I had intended to make wood slice ornaments for our neighbor gifts this year. That didn't happen, but some tag/ornaments for family did (at the last minute)!
Niece/nephew gifts and sib gifts.
If I wasn't slightly worried about breathing in the smoke, I'd do this all the time! It's so fun! Next time I want a big batch I'll do it outside in the summer, though!
Again, this girl wanted to dress up for a local anime con, so her costume was done in August - I am very glad of that now!
Last year she was Kiki, and this year wanted to stick with another Studio Ghibli classic character. She went as Totoro!
Like last year, I feel like we struck a good balance between geeky and 'not-too-over-the-top' with wigs and stuff like that. Although the day of we realized she should have been Princess Tutu! That would've been fun - maybe next year.
Her costume base was a dress (nightshirt?) from Target. I appliqued cream knit on top, plus little soot sprites and a little white totoro on the back. There is one soot sprite on her sleeve, too.
Her ears + leaf hat are wool felt, totally made up as I went along, with a little tulle thrown in their for fancy.
She loves it and is excited to wear it again for Halloween!
We ALMOST did Arietty - but somehow ended up here.
Costume 1: done. The boys'... are getting there! :)
This week I decided I HAD to make time to do a project. Remember when I used to do those (SO often!)? Well, I need to do more. It's good for me.
So even though I had no idea how to squeeze in the time, I ordered what I needed, and what do you know? The time showed up.
I decided to dye some dish towels. Shibori-style.
Couldn't find my rubber band stash, so I made do with twine.
Instead of using traditional indigo (with the heating and the oxidizing, etc) I just used a tie-dye refill kit (because I always keep the bottles from the other kits I've bought) and used the same method I've done for tie-dye.
I quite like how they turned out!
It felt SO good to do something creative, too.
I gave some away, some wrapped up with cutting boards for a bridal shower.
But I am definitely keeping a couple!
These will happen again! Good gift idea and very do-able in batches.
(And for my own benefit, since I will forget otherwise: each dye packet dyed about 2 towels (but I did 7 total). The towels are the same flour sack ones I've done before. And I got a couple little plastic-y gunk spots on two towels because I didn't let one of the dye packets dissolve enough. Duh, patience next time!)
Well, I never did redo that cleaning supplies gift, and some bridal showers snuck up on me, so now I have a new go-to bridal (kitchen) shower gift.
This is the third set I've put together, but the first I've recorded (probably need at least two more this summer! It's a busy wedding summer around here apparently).
Cookie sheets from costco, parchment paper from costco, and dish towels (ordered in big sets) usually stamped or stencilled.
This time was Zelda themed:
I always put a note under the parchment paper that just says 'Line cookie sheets with parchment instead of greasing them, handwash, and they will last forever.' Because not everyone is familiar with the magic of parchment paper. I've also included a Sycamore Street Press Art Card with these, those are gorgeous and go over well.
My parents recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. That is pretty awesome.
I made them this map of their moves (military). I used a woodburner for the first time, and used some birch ply (it's about 17x24").
Nails, string, and a little watercolor dressed it up a little.
It would have been easier to follow had we not moved to California 3 times!
Hawaii is where I bailed (got married) on my fam travels.
I've been thinking of how to make a map showing off my husband's travels with mine (he was a military brat, too), so since this turned out okay, look out for version 2.0. Someday.
I also printed maps and sewed our route on them for party favors.
It was so great to spend time with my sibs, nieces and nephews (including meeting a new one for the first time) and especially surprising my parents!
I also snagged some paper scraps from a (scrap-a-holic) neighbor, cut them in small pieces and sewed them randomly together for garlands.
I quite like them, and we just rehung them at our house for someone's 15th birthday (eep).
Last weekend I was invited to an 'Hours of the day' themed bridal shower.
My gift was supposed to somehow tie-in the time of 2:00 pm.
Man, that is a BORING time of day.
As I apologized in my card: I'm sorry this gift is boring, I would rather have wrapped up a nap, but I hope I get points for trying to cute it up.
I gave a basket of cleaning supplies. For the record, that is one of the best/most memorable gifts that we got when we were married.
After I gathered everything together, I painted little watercolor tags for all of the items.
I had just remembered the orange-vinegar I had stewing away in the back of a cupboard, and that is what started the whole thing.
The orange/blue thing just kind of happened.
(I ordered these microfiber cloths from Amazon - there are more folded in the bottom of the basket and rolled on the other side - and I still could only fit about 10 in there).
I remembered I have a few essential oils (I had grand plans of cleaning products/air fresheners, but haven't used them much at all) luckily a few of my 'lemon-peppermint fresheners' didn't crumble.
A few more sponges and stuff and it was good to go. It was an inexpensive (especially good when you plan on attending the wedding reception, too) and hopefully useful gift.
If I was smart, I would have scanned the tags so I could print others - as I realized at the shower I've got a few more of 'my girls' in the neighborhood getting married this summer!
