Sugar n' spice n'.... hairbows, of course.

After hooking Miss B up with a handful of hair accessories before she was ever born, things like life and, ohhhh, I dunno... taking care of a newborn and 3 other kids kind of got in the way of the crafting.


But after weeks of good intentions, I've finally whipped out a couple of hairbows!

I have to agree with what Christy said in her tutorial... it's addictive!

I've got a wholllle hanger full of ribbon and a baggie full of clips. 
I've even got a willing subject!

Now I've just got to find make the time.  I think that can be arranged. :)

Baby Hats

Still here.  Still waiting.  Still creating.  


Yesterday's baby project came from a well-timed link on One Pretty Thing. 


Saw it, emailed it (to mom), made it.  Ok, so mom made it.  I felt kind of weird, like I handed out an assignment.  But I loved watching her work and turn out something amazingly cute in an amazingly short amount of time!


First, gather some knits in cute prints.

 Cut out pattern pieces & assemble.

 Baby hats!

Pattern & tutorial can be found here.

Speaking of making baby things....

... look what my sister has done gone and made for her new niece!

Won't somebody's little head look even sweeter with that soft prettiness perched on top?


Can you tell we're just a wee bit excited?


(I don't know where to categorize this post!!!  Baby needs a name so she can have a blog category of her own!)

Making Baby Things

A sweet friend of mine recently had a baby girl.  Seeing as how she already had a big sister, I knew their house would be full of all the basics, and that I must take this opportunity to make a little girly sump'm sump'm.  I need the practice, anyway, right?  


Today I got to meet this bundle of preciousness for the first time.  And hold her.  And kiss her little head.  And pet her pretty feet.  And... well... you get the idea.

One of my own favorite baby items has been a light-weight sheet blanket.  They are great for all seasons and well into baby's second year!


So.... I took a humongous piece of fabric and hemmed it up.


To step it up a girly notch, I made and attached 3 crushed fabric flowers.

And because every girl needs matching accessories, I made one more flower and attached it to a hair clip.

I also just so happen to have another humongo piece of fabric waiting to be hemmed up for my own baby girl.  Complete with fabric flowers, of course.  Really... I just couldn't help myself. :)

My Little Turkey

I stumbled upon a tutorial for a super-cute turkey shirt recently.  The example shirt was full of pinks (surprise, surprise) but the blog author assured the shirt would be cute in boy colors, too.  I agreed, and decided I wanted to make one for Tyler.

So I did!

I bought the onesie and matching pants at Wal-mart.  The turkey's body is corduroy and the feathers are all regular cotton from my scrap box.


The weather has been extremely mild this week, so it's worked out great to have a short-sleeved shirt.  And, we're getting all the wear out of it we can before it turns all brr and chilly on Thanksgiving day.


This shirt is also cute worn with corduroy pants, and is just right for emptying Mama's kitchen cabinets and stealing donuts.

Little turkey, indeed!

Et tu, Crochet?

Somewhere along the lines of 5 years ago I decided to teach myself to crochet.  Borrowed a book and a video from the library, bought some yarn and hooks and set to work.  


Learning the basic stitches wasn't too bad at all, but when I moved on to my first project, I ended up with a curly-edged, wobbly, over-sized hot mat instead of the hat I was trying for.  And that was with a pattern.


Not knowing how to fix my mess, I quickly caved to frustration and put it all away.


A couple of years later I pulled it all out to try again, but this time never moved beyond reviewing the basic stitches and making a few chains.


Now I am starting to feel the itch again, but I am also turning an eye towards knitting.  I sure would like to master one of these arts some day, but don't know where to start or which to choose.


What about you?  Do you knit?  Crochet?  Both?  How did you learn?  What do you make?  Do tell!

Busy hands

I've mentioned before about re-learning to sew the past few months.  

Pretty much since day one, Dale has wanted to help or sew too.  

Finally one day recently I gave in and set him up with a needle and thread, a scrap of fabric, and few big buttons.  A little instruction and he was on his way!

I love the soft fabric and tiny needle with Doc Hudson looking on:

And in case you question a boy (*gasp!*) sewing, (even after the Doc Hudson thing) think of these two points:

1 - the awesome fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination he was picking up

2 - the self-sufficiency and other benefits of a boy/man being able to fix his own button, if needed

He was so ("sew" - haha) proud of his work, and had a great time.  I will definitely have his little project handy the next time I am working on one of my own!

