Our Gifts - Part Two

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And finally, here are Preston's gifts that he made for Elliott and me:
I have been asking for individual family portraits from him for a few years now and by George, he finally started! He painted my portrait first. So for the time being, it looks like I might be a little narcissistic. Just a tad. But he promises the others are coming soon, so we'll keep it up waiting patiently for the other two portraits.
You may remember these prints? Well, I contacted the artist to see if she could make them larger and she said she couldn't. So Preston decided he would paint a similar one himself. Elliott LOVES it. Like, screams "horsey!" every time he goes near his bed and stares at it for a minute, loves it. Does a heart good.

Our Gifts - Part One

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We decided to make a lot of the gifts for each other this year for Christmas. Some people in our family are more talented (ahem - Preston!) then others (me). But we really enjoyed making them and we all have loved the outcome! Here are the gifts I made for Preston and Elliott:
The oh-so-popular notebook shirt. I made the mistake of thinking I would prefer to make it with fabric markers rather than fabric paint. Even though I do like the "hand drawn" look from the markers, it took way too long to do.
This is a fishing pole. Elliott was using "mommy's pretty" (my necklaces) to fish off of the coffee table. So I thought this would solve that problem and it has. It's a dowel rod, hand painted (not taped - again, I wanted that messy look), and I drilled a hole towards the top and strung it. Originally I tied the string on, and it was not working. So I drilled. Yes, there was smoke and yes, I had to take a drilling break every 2-3 seconds or else I am sure it would have caught fire, but it works! 
One of the gifts I made for Preston was an NYU hoodie. He kind of collects them from the universities he has attended. So I looked up pictures of some examples and designed my own. The font was tough to make, but after that it was pretty much the basic freezer paper, fabric paint project. Except for the zipper. That zipper! The "Y" had to go right in the middle and therefore over the zipper. But it all came out in the end. The important thing is that he loves it.

Part two (Preston's gifts) coming up Monday!

OUR CHRISTMAS

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How was your Christmas friends? This was our first year having Christmas as just our little family. We loved it, but also missed being with family. Most of our gifts were handmade which we loved (more on those later!) Elliott's big gift this year was a train set and he's been obsessed with it ever since. Much of the day was spent playing, napping, playing, talking to loved ones, watching Christmas movies (The Muppet Christmas Carol - perfection!) and more playing. It was really nice to start some of our own traditions as well as stick with some traditions we were raised with. And Elliott of course had a blast.
 His first time trying eggnog...he's hooked :)
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas... now, let's get ready for the new year!

a visit to the pier

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The other night we took a stroll down to the pier here in Hoboken on the Hudson river. It was one of those "it's so beautiful out, the air seems fresher" kind of evenings. On the way there, we happened upon this completely random coin operated horse. Of course, Elliott had to ride it. Alas, we had no quarters, but he was still stoked about it. 
This was the first time for Preston and Elliott visiting the pier here in Hoboken. I visited once when my mom was in town, and loved it. It was so much fun watching Elliott "run so fast" around the pier and point at the water and ask to "go in there." And, I'm not sure what they are officially called, but the the viewing, touristy, telescope things which are normally a quarter or two to operate, are free there! It's awesome to get a close up look of some of New York's famous buildings from a distance. There were beautiful sailboats and sweet families out for evening strolls. Oh, and let's not forget the drunk guy muttering random profanities. 

It was a perfect evening!