Roses Are Blue...

Measure twice...or not...

My friend here in town had a little baby girl about a week ago and I am hoping to get to meet her this week.  She is a tiny little thing, only 6 lbs at birth!  Can you imagine how small and yummy she will be?  I can't wait to hold her and nuzzle her and smell her sweet little head...I'm actually drooling.

Anyway, I don't want to show up for my visit empty-handed so I embroidered her monogram on a little onesie and made a teeny tiny itty bitty little skirt to go with it (it looks like it's for a babydoll).  I have no idea if the skirt will fit because I was totally winging it on the measurements...and the um, pattern for that matter.  But I wrote down all of the raw measurements and seam allowances and took photos of the whole process (nothing is spontaneous anymore!) so I can make a little tutorial if it works out.  And if it doesn't, I can send the skirt to Willa for her babydoll and I have lots of that cute pink fabric to try again.  With the measurements this time...and maybe a pattern.  Or wait, maybe I'll just do a tutorial for a doll skirt...

"Obsessed" is a strong word...

With all of my hoop talk lately, my friend, Pam, coined a new nickname for me: The Happy Hooper.  Cute, no?  Well, I liked it so much I decided to draw it up and make a shirt out of it.  This Happy Hooper (clearly not modeled after me if you know me) is supposed to look like a retro pin-up girl (which is um, NOT my body type no matter how much padding I use...)  She is done almost exclusively in the stem stitch.  I have a few other versions of her that I like as well so I am working on some embroidery patterns/kits/shirts for the shop.  They should be ready in the next couple of weeks...assuming I can stop hooping long enough to work on them...I'll keep you posted.

Opa!

If you've been playing along at home then you know how much I love to make baby blankets, especially now that the opportunities are becoming fewer and farther between (and especially when they are for baby girls!)  This one is for my college friend, Kristin, who just (ok, 6 months ago) had her second daughter, Olivia.  She is about the sweetest little baby you have ever met and has a super girly pink room full of butterflies.  Lucky girl (Kristin, I mean).

Anyway, many years ago, I read somewhere that people with initials that spell something cool actually live longer than people who have either boring initials or really bad ones (like my brother-in-law who is DUM).  I'm not sure who paid for that study...or who even thought of it...but if there is any truth to the idea then I expect sweet little Olivia will live a good long time.

Hoopgirl wanna-be!

How this came about is kind of a long story but the result is the same: I made hula hoops!  I know what you're thinking.  What?  Hula hoops are an element.  They just exist.  Like oxygen or marshmallows, they can't be made...right?  Wrong!  They can!  And it is super easy (mostly).  The great thing is that the homemade hoops are strong and heavy, which makes hooping (or learning to hoop) so much easier.  You can see the size differences in the photo.  The littlest one is from the store and the fat 1" um, well-taped hoop in the picture is one I bought from my hula hoop teacher (I did mention it was a long story, remember?) 

There is a really good tutorial here but I made mine a little differently since I had a hard time finding the right size irrigation line and I was too impatient to wait.  Instead of the black irrigation tubing in the tutorial, I used 3/4" flexible white PVC (in the plumbing department) which came in a 25 ft roll for about $15.  It made two perfect sized hoops with just a small scrap leftover (that my boys take turns beating each other with.  See?  Hooping is fun for the whole family!)  Then, instead of using 3/4" couplers (same as the pipe) like the tut says, I connected mine with 1/2" couplers which didn't require any heating, just a really strong grip to push them together.  I also duct taped the connection, like in the tut, for a little added strength.  The writing on the PVC pipe comes off (mostly) with rubbing alcohol but you can leave it if you are adding lots of tape.  Speaking of tape, check out this video before you start.  Who knew taping a hoop was such an involved process?!  I sure didn't.  Which explains my taping job...  Anyway, once your hoops are ready check this page for links to just about everything you ever wanted to know about hula hoops (including hooping tutorials) and get going!

The Good Book

LOOK what Alana gave me for my birthday!  Do you all own this yet?  Have you all pawed, I mean, paged through it yet?  It is the most wonderful collection of crafts and tips and how-to's and colors and photographs and projects and inspirations and really, really, really clever ideas...really clever...and holy craft rooms, Batman! 

That Martha.  I would kill for her staff...

So, I am trying to plan my first project but I can't decide if I want to start with the shell lights (page 208) or the bottle cap frames (page 271) , I mean, since I have so many of both of those things lying around.  Then again, the silhouettes are super cute too (page 239) and I have an attic full of photographs...

My son, on the other hand, had no problem deciding his first project.  He went straight to the origami candy dishes (page 215) and made four of them in the same amount of time it took me to research a few different epoxies online.  And no, I haven't decided which epoxy to buy yet either.  Because that, of course, depends on which project I do first...

