Favorites from Martha

I am loving Martha's recent "Craft of the Day" ideas. I have always been a fan of these button hairpins and I think I will make a few for Jane. You just sew (with thick thread) a button or two onto the end of a bobby pin. I'll have to find some cute colored bobby pins to use. Then I am also loving these pillowcase bags. They seem pretty easy. You just cut a pillowcase in half diagonally, sew it together and tie the ends in a knot. And lastly, I am also loving these recycled paper notebooks. They are so cute. You can use scrap paper to fill up the pages and make a cover out of cute craft/scrapbook paper like these. The video gives a great how-to.  I want to make some for on-the-go coloring (with a homemade crayon roll) and for collecting stickers.

Naked Gnocchi

In the fall my friend and I stopped into this little Italian restaurant for lunch and I was totally impressed by the food and service.  So I signed up for their email list and have been keeping up with all of the special events they have going on.  I noticed that they were doing a gnocchi cooking class this month so I mentioned it to my mom (who is half Italian).  My mom, my sister and I signed up for the class and this morning we learned how to make our own gnudi (naked) gnocchi. It is a variation of the traditional gnocchi my grandma makes and uses ricotta cheese in place of potatoes.  Of course we ate a bit of our gnocchi and took the rest of the pasta dough home for later.

Birthday Invitations

May is our big birthday month. Clark will be turning one this year and Jane will be turning three. We are planning to throw a big birthday bash for the two of them but we haven't had a chance to figure out the details. I can't seem to come up with a them to use that will work well for both ages and genders. I have found some super cute party invitations. Check out Its My Birthday invite from Hello Lucky; the Circus Animals, Horsey Girl, Jungle Birthday, and Western Tots, birthday party invitations from Dolce Mia, the assortment of retro invitesfrom My Retro Baby, and the robot printable party invites from Paper-Source.

Thanks IKEA

I am so excited to have this little reading area set up for the kids to sit and look through their books. You can't tell from the photo but there is a big pillow and basket of books under the canopy. Now getting the canopy hung was a bit of a challenge. When I went to Home Depot, I bought the ceiling hook recommended to me by an employee. But when I got home I realized that the hook required me to use an odd sized drill bit to hang it. So I called my everyone I could think of (my sister-in-law, my neighbor, my best friend) to see if they had the drill bit I needed. This size apparently does not exist. So enough of that, I went and bought a different hook. No drilling required.

Party Update

 I made it to the fabric store the other night and spent an hour just picking out the right purple flower print for Jane's doll's dress.  I went with yellow felt for her hair.  She'll be more of a blond in a bottle than a dirty blond like Jane.  I did finally figure out what wool felt is.  It is much thicker than regular craft felt.  I went with a wool blend because the 100% wool was really thick and I didn't like the texture.  Hopefully the stuff I got will turn out nice.  Pacific Fabrics and Crafts had a pretty good selection if you are looking.  Also, Zennie picked up a bunch of wool felt in various shades that will work for hair which she has offered to any party goers who would like.  

Wool Felt (A Note for CraftPad Party Goers)

Ok, I've been doing a little calling around and found out you can purchase wool felt (for your Black Apple Doll's hair) by the sheet at Michael's or by the roll at Joanne Fabric or Pacific Fabrics and Craft.  I'm not sure how large each store's collection is, whether they have good "hair" colors, or what the cost is.  I'll let you know what I find when I make it to the fabric store.

Black Apple Doll Making Party

I've decided to host my second ever CraftPad crafty party. Yippee. The plan is to get together at my place to make your own Black Apple doll. The date is Saturday, May 3rd at 10:00am.

I suggest that you look over the template and instructions and watch the Martha Stewart video so you are prepared to make your doll. If you have questions about what to bring or how much you will need, let me know. I am also happy to donate some of my fabric, thread, poly-fill and other supplies. If you have acrylic paint or anything else to donate that would be great. And if you know a little about embroidering, let me know if you can help us out with the faces. You will want to decide whether to embroider your doll's face or paint it on. You may want to check out some of Emily's dolls on Inside a Black Apple and some examples of her dolls on flickr to get ideas. Last of all, I am trying to figure out whether the dolls need wool felt hair or whether regular craft felt will work. Where do I find wool felt?

Here are the supplies you will need to bring:

sewing machine
fabric scissors
thread to match your fabric
poly fill to stuff doll
skin colored fabric for face
patterned fabric for doll's dress
skin or patterned fabric for arms
skin or patterned fabric for legs
any buttons, felt, other fabric etc. for accessories
felt for dolls hair
acrylic paint and very small brush for painting doll's face
or...
embroidery thread and needle for doll's face

I will provide:

iron + ironing board
pencils for tracing
needles for hand stitching
copies of the template (enlarged)
copies of the directions

Hope you can make it. Just RSVP in your comments!

Brown Cow Floats

I hosted a little party for some teenage girls tonight and decided to try out Martha Stewart's recipe for Brown Cow Floats. I have been wanting to make these forever and haven't had a good excuse. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. They are my new favorite treat. You have to make your own.

Brown Cow Floats
1) pour a layer of chocolate syrup on the bottom of your glass
2) scoop in vanilla ice cream
3) pour in the root beer
4) layer whip cream on top
5) sprinkle with chocolate jimmies

Cupcakes and Crafts

This morning we baked some simple chocolate cupcakes for a neighbor's birthday. Sometimes I think less is more. And sprinkles never go out of style. Jane is showing off the cupcake she decorated herself.

