Christmas "Garland"

I love Christmas lights. So, so, so much. I really wanted to light my stairs and found the perfect project here to do so!

Materials:

100 colored or white strand ($5)
5 feet colorful cloth ($7)
Scissors

I cut 6" strips of the material and tied single knots onto the cord of lights.

It took three episodes of Law and Order: SVU to finish this, but it was well worth the time!

Christmas Card Display

I wanted to display our Christmas cards in a festive way in our kitchen. This is what I came up with...

Needed Materials:

Wooden Christmas sign ($5)
6 ft matching ribbon ($2)
Mini Wooden clothespins ($3)
Hot glue

I used two pieces of ribbon, 3ft each.  I then hot glued them onto the back of the sign...

... Voila!

Add on clothespins and clip cards!

 

It's A Puppy Party!

Since day one, Raymers has loved puppies. I mean, he LOVES puppies. He loves puppies so much that he decides to lick our dogs on a regular basis. Yes, lick them.

 Given his love for puppies, a puppy party was in order.

I used tablecloths from a dollar store to create this centerpiece over the food table. See the balloony amazingness? Six years working at a party supply store paid off... ;)

I found green and blue, bone-shaped, doggy bowls at the dollar store. Perfect serving bowls for humans!

Whatever, these cupcakes are from cake mix and canned icing... Let's be real - I'm not THAT domesticated!

But I DID make these chocolate covered "puppy tails!"

I made these "dog bones" by sticking large marshmallows on either end of pretzel rods and then coating them with white chocolate.

These are the best Rice Krispie Treats you will ever have.... Peanut butter topped with chocolate and butterscotch? Yummers.

Fruit Pizza bar!!! This would be an awesome display for bridal and baby showers as well as birthday parties. I used an old sugar cookie recipe for the base and made a cream cheese/sugar "sauce."

Mason jars and straws gave a fun yet vintage-like look to the party.

In addition to water and lemonade, I created a sangria. I say "created" because I have no idea if this is how normal people make sangria. 

I melted a 1/2 cup of sugar into 1 cup of water to create a simple syrup. Next, into the pot went green apple slices, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and lime slices.  I added three bottles of Pinot Grigio, 2 bottles of Chardonnay, a cup of pineapple vodka, and a cup of mango rum. 

YOLO, baby.

SMASH CAKE!!!!!

Waiting patiently for the cake...

Happy Birthday, Boo Baby!

Raymo's First Birthday

Raymo's first birthday could not have been more perfect. My boss is awesome and gave me the day off work so that I could spend it with Boo Baby. 

We slept in until 6:30am (yes, that is sleeping in), and began making making baked goodies for the party. Raymers was an AWESOME help at stirring the cake batter!

Until he decided to tasting was much more fun than stirring...

My sweet roommate from college came from Kansas City to celebrate Raymo's birthday and she made him a yummy pancake breakfast. 

After making lots more treats, we met Daddy at Chipotle for Raymo's FAVORITE burrito: chicken, rice, sour cream, and the spiciest sauce you can imagine. He is his daddy's boy -- the spicier the better!

Our next stop was the mall. Raymo loved the kid play area. He was a great pilot!

And my sweet boy stopped flying his starship in order to save the world from this porous ball of germs...

After a yummy pasta dinner with the grandparents, it was present time!!! He loved building the Little Tikes truck from Mommy and Daddy.

Trucks are more fun without wheels.

Mammo did an awesome job of finding a Monsters Inc. hard hat in addition to a felt tool belt. 

By the way, Raymers is obsessed with hats... 

Cupcake time!

It is official: Raymo likes chocolate.

Happy Birthday Raymo! 

You are the most amazing person in my life and your mommy and daddy have never loved anything or anyone more than we love you!

Dinosaur Jacket

Dinosaurs rock my socks. 

So much so that I decided to make Raymo a dinosaur hooded sweatshirt that could double as a Halloween costume. 

I already had some lime green fleece so I decided on a navy zip-up jacket ($10 from Target) to compliment the green. 

I started with the spikes. I cut a bunch of triangles all different sizes until I found a size that worked for Raymers' jacket. In the end, the good ol' isosceles triangle was the winner. A 6"x6"x8" triangle seems to be the right size for a toddler's jacket but of course this can be adjusted and needed.

 Sew along the two equal sides but leave the longest side open.

 To make the spike as pointy as possible, it helps to cut a little slit at the sewn point of the triangle.

 Flip it right side out...

Oooh, what a threateningly sharp spike that is!

So, I tried whip-stitching the spike onto the hood of the jacket.

NOOOO!!! Huge mistake because it turned out super sloppy and lame sauce-like...

With Ray looking on with fear in his eyes (I kid, I kid), I cut the jacket in half.

  

I left the jacket intact at the neck seam and the bottom stretchy part. I figured this would give a more "professional" look to the finished product.

 Turn the jacket/sweatshirt inside out and fit your first spike inside at the front of the hood. This will give you a smooth seam to sew along. Keep placing spikes evenly along the hood and jacket as you sew the jacket back together.

There was a total of six spikes on Raymo's jacket but you can attach less and leave greater spaces between each.

LOVE IT. 

Pretty stinkin' cute, right? 

You can find the direction for the tail here.

By the way... I went crazy. Yes, I created three dino hoodies and three tails...

 Ray by the food table at our friend's Halloween party... Yummers!

 Mommy and Baby Dino!

Tail directions HERE