Quiet Books

Okay, I'm a nerd, but I am totally excited about these!  In fact I just finished them today and I am already blogging about it!  I was craft-blog-surfing yesterday (I love to do that on Sundays for some reason) and I found these free printable flashcard type things.  They are all church related and perfect for my kids!  I always wanted to make one of those fabric quiet books with all the zippers and buttons and all that...but lets face it, who has time for that??? I think my procrastinating paid off and now my kids are too old... right...two of them at least?

These topics are so basic and they are just right for kids.

Perfect!  The kids are all starting to memorize the Articles of Faith!

Okay, so I realize there's not a lot of "crafting" going on here, but can I just tell you how much I love simple and cheap projects?!  All I did was download these pictures, order them as 4x6 prints at Sam's Club one hour.  Then I planned on laminating and binding them...but I got smart and decided it would be cheaper (and a lot less work) to just buy $1.99 brag books and shove them in there.  SO easy and I LOVE the results!

We are headed out for a LONG car drive next week, so I decided to make a little learning book for my 2 yr old.  I think he might actually look at it because he loves cars so much!

And the final product.  I hope my kids will actually look at these in church and maybe learn something???  Maybe we will take these in the car too!

Boring Living Room Re-do

Step One: recover lampshade.  It was a beige color and it blended right in with the wall...boring.  So I bought a new shade, with a cooler shape, at Target, and some cute fabric at JoAnne's and used a lot of hot glue.   I am really digging this turquoise color lately with black or brown...or maybe both!  So I am going to try and add a little color slowly to the whole room, starting with this blue.

And I had these tan colored stick thingies in this vase, also blended right in with the wall, so I found super cute new ones at TJMaxx the other day for sooo cheap!  I love the colors with the blue!

Then I found this awesome pillow there too.  I am so in love with it.  I only wish there were two.  But that's the sacrifice you make when you shop at those kinds of stores I guess!  Take what you can find.  Plus I think I will go for lots of different color pillows anyway, not just turquoise.  Like yellow and black&white and maybe red.  Ooh, sounds fun doesn't it?!  Next step is buying some furniture to paint and distress.  I am going for a "shabby chic" meets semi-modern look.  I am sick of the old red, green, brown...blah blah blah....wish me luck!

Cars blanket for my little buddy

I wish you could all feel how SOFT this is!!!  They have this really expensive material at Madsen's (the polka-dot one) that I have always wanted to use, but not pay the price for!  I finally had the perfect project for it.  I bought this remnant of Cars fabric like 2 yrs ago for dirt cheap.  My oldest was over it, but about 3 months ago my 2 yr old fell in love with all things Cars.  I thought the fabric was a little cheesy, and there wasn't enough for a full blanket, so I decided to cool it up with a strip of this (totally affordable if only buying 1/2 yd) and brown minky on the back. I am sooo in love with it, and it is so soft, did I mention that already?! 

The real test was if Owen liked it...uh yaahh!  He asked me almost every day if I had "worked on it" -he went with me to buy the fabric, so he kinda knew what was going on.  He was soooo excited when it was finished.

I love how he points to all the characters and tells me their names.

He has snuggled it to sleep for every nap and at bedtime since he got it.  I'm way into this "quilt" pattern and can't wait to splurge on some more ridiculously over priced fabric for the new baby!