RaptorMama

I’m blogging from my phone today (our iMac got moved for a Christmas party and our house isn’t quite back to normal yet) but I just had to share this. I swear, it’s the easiest, most satisfying, not to mention warmest, craft project I’ve ever done.

I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out. Yes, a trained monkey could make one of these blankets, but they’re so warm and snuggly! And I made 2 of them in just a few hours.

The first one was from a kit that RaptorDad liked. I didn’t find a kit that I liked, so I just bought some fleece by the yard. The kit was easier since it already had all of the cut lines marked, but it really didn’t take that long to measure and draw all of the lines on the second blanket. Plus I got to pick my pattern *and* I made it a bit longer- 2 yards. Perfection.

Does anyone actually need directions? You just cut a bunch of stripes and then tie them together. I tied about every tenth set while I was cutting to help me keep them together. Mine were 5 inches by 1 inch. Go forth. By fleece (use your coupon!). Cut, tie, snuggle.

I got a lovely box of goodies yesterday from twopeas with all of the stuff I had ordered for December Daily!  I’m structuring it a little differently than I have in the past since I wanted to play with divided page protectors.  I decided to go with the Daily Flash system from October Afternoon and, for the most part, I’m happy with it.  I was a bit dissapointed that the 4×6 pockets are not a true 4×6- more like 4 1/4 by 6 1/4.  I was hoping to be able to just drop photos in the pockets, but it seems that I’ll have to mat them all.  Also, any premade 4×6 cards will not work.  I’m using mostly Crate Paper’s Bundled Up for paper and embellishments and OMG.  I have not been so in love with a Christmas line in years.  I have a feeling I’ll be ordering a lot more of this for my regular 12×12 December layouts.  🙂

 

I love the pockets!  I’ve been kind of in a funk lately with my scrapping and this was enough of a format change to make me love it again.  I kind of viewed each pocket as its own little canvas and, while I did try to make sure the page worked as a whole, I wasn’t overly fussed by it.

I considered adding some sort of embellishment to this picture, but decided to leave it alone.This is Raptor at our new Children’s Museum.  (Which is the bomb by the way.)

This card is from a cutapart sheet by Jillibean Soup.  I inked the edges and added some twine to a Thicker number 1.

I did trim the photo down a bit side to side, but not top to bottom.  You can see how much of the mat shows.  Like I said, a bit annoying, but not horrible.  I added some twine and a few enamel dots.

I’m hoping to play with it some more today!

 

 

 

Things have been a bit crazy around here the past few weeks.  Raptor and I have been trading illness back and forth which has resulted in a bit of a forced bloging break.  I’m back though!  I’m still working on my October Daily; I’m a little over halfway done and I’m hoping I can knock it out in the next week or so.  My big question currently is if I should post it now or wait for next October…  I also finally decided on my December Daily structure and ordered some supplies!  More on that later.  (If they ever arrive.)

It’s confession time.  While I love to bake, I don’t love making sugar cookies.  Among the multiple reasons is the fact that I don’t want 5 dozen cookies hanging around my house waiting for me to eat them!  Frozen dough makes 2 dozen.  Much more reasonable.  Next time I might freeze half and just do 1 dozen.

I also have a serious sprinkle addiction.  I have 6 different sprinkles for Christmas alone.

Also?  I love that Wilton coloring gel that comes in little pots.  I mean, how else are you going to get RED icing.  True red, not pink.  And yes, I fully get the hypocrasy of my cookie decorating obsession given my general neuroses about high fructose corn syrup and food dye.  What can I say, I’m not dying icing with beet juice.  In for a penny, in for a pound and all that jazz.

 

I just love the level of concentration!

This one is supposed to be The Grinch.  Notice the Christmas tree eyes, candy cane nose, and snowflake hair and teeth.  Or maybe the sugar sprinkles were the hair?  Still, *awesome!*

The whole Raptor family is having a food overhaul in January (well, maybe not little Raptor.  She eats pretty well, Christmas cookis excluded.) so we’re living it up now.

 

 

 

 

 

I got out a few boxes of Christmas decorations this weekend and started decorating!

We don’t have a mantle, so I used whatever surfaces I could find.  🙂  I put our pepermint topiearies from last year on Kate’s toy cabinet and hung our advent calendar above it.

