Bring on the Green

How many days 'til St. Patrick's day?  Around 10?  Yeah, I've been thinking about it.  I've been gathering a few ideas for things like lunchbox jokes and leprechaun pranks.  In fact I even let Kaitlyn pick out shirts for herself and her brother when we were out shopping the weekend before last.  But it's not usually something I decorate for.  However, with so many cute ideas out there I decided I wanted to create at least a couple small things before the holiday was over.  So I invited a friend over last Friday and we got a little crafty.

 First up - 2x4 Leprechaun Hats.  Pretty simple right?  And basically free.  I already had the scrap wood, the paint, the ribbon, and the shamrock was from a few floral pics I had grabbed to use on my front door wreath.
 

 I went a slightly different direction for the front door than my typical wreath.  This time around I cut a Leprechaun Hat shape out of scrap bead board.  I didn't even have to paint it, just sanded down the edges a bit.  Then added the ribbon hat band, the Luck medallion and the cute little owl (all the glittery stuff was at AC Moore a few weeks back).

I had bought also picked up a little package of tiny glitter hats that I hat originally planned to use on a wreath.  I didn't want such tiny cuteness to go to waste so I turned one of them into a hair bow for Miss Kate by adding some feathers and a gold bow.

 And my last little project was this fun You are My Pot of Gold sign.  I have a small stack of wood cut into 12x12 squares (originally intended for craft show items until I found out I wasn't cut out to do the craft show circuit) so I grabbed one of those and painted the edges white.  If I had wanted to take more time I would have stained it, but I didn't want to wait overnight for the stain to dry.  I grabbed some green scrapbook paper from my stash (I have to say, it's really nice to have a big stockpile of craft supplies.  I don't know how I'd manage to pull together "quick crafts" without it), cut vinyl for the lettering and viola!

I thought the Pot of Gold sign needed a sidekick and I've had this frame sitting around empty.  So I grabbed a spare photo.  It just happens to be some extras from last year's Christmas cards.  I'll try to remember to take a cute photo of the kids to print out for next year but for now, it works (again with one of my new mantras Done is Better Than Perfect, right?)

 

Now I just need to put away the Valentines décor and find these guys a home on the shelf by the stairs.

Fall Hair Pretties (31 Days: Day 9)

Quick show and tell today.  Just in case you need a few quick and easy ideas to dress up your girly girl for fall.

I love the look of this style of fabric rosette.  I've been experimenting with all different types of fabric from satin to denim.  These particular ones are made out of knit - you know, the stuff your Tshirts are made from.  Cool, right?

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.

Quick Sewing Projects

Since we did finally manage to get my sewing machine up and running (thank goodness for handy husbands!), I thought I'd share some of the small projects I was able to finish. First up, and really the whole reason I drug out all the sewing stuff was a car seat tent/nursing cover for my cousin. She's due in a couple weeks with her first baby and I wanted to get this in the mail to her before the little one arrived. Don't you just love that fabric?! I could very easily become a fabric junkie. It's a good thing I have very little reason to enter the fabric section very often or I'd have a whole stack of fabric with no real purpose, just because I loved the colors.

After I finished the baby gift I set to work turning these trift store sweaters into pillows for the living room sofa. I saw this idea a few months ago here and have been waiting for the chance to whip them up.

The finished product. Don't mind the lighting - it was a nasty rainy day yesterday and the colors are a bit off. The red is much prettier in person. And those pillows are oh so soft.

I also took the time to hem some of Kaitlyn's jeans, alter the top of her new swimming suit so it won't fall off her in the pool, reattach the binding to a blanket (that really should be replaced here soon - it's the one that we use in the living room and it's obviously seen better days), and glued the clips to the flower rosettes I made when I went to visit my friend Audrey 2 months ago - yikes! Now Kaitlyn has some pretty new hairbows for spring. And I can happily cross a whole bunch of little things off my To Do List!