the craft bug has bitten...

So a few weeks ago I posted about my awesome freebie find. I'm pretty conflicted as to what I want to do with it so for now, it's sitting in the garage still. Untouched. Then with school starting, B's new job, and planning for Sissy's first birthday...the dresser was most definitely pushed aside. But last week, I *needed* to craft. It's like an addiction, I swear. So I decided to make my version of the balloon wreath that is floating all around Pinterest. {feel free to follow me, I linked a button over in my right sidebar}. I love it!

Of course I was interrupted no less than 1 bajillion times, but split over 2 days, it took about 2 hours total. So then I was like ''What else can I make???".....a Pinterest search later and I was directed to these little guys:

source

 They are "Pajama Eaters". Perfect little stuffed animal guys to feed your pajamas to in the morning, so your kids actually wear them more than once before tossing them on the floor. Well, I think they are adorable. But I couldn't help but think ''those would make AWESOME pillows". See my boys are sorta obsessed with Pillow Pets. And I may have told them that maybe we could get them each a mini-pillow pet for the plane ride. {this was only after they said they were taking their big ones on the plane}. But then I actually looked at mini-pillow pets and they're little, littler than I thought. And they're $13....do the math, times it by four and suddenly I'm shelling out $52+ tax on four pillows.

Get out of town, that is not happening. Not for something that is seriously, 6x8 inches.

So when I saw Jodi's tutorial for her Pajama Eaters, I immediately bought it. I looked over the tutorial {seriously one of the best tutorials ever! so easy to follow and cute} a few times, decided that instead of stuffing the little guys (sized 13x13 inches) with fiberfil, I could make them a bit bigger and instead use a travel pillow. So with that in mind, I showed the kids. THEY LOVED THEM!! So I explained that mommy would make them a ''pillow pet'' Monster instead of buying the baby ones. Done, they loved it. I set out for the fabric store.

Once there (with all four kiddos in tow) I had them each pick out a solid color for their monster. Then we loaded up on the necessities like fabric for the mouths, zippers, heat & bond and thread (I have a ton but it was on sale and I wasn't sure what colors I had, yada yada). They did SO incredibly well. Especially when you take into consideration that I jaunted to the fabric store at oh, 11:15am which is when we usually eat lunch. And then the cutting table line..oh my word. I think we were in line for over 30 minutes. Took forever. So we finally get our stuff, pile up in the van and I reward them with lunch at McDonald's. YAY!

So, besides the fact that I'm the coolest mom ever, my real reason for McD's was it's location; inside of Wal-Mart. We ate then went and grabbed 4 travel pillows from the bedding department. I felt like I hit the jackpot...each pillow was $3.00. Oh yeah, saving money, woot woot!

So we get home, figure out what size my monster pillows will be (14x20 was the pillow size, I cut everything to 15x21 and it fit like a glove) and set to work. A bit easier said than done since I had all the kids home while B was putting in overtime. But we popped in a video, got Sissy down for a nap and Mommy went to work. It wasn't a difficult project at all, but time consuming measuring and cutting all the pieces.  Sissy's was finished first, followed up by the boys the next day. The end result? Some pretty freaking happy kids:

yes, sissy's monster pillow is bigger than her. and yes, bubba just shoved an entire stuffed animal in there.

So while I let the kids pick the color, I then also gave them free reign on how many eyeballs their monster would have. Well, except Sissy, I just gave her's two. Bubba saw Sissy's and said ''I want LOTS of eyeballs...like TEN!" and I said...."um, 10 is a lot of work, if you want this before bedtime we need less than ten." "Okay, three silly eyeballs." Okay, three. Pooks said he just wanted two super tiny eyeballs. Well I made them super tiny, showed him and he said ''bigger than that mom'' so he got normal sized eyeballs I guess, but still two of them.  Peanut wanted "ONE GIANT EYE". Easy enough, I swear it's something about being the third child that just makes things easy! Each kiddo also got to pick some scrap fabric I had lying around as a accent. 

 In order: we have Pook's yellow monster {complete with Barry nametag), Sissy's hot pink monster (complete with bow), Peanut's green monster (complete with m&m horns) and Bubba's blue monster (with a silly nose and monsters all on his legs).

 

Want to know how you can tell that your kids genuinely like something? They request to have their pictures taken. A lot of pictures. Here they are ''going night-night''. Right before the picture took, Sweetcheeks was actually laying on her pillow too. By the time I focused the shot, not so much. 

So obviously this project was a huge success. First off, I conquered my irrational fear of sewing with zippers. Secondly, even after buying Jodi's tutorial, then the fabric, then the pillows I still spent less than the $52 I would have spent on pillow pets. Woohoo!

And the best part? The kids like them BETTER than their pillow pets! All kids slept with/on their monsters. Do they use the pockets for pajamas? Eh. Bubba does but Peanuts typically has paper in it, or hot wheel cars, or crasins. I plan on putting a pair of sweats and a tshirt in each one for the plane ride...never know when you'll need an extra outfit (or four).

So yesterday I finished those and today, I started a Halloween Rag Wreath. Watch out, stand back, I'm on a roll....

the stockings were hung by the fire with care...

Well we don't have a fire, but you get the jist.

Yesterday I kinda sorta realized that I had never made Sissy's stocking. We've had five stockings hanging up for almost two weeks but it didn't really dawn on me that we were missing one. So yesterday using the tutorial found here, I whipped one up. I cheated it and instead of using lining and batting, I used fleece. Hey, it's the inside of a kids stocking, I highly doubt that she cares. I also didn't use their pattern, I traced our existing homemade stockings. And, it's a good thing I did because apparently we had a mouse get into our Christmas stuff as some point during the last year and the furry little rodent ate through three stockings! Ugh, I am not a mice lover and it grossed me out knowing that he was in our stockings...where trinkets and snacks and such go. Yuck.

So like any sane person (right?) I waited until December 23rd to make 5 {more} stockings. (Yes, I technically only needed three but then the stockings wouldn't match so...yeah, five stockings). I knocked 4 of them out during naptime and then finished the last one after the kiddos were in bed. The two pink ones are quilted, they are mine and Sissy's. On the boys' I skipped the quilting because I'm lazy and was sick of sewing straight lines. I thought they turned out really cute considering all of the above.

In order we have B's, Bubba's, Sissy's, Peanuts, Pooks and mine. Hopefully I can get them embroidered at some point.

(please excuse the crappy lighting, it was like 9pm and no natural light was to be found)