Gift Reviews for Children and Adults

This is just a brief review of some of the gifts Santa brought. I just wanted to give you some pros and cons on the items. They were all great gifts and hopefully they will help any of you that may have these on your wish list. Now I do do not work for any of these companies. I am not being paid to talk about these items. These are all  strictly my own opinions and I thought it might be a helpful post for someone looking for gift ideas. These were the actual gifts under our tree on Christmas morning.

Mr Wonderful and I usually only do a couple items for one another. Nothing to fancy just maybe something we need or really want. My gift came about in a very funny way. Mr. Wonderful was in my craft room getting ready to set up my computer station when the funniest thing happened. He sat in my work chair and almost bit the dust.... backwards! The arm has been broken for quite sometime now. It sill served it's purpose as long as you didn't lean back(the arm was also connected to the back). So Mr. Wonderful decided to replace my chair.

This little beauty is what I picked out. Yes, I picked out my own gift but hey, I have to work in it. He wanted me to pick it out anyway to make sure he got the right thing. This is a medical/tattoo chair. I thought those people probably sit for long amounts of time so it would be perfect for long sewing or crafting projects. I LOVE IT! It is very comfortable. It has faux leather for easy cleaning. No pesky arms to get in my way. It has a gas lift, so easily adjusted. My only beef with it was the cheap wheels. They didn't roll very well. I just took the wheels off my old chair and they popped right on.  We purchased it hereAmazon.com.

K and E got this as a shared gift.

It is an amazing Art Easel we found at Toys R Us. It was supposed to be 100 dollars but was on sale for  79.99. It is all wood, has chalk board, white board, paper roll, and 5 good sized storage bins. It also has two trays on both side for resting your drawing tools. It came with 4 storage cups. Two with lids for paint.

Overall I am pretty happy with it. I will say there is room for improvement. First off the instructions were horrible. Mr. Wonderful had a horrible cold so I pulled a solo elf mission on this one. Sorry for the horrible photos but don't you know most elves work in the wee hours of the night. Back to the very lacking instructions. It was simply this ....piece by picture. A Picture with about 50 steps(ok maybe less than 50) and arrows pointing to the general direction of where the screw should go.

Do you see this face!?! It is a look of sheer terror. Oh and I hope you enjoy this photo I definitely only  posted it so you get the true sense of my emotion when I looked at the  paper. This pic is no beauty contest winner! LOL

The wood could have been a little better quality. There were some rough spots and a small split. Nothing that would alter the easel just not very appealing to the eye. Right now it isn't bothering me too much but in the future if it does those are both easy fixes. The other real downer was that it does not fold up. It is a permanent structure. I thought it did fold up but sadly it does not. If space is an issue for you this may not be your best bet. It is quite large. Luckily E will be moved to share a room with his brother and the nursery will be turned into a playroom. They have been asking to share a room so this will work out perfect for us. Here are just a few shots of it to give  you an idea of what it looks like form all angles.

Do you see the blue painters tape on the carpet? K and I were getting creative with his hotwheels and made an impromptu race track. He loved it.



Here is one of K's big gifts...

The Leapfrog Leap Pad. He Loves It!!!  I do too. It is a very fun educational i pad for kids made by Leapfrog. They have an online app store and everything. We bought a few games for it, on sale of course, and it came with a few free features. It says for ages 4-9 but an advanced 3 year old could easily work this gadget. It has a built in camera and video recorder. This is a great feature  even if I have to go through every couple days to delete pictures of the carpet. LOL.

I don't know if they are back in stores but at the time I purchased this they were really hard to find. I was told you couldn't even buy them from leapfrog. I think they were behind on production or something like that. It was 99.99. A little expensive but I think it was totally worth it. The way it is set up it grows with them. The settings let you adjust at which grade level the programs operate at. Oh and it is compatible with some other leapfrog cartridges.  I did not like the price of the cartridges you buy in the store(24 bucks!!) but I had a coupon and bought them on black friday so i got them for 10.00. The apps online range from 5 dollars to 24 dollars. They have e-books, games, and other learning apps. The ebooks work similar to the tag system. I love that he can read along with the pen or have the pad read it for him. If you go on YouTube there are a good amount of video reviews if you are interested in getting this for your little one. Oh one other con...it takes 4 batteries and burns through them pretty quick. If you buy this maybe invest in 8 rechargeable batteries to switch out.

This next item is one for E.  Leapfrog My Pal Scout.....

I personally love this toy. It comes with a USB cord you can hook to your computer to program in your child's names and likes. I got this on sale at Toys R Us for 19.99. It usually retails for around 25.00. E is just over a year old and can operate this with no problem. You can program all sorts of fun songs and my favorite for the kids, classical music. So far i have had no problems I can think of with this product.

For Mr. Wonderful this fun toy....

He is a fan of larger scale Remote Control cars and such. We saw this in a sales flyer and he had mentioned that it would fun to try to fly. Well I happened to find one at J.C. Penny on Black Friday. I can't remember the exact price but I am positive it was under 20 dollars. He and the boys love flying it. It takes a little practice but is really  fun once you get the hang of it. The remote has a built in charger which is awesome. The only major down fall is that is only has about a 5 minute run time before it needs recharging.

We got a few other great gifts that do not include batteries....thank goodness.  We make a budget and usually do pretty good with sticking to it. We don't believe that celebrating Christmas should be about gifts so we don't buy a ton of toys and such for the boys. They get a few big wanted items and then a few smaller needed items. We want them to know the true meaning of Christmas and that it is always greater to give than to recieve. I hope these may help some of you in search of a good gift. Oh and if you have any comments or questions about these items feel free to leave a comment or shot me an email.

Thank you for reading! I hope this was helpful!!

Snow Family Ornament Part two and a late Merry Christmas!!

So Merry Christmas!! I know it is a little late but I had last minute family in from out of town.  I have been playing hostess and not much of anything else. I really wanted to get these last few thing posted before Christmas but I am only one person. :( I should have asked Santa for an extra pair of hands.

I finally finished our 2011 Family Ornament!!! I did put our names on our hats and our dogs names on the small snowballs. What do you think? I love them and can't wait to make more. I used E6000 glue to attach all my snow people together. Now the clay doesn't bake up white so I did have to do a good coat of white paint over the bodies before I painted everything else. For great tips on making clay ornaments check out this crafty mama's blog

Sarah at the Spicy Pinecone.

The funny snowball on the top of our heads has our last name and the year written on them. Can you believe Mr.Wonderful and I have been collecting them since our first christmas together 10 years ago. :)

We also let the  boys make hand print ornaments. I love them!!! I will cherish these forever. I painted them white and painted the hand prints with glitter paint. On the back I wrote their names, the date, and what they asked for from Santa.

Now this ornament is near and dear to my heart. It is still unfinished because I still unsure of the wording. This is my thumb print and Mr. Wonderful's thumbprint. I painted it white and then painted my little birds with the thumb print as the body. Isn't it so cute?!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year!!!!

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                                               Beneath My Heart

Snow Family Clay Ornaments: Part 1

So every year we get a family ornament with our names, pets, and the year on it. This year I decided to tackle making our ornament. I will say it is a very fun task that definitely gets better with practice. I do have a link to an awesome crafty mom who makes my clay work look like childs play.Sarah at the Spicy Pinecone has a great tutorial and tons of tricks and tips. I highly recommend checking out her blog. She is a wonderfully creative mommy.

Now I used the plain jane Sculpey Original.Next time I will take Sarah's advice and use the stiffer studio clay and the softener.

 

Here is K's little snow man. I think I am going to put our initials on our hats and the dogs names on little snowballs.

Here is little E. It was so hard making all the tiny parts with the soft clay. That is where I am hope the stiffer clay will be different. The clay was heating up and becoming really soft as I was working with it. That does not make for a nice looking tiny carrot nose. It took me FOREVER!!!

This is me. ;) I am really happy with how I turned out. What do you think?

Here is my Mr. Wonderful. He is a ball cap kinda guy so I figured I would be true to his fashion. I love it! His nose turned out the best. I really like the little crook in the end of the carrot.

They are all finished now and almost completely painted. I am going to join them all together and then  I will share the finished products.  so what do you think of them so far? They aren't perfect but I am extremely happy with how they turned out.  Do you have an ornament family tradition? Feel free to share!

P.S. Hopefully I will have a tree skirt to share with you in a day or so. I have kinda hit a creative block with it.  It still feels like it needs something....hopefully I figure it out before Christmas!

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            Beneath My Heart

Fun Christmas Wreath

I am so excited to have finished my Christmas wreath before Christmas! I say before Christmas because sadly my fall wreath is yet to be completed.

:( We have so much at the end of October and during November that the time slipped away from me and I failed to complete my table runner and wreath. Not for Christmas though. ;) I am very happy with how it turned out although it is far from the original drawing. 

I went for a not so traditional look. I used some great blues, warm whites and a dash of red. I wanted a lot of texture with my flowers so there are a variety of them. I did a few crochet and a few fabric. Do you see that red netting? Can you guess what it is? If you said the bag my tangerines came in you are absolutely right! I always save those little bags. I have used them to adorn gifts, decor, gift bags for the doggies Christmas gifts, bows, and so on. There are tons of cool ways to use them.

I covered a straw wreath with masking tape and spray painted it red. Then covered it with some warm white yarn. The wrapping isn't perfect because I wanted a little of that red to peek through. After searching high and low for the perfect ribbon to make my bow I stumbled upon something a little different than what I had in mind. One look and I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. Turns out I wasn't looking for ribbon after all. ;)I found these at Target....

I purchased two of the blue and one white. Using needle nose pliers I shaped the stem around my wreath and trimmed the excess with wire cutters. Then I simply shaped all the little arms to my liking. What do you think? I personally love it!

After putting my new finagled bow and all the flowers on Mr. Wonderful pointed out that it was missing something. Merry Christmas! He said it needs a greeting since it will be at the front door. It is always nice to have a fresh set of eyes when you are working on a project. I knew it need something but I was sure what. He  nailed it. So I got out some craft wire, yarn, needle nose pliers with a wire cutter feature, and I typed up and printed out Merry Christmas as a guide.

Here is the gauge of the wire I used. It was really easy to shape...maybe a little too easy but it held it's shape so I went with it. I used the pliers to get nice, even curves. This takes a little while so maybe sit down to one of your favorite shows to tackle this. I watched Next Iron Chef (GO Zakarian or Guarnaschelli).

Here is the finished Merry Christmas.  I am pretty happy with it. The T gave me fits but the more I worked with it the crazier looking it became so I just left well enough alone. I tacked everything on with some small pin needles. It is holding very well. Oh and on the end of the letters that didn't continue into the word ( IE the M) I used a small piece of double sided tape to ensure that the yarn stayed put.

I love how lovely it looks perched on the front door. The red taffeta ribbon gives it just the right pop, I think.  

Not sure if you can see this but I used an upside down command hook on the inside of the door to secure the ribbon to. My ribbon was wired so tied it with a little curly cue bow. It is pretty on the outside and the inside. The bow also conceals the command hook a little.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Tree is up, wreath is on the door, some lights are hung, Christmas music is playing, and now to bring out a few other little things around the house. Did you make a wreath this year? Feel free to leave a link to a post or pics I would love to see them.

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