Christmas Creativity

I love crafting things. My mom is a very talented seamstress, and that just didn't pass on to me (I'm not patient enough, nor am I a perfectionist). But I love to dabble in just about everything else. The only crafting that is of any skill is my knitting, and I'm not too experienced. I like to scrapbook, paint things, use my hot glue gun, decorate and sew pillows and various other decorative items.

This year I made marble magnets, definitely one of the easier Christmas crafts I have made. The best instructions I found are here from a great website called not martha. I don't have any special close-up lenses for my camera (hint, hint... nice gift idea!), but here are my best pictures of some of the magnets I made:



Danny made glycerin soap cubes for the grandparents. This was lots of fun for us, because we used glycerin soap blocks and just added food coloring and some lavender essential oil. The best directions for glycerin soap are from Martha of course. But I don't have any great pictures of what we made. I think that we were pressed for time, so once it was made we wrapped and shipped them right away.

I didn't get the scarf and hat made for Danny, so we'll see if that happens in the next month. Last year we had snow into April, so there is definitely still time for him to wear them if I get around to it!

Fun Capes

One of the favorite gifts from Christmas are these great capes my mom made. She is so talented. I mentioned this Etsy shop to her, and she looked at the design and made her own versions for the kids. Danny and Annelise love running around in them. I don't have video of the "Super-Daddy flyer", but Randy is really good at "flying"them. They have been worn to the grocery store, for a nap, on the bike, and all over the neighborhood. Danny's cape is red with a superman print on the inside, and Annelise's is purple with a bright floral on the inside. Too fun! Check out this video! (Remember that I am linking to the video on You Tube, just in case your web browser doesn't allow you to click on the video from my blog!)

Happy New Year

A week late, but there you have it!

Christmas was fantastic! We all took the week off and had loads of family time. There were two play dates and one dinner at friends. Trips to the park with Danny's new bike. Chasing Annelise around with her new dolls (oh, is she obsessed!). And general relaxed happiness!

Of course I have pictures/videos to post, and I hope to get to that place in the next week.

In MD, winter break is only 1 1/2 weeks, so Randy and I both headed back to work last week (Wednesday for Randy and Thursday for me). The kids have had a bit of an adjustment going back to school and day care. The weather has been amazing, though (think Southern CA winter... without any rain), so I have been running them outside a ton before the snow comes. It actually reached 70 yesterday and was clear and sunny. It will start cooling today, though, and I'm sure we'll have some snow by the end of the month.