Waldorf Dolls

I have wanted to make a Waldorf doll for awhile now. I have always been intimidated of the sculpting of the face. Well, I decided to take the plunge and started searching the net for instructions.
That is when I came across Dancing Rain Dolls. They have kits available that are customizable by skin color, hair and eye color and size. I bought two kits and started them the day after Christmas. I took about 4 hours to get the first one done. The second one went a little faster. I haven't made clothes yet, but Bitty Baby clothes seem to fit ok.
I am not totally happy with the face, but I do like the hair and the girls seem to love them.
I am sure that these will not be my last dolls.

The Craziness is Over....Almost

All of our traveling is done. We have had several parties, saw lots of family and had a ton of fun. It all started with our family Christmas celebration at our house. The girls decorated cookies and ate a lot of frosting.
That evening we started with some snacks, opened gifts and then enjoyed a buffet of appetizers. The girls thought it was great to have so many options of food. We didn't have to keep encouraging them to eat because they got to choose their own food.

The girls loved all of their gifts. The playhouse, face bag and I spy were all well received. Coco's big gift this year was a wallet full of gift cards. She can now go to the movies with her friends, buy some cd's or get a bite to eat without coming to us for money.

I got some surprises under the tree as well. Jim got me an afternoon at the new spa that just opened down the road from us. I can't wait to take advantage of that! I also got a digital frame for my office, a ceramic bird from Lilly, Santa and Snowman salt and pepper shakers from Claire and perfume from Coco. I also got this great necklace. I bought it for myself, but let Jim put his name on the tag.After all of this, we traveled up north to my parents. It is usually takes right around 2 hours. It took 4 hours. That is right 4 hours! I could hardly peel my fingers from the wheel when we finally pulled into the driveway.

While up there, we had 2 Christmas parties and a baby shower for my sister. We saw tons of cousins and had a good time.
We have one more party to go. Coco is having 5 girlfriends over for a fancy dinner and gifts. They are going to be one tired group. They are gathering for a New Years party tomorrow night and then coming to our house on Thursday. Here is a sneak preview of what will be going on in our dining room.


I will post many more pics on Friday or Saturday.

New Holiday Header!

I have been doing a lot of blog reading lately. I have seen so many cool holiday headers, that I thought I would try and make a chang on mine. I saw come really cool cupcakes on Becky's blog. I bought them from Two Peas and got to work.

I am happy with the way it turned out. I bought a couple of other things so I think that changing up the header could become a regular thing.

Enjoy!

Christmas Card

I am revealing our family Christmas card a bit early. They were shipped in two batches and I am mailing the ones that need to travel the furthest today. The rest of you who live closer, or who I will see in the next week will get yours from the second batch. So you will be getting a sneak preview. I only scanned the front. When you get yours, be sure to turn it over for another photo and message.

I took all of the pictures. They seemed to print a little dark, but I still like the card. I had them done by Dayspring Studios. They print cards with a religious message and that is what I wanted for Christmas. I suppose I could have made something similar myself by using Photoshop and some digital scrapbook kits, but I was a little late in thinking about cards this year.

So without further ado…

Marybeth Vrugdenhill - Simply Life Photography and Charity Dick

Marybeth Vrugdenhill has been our family photographer for the last couple of years. Each time we've had a session she makes it fun and different from the others. Last year she sent out this cool magnetic calendar with a shot of the girls from our session.

Today, we got these cool magnents from Courteney's senior session that we did this year.

These little touches are such a great reminder of why we love her. If you are in need of some family portraits, wedding photography, or anything else, make sure you check out her site for some samples of her work.

In looking for a great way to display some of the pictures, I found this frame that my cousin Charity Dick made. Charity paints murals on walls, sinage for businesses, and old windows. She also makes these box frames and I think it is perfect for the shot of the girls together.

If you would like her contact information, let me know and I can put you in touch with her.

Melvin Update

Someone (you know who you are) has been asking for a Melvin update. So here are some pictures. He has been climbing the Christmas tree which has been driving me crazy. Other than that is is a typical lazy cat that lounges around a lot.

It's looking a lot like Christmas

Our house is finally looking a lot like Christmas. Our tree is up. Decorated. Our Jesse tree is out. The girls, my mom and I made lots of snowflakes today. It feels cozy and I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit. Our Christmas cards came today. I will scan it and post about it tomorrow.

Here is a peek into our holiday home.

Welcome to the World of Lilly

What's this Mom? asked Claire. I almost did not dare to turn around. The girls had been crafting nicely at the table for quite awhile. No fighting over supplies. No criticizing each others work. It was beautiful. I had gotten 2 loads of laundry folded. Lovely.
Then it all came to a screeching halt.

