Advent Calendar Day 2

Today we changed our calendar to 23, and added stockings which I found at michaels, in the scrapbooking section. They were originally stickers, I just took the backing off. Later we will put things in the stockings. I also used hooks for hook and eyes for the stockings.

Advent Calendar Day 1

I have to put all of my crafty projects on my blog instead of facebook, because I don't want the whole world knowing that I'm a nerd, :) hehe. Anyways, here is a project that I started last christmas and am going to finish it this year, unless I go into labor before that happens. This is our advent calendar. I sewed all of these pieces on a piece of white felt on my sewing machine, I was able to add the train tracks on the rug using a stitch on my machine. Each day we are going to add something new to the picture and count down on the calendar. Today we added the christmas lights. I used hooks from hooks and eyes that I bought from michael's to string the lights on. I just hand stitched them on the sides of the tree, so you can take the lights off and on.

To keep these little hands and minds busy....

Soo, I've been trying to think of someways to keep Alissa busy without having her destroying the house :) I've decided I'm going to try some montessori trays or shoe box bins, since I have a million of those (Why you ask? maybe I'm a bin hoarder, who knows... :) Timothy?? maybe we have something in common :) ) Anyways, I've got some ideas from: Counting Coconuts, and I figured I might as well blog about my journey...

So, here are the ones I'm going to do first, I'm trying to keep it simple, cheap, and still letting myself be a little creative... But I don't want to go crazy yet, I'll try a few simple ones first and then see how it goes...

1. Rainbow craft - This one seems fun, interesting, and easy. You take a piece of paper, draw outline of a rainbow, cut strips of different colored construction paper, let Alissa tear the pieces into small squares and then sort and glue on the rainbow, a few at a time.

2. Pouring rainbow rice from one container into a matching container - I found a tutorial on dying rice, which I thought Alissa would enjoy.

3. Spooning beans from on bowl to another - This one is easy, I will probably take a mixture of lentils and beans and call it bean soup :)

4. Toothpick pushing - This one sounds like a lot of fun, something I would enjoy doing :) You take something like flag toothpicks or umbrella toothpicks and a short cylinder piece of styrofoam and stick the toothpicks into the styrofoam

5. Tweezing flowers - All you need is flowers off of a lei, tweezers and two bowls. object is to use the tweezers to transfer the flowers from one bowl to the other

6. Sorting - for this one, I can either use a variety of things, but the one that interested me the most was the plastic ice cubes, I love the feel of them and think they will be a fun thing to play with, so I will need those or some beads and an ice cube tray, mancala board or something else of the sort, to sort these objects or to put them in a sequence. I may end up doing two of these..

7. Ice cream sensory tub - Last but not least I'm going to make one of these, Inspiration #1 & Inspiration #2

I'm going to find my supplies at either a dollar store, craft store, or thrift store. Hopefully I can get any supplies I need next week :)

Sharing a smile! If you like it vote for @JessAlissAnth and help them win an iPad :) @smilegen

Sharing a smile! If you like it vote for @JessAlissAnth and help them win an iPad :) @smilegen

Mother Day!!

This felt like my first mother's day, because Alissa is now old enough to understand. Earlier this week Alissa watched a Go Deigo Go! about mother's day, and since then she had plans to go with Daddy to pick out a present for me for mother's day. So on Saturday Alissa went to her dance class and then to the store for my presents. This morning when she woke up she was soo excited. The first thing she said was, "Daddy, it's mother's day?". Eric told her it was and she said, "Come on, Let's go wrap presents!". So Eric and Alissa went and wrapped my presents and then when they were done she came and told me to come and open my presents. She was so cute as she watched me open each present and asked me if I liked them. I got a robe (which I asked for), a box of Super Mario Brother's Gummies, and a Cleaning brush that looks like a lady. She picked out the last two gifts herself. I also got a cute Happy Mother's day followed by a hug and kiss. The whole day she was sweet, giving me hugs and telling me she loved me. It was really special!

Free groceries

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

Hey, I just entered this contest on Cozi.com to win free groceries for a year. All you have to do is put in your email address.

Even if you don’t enter, please click the link to help me win. (I get an extra entry for telling you.) Thanks!

