Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Ribbon Belts

I've decided to add ribbon belts to my purchasable items.  $8 would get you one of these beauties.



As far as sizing goes, they fit my almost 10 month old with plenty of room to spare, they are all roughly 23 inches long.  I'd be happy to make some longer or shorter though ribbon selection would vary.  Let me know if you're interested.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Petting Zoo

Last week we took Catie to the petting zoo and  we all had a great time.

The first animal we saw (or should I say smelled) were these really big, really dirty, REALLY smelly pigs.  They snorted and snuffled and Catie wasn't sure what to make of them.  The smell got to us pretty quick and moved on.



They had bunnies and kitties that you could pet and then a nice boy came in carrying a guinea pig.  This photo makes it look like she was really interested in it, it's deceiving.  She hardly noticed it.



After the bunnies we headed to the chicken coop where the roosters were crowing and Catie was not happy.  We didn't spend much time there.  She didn't like the noisy geese much either.

Here's Catie and a donkey.


My favorite animals were the goats.  You could go into the goat pen and pet them and they made cute goat noises and nibbled on pants and camera straps and anything else available.


My own little animal.


It was a very successful trip for us, sadly two Mom's discovered that their daughters had allergies to something.  Swollen eyes and runny noses resulted in a trip for Benadryl.

We'd definitely go again.  It's called Just Fur Fun and it's in Coaldale.  Adults pay $3.00 and kids over 1 pay $2.00.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Twighlight = Girl Crack

I haven't seen Twighlight, I haven't read the books.  The above description came from a friend who has read and seen them.  Girl Crack, it seems to be a perfectly fitting description.

I can understand tween girls love for Twilight, I get that, it's who the books were written for.  But when women my age are in love with Twilight and think Taylor is HOT, that I just don't get.  Mommy bloggers creating designs for t-shirts and the like, this stuff just surprises me.

For now I'll skip the addiction, you go ahead and watch it again for me.
L

Necklaces For Sale?

Since I made the ribbon necklace I've been thinking more and more about little girl necklaces. I think they look so cute on Catie and I've created a couple more. 



I had an idea I thought I'd throw out there... wondering if anyone is interested in purchasing some of these necklaces for their little girls.  They're made to fit a 3-7 yr old but I think they're all cute on Catie too.  If no one is interested I won't feel bad, just thought I'd throw the idea out there.


So far I've made two of the ribbon necklaces with matching bracelets.  I also made a turquise and coral string of glass beads.  It's hard to tell in the photo but they each have one different coloured bead, I thought it was a nice touch.


Let me know if you're interested or even if you think it's a dumb idea and here's one more shot of Catie as my model.  I really should have taken this photo in the morning when she was still clean :)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I Hung Pictures

It took 10 months but I finally hung some pictures.


For Christmas we were given these fun pictures but since then they've sat in a pile gathering dust.  I just didn't know where to put them because they seemed a little small to be on their own but I didn't have anything else to put with them.  I recently pulled them out again determined to do something with them so they've still been in a pile but this time the pile was in my way a lot.



I tried to find the blog where the inspiration for this piece came from but I really couldn't find it, I thought it was a perfect compliment for our three pictures though. 


I'm not sure I love them on the stairs, it's possible they clutter up the space but they're staying anyway.  The big picture frame also has a gold-ish trim on the inside that I don't like so I'd like to paint the frame black but I'm hoping Mom has some spray paint I can use so I don't have to buy any (And if she tells my I hung them too high I'm cutting off all contact with Catie for two weeks as punishment.  I looked up the proper height and measured.  So take that!)

Now I just need to tackle the rest of my stack of pictures.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Little Girl's Ribbon Necklace (Modeled)

Catie, modeling the Little Gil's Necklace.



It's technically designed to fit a 2-7 yr old girl but I'm loving the look on Catie.  I may just have to make one for her.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Wrapping Paper Re-do

Being in a fairly tight financial situation there are some items that I'm just to cheap to buy.  One of them being event specific wrapping paper.  I buy some packs of wrapping paper at Christmas time to meet those needs and then I don't buy any until the next Christmas but there are a lot of events in a year.  Like Birthdays and Father's Day.   I just don't like spending money on the paper and I don't like storing it (my under the bed storage can only hold so much).  To get around my cheap-ness I take the Christmas paper, turn it inside out and wrap.  I'm not suggesting this as an idea for anyone as it doesn't look very good and as soon as you rip the paper you can see the Christmas print but I figure it just gets torn off and thrown out anyway.  For Father's Day I spiced it up with a little help from Catie.  It's a vast improvement from the regular but still pretty bad.  The hand was obviously more successful than the foot.


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Some Catie Photos

I decided it was time to pull out the pots and pans and wooden spoons so Catie could have a go.


It took her some time to figure out that you can do more with the wooden spoon than put it in your mouth.  I felt like she was just starting to get it when she fell over with a spoon in her mouth.  She was not happy and cried for some time after.  Perhaps we'll give it some time and try again.

