Did I make the cutest little clothespin dollies?

Why yes.  Yes, I did!!!  I was wanting to make something sweet for the Piggy for Christmas.  I had originally intended to make the little wooden peg gnomes, because she LOVES "Gnomeo and Juliet", but as fate would have it, I couldn't find the little peg dolls anywhere in town!  I have seriously been in every Jo-Ann Fabric, Hobby Lobby and Michael's in a 20-freakin'-mile radius of my house!  (Apparently I should have ordered them online!)  But I did find the little clothespins, so I started brainstorming a bit and here is what I came up with...

First of all, supplies.  I used wooden clothespins, soy-based paint (that was a neat find!), self-adhesive craft foam, poms-poms, cross-stitch thread, ruffled ribbon, and a hot glue gun.

 I attempted mermaids first, so I turned the clothespins to where the slit was at the sides and painted the lower portion for the tail.  (Sorry for the crappy pic, lighting wasn't the best.)

Then I added a little bikini top, the face and embellished the tail.

 

And yes, I even added little belly-buttons!  Next step was to add hair and construct tail fins.  I had my mom-in-law cut the fins out of sparkly, self-adhesive craft foam.  You need two for each tail, so you can stick them together.  Once they are stuck together and your dolls are dry enough, slide that foam into the slits at the bottom of the clothespin.  We cut the hair out of cross-stitch thread and used a dot of hot glue and pressed the hair into it.  Then embellished as desired.  This is final product!

They're SWEET!  Right?  I felt so inspired and confident after I finished these little cuties that I decided to whip out some ballerinas too!  Pretty much the same deal, except the slits faced forward.  I painted little toe shoes and used ruffles and pom-poms for the tutus.  I also painted the hair and added some pom-poms for buns and/or little hats! 

OK, the one with the orange poms makes me giggle!  I LOVE them!  I do think for the next batch, I will paint the bodice in a way that leaves an unpainted area for little arms.  But hey, for a first try, these turned out pretty damn good!  I can't wait to see my little Piggy's face on Christmas morning!  I am also looking forward to making the next batch with her.  She would have SO much fun with this.  And once we figure out the gnomes, I'll be sure to post about them as well!  

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful holiday season!   Keep warm and safe and love one another!!

Very Tweet Little Birdhouses!

This year we have had oodles of birds around our property.  The Monkey Man spends many of his mornings out front with his field guide and trying to identify them all.  He is especially fond of the blue jays that seem to be considering making the nest in the ligustrum bush their home!  As it turns out, last weekend the folks gave both kids little birdhouses to hang in the maple tree.  These things are so cute!  They are obviously meant for smaller birds, so maybe we'll get some finches or sparrows that like them.  Whether they get occupied or not, they are just super sweet hanging in the tree!  They are made from all recycled materials and are 100% recyclable themselves, which is always a good thing.  If you think they're cute, they are by a company called "Tweet Tweet Home"!

Cardholder for little hands

If you have small children, you understand how hard it is to play a card game with them because they can NEVER hold the cards right and then they get all mad, and well, you know the rest!  So thanks to a suggestion from a family friend, I now have a solution!

You will need two plastic lids (cottage cheese or small butter dish size), a pair of scissors, a stapler and some scotch tape.

First, cut the rim off the lids.  Then staple 3 or 4 staples in a row about 1/3 of the way up from the edge.  Take a couple of strips of scotch tape to cover the back of the staples so no little fingers get cut by the staple ends.  Then... Viola!

 

A perfect way for little hands to hold cards!  Happy gaming!

How to make a fairy house AND a happy girl!

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."   -James Matthew Barrie

And so it is that we have fairy folk that are in need of some prime real estate!  Miss Piggy has a love affair going with fairies.  And really who can blame her?  They are beautiful, little creatures with wicked smiles and mischievous ways.  Remind you of anyone in particular?  She had begged for fairy houses at Christmas.  She found some in a catalog that were made of felt and were approximately $30 a piece PLUS shipping!  And they were ridiculously small.  Then a friend of mine recently posted about a fairy house kit she had purchased to build with her daughter and it was amazingly cute with the rocks and acorn shells and moss.  I got to thinking, why couldn't I fashion one of these?  I mean hell, I've got a glue gun.  I've got sticks and rocks.  I've got some leftover silk flowers and floral moss from various projects.  So off I went for the perfect form for the main structure.  I debated using old oatmeal boxes that I've saved for projects, but really wasn't interested in painting it or gluing paper around it, so I headed to Jo-Ann fabrics to see what they had.  As it turns out, they had just what I was looking for and they were only $3 (and I had a coupon)!

I gathered all of my tools... forms, matboard, silk flowers, floral wet foam, small tree branches, moss, scissors, nippers, box cutter, glue gun and a small bit of ribbon for embellishment.

 First thing I did was cut out a door and window, then I glued the form onto the matboard.  While that was drying, I took off the lid and decorated the "roof".  I chose to use leaves and small flowers.

 I made sure that the fairy had a nice little bed of leaves to sleep on in her new home.  Luckily fairies are pretty modest when it comes to furnishings as they spend most of their time out and about playing tricks on folks!

 I took sticks, cut them down to size and glued them, as well as some silk leaves, around the house.  Then I glued some ribbon around the edge of the roof.  As it happens, I found the most perfect little bird in some of my art supplies and the Piggy LOVED it!  Now the fairy has a pet!

I thought bluebells would make the perfect doorbell!

