The Do-It-Yourself Mom

Monday, January 7, 2013

Unique Handcrafted Gift for Wedding Attendants: Ring Bearer or Flower Girl Bear

We wanted to give a unique but inexpensive gift to our flower girls and ring bearer to thank them for being in our wedding. I came up with the idea to make clothes for stuffed animals that looked like their outfits for our wedding. I found ten inch teddy bears really inexpensively and then sewed the little outfits myself out of scraps.

The fabric and patterns you choose would of course depend on the style of clothing your flower girl or ring bearer is wearing. But that is one of the great things about this gift idea, it is so easily customizable to your own wedding. You could even make miniature versions of the ring pillow and bouquets/baskets that the children were to carry if you wanted.

I know at least the flower girls really liked this gift and played with them a lot. And this was one of the most just plain fun projects to make for the wedding.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

DIY Manly Ring Bearer Pillow: Handcrafted Ring Pillow in the Style of the Groomsmen Suits

It has been quite a while since I've done a wedding related post, but I thought today I'd try to share about another thing we did in our wedding that was rather unique. When looking at ideas for ring pillows, I kept thinking how girly they all looked for a boy to carry. So I designed my own "manly" version keeping it in the style of the clothes the groomsmen were to wear.

The main part of the pillow is black. I actually made it out of the scraps from hemming the new suit we bought for my husband, but any sturdy black fabric would do. I then made a white band of fabric to go around the square black pillow. I used scraps of white satin from sewing my dress, but plain white cotton would also work. I sewed the white band onto the pillow at the edges, so the ring bearer could slip his hand under the back of the band to hold it easily. I also sewed on a small white button to make the white more resemble a shirt. Lastly, I created a silver satin tie like those the groomsmen would wear and sewed it on top with a silver ribbon to hold the rings. Of course you can easily customize this idea to match any style of groomsmen clothing for your own wedding. I am sure a traditional tux ring pillow would be really cute as well, no matter what the groomsmen were wearing.

I was quite happy with how the ring pillow turned out, and our ring bearer looked very handsome (although he would have been handsome no matter what the ring pillow looked like).

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Name That Boy

We had to get, our oldest son, Aaron's passport renewed this fall and as we were selecting age development photos we realized just how similar our boys look when they are little. We asked Aaron who he thought the pictures were. He said the first one was Alexander, the next two were Andrew, and it wasn't until the forth picture taken after he was one year old that he recognized himself.

Christmas at Our House

We had a quiet day at home for Christmas. Here is a little peek inside.

Started by finishing off our Jesse Tree stories and garland is full of ornaments

The boys were excited when they saw this

Opening stockings

We ate lots of treats

Talked to some Grandprents on Skype and opened presents

Opening

Happy dance for slippers

We gave them a "snowball fight"

One of my favorite presents to give a collection of stories and a stuffed toy

Trying to read through the new books the first day

Talked to more grandparents on Skype

Baby took afternoon nap

And the two older boys were quietly reading to themselves. Amazing!

Sharing a new story

Getting ready for our family's little "Christmas pageant"

Alexander's first Christmas photo

Andrew's Third Birthday Party: Thomas the Tank Engine Theme

Andrew officially turned 3 years old on the 18th of December. He is 32 pounds and 36.5 inches tall now. He loves to run and jump and has a great throwing arm. he is till advanced in most fine motor skills and can use a computer mouse really well now. Late this fall he has taken off with reading and can now read entire easy readers by himself. He even enjoys it so much now he chooses to read all on his own.

We celebrated his third birthday with a Thomas the Tank Engine party. The grandparents sent lots of presents and huge decorations. We will be continuing to celebrate with special outings from the grandparents that he received certificates for on his birthday throughout the winter.