Embrace the Camera and new projects...

Don't mind us, we're just embracing the camera.

I can't believe I actually remembered.  Some times I'm a little bit of a ding dong, but that goes along with one of my goals for this year.  I am going to really try to make conscious efforts to be mindful of things I need to remember and things I have tried to commit to. Andy will love this one.  

I will give myself a little grace, but I need to make that effort.

A new challenge for myself for the new year is this fun one that Elsie is doing over on A Beautiful Mess called Project Restyle. 

  It just involves restyling something damaged, unused or unwanted (household item or clothing) into something usable and beautiful.  Now I know for sure I will not be able to do one project every week, but who knows I might just surprise myself.

A Little More Vinyl

Here are a few of the other vinyl Christmas gifts I made this year.

Vinyl purses.  

I was inspired by a b-day gift I received from a friend and made little purses with this crocheted trim on it.

 Sunglasses case for her...

 and for him.

 Wallets for all the boys.

 One special order wallet for Ella.  This year with Ella's school pictures she also received an ID card.  She has a little princess wallet, but it wasn't big enough for her ID card, so every time she was asked what she wanted for Christmas she would say a big girl wallet with a puppy on it.

 This one will definitely fit her ID card.

 Julian, of course, also wanted a wallet, only his request was one with a T Rex on it.  I know, don't laugh, that is supposed to be a T Rex.  I'm going to use the excuse that it was really late at night. HA!!!

 Slippers for the little mister...

and a pair for the big mister.

I love vinyl and I still have plenty more.

A Vinyl Christmas

 Not vinyl as in records. Although we did recently get a record player and we have been collecting records at estate sales and we did play The Little Drummer Boy record about 5 hundred times this Christmas season.  I am talking about the gifts that I made from vinyl.  I found a roll of vinyl a couple of months ago and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew I would figure something out...Christmas gifts!!!

 I made a bunch of different clips for the little girls in the family...bows, headbands with bows and crocheted trim covered clips, like the one above.

Vinyl is surprising really easy to sew and, yea, yet another material that will not fray. 

 I backed the vinyl with felt so that the clip would stay glued on a little better.I don't like wrapping the actual clip with ribbon because those never seem to hold Ella's hair too well, so I just glued the clip directly on the felt.  Who looks at the back anyway, right?

 With all the new clips we really needed somewhere to store them all.  Up until now, all of Ella's clips have been piled in a drawer.  Here is how I made this clip holder.

 I spray painted this thrifted frame gray.  Then as I was looking through Andy's hardware looking for the staple gun, I found these U-shaped nails.  I'm not even sure what they are called.

I nailed then around the frame in the back.

 Backview.

 Then I had a little fun just stringing some string through the U-shaped loops to make a plenty of space to clip the clips.  I pulled the string really tight so they wouldn't sag. 

Done. 

A Mini Garage

This year Julian was the one to get the homemade gift from daddy for Christmas...

a mini garage for all of his motorcycles.

 Andy had talked about it for a couple of weeks and started it a few days before Christmas.  He wasn't real sure exactly how he was going to make it, but he knew he wanted it to be able to open up.

 He ended up using an old washboard for the back side of the roof and a metal sign for the front part of the roof that flips open.  The Imperial sign on the side is the top part of the washboard that was cut off.

 The front has barn style doors that open up.

 Inside there are bunks for the motorcycle men, space for the motorcycles, and a bunch of pieces and parts of motorcycles that have broken.

 The metal ramp is removable and can be set up anywhere.

My favorite part of the whole garage is the walls that are covered with magazine pictures from motorcycle magazines.  It looks like a real garage.

Best of all Julian loves it...and so does Ella.

Christmas 2010

A couple of pictures from our Christmas.  

It was a full day at four different locations.  After loading the car with food, presents, jackets and kids, I remembered my camera for only 2 of those locations.  Ugh!  Oh well, just happy we were able to see most of our rather large family and some memories will live on only in my heart.

Hope your Christmas was filled with memories.

Merry Christmas!!!

 There is a babe in the manger and it is time to celebrate.

This little reindeer is wishing you a 

Merry Christmas!!

magical reindeer food

 Did you know that there is magical reindeer food that helps Santa's reindeer find your house?  Yeah, neither did I, but Ella's teacher found the food which looks a little bit like oatmeal with glitter in it, ahem, and sent a little home with each student.

E & J had fun sprinkling it on our lawn.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Wrap it up!

 With a roll of craft paper to last a lifetime and snowflakes falling all around us, all we had to do was add a little green jute to wrap it all up.

 

yes, these are back posted, if anyone is wondering...is that what it's called?

3 More Days!

 It's getting close.

So make room for some music to celebrate...

 ...and think of all the fun to be had after the rain stops.

Three more, that's it.

I'm embracing it...

 Just discovered Emily Anderson over at the Anderson Crew, and love her blog, ideas, and spunk.  On Thursdays she holds a little challenge called Embrace the Camera, which is a challenge for you to take a picture with your kids.  I love this challenge because it is a challenge.  I'm usually the one behind the camera, so there are very few photos of me with the kids.  I know some day they will appreciate pictures of us together in photos so I really want to take up this challenge this coming year.  I figured out how to use the timer on the camera so we are off to a good start.  

So although it is not Thursday, here are a couple more pictures from our time at the beach the other day.

 I think I set the camera up to take pictures every 4 seconds in a sequence of 8 or 10.  I don't even remember how many times we ran back and forth.  The kids wanted to do it over and over again.  I was having so much fun with them plus we were staying warm.

 outtake...

 I am going to try to do the Thursday challenge...but knowing me I will forget, but I am definitely going to be taking more pictures of myself with the kiddos.

 On a little side note, I came across these camera bags that are just amazing.  They are super cute and from the pictures they are nicely organized inside.

LOVE, love love all the color options also.

Got a lot of gift wrapping done tonight, time to go get some sleep!