This is another tiny baby quilt I made several years ago for Sam’s other best friend that had a baby. They’ve been friends since seventh grade and this was their first munchkin. They were waiting to find out the gender so I decided to incorporate the crazy black-and-white patterns newborns find so mesmerizing. :) And I included a little cardinal – who’s got a little present under her wing flap for her new baby owner – which ended up being a girl!
Two years ago I made this quilt for our church’s annual quilt sale. All the quilts are donated and the proceeds go towards missions. I love that they do this and that I was able to participate! I used mostly suiting fabrics, and florescent pink thread. :) I really liked how it turned out – it was so heavy from the weighty fabrics, and oh so cozy!
I created this little quilt for my husband’s best friend’s new baby boy. Sam and Mason have been on many camping trips together and I wanted to make a quilt that showed their fondness of the mountains. This quilt was the first one I made with a little surprise 3D flap used for the tent – and when opened there are 10 tiny toes willin’ for some chillin’. :) I know Mason and his son will have many camping memories in the future, but until then he can dream of spending time with his dad snuggled up with his quilt. :)
I have decided to post some of the other quilts I’ve made in the past. I created this one for my youngest after his birth, and it’s the first quilt I ever made. It’s a small snuggly baby size because he was a newborn – and because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing! :) But I love how it turned out and hope he saves it for always and remembers how much I love him.
You know that great warm feeling you get when you find something nostalgic – or at least kind of close?
Well, finding this online Lite-Brite did it for me. Oh how I loved my big, wonderful Lite-Brite as a kid! :) Enjoy!!
My Collee was invited to a Bible Study with girls her age. They’re learning verses each time and this week she’s learning:
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
Isn’t this excellent? My sweet oldest said, “Oh, we need this!” Love sibling love. :)
Last week she was supposed to memorize Prov 3:5-6. And her mom (ahem, that’s me) scrambled to make a printed version to help her “remeberize” it. It’s not cute, and barely designed, but it got the job done and we all learned it. It may be vain to not post here, but if I ever get around to redoing it I’ll post … but really,
“ain’t nobody got time for that!” (I ♥ Sweet Brown!)
{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}
I have one little critter that likes to pull pranks (like throwing her fake cockroach into my shower – ack!), two that love their plastic animals, and another that is getting into the pre-teen years and I don’t want her to forget the little kid inside…
and inspired by my cousin’s prank on his kids,
I added a little friend to the short’s school lunches today :)
I picked them up from school and they were talking all over each other about finding their man-eating snake – and my prankster congratulated me on a job well done. Means a lot coming from the pro.
This just in: a snake wrangling short dropped a whole roll of toliet paper in the can – which was thankfully flushed prior to the mishap. Not a prank, just felt like it. Zing!
Fall is here! And with the new season and holidays approaching, I am again trying to think of new, easy, kid-friendly treats we can make and ALL eat. (Remember that Spark has loads of food allergies, and dear dad has Celiac.) My little gal also had a friend coming to play today, and I was racking my brain on something fun to make for snack time! And then the heavens parted, and I remembered a childhood favorite that my mom would make – fried flour tortilla quarters covered in cinnamon and sugar… and thankfully Spark and Sam can eat corn tortillas! I threw in some cookie cutters and now we have a fun new treat we all can enjoy.
To make, all you need is:
> flour tortillas (I love how the flour tortillas puff into 3D when fried), or corn if you’re allergic/intolorant (they’re flatter and crisper, like a chip – but still yummy!)
> oil for frying
> cinnamon and sugar
> cookie cutters
Use the cookie cutters to cut out tortilla shapes (the younger ones needed a little help cutting all the way through).
In a pot or dutch oven, fry the shapes on both sides. (I fried the corn tortillas before the flour, just to be allergy safe.)
Using tongs, remove and place on a paper towel covered plate, then immediately coat with cinnamon and sugar.
And devour!!! (bwah-ha-ha!)
And if you’re a grown up, brew some magic bean with these tasties and your already fantastic fall day just got even better ;)
The library is such a fun visit for the shorts and me. They all go straight to their favorite section – my boys love non-fiction books on animals and cars, and the girls head for the juvenile fiction. I’ve enjoyed reading the juvenile/young adult classics that I didn’t read as a kid and new literature too like The Penderwicks series! :) We also have a family tradition of stopping at local book stores when we’re out of town, and they each get to pick out a book. We write in the cover where we were and the date. Half Price Books is a family favorite too!
So, I have this goal to build our family library. We have a decent collection going, and I was inspired by the book The Library and the character’s own checkout system she devised for her personal books. I had to explain the old-school way of checking out books to the shorts – the paper pockets with cards and date stamps. I checked out The Borrowers over the summer and it had the paper pocket still in it! So they got to see a real, old, date-stamped pocket :) Then I set to work on making pockets and cards for the girls’ books.
We decided to make them for chapter books only, since it was a pretty big undertaking and they’re the only ones that are old enough to work the system. The pockets are blank so each girl can write their name on their own books, and our last name goes on the family books. The checkout cards have “Date Out” instead of “Date Due”. We wanted it to be a family history of when the books were read and not about dealing with returns – no late fees here! And when our future grandkids come over they can check out books their mom read at their age. :)
Here’s the Library System I made for you to print as well. There are many colors! We printed one of each and sorted the books that matched each pocket color so we had a count before printing.
You’ll need these supplies to make them:
a cutting mat, xacto, straight edge, #65 smooth white paper, and double stick tape. We also bought this date stamp at the craft store! It’s so fun to stamp the cards!!
After you trim the pocket, fold the two tabs to the back. The double stick tape is wide enough to secure the tabs and adhere to the book in one step (see above photo). We found it easier to write on the pockets before attaching them to the books, but you may want to attach first so you don’t loose track of which goes where. The last page of the PDF file is the cards. Just trim them out using the crop marks, being careful not to cut through to the neighboring cards. The two rows are pretty close together to save paper!
And now you have your own official home library system! Yippee skippy and happy reading :D
{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}
I recently made clothes dividers as part of a baby gift for my girls’ sweet teacher. I thought these may be helpful for others so I decided to post here too. I printed the gift in blue-grey and orange but made these black and white so you can customize to match your room colors.
Craft stores have loads of different colored papers that the dividers can be printed on and ta-da! you’ve got a match! The first page of the PDF file is the striped pattern for the back of each divider. So print Page 1 on each sheet first. Then flip and reprint the remaining PDF pages of the front divider graphics on each sheet. Trim the outside circle, cut through to the center circle, and trim again. You could also leave the dividers black and white too :)
{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}