squirt guns with Big Dub.

My nephew, Big Dub (Big Sister Burg's oldest child) is basically my whole world. Well, him and Baby Girl split my heart right down the middle. When Big Dub entered this world, we weren't really sure what to do with that little squirt.

You see....there are only Hicks Girls. Only. My dad is the oldest of four boys, and each boy had two daughters. (And after the four gap between me and our next oldest cousin Logan, all of the Hicks Girls are two years apart. My family is a statistical nightmare.)

We never had sweet little boys running around. In fact, I think this was a legit concern of Momma Hicks...what the crap to do with little boys??

Don't worry...Momma Hicks adapted. And she's the best GG ever!! Big Dub loveloveloves going to GG and Granddaddy's house. One of his most favorite things to do at GG's is...

SQUIRT GUNS!!

I think this is mainly because Big Dub loves to "have a chase" with anyone anywhere. He constantly is trying to get Yankee, or Rankles, to chase him. And he loves "tickle chases" and "sword chases" and just any kind of chase!

When GG and Big Dub play squirt guns, she has a strict "No Shooting in the Face" policy. However, when Granddaddy comes out, he guns straight for the face and Big Dub LOVES it!!!

I can't wait until Baby Girl is big enough to play squirt guns with Big Dub. I love sitting on my parents's back porch and watching Dub run around like a crazy little kid! Melts my whole heart.

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apple orchard.

Last weekend, I traveled my little happy butt from Indy down to Evansville to spend the weekend with Big Sista Burg and her sweet little rugrats (oh and my bro-in-law Adam).

Actually, I surprised Big Dub--he had no idea Aunt Kelbs (and Rankles) were coming until we rang the doorbell. To see his little face light up when I walked in was my favorite! Love that little stinker.

That weekend also marked the first full weekend of fall.....I totes lovelovelove this time of year. So of course, we had to do some fall fun-tivities! We went to the Apple Orchard near Burgess's house...and Big Dub loved it!

Side Note:  I'm not a big raw apple fan (I have issues with textures...I'm weird. I've embraced it). But I still picked 5 pounds worth of apples. Yikes...what the crap am I'm going to do with all of those apples?

Anywho, we still had a blast picking apples and then throwing the rotten ones as far as we could!  (a little game Big Dub and I made up)



nom.nom.



 

he got one!



Aunt Kelbs and Baby Girl!



making sure Big Dub got the best ones!

we love apples!

of course Baby Girl had to get in on the action!

brother and sister.

yummy!

Big Sista Burg and Big Dub.

We sometimes talk about what life was like before Big Dub and Baby Girl came along. Honestly, I can't remember. It's so fun doing fun-tivities with Big Dub and seeing him get so excited about things. I love seeing the world through that little 4-year-old's eyes. He's half of my heart (the other half being Baby Girl of course). I seriously can't imagine how I'll feel when I have kids of my own because I just love those two so much.

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let's hear it for the boys.

I've been told (by Big Sister Burg mainly...but I'm not naming any names...) that I need to start making some cute boy hats. Sorry. It's just more fun to make cutesy girl hats with massively giant flowers and such.

But I took her advice and started working on some boy hats. I have a few more that I need to post, but I think these will be a big seller in the fall!
(P.S. Only 35 more days until fall!!!)

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I :heart: freezer paper!!

Well Sister posted a blog last week about making Big Dub a Valentine's Day shirt using freezer paper...and her genuis is contagious. I went down to Evansville last weekend to hang out and we got crafty! (Honestly, we are crafty and creative on our own...but it's been a long time since Sister and I crafted together.)

Needless to say, we busted out the freezer paper for another round of fun-ness!! I have quite a few babies being born in my life in the next couple of months...so I hit up JoAnn's for some of these cute bibs and got to work!

Clearly, these are for a special little boy who will be here sometime in May.

I'm freaking in love with the mustache one...how funny is that??!?!?!

I couldn't leave BGB out of the mix! She'll be here in about a month and she has to be the best dressed babe in Evansville! :)

I do really love the Rock N Roll one too!

And now I'm on a freezer paper high. What else can I stencil and paint???

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Valentine's Project: Freezer Paper Stenciling

 
So, I (Burgess) have kind-of had a lot going on...I'm 5 weeks out from Baby #2, and just moved 4.5 hours south of Lafayette to Evansville, IN. We've been in our new house almost three weeks, and I have desperately been in need of some kind of creative outlet! And what better time to dive into some new projects than for Valentine's Day?!? I've had some ideas for Valentine's gifts for Big W for a while now, and I am thrilled to be unpacked just enough to find my supplies, and I'm just acquainted enough with my new town to find the Joann's store and the Hobby Lobby. So, I'll be blogging about these projects over the next few days.