I need to go through and add the cards that say what we’ll do each day, but I’m still loving it.

I put our nativity set on top of the piano.  I actually like it a lot here.  Before I had it on one of our built in book shelves and it seemed pretty cramped.  Here there’s more room to spread out.  I have Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus elevated on a Melissa and Doug food crate so they weren’t blocked by the music stand.  I have plans to cover the crate with some burlap or something.  You know, someday.  lol.

 

I still like the card wreath, at least for now.  I’m thinking I’ll remake it at some point with something other than a clothes hanger.  It doesn’t stay as a perfect circle…  Still, I love the concept.

If the weather isn’t terrible, we have plans to go cut down a Christmas tree this weekend!  Our stockings are in with our ornaments.  🙂

 

 

 

Here’s week 23!  It super plain and honestly, I’m ok with that.  I just need to get some of the backlog done!  I might go back later and jazz it up before printing, but for now the pictures and stories are down.  I’m calling that a win.

Y’all, I don’t generally leave the house on Black Friday, but I made a fatal mistake this year.  I opened the Jo-ann circular.  I was drawn in by the insane sale on flannel.  Like for serious, it was 75% off.

I *may* have bought 25 yards.

What can I say, I needed to replenish the wipes stock.

I have the first half in the wash now and as soon as I steal borrow my mom’s cutting mat I’ll get cracking on some new ones.  Oh, and figure out how to rethread the serger.

So if you see something you love, let me know and I’ll save it for you.  🙂

 

 

 

 

Man, I have really fallen down on the blogging lately.  Sorry!  I’ve just been reading a ton lately and not crafting very much.  I’m hoping that once we hit December I’ll be more in the crafting mood.  🙂  I am woefully behind on Project Life, but I have been keeping up with the planning sheets so hopefully I can get some inspiration (and some time) and catch up a bit.  I’ve edited/ printed about half of the pics I need for October Daily and I have about 1/3 of it done.  I should probably try to crank it out before December gets here and I start on December Daily.  lol.

Today though, I’m having a pajama day with Raptor.  We’ve danced around the house singing the Fox song at the top of our lungs, done a few art projects, and now we’re playing with playdoh.  Sometimes we just need a chill day where we don’t do anything.  Not very often, but every once in a while.  🙂

And since I have to have some kind of a picture, here’s the (slightly overboard) fruit tray that I made for Raptor’s preschool Thanksgiving party.  You could also use marshmallows for the clouds, but I rather like how the banana turned out.  🙂

I went a bit nuts with the washi tape on this layout, and I love it!

Basically, I laid down a ton of strips of washi tape, with a bit of patterned paper, rickrack, and stamps thrown in.

Then I cut apart a wood veneer card and added a few flair badges to finish it off.  <3

 

 

RaptorDad is currently working on NaNoWriMo (this is an annual thing where he writes a 50K word novel in 30 days), so my friend and I took our kiddos to the Cameron Park Zoo this weekend.  It’s about an hour and a half from us, but so worth it!  I’m actually considering getting a membership.

Don’t get be wrong, I still love the Houston Zoo, but this zoo is just more manageable with little kids.  The big thing for me is that it’s in Waco, so only an hour and a half from us as opposed to the three and a half hour trek to get to the Houston Zoo.

It’s also just a lot smaller.  Now this might sound like a downside, but it’s actually the perfect size in my opinion for preschoolers and early elementary.  We spent about 4 hours there and we saw everything.

We brought one single stroller, but more as a vehicle to cart around all of our crap than to put the kids in.  Raptor wanted to ride at the very end of the day, but more for the novelty of being in her stroller than anything else I think.  (It’s been put away for about 2 years.)

I also love how they have a few strategically placed play areas.  Brilliant!  Also, tons of shade!  I’m not saying I’d come in the summer (we don’t go outside unless it’s to get in a pool from roughly June-August) but it’s delightful in the Fall/ Spring/ Summer.

 

 

 

Give Raptor some split peas and candy corn and she’s a happy dinosaur.  🙂

She’s since asked me to make it trickier so I told her she had to move the candy corn with a spoon.  No hands.  🙂