The Season of Giving

I hate posting this after Christmas, but I really had to since I wanted everything to be a surprise! 

So here are a few DIY gifts that I made this year...

I started with a scarf for my daycare provider, because it was the most simple. I made almost 20 of these suckers for my baby shower (but none since) and I was still pretty confident that I would be able to replicate an awesome scarf. 

Success! I had a couple bumps in the beginning, but all in all, I remembered how to fix my mistakes, so it worked out well! I also taught myself how to sew a 'P' onto a knitted piece. It didn't turn out as awesome as I would have liked, but it's still a pretty neat effect! 

Next, it was my cousin's girlfriend's gift. 
I don't know her very well, but I do know that she just had a baby and appears to love pink as much as I do, so that seemed easy enough! 

I found an awesome mug and drew my inspiration from there. I bought 3 different sized bowls, and 2 plates from Dollarama and beautified them with some Sharpies. 

There are now a bunch of different people who have posted about this and I can't find my original inspiration, but this is so easy to do! 

(Just a side note, you should use real Sharpies because I didn't, and the colors changed! Boo! One of the bowls didn't turn out at all, so I kept it!) 

But once you draw (or have your kids draw) on the dishes, stick them in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes. Done! 

I used masking tape to section off the black lines and it worked pretty well! 

This gift fits all my favorite parts about giving a gift - personalized, easy, fast, and inexpensive! 

She thought this was the greatest thing ever! 

Phew!

My next gift, was for my cousin Emma, and I found it on Christy's blog. 

It's a marshmallow shooter! 

Jay got and cut all the PVC pieces and we printed the instructions 

and put it in a box. 

We had to substitute the marshmallows for wheat puffs, since the marshmallows got stuck (maybe our fancy Canadian marshmallows are bigger?).

And, I couldn't resist making this braided ball for my cousin's newborn. 

It was actually pretty easy to make. I used my knitting machine to knit the 6 strands, then braided it all together. I tried to follow the Ravelry pattern, but I found it too complicated to convert the paper strands to knit strands, so I eyeballed it. I added a baby rattle in the middle to make it a little more fun. 

I can't wait to hear updates as she grows!

All in all, it was a successful DIY Christmas! 

{Daily Odd Compliment: I like you more than I like receiving gifts. And I absolutely love getting presents. It's probably my favorite thing to do}

D.I.Y Advent Jar

This year, 
I am omitting a chocolate advent calendar from my list.

Seriously, that's not what the holidays are about! I love spending time with my family, but I feel that more and more, commercialism is trying to take over the world and I am fighting more and more to keep it out of my house... in case you haven't noticed from my last couple of posts. 

Moving on... After Googling and Pinteresting advent calendars, I came up with a good alternative to a candy filled calendar - an advent Jar! 
I found what appears to be an old coffee jar (courtesy of an old tenant/friend) in my basement, so I used it.

First, I used my trusty mod podge to glue some holiday themed wrapping paper to the lid.

Next, I cut out some of the circular pieces and glued them randomly to one side, and cut out triangles to create a tree, on the other side.

Then, once the lid was dry, I cut the excess paper off the lid.

To finish off the jar, I hot glued a snowman ornament, that Abby made one year on her birthday, to the top.

Then, I added all the pieces of paper, each with a different activity on them.

I made some pink, for activities that can be done during the week, and some yellow, for activities that need more time and can be done on a weekend.

I know we are already a few days into December, but Abby hasn't even asked yet about a chocolate calendar, so I am pretty excited about starting this tomorrow!

Now, all we need is snow!

{Daily Odd Compliment: I miss you as much as I miss my childhood. Only, a little less than that.}

D.I.Y / Second hand Birthday Party

My baby girl has turned 6 and my Professor is almost a year old. Whoa.

It was a challenging to think of a good party that could involve both of the kids and be fun, as well as age appropriate, for both age groups. Oh, and it had to be inexpensive! My house is barely big enough to hold my own family, so I decided to do it at our community centre. They have a lot of awesome rooms to rent, but the one I picked, is one that is used for playgroups and has a few couches.

For the cake, I knew I didn't want to do two separate cakes, so I decided to do some mini cupcakes, and cupcakes inside ice cream cones (I don't think I need to tell you that I got the idea from Pinterest, but I will anyway!).

These are really cute, tasty and best of all - really easy to make! Honestly! 
I poured the batter directly into the ice cream cone, about half full, then placed them in a muffin tin, and baked them exactly like I would bake other cupcakes.

I also made Abby a personalized cookie...

...and just an X for the Professor.

And of course, I couldn't let the birthday boy go without a mini cupcake! 

I'm pretty sure he liked it!

It was very important to me to have most of the birthday items be second hand, so I brought as many craft things from my stash as possible... 

I used old colorful file folders that I have laying around for people to cut out... 

I also found some crafts from Abby's 3rd birthday so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to break those babies out. Mel brought some awesome temporary tattoos that you can color in, and the kids (big and small) really enjoyed them!

Needless to say, the craft table was quite a hit! 

After browsing Pinterest for many hours, looking for birthday ideas, I came across a variety of things to do with balloons and/pictures. I knew I wanted to do something fun with some old birthday pictures, more than I wanted to incorporate balloons, so a friend and I braided some yarn, then I taped the braids between 2 pictures. 
Each picture was actually doubled sided, since I wasn't sure where they would hang and I thought it would be a neat effect that way. 
We ended up hanging them from the posts in the room.

The pictures are in order of Abby's birthdays, with the last one being The Professor. 
I think this is just the beginning for me of incorporating pictures like this into a 
birthday party! 

The gifts were awesome! Abby was thrilled with the amount of Barbie related things she got! I was pretty impressed at the Professor's ability to unwrap gifts! 

Tada!

Instead of loot bags for the kids, I decided to get each of the kids a second hand puzzle or game. My idea was for them to potentially play with them during the party, but they were having too much fun! But they all got to take one home to play with, so I think that's a win!

All in all, it was quite a success and I would recommend renting a space like this to any family who doesn't want the chaos that comes with having a 
child's birthday party in your home! 
I can hardly believe that a year ago I was at my wit's end with my pregnancy, and now I almost have a toddler..

The first year is bittersweet, but I do love birthday parties!

{Daily Odd Compliment: From now on, all my birthday wishes will be about you}

Made with Love

I couldn't decide if I should include Abby's present in with the birthday post, but I thought keeping them separate would be more fun, and I want to highlight Abby, just as I did with 

The Professor...

As a homemade gift for Abby, as I explained in my post about The Professor's present, I tried to come up with something that would be both neat, and fun for her. So, I came up with the idea of turning some of her clothes into doll clothes. I sort of went off the tracks from my original idea, but ended up with a good result anyway, so I count it as a win! 

I started off with a skirt of her's that was too small. 

(It had built in shorts, so I removed them.)

Then, I cut both sides of the skirt to remove some bulkiness and width. After I eyeballed it, I measured it against the doll and sewed it at the right width. 

Done. 

(And of course, I made her a cute little vest because I just couldn't resist!)

Then, (and this is where I went off course), I took a skirt of mine that I didn't really like, and made a skirt for Abby, and a halter dress for her doll. 

This is my skirt, which I took apart, including the elastic, and Abby's skirt.

And this is Abby's skirt with the doll's dress. 

This one was a little more complicated, but it turned out pretty cool. It's a little too tight, so I may have to make a few adjustments, but she liked it, so that's all that matters to me!

Next year, I will have to get a little fancier! 

{Daily Odd Compliment: Compared to what I would do for you, The Legend of Zelda is just child's play}