A Spring Wreath

I think E and I are finished dying. The doc said I had a virus. I think it was more like the flu. I've never had a virus knock me off my feet like that and for 5 full days. Anywho... 

Before the sickness, I made a spring wreath. My inspiration came from this one that I pinned. (The pin goes to a site that's not in English.)

It took me forever to take the plunge on this one. That fake fur stuff is pricey and it seemed like it would take a lot. When I saw it on sale at JoAnn's, I knew it was time. I got two balls of it for $2.99 each. Still not cheap, but better than full price which is double that. I used an 8 inch green foam wreath. The green wreath helps hide any spaces in the fur. The spool of flower "ribbon" was quite pricey, but I didn't use much of it so it'll be good for many future projects. Overall, this wasn't a cheap project, but I love it so much. So, here ya go...

It's bright, springy, happy. It makes me smile every time I pull in the driveway. Also, I got to use the fun trick of using a Command hook on the top inside of the door to hang it. I'll never go back to those dumb wreath hangers! 

Twine Wrapped Vase

Wow. It's been a crazy week. E and I have both been extremely under the weather. I've been out of work for three full days and two half days in the past 6 work days. Not good.

Last weekend, before we were all on our death beds, I got into some crafts. Mr. S got me a huge vase of lilies for our anniversary. They were beautiful but I was left with yet another plain vase to deal with. I have been seeing tons of twine wrapped things, including some vases that were mega pricey.

So... free vase + a $10 ball of chunky twine that I only used half of + some yarn that I already had + a lot of hot glue...

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I think I like it.

Gifts for Kidz

Both of these are things I've already written about. However, I've honed my crafting skills a bit and these are both better than the previous versions.

I made these for my friend's 5 and 4 year old.

A tutu for Maddie:

This one is an improvement on the one I made for my niece because it has an elastic waist. 

And a robot crayon roll for Cameron: 

This is an improvement just because I can sew a little better. Plus, I actually measured this one so it holds an 8-pack of crayons. These crayons, by the way, are not the ones I gave Cameron. These are just a terrible baby-chewed collection that I was able to find around the house.

Bird Feeders

I had a busy crafty weekend. I have lots of fun things to share. Up first are these bird feeders that I 100% copy-catted from eighteen25. I even loved their stars so much that I made stars too.

The recipe was easy peasy-- bird seed and gelatin.

The mixture was crazy-sticky so you should take that into consideration if you're making these with kids. There's no way I would've let 19 month old E put his hands on this.

The recipe, which is for one envelope of gelatin and 3/4 cup bird seed, only made three stars.

I hung one on the very dead bush right outside the front door. E and Laika like to sit at the front door and watch traffic, birds, squirrels and people/dogs walking by. So, I hoped this might help attract some extra wildlife. It almost blends in. I'm not sure the birds know it's there.

The other two are in a tree just outside the dining room window, where E sits for meals.

Or should I say, the other two were in that tree. See that gray sky? It turned into rain the next day and these two washed out of the tree. The one in the front is still hanging around... possibly because it's actually not hanging, but more like laying in the branches. I have yet to see any birds. I'll make some more once the rainy season is over.

IKEA Spice Rack Shelf

Have you seen these on Pinterest? It seems like a lot of people use them as kid book shelves. That was my original plan when I bought four of them. However, before they got mounted in E's room, I decided that I needed some in my office. They're perfect for all my little crafty things.

The big plastic container is some kind of sewing container. Or, at least that's where I found it-- with the sewing stuff. The three Erlenmeyer flasks were a donation from a science teacher friend, and the jar full of washi tape was originally a jar of dried chipped beef.

Big Sister/Big Brother Gift

Last summer, a very good friend had her third kiddo. Along with a big ol' lasagna for the family, I made a super special package for the two older kids.

First, they each got a picture book and some crayons. Inside each one, it says "Draw a picture of..." and there's a noun at the bottom of each page... Mommy, Daddy, New Baby... cat, dog, airplane...

Next, I picked up some fabric markers and plain white onesies. I included the directions: "Make a onesie for Baby Jacob."

And last, a bunch of outside stuff-- glow-in-the-dark stuff, silly string and bubbles. My directions, "Play outside." What that really means? "Get out of Mommy's hair for a bit, mmkay?" :)

And, the final product, in a cute box that I picked up on clearance:

Photo Organization

I like taking pictures. Specifically, I *heart* taking pictures of flowers, bugs and nature in general. 

I also, however, have gigabytes and gigabytes of pictures and they're so disorganized. I have five folders named New Folder(x). I have From Camera, From Phone, From iPhone, From Nikon, etc., which are basically huge photo drops that could be duplicates but my phone or SD card was full and I needed it so I'd just dump them all. 

They need sorted in a major way. Really, 95% of them need deleted. I'm frozen with not knowing where to start. Do I organize them by subject? By date taken? By....? 

Crayon Roll

So, there was no way I was staying away from my anniversary sewing machine until my class next weekend. Mr. S and I read the manual and threaded that sucka up. I sewed some really bad lines and then decided to give something useful a try. Enter the crayon roll. I've seen plenty of them on Etsy. Seemed easy enough.

Sewing requires some thinking. How do you need to fold things? Do you sew outside in or inside out? So after a little thinking, I figured it out. And here you have it. It's not perfect by any means. I still need to figure out a few things. Still, I love it. I'm going to toss it in my purse so I have crayons for E anytime we're out. Yay!

All rolled up

Kid Photography 101

This is why you should try to capture kids acting naturally and should never tell them to smile.

You end up with a smile that only a mother could love. (Seriously, this makes me LOL so hard!)

Thank You Cards

I made these for E's teachers when he moved out of the infant room. They took about 15 minutes to make and they're so cute. 

It's pretty obvious, but the supplies are: blank craft cards, a Thank You stamp w/ blue ink, colorful bakers twine, some scrapbook flowers and a couple matching brads (is that what they're called?). 

If you're like me and you have buckets and buckets of scrapbook-type stuff, you can easily throw together some really good looking cards in no time. No need to rush out to the store when you need a card anymore! 

Felt Bunting

I don't really know where this idea came from. I'm not one to dream up things on my own, so I'm sure I saw it somewhere.

Back in November/December, I became obsessed with making some fun bunting for E's room. I got felt in bright colors that go with his room colors and got started. It was easy, but it took me a couple weekends of sewing here and there.

Each triangle in the bunting is half of a 9"x11" sheet of felt. I cut them in half long ways and then folded that in half and cut them into triangles. Something like this:

Instead of using matching thread (embroidery floss), I decided to use contrasting colors.

I did what I so technically call the outside stitch. I know that's not what it's called. What the heck is the name for it? Who cares? I left a little pocket at the top of each triangle and then strung them all on some teal yarn. I hung it with a couple small nails. It was hung with three different types of Command hooks but each one fell after some amount of time. So, alas, I had to make holes in the wall.

I love that it make's E's room look like a party. I love all the bright colors in his room. It makes me smile every time I'm in there. One day, I'll write about those super awesome stripes on the wall (that I painted while Mr. S was away on a business trip and I was uber prego) and the scrapbook paper Mod Podge'd name above the closet.