St. Patrick's Day Countdown

Soooooo, it has been FOREVER since I have blogged. I like to think that I have some pretty good excuses though. Last February I found out I was expecting and a little while later I found out we were having TWINS! Then we started house hunting. By July, I was slowing down a little and the house hunt was taking A LOT of time. Then all of a sudden in August/September we found a house, moved, and then a couple weeks later the twins were born. It's been five months since the babies came, we love them to pieces, and we are finally getting unpacked, decorated, into a routine and I am finding a tiny bit of time for crafting! I hope to do a little more blogging from time to time when I get a chance!

At our house we love holidays and we love counting down for them, so this is a fun St. Patrick's Day countdown we started this month.

I actually started making this countdown last year, but it was right about the time during my pregnancy that I was REALLY tired, so I got all the felt pieces cut out, but didn't get around to assembling everything until this year. I made the pots out of felt and added some felt "gold" and tied a little shamrock to each one with some gold string. I added some plastic gold coins and a rainbow ribbon to the top.

Each shamrock has a gold puffy paint number. Each pot is actually a little pouch that you can keep a little treat inside. Each day we read a St. Patrick's Day book and get a little treat out of the pot of gold for that day. My kids love it! (You may even be able to see their little hand prints all over the glass covering the fireplace . . . that's how excited they are to look at it and touch it!)

Is your family getting excited for St. Patrick's Day? What do you do to celebrate?

Quick 4th of July Countdown

I have been wanting to put together a 4th of July countdown for my kids. They love counting down to holidays. With our previous countdowns we have read a book every night and then they get a little treat. I think this has made holidays so much fun! The 4th of July, however, has completely snuck up on me. Yesterday I ran to Michaels and grabbed a few things to put together our quick 4th of July countdown!

First, I found some fun books about the US/ the 4th of July at Barnes and Noble. We will read one each night of the countdown.

I got four cute little patriotic buckets for $1 each at Michaels and added some fun little sparkles and a flag.

I added some numbers . . .

. . . and the candy . . .

. . .  and it was done! It was quick, easy, and cute PLUS I think the kids will LOVE it!

Do you do anything fun to celebrate the 4th of July with your family?

Easter Countdown

We just started our Easter Countdown! I found this "Easter Tree" at Hobby Lobby. I originally bought it for a recent Young Women lesson (here), then realized it would be perfect for our countdown. My kids love to have countdowns for holidays. Here is one we recently did for Valentine's Day.

I found these really cute sparkly eggs at Walmart. I love them!

Each night we read an Easter book for a bedtime story.

Then the kids get a surprise out of one of the eggs! They love it! 

I was going to add numbers to the countdown, but couldn't settle on a way to go about it. I will keep thinking about it and put that on my to-do list for next year!

Does your family have any fun traditions for Easter? Do your kids like to have countdowns for holidays? 

Valentine's Day Mantel

I have been working on lots of Valentine's Day crafts, now you get to see them all displayed on my mantel. I really like how it turned out. I think all the different crafts and colors came together perfectly!

The final crafts I made were some yarn wrapped letters. I took pictures thinking that I was going to show how I did it, but honestly the project was a lot harder than it looks. I am a perfectionist and I had to start over at least ten times because the yarn was slipping out of place or clumping up. If I hadn't already spent so much time on it, I would have just thrown in the towel! I like how it turned out, but not that it was my arch nemesis for a couple of days until I got it figured out and completed!

Here are a couple of my final touches. I wrapped lace around some of my red, pink, and cream candles and then tied on some cute little heart buttons I found with raffia or jute ribbon.

The left side.

The right side.

The entire mantel. What do you think?

If you want details on any of the crafts you can find them here: "Hugs & Kisses blocks", button heart, ribbon wreath, Scrabble "love" blocks, Valentine's Day countdown.

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Do you have any fun plans with your family or sweetheart?

Valentine's Day Countdown

During the month of December our family counted down the days until Christmas by reading a Christmas book each night and then getting a little surprise out of our stocking. The kids LOVED it! It was kind of sad when on December 26th they still asked to read a book and get a surprise out of the stocking. Because they enjoyed it so much and because I love celebrating holidays with my kids, I decided to make another countdown for Valentine's Day!

When I was young, we used to make these woven felt hearts all the time for Valentine's Day and I thought they would be perfect to use for our countdown! 

I bought some extra felt, but I mostly just used odds and ends I already had around the house- ribbon, puffy paint, and clothespins.

We just started our Valentine's Day book collection. I found a bunch of fun books while I was at Michael's recently. I hope to eventually collect 14 so we can read a new one each day!

The best part about the hearts is that they make a little pouch just perfect to hide a surprise in!

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day with your family? Do you have a favorite Valentine's Day book?