in her momma's footsteps

Over the weekend, Lexi and I had a girls weekend as Daddy was out of town. I decided that was the perfect opportunity for her to make a card for her daddy.

She picked out the stamps (Tiny Treats: Valentine) and the colors. She had a bit of help lining stuff up, but did the hearts all by herself.

And, just to save it for posterity sake, I took a pic of the inside, too. She told me what to write and then signed her name. She messed up the first e (it's sideways) and re-did it so her name looks like Leexi. Ha!

trick or treat bag

My little Rapunzel needed a new trick or treat bag that was a bit bigger. I had some cute Halloween fabric and figured I'd try a tutorial I had pinned. It was really easy to follow and didn't take too terribly long (maybe 2.5 hours, but I'm slow at cutting and that darn computer drags me towards it a lot!). Rapunzel LOVED it and it was perfect for going to Trunk Or Treat on Sunday :)

Felt

I've been out of the card making for a bit. I've been finding it hard to make them lately for some reason. But, I've at least been doing some crafting with PTI supplies! In my last order, I got both Flower Fusion #2 and #3 and several new (to me) felt colors. I've been seeing several of the designers make hair things and lots of felt out in blogland and felt I needed to try my hand!

Sorry about the sizing of pics...I don't know what happened! Of course I deleted the raw images before realizing they're too small :( Anyway...the first clip is just on a barrette. It's one of those ones that are a triangle shape that snap back and forth. I cut out 2 Raspberry Fizz and 2 Hawaiian Shores Flower Fusion #3 flowers and sewed on a small button in the center then used my glue gun to adhere them on.

This one was a little more time consuming. Each "flower" took 5 of the Flower Fusion #2 die cuts. I folded each one in half, then in half again and hand sewed the points to a circle I cut out just a smidge larger than the original flower. I adhered to the headband with a glue gun and then put another circle on the other side to make a sandwich with the headband.

I also added a few leaves on the bottom flower...not sure if I like it or not, but I knew I didn't want all three to have leaves!

This one is harder to see...I may have to try and take another pic of it later. I found this awesome tutorial in my Women's Day magazine and had to try it. So super simple! I did it the way they suggest for the one below, but my center circle was too big to fit a button, so I made a third layer at 5" instead of 6". The top one, I wanted something different, so it's two layers and then two circles cut out with a True Black button in the middle and two leaves. The bottom one also has a pin and a clip on the back, so you can wear it however you want!

I'm pretty pleased with how they all turned out! I also made Lexi a pair of pj pants the other night, so I'll have to share those, too :)

A Fairy Party

My little girl turned 3 on April 29th. To celebrate, we threw a fairy party. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everything I did (boo!), but here's some of the homemade touches. We had the party in an old firehouse, which, unfortunately was a '60's firehouse and not an old charming one with a fire pole!

I started off with her invitations as the inspiration for everything. Pink, Purple, Green, and Blue are the colors I used. I found several different invites on etsy and took different ideas from each one and my DH put it all together. I love how they turned out!

All the kiddos seemed to have a blast. Each of the girls got a pair of wings to wear for the party.

(lexi is below in the bright pink)

The next few pictures are of the food. I tried to go along with the fairy theme...so I had dirt complete with worms, pixie dust so the fairies could fly,

fairy gems,

a fairy garden, (pigs in a blanket in the background)

crab stuffed mushrooms, fruit tray, fiesta party dip and beer bread. I also had DH's grandmother make mini cheesecakes and I had cupcakes, meatballs, spinach and artichoke dip, and pinwheels. YUM.

I used the fairy from her invite and made it into an svg file and cut it with my cricut on vinyl. I put it on a canvas and painted over it purple, then pulled the vinyl off to be left with the white. I added Tinkerbell's famous saying (sorry, it didn't turn out well here), "All you need is a little faith, trust and pixie dust"

I had two banners that I hung that I didn't get pictures of hanging, but here's one that I made. The first one I made with fabric I had laying around and a white grosgrain ribbon.

The second one, a friend made for me last year for Lexi's 2nd birthday. I had put Happy Birthday on using fabric and heat n bond. in the hot pink fabric.

