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.

Homemade Holidays: Etched Casserole Dishes

For the ladies in our families, I made etched casserole dishes.

I designed individualized templates with my silhouette SD and let my machine cut them out of contact paper. I then peeled off the template, placed it on the glass, and brushed on etching cream in all the negative spaces.

The directions say to leave it on for 5 minutes, but I learned quickly that 5 minutes wasn't enough---and actually had to re-lay two of the templates ( that's hard to do on a long last name!) and re-etch. Pain in the ass. So, to save yourself the frustration, lay the cream on heavily, and wait 10 minutes before rinsing off the cream. It made a world of difference.

[After 5 minutes, not completely etched]

[After 10 minutes, completely etched]

Easy, and useful..now everyone gets their dishes back after a family get together.

Homemade Holiday: Quiet Book

A couple years back, I made our first born nephew a quiet book when he turned three. This year, one of our other nephews also turned three, and seems to be drawn to my childhood quiet book every time he comes over to "Uncle Nick's house". So, I decided that I would make him his very own book and give it to him for Christmas. I call this one Quiet book 2.0, since I have made some changes to my original pattern.

The main change I made with this book, was that I opted to use felt for the pages, like my friend Liz , over at A crafty B, did for her daughter's book. The felt just feels sturdier, and is easier to snap, button, and velcro to, than the quilting cotton that I used on my first version.

I like quiet books because they work on a child's fine motor skills, and they can go at their own pace. Some pages are meant to be challenging, with things like lacing, or weaving, and others focus on color recognition, counting, and day to day tasks, such as snapping, buttoning and using velcro.

Upon completion of the pages, I made a canvas cover complete with carrying handles, so our nephew can take his book on-the-go.

I hope it provides hours of entertainment ( & some quiet time for his mama!) for years to come.

Happy Mail: Sundae box

There are a few of my longtime friends that still love real-deal mail like me. I call it Happy Mail, and every so often, something super cool, and un-expected will show up on my doorstep from one of them. It goes back and forth between us, and I am pretty sure it will continue on for many years.

Two of my Happy Mail girls recently had birthdays within days of one another, so I threw together a Happy Birthday box for each of them to celebrate & share the day with those close to them, since I am miles away from both girls.

Check it..

Yup. Ice cream Sundae Boxes.

Toppings & waffle bowls to share. I printed out snack bag labels and filled each with an ice-cream friendly topping.

Just add ice cream.

Pretty easy & happy, right?

I know it'd put a smile on my face!

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.

Top that, Santa!

I have stumbled upon the best birthday present, Ev-ER for my husband's next Birthday, which happens to fall just 15 days after ol Santa Claus stops by our house each year.

[disclaimer: The man above is not NZ...but I am pretty sure he'd be stoked with a case of Budlight]

Add to the proximity of Christmas, the fact that my ol man also tends to buy himself whatever he wants ( I see a quiver of surfboards taking over our garage wall) before I have a chance to come up with something. I'd love to send him with a few friends on some all expense paid surf excursion, out in the boonies, where no wife in their right mind would want to hang--you know, like-- camping....in the dirt...with no bathrooms...lots of beer and sketchy locals...in Baja, or somewhere like that.

I know he'd be over the moon if I gave him something like that, but until we win the lottery, I have to be a little more frugal...This year, I've decided to go home-made...I've come up with a fantastic present for my ol man, and couldn't be more excited about it.

But before you go telling me that men don't like home-made gifts, just spare me, okay?

He's gonna like this one...

Besides, I was so excited that I already spilled the beans to him, so he totally knows what he is going to be getting...

..

..

..

..

..And we're both quite excited about it...

Yep, it's what you think it is.

il bambino di zentil

Pretty freakin' awesome, right?

Estimated delivery date: Mid January 2012 ( Nick's Birthday!)

**This post was written Memorial Day weekend, 2011, shortly after learning we'd be expecting again. We opted to zip our lips about this pregnancy as long as possible because our only experience with pregnancy is related to loss. We are thrilled at the opportunity to get another chance at parenthood, and hope that those around us support our decision/reasons behind not sharing the news sooner.

Love you forever

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living,

My baby you'll be"

-Robert Munsch " I'll love you forever

Since it has been quite some time since our loss, I am always caught off guard (in a good way, of course) when a friend remembers that some of my days may still be rough. I've been pleasantly surprised with the memory of our little girl living on in someone else's mind twice in the recent month.

One of my BFF's who has been ever so patient with me, sent me a photo of a butterfly she released at an infant loss memorial held at a local hospital where she lives in Portland. It made my day.

Another one of my "rocks" gave me a penant necklace with the letter "D" inscribed on it. A friend of hers gave her one when she had her son, and she thought enough to get one for me in memory of Denise.

I don't need to have any blazing signs on me screaming "REMEMBER MY DEAD BABY, DAMMIT!", but this necklace and the ring that my sunshine gave me are just enough for me to look down at them and know that I have a little something to remember her by. Most people would never know why I wear the ring I wear, nor would they know that "D" is not a living child or my first initial.Subtlety rocks.

Let's face it. My friends and family rock.

Love them forever.

Packaging Cake Pops

Thanks to Bakerella, I love making cake balls and cake pops. I discovered their greatness last year when my college girlfriends were in town, and one of them was talking about yummy cakeballs. I googled "cake ball" and that's how I found Bakerella's website, and it was choc full of those sugar bullets.

Fast forward a year...and I still like making them, but usually opt for cakeballs due to the ease of transporting them vs. the pops.

I recently saw a cute gift giving idea using what I suspect to be floral block (or styrofoam) in a cute basket, which acted as a base for keeping the cake pops steady and upright.

After a quick trip to the Dollar Tree, I found a basket, a piece of floral block, and a cellophane basket wrapper for a grand total of $3. I decided I was going to make a cake pop stand myself. if it flopped, at least I only spent $3, right?

Step 1: evenly space and mark floral block 1" from edge. I made room for 8 pops.

Step two: trace and cut out the same size circle out of scrapbook paper. Place on top of the floral block, mark where the holes are, and use a hole punch to punch out holes to match with the holes in the floral block. ( As you can see, I used a ballpoint pen to push through a hole..lesson learned, ballpoint pens don't make clean punches)Step 3: Put the foam block covered in scrapbook paper into the basket. I used a round floral block and round basket which measured just a 1/2 inch larger around. (No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, I switched the girly floral paper for manly navy blue to go with the basket). Add cake pops to the basket. Step 4: Wrap with cellophane and tie a bow. Voila! A smile in a basket that can be delivered with ease. This one's headed to a High School Grad tomorrow night.