It was hair. Human hair. Quite a bit of it. Lilly hair.















There she stood with her half mullet haircut. "Why did you cut your hair?" I asked.
"Because." she said. I informed her that there would be no scissors in her near future and she responded "you're not my boss."
She quickly learned that I am her boss and sat on the step (our time out spot) for quite awhile.

I lived with the hair for a few days. I don't know if it was much of a punishment for her, but I dreaded the thought having all of our Christmas pictures taken with this horrible haircut.
So, yesterday she got a haircut from a professional. She absolutely hated it. She hated the hair washing. She hated sitting still. She did not enjoy the process. I guess that was part of her punishment.

Now comes the best part. Everyone LOVES the new haircut. She is getting compliments from everyone who sees her. (This is not helping me in the "don't cut your own hair or you will have to have a short hairdo" department.)

Here is her before picture (the one on our already outdated Christmas card)

Here she is with her updated do:
Again....Welcome to my world.

I Actually Won!

Wednesday was Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway day. There were hundreds of blogs from all over the world that participated. I visited the blogs and decided if the item being gifted was something that I (or someone I know) could use and benefit from. If I won something, I wanted it to be an item that I would be excited to have and not just another free thing.

I got an email today from Chris saying I won her giveaway. Guess what it is? Have you guessed yet? You are going to look at this and say "That is so Jen."
Here it is. My prize.Baker's twine and an assortment of vintage buttons. I can think of a million things to do with this already. Chris also sells the twine in her shop.

Ready for a Feast

I am getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast. Today I ran around town picking up things that I forgot to get at the store on Monday. I came home and made turkey cookies. I made these last year and they were quite the hit. How can you go wrong with chocolate frosting and candy corn?
Next came the buffet display. I got the bowl at Hobby Lobby for 80% off. For real....80% off! How in the world can they do that? I guess I don't care how, cuz I got it cheap. The Pilgrims and Indians were made on my Cricut machine. I just got the paper dolls cartridge when Michaels had a big sale. I am loving it. I used it for our Children's worship lesson last week and the kids loved it.

Then it was on to the main table. We made the place cards out of old magazine pages and cardstock. This was a project we did with friends last year, but this year we used them for a purpose. I got the chargers at Hobby Lobby. Not on sale but not very expensive either. I did the flowers and the rest of the stuff was gathered from around the house. I did almost start a mum on fire, but will not put the candles so close next time.Now all we need is the food and our guests.
We have so much to be thankful for this, and every year. Thank you Lord for all of your many blessings.

Three down...Two to go!

As I mentioned, I am making several gifts for my girls this Christmas. I have already completed the doll houses and I Spy pillows. Next to be checked off of the to do list are the book bags. I had intended on making the bags for the little girls, but this past weekend Coco saw the pattern that I had made and decided that she would like to have one too. So, I made three.
These will be the girls' new library bags. I will shorten the strap after they receive them. I did not do a cross body measurement and I don't want to make the straps to short.
I think that they turned out really cute. I hope that the girls like them.

Update on Projects

I finished the second house tonight. I also made I Spy pillows for each of the girls. We went to the dentist yesterday and there was one of these in their waiting room. The girls fought over it the whole time we were waiting (much to the dismay of the other patients). I am typing out a list of the objects for Claire's pillow and Lilly's list will be pictures. The list will be laminated and attached to the metal hook.
VERY, VERY easy. It took longer to find all of the stuff to put in than it did to make them.
Here is a list of what is inside:
button, star, marble, straw, snowflake, quarter, dime, nickel, penny, name, paperclip, key binder clip, rubber band, lady bug, yellow flower, gift, flip flop, dog, purse, roller skate, shoe, comb, dinosaur, snake, ice cube, scrabble tile, soccer ball, shell, rock, lollipop, dove, crayon, and a frog.
Obviously, most of the items are small buttons or miniatures that I found at the craft store. The beads are usually used to weight china dolls or stuffed animals.

I hope they like these as much as the one at the dentist.

One Down....One to Go!

Well, I started work on the houses for the girls last night. I cut all of the plastic sheeting, wrapped them with batting and cut the material.
Tonight I started building. It took a lot less time than I had thought. Here is one finished.I am very happy with the way it turned out. I think that the girls are going to love them.

I am done shopping for all of the kids for Christmas. I have a lot of projects to complete, but I do not have to step foot in the mall again before the holiday. That makes me really happy.

An evening out with friends...

