Thursday, March 31, 2011

You can find me partying here!!

Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes, Primitive and Proper, Tickled Pink at 504 Main, Friday Flair at Whipperberry, Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T., Make it Great Monday at Etcetorize, We Did it Wednesday at Sew Much Ado, Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence, Sweet Saturday at The Gingerbread Blog, Air Your Laundry at Freckled Laundry, I <3 Fridays at Petals to Picots, Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello, Just Something I Whipped Up at the Girl Creative, A Round Tuit at Creating My Way to Success, Take a Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee, Inspiring Creativity at Twin Dragonfly Designs, Lovely Crafty Weekend at Lovely Crafty Home, What We Wore + Made Wednesdays at Rae Gun Ramblings, Northern Cottage Décor Eats Crafts, Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge, Sugar and Spice at 733, Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails on 733, Do Something Crafty at See Vanessa Craft, Sew Darn Crafty at Sew Many Ways, Hoo’s Got Talent at Night Owl CraftingMotivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple, The Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming, Hooking up with House of Hepworths, Made by You Mondays at Skip to My Lou, Market Yourself Monday at Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Link it Up at Seven Alive, My Girlish Whims, A Crafty Soiree on Yesterday on Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings, Wow Me Wednesday at Ginger Snap Crafts, Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous, Happy Hour Fridays, Pin Me at Diana Rambles, Check me Out Saturdays Party at A Vision to Remember, Weekend Wander at While He Was Napping, What’s in the Gunny Sack?, Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Craftastic Mondays at Sew Can Do, Make it Yours Day at My Backyard Eden, Everything but the Kitchen Sink at a Little Knick Knack, Shine on Fridays at One Artsy Mama, Rook No. 17, A Marvelous MessTuesday To Do Party at The BlackBerry Vine, Show and Tell Saturday at Be Different Act Normal, Frugal Crafty Home at A Blossoming Life, Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring, Under $100 Link Party at Beyond the Picket Fence, The DIYers at Homecoming
signature21

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Banner and Garland for a Sweet Girl’s First Birthday Party with Tutorials

DSC_3894My niece Liz, who swears she is flair-impaired, asked me to make some decorations for Audrey’s first birthday party.  I jumped at the chance to make a garland…DSC_3893You can see the tutorial below…I used purples because Audrey’s cake was purple.  The pink flowers I attached to the front of the garland. DSC_3897Looking pretty cute, huh?DSC_3896Not nearly as cute as this, the birthday girl who was awakened a tad early for the party!  She had to do a bit of blanket snuggling on the floor before we got started. 100_0291Her big sister immediately asked me if she could play games on my iPhone so she was in a great mood!!  Plus she had a great audience of aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas….
I made Elena’s dress (you can see the project here) from a woman’s small ruffled tank top and a t shirt top.  She loves it!
100_0294 Miss Audrey sure make a dent in her own personal cake!  She pretty much decimated it in very sort order!  That is the bottom of the cake liner you see in the middle of the cake.  She ate that much!  And that was after a ginormous amount of food at dinner. 100_0336
100_0290
I made a banner to go across the cake with the scraps left over from the garland…it was soooo cute!!
DSC_3789_thumb[1]100_0342Laney was a bit put out by all the presents for her sister and the lack of complete attention on her!  She melted down a few times, running down the hallway and throwing herself on her bed!  She is three after all, you wouldn’t expect much different!100_0308100_0309100_0315Audrey had a great time helping her mommy open the presents…she sat on the walker box pretty continuously after it was opened.   She then decided to poop unceremoniously in the middle of the party crowd!   Silly baby!100_0319
100_0238Now for the tutorial! 
You will need:   Heavy thread, string or yarn (I used bakers twine)
Cardstock
I used a large circle cutter, you could just cut them out freehand, but I went the lazy route!
I also used my Xyron to put the adhesive on the back of the circles.
100_0242
Cut as many circles as you want to make your garland long and run them through the Xyron machine.  I folded some circles in half first, then opened before I ran them through the Xyron.  Some I didn’t fold first and I folded them after.  I must say it was easier to get them folded evenly if they were folded first before they had the adhesive applied. 100_0246100_0247
Then lay the twine in the middle along the fold…and then just fold the circle in half with the string inside.
100_0249
100_0250
I added some flowers I found at Michaels in the $1 bin.  I think it was a package of 12 and I just ran them through the Xyron also (double lazy!) so that they stuck well to the half circles.
100_0260
I had these strips of paper left over…I have always wanted to make a cake banner.  I cut the strips 1 x 1.5 inches, then I trimmed them to a triangle shape, just free handed them!
100_0261100_0265
Then I took them upstairs to my sewing room (AKA the disaster zone—but more about that later!) and sewed them together with a variegated pink heavy thread.
100_0272100_0276
Now I had myself a great flag banner.   I attached each end to a bamboo skewer and cut off the ends of the skewers so they were close to the cake but not right on top of it.  And I added a shorter skewer in the middle to keep the middle of the banner off the cake!100_0282
So that’s all there is to it!  They looked great and added a sweet touch to the party!

 I am linking to these great parties!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Wool Felt Rose Wreath

100_0347
My oldest niece just had a birthday…she wanted me to make her a wreath for her house, to hang in her living room.  She gave me a list of colors and just let me create!  I love those kind of gifts!
100_0346100_0345
Jess wanted some darker jewel tone colors, so I decided the wreath needed a little something extra.  I found some feathers on sale in the floral section…all these were on one pick and cost only $1.99.  100_0344100_0343I thought it turned out really nice…I will probably hang it with a deep red or deep purple wide sheer ribbon.  You can see how to make these wool felt flowers and wreath here. 100_0351By the way, I had started using Windows Live to do my blog posts.  The first post took me four hours and didn’t turn out too well, but this post was a bit easier.  I think after I get used to it, it will definitely be better than uploading pics through blogger.

100_0350
   I link to these great parties!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Family Auction

100_0177Almost a year ago my dad died…my mom had all this stuff that she wouldn’t use, so she decided to have an auction.100_0165We had the most beautiful weather, the sun was out, although the forecast was for cloudy.  It was a tad cool in the morning, but it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. 100_0100We had good friends, family and food!  100_0107And of course, the auction….my brother is an auctioneer here in Missouri, but he was able to get his Illinois license and was the auctioneer. 100_0121100_0125Mom’s dog Rachel was trying to catch some rays, she didn’t let all the hub bub bother her!100_0126100_0138Mom did great, she seemed to enjoy herself…I know it must have been hard in some ways, but she was surrounded by family and friends. 100_0157Plus we had Baby Audrey (who was born the day after Dad died) to snuggle with and carry around…100_0158100_0159She is such a sweet little thang!100_0160100_0164Josh and his big girl Audrey on the big tractor.  100_0179100_0180 - CopyRuthie and Sue modeling on the tractor.100_0181100_0156Jenny is carrying around the princess-wanna-be Elena and the Gabe is tricking Max here!100_0163The first tractor selling…Cullen starts it up…100_0164while Clinton waits.100_0165Mom’s siblings were all there…here’s Aunt Jean (she took me to see Bambi when I was just a little thing) and Aunt Marge (she is the master quilter!)…100_0167100_0166It was a great time to just people watch…100_0170Let me tell you, I believe this might have qualified as a redneck event…we had corn cobs, we had people sitting on shower chairs in the front yard…we had 100_0171100_0172100_0173This guy must not have read the forecast or the dress code…nice with the boots and shorts!  100_0174