I made a Scoodie

I wanted to make a few gifts for the holidays, girls are easy to make gifts for.. skirts, bags, dolls — there's so many options (and with 2 girls of my own I have quite a few patterns collected).  But I have a sweet little nephew that I really wanted to make something special for this year. I was racking my brain trying to find something quick and fun and then I remembered... THE SCOODIE!! I saw it on Happy Zombie's blog this summer (BTW I love this gal's blog - her style, her humor, and she's uber talented!).

So I whipped this one up over the weekend (yay! instant gratification for a finished project). It's a really quick project. I added some extra 'mohawk' prairie points at the top for a rockstar effect (he's also getting a sweet Paper Jamz guitar - so it needed a little extra rock start touch). Then I had my girls model it before I wrapped it up for the nephew. 

Inspired by the Happy Zombie post, I also had Flora try out modeling. She was a little less enthusiastic about helping me out. Blog modeling might not be her thing, but she liked the cookie pay out at the end.

Oh Thank Cuteness!!

Happy Thanksgiving! Generation Q asked readers to share their cute blessings this Thanksgiving. So here are my FIVE awesome kids. I never thought I'd have five kids, but life has a way of working out a little different than a girl "thinks" sometimes and lucky for me it did. I LOVE having this big family!

For a few years it was just me and my sweet girls. Miss Charlotte who is always ready with a big smile when a camera is nearby. Seriously, ever since she was a baby she has a great big smile in every picture. That is definitely — Oh Thank Cuteness!!! 

And my other sweet girl, Miss Josie. She can be a real fire cracker but I just adore this spunky girl. So it was us three lovely ladies, 'til the one day when I met this fellow, and we knew it was much more than a hunch, that this group would somehow form a family....  (sound familiar?)

Anyway "POOF"... I end up with five kids. Kyle my oldest step-son who is so helpful and sweet. And just like his dad, he loves taking things apart and putting them back together. He even taught Josie to ride her bike without training wheels this summer. 

And Alex who is so funny and entertaining. Also one heck of a sweetheart and always ready to help out however I need him. Plus he is so clever, he's always coming up with a punchline. 

And little Jacob. Look at that smile!! Heartbreaker! That little guy is always smiling too, he's so easy going and funny. So there you go. Lucky me to have all of these blessings in my life this Thanksgiving, plus an awesome husband who's making an AMAZING homemade, New York style cheesecake for dessert tomorrow (HEAVEN!) 

There's rarely a dull moment in our house with all of these kids running around, and I'm so thankful that life worked out a little different than I planned.

Cool Stuff I Found at the Craft Bazaar

I went to a few craft bazaars this weekend. I love checking out crafty stuff other talented folks are making. It's inspiring and energizing. Plus I always bump into a few peeps I haven't seen in a while, or peeps like my awesome realtor -- I didn't know she was also a talented jewelry maker! Here's what I ended up taking home with me.

That's a Hello Kitty wallet made out of Duck Tape. It was made by Ben's World of Duck Tape - a 12 year old boy trying to save up some Christmas money. He was such a sweetie and Hello Kitty Duck Tape, I had to have it. The cute flower barrettes were also made by a couple of young ladies who started their own little business last Christmas to save up some spending money. I was so impressed by all these little entrepreneurs at the craft bazaar this year. Plus those barrettes are going to look darling in the girls hair for Christmas! And I really couldn't resist the Garlic Lady and her tasty treats - Spicy Margarita Mix, Garlic Jalapeño Olives, and Habeñero Garlic Cloves. YUM! The salesman promised if I ate a Garlic Clove everyday I'd never get a cold again, I guess it's worth a shot.

I finally finished up this lovely bright quilt for mom. The quilt label I made says Summer 2011.... oops! But at least we're still in 2011 and I did start it in the Summer of 2011. I took it to a longarm quilter to finish up. The girls helped me pick out a paisley quilting pattern. I'm looking forward to seeing it in a couple of weeks.

I wanted to share this gorgeous bag. I DID NOT MAKE IT. My friend Teresa made it for me. I picked out all of the fabrics and she whipped up the pattern from Kay Whitt's new book Sew Serendipity Bags. Isn't it gorgeous?!?!? Love the ruffles and bright colors.

Pinkalicious!!!

We went to Pinkalicious the Musical presented by Oregon's Children's Theatre last night. It was so cute! I got the girls and their cousin Cambelle all dressed up for the event. Pink! Pink! Pink!

I won tickets this summer from a local radio station. And we've been anxious to go ever since.

Pinkalicious is a children's book that I've read many many times to the girls. It's a cute story and I like how the artwork is done. It's a different style, sort of like a collage.

We met the cast afterward and had them sign our poster. And the girls told Pinkalicious they had all of her books (Pinkalicious, Purplicious and Goldilicious). So funny they were acting like long-time fans.

Dr. Wink did a tap dance routine which the girls really liked too.

Papa's Packing Heat Zinfandel

What else do you give a guy who's turning 70? A bottle of his favorite wine decked out with a birthday label of course! This is the first wine label I've made —usually it's the hard stuff— but I think this turned out really cute. First it's orange, and I'm still loving orange lately, and second, check out the AWESOME pic I had to work with — serious, vintage, pro bowling shot! 

Saaaaaaaa - weet! I totally love old pictures.

The back of the bottle has the logo and a little tribute to the birthday fella. It says "A wine for the master of unusual sports. A champion of pole vaulting, trap shooting, arm wrestling and bowling. This spirit is aged to perfection for a man who is an amazing husband, father and grandfather — Papa."

I had a lot of fun with the typography on this one. I wanted a funky vintage look for this label. I added a toile background to the orange to give it a little texture and I stayed really simple with the colors. The joke is Papa is known for always being armed and dangerous, so they wanted to have a little fun with that — "Always Locked & Loaded" and "Papa's Packing Heat Zinfandel".  He used to be quite the rough and tumble sort of guy and he has a knack for mastering unusual sports like arm wrestling and bowling — he sounds like a pretty fun guy to me. 

Special thanks to my helpers. Josie provided entertainment dancing around the original bottle while I worked on the computer and my dear, sweet, perfectionist of a husband helped trim away the excess pieces on the label. He has the eye for detail and patience for perfection that I am sometimes lacking. You guys are the best :)