Project Marathon-Look for Upcoming Posts!

Sadly, I've neglected my blog lately...but with good reasons.  Being pregnant with twins, my doctor recommended that I finish all big projects before 28 weeks!  Deadline: tomorrow!  Yikes!  Here's the projects I'll be posting once I've finished them up:

1.) Big Girl's Quilt
2.) Aprons
3.) Christmas tree skirt
4.) Big Sister Bag
5.) Little Burp Rags and Matching Monogram Blankets
6.) Stick Horses
7.) Crib Bumpers
8.) Little Twin Boys' Nursery Pictures

Plus, MORE FREEZER MEALS!!!!

So, keep checking back!  I'll be blogging more after these projects are finished!  The trick is to get them done secretly when my 3 year old isn't peeking since most of these projects are birthday and Christmas presents for the family.

Burlap Monogram Christmas Stockings DIY

Since we are expecting our twin boys at Christmas time, I figured I should probably make them stockings for Santa to bring them some fun goodies on Christmas Eve.  I made the rest of our stockings last year and luckily thought ahead enough to purchase fabric for new additions later.  I loved the way they turned out and hope you do too.  What I love best is that the burlap is forgiving.  If you don't cut it just perfect, it moves and stretches.  And felt is great because you don't have to worry about it's hem too much.

First Step:
Purchase your material.  Figure out how big you want your stockings and multiply that by how many you're going to be making.  Don't forget there's a front and a back side to your stocking.  I bought/ gathered:
-3 yards of Red felt (I wanted to make sure I had enough for a tree skirt later...just started working on that...keep you posted).
-3 yards of burlap (this left me some extra too)
-1 yard of Christmas material ( you could buy 1 yard each of different Christmas material if you want to make a matching tree skirt too or you could just get one yard total and mismatch or whatever)
-a spool of rick rack (ribbon for hanging the stockings)
-Red thread
-buttons
-a good pair of scissors
-tacky craft glue
-a needle

Second Step:
Cut your red felt the size you want your stockings (I used an old Christmas stocking as a pattern).  Cut a front and a back (it's best to fold your felt in half and just cut the front and back together).

Now cut your burlap stockings (front and back-fold your material in half) about 1/4" larger.  Your felt stockings are the lining and the burlap is the outside stocking (yes, this is a two layer stocking...burlap is itchy and it gives, wouldn't last long as a Christmas stocking on it's own...so, I made a felt lining).  Tip:  a good way to cut burlap straight is to pull one of the threads tight and then cut along the thread (it makes the line or thread more visible).

Once you've cut your lining stockings and your burlap stockings, cut a 3" x 3" square of felt.  This will be your piece that you sew buttons on for the monogram.  

Cut any decorations you'd like out of felt for the top front of the stocking.  I did a heart, tree, star, mittens, holly berry leaves, and a square present then embellished them with buttons and other trimmings.

Lastly, cut about 4-6" x the width of your stocking of your Christmas material.  My stockings were about 8 inches across so I cut my Christmas material at about 6" x 8 1/4". 

Third Step:  Monogram squares
Play with some buttons until you get your letters looking the way you want them to on your red felt square.  Once you have them in place, use tacky glue to attach them to the felt.  After a few minutes they should be dry enough for you to sew them on with needle and thread.

Fourth Step: Sewing
Now it's time to sew your red felt stockings front to back.  You won't have to flip the stocking inside out, I left mine just the way I cut them with a small hem.  Remember not to sew the opening shut.

Sew the top hem of the back piece of burlap.  The hem will be hidden inside your stocking once you sew the back to the front so don't worry about trimming it up.
(I tried to upload a picture of this but no luck, here's the next best thing)

(note the back-the burlap on the left in the picture- that's what I meant by making a hem)

Fifth Step: Pinning
Take your Christmas fabric and fold it over in half hot dog style, then fold where you would do a seam over (I was lazy and didn't hem my Christmas fabric because it will be hidden).  Tuck it on to the top of your front burlap stocking and fold over a piece of burlap about 1/2" in size.  (I know this sounds confusing, just look at the picture it's worth a million words).  Pin your burlap and Christmas fabric in place.

Now, pin your monogram square and embellishment (your tree, star, gift, snowflake, holly berrys or whatever you are clever enough to come up with) in place.

Ready for the next step?

Sixth Step: Sewing the burlap

Start by sewing your monogram square to the burlap.

 

Next sew on your embellishments to the front of the stocking.

Hand stitch any buttons or ribbon onto the embellishment.  (IN the picture you see a square, after I sewed it on I made a bow out of rick rack and sewed that to the top of the square with a button to make a present)

That's it for the front for now....

More pinning, then more sewing...almost done though, wooohoooo!  Pin the front of your stocking to the back of your stocking wrong sides out.

 

Now, you can sew your burlap stocking sides together, I left about a 1/4" hem.

Seventh step: Finishing touches
Sew on about 2 inches or so of rick rack or ribbon to the  side hem of the burlap stocking. (see below)  I made several passes with the machine to ensure that the ribbon would hold up our stockings.

 

Now it's time to flip your burlap stocking right side out.  Then tuck the red felt lining inside the burlap stocking.(Not a very good description or picture...hopefully, you get the idea though).

 

Congratulations!  You are done!  Now you just have to do that a few more times to make one for each member of your family...  good luck!  Let me know if you have questions!

 

 

Party Friday

Joined two parties this week:
Little Becky Homecky  (note to self:  don't put my name for the name of the project!  LOL.  Anyone else do that before?)
One Artsy Mama

Check 'em out.

Shrinky Dink Pin is a Win!

