Family quote

In his last General Conference address, Elder L. Tom Perry said this: "Family is the center of life and the key to eternal happiness." I LOVE that quote! I love family, immediate and extended, and love having get-togethers, and know this is a true principle. So, I took one of my favorite photos that Sean took a few years ago, and added the quote. Feel free to use or pin or whatever :)

Homemade Christmas 2014

I feel like it has been so long since I have blogged, oh wait, it has! I've been so busy since we got back from Christmas in California; Sean has been looking for a job and I have been working extra hours, so I hardly have time for anything else. But now I can cut back to my normal hours since Sean found a job! More on that later :)

For Christmas this year, I decided to hand-make a few of the gifts. It helped the work time go by faster, that's for sure. Cutting and pinning and sewing... oh my! I love it though!

 

 This was probably my favorite of all. I made these jammies for my niece, Oakley. She is one and so cute! Not sure what that has to do with the gift, other than she is adorable in the jammies too! Anyway, the fabric I used was from the last pair of pajama bottoms my Grandma Hanson bought me for Christmas. I bought the onesies at Walmart and cut out little shapes and stitched them on the onesies. I love how they turned out! And we totally cried after she opened them.

 

I made these little bean bags for Sean's nieces to play with. I cut the squares 3.5"x3.5" and then filled them with dry pinto beans.

 

This blanket was for my best friend from high school's daughter. Katie does not like pink, hence the purple and yellow. I just love green though, and love the pop it gave the blanket. This is before I sewed it together, but you get the idea. Those are little purple birds that are so fun!

 

I made this nativity for my mom! Well, I ordered the vinyl stickers off Etsy, bought the board from Home Depot (seriously, like 10 cents off the scrap bin thing) and borrowed paint from Sean's mom! I loved how it turned out so much that Sean bought me the stickers for Christmas! I can't wait to go get another board and make mine. I'm thinking navy blue? 

(P.S. that snow bunny has been in our family since I was a baby!)

 

And last but not least, the Jones family tradition of making cookies for friends and neighbors. I made my mom's famously delicious sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and our family snow-top cookies.  I found the instructions for the paper plate carriers here and here. So easy and fast! 

I also made two little taggie blankets for Sean's niece, who will be one in April. I made one of them with a piece of Barnes and Noble bag inside so it crinkles! But not obnoxiously haha. I didn't get a picture of them.

I love Christmas time and the opportunity to make gifts for those we love. What a wonderful way to remember the love the Savior has for us, making gifts out of love for others!

Crafty

I saw this idea on Pinterest forever ago and have wanted to make it. I finally got paper to do it (ignore the fact that it was the paper wrapped around the potted flowers I bought to make a bouquet for my bridal shots 7 months after I got married, no big deal) and I really like how it turned out! The one on Pinterest was a bit fancier and not as blah, but I like mine too. It's not as girly. Not that that would be a bad thing, but girly and Halloween just don't go together in my book.

Super easy. You just take old cereal boxes, cut them to the size you want, and then print the letters. I used size 350 font. No joke. The bats I found on google images, and then used ribbon to tape them all together. Probably only took me a few hours to print, cut, tape and glue everything.