Our friends loaned us this great little kiddy pool so we tried it out.  We filled the pool with warm water and then hooked up the hose, she was freezing almost immediately so we killed the hose and left the warm water.  She had a great time with lots of splashing.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Little Girl's Ribbon Necklace

My sister-in-law Lisa found this necklace at Stella & Dot.  It's designed to be worn by a little girl and we both loved it.  She wasn't willing to pay the $32 price tag and I took one look and knew I could re-create it.  Here's my finished product.  What do you think of the original and my recreation of it?



I was going to add a jeweled brad to the center of my flower like they'd done in the original but I didn't have one so I would have had to buy a pack and I also loved how 3 dimensional mine was.  I would have had to flatten the flower to add the jewel so I left it as is.  I like how the edges are starting to fray.


I do wish that the fabric I used for my flower matched the ribbon a little bit better but this was the best I could find.

The original tied on with a bow but I thought that seemed like it would be finicky to put on a two year old so I added a clasp with a bow for decoration.


In the original they made the flower removable on a clip so it could be added to your girl's hair but since Lisa doesn't like the flower in hair look I decided to skip that and sewed it on instead.

Using some rough calculations I figure I spent about $12 making this necklace but I have supplies left (minus ribbon) to make probably 3 more.  That puts each necklace at about $5.  Eventually there will be a bracelet to match but I'm in no hurry.  This is going to be a birthday gift for Gwen in September when she turns two.  Hopefully she, and Lisa love it.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Little Boy Ties

I've seen the pattern for these little boy ties a bunch of times but since I don't have a boy I keep putting them at the bottom of my craft list.



On my trip to the states I found a fabric that I thought would be so cute as a tie and I figured Michelle would love some for her boys so I finally got sewing.  She had a whole bunch of lousy things happen to her so I figured a fun surprise in the mail would brighten her day.

Make it and Love It has an awesome tie pattern that you can purchase, I loved my results and will definitely use it again so I think it was worth it.  It uses a fake knot and has velcro to attach at the neck so it works great for little boys.  Michelle has 3 month old and 3 year old boys so I could have used the pattern for both as she provides different sizes but I thought that Porter would love to have a big boy tie like his Daddy.  I used a free pattern from the Purl Bee for Porter instead.  The pattern is sized to fit a 10 year old though and I didn't want this tie to come to his knees so using some really basic math and the sizing from the velcro pattern I figured out how long the tie should be after the knot.  Then I used Brad's to figure out how long his tie is after his knot.  Then I used the best math I've ever learned, cross multiplication.  I multiplied Brad's length after the knot by Porter's length after the knot and then divided by Brad's total length, this gave me Porter's total length.  Since I don't have a 3 year old model Michelle will have to let you know if my math worked.  I then altered the Purl Bee's pattern to fit my length.  After that I followed all their steps except since my tie was so short I only needed one piece, not two like their pattern calls for.  This sounds far more complicated than it really was.

I actually found I enjoyed the Purl Bee's pattern more because it was all done by hand.  I haven't had a lot of experience using a slip stitch and I found it so satisfying as I was working.  My edges looked so clean and it turned out so professional looking, I guess I like to hand stitch.



I also learned on this project that my double sided iron-on stuff isn't as useless as I've though it was for years.  I just need to use steam and lots of it.  That in itself made the project worth while.

Rigby's tie turned out really cute.  I used some leftover fabric from Michelle's stroller, since she picked it out I knew she'd love it.  The nice thing about this pattern is since it's a fake knot you don't have to cut your fabric on the bias, saving a lot of waste.  Brad was impressed with my dimple, apparently on his mission all the Elders tried their hardest to get a good dimple.  I think my second attempt will look a little cleaner but I was pleased with my first attempt results.

Once I had both ties finished I gave the little tie and a vase to Brad so I could get some good pictures and as it turns out tying a tie is only something he can do if he doesn't think about it :)  He got his own tie and I copied him.  Oh, one suggestion... as cute as cotton fabric is Porter's tie is going to wrinkle like crazy, needing to be ironed after every wear.  Next time I wouldn't use cotton.



My last stroke of brilliance before I mailed them was to spray them both with Scotch Guard.

Hopefully Michelle will take pictures of them on her boys so we can all admire them and I'm crossing my fingers that they fit.  Catie did her best modeling but I can't wait to see them on boys, plus this tie is sized to fit a 3 month old and Catie is 9 months so it's obviously a little short.  I didn't put Porter's tie on her for a couple reasons.  It would involve re-tying and re-ironing the tie and as mentioned above it would involve wrestling my girl.

Green Thumbing

It's still alive and she's so pretty!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Ribbon Belt

This cute ribbon belt is certainly not a new idea or is it difficult but I think they're adorable and I came across a tutorial at Make it and Love it.  I'm not sure you even need a tutorial but being a new-be at using D-rings I found it helpful.


