Magic Wands

The tutus I made just didn't seem to be enough of a gift for the girls. They are crazy cute and maybe if I had made a couple for each girl I wouldn't have felt like it wasn't enough, but as it is I felt like each little girl could use something else to go with their Tutu. So, I decided to make them wands. Sadly, I had no clue what I was doing or any idea of what I was going to do, until I found these cute little butterfly things in Hobby Lobby. Two cheers for cute Spring things finally making an appearance!

Once I found the butterflys I just figured it out. I used 1 butterfly, one 12 inch section of dowel, matching colored ribbon and a hot glue gun. Here is a picture of the stuff, except for the glue gun. He didn't make it in time.


I have no idea why this picture decided to be upside down. I guess it is happy that way and I don't know how to change it unless I delete it and re-download it and I am way to lazy for that. (Oh yeah! Super sorry for the pictures. They are horrible, but I really just don't have light for good pictures. Maybe I will have to start taking things outside to photograph.)

Anyway, first, FarmerStone wrapped the thin wire that supported the butterfly around the dowel. He wrapped it fairly tight and then used a pair of pliers to dink around with the end so it wouldn't be sharp and was held on pretty tight. Smart of him. He was helping me because it was late at night and we were watching MacGyver at the same time!



After that, all I did was wrap ribbon around the dowel handle until it looked nice, hot gluing a little as I went. I then just tied on some ribbon to dangle around the handle. I think all three turned out adorable. I really wish the colors showed up better. They are very sparkly and fun!

So far, the little girls who have gotten their wands have really liked them. I don't know how they will stand up to serious abuse, but I can't predict how harsh other little kids are going to be on them. Wa and Kiki would probably use them to hit each other, so we don't have any at our house right now. I will probably make one soon though, because they are super cute and really fast to make. Plus, Kiki could really use some girly stuff of her own. She is perfectly okay with her brother's stuff, but I feel like she could use SOMETHING that screams little girl!

Making Tutus

I always have BIG plans for making homemade gifts for all Holidays and other gift giving opportunities. I buy all of the "stuff," start and then never finish a single project. There are blankets, quilts, soaps, quiet books, felt food and probably a million other projects lying around just waiting for me to get back to them. Well, not today my friends! BA HA HA HA HA! I have finally finished something. (Yes, the evil laugh is necessary, don' ask me why.)

There are lots of kids in our life. Both family and friends are at the perfect baby making age. It just so happens that three little girls all have their Birthdays at the end of March and early April. So, I decided that this WAS the year they were getting homemade gifts. Of course, I had to figure out what to make. YIKES!

While blog stalking, I came across Feels Like Home, which is an amazing blog! I love the set-up and the content. I could spend all day looking at that blog! Anyway, I saw How to Make a Tutu: A Tutorial and decided they were exactly what I was looking for. Little girls turning two and three NEED tutus! GIRLY, FRILLY, CUTENESS! How could I possibly go wrong? They were really cheap to make, fairly fast and easy!


I would like to apologize for the quality of the pictures. I have yet to figure out a good spot with good lighting to take pictures. I also had the added trouble of a little girl trying desperately to get her little hands, which you can see in the top two pictures, on those Tutus. So, they were a little rumpled instead of looking all pretty for the pictures!

I followed the tutorial pretty closely. However, I only used 2 yards of tulle per tutu. Instead of stacking three strips of tulle and then tying the knot, I only used two strips and the skirts were plenty full. I imagine, as the girls get older, I would need or want more layers. I haven't made one for Kiki yet, but I have some plans and some cool color ideas. I am looking forward to making her one as soon as I get to Hobby Lobby to pick up some more Tulle! I promise to put pictures up of her showing them off as soon as I get one or two done!

Ducky's Baby Quilt

As previously mentioned, my baby sister had a baby boy. (FYI, my Baby Sister isn't a baby anymore, but I think a part of me will always see her as "My Baby!") Little Ducky is the cutest little fella and my kids LOVE him. Of course, this post is not about how cute my nephew is or how nice it is to see my children loving him up! Although, I think I should share a couple of pictures :)



I made a quilt for my sister and her little Duckling and it is actually FINISHED! The pattern is from McCall's Quick Quilts Magazine, the July 2008 issue. It is called Wiggle Worms, but my babies call it The Snakes. It isn't really a baby quilt, but is more a toddler/playtime quilt as it is pretty big. It was fast and pretty easy to make. I cheated and tied it instead of hand quilting it because I may or may not have waited a wee bit to long to start it. Actually, I started during the last week of January, finished on February 19th and that little guy came right on his due date, March 4th. I know I cut it a bit close, but that is how i roll!


I hope they both like it and actually get some use out of it!

