We’ve planned and now we’re ready to execute. In fact, we set our Elf in his first pose on Thanksgiving eve.
Normally our Elf comes on December 1, but because this year is this year, Train came early!
This is our third year of elf’ing and we actually enjoy it and miss Train when he has to return to the North Pole.
We found the secret to actually enjoying your elf is to pre-plan the poses, so you don’t have to think on your feet. We do this by creating a calendar. While we deviate from the calendar on occasion, it’s so useful to have an idea ready to go. We’re four days in and have deviated twice, which is fine by us. Michael doesn’t know any different.
I think I’ve found the silver lining to our current COVID situation: quality time with Michael.
We are spending a lot of time together: between “Mom School,” “Zoom school,” and the shortened days of “in-person school,” it’s all Megan & Michael time. All. The. Time.
While Michael works on his school work and crafts, I’m trying to not be on my phone all of the time, so I’ve been finishing up some in-process crafting projects. (Our school room is the craft room, after all.)
I found an image of skeleton flamingos on Pinterest and I thought they were fun, decorative, and not too scary.
So, I bought some flamingos from Amazon. Do note: these are “mini” flamingos and much smaller than I had expected.
We had some leftover matte black spray paint, so I set up a spray paint area and went to town.
Fast forward a few months, and I finally had the time and tools to finish the project!
What do you need?
Matte black spray paint (We used Rustoleum’s High Heat spray paint, leftover from painting our fireplace, likely purchased from Home Depot)
I searched a few images on Pinterest and just started drawing. The paint I used dulled my white pen a bit throughout, so I wiped off the tip and kept going.
It took just a few worksheets, crafts, and PlayDoh sessions and I was done! These actually took less time than I expected.
Our flock!
If you decide to follow our lead on these non-spooky skeleton flamingos, please tag me in your photos or post pictures here!
We dressed up, paraded, trick-or-treated, and ate and ate and ate.
Most of my creative juices went to Michael’s Mater costume, which was a work of art.
From the front:
And from the back… a working tow hook!
And let’s not forget the working headlamps once dusk hit! (Don’t you just love the pie tin radiator/candy dish!?)
Mater was WAY too big to wear to school for Michael’s class parade, so we pulled this Captain America costume out of the closet. Look at these little super heroes!
Apparently Michael grew a bit… Look at his shoes and fake shoes.
Brandon and I phoned in our outfits, thanks to Target. They were fun and easy– fine by me!
Of course we had some festive eats too… Our many-layer dip was so easy and paired perfectly with orange and black chips from Wegmans:
And some sweet treats, “blood” courtesy of food coloring and corn syrup, applied with an infant medicine dropper, edible axes made by Wilton, bought by me:
We carved pumpkins too. All around, the perfect holiday!
Our little man turned one in September and we celebrated in style: a rustic, outdoorsy, glamping style. Here are all of the details of our big party.
ONE happy camper!
We rented a picnic shelter space on Megan’s Island, in between two large fields and adjacent to a play structure. It was a pretty sweet spot. The only thing that would make it better would have been an infant swing, Michael’s favorite thing to do at the park.
The birthday boy
We opted for the Sunday before Michael’s birthday, which also ended up being the Seahawks home opener. We managed to squeeze the party in between Michael’s morning nap and 1 p.m. kickoff.
Food. We kept the food simple with 12 feet (FEET!) of Subway sandwiches, personal bags of chips, Aunt Nancy’s quinoa salad, and goldfish cracker packets and applesauce pouches for the little ones.
12 feet of sandwiches
Drinks. Since it was at a park, and 11 a.m., we decided to make Michael’s party nonalcoholic. We had a delicious hot cocoa bar and juice boxes for the kids. We offered toasted marshmallow syrup, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips to customize their ideal cocoa.
Drink station: hot cocoa bar!
Dessert. I made these s’more cookie bars but the real star of the show was the Costco cake. Thankfully Costco makes a cake that was perfect for our party. We got the “over the hill” design minus the over the hill language.
Cake!
We had such a wonderful time celebrating our little guy, ONE happy camper!
ONE happy camper!
A couple of other favorite photos from Michael’s big party:
Cake table & Michael’s weekly photos
52 weekly photos of Michael with the same bear in the same chair
Warming himself by the fire
Snuggles!
More snuggles! Also: the pants that inspired the party!
Umm… did you know that my wildest dreams might actually come true?! It’s a long shot, but when Brandon forwarded me the application for The Handmade Project, a reality television show about crafting (!!!!), I knew that I had to apply.
