Sugar-Free Easter

With Easter fast approaching, I've been thinking about what I want to do for Gavin for Easter. He'll be in Regina with family, but I still want to do an egg hunt here when he gets home! I know that when he's in Regina he'll probably get more than enough of all the sweet, sugary stuff that usually goes along with Easter, so I want to aim for a sugar-free Easter (in our house at least!). So I thought I would do a little round up of sugar-free Easter gifts. 

1. jellycat bunny
2. spring or easter themed books
3. rain gear
4. junior gardening kit
5. froggy kickball
6. little garden tools
7. not so sugary snacks in plastic eggs (maybe not sugar-free, but almost ;)
8. hide and squeak eggs

A few more ideas (not pictured):

-activities: tickets to the zoo, museum, etc.
-a craft you can do together
-easter-themed origami (Gavin has been obsessed with origami boats lately, I might put a bunny or chick in his easter basket)
-bunny dress up clothes
-egg-shaped crayons
-a spring themed colouring book
-rubber duckies

What are your plans for easter this year?

Benjamin's Magic Suitcase

The moment I saw this post on Sometimes Sweet, I was in love with the idea of a "magic suitcase" full of dress up clothes. Eventually I decided that I'd make it for my nephew Ben for his christmas present. I wanted to use the same idea as the one on Danielle's blog, but I also wanted to make it unique. I found a vintage suitcase at an antique store and brought it home and gave it a good cleaning. Then I came up with my own design for the front, which was really fun to do (I've always loved painting, but don't often do it). I used acrylic paints and sharpie paint pens for the design, then finished it with a few coats of spray-on low odour, non-toxic matte finish.

Then I gathered a bunch of dress up supplies, some I made myself and others from out and about. Here's what I included:

{made by me}
-apron (& I made a matching one for his dad!)
-chef hat
-pirate hat
-pirate pants
-eye patch
-brown vest (kind of pirate-ish)
-felt crown
-super hero cape
-super hero mask
-safety vest

{bought items}
- glasses (real, from the thrift store, lenses popped out)
-funny play glasses (with nose, moustache, etc)
-bandana
-fireman hat
-santa hat
-old camera

There may be the other odd thing that I forgot on this list, but that's roughly it. I kind of ran out of time to make all the things I planned on adding, but those ideas include: a cave man outfit, a royal robe, a tie, a bowtie, a clown outfit, etc. 

The best part of all was the email I got from my sister a week later with pictures of him exploring it. Handmade gifts are so much fun!

My Favourite Baby Gift

If you've been around here for a while, you'll know that my favourite baby gift to give is a handmade diaper bag. I absolutely love making these bags and everyone I've given them to has loved receiving them. I made my own diaper bag before Gavin was born and have since modified the pattern. Each one I make is better, so Stacey has the best one yet. :)

This time the fusible fleece that I used was the sturdiest ever, and I love a sturdy diaper bag. Also, I think this diaper bag has the most pockets yet, with a grand total of 8! 

(on the outside: a flat pocket on the back, bottle pockets on either side and on the inside: four elasticized pockets, and one zippered pocket)

I like pockets in my purses, but for a diaper bag they are crucial - mom's tote around so much crap with their babes, and you don't want to be stuck digging around for ages when you need something. 

I also stocked the diaper bag with all sorts of handy stuff like a swaddler, onesie, wood book, teething keys, keep-it-kleen pacifier, pacifier clips, diaper genie on-the-go, bibs, a baby bottle, a mama bottle, hand sanitizer, hand lotion, travel-size baby powder, lotion, diaper rash cream, etc., gum & a sweet treat for mom, baby wipes, kleenex, and... I think that's it! I would have added diapers, but the dad-to-be had a diaper party so they already have tons.

Mason's Father's Day Gift

I know, it's not Father's Day yet... and he could read this! Well, he got his gift already so no worries. :)

This year for Father's Day, Gavin and I gave Mason a book. I took the words from a very simple children's book of Gavin's (called I Love My Daddy by Laura Gates Galvin) and added photos of him and his Dad. I've had the idea to make a photobook of a children's book for a long time, but could never decide which one. The simplicity of this one made it perfect for the project.


I did the whole thing on Mixbook and it went super fast, even with me making it completely custom. Mixbook is the most fun to work with by far, and they have amazing customer service (and they're not even paying me to say that!). Also, the book was delivered way earlier than the estimated delivery date I was given when I ordered. So Mixbook is pretty awesome.