Play-Dough

The office is coming along. I think it will still take a few more days to put back in order. The work might be faster if I didn't get distracted by little people wanting to play! They have a crazy power over me, some of the time! Today we made Kool-Aid play dough!! The recipe followed can be found HERE. It is a lot like the recipe my Grandma used, but it makes a smaller batch and uses kool-aid as the coloring instead of whatever dye she had around! The kids LOVED picking out their colors and I think it smells pretty darn good.

Wa picked out Berry Blue Kool-Aid and Kiki wanted red, so we made Strawberry, which turned out an odd red shade. We might try Cherry for red and see what that turns into. Of course, I only had enough salt to make one batch, so Farmer Stone had to run to his mom's house and borrow 1/2 cup of salt so we could make two batches and keep peace in the house! Next time we make play dough I plan to have several more color options. I have a feeling the yellow and green are going to be very bright!

The dough isn't quite as smooth as my old recipe, but the kids don't seem to care so I am not going to worry about it! They both had a crazy good time playing with it!

This is Kiki showing off the play dough for mommy. By the time I thought of taking a picture Wa was done playing and had no time for posing in a picture! (Please ignore the plastic storage tubs in the background. We are trying to make room in the basement for the kids to have a room and that means I have to move, sort and give away all of my baby girl clothes. Sad times.)

P.S. The recipe site says, "This recipe is 100% edible and can be eaten immediately." I tried it and it tastes horrible. I am glad it is safe for them, but I can't imagine anyone liking the taste.

Organizing the office

In my quest to finish projects, I may have lost my mind. Of course, it could have been some pregnant lady crazies that made me drag everything out of my office/sewing room including its very full closet. For 3 days it has been a disaster since I refuse to put anything back unless it has a permanent home to go to. I bought several plastic tubs for storage and have actually been able to clean out 4 tubs that were just holding a few random items. All of my started projects are front row and center in the closet, so if I open it up and can't ignore that they are all right there, ready and waiting. I need to figure out some storage ideas for a few items, like, say the 5 million rolls of ribbon I didn't realize I had! I will get this done. I will have an organized office and sewing/project room when this is finally over. It just might not happen this weekend. I am going to a 3-4-5 Birthday Party and I am going to enjoy myself!

No New Projects

Tonight, while looking around my office/sewing room/storage room, I realized I have no space. Okay, so I have always known this, but I have gotten very good at ignoring that little fact. I couldn't use my sewing table if I wanted to. It is covered and stacked so high it looks like something off of the show Hoarders. I decided I should try to reorganize, because I am crazy. A startling and annoying fact has become VERY clear. I have WAY to many projects started and I just keep adding to my list of things I want to do.

As of right now, I have found and counted 35 projects that I have started and not finished. Some are little projects (make 3 fairy wands), some are big (make a quilt) and some are really on-going but would be best if I actually kept up to date on them (pictures).

I have at least 10 started, but not finished quilts. Some are piles of fabric, some are cut out, some need quilted and bound and a few I need to find more fabric to finish. WHY? What am I doing to myself? I started Quiet Books for my kids and have several pages done, but I didn't finish them. There is SO much more. My unfinished projects are taking up a LOT of room here.

I made a list of all of the projects and I now going to go through and see if I have the necessary items to finish the projects. If I don't have the "stuff," I am adding it to my shopping list. I am going to try and finish as many projects as I can over the rest of the year. My hope is that I can clear out some space and actually see the top of my sewing table. Magically, maybe even use it for its original purpose. The very idea makes me a little giddy!

Long story short, I am not going to allow myself to start another new project until I finish the projects that I already have. Well, except for the on-going ones. I am never going to finish pictures or make enough home-made cards to last a life-time. Of course, I will continue to Blog stalk other people and I am going to start keeping a file or list or something of all of their fantastic ideas, so I am all ready to go when I do get this STUFF done!

Baby Ducky

This has been a busy week and I am okay with not keeping caught up with anything. My sister gave birth to a beautiful little boy. We shall call him Ducky. He is a cutie. 6 lbs. 14 oz., 19 inches long. Such a tiny little thing. I will post a picture when I have one that isn't from his birth. Baby's just aren't that beautiful when they are BRAND new and still sticky. I am going to see him and my sis on Friday and we are staying the night. We being me and the kids. We will be visiting my parents on Saturday and getting home Saturday afternoon. I am really excited to go spend some time with them all. Wa and Kiki are thrilled about seeing the baby. Although, they are probably going to get bored pretty fast. I won't though!

On a less happy note, the whole family had Strep Throat. It is not fun having all 4 of us suffering from Strep. Then I got a Sinus Infection to go with it. Best time ever. Antibiotics are doing their job and the kids are feeling much better, but I am still suffering from the Sinuses and there isn't anything this pregnant lady can do about it.