Simple Fix Part 4 and a half...

Ok, so you've had your sock board up for about a month now, right?  And it is like a miracle, I know.  But I am guessing that, miracle of miracles not withstanding, there are several singleton socks up there still patiently awaiting their reunion with their mates.  Sadly, for an unfortunate few, there will be no reunion (seriously now, where do they go?!)  So for those poor lonely widows and widowers I have done one more Simple Fix to help put those socks to good use, Cherry's Comet Dog Throw (I just made that up.  What do you think?)  This project works great with athletic socks, especially the long soccer/baseball variety (of which we have singles in every color...)  Again, not much of tutorial here but they put directions on a soup can so who am I to judge?  Ok, so for this project you will need:

• a lonely singleton sock crew length or longer
• a soft baseball or heavy-ish rubber ball (a tennis ball will also work if your sock is not too long)
• a rubber band (optional)

First, put your ball in your sock all the way to the toe then and add a rubber band (or tie a knot).  Take it outside (with your dog), spin it like crazy and let go.  Bingo!  A fun game of catch without having to touch a slimey ball!

And look how happy your dog will be...

Ok, so if a dog toy is not your thing (maybe you have a cat and that's ok), feel free to browse through this list of other clever ideas.  Pure genius, I say...

Bean Bags (scroll down.  This same idea could work for a cat toy.  Just use catnip instead of beans.)

Sock Monkey (this one requires two socks but they don't have to match!)

Sock Puppets

Baby Sock Puppets (too cute!)

Grass Sock Pet

Sock Worm

Sock Babies (again requires two socks)

Singleton Sock Bunnies

Sock Bunny (again!)

Sock Bunnies, Chicks & Eggs (next Easter you'll be ready!)

Sock Snow Friend

Socktopus (har!)

There another list of great ideas here and here (LOVE the camping soap idea!)

And check it out, here's a whole book dedicated to sock crafts!

Now you can really cull that sock wall.  I'd love to hear any more ideas (or see pics) if anybody has them!

Old Hat, New Hat...

Wait, old dress, new dress.  No wait, new dress, new dress?  This alteration happened kind of by accident but I was excited to see that it is in keeping with this month's theme over at Craft, Wardrobe Refresh.  The dress I used is new but you could use the same idea on any old dress or skirt that you are tiring of (or that you are tiring of seeing on everyone else..."Cute!  Did you get that at Target?  I have the same one in pink!")

I bought this simple little tank dress online last month in preparation for my trip to New Orleans.  But when it arrived it was about 4" shorter than it appeared on the model.  Look at the picture.  It clearly hits below her knee (just ignore the description like I did).  Anyway, I figured it was an easy fix.  I'd just buy some blue jersey knit and make a ruffle.  I mean, I had an entire month before I needed it...plennnnnty of time.  Fast forward to the day before my trip (d'oh!) and there I was at the fabric store discovering that there was no blue jersey knit.  Ok, no problem.  Plan B.  I bought some coordinating cotton instead. 

I added a 4" ruffle and a 1" band across the middle...

...and voila!  A new dress!  I was so pleased with the result (yay!  My knees are covered!) that I went online and ordered another dress (in pink!)  I'll post more pics when I get the second one done.

Pysanky!

Gesundheit!  Ok, ok, so I know this post is long overdue seeing as Easter was almost last month..but here we go.  Every year around Easter my aunt Jill and uncle Dan host a pysanky party.  And every year around Easter I miss it.  What is pysanky, you ask?  Alana did a great job describing it on her blog a couple of years ago so I will let you read that before we start (and save myself some serious typing).  Let me know when you are ready.

Ready?  Ok, so finally this year I just so happened to be in town for the pysanky party!  My aunt and uncle had everything ready to go when we arrived.  I took my place at the huge newspaper-covered table, picked a nicely shaped egg and then tried desperately not to be intimidated by the professional artists across the table who were doing, among other things, portraits of presidents on their eggs.  In the end, I opted for a simple bunny design.  Which was plenty confusing for me.  But I was so excited by the whole process that I wanted to try it at home with the boys. 

When I got home I showed the boys my egg and told them we probably wouldn't be able to get the supplies in time for Easter but I would order them anyway so we could try it.  Riley and I got online and lo and behold there is an online pysanky retailer here in NC!  What luck!  The folks at All Things Ukrainian were incredibly charming and helpful and we got our supplies in ONE day.  Lucky for us too because we spent the better half of Friday just setting up the table...this is not Paas & crayons, y'all.  The photo below shows a couple of Riley's eggs in the early stages of dying and waxing.

