Last week I used my alphabet cookie cutters to make a full set of letters for my niece and nephew.
Before I let him have any cookies, I made Andrew spell his name.
I think they were as fun to play with as they were to eat.
Next time I make them, I’ll probably double up most of the more popular letters, so it’s easier to spell more words. My cookie cutters are from a bigger Wilton set that included a ton of other basic shapes, but I like these ones from Williams Sonoma more.
My niece Katie asked for long-sleeved t-shirts for Christmas. She is obsessed with clothes and a total girly girl, so I decided to make some necklace t-shirts for her.
They were a big hit – she wore the pink one yesterday to school.
For the white shirt, I used Wonder Under to create the appliques from contrasting fabrics, then ironed and stitched them on to the shirt. I added a big pink bow for extra cuteness.
The pink shirt was even easier. I cut out a stencil on my Silhouette machine from freezer paper, ironed it on to the shirt, filled in the dots with gold paint, then removed the stencil. 
There is a great tutorial for freezer paper stencils here, if you want to give it a try.
I made some barrettes this week with pink and green wool felt:
When they were ready, I tried them on my niece Katie to see how they looked. They are perfect!
I also added them to my Etsy shop, which you can find here. I’m working on adding lots more good things to the shop over the next few weeks.
We are staying with my mom for a few weeks while we wait for our new apartment to be ready, and I was feeling a little sad about her refrigerator alphabet magnet situation (serious problems, I know).
So I made some new ones from 1.5″ inch wooden discs and pretty paper.
They were a little more time-intensive than I had originally planned, since I made 2 sets of each for both uppercase and lowercase. They look really bright and cheery on the fridge now, and I am super happy with how they turned out!
We played a fun game this weekend with M&Ms. I bought a regular-sized bag and printed out a sheet with circles to match each color of M&M.
Before we started, we decided who was going to eat each color. I also made a rule that they couldn’t eat any until all of the pieces were in the right color circle.
They had lots of fun, and we were surprised by how many more green and blue ones there were than the other colors. Poor Anthony only got to eat the brown ones.
You can play this game too – print out the sheet that I made here, or draw the circles yourself.
So my first official new job is babysitter, and I am taking care of my niece and nephews for the weekend so my sister and brother-in-law can take a well-deserved vacation.
I took this picture last night before the little guy went to stay with his grandmother for a few days. It’s tricky to get all 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time!
Today I took the kids to the park and we had lots of fun. There is an awesome treehouse that goes out over a deep drop-off.
There is also a HUGE playground with lots of different slides and swings. Here’s Andrew looking very tall on his favorite covered twisty slide.
Katie wore white pants, which were probably not the best choice for the playground (but she picked them out herself this morning).
I’m just getting the hang of our camera, and I need to start looking for some good tutorials on how to take better pictures.
At the beginning of August, I am going to be babysitting for my niece and nephew for a few days. They are hilarious and super active, and I have been looking around for a few projects and games that will keep them occupied and happy.
This is an amazing idea from Tokketok for a M&Ms color game.
We’ll definitely be making our own bouncy balls, following these instructions from the Idea Room. Who knew you could do that?!?
If it is as hot in August as it has been in July, this water balloon pinata from ohdeeoh might be perfect.
I also love to bake with the kids (my nephew is great at cracking eggs!), so I already bought some small condiment cups to make little muffins or cupcakes, like these ones from Holiday with Matthew Mead.
It is going to be so much fun!
