The Alison Show | Keep it Crafty & Sassy

Ginger Jane’s Easter Dress

A lot of my Instagram account consists of pictures displaying Gigi’s sassiness. People assume, especially those who know me in person but who do not know Gigi, that I am playing up her attitude, or embellishing her dramatics for the sake of being just that…dramatic.

I would like to note, that time and time again, after meeting my lil princess people admit to me that, “No, she really is as “spunky” as you say.” And I always feel greatly justified! Don’t get me wrong, Ginger is not a brat and we do our fair share of discipling. But honestly from day one that little lady has known what she wants, and has had NO problem letting everyone around her know it. Even though I sometimes wish she had an easier temperament, nothing in the world could make me prouder than how animated, brilliant, and insane my daughter is. And even with all the tantrums and all the craziness, I wouldn’t trade her for all the sanity in the world.

I decided to make a last-minute Easter dress for said crazy lady. And trying to get a picture of her in it basically demonstrates my point. It took lots of coaxing and cajoling to get it on her small person, and then she refused to take it off so I could finish it. After tantrums and time-outs, I finished the dress and when she got to put it on before church on Easter morning she was THRILLED. Which lasted for about 5 minutes, until I tried to get her to take a picture. Honestly she would be the WORST contestant to ever grace Toddler in Tiaras. Ugh. I love that little nut.

It is INSANE how quickly this…

Turns to this,

and this.

That’s our angel! Luckily, time-out provides the PERFECT opportunity for a shot of the exposed zipper.

The sleeves are my favorite part. I used the same pleather that I used for my gold hearts garland! I modified this New Look Sewing Pattern 6927 to make her lil dress. I let the lining be exposed because I thought it was super cute, and instead of the pleated skirt I used this easy tutorial for determining the measurements of a circle skirt. Instead of hemming the skirt I used some thin bias tape. I didn’t buy any of the fabric or notions, and I already had the pattern, so I essentially ROCK. GO ME!

I miss sewing, I don’t do it very often anymore, mostly because my room has been too messy to use and it’s hard to sew when you’re pregnant. Or at least it is for me because I’m like brain-dead and have to do everything over. But I hope to start up again and bust through some of my stash!

Well, thanks for humoring me! I just love to share! If you made any Easter duds for your lil ones please share the link in the comments! I would LOVE to see them!

xo,
Alison

Lil Man’s Nursery: The Walls

I worked with The Land of Nod to put some finishing touches on my lil man’s nursery. It was really fun looking through their art and getting to choose a couple of pieces! But I’ve also been busy with some DIY projects that I’m creating, and so I thought I’d share a sneak peek of what’s going on with my lil man’s walls!

Southwest Wall Decals & A bunch of paper mache letters

Giraffe wall hook & Rifle Animal Alphabet Poster

Canvas USA Map & Plastic Animal Masks

I have some fantastic ideas for the paper mache letters and the animal masks, so stay tuned! And I have to say, that though I received the product in return for promotion (girl’s gotta live!) I am so thrilled with my Land of Nod art! It’s such high quality and I love having the finishing touches for the room! I’m one lucky mama.

I didn’t realize when I ordered it that the Rifle alphabet print is framed, so when it arrived I was EXTRA excited. I’ve never, ever, owned a piece of professionally framed art, and it totally made me sit back and say, “So THIS is how the other half live.” Haha.

In other news, an article I wrote for my Babble Voices blog was featured on Huffington Post! So exciting. It’s called: Lessons in confidence from my 2-year-old

I also wrote another article: The Worst Comments I’ve Gotten as a Pregnant Lady

And I did a round-up of great Easter activities and crafts for kids on Minted’s blog Julep.

It’s been a busy but very good week! I hope you have a great weekend!

xo,
Alison

What will ACTUALLY Happen on our Easter Sunday

(Gigi playing with cascarones, confetti eggs, in front of our house. The egg shells are still all over the walkway, we’re REAL classy!)

So far I’ve written like 3-4 posts with round-ups for fun Easter crafts, Easter activities, and last-minute basket fillers. And you know me, I love to be festive, I love to craft and make things more complicated than they are. I sincerely enjoy doing it and I take pride in posting things I’m actually doing and things I’m actually making.

But I also like to keep it real. So just in case you’re feeling like a failure for not filling your kid’s baskets with all handmade gifts, or for not planning a Martha Stewartesque table scape for your guests, I thought I’d share our Easter Sunday plans.