I do have to say that this year was one of the most pleasant Easter mornings that I can recall.  No egg hunts, no bickering, just pysanky until brunch and then again until bedtime.  The boys ended up decorating eggs for three days in a row.  Now there are eggs in the candle holders on the mantle, in dishes on the tables, and apothecary jars on the shelves...three dozen in all.  They are too pretty to put away (that and I still haven't figured out where to put them...)

Simple Fix Part Four (or, 14 Years As a SAHM and All I Have To Show For It Is 4 Measley Tips)

But I'm not bitter.  I saved my favorite tip for last!  Another simple fix with about a thousand variations give or take a hundred or two.  So I know, whether you have kids or not, that you have missing socks at your house.  That's just the way it is.  I don't know where they go or why they disappear but I am starting to think it has something to do with gnomes...

In any case, we used to have a sock box where we would throw the singleton socks.  The box worked great to keep them corralled but it didn't help when it came to actually finding the mates.  The sock box just piled higher and higher until it would tip over and we would realize that more than half of the socks in there were in pairs...

Then in a seemingly unrelated story, I had a spare bulletin board in the studio (curse you slanted walls!) that was too nice to part with.  So I walked around the house looking for a place to hang it (curse you open floor plan!)  As soon as I walked into the laundry room, though,  I had my epiphany.  And now I share it with you:

This fix isn't really much of a tutorial, as far as tutorials go.  All you need for this one is a wall, a bulletin board, some tacks and you're in business.

However, if you want to turn it into more of a project, some ideas include painting/staining/decoupaging the frame, painting the entire board to blend in with (or stand out from) the wall, hanging a smaller board for each family member & painting them each a different color, hanging a board in each family member's closet or room instead of in the laundry room, painting different color stripes or squares to separate family members (or sock types), having a board for athletic socks and one for dress socks (or kids/adults), lining the board with pretty fabric, adding a more substantial frame to make it look like the work of art it truly is...really, there is no end to the ideas!  So have fun with this and rest well tonight knowing that you have outsmarted the gnomes.

Happy April Fool's Day!

This day is one of the favorites here in the Garrett household.  We spend a lot of time coming up with tricks to play on one another.  And, it is also special because it's my birthday (yeah, yeah, I know, the joke was on my parents, ha ha ha...)  Now we do have a few basic pranking rules: no water (outside of the bathroom), no baby powder (enacted after the 2008 baby powder fiasco), nothing permanent (eg. sharpie moustaches), and nothing mean.  Most years I have a big prank lined up, like last year when I sealed the boys into their rooms with transparent window plastic.  All I have to do still is picture them running into an invisible force field and I start laughing.  Riley was so confused he ran into it twice. 

Anyway, this year I have no big prank.  Which turns out is really a good prank in itself.  It was funny this morning watching my family cautiously opening cabinets, peering around corners, and looking up before crossing a threshold or moving a door.  I do have several little pranks set up...however, most of them were unwittingly foiled by my husband (one of the drawbacks of birthday sleeping in).  For example, I switched out the inner bag of frosted mini wheats on a new box for a bag of UNfrosted mini wheats (I know it's silly but the confused faces get me every time!)  Unfortunately, Kevin decided to make the boys eggs this morning.  I mean, seriously?  They eat cereal for breakfast EVERY day.  Then I rigged the boys bathroom so that the shower would turn on instead of the faucet and spray my oldest in the head when he went to shower.  But he woke up a little late so my husband told him he could skip it.  Argh!  I did get them with the wadded up socks in their shoes and the koolaid in the sink faucet though.  Mmmmm, grape-mint toothpaste...

The most elaborate prank I have this year was one that Alana actually came up with for her son's Wacky Wednesday day at his preschool: sandwich cupcakes.  It is actually a very simple prank but for my kids it required a pretty elaborate ruse.  They are veterans of April Fool's Day jokes (and they are not in preschool anymore), food gags in particular.  We've done meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting, toasted pound cake grilled cheese sandwiches, banana pudding & marshmallow fluff fried eggs...now they can spot a food gag a mile away.   I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get them.  So yesterday I bought cake mix and butter and told them I was baking cupcakes for my birthday blog entry.  I even let them lick the beaters from the buttercream frosting just so they would know that the cupcakes were the real deal.  Once the cupcakes were baked, frosted and sprinkled I sent the boys to bed and told them I would pack one in their lunches.  I know that baking and decorating 24 cupcakes might seem like a lot of work for a simple prank but the set up is just as important as the trick itself (plus, as you can see, I didn't go all out on the decorating...)  This is a real cupcake:

After the boys were safely tucked away in bed I made the fakies.  Turkey, bread and lots of pink cream cheese.  Only the sprinkles are real.  I do think this prank challenges the nothing mean rule but I am calling it fair since there are 24 real cupcakes waiting for them after school.  Mmm, turkey, cream cheese and whole wheat bread.  Just what they were looking forward to...