Before the Blog: Clay Ornaments

Raise your hand if you are SUPER excited that they holidays are finally here! We had our Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family yesterday since we will be spending the actual holiday with Daddy Did It's side this year.  I was in  charge, so you know there will be some fun posts to come on  that.  But today I wanted to share something that I did a few years ago, before the blog.

I have been working on this year's ornaments, and that got me thinking about some ornaments we made in 2007.  It was a total impromptu thing that started with a Play Doh themed birthday party:

 Since the birthday was less than a month before Christmas and I had Decking the Halls on the brain, I made some clay for the kids to make ornaments out of.

(I don't remember what recipe I used.  But I'm sure you can google salt dough or modeling clay recipes and get a huge list!)

 But I made way, WAY too much.

So we I spent the night cutting out letters, shapes, anything the girls' hearts desired.

And Daddy Did It and my little brother ran to the Home Depot and got some Oops! cans of paint.

 We ended up with green, purple, and red.  Interesting color pallet, I know.

But it turned out so cute!

The topper was three gingerbread men tied together.

Of course, we also added the ones that the kids made and colored themselves!

My fave is the one that Kota (the 3rd Birthday Girl) did of her daddy.

Can you spot him?  He's wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans.  :)

It certainly wasn't our most glamorous tree ever,

but we had a blast making every last piece as a family.

(sorry about the less than stellar pix.  My camera was on it's last leg.  If I remember correctly, it died on Christmas day! :( )

This year, I am working on some book page ornaments.  I hope I get them done in time!

Are you making your ornaments this year?

A Rainbow Fairy

I know it's a little late to post Halloween costumes, but what little girl really needs an excuse to dress up any day of the year, right?

So, even though I'm a slacker, I present The Rainbow Fairy!

This kid has had it in her head for a very long time that she was going to be a rainbow fairy for Halloween this year.

How could I say no to this sweet little girl?

So I bought 16 yards of tulle and got to sewing...

and sewing...

And sewing.

Whew!  8 layers later, we had a beautiful tutu that won't tangle like the tie tutus!

I was so mad last year that I kept having to comb out Kota's & Chey's tutus!

Am I the only one that has this problem?

Anyway, the tutu took me a while, but I love how it turned out!

And I still have about a half a yard of each color left in case I get around to making a skirt for a certain doll Santa MAY be bringing for this little girl for Christmas.

For the shirt, I wanted something that she could wear to school with jeans or wear with the tutu after Halloween, so we went with a simple glittery rainbow.

I bought the wings at Dollar Tree and added rainbow colored glitter to tie it in with the rest of the outfit.

I think Charly's favorite part was the hair pretty.  It kind of looks like a clown, but I love it, too!

It adds a certain amount of whimsy to the costume, don't you think?

Add a little glitter rainbow to her cheek

And rainbow finger nails

And this little fairy was ready to fly off on an adventure

I love it when my kids start a sentence with "Pretend..."  I love watching their little imaginations at work!

This was the most excited she has ever been for one of Mommy's photo shoots.

She kept saying, "Mommy, get a picture of me doing this..."

So what were your kids for Halloween?

Will their costumes be going in the dress up box?