Lets Go Blue Jays Lets Go!

Super excited b/c tomorrow we are off see our First Jays Game with our 2 oldest boys. My honourary Older Brother and family ( Thanks Wiebe, Cindy and Dede!) gave us tickets to go and watch a game. Pick up a few more for Oma and Pake, and Kiko their exchange student and off we go to TO!!!

So I wanted to find some T-shirts for the boys, something simple. Nothing to be found around but at sporting stores, limited designs for kids, NOTHING small enough for a 4 and 6 year old. Plus... I'm not about about shell out $50 for them...I am sure we will get robbed a bit tomorrow at the game..hahaha!

So I picked up some T-shirts at Walmart ($4 each) and my hubby grabbed some print your own t-shirt transfers (10 for $15). Using 4 sheets (so $6) I made 2 shirts, customized with their own birth order, last names and the date of the game. I love how they turned out. This was my first time doing a print your own, iron-on transfer. I was a bit rough and by all means they are not perfect! But always a learning experience. And for one game I spent $5 and about 2 hours of my time ( ironing and designing those numbers with the stripes!). If they really get into baseball...we'll consider upping the investment at a later date....

Number 01 and 02 ( number 03 is hanging with Uncle Carl, Aunt Nicole and family)

Their numbers that I painstakingly made...all for love of my boys...and put tomorrow game info ( and that it is their first game!)

The fronts....Lets hope the de Blieck boys bring the Jays some luck and and a win....

Lets Go Blue Jays!

Change Pad Cover

I am such a sucker for pretty and cute material. My friend Jenn decided to make a run for the border and hop over to Jo-anns fabric. Well real friends don't let real friends shop at Jo-anns alone ( and this being her first time someone had to show her the ropes and how to save a Canadian buck with all those coupons!) So off we went across the ditch.

Back to my dilemma, I see this super cute whale flannel, buy 2 yards ( with a 50% off coupon...6.99!) and then though about where I could hoard it until that special project came along. Well no more. I told myself, I HAVE to make something with it NOW. So I found this great tutorial from Prudent Baby about how to make a change pad cover. Now I know G is now one and really had I decided to do this, I should have done it at E's birth...OH well..something new for each of them. To make it even more special, I added some personalized labels, made via Pick your Plum, to say Carolyn made this!

I love it, I am sure it would fit like a glove on this contoured pad, if mine wasn't totally warped from its millionth change...its outta shape...OH well...for 6.99 I'm pleased with something new.

**Sorry for the not so bright pic, the next shows the true colourings**

my pretty "made by Carolyn" label

you can see my change pad is a little warped...its OK..I'm not buying a new one!

The Creche

Every year for the past few Christmas' I have received a piece of the Willow Tree Nativity Scene. I really love it becuase its simple, very neutral in its colourings and it fits so nicely on my mantle. I really wanted the Creche that you can purchase however the creche itself can run about $80 and upwards in the end. See.... http://www.amazon.com/Willow-Tree-26106-Creche/dp/B000CR2NBA Hmmm...dont need it that bad.

however this year my hubby decided to make one for me ...b/c he too is Dutch! He was fortunate to receive some barnwood from our neighbour and here is his handy work. He is quite proud of it ( as he should be) and loves to show as many people as I do!

The Wreath!

I have been working on this for a long time...really a long time. I kinda stopped because I think in the end I made it too big b/c being dutch I didnt want to waste the spray foam in making the wreath itself..But I like it, and it pops on my newly painted black front door!

Because I wanted a square wreath, I took a square piece of cardboard, cut my wreath size and sprayed spray foam on it for a bit of definition. Looking back now...It was a bit too big..Oh well lesson learned...it still looks good...just more work to cover!

So here is the front..spray foamed

I cut strips of burlap, folded them over a rolled, glued and even sewed them up to look like rosettes. I also rolled to wreath itself in strips of the burlap to cover the ugly spray foam

Almost done!

Here it is..finally finished with a nice bright D on it. Not sure I love the D yet...but needed some colour to punch it up!

My new to me Table

So our neighbours down the road were getting rid of a few items..and mentioned that had this old table. It was nothing pretty ( her words not mine!) but our current table downstairs was getting somewhat annoying to use. It was a pedestal style table and when an kid (or adult) leaned on table even slightly........the coffees were a flying! So I figure I would take it and see how I could transform their table to brighten my room ( and keep coffee in the mug!)

Sorry for including the ladder, small space to work in and had to share with my painting hubby!

So I first put 2 coats of primer on so that the colour would be bright! And then on to 2 coats of colour (P.S. as a side note after the first colour coat, I had a back spasm and I do have to give credit to my hubby who did the 2nd coat and brought it down to the basement!)

We added some nice glass knobs for the pretty effect and Voila!! A new table with a lotta colour to brighten up my grayish basement!

Kids Car Caddy

So we are headed on a few trips soon...YEAH!! summer coming soon! Although really with all this rain we are getting...its hard to tell! So both boys have been moved to the back of the bus! But of course this means we'll hear alot of "mom...can you pass me this...and can I have that...I want a book!" So I Googled a few kids car caddies. I did see a really nice one that someone sewed...

but I just don't feel like buying the pattern and trying it out...plus, I still have a few other projects on the go and didn't want to do something time consuming....AND then it hit me.....See what I did with a simple Wipe box...

Wipes Box (sorry for the bad pic!), I cut off the top flaps of the box

Bought a big jar O' Mod Podge....

Quickly fixed the missing spot in the bottom of the box with a piece of the original flaps

And now the fun begins. I took some nice scrapping paper I wasn't using, and modge podged the whole box! Now its not perfectly applied by any means, as the paper itself kinda wrinkled a bit when I "podged" it down...oh well...it was my first time!

So then, I took another piece of cardboard from another box ( although you could use one flaps from the wipes box and made a "divider". I used some of the paper scraps to create flaps on either side of the divider so when I placed it into the box, there would be something to adhere it to. You can see that the divider peeks out and is shorter than the scrap paper use, thus creating "wings"

Hot glued the divider in place ( just right to hold a DVD case) and then mod podged the paper on either side down

And Voila, a nice box, that is pretty sturdy as well. Its already seat belted into the van for our first travel. I packed it with some books, reading and colouring, a cup filled with pencil crayons, and a sharpener, kleenexs, small toys, some DVDs and paper. Just some thing to keep the boys occupied.

I belted it in not because I'm worried if IT gets into an accident, but then at least I know it wont go anywhere if we stop suddenly!!

DIY Footstool

I had originally found my glider for the baby room on Kijiji for $40.00. Now the material wasn't the nicest but I figured I could recover it ( which I did!) but it didn't come with a footstool, which would have been SOOO nice to have at the beginning when I was breastfeeding. Anyways...after keeping my eyes open for various options, I snagged this table at a garage sale for $5.00!! It was just a pine colour, so I sprayed her up in a nice clean white!! ( I forgot to take a picture of the table before, sorry!!)

Then I went to Walmart and picked up a piece of foam...what...24x16 inches??? Perfect...that happened to be the dimensions of the top of the table...no cutting.

I added on some batting from making quilts to soften all the edges where I would pull the material, and I had the perfectly sized piece of material left from the chair to put on the top. Out comes the heavy duty stapler, I folded over the material so it would have a nice clean edge.

And Voila!....a nice footrest...or even a bench when all the babies are done their rockin'!