Wait there is More

I think my daughter had buyer's remorse with Izzy.  When she picked Izzy she told me she picked her because next year she would be too old for the show Jake and the Neverland pirates. She wanted to be Izzy last year then switched to the wedding dress. She dressed up as Izzy for trunk or treat at our local YMCA. Four days later when we went to the trunk or treat at our church she wanted to be something else. Her daddy was being silly in the costume box and it thrilled and inspired her. I'm sure the massive amounts of Elsas at the trunk or treat at the Y didn't help. So she went hunting in her princess dresses. At first she settled on Rapunzel, but then she didn't like that her hair wasn't long enough, so she picked out one of her favorite and most rattiest dresses. Barbie dreamland or something. I said, really, what about a different dress, she said well I wanted to be sleeping beauty because we have the same color hair. I said you have a pink princess dress she said oh yeah, and went put it on. I think she had fun being yet another costume. But once again since its PINK its pretty wore down, not as bad as barbie. With her school Halloween party coming up, I wanted her to have a nice dress to wear. So I conned her into going back to Rapunzel. I told her Rapunzel's hair is short in the end, and I offered to make her a new crown. I wanted her to be happy with her costume against the ten or so other Elsas that will be in kindergarten.
This picture channel's the Rapunzel punk rocker fan art.

 Even though we have already have a Rapunzel Crown, I channeled the flowers in her braid for this crown.

(Who knew Flynn had such meaty hands? kind of gross.)

 I kind of hate the whole thing, especially the big bow, she loves the big bow. I made it kind of too small, I'm really quite mad at myself. It took me practically all day (the day before Halloween) to make, minus when I was mopping up after my leaky dishwasher. (bleh) I hate last minute.

Cost: $2 for baby's breath silk flowers
I could have made flower that small, but I needed plastic stems. After I finished, I totally could have skipped the baby's breath.
ARG! I'm so mad its almost too small.
P.S. I don't push my daughter into princess costumes. Overall I'm not a princess dress up girl, but she LOVES them.

Spring Wreath

I know to the rest of you it is summertime, but it was snowing here two weeks ago, so to me its only springtime. And in honor of spring, I wanted a new wreath for my front door. One with lots of colors.  So I made this a few weeks ago.

My fabric flowers are suppose to be little purple pansies, because I love purple pansies.  And then I threw in a daisy for good measure, because my daughter always wants to grow daisies.  Can you believe I can't find daisy seeds a the store? I do love daises too.  Just like Meg Ryan says in You've Got Mail.  Don't know what she says?  You should watch it, its an hysterical movie, I got it from my library a few months ago, and my husband also laugh through most of it.
Its a pretty cheery wreath, but in a way it feels like something is missing without bunting or an H.

Valentine Flowers

I don't think my husband has bought me flowers since we got married.  He does this thing from time to time when we are at the store asking if I want flowers.  One day, I called him on it, I said, of course I don't want flowers if I know they cost $20.  He said well if I don't offer when you can see the price then you'll want me to waste our money.  At least he knows me. I could also buy myself flowers, I buy myself loads of presents, but yet I don't because who wants to waste the money? Not me.  But I do like flowers, so I end up making flowers with scrap of fabric and other craft items that cost zero dollars.  On Saturday I decided I wanted some Valentine's flowers, so of course I had to make them before my baby is born.  I decided this tulle poof, Dr. Seuss trulia flowers were what I needed. 

 Then I used an old jar I had laying around for a vase. I used this tutorial.

 But my valentine flower needs did not end there.  The fabric flowers I had next to my subway art, clashed quite awfully with my wreath and valentine subway art, so I decided to make some really easy flowers with my glue gun.

Considering it has snowed all day, its nice to have all these cheery valentine's flowers around my house.

Spring Butterfly Wreath

Since I took down my Easter things, it was time for a new wreath on my wine rack. (I tried just removing the chocolate ceramic bunny, but it was all wrong.)
I wrapped ivory tulle around a gray yarn covered wreath form. Then made the felt flowers and butterflies.
I have two gray yarn covered wreath forms that I use over and over, or this hobby would be quite expense. I just pin my flowers or other decorations on. When I change decorations, I put all the old ones in baggy just in case I want the wreath again next year. So much easier to store than a million wreath forms. I spent $2 on felt and tulle and have more left over than I used. $2 is the perfect price, hardly breaks the budget.
I found my flower inspiration here.
And my butterfly inspiration here.  I cut out one using the template, and it was very challenging. While dreading another one, I remembered I had a butterfly die for my sizzix. That's the reason I keep the sizzix, I like the option of cutting out felt.
It kind of reminds me of a prom dress with the colors, the tulle and the beads I sewed on the wreath.

Plus it matches with my printable for this month, I didn't really find any subway art that I liked.

Love Pillow

I'm slightly pillow obsessed right now.  I wanted a throw pillow for my bed, so here is what I did.
I of course embroidered the pillow, and the fabric rosette I hand sewed instead of glue gunned.