Sewing and Lemonade

I woke up thinking about sewing yesterday and have been wanting to get to it ever since!

So, I caught a few minutes while Alan was sleeping this afternoon and spent some time with my sewing machine.

After repairing a hole in Dale's pajamas, I followed this handy tutorial, and made this grocery bag dispenser: Yay!

It turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected (even with me knowing from the get-go how big the fabric was), but that is ok... we go through a lot of plastic bags!

Speaking of looking on the bright side... my friend Natalie recently gave me this award:

Thank you so much, Natalie! How kind!

Here is how this one works:
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Nominate other blogs which show great attitude and or gratitude.
3. Link to the nominees.
4. Let them know by leaving them a comment.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your reward.

I nominate:

Jennifer

Sam

Michelle

Making a pretty thingy

I mentioned in my previous post that we were going to a scrumptious store full of crafty & decorative things.

It was definitely all I had imagined it would be. ;)

In one of the aisles full of fun spring-timey things we found a fluttery-ribbony-hangy thing(y).
I thought it was festive and pretty, and both boys like touching it.
Mimi had the idea of making one instead of buying it. And since we WERE in a store full of craft supplies, we headed right over to pick out our ribbon.

This is how things went from there, and how you can make one of your own:


You will need at least 24 yards of ribbon. We chose 3 different colors. One solid color would also be pretty.

We used a clean empty plastic yogurt cup to anchor our ribbon to.
Cut off the bottom of the yogurt cup, leaving about a 3/8 inch lip. A craft knife works well.

Then cut out the middle of the bottom, to make a ring:

Now it's time for the ribbon.

For a ring the size of a yogurt cup you will need about 24 3ft lengths of ribbon.

After the ribbon is cut grab your partner and glue gun and start gluing.

Bring the tip of each ribbon through the hole and glue to what was the inside of the yogurt cup:

After every few ribbons, turn the ring over and glue the ribbons down to the top (which was its bottom before you cut it off and flipped it over) and the sides.

This was the tricky part to me. Getting the angle of the ribbons right on the underside so they hung nice and straight and covered the sides was harder than I had anticipated. It took some overlapping on the underside. I was glad the hot glue was forgiving enough that I could do some adjusting before it set.

After all the ribbons are glued on, cut a piece of ribbon for a hanger - the length will depend on where you plan to hang your new pretty. Anything from 6-12 inches would work nicely. Glue each end of the ribbon to an opposite side of the ring - on the outside, like the handles of a basket.

Now to finish it off (and hide the fact that my ribbon left big gaps of yogurt cup exposed) cut another length of ribbon to go around the outside edge of the ring. This also covers where you attached the hanger.

Once the glue is set (which doesn't take long with hot glue - yay!), hang up your new fluttery-ribbony-hangy-thing(y).

Since these pics were taken we moved ours outside under the awning. It is so pretty in the breeze!

I'm not crazy, I'm just blogging!

Some people talk to themselves.

I talk to my blog.

Seriously... I find myself randomly narrating my life, with an imaginary blog audience. I think I narrated inwardly before the blog too, but now the thoughts are geared toward you guys.

Even though the grand majority of what I tell you never actually makes it here to the blog.

And that is probably a good thing. ;) I've told you many times (in my head) that I love hot showers. Really. A very hot shower is one of my favorite things. So now you know.

Why do I do this? I have no idea.
Am I crazy? I doubt it.

Lonely? Perhaps.
I had a bowl of rice crispies late last night, and I think I enjoyed listening to them talk as much as I enjoyed eating them!

Of course, at that hour I should have been in bed sleeping. I usually am that time of night, but last night I stayed up and did a little sewing.

I made this! Since I began sewing a few weeks ago, about half my pins have been in the little plastic box they came in and the other half have been loose in the bottom of my quilted used-to-be diaper bag that holds my scissors and other stuff.

So now they have a real place to live! And I won't get stuck when digging for the seam ripper.

Not that I need a seam ripper all that much. Ahem. Right. Moving on.

And yes, that IS the fabric I used for the apron. One of the few scraps I have to work with right now, but I thought was cute for this project. Which, by the way, I made following this tutorial.

Check back in later this week to see the fun little craft project Dale and I did today. I might even do a little tutorial of my own. :) That is, if we still have electricity following the pending ice storm. Brr!