Adorable, you are.

Dear Elliot,
A full post to come (including pics of you and your cousin Maddie trying to eat each other's faces at tonight's family pumpkin carving party), but I just have to share this picture of you in your Yoda Halloween costume.

Seriously, I can't get enough. Two of my favorite things in this world: Star Wars, and you. For trick-or-treating, I am going to be Princess Leia. The two of us are going to kill it! 

For anyone out there still in need of an easy costume, this was actually not hard to put together. The hat is from Esty (but if you're better at crocheting/knitting than I am, you could make it!), and the robe is made from a $1 Goodwill curtain, with a belt cut out of an old pillowcase. 

To make the robe, I folded my fabric in half, roughly drew a jedi-like robe on it, folded it in half, cut out the two pieces (on on top of the other), and sewed it together. Then I cut it down the middle to make it a robe. For the hood, just take a long rectangle, fold it in half, sew down the right side (like this), and attach to the robe. I am horrible with a sewing machine and was able to do this without any issues.

When Maddie pulled your hat off tonight, Dad said, "now he's Obi Wan!" So it totally works if you don't have the awesome hat, too :)

I have been looking forward to our first Halloween together since I first found out you existed. And it's totally surpassing all expectations.

Love you so much!

XOXO,

Mom

DIY Alphabet Book

Dear Readers,
I'd been wanting to make Elliot a special ABC book for awhile. Ever since we first read through the one we have at home and found weird things like "J is for Jam Tart" (seriously, what the heck is a jam tart??). I thought it would be fun for him to learn his ABCs through things he actually recognizes from around the house. So one afternoon while he napped, I went around snapping pictures and then designed a book. I am so in love with how it turned out that I decided to share it with you all!

So this book was actually pretty easy to make. The first step is to simply take pictures of things in your world that start with the letters in the alphabet. Whenever possible, I tried to think of things that would be useful for Elliot to know someday. For a few of the letters, I used people (and animals!) he knows vs. things:

Some of my other favorite pictures were just of things in our house and backyard:

To design the pages, I used picmonkey.com. I just cropped all the pictures into squares and added the text to the corners. 

Then, I used Shutterfly to create the book itself (though you could use just about any photo printing company). I chose an 8X8 photo book and simply uploaded my already designed my ABC pictures as the pages. 

I also designed a cover that looks like this:

And a title page that looks like this:

Look at that--my dreams of being a published author have finally come true ;)

My awesome friend Kerri was sweet enough to give me a promo code she had for a free photo book, so all I had to pay for was shipping! Shutterfly has deals on photo books all the time, but right now their 8X8 books are on sale for $14.99. You can also get a $100 credit a Picaboo (another photo printing place like Shutterfly) for $35 on Living Social right now if you want to make, like, a bunch of books!

I had so much fun with this project, and from the looks of it, El is pretty happy with his new book too:

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,

Kristin

6 months old...and a new job!

Dear Elliot,
So I'm about a week late with this post, but last Sunday you turned six months old. Has it really been half a year since I finally heard you cry and looked into your eyes for the first time? In some ways it feels like that day was forever ago, and in others, like it was just yesterday.

It's hard to believe that my little baby boy is sitting, trying to stand, eating solid foods, and even saying 'mama' when he wants me (you can roll your eyes and not believe me if you want to, but I swear it's true!)

Anyway, part of the reason I am so late in updating this blog is that I finally got a new job! I have been looking and holding out hope for a job that would allow me to stay at home with you during the day and I am so, so excited that I finally found one! The position is about 30 hours/week, 100% work from home, writing for a deals website (sort of like groupon). Yes, it is totally legit :) I started training last week and I think I am really going to love it. I love finding sweet deals, I love sharing them, and I love to write, so it seems like the perfect fit for me right now. And of course the best part is that I have the most adorable little assistant to help me out during the day:

There you are, sleepin' on the job :)

I am just so happy right now. You light up my life and bring so much joy to my world. I love you, big boy!

XOXO,

Mom