Chocolate Bunny Easter Wreath

I finished my Easter wreath last night. I love it in fact so much more than my shamrock argyle wreath. I was going to wait until after St. Paddy's day, but I loved it too much. Don't forget to notice the chocolate bunny figurine inside. The wreath form is wrapped in gray yarn then green tulle.

I used these tutorials for the flowers

For the felt flowers

The Tulle puff

The calico flowers

The lace rosettes

Remember These

Remember these?  I made them for my sisters/sister in laws I that I saw last Christmas.  Well my mom felt real left out she didn't get one.  So we bought frames at goodwill, since I wanted one too, and then I couldn't bare to sand the frames, oh the thought of it sounded so nauseating to me.  Finally a month ago, I just grinned and bared it, outside during nice weather.  Oh course it only took about 5 minutes to sand them, but then a good 15 minutes to clean the glass. The frame color and painting is definitely different then the last set, but that's the way I craft.

This is my mom's, she wanted a big one.  The print is only 8.5x11, but I think the frame is a 11x14.

 Here is mine.  I used a different background then the others, I'm not sure if I like it better. There is a pretty good chance, I just like mine the least amount, maybe I need a mat.

Last Minute Sister Gifts

At the last minute I decided I wanted to make all the sister/sister in laws that I would see at christmas a present.  So a week before christmas I began franticly searching Pinterest for something I could make for cheap.  Then I thought just get over yourself, get them monogrammed note cards, at least its something.  But then all at once, or not at fast, it came to me, and I got super lucky and found four frames at Goodwill, and three quart-sized bags of legos for 6.50 each.  I sanded and painted the frames the same afternoon, I found the frames. Then used this tutorial to help me make the fabric rosettes.

  I absolutely love them, and can't wait to find another frame to make one for myself, I know exactly where I'm going to hang it.

This is the text of the photo: 

In this home...

We do second chances.

We do Grace.

We do real.

We do mistakes.

We do I'm sorrys.

We do loud really well.

We do hugs.

We do fun.

We do family.

We do love.

I have been so in love with the text for a few months.  I appreciate the idea to say its ok to make mistakes, but emphasis the sorries.  I am like giddy in anticipation to make myself one.  I'm going to make mine a little bigger. 

Christmas Insanity

Sometimes I have insane ideas, like being so impressed with my son's teachers.  As a five year old you would be amazed at how many he has.  A kindergarten teacher, a kindergarten assistant, a PE teacher, an Art teacher, a Music teacher, two librarians, a counselor (who meets with them every other week, to teach good citizen lessons), a technology teacher, and a primary (church) teacher, who he adores. That is ten teachers, I obviously couldn't buy ten presents, even at $5 a piece that is $50, but lets be honest by the time you add in the .99, and tax, it would be much closer to $75.  But I still wanted to do something for them. I've been super impressed with all his special teachers, he LOVES specials of course, but the surprising thing is, most of the teachers know him by name!  How a teacher who see 500 kids a week, knows the name of one kindergarten is beyond me, but I'm grateful for their effort.  I loved specials as a child, but they weren't actually fun, nor did the teachers ever know me even after years of seeing them.  It was a lot of alphabetical order and teachers not letting us talk. They have enough xylophones for every student in music class AND they actually get to play them on a regular basis! His tech teacher, encourages them to walk around the room and see what their friends are doing on the computer, she believes computer time should be a social thing, you should never do it alone.  Nor do they have sit, they can stand at their computer the whole time if they want.  Let me assure you I was not allowed out of my seat in computer lab, only occasionally did we try to whisper to the person above or below us in alphabetical order. So what I decided I could do was make them ornaments.  I made ten ornaments by hand!  What was I thinking?  That I was really impressed with these ladies, and it was the only thing I could do was to make them something out of my scrap material.

 The worst part was cutting out the material, but I endured and I made them each a flower ornament. Then I wrote them each a thank you not/happy holidays card telling them how I appreciated them in my son's life.

 But then I loved the flowers so much I made to make one for me!

On a side not encase you didn't realize how awesome our school is, he goes to most of his specials twice a week next year once he goes to full day school.  He has six specials that is more than one a day, and then half of them he will go to twice a week next year.  Yeah its a great school.  Not surprisingly we have less homework, shorter days and the highest test scores in the Springs area.  (That and affluent population, although we hardly THE richest school district.)


And if you look at the four posts previous to this, you now know why this is titled Christmas Insanity. 

Flower Clips

I'm totally into making clippies these days. I don't know why? Maybe because my daughter's hair is finally full enough for a pony tail and clip or pigtails and clips. She looks darling in pigtails, but they are harder than a Pebble's do on the top. So our usual styled do is a straight up pony tail up with a big flower in front. But our usual style for her is nothing, I love her little bobbed hair.

I had a great desire for a plain white flower. But I also love love the yellow with three different types of flowers, and the hot pink.

The day after her latest hair trim.

New and Improved

This is my favorite flower I made the other day, for my favorite apron. My birthday cupcake apron, hooray! Now my apron is new and improved. I love it.

