Precious video

This video is so stinkin' cute! It's the story of Jesus' birth told by kids. Great costumes!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

We are in Branson for the weekend enjoying time with family. I look forward to sharing my DIY Christmas gifts after the holiday!

Black and gold

This video is kind of silly, but it really makes me miss Columbia! Sean and I both love Mizzou and we have a feeling we will end up back there someday!

Christmas gift tags

Need to add a little pzazz to your Christmas gift wrapping? There are tons of free downloads to help you out! Here are the two I'm using:Click here for tons more options.

See Martha's options here.

Happy Wrapping!

Quick and easy baby gift

Sean's preceptor this semester is going to have a baby in the next couple of months, so I whipped up this super easy and fast gift for her baby boy.

I freezer paper stenciled the 'j' on to the onesie {block letters are so quick!} then sewed a panel of flannel {rhyme intended} to a burp cloth. Isn't that robot fabric so cute?! Perfect for a little boy :) I found it in the clearance pile at JoAnns a month or so ago. I have a ton of extra, so I'll probably add something to my Etsy shop soon.

Seriously took maybe 15 minutes {thanks to the help of a blow dryer for the paint} and cost maybe $3 in materials.

Tug of War

This is my brother's dog, Abby and our puppy Wyatt playing tug of war at my parents this weekend. Abby has about 15 pounds on Wyatt, but he held his own.

Last minute gift idea

Freezer paper stenciled tea towels:

I used flour sack cloths, hemmed them down to typical kitchen towel size, then freezer paper stenciled phrases on them. Given as a set, these would make a great gift for anyone you know who enjoys spending some time in the kitchen. Adding a fun whisk or recipe cards would be a good addition, too!

Fayetteville at Christmas time

The Fayetteville square looks like this around Christmas. Pretty great, right?

In need of some holiday cheer a couple weeks ago, we suited up for the Fayetteville Christmas parade. {Side note, Jon Stewart has this hilarious, yet mildly inappropriate clip on the 'war on Christmas'...Stephen Colbert has another funny video here}

The best surprise of the parade is that the grand marshalls were members of the Duggar family. Yes, I was abnormally excited about this. Yes, I took a picture. www.duggarfamily.com

They live in the area. People said I would never see them around, but a couple days later I ran into Michelle (the mom) and Joy-Anna at Pier One. Weird, right? Only in Arkansas.

Think about it.

Christmas under $75

That's my goal -- to spend less than $75 this Christmas. I'm up to $34 and have finished gifts for almost everyone: brother, sister, BIL, SIL, FIL, FIL's wife, MIL, brother's GF, and mom. I'm a little stuck on my dad and Sean.

I have a couple of reasons for setting this goal:

1. We're on a SUPER tight budget

2. I've got a lot of supplies and the know-how to make gifts

3. I think homemade (at least partially) gifts are more meaningful

4. I planned ahead and have plenty of time to get them all finished

5. I'm really trying to work on showing love for those around me in new and creative ways

Although I don't want to blog about my crafts until they have been opened on Christmas, here's a couple of budget-friendly ideas that might help you out this holiday season:

1. Freezer paper stenciling. It's AMAZING! If you haven't tried it, you must. It's super fast, inexpensive and if done right looks great! I've used it for t-shirts, tote bags, kitchen towels and onesies in the past week alone. :) Here's a good tute on the process.

2. Look around your house for inspiration. Do you have a tote bag lying around that doesn't get much use? Use some fusible interfacing to spruce it up with a fun fabric for a friend.

3. Use the reusable totes you can buy at stores for fabric. TJ Maxx and BB&B both have super fun prints. Turn it into makeup bags, pencil pouches, lunch bags. That $1.99 can go a long way!

4. Find ways to use up the scraps you already have. Maybe some fabric note cards like I gave away a couple of weeks ago, a customized headband, cup cozie, or fabric blocks for a little one.

5. T-shirts make great base fabrics -- turn them into a dress with some elastic around the waist, make them into a tote bag or even a pillow cover.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. I'll post each of my homemade gifts after Christmas. I hope this was a little helpful in generating some ideas. Blogland is full of them! I especially like the website www.oneprettything.com because they scour blogs so I don't have to!

Refashioned baby gift

Some family friends {who happen to be huge chiefs fans} just had a baby girl, so my parents asked me to sew up a little gift. Branson is deficient in fabric stores {re: there aren't any}, so we used a pair of mens knit pajama pants for this project.

I purchased the supplies for the bow at hobby lobby here in F-ville. I loosely followed this tutorial on making the bow. {suggestion: use dental floss to tie the center together} The letter button has a brooch pin on the back and I secured an alligator clip to the back of the bow so they can clip it wherever.
Out of one pant leg I made this cute little swing top {I just kind of eyeballed the size here, butif you have a little one just trace another shirt that fits similarly} and the bloomers. Question for my mommy friends: I wanted to add big buttons to the front where the straps meet, but my dad insisted that was a safety hazard on baby clothes. Babies don't even have the dexterity to grab and pull a button off, do they??
I used Dana from MADE's tutorial on the baby bloomers. These are so fun to make! I've got some other prints available in my Etsy shop if you're interested. {sorry the pic is sideways here, it's not on my comp}
I've got another pant leg to spare and plan on making another set like this for the shop. I hope little miss Taylor Jane and her parents enjoy showing some team spirit!
I'm linking this project to:
Between Naps on the Porch , Making the World Cuter, The DIY Show Off, Skip to My Lou, Keeping it Simple, A Soft Place to Land, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Tatertots and Jello

Holiday decorations

The white wreath that I made last year has been so great! I just swap out ribbons, paper butterflies, flowers, or whatever goes with the season. Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic of the wreath, but you get the idea. For a video how-to on tying bows, I watched this one.

