly colors.

Some polka dots.

Oh and her name because Mrs. Rachel has a sweet embroidery machine (that I’ve been itching to splurge on)

Did I mention—A BIG OL HOOD???

Yea

Super easy to make.

Buy a medium and large size towel in the same colors.

Sew on any ribbon, embroidery, or any other embellishing onto the medium size towel.

Fold the towel in half and use your little one’s head to estimate where you’ll be cutting.

If you look closely you can see where I used pins to pin up until where I was going to cut.

Sew a diagonal line from the point where you want your hood to peak to the end of the towel.

Cut the excess towel off.

Then flip the towel inside out and pinch the outer seam in. Sew the seam on the outside in so that it is not visible on the back of the hood. Use a zig-zag stitch to close if you don’t have a serger.

If you turn the hood right side out you’ll see there is a large V at the bottom of the hood. I just cut a straight line about 2 inches from the line of the outer hood.

Finally I just lined the straight line with the center of the large towel. Sew together using a zig zag encloser. Make sure the hold is strong and there you go.

I made these a couple of days ago while I was without internet. (Amazing everything you can get done without the distraction of the computer.)

I was unable to google or find a better way to make the hooded towels, so this is what I came up with. I’m sure there’s a different way or even a better way to do them, but I just wanted to share how easily I did Adeline’s.

They are SO awesome and such an improvement to the thin baby hood towels I wouldn’t let go of. The hood fits on her head while the rest of the big fluffy towel just wraps around her. So cuddly, and so cute!

Enough room for snuggling or even peek-a-boo.

Kid tested, Labradoodle approved.