Planning the tree

It's true- I haven't decorated my Christmas tree yet. In fact, I haven't even put it up. Though, to be fair, we may actually be getting a real tree this year (for the first time in 9 1/2 years!) so I've been putting off dragging the fake one in until we've decided.

BUT I do have a plan for the tree, fake or fresh. It's going to have a woodland theme with a cranberry/green/bronze color scheme. I am soooo excited! I've started collecting both outdoors and in stores. Here's some of what I've got so far.

From outside...


milkweed pods


I'm trying to figure out how/if I can make a star shaped tree topper with some of these...


A few red berries.


Some very sharp, very poky but pretty thistles.


I don't know what the heck these are, but they're cute.


And of course acorns. I LOVE ACORNS!


Last night I made a batch of cinnamon ornaments using this recipe and tutorial from Martha. They smell like Christmas.


I bought the bronze (even though it looks gold on here) glitter at Michael's. It's also from Martha- heh. Weird.)


Michael's also provided me with some pine cones, fake birds and nests, and some cranberry and moss green glass ball ornaments. I'm also hoping to add some faux eggs, feathers, ribbon, burlap (for the skirt) and other pretty woodland-y items. There will be more cinnamon ornaments made, more critters, maybe some bugs this time. I don't know. But it's gonna be pretty!

Sleeping baby sign

I made this sign over the weekend.

Found the perfect picture of my second baby sleeping...

...then used an archival pen to draw him onto a small piece of wood from the craft store. Tiny rubber stamps were used for the words and a little distressing around the edges from a stamp pad. Then I gave it a good spray (front and back) with some polyurethane, added a scrap of ribbon for a hanger, and now I have the most personal, precious sleeping baby sign.

I almost hate to put it outside.

Easy photo gift idea

This weekend I went to a baby shower for a neighbor friend of mine, and until the night before I'd only planned to give her a pair of baby shoes as a gift. Then I came across an idea online that I wanted to try to recreate myself.

I'd seen where some vintage blocks were used to spell out the baby's name and were accompanied by some adorable miniature animal toys. The little display was then photographed and sold for $18 per print. As much as I would have loved to give her one of those darling prints framed and ready to be hung in her nursery, I didn't have the time as her shower was the very next afternoon.

Instead I got up the next morning and dug through my kids' baskets of toys until I'd found all the blocks that we own, and set up my own little photography session by a big window in my dining room.

Here's the original photo I ended up using. I used a large sheet of white paper on a dining room chair as my backdrop. I put my camera on the Macro setting (the little flower symbol) and kept my overhead lighting and flash off. I just used what was coming through my east facing window. As you can see in the lower left corner, I accidentally got a little bit of the chair in the shot. Grrr.

First I used Picasa to edit the photo. Here's what the photo looks like after using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" basic fix feature.

Then I used the Glow effect to make it look a little softer.

I cropped out that annoying sliver at the bottom...

... then used Photoscape to add a pretty vignette around the edges.

I ordered an 8x10 print with WalMart.com and picked it up in an hour at my local store. I was in too big a hurry to take a photo of the finished project, but I ended up "matting" it with some purple fabric from my stash in the same way I'd done these for my son's room.


A white 10x13 frame that I already had made the whole thing turn out nicely. I may just have to do this with my own kids' names! I really like the idea of putting special toys in the photo as well, so if you try this look around to see what items you can add to the photo for a personal touch.

little chairs

I discovered something about myself last night- I have a love of tiny chairs. After coming home from a trip to the thrift store with 5 newly acquired miniature chairs, I started noticing that there are little chairs everywhere in my house.

I bought this sweet little rocker for my daughter when she was about two years old.

These two school chairs are easy for my kids to bring into the living room to watch TV, or they stay in the corner of the dining room and look cute. One came from a local thrift store and cost me a whole $3, while the other was rescued from the trash at my sister's college dorm.

This mattress stripe upholstered one sits at the end of my daughter's bed. It needs to be cleaned, but I just love it.


And here are my new little chairs. They were scattered on the shelves among the other wooden items, but I'm sure they came from the same place.

Each one is made of twigs and tiny nails and staples. They're all a little different in style and size, but I love how they go together.

(By the way, I'm hating my camera right now. Sorry for the grainy photos- I'm not sure why it's like that.)
I decided to hang them on a wall in my kitchen/dining room.
Sweet little chairs. I don't think I'll ever get enough.

Trying something

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to try making a necklace for myself. Nothing complicated, just something simple, long and sparkly. I've tried my hand at jewelry making before, but I always shy away from projects that require expensive supplies and tools.

I love smoky quartz, so I bought some nice big, round, faceted beads on Etsy, as well as 3' of delicate gold chain.