I don't know about you but I totally remember making shrinky dinks when I was a kid.  Today we tried out a free and easy way to do it at home using this pin.

Here's ours, we only had one permanent marker color otherwise we would have made much cooler ones today:

At Home Preschool Prep Step 2

Here are a few other things I do with my kiddos to make learning more hands on and like "big kid's school".  I made a calendar last year that we used for preschool and I use it with my two girls almost every morning.  I bought a large poster, a calendar, numbers, and months of the year from the dollar tree.  Typed up a few things and taped it all together.  Then I went to Ofice Max and got it lamenated (they have teacher discounts...even if you're just a mama teaching your kiddos at home).  Our calendar includes the weather and seasons.  It also has another side where we write or post the letter, number, shape and/or color of the week.  Since it's lamenated I can use dry erase crayons or markers on it.  Here's the pictures of it:

I also got some letters at the dollar tree that we taped around the girls' room (for now) to make a word wall from all the site words we'll be learning this year.

Here are some book resources that I recommend for home schooling preschool aged kiddos (just click on the link to see the items on amazon.com) :
The Encyclopedia of Infant and Toddler Activities: Written by Teachers for Teachers

THE MAILBOX BOOKS DAY - BY - DAY PRESCHOOL PLANS

Almost Ready to Read (PreK-K)

Getting Ready to Read

 And of course there's all those wonderful ideas on pinterest and blogs out there that have amazing mom's doing awesome stuff with their kiddos!  I've pinned a few of them if you want to check out what I've pinned.

30 Sucks Pin is a Keeper

My awesome sister turned 30 today and we celebrated on Saturday by watching her swim sharks.  She's crazy...and super cool, right?  That was one of her life goals that she can now check off.  I wanted to get her a gag gift since we used to think 30 was so old (when your 8 and 10, 30 does seem kind of up there...not so much any more).  So, I saw on pinterest a cute idea and did it.  Here's how it turned out:

At Home Preschool Prep

Last year I did a co-op preschool with some wonderful ladies and it was a huge hit.  Now, being pregnant with twins I just can't do a large group this year.  Instead, I'm just going to do what I can with my kiddos.  I'm going to share with you what I do.   So, if you'd like to compliment me by copying me, you can.  The activities listed will be appropriate for preschool aged kiddos.  Mine are 18 months and 3 years old.

At the beginning of each school year in my classroom we always assessed what our students already knew.  So, I did that with my two girls.  Here's what I did based off of my state's preschool standards. You can find out what your state's standards are by looking online if you're curious what preschools should be teaching your kiddos.

18 Month Old Assessment:
At 18 Months children can range in their skills depending on what you've been working with them on.  We read, color, and sing daily.  We also have been working on colors and recognizing print in our environment.

Here are a few things to look at:
Can my child hold a book upright? 
Do they know the front from the back?
 Can they turn the pages sequentially? 
Do they recognize print/letters in their environment?  (My little one will point to words and say, "E E E" showing that she recognizes that letters symbolize sounds of words...very very basic)
Can they hold a crayon/pencil in a proper writing position?
Do they know their colors?  ( I have color flash cards.  I laid 2 or 3 out at a time and asked my 18 month old to find one of the colors.  She would point to the correct/ incorrect color.  I would note what colors she knew.  Then I'd ask her to say the color and write down if she could.  Part of her preschool at home will just be acquiring vocabulary).
Does your child copy cat letter sounds and names when you say them?
Does your child sing songs that they know? (They may not know all the words but do they do the actions with you?  Do they attempt to sing?)


3 Year Old Assessment:
Three year olds can vary in skills as well. My three year old has been worked with a lot and has done a whole year of co-op preschool.  We haven't worked on site words yet, but she is ready.  Here's what I looked at:

Can my child name all capital letters?  (not the sounds....that's another test.  A good way to do this assessment is to print of a page with all CAPITAL letters -not in alphabetical order and ask her to name a letter that you point to)
Can my child name all the lower case letters?
Does my child know the sounds each letter makes?  (There's many ways you can test this.  I have a visual and kinesthetic learner, so I had her point to a page of letters and say what the letter says.)
Does my daughter know the letters in her own name?  Can she write them?
Can my daughter recognize rhyming words?
Can my child recognize beginning sounds of words?
Does my child recognize words in books?  (My daughter is not reading yet, but she does recognize that I'm reading what the word on the page says.  I point to the words as I read so she recognizes that I read left to right, top to bottom.  She pretends to read this same way)
Does my child ask questions while reading a book that relates to the story? 
Can they predict what's going to happen using pictures and/or parts of the story to help?

Does my child know their colors?  shapes?
How high can my child count? (My 3 year old counts up to 13 without missing a number)
Does my child count items using one-to-one corespondence?  (Meaning when I place items in front of her...I placed 15 items out...can she point to one item at a time and assign just one number to them? Or does your child count without necessarily counting how many objects are out in front of them?  Does that make sense?)
Can my child identify big from small?  biggest?  smallest? shortest? tallest?  longest? same?  different?  (I used math worksheets with pictures on them that helped me assess each one of these concepts.)

 Again, this is informal assessments that I'm doing with my kiddos.  I just wanted a basic idea of what they know, so I can gear preschool towards what they need to work on.  Feel free to add to my list of questions based on what your kiddo may or may not know.  I focused mainly on math, reading, and writing.  There are other subjects in our state's standards that I did not assess.  Mostly because they will be incorporated into our daily lives and preschool lessons already and are skills I know they will acquire before kindegarten. Feel free to ask me questions or give suggestions too.  I'm not a pro at this but, I do love to teach and can find resources to help teach kiddos along the way.  And I'm all about collaborating to make learning more fun!