I printed off the holiday sign I blogged about yesterday and framed it with some coordinating scrapbook paper behind it.
Here's the tree all done up. I added ribbon this year, which really helped it fill out our cheap thrifty tree. Sean and I purchased this tree six years ago and have purchased additional ornaments each year {all within our color scheme, of course}. It's fun to have all different ornaments and try to remember who picked them out.

I sewed the tree skirt last year. You can see a better picture here. SO easy and much cheaper than the store bought ones!
For good measure, here's a pic of our puppy with his new ornament for the tree! He's seriously so precious!
I have a couple of other ideas to add -- some sort of cool nativity scene, one or two modern reindeer statues and some gifts under the tree! I hope you are all having a good time decorating your homes for the holiday!

Cute FREE Christmas download!

We will be decorating for Christmas at the Huddleston household tonight and I'm pretty pumped. {I've got the N*Sync Christmas album cued up!} Here's a cute Christmas download for you that I found in blogland today. It's from Eighteen25 and I love it!

Praise God.

For days like this. Beautiful weather, lots of time with family, and long naps with the windows open.

Notecard giveaway winner!

The winner of the DIY notecard giveaway is #5 -- Jessica, who wrote: "i love making these! was planning to make some for christmas for my sil's, but i think i'd keep this set all to myself!" You can visit Jessica's blog by clicking here. Jessica, contact me to give me your address!

I'm going to start making Christmas gifts today -- I think I will listen to both N'Sync and Mariah Carey's Christmas music to get me in the mood. Hope you have all had a great weekend!

Game day dresses

I'm selling some game day dresses in my Etsy store. Here's a couple of recent orders I've filled. I think because my picture shows a Razorback dress that's all people think I do, but I can do one from any shirt you like! Other cute ideas: sorority t-shirt dress for a new member, high school spirit dress, or one to wear for the super bowl! I think they look cute with a jean jacket or cardi over the top, too.

This one is more of a pillowcase style.

DIY Notecard and a GIVEAWAY!

Here's a quick and easy gift idea -- DIY note cards.

Items you need:

1. Fabric scraps

2. Blank note cards {they frequently go on sale at Hobby Lobby}

3. Double Sided Wonder-Under

4. An iron

5. Sewing machine if you want to do some decorative stitching. There's all kinds of fun ways to customize these!

Cut your fabric to size, iron to one side of the wonder-under, peel the wax paper off then iron to the blank card. You can stitch around the outside if you want for extra character.
I'm giving this set of 6 coordinating cards away to a reader! Just comment on this post what you would do with the cards {connect with an old friend, re-gift for your sisters birthday, whatev} and I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner. To make things easy, you just need to comment once. I'll post the winner one week from today!

I'm linking this project to:
Between Naps on the Porch , Making the World Cuter, The DIY Show Off, The Persimmon Perch, Skip to My Lou, Keeping it Simple, A Soft Place to Land, Today's Creative Blog, Blue Cricket Design, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Remodelaholic, Tatertots and Jello

Halloween weekend

Thursday I had a friend over and helped her sew a ruffle apron. I walked downstairs later to find this: typical.

I tried to make cupcakes that look like brains -- they were delicious, but didn't look like brains.
I also made cake balls for the first time. Sean loves them -- they're a bit sweet for me. {I didn't even think that was possible!} All you do it bake a cake, then crumble it up and mix it with a jar of icing. Freeze the mixture, roll into balls and dip into melting chocolate.

We set up a nice tailgate for the Razorback game on Saturday -- complete with a TV setup to watch the Mizzou game. {Tigers didn't fare so well this week}

Sean worked on Halloween and I didn't dress up -- but Wyatt was a Shark!

Hope you all had a nice Halloween weekend! I'm planning my first blog giveaway this week, so stay tuned for that!

Weekend in review

This weekend I carved my first pumpkin!

Sean decided to go with the Mizzou 'M' to show some proper school spirit. I stuck with our monogram and our puppy Wyatt painted a Mizzou pawprint. {isn't he talented?} Mizzou played {and beat!} OU on Saturday. It was a great game!
We have a couple of friends over to watch the Mizzou game. I whipped up a quick black and gold bunting to hang over the TV. I also made one for our front window and miniature ones for the white wreath on our front door. Just cut triangles out of felt and sew them onto coordinating ribbon. Super quick and super cute!

I quickly sewed a Mizzou bandanna for Wyatt. If you want to make one, just cut out a triangle of fabric/felt and fold it over on the top wide enough to slide the collar through. Stitch in place. Slip the collar through the bandanna and place on your pup!

Quick family pic after the victory. Had they lost, Sean's expression would be much different.

Sunday was so relaxing! Wyatt got worn out at the dog park and napped much of the afternoon. I caught up on both 16 and Pregnant and laundry -- also got to read my new Real Simple and Cooking Light! Successful weekend all around!