It took three weeks for me to perfect my responses to the dozens of questions they asked, find my craft projects and photos, and to film just the right 3 minute video. The stars aligned last week and I submitted my application!
You have to apply to be chosen! Fingers crossed!!
I’ve never applied to a reality TV show before, but I’m guessing it’s a little bit of a popularity contest, so I’d really appreciate it if you could please watch, comment, and like my application video on YouTube, this blog post, and on my social channels. (Links in the top right!)
Who knows… you might be seeing me on the big screen in August!
Here are some highlights of my application, so you can know what you’re supporting:
My PR/introductory blurb:
During the day, Megan Szerwo is a real-life Leslie Knope, making her living working on behalf of the people of the City of Seattle. After hours though, Megan grabs a glass of her favorite red and she gets down to business on her real passion: crafting. A jack of all trades, Megan focuses her attention on party and holiday decor, gifts for new parents, and any and every craft possible with her endless supply of corks. Megan’s three passions in life are easily described: cats, crafts, and carafes! Megan lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, son, and two cats.
And some of the projects that I highlight:
My Q13 debut!
My small business: Little Britches Bakery
Our homemade wood-fired oven in the backyard
My party pinatas
My mad party-throwing skills
Cork art!
And a couple of projects that are new to you as a blog reader:
Michael’s ONE HAPPY CAMPER first birthday party! I promise you’ll see it soon!
Muzzle Guzzler glassware: coming soon!
Fourth of July onesies! (Post coming only a year late, but in time for 7/4/17!)
Since it’s likely that this show would just perfectly foul up our Buffalo moving plans, it’s almost guaranteed to happen!
Don’t forget to watch my application video, tell all your friends to watch it, and like/comment on this post!
Thank you for reading and your unending support of my creative endeavors!
I had the pleasure of turning my Pinterest board into reality last week to make Michael’s preschool valentines. I know I’m biased, but I’m pretty impressed with the final product. (I really liked last year’s valentines too!)
You’re out of this world, Valentine!
Space ducks: unite!
These valentines are super easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and don’t include sugar, so they’re good for kids of all ages:
Over the weekend I cleaned out the abyss that is my sprinkle/frosting/everything cabinet and found a bag of Christmas sprinkles from a cookie decorating party in 2008. (EIGHT YEARS AGO!) Thankfully, I knew how old they were since I dated the bag. Nice work, self.
Anyway, I had been perusing Pinterest and came across a “recipe” for reindeer food.
Reindeer food is completely inedible for humans but will be quite a delight for the birds! Err, I mean, Santa’s reindeer.
The recipe is simple: whatever you want (that birds enjoy).
I went with ~ 1/2 cup of oats (buy them in bulk!), 1/4 cup of bird seed, and some of all the sprinkles I had in my everything cabinet.
It’s really easy to make, and if nothing else, do it to make room for a new set of holiday sprinkles!
I had fun and I know Michael’s daycare friends will love their packages of reindeer food tomorrow!
Have you seen the app Chatbooks yet? It’s one of my new favorite things and I can’t stop singing their praises.
I discovered Chatbooks on Instagram through a sponsored post, while I was on maternity leave. I had nothing but time on my hands (at least when the kid was nursing, he wasn’t very good at sleeping reliably…) so I clicked on the ad and discovered a very reasonably-priced, creative, and super easy stocking stuffer idea. This would also make a great Father’s Day gift, which is coming up in a few short weeks!
Simply put, Chatbooks is an app that allows you to upload photos and create 8″ x 8″ softcover books.
My favorite option from Chatbooks: auto books. I’m rather prolific with posting of Michael photos on Instagram and I’ve set up my Chatbooks book by simply using a hashtag on the Instagram photos I want to include in my book.
IT’S THAT EASY!
Every 60 photos, Chatbooks emails me to review my book and three days later, it prints and ships! …And I’m working on volume nine. NINE. (That’s more than one per month!)
I’ll bet you’re glad I finally filled you in on my overuse of the #babymichael hashtag on Instagram, right? Now you know!
There are so many great ideas out there! I especially liked the fish bowls, tic tacs, and chips.
However, since many of those at daycare (including Michael) aren’t eating solids, I went the route of age-appropriate toys instead.
And… voila! Amazing valentines!
These valentines are DINO-riffic!
I combined a few of the dinosaur valentines I found online and designed one perfect for “our” (Michael’s, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing yet…) needs. Download the template here. I added these dino bath squirters from Amazon.
Megan's Island 