Christmas Gifts

I made two shirts and gave them as Christmas gifts. They were both iron-on transfers. The first was for my daughter, as part of one of her gifts (tickets to St. Louis' City Museum).

The second shirt was for my niece, who is about to turn 15. She says when she gets older, she wants to have wings tattooed on the nape of her neck, just below her hair line. I'm hoping this shirt with wings on the back will suffice instead!

Advent Conspiracy

To help us get in the spirit, I made Katie an Advent Conspiracy shirt. The movement's four cornerstones are listed on the shirt: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All.

I wrote about Advent Conspiracy on my Six Golden Coins blog here.

Iron Ons

I found two iron ons recently that I used to make shirts for the kids.

The first is a US Mail patch. I put this on a shirt for Katie, since she has always been fascinated by the mailman.

The second is a little tie that I ironed on to a shirt for Jackson. He wore it on Thanksgiving Day as a way to dress up.

Here's a photo of the little man in the shirt:

ONEderful Jude

My little nephew Jude turned one in August, and I just received a photo of him in his ONEderful onesie. Isn't he so cute, with that wrinkled up face and smile? You should see those chubby thighs in person too. They are so squishy!

I met him for the first time two days ago. He barely talks yet, but he does make little grunting sounds to tell you what he wants. He is active and curious, and reminds me of how my son Jackson acted just a year ago. It was a nice reality check to see Jackson and Jude together. It helped me visualize how far we have come in just a year!

Scrappy

I ran a little giveaway on my Six Golden Coins blog back in April, and my bloggy friend Scrappy Sue was one of the two winners. Technically she and the other winner were the only people to even ENTER the contest, so they won just for being nice.

I promised photo bracelets as prizes, and also a customized Katie Kay Tee of their choice. Sue told me to surprise her, so this is what I made:
I hope she likes it!

Costumed Crimefighter

My new friend Gina asked me to make a shirt for her unborn niece. It appears that the daddy is a BIG superhero fan, so Gina requested a girly superhero shirt. I have to admit I'm not so good at freehanding logos and things that are supposed to look like something besides a letter or digit, so I was a bit nervous about this. But I surprised the heck out of myself and came up with not one, but TWO shirts for the little one!

I cut a Batman logo out of a foam meat packing tray, and used that as my stamp. Isn't that just so creative and out-of-the-box? (Can you hear me applauding myself! I'm so corny.)

I ended up making two shirts because at first I couldn't find a pink six month onesie and only found a pink 12 month tank top. And then, of course, I found the six month shirt and decided to just decorate them both. Gina has promised me a photo of her niece in the shirt when she is born and can fit in it!

EDITED to add photo of the little cutie in her shirt. So sweet!

Lydia

Last night at the last minute, I made a onesie for Katie's teacher. No, it's not for the teacher to wear! It's for the baby girl in her tummy! Silly!

Mrs. Teacher and her husband have already named the baby Lydia. So instead of a teacher gift like chocolate or something else she might not like, I decided to make a onesie with the baby's name on it. And luckily the onesie was dry this morning and I sent it to school with Katie for the last day of school.

Now I'm hoping that when Lydia is born in October, Mrs. Teacher will send me a photo of her in the onesie!

Sophie

I met Stacy in my mom's group a few years ago. She is quite a character. Both she and her husband come from a big Greek family, so she is outwardly loving and enthusiastic. She's one of those people you meet and can't believe life can always be so great. I've wondered if she has bad days like me, or if she ever has a crappy attitude like I seem to harbor sometimes. I think she probably does, she it doesn't bother her much. She's perpetually happy. She and her family moved to Las Vegas a few years ago, and we saw her on our trip there last May.

Stacy already had a son, then gave birth to her daughter in January. Sophie was premature, but is catching up and growing like a weed. I found out about Sophie's arrival a little late, but wanted to send a gift to welcome her to the world.

I made Sophie a onesie to announce herself to the world.
I also decorated a fleece blanket.

Then I personalized a hat for her, although it's toddler size and might not fit for a while.
Lastly, I made a bib for Sophie - but it's truly a gift for her mommy anyway.

Hopefully I'll get a few photos of Sophie in her new gear and I can post them later for you to see!

EDIT: Here's our girl!

Yahoo! Jackson is Two!

Yes, it's official. We have survived two years of Hurricane Jackson! His birthday is as much a celebration for him as for me and Daddy.

I made Jackson a different shirt for his birthday, but decided I didn't like it very much. I'm not sure it'll ever see the light of day, especially after I made him this one and it turned out so much better. It's simple, but captures his current love (obsession) with basketball. He calls it "baa-ket-gone." I think that's because Dan always sings "Basketball Jones" to the kids, so Jackson thinks the basketballs are actually called "basketball jones."

I love how our little baby has turned into a little boy!

For Cale

We had a tiny attendee named Cale at Jackson's second birthday party. He's tiny enough that he can't eat the marshmallow party favors that the other kids received. I decided to give him four onesies as his own personal party favor. I chose some phrases for his onesies that might be a little uncommon. But since he is a family member, I figured his parents wouldn't mind too much. I think this first one is my favorite. It's so bright and colorful!

My second favorite is this one, which features his parents' last names. After all, babies are joint productions, aren't they? (I blurred the photo a bit to protect the family's privacy.)

And wouldn't we all rather be?

Lastly, this one just makes me snicker.

Ladies Man

I made a shirt for Jackson to wear for Valentine's Day... and for as long afterwards as I can get away with it! I used a new set of letter stamps, and I think he looks adorable in it.

I'm Going to Hollywood!

American Idol is back, and that means Katie wants to watch it. So, we've been trying to watch about 30 minutes a night after bathtime - which is when we usually let the kids watch their 30 minutes of TV per day. It hasn't been easy, because Jackson doesn't like American Idol and fusses when we turn it on instead of his current favorite, WordGirl. But when we do get a chance to watch AI, Katie talks about how she wants to go to Hollywood too.

This weekend, I bought some blank shirts to decorate for Katie. I asked her what she wanted to put on the shirts, and we wrote a list of about 12 different things. She narrowed it down to four choices, and here is what we have. Of course, one of them is "I'm Going to Hollywood!"

Katie also chose to have another Dude shirt.

And she said she wanted another nickname shirt with Peepers on it, because "I know you like it, Mommy."

The last shirt is something that Dan has said for about as long as I've known him. He doesn't get riled up about things as much as I do (he still gets riled up, just not as often), and will say, "It's all good." I've been repeating it to myself lately as a mantra to get me through Jackson's temper tantrums. It truly does help! And now my Katie will be a walking mantra. (Sorry the photo is fuzzy. I'll try to upload a better one when she wears it the first time!)