Bride and Groom Stockings (project 65)

In the sibling gift exchange for my husbands side of the family, we got the name of his brother who just got married this summer. So, I made these stockings for them.

I'm totally loving them, and there is even a part of me (a very, very small part) that thinks a Christmas wedding would be so fun. 

 The groom stocking was a little more work, you can almost see the lapel in the photo below. If I ever make another one, I might not choose velvet. There were some things I loved about velvet, and some things I didn't. It was a first time sewing with it for me.

 It was perfect looking lying on my table, but I wasn't loving the way it hung. But who cares, no one's looking at the groom, right? They're just looking at the bride! And she turned out beautiful!!

(P.S. I'm scheduling this to post after Thanksgiving, so hopefully they will have opened them by then and I can tell you their reaction)

Also, I made some stockings last year that you can see here and some other ones here.

Purple Owl themed baby girl Shower

I threw a double baby shower for two friends having babies at right about the same time! Although one of them decided to wait until the birth to find out what she was having, they both ended up having girls.

So, I think the shower theme was totally appropriate!

I cheated by buying the printable stuff on Etsy, and it was worth it! So cute, and so easily pulls everything together!

With the purple theme, I did grape kool Aid mixed with Sprite, but it was the water bottles that were the most popular. The labels for those were so cute!

We had a luncheon, so there were a lot of lunch foods. One of the mothers-to-be can't eat gluten, so most of the crackers, cupcakes, cookies, etc. were gluten free.

But not these cute owl cake pops!... A friend made these and they turned out absolutely beautiful!!

I also had jars of purple candy, kind of like a candy bar, but it was on the same table as all the rest of the food.

I made purple cotton candy and put them in snow cone holders. I had found these cool egg holders in the Easter clearance and since they were purple, they worked perfectly for the party!

Thanksgiving Banner (project 64)

These days it seems like it's impossible to get any projects done. 

im. poss. ible.

BUT, once in awhile a miracle happens and I actually begin and finish and project.

This time, it even happened all on the same day.

It started when I went to play group. It was an unusual day for west Texas. 

It was raining.

Just a little bit, but it gave us a chance to use our new umbrellas. (at least for something besides shade) I was surprised to arrive at the park and not find a single other person.

No one else from our really large group was there.

I thought it was good to let my kids experience rain, especially since we hardly ever get any.

I can't imagine a childhood where you never get wet playing in the rain.

I must be the only mom who feels that way.

After about a half an hour, I got a text from one of the mom's saying that due to the weather, we would have playgroup at her house.

So, I went there and there was only her and one other mom. We let the kids play, and I noticed that she had this really cute thanksgiving banner hanging up. 

I looked at it closer and realized that it was all made out of paper. 

Holiday paper. Tied together with jute, and various fall colored ribbons tied in between. 

I realized that I had all the supplies for it at home. I had even contemplated throwing out all my holiday paper the week before since I know I'll never actually finish another scrapbook in my lifetime.

So, I threw the idea at the other moms, ran home and got all my supplies and and we made these banners while the kids played.

Best. Playgroup. Ever.

These aren't very good pictures, but I'd never post anything if I had to have good pictures first.

A close up. I even used my fancy scissors and inker for the edges. It's nice to actually use some of these supplies I've held onto... just waiting for a rainy day...