That Thing Called Life...A Day in the Life of a Crafty Mom

Let the countdowns begin!  I am so ready for a fun season this year.  Last year my pregnancy and complicated delivery slowed me down from doing quite as much, but now I'm ready to be back in the game!  Tomorrow I will be pulling out the Halloween décor and getting it set up.  It will be interesting this year, as my almost ten month old is in to EVERYTHING.  I may have to try that whole hanging a tree from the ceiling deal. ;-) To get the season kicked off, here are a few of my favorite ideas, Pins, and links. DIY Large Outside Halloween Spider Turkey Cupcakes Vintage Christmas I also follow along with 100 Days to Christmas on Facebook , viewing and sharing with other readers some of our favorite ideas. (Website link here .) Tomorrow I'll be posting about my month's worth of cooking in one day, including recipes.  A good start to the hectic and busy season ahead, is to get your dinner time routine simplified.  After some research, I decide...

We first heard about the Elf on the Shelf last year and watched the short TV show on it.  So cute and the kids loved it.  I decided to get them one, only to find they were no where to be found!  This year however they seem to be in vast supply.  Do you have one yet? There are so many different versions: the standard elf , the plush elf and even some very creative hand made elves.   My kids were over the moon when they found out Santa made an early visit and dropped on off outside by our Christmas lights.  Not sure it was the best idea though; my 7 year old nearly had a meltdown when we reminded her the story says she cannot touch him.  Holy cow, I thought for sure the elf would report back to Santa with her on the naughty list.  He was delivered inside his package, hardback book and all.  Next year though, he better just show up where they can't be tempted to reach him.  Sheesh. The purpose of the Elf on the Shelf is that he si...

How many of you had your trees up before Thanksgiving?  Any of you still waiting to put up your tree?  If so, this is an idea you should try. From my favorite time killer, Pinterest, I found these nifty little mirror ornaments.  You hand them on the tree before adding the lights and ornaments and they become reflectors of the lights, and are supposed to double your light effect.  Supplies: Craft mirrors (mine were about 1" but you may want slightly larger ones Ribbon or twine Hot glue   Take 2 matching mirror pieces, put hot glue and a piece of ribbon on one...   add a little more hot glue and add the matching mirror to sandwich in the ribbon.   Now add to your tree and that's it! Again, I wish I would have used larger mirrors, but these worked pretty good.  I just had to be careful not to burn my fingers! Do you have any tricks to making your tree look fuller?  I would love to hear your ideas, and feel free...

The original title of my blog is, "That Thing Called Life", because let's face it: it happens.  I realize I have been MIA for a while and I have a long list of reasons why, but we'll save that for later.  Why don't we get back to some great gift ideas?  First, let me show you what I woke up to this morning... Just as the sun was coming up, so beautiful. Ok, let's make a hair bow basket.  If you already make hair bows and are anything like me, you have a stash of them.  If you do not make hair bows, find someone you know that might make them for you or dabble in making some yourself.  There are some great tutorials on You Tube. Supplies: A basket or flower pot Floral foam Skewer sticks Duck tape Hair bows I had these great round floral foam pieces I found at the Dollar Tree a while back and stocked up on them.  Also in my stash was this really cute basket with the inside round and a perfect fit for the foam. All you do next is...

We are officially 2 weeks to Thanksgiving and 2 weeks until the start of that crazy Christmas shopping marathon.  Have you got your list ready yet? I have been hawking down the Black Friday websites since the end of October and finally today the big one came out: Wal-Mart.  Have you seen the ad yet?  Click here for all the Black Friday Ads . My girlfriend called me this morning squealing: It's here! It's here!  Now I can finally decide what can be purchased now and what has to wait until the big shopping day. I've already been through all the other stores and made my list, but I have to wait on good ol' Wally World's ad before I make my final decisions.  They are going to have Monster High dolls for $10 starting at 8pm on Thanksgiving.  Whoo hoo!  Those bad boys are usually $20 and up.  These may not have all those extra little trinkets, who knows, but I don't care.  My dear daughter has circled them in every toy ad so far and it's the ...

I can't stand it this year.  I just don't want to wait any longer to hear my Christmas music!!  Every year I try so hard to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start playing my music.  Mainly because Thanksgiving gets over looked so much, I hate to feel like I am skipping over it.  For some reason though this year I just can't wait any longer! All my normal radio stations for Christmas music have usually started up by now, but all 3 are still playing the day to day music.  Seriously!?  You're killing me dj's. So I got "smart" and grabbed my smart phone and went to the app store.  If you have any kind of smart phone or tablet, you can do the same.  I just typed in Christmas Music into the search bar and found a great app, simply called "Christmas Radio".  Once I downloaded and opened it, up popped a list of hundreds of stations.  Yay me! (Doing my happy dance.) Maybe it's all the depressing posts and arguments people are scribb...

"Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, amongst the heathen and I will sing praises unto thy name." 2 Samuel 22:50 Today I am thankful for my wonderful, loving husband of 13 years (15 years together).  He supports my craft obsession, my dreams and goals to have my own business.  He also puts up with the monstrous mood swings, short temper, high strung, OCD, panic attacks, on the go and all out crazy wife and mom that I am.  I love him so very much and I don't think he realizes just how thankful I am for him.  I love you baby! OK, today I started my very first "bucket list".  Essentially a list of "to do's" that are more like "want" to do's.  Things I want to do every holiday season and do not always get accomplished.  So I made a list this year and I am plan on sticking to it.  We'll see how it goes.  Here's what I have so far: Buy the Elf on the Shelf & Book, find unique places for it all season. Have all...

What is Kitschy you may ask?  Well if you live in the dark like me I'm sure you are asking this question.  From a little "googling" I have found that the best definition for Kitschy is: tacky, lame, mismatched.  Attractive right?  I was reading through my emails last week and came across this little blog post counting down the days to Halloween.  On day 19, there is the title Kitschy Pumpkin , linked to Cool2Craft .  (If you are not following this blog, you should.  Crafts and instructions of all kinds, it's awesome.) Anyway the little project intrigued me.  You use a bunch of buttons, resins, broken jewelry, just any little thing you have laying around.  In the Pumpkin piece I read, she had her husband carve her out a wood pumpkin.  For some reason this turned on a light bulb in my over worked head, and I remembered purchasing some unfinished wood photo frames last year that I had never used.  Then I thought about all these res...

Craft Hoarder     Hi, my name is Amy and I am a craft hoarder.   How many of you can put your name in that sentence?  I bet a lot of you can.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.  I think.  If you are like me, you hang on to everything that could be a "potential" craft project.  Oh! Don't throw out that shoe box!  I can store craft supplies in it.  Or, that's a sturdy piece of card board (out of a calendar) and I just know I can use it for SOMETHING.   Just to give you an idea, here is some of my stash.       And this is AFTER I have cleaned out.  Haha. Here is my craft area now that has to be resorted and organized.  Any volunteers?     The reason I decided to start with this is to explain what I have been up to and how this can help you.  With the holidays approaching I like to start cleaning things out to make room for decor, guests, and the loads of junk toy...

100 Days of Crafts, Gifts & More     This next project is one that was recently brought to my attention by a friend asking if I could make them.  I really don't know the proper name for them but it's a ribbon key chain made using a large wood bead.   I toyed around with this for a while trying to decide the best way to make one, and I'm pretty pleased with the end result.  For the most part these are pretty easy to make. Supplies: 1" wood beads Key ring paint/sealer/stickers/ect ribbon glue (I found these at Joann's) You will also want to find a way of propping up these beads so you can paint them.  I was ever so elegant in mine. Yes, I used a paint brush.  But I also was able to place some on dowel rods and then stood them up in a block of foam to paint.  For mine, I painted them red and added a hand painted bulldog paw for my daughter's school mascot.  You could hand paint anything you like or use st...

100 Days of Crafts, Gifts & More       The Crayon Roll.  This is a great gift item and perfect stocking stuffer.  Make one of these for every child on your list, just add crayons and a coloring book!  I have done a tutorial on this before but I am bringing it back for our 100 Day Countdown.   Supplies:   FABRIC (I USED A BANDANNA FOR THIS ONE) FUSIBLE WEBBING PONY O MATCHING THREAD SEWING MACHINE RULER OR MEASURING TAPE FABRIC PEN CRAYONS   MEASURE AND CUT: 3 PIECES OF FABRIC 13 ½" X 5" 1 PIECE FUSIBLE WEBBING SAME SIZE   IRON ON THE FUSIBLE WEBBING TO THE WRONG SIDE OF 1 OF THE 3 PIECES OF FABRIC TAKE THE 2nd PIECE OF FABRIC, FOLD IN HALF AND IRON PIN THIS PIECE TO THE 1 ST PIECE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF FABRIC. ALIGN THE OPEN EDGE OF 2 ND PIECE WITH THE BOTTOM OF 1 ST PIECE. JUST PIN ON EACH END TO HOLD IN PLACE. NEXT YOU WILL BEGIN MARKING YOUR LINES. USE A WATER SOLUABLE FABR...