We will wake up and I will have a basket for Gigi. Not a cute handmade container, but like a basket from the thrift store. It will be filled with items I got in the $1 section at Joann Crafts…and that I used my 25% off coupon for. We’re talking Monsters Inc. stickers, a giant pencil, and some sparkly nail polish in star-shaped bottles. I’m planning on riffling through our toy bins to find some of the Bunny Finger Puppets that I made last year to put in her basket again this year. Yeah, I’m re-gifting, she’s 2! I got some plastic eggs at a community Easter egg hunt, and I’m filling those with jelly beans. The cheap ones, not the good ones. I’ve also got like a dozen cascarones (confetti eggs) that I’ll tuck in there then let Gigi go outside and smash. And that’s all the little princess of the world is getting. I’ll also totally let her eat the candy for breakfast, and probably Easy Mac n’ Cheese, cause that’s all she’s wanted to eat lately. All in all I probably spent 10-15$ on everything.

We’ll then go to church, where I’m teaching a lesson to all of the young children, and I’ll be horribly enthusiastic and animated for 15 minutes, and then I will need a 2 hour nap. Usually we’d go to Eric’s parents for Easter dinner, but they have plans, so we’ll have dinner here.

So today at the grocery store I said to Eric, “Um, should we like get a ham?” Pointing to the gigantic gold-wrapped meats other people were carefully inspecting. “How do you make ham?” I asked him.

“You just heat it up.” He said. Sounded good to me! So we put a giant ham in the cart and I grabbed some oranges so I can make my grandma’s amazing orange rolls. I might make a salad or potatoes…but only if I’m feeling crazy!

We might have some neighbors over, but I really can’t entertain at this stage in my pregnancy, so if we do, I guarantee there wil be no place cards, in fact, I don’t even have a dining table. We will eat on the couch. It might be fun to let the kids watercolor on some print-outs or decorate some eggs, but again, I’m REAL pregnant. And even if I wasn’t this is probably what would happen.

Is this kind of a downer? I actually am really excited for Easter! I’m super excited for Gigi to see her stickers and new crayons and eat jelly beans. I’m excited to prepare a lesson for the lil kids about what we believe the meaning of Easter is, and I’m excited to eat all the ham I can.

I have my cute Easter crafts on display, and the rest of the house, as usual, is pretty much a mess.

I’m excited to incorporate and adopt new traditions as our family ages and grows, so I’d love to hear some of yours! But I also just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten what a holiday is really about, and to me, it’s setting aside time to be with family, eat delicious food, and shift the focus from the hustle and bustle of our everyday life to something greater and bigger. No matter what you believe.

So I hope you have a wonderful holiday! And I love you all!

Tomorrow we will continue our regularly scheduled frivolity. Promise!

xo
Alison

Easter Crafts and Activities

Well are you ready for Easter to be over on The Alison Show?! Haha, I don’t know what it is! But something about Easter just inspires the craftiness in me! So here’s a round-up of my Easter crafts and treats!

1. Easter Party Printables- Perfect for keeping kids busy during your meal.
2. Easter Bunny Treat Cups- You could use these as favors filled with treats or as a way to perk up your punch.
3. Fruity French Easter Eggs- These really don’t take long! Hurry, you can make some for your party.
4. Bunny and Carrot Garland- If you don’t need decor the bunnies would be cute as a gift tag.
5. Bunny Finger Puppets- These are an oldie but a goodie! We still have ours floating around the house from 2 years ago.
6. Ukrainian Easter Eggs DIY- Yao inspired us all with these treats!
7. Anemone Flower Cookies- These technically aren’t Easter specific, but they would be a beautiful Easter dessert.

I also did a round-up for my Babble blog for last-minute Easter Crafts and Activities from some other fun folks, right here!

So go forth and be festive my friends! I love you all!

xo
Alison

DIY Fruity French Easter Eggs

I’m so exited to share the craft I came up with for this month’s 12 Months of Martha challenge! Remember how I pointed out the fun fruit trend I’ve been loving? I let that inspire my egg decorating.

This month the box of crafty goodness showed up with lots of fun spring goodies, with a focus on stencils. My favorite thing in the box was the Adhesive Stencil Film. I used it to create some stencils to paint on some eggs using the great paint colors that were sent in the box too! You can download the stencils here!

I’ve created a full tutorial and a download with the shapes! Read on my crafty lovers.

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