Interchangeable Wreath: Fall and Christmas

This project has been quite literally years in the making. I think I may have actually started this when we still lived at our apartment in 2012, or maybe that's just when I started planning it.

The idea is that instead of storing seasonal wreaths, I only have to store seasonal wreath accessories. The wreath base is wrapped in a neutral grey yarn, and all the accessories are on alligator clips so they're easily added or removed.

Here's the summery wreath decorations I made first: 

I've since made a fall set of decorations:

And a set for Christmas!

I also have a winter and spring set done, but don't have pictures of those yet, so those will be shared at a later date. (Probably in like 3 years.)

Love and Felt,

Leah Joy

Christmas 2017 Ornaments

Aren't these snowmen adorable?!

These were the ones I made en masse to gift to friends and family.

And this is the one I made for Jo for 2017. I purchased a clear plastic ball ornament and filled it with Mod Podge inside for the red glitter to stick to. I first drew Elmo's face with Sharpie and then painted over it with acrylic paint. I sealed the face with more Mod Podge.

Jo loved this ornament. She would carry it around with her and read books to it. (This is why I made it with a plastic ornament, not glass!)

Love and Paint,

Leah Joy

Christmas 2017 (cringe) Round-Up Part 2

Here are few more photos I've been hanging on to for far too long.

I made some marbled clay dishes with Sculpey clay. Once they were baked, I used gold acrylic paint to 'gild' the edges. I glazed them with Sculpey's satin glaze.

I also made these super-easy mountain range photo holders.

I tried my hand at water marbling, a notoriously temperamental craft. I made some little votive holders. They're okay; not my favorite craft I've ever done, certainly.

Finally, one of my favorite projects was this peace wreath. I got the pattern from Betz White. I ended up making six of these, five for gifts and one to keep. The original had little blue pom-poms all over it like berries - they looked super cute, but I couldn't find any pom-poms small enough, so I left them off. I also simplified the embroidery on the dove, adding just gold stars instead of the foliage.

I've got one more post from Christmas 2017, then I think I can finally get a little less behind.

Love and Sculpey,

Leah Joy

Christmas 2017 (cringe) Round-Up Part 1

Not sure why I've been holding on to these pictures so long. Here are a few things I made like 2.5 years ago.

This is a tote bag that I sewed myself, then made a freezer paper stencil to add the Luke's logo from Gilmore Girls.

It's fully lined and has an inside pocket!

I also made another bow clutch (see first one here).

I made a couple dozen of these fun zipper pouches to share with all the women in my life.

And I stitched these little kitten magnets. How cute are they?! (Original pattern here; I added a magnet and used blanket stitch along the sides instead of running stitch.)

And a few more owls...

Love and Embroidery,

Leah Joy

Life Update: 4/16/2020

Well hello to anyone still out there.

I promise, though it has been nearly a year, that I have not forgotten about this blog. Life is ... crazy. I have a lot to catch up on, so let's just jump right in.

I believe the last thing I updated you on was Micah's 1st birthday, and a bit of our new house (that we've now been in for 2.5 years). 

Let's see, my sister got engaged, and I was recruited to make their wedding cake. As her intended has Celiac disease, I needed to practice a lot of gluten-free baking; get ready for lots of cake pictures. :)

This was for Pete's birthday in September. (Pete being Chloe's now-husband.)

I was practicing my gluten-free chocolate cake recipe, but also a smooth frosting technique.

In November, I purchased some 6" cake pans because I thought a 4-layer 6" cake looks more elegant than a 2-layer 9" cake.

I loaded this practice one up with practice truffles.

Jo turned 4 over Thanksgiving weekend. With everything going on (the wedding was near Christmas), we gave her two tiny celebrations tacked on to each family Thanksgiving. I made her two 2-layer 6" cakes, one for each side of the family.

In early December, Jo got to be the Christmas star in our church's preschool Christmas program.

My sister and Pete got married just before Christmas. Here's a picture of Chloe and me. I dyed my dress!

(Don't worry, I'll show pictures of the cake in a later post!)

For Valentine's Day, I had fun getting creative.

This is from a tutorial by Lauren Fairweather. (Link here.)

