Show & Tell - Keiki haku lei picture frame

Last weekend I made this frame for Nika’s Great Grandma…bad me for not having one for Nika’s other Grandma. Here’s the one I just completed for her. Grandma recently came back from Hawaii and brought home this adorable little haku lei {flower head wreath}. I thought this would be a great picture for her gift.

The frame was purchased at Costco and is a 5×7 size, the photo is a 4×6 giving me the wiggle room to be creative. I used patterned paper for the mat and embellished with flowers and gemstones. I love how the flowers came out. I cut the flowers out from patterned paper, layered them with foam dots and topped off with gemstones.

Products used

• Pattered paper {My Minds Eye}
• Flowers {Me & My Big Ideas}
• Gemstones

Show & Tell - My birthday girl picture frame

I really wanted to make something scrappy and needed a quick project for today. I had an extra photo printed from Nika’s birthday and thought I would use it to make this little gift for her Great Grandma.

I have a nice stash of picture frames as I love to give photos as gifts. The frame I used was purchased at Costco. Scraps from my stash worked perfect for this size frame too. This was a fun way to spruce up the small sized photo and personalize it for a gift. I’m keeping the glass out of the frame so it will be lighter and easier for Great Grandma to hold.

Products used

• Polka dot patterned paper {Paper Pizazz}
• Pink stripped paper {free download from Canon’s Creative Park}
• Pink tied ribbon {came from a Janie & Jack children’s clothing tag and I added the pink gemstone}
• White hearts ribbon {Really Reasonable Ribbon}

Nika’s party favors & Cream City Ribbon

I’ve been busy putting together the favors for Nika’s 1st birthday party. The pails have bubbles, sticker sheets, bouncy balls & crayons. A couple of the guests are under 6 months and those pails have peek-a-boo blocks in them. I used my Sizzix to make the tags and also tried out the coolest ribbon on the tags. I’ve had this ribbon from Cream City Ribbon for a while and the colors were perfect to match the Elmo theme for the party.

Cream City Ribbon is unlike any ribbon I’ve ever used. It’s very versatile and unique. It’s an all-natural product composed of cotton and water soluble adhesive. The texture is crisp, and feels like a paper-thin wood chip. The ribbon is springy and holds its shape beautifully. I used the rainbow colored ribbon and was able to shred/tear it and then curled it by wrapping it around a bamboo skewer. You can also stamp on it. Really fun stuff to play with. Lots of possibilities for crafting with this.

Nika’s Easter

Hope everyone had a fun Easter weekend. Despite both Nika and I having colds, Nika had a great Easter. She got 2 Easter baskets filled with goodies. She really enjoyed finding all the eggs hidden around the house. She spent the whole day playing with all the eggs, her baskets and new toys. One of her favorite things was to wear her Easter basket on her head. It was too cute!!

 

Free Gymboree & Michael’s coupons

I have a couple 20% off entire purchase coupons to Gymboree. Good for purchases made online or in store through March 9th. Leave me a comment or email me if you want one and I can email you the code to redeem online or I can mail one to you.

Get a 40% off coupon for Michael’s here, good for in store purchases before March 1st.

Happy Shopping!

Nika update - 10 months

Nika is just getting over a cold that she’s had for over a week now. Vlad got sick too. I was lucky not to get it. Thank goodness for Airborne–love that stuff! Nika is now 10 months and very active. She is turning out to be a speedy little crawler and currently loves climbing over everything and everyone. She is eager to pull herself up and stand so we are now having to childproof a lot of areas and things around the house.

Nika really enjoys interacting with other kids too. At the grocery store yesterday we sought out 2 other babies. A 7 month old boy and a 10 1/2 month old boy and she flirted with just about everyone who looked at her.

Some of Nika’s new favorite things to do…

• Watching Sesame Street video podcasts on the iPhone
• Still loves playing with her Little Superstar Sing Along Stage
• Dancing with Mommy
• Going to the indoor playground
• Riding in her Cozy Coupe
• Eating Gerber Puffs
• Playing with kitties and looking at her book about kittens

Nika’s 1st birthday is coming up soon. I’ve already started to plan her party, so exciting and amazing how fast that went by. We’re going to do an Elmo theme since she is a HUGE Elmo fan. La la la la…La la la la — yep I know all the words to the Elmo theme song and known to sing it when needed.

Valentine Mr. Potato Head & SEI {Jolie Chocolat}

Check out this adorable Valentine Mr. Potato Head we got for Nika. How cute is that? Nika thinks its pretty cool too.

Vlad and Nika gave me a bouquet of gorgeous white and pink roses. Nika was so excited to give them to me she blurted out her name! That was the first time we’ve heard her say her name, so cute…such a great day!

I went to my scrap club last night and had a nice time. Check out this months papers from SEI {Jolie Chocolat}…yummy! I love SEI and already have some great photos in mind for these.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day filled with love!

XOOXO ~ MamaSheg

Look who’s 10 months today!

Look who’s 10 months old today. I can’t believe she’s just 2 months away from being a year old.

Happy 10th month Birthday Nika! XOOXO

Free Gymboree 25% off coupons

I have a few 25% off coupons to Gymboree.

Good for purchases made on February 7th, 25% off all regular priced items. Leave me a comment or email me if you want one and I can email you the code to redeem online or I can mail one to you.

Happy Monday!

Indoor playgrounds for kids 5 & under

I’ve been looking into indoor activities and new places to take Nika. Today we visited our first indoor playground for kids. We went to the Old Redmond Schoolhouse, which is now the Community Center. Nika had so much fun! Her face lit up with excitement when we walked into the gym. It was toys galore and kids were bouncing around like it was Christmas. The gym also had balls, tumbling mats, crawl-through tunnels and push cars to play with. The cost is only $2 or free for kids under 1 year.

I did a little research and most cities have an indoor playground program, usually through the local Community Center. Here’s a great article in The Seattle Times that lists a bunch of indoor playgrounds and also movie cry rooms {special movie showings just for parents with babies}. The article is a little old, but will give you good information about many of the different indoor playgrounds in Western Washington. You can also go to Meetup.com and do a search for playgroups by zip code.

Look at my happy girl! She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time we were there.