When my grandma passed away recently we inherited some of her arts and crafts supplies. Jane spotted some large butterfly stickers I got from my grandma's house and asked me if we could do a "project" (as all arts, crafts and sewing are referred to around here). We decided to put the stickers onto sheets of paper, cut around them, and tape them to yarn to hang. Jane is learning to cut with scissors and loved cutting the yarn into bits. Jane hung one string from her window and the other butterfly "mobile" is hanging on our art display rack.

Children's List

I picked up Amanda Soule's new book, The Creative Family and have been reading through it and gathering ideas for my family and adding projects to my ever growing list of things I want to make for my children. From my own imagination and inspiration from my new book, I've come up with the following list:

1. A jar for Jane's favorite rocks
2. Sticker books for favorite stickers
3. Special notebooks and a crayon roll for my little artist
4. Homemade lacing cards (The Creative Family has a how-to)
5. Recorded stories on CD for bedtime (narrated by me)

A New Friend

I am so excited because I finally got some magnet paper from the office supply store and printed Hillary Lang's free paperdoll onto the magnet sheet. I put her on Jane's chalkboard/magnet board to greet her when she woke up this morning. I just think she is adorable. I made another set to send in the mail to a little pen pal of ours.

My Head is Spinning

My head is spinning right now thinking about all of the activities I am planning and all of the projects I want to get to. There are so many things I want to make and so little time. And so many things to bog about too. If only I could sit at the compute all day and type away. Sigh.

Right now I am in love with Hillary Lang's Three Printed Dolls (Wee Wonderfuls). They are so simple but very charming. I really want to spin this idea to create my own plush people. I am thinking of scanning in some illustrations of my favorite children's book characters, printing them onto t-shirt transfer paper, ironing them onto white fabric, sewing two sides together and stuffing them with batting. I am itching to make a smaller play set made up of plush "Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, Puff and Tim" characters. Wouldn't that be fun? I need to pick up some transfer paper before I can get to work. I am anxious to get started.

Easy Color Crayon Plush

As I've mentioned, lately I have been really into the homemade toys. So many great ideas. I found this idea from Skip To My Lou to color your own animal, doll, etc. with fabric crayons; then iron them onto fabric, sew two sides together and stuff with fluff to make your own plush creation. Jane isn't able to draw animals/figures yet but she could color in a creature I outline or I could draw a mini Jane that she could color in. So many ideas. I've got to get some fabric crayons. Off to the store!

Froggy Friends

I finished our two little froggy friends for Jane's two little friends. Hope the girls like them. They chose their own fabric from my stash and I went with the bigger button eyes this time around (thanks to Jane's suggestion).

More Party Scoop

I am very smitten with the Black Apple Dolls and can't get them out of my head. I think they will be the subject of my next Crafty Party. If you want to make one with us, you can join in the fun. I definitely prefer to embroider the faces rather than paint them but I hope someone can give me some tips on embroidering. I will get the party details posted as soon as I work out the specifics. You will need to bring your own supplies and I will supply the goodies of course. Hope you are excited. Here are a few examples of Black Apple dolls people have sewn from the pattern.

1.2.








3.4.










1. Lucy's Tales From Home
2. Sew Nancy
3. RANCHO COCOA
4. Daisy in LaLa Land

Party Time

I've been thinking for awhile now that we need to get together for a spring crafty party. There are so many things I want to make. I would love to do a Black Apple doll or a felt mailbox set. I've been into the homemade toys lately. Are you interested? What are you itching to make? I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Black Apple Dolls Template

I just discovered the template and instructions on Martha Stewart's site for the fabric and felt dolls sold by Emily Martin of Inside a Black Apple. I've been familiar with her site and love her dolls and I'm so excited to have found this template. I'd love to make a million of my own. She appeared on the Martha Stewart Show March 19th and you can watch a clip of her going over the instructions and explaining how to put the doll together. Turns out Emily is the top seller on Etsy.

Flowers, Frogs and Room to Read (What I've Been Up To)

This week I taught a little sewing activity to a few girls where we used the template from Wise Craft to make little fabric flowers. After making a trial-run flower the night before this activity, I decided to make a couple tweaks to Blair's directions: 1) starch and iron the flowers after they are cut out to keep them stiff and fluffy, 2) Cut four large flowers (instead of only two) and arrange them in the same overlapping pattern as the smaller flowers.

I came home from this activity feeling anxious to sew something else. I decided to make a couple of beanbag frogs following the instructions from The Purl Bee. The cutting and sewing were so simple. The only tricky part is turning the little frog right side out and pouring in the filling without making a mess. Now Jane and Clark have their own little froggies complete with mini button eyes. I am even making a couple more froggy friends for some other little girls we know. 

And last of all, I am trying to fix up the kids room a bit since I am never completely satisfied with the way it is put together. I got a great idea to create a little reading nook in one corner with the large Dick and Jane floor pillow I sewed, a basket of books and a colorful canopy hanging down. Now that I found the perfect canopy at IKEA I need to find some hardware to hang it with and get my husband put it up. I'm hoping this addition plus a few other tweaks to the room will leave me feeling content with the kids space.

OhDeeDoh

Apartment Therapy is one of my favorite decorating and design resources online which features tons of photos of real homes and real spaces. Their sister site, OhDeeDoh focuses on design ideas for children's spaces. These are photos of a few of my favorite spaces.