tutu love

As mentioned in a previous post, my daughters were lucky enough to receive tutus from The Girly Place for Christmas, and today we decided to do a little impromptu photo shoot of Alison in hers.

















Alison has been taking ballet for about a year and a half now, and as you can see in some of the photos, she looks every bit the prima ballerina. But I have to admit, I love how the pics of her turned out with her stripey legs and chunky boots :) We had so much fun taking these photos! The tutu is wonderful!

If you haven't had a chance to check out The Girly Place, then what are you waiting for? Mom, wife and crafter, Joanie is the mastermind behind this wonderful shop. Her tutus are excellent quality and boast tons of 'fluff'. They come in different lengths and a variety of colours. She even has one that is a dress, very cute! And while you're there, be sure to take a look at the assortment of hair bows and flowers as well as all of the adorable felt foods. I'm especially fond of the fortune cookies (I think I may have to purchase some for Valentine's Day). Oh, did I forget to mention she also has the sweetest baby shoes too!






















images courtesy of The Girly Place

We are absolutely in love with our tutus, I'm pretty sure you can see how much A loves hers :) AND as an added bonus the lovely Joanie used the pics of A in one of her listings in her shop. You can imagine the squealing that's been going on here ;) !

handmade christmas

My kids received tons of wonderful presents this year. Lots of toys, lots of clothes, lots of gift cards. But the presents that I loved the best were the ones that couldn't be found in a big box brick and mortar store, but special treasures found on Etsy.

My sister went mostly handmade this year and while she did have to cave in and purchase a few items from Toys R Us (boys can be very particular), she was able to get almost all of her Christmas shopping done online from the comfort of her own home. This is just a small sampling of the fabulous items she gifted us with:
















Wonderful sweet pea soap that smells heavenly from Indulgent Creations, a beautiful cedar soap dish from Andrew's Reclaimed, a funky wristlet key chain from Tracy Designs and cocoa mint lip balm from Sparta Soap...all for me!
















For the mini papercut, a couple of adorable pink diaper shirts from Not Your Mom's Vinyl...yes daddy is a Star Wars fan, and Z is a bit of a spitter.























Fluffy and fanciful tutus for both the girls from The Girly Place. As well as a pink and black taggy minky blanket(not pictured) for the little one. My eldest promptly put her tutu on and twirled around the room:)























And last but definitely not least, the sweetest little doll ever, named Lydia, from Sugar and Spice! She's my favourite gift, hands down :) I've already custom ordered one for the mini papercut!

I love every single gift we received, but there's just something about presents that feel like they were made just for us. I know that with the amount of kids we have to buy for (roughly 20 in total, yes you read that right) going completely handmade is not all that practical. Plus not everyone appreciates it. But I'm thinking about doing a mostly handmade Christmas next year, or at the very least attempting to do it. How about you?