Homemade Holidays: Paisano Horeshoes

NZ & his sister play a game of Paisano Horseshoes

In the spirit of keeping our Christmas gifts unique, NZ and I did our best to continue our streak of making Christmas gifts. Last year, NZ made fishing poles for a few lucky recipients, and this year, he and I found ourselves at Home Depot, loading up on materials to make a couple of fun backyard games for our Christmas "picks".

It took him a few weeks from start to finish, and he even learned how to lay and tack carpeting down in the process while covering the boards, which were made out of pressure treated wood and 2x4's. He's pretty crafty, that ol man of mine.

The Zentil family ( all of them, not just the immediate Zentils) love their games. Every year in Yosemite, there are a couple of games of cribbage going at any given time, using a cribbage board that Nick's grandfather made long ago. We all enjoy word games, board games, and anything interactive. At our wedding "after party", a rousing game of Bocce Ball was played in my father-in-law's backyard until it got too dark to continue.

So, NZ and I decided that a couple of "Paisano Horseshoe" games would be a good gift for our family members. The game is usually called "Mexican Horseshoes" or "Washer toss", but to keep in the spirit of being Italian, I just renamed it. So there you have it, it's now called Paisano Horseshoes, and I'm stickin' to it.

NZ's sister, Breakin' in her new game

 Looking forward to watching these boards get years upon years of use, and good family memories made in the meantime.

Technically Speaking

I have to use a disclaimer before I start this blog...before you all start reading and getting all " I thought she wasn't buying anything for the baby until her 30 week mark..cause of her silly little rule" on me, I technically haven't bought anything for the boy, yet.

You see, we have a couple of family members also due in late 2011. I've had the itch to make something baby-ish for the past week or so. But, I kept going back and forth with whether I really wanted to cross into the all consuming and ever so adorable blogs full of baby project temptation. A few nights ago, my curiosity got the best of me. I found myself bookmarking ideas left and right, not to mention I spent an hour or so over on pinterest pinning even more craft-worthy projects.

And I found it. A project. A gift-able project.

All it required was a onesie and a printed image onto my iron-on paper.

I could do this.

Even, better? I could do this without stepping foot in a baby store, thus side-stepping temptation to buy anything for our boy.

I dug into the box of girl clothes I can finally let go of, and I just so happened to have saved a 5 pack of white onesies.

So, I got all creative and went to town printing fun images from the computer ( most royalty free, however, there are two sporting team logos that I recreated myself). I used my silhouette machine to mirror the images so that the writing would read the correct direction once ironed on, cut around each printed image, and within minutes of my time with the iron, I had five completed onesies to gift-away.

Okay, so I made ONE onesie as a gift ( and can't post it till the recipient receives it, because if I posted it, it's a dead giveaway who it was made for, this ruining the surprise!), and might just have made the other FOUR for the boy.

But, technically speaking, I still haven't bought anything, therefore, I have not yet broken my self imposed silly rule. I know that no one care about it except for me, but I am afraid of jinxing our luck with this pregnancy if I get ahead of myself and start buying things.

Sheesh, all that just to show you what I've made...Anyone want to spend a day in my head? It's fun, I tell ya.

Without further adieu, here they are...

[Go Steelers! Got pop's college football number on the sleeve]

[ fit for a son that is the same % Italian as mom & pop]

[ Sharing mom & pop's love affair with the Chevy K5 Blazer]

[ His roots]

So, that's it! It's an easy, easy beginner project for those of you that have showers to attend. A pack of onesies generally costs between $9 and $12. Just be sure to wash them with a dye free detergent before applying images.

Moustached Paisanos

I couldn't NOT post this photo my sister just sent my way.

Jimmie Vendrame (Brie's grandpa) sometime in the 80's....

Nick-2009

There's about a 30 year chunk of time between the photograph of my grandpa sportin the handlebars, and this one of my sunshine..but they both rocked them equally well. Think the the trend might catch on?