First up, I've been wanting to do some freezer paper stenciling for a while now. I've been following Dana's blog over at MADE for some time, and I LOVE her projects. But I am only just now getting a chance to actually try some of them. She has a great tutorial for freezer paper stenciling here. I pretty much just followed this tutorial, but I will show you my steps too. Big W loves Charlie Brown holiday TV specials, so when I was trying to think of something to stencil for Valentine's Day, I kept coming back to Snoopy. I found a great basic image just by Googling "Snoopy, Valentine." So, first I just copied the image to my clipboard on the computer and resized it to a size appropriate for the t-shirt using Adobe Photoshop. I printed this image (the one on the left), and then traced it onto another piece of paper using a Sharpie (the one on the right), just to have clear, dark lines to follow.

One difference between my image and those that Dana used on MADE is that I attempted one that would require TWO paint colors (black and red). It just adds an extra step to the process, which you'll see later.


Next, using basic freezer paper that I bought at the grocery store, I placed the freezer paper slick side down onto the Sharpie image and traced again using the Sharpie, on the "dull" side of the freezer paper. I really "thickened up" the black lines because those are the ones I later cut out so that they would be painted black on a white t-shirt.

Next, is the tedious step of cutting out the parts that you want painted on the shirt. This was tedious for me because of the image I chose. Below, you can see that I used an Exacto knife to cut out the parts that I wanted to paint black. I forgot to take a picture of this, but in some cases you'll completely cut out pieces that you actually want to remain the color of the shirt. For instance, below, you can see that I cut out that entire top arm of Snoopy's. But I kept that piece so that I could put it back in the image when I ironed it to the shirt. (You'll see what I mean when I paint the image on the t-shirt.)

Once you're done with all the cutting, it's time to iron the image onto your clothing. Place the image shiny side down onto your clothing and just iron it on (I used a pretty hot setting)! Take care to make sure the image sticks well in all the little nooks and corners so that no paint seeps onto other parts when you're painting.

Now you're ready to paint! As Dana recommends, I found Tulip brand fabric paint in a matte finish. And I used a wide paint brush.

I started with the black paint and painted over all of the cut-out areas.

You can then let it set for a few hours to dry, or, if you're antsy to see the end result like I was, you can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process. Then you simply peel the paper off of the t-shirt. Voila!

Here's my extra step…since I wanted the heart Snoopy's holding to be red, I did another freezer paper stencil of the image, just cutting out the heart. I just outlined the rest of Snoopy so that I could have a reference when lining up the image over the one already painted on the t-shirt.

Again, just iron the freezer paper to the t-shirt, shiny side down. Then I painted the heart red.

Repeat the ansty-ness and dry with a hair dryer, if you want. Then peel the paper off.

How stinking cute is that?!? I now let the t-shirt dry for a good 4 or 5 hours, and then, per Dana's suggestion (because the paint bottle didn't say anything about this), I ironed the image to seal in the paint.

Here's the final close-up…

I plan on giving this to Big W in his Valentine's treat bag on Monday so that he can wear it to his preschool Valentine exchange on Tuesday. I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it next week. I'm so excited to see him in it, and this was such a fun project I may never buy another Batman, Superman or Disney t-shirt again when I can just do this myself!

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Super-hero Capes for Super-Little Boys (and their Bears)

Since Kelby did a Link Party earlier on little girl stuff she's made, I thought I'd join in on today's Link Party over at 733 ("What are Little Boys Made of?).  I made Big W a super-hero cape back around Valentine's Day.  I based it on a tutorial I found on MarthaStewart.com, and made it from satin, with a big "W" on the back.  Recently, Big W's two best "shriends" (his word) were turning four, and one was having a super-hero-themed birthday party, so I made each boy a cape as well.  THEN, Big W and I decided that his favorite stuffed "shriend," Bear, should have a cape, too.  So I made Bear "super" with leftover satin.  I LOVE these.  I am especially pleased with the two most recent capes because I used felt for the emblems on the back instead of satin, and I think they look so much sharper.  (Also, personal plug, for local readers, I will have some of these for sale at Two Tulips closer to Halloween.  For boys AND girls!)  Have a Super-Thursday!

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