Do you have a good go-to bridal shower gift? I've given several girls massage oil + a massage book simply to get out of the kitchen gift thing (and that was one of my fave gifts I received at my bridal shower). My go-to for weddings is a set of pyrex containers. I stock up when I find them on sale (usually woot.com). Again, boring, but we love them and much better than plastic containers.
Hmm, I don't know if it's the new year or what, but I'm definitely getting the urge to get my craft back on. Maybe I really want to be hand-quilting, but since I don't have any quilts ready for that YET I'm settling for embroidery?
Anyway, headed out the door for taekwondo the other night, and it was a class I could sit through (if the redhead is with me I can't, he doesn't like how loud it is, so we head to the library) and decided to grab something to do.
A scrap of linen (it's the sleeve of this shirt-turned-pillow!), a tiny hoop, a couple random colors of floss, needle, and scissors.
No design in mind. I just started stitching until I ran out of one color and then switched. I plan on it getting pretty busy/colorful. I don't have any long-term goal for this, it is definitely about the process.
Anyway, feels good.
Well, I did something stupid to my knee. As long as I am stuck on the couch (with a laptop!) I might as well blog! :)
I still love pom poms. My mom helped me make some red + white ones that I strung on baker's twine and hung in a previously bare window. Happy.
I actually think this would make a great little gift. Just about everyone could find a place for a little strand of pompoms!
The pompoms inspired me to finally redo the girl's stocking. I had to look up the post, but I made stockings from thrifted sweaters SEVEN YEARS AGO (!) and was never happy with hers. This year she actually voiced irritation that hers was so differently shaped (read: smaller) than the others and I thought I might as well redo it.
So I made a few more pom poms and thrifted another sweater. I found some small silver ric rac and canaballized her old stocking for the T and the hanging loop.
It'll do. She likes it.
And where it counts: the mantle in the evening.
I actually like that the stockings are that old and I still like them! Same with my Christmas pillow covers. I guess because they are only out one month a year?
The girl had to make a model of an atom. She chose copper.
What she came up with was stitching it up and making a pillow! I love it.
The circles are felt. The fabric is from a men's linen dress shirt.
She had to label everything in some way, so she made a key.
Having a mom with craft supplies sometimes comes in handy. ;)
What I forgot to take a photo of is that making a pillow cover from a men's dress shirt is the easiest way to go! We cut squares out of the front and back together, then the buttons are all going down the back. A ready-made opening that looks professional (because a professional made all those buttonholes)! I'm so using that idea again.
Her chemistry teacher wanted to keep the pillow, the girl wanted it up on her bed, but it's on my couch, so I won. :)
Well, I thought for sure that the Redhead would want to be Emmett for Halloween. He actually had a hard time deciding, but when we found out that our neighborhood carnival was going to be early (Oct. 1st!) he quickly decided on Benny from the Lego Movie. Totally doable.
This annual carnival is my boys' FAVORITE Halloween activity. Without a class party or anything, this is their chance to show off their costumes to their friends. Better than trick-or-treating. So I just HAD to get their costumes done (super) early. It was worth it, they were super excited.
This is the first costume I've paper mached for! I started with a balloon, a costco frozen pizza box, and washi tape.
I think this is after 2 coats. The boys helped me. I did four coats total (drying all day or overnight between each one).
I made it longer than needed so we could cut it to the right shape when it was all dry. I let my detail-oriented husband cut the whole and cover it with duct tape. We covered the pizza box on the inside, too.
Of course we 'broke' the helmet - just like Benny's!
For the tanks he wears on his back I just bought a cheapo pack of paper towels ($1.50/3) and covered two of them in blue duct tape. We added a cardboard piece to the top.
We couldn't figure out how to attach them to the shirt... Finally I safety pinned and duct taped some elastic to the back (pinned through the tape and some paper towel) and the Redhead helped me cover the elastic with blue sharpie. That part was pretty weak looking, but did the trick.
We used EXACTLY one roll of duct tape. And the paper towels aren't totally covered, there is some white showing on the back where no one will see.
For the shirt - freezer paper stencil, of course! I really wanted a basic royal blue sweat suit for this, but couldn't find one! Maybe it's too early... I settled on a thermal shirt + athletic pants. Not as 'space suit-y' but it did the trick.
The great thing about freezer paper stencilling is you can cut out the whole thing and do multiple colors at once. But this one I found easier to think of like screenprinting, and I did 3 'passes', one for each color.
You can see the process here:
My 'registration' on the last stencil was a little off, but I'm okay with it! Benny is a 1980-something spaceguy, and his logo is partially scratched off. I'm pretty happy with my interpretation. (This really didn't take that long, I swear!)
Come the day of the carnival, the Redhead is OVERJOYED to have all of his costume pieces completed! He laid out everything and rearranged them multiple times so it was ready to go.
Finally. 5:55pm - time to go.
Done and done!
(Not my son's actual face - but the smile is about the right size ;)
One happy 1980-something spaceman!
SPACESHIP!