We had big plans. Coco would stay at our house with the kids. They would have a pizza and movie night. The adults (Jim and I and Jodi and Nathan) would go out for a nice dinner at the Melting Pot.

I called for a reservation, but they were all full. The woman I spoke with mentioned that they did have open seating available for a short wait. We drove to the restraunt and we were told that there would be an hour and forty five minute wait. Needless to say, we didn't wait.

We drove up the Beltline to Blue Water Grill. A very nice place with great food. Once again, we were confronted with an hour and a half wait. Once again, we got into the car.

By this time we were pretty hungry and just wanted food. We turned the car around, pulled into a parking lot, walked into a restraunt and enjoyed a yummy meal....at IHOP.

We had a great time and great conversation. Thanks guys!

Cleaning the Studio

I decided that in order to efficiently fill all of my Christmas orders and get started on the gifts I need to do, I needed to clean and organize the studio.
It took several hours yesterday, but it is nearing the end. I will have more photos to share tomorrow, but here is one of the most exciting changes.
I purchased this Uppercase Living wall word from a party that my neighbor had a few weeks back. I just couldn't pass it up. I think that it looks great on the wall. The embroidery hoops are holding some of my favorite Amy Butler prints.

I will have some other pics to share later.

Thinking about Christmas?

We have started thinking about our Christmas budget. After Coco spent a number of hours cleaning the toy room (the basement) on Saturday, we determined that our kids need nothing. Don't get me wrong, they want plenty. But need, we have no needs.
We have decided to set a small budget for gifts this year and to do as much handmade as possible. I have spent some time checking out etsy and other online retailers that I have visited before and have come up with a few things.
I will be making these for the girls.They seem to be fairly easy. I am going to add some little people with it so they can have a portable playhouse to take to papa and mimi's or a friend's house.
These are similar to the people I am going to make.
Casey's wood shop has an online shop that stocks different size and shape people turnings. I am not sure that my painting skills are as high as the artist's above, but I will give it a try.

Another gift that has been floating around my head for awhile is this face bag.

Each year we get the girls a Nativity story book. I thought I would put the book in this cute bag that they can then use for the library or church.

I am not sure how much more I can do with all of the sewing that I have to finish for clients, but here are a few more wish list items.


Crayon Roll Up





Felted Soap

Last Weekend's Wedding

I finally have a minute to post about the wedding that I worked last weekend with In Any Event.
It was quite the event. It all began on Thursday with the rehearsal dinner. A beautiful event at Cygnus 27. Jodi did it again. Every detail of the evening was executed perfectly. Jen Kroll captured images that tell the story.













The food was unbelievable! I had never eaten Bison, but it has become a fast favorite. Jim and I missed out on being together for our anniversary (the day after the wedding), so maybe we could splurge and go for Bison.


The reception was absolutely the best event Jodi has ever orchestrated. All of the vendors were spectacular. Modern Day Floral did the flowers for the rehearsal, wedding and reception. The blooms were shipped from all over the world and were absolutely beautiful!
The reception was at the JW Marriott in downtown Grand Rapids. The staff at the hotel were very helpful and went out of their way to make us feel at home.
The food, drink, music and all of the many details made for a wonderful evening.














Guests recorded the evening in a photo booth. These photos were then used to create a photo guest book. Great idea!

The dance portion of the evening included a great band, DJ and martini luge.

Once again, it is a privilege to be part of Jodi's team and to be able to have a very small part in such an extraordinary event.

Surprise, Surprise!

This morning I opened my blog reader to find that Brassy Apple had highlighted my purse and suitcase projects. It is always nice to get some blog love. Thanks, Meg!

Today is the Day!

Lilly and I were at the polling station bright and early this morning. We each got an "I VOTED" sticker.
As if the privilege of voting is not enough, several local retailers are giving incentives today.
Starbucks is offering a free cup of coffee. Bigbe Coffee is doing the same. Krispie Kream is giving a star shaped doughnut and Ben and Jerry's a free scoop of ice cream.
Get out and vote people! If you don't, you have no right to complain for the next four years. :)

All Dressed Up With Only One Place to Go..

Trick or Treating!

I raced home from working today (I am getting ready for a HUGE wedding tomorrow) and got the girls ready for Trick or Treating. Jim, the girls and I walked the neighborhood with some of their friends and parents.Superman (Kenny), Peacock 1 (Claire), Hanna Montana (Rosie), Peacock 2 (Lilly) and Fireman (Caden)

We walked the whole hood and got lots of candy. Lilly was a little afraid of the scary ones, but she did pretty well.
The girls got lots of compliments on their costumes. I am glad that I got them done early, because I have had no time this week.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween.