Handmade Birthday Presents

Mac and Dawn Gunnnels' daughter just turned three, so I made her some kitchen accessories, as I know three year olds are all about imagination.


Gift #1: Dora/Care Bear headband
100% cotton headband with interfacing inside to give it some form and elastic at the bottom. There's nothing like a nice cotton headband that fits your style/outfit perfectly. They are hard to find. Who wants to wear those plastic, hole-digging headbands that give you a splitting headache after an hour of wearing it? Unfortunately, I think I made Vivian's headband a bait too small. I was using Laney as my model. It fits her perfectly. Oops! I'll just make Vivian another one and keep that one for Lanes. Keeping Laney's hair out of her eyes is CRUCIAL. She pulls out all hair-bows, no matter how disciplined we are in teaching her not to do so. Thus, the cloth headband! :)

I really want to start making most of my gifts for people as I consider making the "Handmade Pledge" (Check out etsy, the handmade consortium. It's one of my favorite websites and boy are there some REALLY talented people out there. Here's the etsy children's shop. SOOO unique and cool.) I don't know if I can actually pull off making awesome gifts for everyone, but the desire is there, so why not give it a try? There's so much more character and personality in a handmade gift. I want to give QUALITY gifts, not a dinky trinket that I made. So..back to my handmade gift for Vivian. Since her Mama said she was SO into Care Bears, Princesses, and Dora the Explorer, I came up with this:
-felt food
-Dora the Explorer apron -double-sided
-Dora and Care Bear headband

Felt food????? Yep, my latest craft obessession. They are sooo adorable and really fun to make, although time consuming. (Just put on a movie and sew away.) If you've been looking through Pottery Barn magazine, in the store or online, you're all too familiar with the felt animals and foods that they sell. I have yet to make a little animal out of felt, but I have made a few food items. I can't wait to make more for gifts and make TONS for Laney.

Gift #2: A Dora the Explorer waist-apron, sewn to fit a 3-year old.


I didn't have time to put a pocket on the front of the apron. The funny thing was that when Dawn saw the apron, she thought I had made Vivian a nursing cover! LOL! Never, I'd never do that. She was probably thinking, "Thanks for nothing Hollie" until of course, I told her it was indeed an APRON. We all had some good laughs.

Gift #3: Felt Food (these pics just aren't the best.)

My favorite thus far. The fun banana that you can peel and take out. Love it!


I cut my donut hole too big. But...I had limited felt, so I kept sewing away. She's three years old. As long as it looked like a pink, iced donut with sprinkles, I was fine with that. Besides, it was my first donut eva!

Lastly, the fried egg. It really does look real at a distance when you place it in a frying pan.

I had so many other foods that I wanted to include in my gift, but it took hours to make these three foods, especially the banana and donut. I wanted to have eggs in an egg carton, sausage links to go with the fried egg, a watermelon slice, slices of an apple that fit together to make a whole apple, and the same for an orange, etc. I will still make these for Laney or for other gifts. Maybe it'll get faster the more I make them. Happy 3rd Birthday Vivian!

I can't post without including a picture of Little Lanes. Since Laney has been on a sleep schedule most of her life, I haven't been able to take a picture of her asleep in the high chair, until now. :) You have no idea how badly I've wanted at least ONE picture of this scene. She fell asleep on the way home from church and while taking her in the house she sort-of woke up. Hugh put her in the high chair so we could quickly feed her some lunch before her 1:00 nap, but out she went. She didn't even last a second. So, maybe this isn't a TRUE "fall asleep in the high chair" pic, but it's as close as we're gonna get I think. She looks HUGE here. How sad.

This last pic is of Laney and Abigail Perry. How precious is this picture!! Abigail is about to turn one year and Laney is 18.5 months. Jackey, Abigail's mom, and I have just started meeting up to walk a few times a week. (If anyone else is interested in joining us, just gimmie a call. We'd love to have a huge group of Mommy's and babies walking with us!)