I love the kelly green bias tape with the white rick rack it looks so dessert like to me. So here is another shot of it. In case you want a non blurry shot, here is one, oh wait that is blurry too, so here is yet another blurry shot. This apron is doomed of blurry shots, maybe I'll apron the apron and try for non blurry shot one day.

Not Yo-Yos

I recently realized my cousin counts me as one of her "very talented friends" on her blog, I felt so honored. Then one day I went to see what her other talented friends could make. I found this page about yo-yos on little girls shirts. Much cuter than the yo-yo pillows my old Merrie Miss teacher use to make when I was 11. (Merrie Miss was an outside of church activity group for 10-11 year old LDS girls that was renamed probably about 1996). The blog made fun and trendy yo-yos, instead of the old and 70sish yo-yos that I remember. I decided I should add some yo-yos to a blah pale pink shirt my daughter has. The results were less than successful, although I'm not done trying. No pictures of my failures. The blog with the yo-yo shirts led me here for a tutorial on yo-yos. The tutorial was made by a family friend of my husband's family, or at least a my mother in law's friend's daughter in law, or brother in law's friend's wife. So I scrolled around on her blog a bit. (I have never met the woman before, or any of the family friends that my husband's family grew up with.) Bare with me this blog is almost coming to a point. I found another flower fabric tutorial, so I now know how to make THREE. Here are my results, with left over baby blanket long skinny scraps.

I know I should probably pulled off the straggly strings but I liked them. Is my button vintage? I bought in in large stapled bags with other random buttons from this ghetto sewing store in Torrence, CA with my sister in law. Some of the stuff in that store has inches of dust, and some of it super great finds, and I'm sure some is new too. I have no idea the history of this button, but I doubt its for sale at my local chain fabric store that is for sure.
My son was a little jealous he never gets flowers, so I pulled out this soccer scrap, not that I need a masculine flower for him, just I'm sick of these soccer scraps. I don't even like this material, my husband asked me to make a baby blanket for a friend of his boy, I said I don't know their personalities for material. He said get something soccer like, then I found this material.

This button might also be vintage if you count 80s plastic as vintage? Also included in those large dusty bags. There are quite a few plastic brass looking buttons, its my son's dream come true. I think the plastic brass is truly tacky.

A touch of Lime Green

My brother is getting married in a month, the wedding colors are black and white with a touch of lime green. These are the clothes for the nieces. I made all these stupid lime green flowers. It took SOOO LONG to cut them out. Hours to make them, so they get included on the craft blog.

(that is by far my favorite baby dress!)

There are two of these dresses

And actually three of theseAnd two sets of two pigtail clips (four clips).

So the grand total is 10 green flowers. That each took over a half of each to make, because I know I spent more than five hours making them. My mom claimed they were easy to make, they were easy to make just not easy to cut out.

My daughter has flowers

Wahoo, I was having so much fun making flowers, I made my daughter some nice girly color flowers. I actually only have one white tin, basket wall thing. I moved it into her bedroom for her flowers, and mine are in a vase on a bookshelf.

I learned how to make flowers

I learned how to make flowers. So yes, now my wall looks a little frumpy and a little old lady like, but I love them all the same.

Of course I didn't follow the tutorial exactly. Instead of cutting circles, I did half circles, because then I didn't have to iron or rotary cut, plus I was using small scraps in some cases. My flowers also only have one layer not two.

They are a great diversion while watching TV. They were very fun to make, especially the buttons in the center.

My son's flower arrangement

I think my father in law taught my son to pick weed flowers and give them to me. I love it, it is the only flowers I get. The other day, my son picked these, and wanted to put them in water for me. He picked out my beloved jars.

Summer/Spring Door Hanging

I wanted some easter or something hanging, but didn't want to spend much. I had been putting it off buying something, but I also really wanted to display some fake floral Gerber daisies in my house since the headbands, because I thought they were just SO pretty. I wanted them in all their long stem glory, and didn't have a vase nearly tall enough. Then the other night as I was falling asleep it struck me! I had to go the store the next day, and I created this! For only 5 dollars, all the Easter wreathes were at least $15. Plus I can keep it up until fall.

It makes me so happy to see them from inside my house. I asked my little brother if he liked them when he came to visit me. He said, when he pulled up he could see them and he thought, I'm at Lesli's house. Yeah I know I fish for complements.
I also bought this fake grass when I was at the store. I have a thing for fake grass lately. According to JD this duck's head is on backward, I always thought it was looking over its shoulder. Maybe I just have a thing for perfect grass, and our real stuff outside the rental is anything but perfect.

Flowers for the Bride

My brother in law got married on Tuesday.
I spent a whole saturday of decorating for the reception, which included making her bouquet. On monday when I saw her I asked her if she wanted me to make another one, long story short, she got one. Pictured above.
She wanted something small, some might thinks this bouquet is lacking but its what she wanted. Actually she wanted one rose, her mom wanted more we compromised that's what weddings are all about. I think it was perfect for her, but maybe I'm biased since I made it.