Anyways, onto the book!

I'd say it captures those two goofballs pretty well! :)

A Fun Gift to Give

I bought these as a stocking stuffer the other day and just had to share them. My son loves machines, so I'm hoping this will encourage him to eat a little more supper than he usually does...

I didn't buy the cool plate that goes with because I really can't justify spending $20 on one plastic plate!

PS - I'm done exams and heading home for the holidays... it feels so good!

An Early Gift

This year is our third christmas since we moved to Lethbridge.... and we've finally learned some lessons.

The big one is: the car that takes us to Regina doesn't have a very big trunk.

We visit our family for 2 weeks or more at christmas time, which means we have a lot of stuff to pack (clothes, snowsuits, etc.). Add presents on top of that and it is one crowded car ride! So this year when we decided to get Gavin a big gift, we agreed that it wouldn't be making the trip with us. That lead us to the decision to just give him the gift when it arrived so he could have some fun with it before we leave!

I did my best to wrap it up...

And I took a video of when we gave it to him... he got that paper off in record time!




And he's barely touched any other toys since!

In case you're curious, it's the wooden workbench from Melissa & Doug. The whole thing is really good quality and we love how open ended it is. I think he'll be using this toy for a long time! We could use some more construction pieces to make more things with... maybe that will be his birthday gift.  :)

Crafty Christmas #6: Custom Bags

Do you have good sewing skills? How about just a little? Sewing bags can be easier than you think, as long as you're following a pattern and read carefully. If you're a little more advanced, you can just design or customize something yourself. Click on the image to go to the post on each bag.

From patterns:

{the first two are both made using the Dapper Day Bag pattern from Meg McElwee's Sew Liberated, with a few tweaks}

{the next pair are from an old diaper bag pattern that I've made over and over and tweaked a bunch}

Designed myself:

Crafty Christmas # 5: Play Food

I've always thought that all the handmade play food online is super adorable, but never got around to making any, until now. I made this the other day:

....And I think I'm hooked! It's so cute, fun and easy to make. I used this tutorial at Craftiness Is Not Optional for the popcorn and decided to round up a bunch of other play food tutorials from other blogs. :)

-Bacon
-Banana
-Broccoli & More Broccoli
-Brown Bag Lunch
-Burger
-Cake
-Carrots & More Carrots
-Cheese
-Cinnamon Buns
-Cookies & More Cookies
-Crackers
-Donuts
-Eggs Whole & Eggs Sunny Side Up
-French Fries
-Green Beans
-Ice Cream Cone
-Kiwi
-Lettuce
-Lollipops
-Meat & Potatoes Dinner
-Oranges
-Pasta & More Pasta
-Pop Tarts
-Popsicles & More Popsicles
-Pretzel
-Strawberries & More Strawberries
-Tomatoes & More Tomatoes

If there's something that you're looking for that isn't here, I'm sure you can google it specifically and find a tutorial... they're never ending!

Crafty Christmas #4: Aprons

A couple years ago, an acquaintance asked me to design and sew her a really girly apron for her and her daughter. Unfortunately, I was too naive to ask for any cash upfront and the whole thing fell through. The positive side was that I designed a really cute apron! Last year I made a couple of these as Christmas gifts, and I've made them for other occasions as well. If you aren't brave enough to design anything alone, there are tons of apron tutorials online and apron patterns in stores that would work perfectly fine. Here's a look at some that I've made...

{each photo links back to its original post}

Crafty Christmas #3: Photo Gifts

Last Christmas I decided to give my mom a calendar with photos of her 2 beautiful grandsons. I knew that I could go online, upload a few photos, and be done with it in no time at all, but instead I did all the work myself! {ok, my silhouette may have helped me out a little} I originally thought it might save me some cash, which it definitely did not, but the result was beautiful and personal and I had fun doing it.

 {click the picture to see photos of the full calendar}

Having learned from my experience, and seen the improvements being made to the sites where you can build photo gifts, I would definitely say that one of those is equally awesome for a gift. And if you don't have the amount of time that say, a university student without a job might have, then they would definitely be the way to go. My favourite two sites are Mixbook and Shutterfly, but I know there are many other wonderful ones out there as well.