For my mom's birthday, I made a gluten-free cake, but I also made a stabilized whipped cream for the filling, instead of buttercream.

(The whipped cream was stabilized with gelatin.)

Then Micah turned 2.

And basically since then, we've been in Quarantine.

This has been a challenge, even though I'm a stay-at-home mom, because we did go a lot of places before. I mean, I can't even take my kids grocery shopping right now. So, I've been trying to maintain a few regular rhythms, since we all function better with a schedule.

1. Having crafts prepared for Jo. We're working through the alphabet with these fun crafts put together by Crystal & Co.

2. The kids have room time every morning. Not sure what room time is? Check out the Babywise Mom blog.

3. Caleb has been working from home, so we've been working at creating healthy boundaries so we don't kill each other. :)

4. I have a stash of craft supplies (both for me and more kid-friendly ones), and I also went to Dollar Tree and picked up sticker books and coloring books. I save these for 'emergencies', AKA when the kids are whining and bored because they have toys to play with that they don't want to play with and I just need them to be quiet for a half hour.

5. Caleb signed up for Minno for a month. This is a Christian video platform. We usually keep screen time for the kids very minimal; Jo gets 5 minutes to play an iPad game before bed (if she's obeyed during the day) and we'll throw on an episode of Daniel Tiger or something a couple times a week. But during this time, we've upped that to nearly once a day. I do not feel the slightest bit of guilt about this.

6. The weather has been very bipolar lately, but when it's appropriate to do so, I toss the kids in the backyard. It's fenced in, and they play very nicely together back there (almost all the time). This provides healthy play for them, and a healthy break for me!

So that's an update for now. I have several other posts planned and photographed, so it's just a matter of writing them, which I should have some time to do this week. I'll get them scheduled to appear in the next weeks and months.

And yes, there's a lot of catching up to do on various crafts and other projects. I think I still have stuff from Christmas 2018 to post. Oh dear.

Love and Belated Updates,

Leah Joy

New House Tour: Backyard

We had a nice big yard at our old house, including a fenced-in portion. When we were looking for a new house, our only requirement in the yard department was that there was a safe place for kids to play. Whether that was fenced-in, or somewhere we could add a fence, or a quiet road - we had no specifications.

However, what we got exceeded any expectations, or even dreams. Check it out.

The backyard can be accessed through this archway/gate which is on the far side of the garage. (Also through a door from the garage and from the sun porch.) We have a padlock on the gate so that Jo can play in the backyard unsupervised and we don't have to worry about her escaping.

These pictures were actually taken last Spring, and that vine actually gets really beautiful and covered in white flowers (and bees!).

The previous owners did a beautiful job landscaping the backyard. It could have just been a hill, and instead they added pathways and almost created the feel of different rooms. It's a good-sized backyard, but it feels enormous because they used the space so well.

There are two of these stairway-type paths with the wooden stairs, plus one that has flat stones.

There's a little pergola up near the back fence, perfect for a couple of chairs. (Jo calls it the farm, because why not?)

Here's the view from the farm down to the back of our house. The white archway used to be a sensible location but it blew over in storm and we set it back up and now (a year later) it is officially dead.

There's a paved patio section just behind the house.

Hopefully you won't have to wait another year to see the front yard. :)

Love and Green,

Leah Joy

Gilmore Girls Guess Who

I'm certainly not the first person to have this idea. I first saw it on Pinterest (obvs) here:

I loved that the bloggers (Sarah and Nick) included the printables if you wanted to make your own. However, I purchased a brand-new copy of Guess Who, and they've changed the picture sizes. So I basically had to start from scratch.

This was a gift for some friends, so I decided to get really into it, and actually have them professionally printed. I also wanted a copy for our house, and thought it would be fun to have other versions, too, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel MCU, and even one of family members. I spent hours in Publisher getting everything looking perfect and sent it off to the printer... only to be told that they couldn't print it because it violated copyright laws... multiple times.

Darn laws.

SO, I printed it at home. Not as nice of quality as I wanted, but still functional.

Because I'm a little extra, I also decorated the box. Thanks Mod Podge and acrylic sealer for helping me make it look even nicer!

Love and Poodles,

Leah Joy