Red White and Blue

Long weekend - woohoo!  You don't often hear me say that about the smaller holidays (ie: the ones where I don't plan gifts and activities weeks and weeks in advance) because I usually neglect the long weekends and then end up regretting my lack of planning.  But as luck would have this weekend seems to have fallen into a nice little mix of fun and productivity and mostly happy family members all around.  Plus, I'm on the winning end of a week-long fight with a nasty little cold, and that would put anyone in a good mood :)  However, the combination of the cold then the busy weekend means the blog once again only gets a minimum amount of attention.  So I thought I'd do a quick Show and Tell of the red, white, and blue hairbows I whipped up a few weeks ago.  I've been messing around with the use of denim for hair accessories as well as some of what are proving to be my favorite fabric flower techniques and combinations.  Kind of fun, and like a comfy pair of jeans, I figure a denim hairbow would be pretty versatile and appropriate for almost any kind/color outfit.

I thought the denim and polka dots would be festive without being too over-the-top that it couldn't be worn every day, not just on the red/white/blue holidays.  Appropriate for Memorial Day, and just the tip of the iceburg on the ideas I have for 4th of July.  We'll see how many of those I get around to in the next few weeks.  But for now, it's back to the pool (oh how I'm loving our new neighborhood pool!) and the home improvement projects for one more day :)  Happy Memorial Day everyone!  My many thanks goes out to not only those in the military (including my wonderful husband) past and present but to the family and friends who support them, on Memorial Day and every day.

*I made the hairbows primarily for my own entertainment and because I like to play dress up with Kate, but I did list the red/white/blue one in my etsy shop.

A Little Show and Tell

I had the urge to blog today, but no idea what I wanted to blog about.  Does that happen to anyone else, or am I just a nut? :)

Anyway.  I realized that I probably haven't shared some of my more recent crochet projects.  I'm building up quite a collection of favorite patterns and ideas and it's getting hard to narrow it down to just a few to take to craft shows (well I haven't done any of those yet but I'm totally thinking about it!) or list on Etsy.  These are a few of not only my fav, but also some I think would still work well for summer wear.

Crochet cowboy hat and boots - cute right?  I came up with the boots pattern all by myself.  (insert big self-satisfied grin here)

My other monster hat is by far the most popular, so I came up with a double pom pom version.

And a fun lacey-type version of a cloche hat.  I like that you can change the look of it by switching out the flower for a different color or type or a bow or a hair fascinator or...

There - just like Show and Tell in Kindergarten I'm keeping it short and simple :)  Happy Friday! Linking to:

Teacher Appreciation 2012

Teacher appreciation week starts Monday.  Did it sneak up on you too?  Actually I knew it was coming as I've seen lots of fun ideas popping up on Pinterest :)  I just put off throwing everything together until this week.  Which is actually fine, as our PTO isn't the best at getting notifications out ahead of time and we only received the note requesting participation this week.  Luckily they did the same thing last year, so I knew what I was in for.  The PTO requested that the kids bring in a card for their teachers on Monday.  I decided to use this printable (found here) as I love anything that seems a little bit more personal.

Tuesday's assignment was chocolate so I grabbed chocolate bars that looked pretty decadent and added a tag.

Wednesday the PTO will provide breakfast.  Thursday we are supposed to send in a flower.  I found that a hard one last year as our town isn't big on cut flowers and I didn't have any in my yard.  So this year I grabbed some flower seed packets and prettied them up a bit.  The tag reads "If teachers were flowers, I'd pick you!"

The PTO's plan is to give the teachers a larger gift on Friday, one that doesn't require contribution from the parents.  So I figured that's my chance to go out on my own a bit and send in something that wasn't "assigned."  I picked up a bunch of yummy smelling anti-bacterial (in pocket sizes) and holders at one of Bath and Body Works big sales knowing it would come in handy for something like this.  The tag says "you are scent-sational."  The printables for this one and the chocolate came from the Eighteen25 blog and can be found here.

And while I was on a roll (and because the italian ices looked interesting when I was at the dollar store), I duplicated the "stay cool this summer" idea I used for end of the year gifts last year.

I have to say, it's a relief to have all of that put together and ready to go so I don't have to rush around at the last minute.

31 Days of Photos

I love photos.  Always have.  I love looking at them, taking them, admiring other's work.  I take a lot of photos and I end up with quite a few good ones.  But it frustrates me (and has for quite a while) that I don't have the skills to take the quality of photo I'd really love to be taking.  So this month I decided to stop saying things like "I need to practice" or "that photo session turned out okay but I could do better if I knew more."  No more procrastination, or waiting for a calmer month or more time or better photo subjects.  I decided I was going to take the 31 days in May and use it to follow along with the 31 Days to Better Photos (which I discovered at least a year ago!) at My3boybarians.  And since I always do better at following through if someone else knows about my goals, I thought I'd share what I've done so far.
Day 1 has a really great motivational message and is all about simply Taking the Photo.  So that's what I did.  I read that blog post then I grabbed the camera and found the closest subject - my 5 year old, who happened to be doing somersaults in the living room :) 

He would stand up tall. Do the roll.  Then lay sprawled on the floor for a second before getting up to try it again.

This one (below) is my favorite as I think it's a fun, unique perspective.

Day 2 told me to get out the camera manual, make sure I know some basic functions/symbols (I did - phew!), then find something I didn't know/hadn't tried before.  I had a bit of a panic when I couldn't find my camera manual in not one but two places it could have been stored, but eventually tracked it down in my scrap/craft cupboard.  As I was paging through it, I was struck by the section on shooting close-ups as I'm usually drawn to most close-ups and detail photographs.  One of the tips was "if you have a zoom lens, using the telephoto end will make the subject look larger."  So out the door I went to try out this theory.

The picture above is with the lens at it furthest setting, the one below is from the same location but zoomed in as close as I could get.

It totally works!  I need a little sharper focus on some of the photos, but I'm pretty happy with the results of my 5 minute experiment.  I think this little project is going to be fun.  I wonder what today's lesson will be...