It's super easy, you measure your child's waist, add some growth room and then cut two lengths of ribbon that size.  Sew, wrong sides together the two pieces, one seam at the top, bottom and middle.  Add your D-rings to one end, fold over the rough edges of the other side and your done.  A quick project that looks adorable.  I have more I want to make but I think my ribbon is too wide and will have to wait until she's older.

Also, don't buy D-rings at Michael's.  I went there first armed with a coupon because it was more convenient but they wanted $3 for two.  Instead I went to Fabricland and paid .80 cents.

This shirt really wasn't the best for pictures, it's normally not tucked all funny like that but I had to show the belt a little.  This was what she was wearing for the day and if you have a wiggly 9 month old you know you want to do as few clothing changes as possible.  I love her little hand there hey?  What a pose.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Magnet Board Update

I made this magnet board years ago with my Mom at a Super Saturday and it's really useful and I always thought it looked just fine until I saw a beautiful fabric covered one.  This project quickly went on my to-do list and I finally got around to working on it.



I hit up the Fabric Addict (my favorite store) with every intention of finding something red to go inside the frame but instead the purple jumped out at me.  I love the pattern and I love the color, not sure how well it fits in my dining room but I decided I didn't care.

This was a really easy project.  I took apart the magnet board and used the sheet metal as my fabric guide.  Since my fabric was directional and needed to go on straight I traced around the metal with a sharpie to help me stick it down property once I'd sprayed it.  I'd bought just enough fabric so I only had to cut one side.  I then used spray adhesive on both the fabric and the metal and then I stuck them together, wrapping quickly around the back before my spray dried.  There were a couple spots on the back that didn't stay stuck very well but since it gets put back in the frame it didn't matter.  I closed it all back up, put my magnets back on and called it done.

I love the new look.

Before


After

Looking at these pictures makes me think perhaps it's time to re-paint my frame, it's looking a little rough.  Some other day.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Really?

"you have to be beautiful to do things"

Toddlers & Tiaras is a really messed up show.

I Have a Dream

I have a goal.  I want my blog to be viewed by every state in the US.

Before you think I'm crazy take a look at this map.



The darker the colour the more visits I've got (thanks Jen and Kim for making Utah and New York so populated).  As you can see there are only three white states meaning I have zero visits from that area.  So if you happen to be in Mississippi, Wyoming or Delaware, do me a favour and check me out.

Perhaps once I've conquered the US I'll take on the world.


Question:  Who reads my blog in Russia?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Thumb Handicap

Since rubbing the skin off the side of my thumb I've discovered the many uses for that particular spot on the finger.  They include typing on the iPhone, using the direction keys for Bomberman and unclipping Catie from her high chair.

Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Ribbon Holder

I saw this post a while ago and thought it was such a cute idea, I don't need a wrapping paper holder but knew it would make an awesome ribbon holder so I made one.  I definitely did not just whip this up as the project took considerably longer than I had anticipated.



I started a while ago by picking up supplies.  I got my frame for .25 cents at The Salvation Army.  It didn't have glass in it but that was fine, I didn't need it anyway.  I bought two packages of cafe rods from Home Depot for $4 each.  I wish they'd been a little cheaper but they do the trick even if they are ugly and brass.


I then started waiting for a day that wasn't too windy to spray paint and I've since decided that in Lethbridge there's no such thing.  I finally tired of waiting and painted anyway and just dealt with the wind.

I painted my frame using the leftover from Catie's lamp, happy that I wouldn't have to buy any paint for this projects.  Unfortunately I really hated it.  It looks so stark and white and doesn't fit the area at all so I ended up re-painting it pink with some new paint I bought.  I painted the hardware from the cafe rods as well.  I'm loving the pink, I was worried it would be a little too vibrant and I had thought I would distress it to tone it down a bit but I like it as is so I left it.



I then rigged up this handy little contraption to help me paint the rods.  I used bbq skewers that I poked through a box.  The rods are too heavy for just the skewers though so I taped some spools of thread on the bottom to hold the skewers.  I used the same buttercream yellow spray paint that I'd used on the ironing board.



In hindsight I should have spread out my bbq skewers a bit more because they were a pain to move when the rods were still damp but it was too windy to let them dry outside.

After everything was good and dry I gave the hardware and the ends of the cafe rods a quick spray with a varathane top coat to help protect from scratching.

I then attempted to add a hanger to the back and succeeded in breaking the head off one of my screws.  Frustrated I moved onto attaching the hardware for the rods which went much more smoothly except I discovered this is what happens when your attempting to insert screws while reading subtitles from an episode of Lost.  Those Jin and Sun episodes are killer for crafting.



Once that was done I again worked on attaching my hanger, I lost the head off another screw and finally got two to stay.  Here it is finished, with the ribbon, hanging on the wall.  I'm loving the way it ties in with the ironing board and I think it gives me a cute crafty corner.  Now I just need a couple more spools of cute ribbon :)