Today I found some gold plated eye pins and a set of tiny jeweler's tools at Michael's. I couldn't wait to try them out.

It's far from perfect, but I really like how it turned out. A little fancy, yet a little quirky with the beads spaced unevenly. No need for a clasp. Just right!

And just how I imagined it. I think it'll look nice with the outfit I'm assembling to wear to my brother's wedding. That smoky quartz is a winner.

Wrist corsages

Tonight I'm suffering from a bit of insomnia, so instead of browsing the Internet for who-knows-what, I'm going to show you what I've been working on.



My little brother is getting married in about 3 weeks. He and his sweet fiance kindly asked if I'd be willing to help out with a few things. They wanted some wrist corsages made for the sisters, mothers, and grandmothers that coordinate with their wedding colors- white/pearl, ivory, moss green, gold and gray. Pretty, huh?



I had to look up how to make ribbon flowers, then went kinda crazy and tried out a bunch. They both liked the variety of styles, so I put together this prototype to see how they liked the results. Both were pleased so I've been making dozens of tiny ribbon roses, "daisies", rose buds and leaves when I have a spare minute here and there.



The flowers and leaves are adhered to an ivory felt oval with hot glue, and a lovely dove gray ribbon will tie the corsage to the wrist.


I've also been asked to make two somewhat matching ribbon headbands for the flower girls to wear, as well as the ring bearer pillow. I'm so glad they've asked me to help out with such special details of their important day! These projects have me so excited that it's becoming very hard not to ignore the other projects that need my attention.

LOTS of little projects

Man, this summer is really slipping by, isn't it? I mean, August is next week, for crying out loud! Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between vacation, shoe-making, swimming lessons, etc., there hasn't been much spare time for blogging. But, I did make time for crafting, especially before our recent 2 1/2 week long vacation! Lemme show you what I've been up to.

The kiddos got some patriotic wear out of a couple of their plain old tees and some polka dot fabric.

The little one got a hat since he spent most of the 4th snuggled to Mommy in a wrap.

By the way, you'll notice a theme with most of these- applique! I went a little applique crazy, I admit. But it's such a great way to personalize and snazz up something that's otherwise very bland and personality-less. Anyway, we got lots of use from these little totes. They were cheapy canvas bags from the craft store that I just added the kids' initials to. They were great for putting a change of clothes and pj's in for overnight stays, taking to the Independence Day parade to hold their loot, and carrying treasures found on nature walks (plus they're washable, which is always a good thing with my kids).

These little neck pillows quickly became a must after reading this post over on Make it and Love it. I only wish I'd made them fatter and stuffed them tighter. None the less, they got used and loved, as promised!

While prowling a thrift store right before our trip, I came upon a stack of these small white boards for $1 each. I went home without them at first, then went back for 2 after I'd figured out a way to use them in the car.

I added loops of elastic to each side using my staple gun, plus a good cleaning and some paint in the color of each child's choice and they quickly became removeable trays! They served well as a hard surface for coloring and drawing, driving toy cars over, and keeping snacks from falling to the floor. I did not, however, choose to let them be used for their original purpose, because white board markers are crazy messy in the hands of my children.

Still, they were quite functional.

This idea came from my Dad. He makes these pouches to hold the ammo (which he also makes) for his old guns. I made up these little pouches when we got home from our trip to help my kids keep their newly acquired rock collections safe. Each was made using the bottom of a pair of Pyper's overalls which I had recently turned into capris. I sewed up the raw edge, stitched the corners crosswise to make a fuller bottom then snipped holes in the hem (now at the top) and added a drawstring. The beads are there to help pull the string and keep it from disappearing into the holes. Dad's pouches are much more butch than these. No embroidery, no sissy strings with beads. Just jeans and some very manly rope. But I think he'd approve of these, too.

And finally, meet TO7. That's right. Tee-Oh-Seven. This doll belongs to my 3 year old son. It was originally given to my daughter when said son was born, so she'd have a baby to take care of while Mommy took care of her new brother. About a year ago or so Hakan decided he really liked this dolly and claimed it as his own, giving it a random alpha-numeric name that only he could think of.

Since Hakan's adoption of this doll, its little cloth body has remained naked and looking kind of genderless. After dubbing it a "he", I finally decided to make the poor thing some clothes. He is, afterall, a favorite among my son's little friends. Some brown knit from my stash made for a perfect tee, and some leftover denim from a shortened skirt was just right for a pair of elastic-waist shorts.
Add a little applique (of course!) and TO7 is now fully dressed and looking suitable to be my little boy's!

Hakan is very happy with TO7's new duds.

And quite frankly, so am I. :)