Appreciation Gifts

It seems like I'm always looking for something simple to do to tell someone thanks or just for no reason at all.  Are you the same way?  I stumbled across a few cute ideas and thought I would share them with you. 

 Go here for the tutorial and other ideas!

Baby Boy Gift

A friend of mine had a baby shower last week.  Joann's had their flannel on sale for $1.99 a yard.  That's what sparked all of the madness for this gift.  :) 

I guess I didn't get any pictures of the whole blanket (Good one Kristin.) but here are the two sides.

I made some clips to keep the blanket up while nursing!  I've heard they are great.  I need to make me some to test out here pretty soon.

With the left over flannel I made these:

Burp Clothes

Sweet Onesies that are so tiny!

The total present cost me $7.  ($4 for the flannel and $3 for the satin binding tape.) 

Zig Zag Quilt

I'm feeling anxious for this little bundle to be here.  I was looking through my blankets and I have NOTHING that is boyish at all...just lots of pinks mostly.  The one yellow blanket I have has elephants that are pink...not going to work if this kid is a boy.  So I made my first blanket.  I wanted it neutral so it will work no matter the gender.  :)  Black and white it was. 

Front:

Back:

It's hard to tell but it just follows the lines from the front...obviously!

I used the tutorial found here for a doll blanket and just made it bigger.  There are things that I would different now that I've finished it but I'm fairly pleased with my first attempt at a blanket.  Not to mention the fact that I did it while watching my two kids and my sister's two kids.  (I did it during nap time I promise...well mostly during nap time!)

Matchy Shirts - Year 2

Last year my mom and I made shirts for everyone in the family so we could all match for my sister's state tournament.  (Go here for the tutorial and upclose pictures.)  We had to make a few more this year because kids (and me) have grown a lot.  (Some more than others...not going to mention any names though)

It's pretty neat to see that many people in the same shirt, cheering like crazy.  We all get a little out of hand but its for a good reason, right?

Good Luck Presents!

For the past 3 years I've wanted to make some cute (simple and cheap) presents for my sister and her basketball team.  Since this is her last year I decided that I didn't have much time to procrastinate and I had better get it done! 

I wasn't able to go to her District Basketball games because I was in Texas at a wedding. (More coming on that.)  But for Regionals I made fortune cookies.  (Recipe found here!) I put little motivational thoughts in each one...

And put them in little take out boxes.  After 15 minutes of trying to make my own template for the boxes, the grand idea came to mind that I bet I could find one online.  And I did.  I found one here...so much easier and faster than coming up with my own and they fit the cookies perfectly.

So after they won their Regional games, I had to come up with something for State. 

I found gum balls at the dollar store and decided to make some necklaces.

After poking holes in these darn gumballs for 30 minutes, my dad got home from work and I had him get out is drill.  :)  So much faster.  I wish I would have taken a picture of him drilling holes with the help of Macey sneaking a few every so often.

I put the gumballs on a strand of ribbon and attached a label..."Every girl needs a new necklace for the big dance!"  (The championship game is often referred to as the Big Dance.)

I thought they turned out really cute.  This would work out cute for just about any holiday...Valentine's, Anniversaries, Birthday parties...Pretty cute and cheap.

So in the end I'm going to say that I'm part of the reason why my little sister's team is now the 2011 2A State Championship Team.  Yep, they won.  First time in the school's history for the girls.  It was both mine and my big sister's dream to bring home the gold ball but I guess we'll settle for having the baby sister having that dream come true.  (Both of my brothers were part of Championship teams...so you can see that we are a little obsessed.)

So now on to real life and getting back to some what of a routine.  Our little bundle of joy (who is beating me up from the inside) should be here in less that 6 weeks.  We are super excited to meet this precious angel.  :)

Go Big Green!

This post is a little old but we've had a busy couple of weeks.  I can hardly believe it's the middle of March. 

My little sister is a Senior in High School this year.  The last three weekends she has been playing in basketball tournaments in hopes of making it out as the Best Team in the State!  My family has always been big basketball fans so its a pretty big deal to us.  :)  We get a little crazy.

The little kids love going to the games and playing/beating on eachother.  So I decided they needed something to help out with that situation and of course to cheer on Auntie.  So with the help of my sister Andy, we made some tomahawks.

We just painted some paint sticks and glued some felt and feathers on and that was that.  As with any toy...they liked them the first 5 minutes and then they were on the ground.  Of course I still had to pack them around because they were good luck.  :)  Macey had fun with them and every time she sees them she starts cheering...."Auntie Go!"  It's pretty cute.