Pinned it, Did it!

Last month I finally gave into the time-sucking wonderful world of Pinterest. A friend of mine sent me an invite and I joined while imposing a rule that I could only pin things that I could realistically create. Well, here it is. The first thing that I actually did after pinning!

I saw these totes on V and Co and knew that they would make great gifts for the kiddos for Valentine's Day. The pinned version is way more filled in, but seeing as though I had a helper, I just wanted to get some of it done. I like the way they look, and so will the kids, which is what really matters. I may go back and add more color in, but, seeing as though I have a quilt to finish (well, to be honest, start) for my sister's birthday in a month AND I need to get crackin' on a class to renew my teaching license, this is most likely the finished product. 

And, because she loves the camera, here's my painting assistant, blueberry face and all.

Something new!

Well, I have been busy. Between the holidays, Charlie's birthday, and potty training the girl, I haven't been able to blog much. But, I have had time to squeeze in some crafty goodness! A friend of mine is teaching me how to crochet. What better reason to whip up a new bag to hold all my new yarn! I know it is quite small to hold some people's yarn stash, but I purposely made it this size so that I do not go out of control buying yarn! I found a free tutorial online for the bag. I didn't add the closure tab, since it is simply for yarn, but I did embellish it with this fun flower pin I made. Those could also become an obsession, if not for all the glue strings I had to pick off of it. And since my few crochet hooks (and Mom's old yarn hook) quickly became Abbie's newest drumsticks, I whipped up a hook roll as well. I used this tutorial.

Another friend of mine has been having an extremely stressful couple of weeks. Her daughter has been quite sick and she has found herself in and out of doctor's offices and making late night phone calls to urgent care. Her daughter is a such a joy and loves to play with Abbie so I figured she deserved a little something special. It has been a long time since I made a crayon wallet. After making over ten of them as favors for Abbie's rainbow birthday party last year, I did not have a desire to make another one. For Miss Grace I made an exception. I put some lovely markers in and Abbie drew her a sweet note after I took these pictures. I am happy to report that Abbie's little friend loved it.

**I'm linking up to Finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts and Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday**

January 2012

The end of December and pretty much all of January has flown by and was packed full of fabulous family time. I never did get too many pictures of Christmas, mostly because I waited to get great Christmas morning shots of the kids. Too bad I didn't know ahead of time that Abigail would be sick on Christmas Eve. I'm thankful I do have a cute one of the kids by the tree. And it was Christmas card worthy! Phew! Anyways, on to January!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at home again. I am loving that tradition. It just seems like the perfect thing to do when the kids are this age. Mike and Rachel came down once again, as did Brian and Gavin. Abigail enjoyed the crowns and noise makers. Shocking, I know. Charlie and his fabulous memory remembered that we play a lot of Wii on NYE, so of course, as soon as Brian and Gavin showed up, we needed to kick start the Wii-a-thon. Not much could make that boy happier:) He surprised me (but not Ben) by staying up until midnight. What a little man we have...

Speaking of that little man....he somehow turned six (6!) this month. I got his quilt finished during his birthday week and we even survived our first classroom birthday party. We took Charlie, Abigail, and 18 of his closest buddies to the bowling alley. We had to make due with some iphone pics because this mama forgot to put the card back into the camera. Good move, Mom. Good move. We survived, but not without a few beverages after the party! I think Charlie would probably say his favorite thing about his birthday (besides the presents: nerf vest, radio for his new ipod, star wars puzzle...) was going to Olive Garden. I mean, do you see that photo up there? I'm pretty sure that chocolate cake made his day...and everyone else's too!

This month also found Charlie mastering shoe tying and reading up a storm. I brought home sets 3-5 of the Bob Book series last week. I love that he is just as excited to get a new set of books as he is a new Lego set. Well. Not just as excited, but pretty darn close! Hopefully we are doing something right!

This has been pretty boy-heavy so far, but the girl has had a big month, too. We are currently tackling potty training. Abigail has been wearing undies for one week and one day! Her favorite thing about going potty is washing her hands. We have to go potty everywhere we go and I have a sneaking suspicion that it is only to find out what kind of paper towel dispenser they have. She LOVES those things! All I can do is shake my head and go along for the ride.