Birch Stump Santa's

My mom is ridiculously creative, although she claims that she is not, and that what she can do is following directions on a pattern.   She makes us all Christmas ornaments every year and they are always beautiful.  A few years ago one of the Christmas decorations she made was Santa’s made from birch tree stumps.  I cannot remember where she got the idea, but I love them.  While I was on maternity I had asked my father for some birch stumps as I had every intention of making them as gifts for friends. 2 years later, now that I am on a Christmas craft kick, I have finally started making them.  They are actually really easy, if you have access to the birch stumps, however with the multiple coats and snow paint, they are pretty time consuming.  All it takes is paint(red, black, white, pink), and snow paint, all of which you can purchase at your local craft store.  I like Michael’s and either bring my husband, or go multiple times to make use of their coupons.  Below are the steps to make them!



Supplies required

 

Paint a few layers of white

Add a few layers of red for his hat and mix the white and red to create a light pink for the face

Add snow paint for beard, hair/hat edge, and hat tip

Paint faces and let dry!

 

They are a fabulous addition to the Christmas season decor!

Seat belt pillow - craft of the month

I am sure I am not alone, I hate when I look in the rear view mirror and see my little guys head crooked over so far that it looks really uncomfortable. So I decided to do something about it. I found a pinterest pin about making seat belt pillows to avoid this exact problem, but there was no pattern, so I set about trying to figure out how to make one. Now it had been YEARS since I have used a sewing machine, but my mom got me one at an auction(I think she was hinting at me to do my own mending and hemming). I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. There are a few tweaks that need to be made, but for my first sewing project I am super happy!

I started with a just a rectangular shape for the inner pillow. I decided on 6 inch width by a 22 inch length, I figured that would be long enough. I sew that together and stuffed it with cut up foam stuffing, and I hand stitch the opening at the top with a slip stitch to hide the fact that it was hand sewn.

Next was to tackle the cover. It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted it to look. I made a larger rectangle 6.5 inches by 23 inches. I added Velcro to the opening at the bottom so that I could easily remove the pillow for washing. I added 2 tabs with Velcro on one end to attached to the belt on his car seat. The are 3 inches by 5 inches. Then I sewed it up and stuffed it with the pillow!

The first time we were able to use it was on the way home from the Papanack Zoo and it worked like a charm! Looking forward to be able to use it on our trip to Toronto next week!

Door

I was not really able to find an interesting door to take a picture of for today's photo a day. So Alexander's door seemed the best, with the name plaque made special for him by Grandma!

Best bit of your weekend

This weekend was the best weekend I have had in a long time. I got to see a bunch of friends, the weather was perfect, and we were able to go down to the beach both days. We had a blast at the splash park both days, but I think today was the best because Xander got more adventurous and was running in and out of the sprays and got soaked. He was just having the time of his life!

Your view today

I was looking forward to today's photo a day challenge. Dave and Olivia came out today with their little man Quinn. We played at home for a little bit, then we decided to go for a walk to the local bakery for lunch and to the park at the beach so the boys could play. Once we got to the park we saw that the splash pads were open a week early. The boys had a BLAST playing in them!!

Six O'clock

Today's photo challenge was a tough one. I had a few different ideas, but I was not happy with them, so I decided to go with having a drink at 6 on Friday evening. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to be more creative.

Drink

Had to take today's picture of our Timmies coffee to show our support for Camp Day(which was yesterday...and I got coffee and donated for a tent). Tim Horton's camps rock! My nieces have told me so...so donate when you can!!