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Isn't she stylish

Alissa likes to pick her own clothes and accesories :)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cloth Diaper reviews

Just wanted to let you all see this, this lady is doing a cloth diaper review, I'm interested to see which ones she likes best, although I don't think she is testing the gDiapers, which are what I use and like the best, I use the gCloth inserts and they work better than any I've tried. Here is a link to her review: http://luvsjurn3.blogspot.com/2009/12/cloth-diapers-exposed.html

15 Minute Tackle

I may be a little late, but I'm going to commit to doing the 15 minute tackle with The Domestic Contessa , I'm going to focus on Laundry, if I spend at least 15 minutes a day, maybe I can catch up on the laundry, especially because my little girl is going on vacation and she will need clothes to take with her :) Here is a link to the post if you would like to join too!

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

For almost a week now, I've just been bursting with joy. I'm not sure exactly what has changed in my life, all I know is that God has placed joy in my heart and I'm so thankful for the change it has made in me. I want to spend time with people and laugh and have a good time. I'm enjoying each moment with my kids, rejoicing in every smile and cherishing every hug. I'm filled with love for my husband that is richer and stronger than it's ever been. I'm just so thrilled to have life and love and a beautiful, healthy family. I'm going to hang on to this joy as long as I can and pray that God keeps refilling my joy in times that it gets hard: Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice!!

Twirl skirt

My sister sent this link to me,

isn't this skirt adorable? I just love it, I would like to make one of these or something like it, but she doesn't have a tutorial, so I've searched for others, here are a few of my favorites, Next I just need to pick up some material, so I can start on a few projects.. :)

Easy Skirt Tutorial

Teired Skirt, AKA the twirl skirt

Twirly Skirt Tutorial

My next project: Sewing Machine cover:

I am about to start decorating my dining room because I received a coca cola table and chair set for christmas, which I will show you later, but now that I have my sewing machine in my dining room I'm going to make a cover for it that will be cute, here is the one I'm going to use:

Sewing Machine Cover tutorial

Here are a few More

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

I'm a follower of Stay At Home Mommy A.K.A. Babychaser. She reminds me of myself in many ways, on of which being she has a son that is 3 months older than my daughter, and a baby girl that is a year older than Anthony. I find comfort and encouragement when reading her blog, because she is in the same season of life that I am, at home with toddlers, making messes :). But today's blog was more than I could ask for. I had a rough day today, it took me until 1pm to finish getting dressed and ready for the day, and broke down in tears when my daughter put a brand new roll of toilet paper in the sink (she's done this about 10 times although I've never caught her in the act, just found the soaking toilet paper roll). Needless to say, everything about my day was frustrating me, and more than once I grumbled or complained about something, I called my husband to let him know of my frustrations a couple times (which I know just blesses his day). I got through the day however, and Alissa was just a sweetheart, telling me it's okay mommy, don't cry, lets read this book, it'll be fun!, patting my back saying, shh shh shh. But now as I'm going to bed, I sit and read this post and the post by Kristin and I'm inspired to give God my frustrations and get rid of my bad attitude. Psalm 19:14 is one of my favorite bible verses:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

This is my prayer and verse for this year

Sewing or Scrapbooking, How about Sewing while Scrapbooking?

My mom told me today that she's not interested in sewing right now, she wants to scrapbook... So I started wondering if you could sew while scrapbooking, So here are some tutorials for sewing on scrapbook pages:

Beading & Sewing on Scrapbook pages

Hand Stitching on Scrapbook pages

Embroidered Titles

Machine Stitching on Scrapbook Pages

This looks like a lot of fun!! I like the looks of the hand stitching better than the machine stitching. Enjoy!

Purse organizers, are they worth it?

I've seen these on the internet a lot when looking for tutorials, Has anybody ever used one of these before?

Here is a tutorial for it, I've seen another one that uses interfacing instead of batting, depends on if you want it stiffer or not..

Here is a slightly more complicated version of this, which I find interesting: These are the kinda things that make me want to take these and create one that fits exactly what I would need it to do (Hold diapers, and bottles, and baby food :) )! That's what I enjoy the most about sewing is letting my creativity take something and make it better :)

Oven Hand Mitt Tutorial

I saw this tutorial and fell in love with it, I wish I would've seen it before christmas, it would've made a great christmas gift! Maybe next year. I'm going to start posting fun and cute tutorials on my blog maybe one a day - for a while, I would say for a year, but I know that I often do finish what I start :) Oh well, Here is the first one. Can't wait to make one of these: