New Baby

Our little girl, Emeree, was born a week and a half ago . . . I was scheduled for a c-section, but she decided to come early and make me go into labor. So she was born about 12 hours earlier than her scheduled time. I do not like contractions. I never felt them or went into labor with my son, so I was hoping for the same thing this time. My sister knit the hat with that spikey yarn and I made the blanket she has on. Our little family of 4 is doing well, and it looks like our house will close in the next few days, so hopefully we will be moving in by the weekend and I can get unpacked and back to crafts and blogging again soon. I'm dying to make her some cute headbands. She doesn't have a lot of hair, so I can't do the clippies yet.

Nutter Butter Rudolph

These were a big hit at my family's Christmas Eve get-together last year. All you need is:

• nutter butter cookies
• chocolate chips (eyes)
• red m&m's (nose)
• mini pretzels (antlers)
• frosting

Using the frosting, attach the eyes, nose and antlers to the cookie. I saw the idea in an older issue of a Family Fun magazine

Wooden Accent Words

I bought these letters at Jo-Anns and decorated them with scrapbook paper, ribbon, wooden snowflakes, and fake snow.

This decoration works for December and can stay out into January since it's more "winter" decor and not specific to Christmas.

Christmas Vinyl Plates

I made these plates as presents last year . . .

I cut the vinyl with my Cricut Expression and rubbed it on the plates. For the "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" plate, the tree was just a triangle I drew and then once it was on the plate, I used an exacto knife to cut the lines out.

I was worried it would get messed up and expected to cut another tree out, but surprisingly, it cut smooth and completely straight.

Peppermint Candy Pillow

I made this last year using a tutorial/pattern I found on Jo-Ann.com I didn't take pictures of the process, but I remember that this project drove me crazy, and I almost gave up and threw it away several times.

But I stuck with it and I like the end result. I just remember that the instructions weren't making sense to me so I had to sit there and study and tinker with the fabric for a while. The part I had problems figuring out was that the red is just a solid circle and the white is the spirals sewn on top - and my pieces weren't matching up so I had to tinker with it.

To finish it off, I used netting to wrap it in with ribbon on the ends. I love it now, but last year, I hated it.