And, finally, here are the water bottles I did. The centers I also used as the cupcake toppers. For table centerpieces, I had little tubs that I planted yellow and purple flowers and added a fairy in it, too.

Thanks for letting me share!!

pictures

I haven't updated my blog in awhile with Lexi pictures, so since I pulled some off the camera from February (I'm behind a bit..sorry!), I figured I'd post these! We were making Valentine's Day cookies...yum!

It's an "A" for Alexia :)

And a different day...one of my favorite outfits...she's so stylish :)

Felt hair do-dad

At almost midnight on Dec 23, I realized that I didn't have any cute hair things for Lexi. And of course, I wasn't about to go out on Christmas Eve to look for something! So I had to make do with what I had....

I grabbed a barrette from Lexi's stash and hot glued a small strip of red felt to it. I cut 5 small circles, folded them, and put a dab of hot glue in the center and attached it to the strip of felt.

Ignore the George pj's :) I had her try it on when she got up in the morning!

Pumpkins

I had a free few moments the other night and made Lexi a super cute pumpkin shirt. I saw something similar, but on a pillow and thought it would be cute for a shirt :)

The orange is fleece and the patterned is regular cotton fabric. I just stitched around each one and added a stem at the top.

She wasn't too thrilled at me taking pictures of her so early in the morning, though! :) Her fun hair corkers were made by my friend, Sarah, of polka dot kid shoppe.

Pbbbllllleeettt

I found this on our computer as I was moving images around. She makes me laugh!! :)

A letter to my daughter

A letter to my daughter on her second birthday:

I thought the first year went quickly. The second has gone by even quicker. You are still changing every single day and it amazes me. You've come so far in the past year.

At 15 1/2 months, you started walking. Our lives haven't been the same since! Walking opened up a whole new world for you as you were able to finally catch the cats, walk into the store holding momma's hand and go play on the playground at the park. Your favorite thing about walking, though, was being able to wear shoes. You always yell "Shoooes!" when you see them. And you now know the difference between regular shoes and sandals. (yes, you are my daughter!)

You still love your fingers. We've tried getting you to stop, but they are your constant companion. Most of the time, we also see you walking around with Doggie, your best stuffed friend. He likes to sit at the kitchen table with you for dinner time, cuddle with you at night time, and go with you in the car. If you can't find him, we often hear, "Goggie, where'd go?".

You absolutely love going outside. I feel horrible when we have to come in because you throw crying fits sometimes, you like it so much! I love watching you get so excited when we go "ow-siiide".

Every day you come up with new words. You also love music and like to dance and sing. We catch you singing your own songs all the time in your quiet little voice. You tell me in that little voice, "love you.....mommy" and it just melts my heart.

I love our weekend snuggle time and when you look at me with your big, beautiful blue eyes. You've been absolutely wonderful and I cannot believe how much you've grown and changed this year. I'm looking forward to watching you grow up. You are the light of my life and the best thing that has ever come to me. I love you with all my heart, Alexia Marie. Happy Birthday!

Love,

Momma

Big Week

This is a big week in our household. Why? Because my baby girl turns TWO on Thursday. She's not really a baby any more :( I'm sad, but I'm loving it even more with how she interacts with us and everyone around her.

I thought it's been awhile since I shared photos..here's a few from the past week!

This one, she pointed to the camera and said CHEESE! so of course, Daddy had to take her picture!

She loves to brush her teeth...we hear TEEF! constantly in our house. There are much worse things she could be wanting to do all the time!

This used to be Daddy's book growing up. I think it's bigger than she is! :)

Peering out the window. I remember it wasn't too long ago that she had to stand on her tip toes and could just barely see out her bedroom window. Not so anymore!

Aw, Momma caught me! :)

Hope you had a great weekend!! Here's to a wonderful week!

What I've been up to...

My brother in law finally came home from Afghanistan on the 14th, so we made a beeline down to Florida for a surprise visit! It's been fun, although, we're heading back tomorrow :( Nice to have Jose back on American soil again (he's pictured above with Lexi).

Snow time

B and Lex went out to play in the snow Sunday before we left for our Super Bowl festivities. She didn't enjoy it as much as when we went sledding, though. I need to get her some gloves that are waterproof and snowproof and don't just keep her hands warm.