Crafty Pants

The last couple of weeks I've been wearing my crafty pants. I've been working on several projects and thought that I would share a couple that I finished recently.

I saw this wreath in a magazine (can't remember which one and now I can't find it either) and fell in love with it. It was so simple and best of all, cheap to make. I bought the paper mache letter at Joann's and spray painted it with a couple coats of brown. I bought some fall leaf vines at Michael's (for 40% off) and just cut all the leaves off of the vine. I used my handy glue gun to glue on all the leaves in a few layers. When I was done I glued some magnets on the back and and once it was dry I stuck it on the front door. The magnets were leaving some black marks on the door, so I gave them a quick coat of Mod Podge and viola - no more black marks.

I wanted some kind of banner it decorate my mantle with and decided on this one. It's sort of a variation on the one that I made for Dillon's birthday. I love how it turned out. I cut 12x12 scrapbook paper down to fit in my printer and printed the letters on the back using the reverse printing option. I cut out the letters with scissors and an exacto knife and attached them to paper circles that I cut out with my circle cutter. I used scrapbook photo mounting tape and attached the circles to some ribbon and then I stuck them to my mantle with some removable velcro strips.

I got tired of Dillon asking me multiple times every. single. day. how many more days until Halloween, so with the scraps left over from my banner, I whipped up this count down chain. Every morning we take of one ring and now he knows that when we get to the last ring - the one with the three and the one - it's Halloween. Each day, as we take off the rings we count how many days are left - so it's a good teaching tool too. And it was free to make - gotta love that!

I still have a few more craft projects that are in the cue that I haven't gotten around to yet - but I'm definitely not hanging up the crafty pants yet.

Laguna Beach

Dillon absolutely loves the beach. He loves playing in the sand, splashing in the water, and looking for sand "shrabs". When we go he never wants to leave. I, on the other hand, have never been a "beach person." It's not that I don't like the beach, it's more like the beach doesn't like me. It gives me poofy, frizzy, curly hair and my skin gets all sticky and gross feeling. But the more time I've been spending at the beach with Dillon, the more it's growing on me. I'm not paying attention to the fact that I leave the beach with an Afro... as much. And I'm ignoring my overwhelming desire to run to the nearest shower, because I love how much Dillon loves the beach. It's worth sacrificing my cleanliness and overcoming my vanity to see the sheer excitement that Dillon has at the beach.

A while back we went down Laguna Beach (or as Dillon calls it Maduna) for the afternoon and Dillon was so sad when it was time to leave. He had fun building sand castles with Jordan and climbing on the rocks with Jason. I had fun taking pictures. The weather was nice - overcast but not cold. And though I had a smallish 'fro when it was time to go - it was so worth it!

Wordless Wednesday: Little Skater Boy