Now it was time to make the fairy a garden.  Fairies, according to my daughter, LOVE flowers and they need to have smooth rocks to use as furniture in the garden.  So I made a path out of sticks and I glued some brown and orange leaves (that had obviously fallen from the trees in the fall).  Then I glued a small rectangle of wet foam under the window and proceeded to fill it with colorful flowers so the fairy would have a nice window box!  Piggy decided there needed to be berries there too, since fairies prefer to eat ripe berries.  Next I glued a ton of moss all over the matboard.  And the finishing touch was adding some smooth, black rocks to the garden.  Here is the finished product WITH the happy fairy!  (Feel free to click on the pics to see it in more detail!)

Side-view

Now we have a happy fairy and a happy girl.  She loves it!  From what I understand there are other fairies that will come to live here soon.  So I guess I better tackle the tower next weekend so we have room for everyone!  And in case you were wondering, the cost of this lovely fairy house was just under $12.  Granted I had some of the supplies, but really you could use just about anything.  And the supplies I did buy will make MANY more fairy houses!

Once the tower is done, our next project will be to build some fairy houses in the garden.  I hear it is good luck to have them there!  Maybe they can summon some dragonflies, lacewings and ladybugs!

Sneaky Weasel

There must be some sort of developmental milestone that makes all four year-olds go crazy and start stalking their mothers and fathers and siblings and even their poor, unsuspecting dogs!  For the past four days there has been a sneaky little girl hiding behind doors or under the bed or behind the couch.  Every time I am pre-occupied with work or laundry or dishes, I catch a glimpse of the little weasel slinking out from under the dining room table, trying as hard as she might not to giggle and draw attention to herself.  Once she feels sure that she's reached an optimal range, she shoots up, grabs me by the leg, and hollers like a banshee, "RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRR!"

 Then she sulks off dejected because I didn't jump out of my skin, only to come back 6 minutes later to try again!  You would think she'd just get tired and give it up, but she persists.  I am beginning to wonder if all this cloak and dagger stuff would just fade away if I gave her what she wanted, that one good, blood-curdling scream to make her think she's succeeded.  But something tells me it would only fuel the fire!  So for now, she keeps shrieking and I continue to assure her that she was CLOSE to scaring me.  We'll see how long it lasts, but I seem to remember the Monkey Man stalking me for months!  It's a good thing I'm not terribly jumpy or my life would be really sucky right about now!  ;)

A Table Fit for a Princess!

This past week, my little girlie turned 4! We spent the entire week celebrating her birthday, it was great! We went out for burgers, played Putt-Putt, had milkshakes and of course threw an AWESOME pirate party complete with bouncy castle, cake pops and sprinklers under the trampoline! Amidst all of this craziness though, I had a very, important task. She needed a new table and chairs for her room. She is to an age where dress up and tea parties are just a way of life! When my neighbor moved, she left me a set of 4 little chairs, but no table. I was on the search, but no luck! All I could find was cheesy plastic tables or $80-100 solid wood tables! I just wanted a small, functional table that could be refinished, nothing fancy and nothing expensive. I posted on Craigslist and Freecycle with no luck. As a last ditch effort, I posted on my homeschool list and lo and behold, I got an email! I should have known from the beginning to post there! Homeschoolers are generous beyond belief and when they are done with something they want it gone, PRONTO! So I was off to Pflugerville to pick up a little table! It was a very LOUD table, but it was a really sweet shape and my brain was going a mile a minute as to what I was going to do with it.

Here's what I started with...

I sanded the crap out of the table and all 4 chairs! Boy that was fun! ;-p

Primer was applied to all pieces. I had to use an oil based primer because I couldn't determine whether the previous paint on the chairs or the table was latex or enamal AND the table has a metal edging piece. And just as an FYI, primer STINKS (literally).

Then it was time to paint! I chose a light lavender for the top, darker purple for the legs and a nice aqua blue for the chairs. In case you're wondering, the color scheme came from her new quilt set! She has decided to leave the pink in the past and progress to purple! Sadly, I neglected to photograph this particular step! It was cute, but I needed to tie the blue chairs in with the purple table, so it was off to Hobby Lobby to find some do-able stencils. I'm not great with stencils so I needed to keep it SIMPLE. I found the perfect set with flowers and butterflies (which coincidentally are found on the new quilt!) So after a couple of test runs on paper, I took it to the table and chairs. Here is the finished product! It's only a smidge different from the original!

Close-up!

So for a little over $40 and few days of hard work, my little Piggy has an original table fit for the princess that she is! And in case you were wondering, she LOVES it!

Good vs. Evil

Every year Big Daddy and I attend a monumental White Elephant Extravaganza put on by friends. It is without a doubt one of the biggest highlights of the holiday season. The gifts are clever, thoughtful and truly tasteless! I am amazed every year! Last year, I received an awesome gift at another White Elephant Party. It was a pair of hideous goat-head sconce things made out of heavy plastic and finished in a faux bronze and of course... "Made in China".

They were truly heinous so they were destined for re-gifting! However, when I pulled them out, they just weren't quite up to par. So I brooded for a couple of days, trying to think of how I could "enhance" these lovely items. Should I paint them neon rainbow colors, fitting to use under a black light? No, not quite. Then it hit me... Good vs. Evil! It was perfect. I broke out the paints and started on my little masterpieces. Here is the finished product...

They were a hit and hopefully went to a good home where they will be displayed in all of their glory! And I would like to formally thank my Big Daddy for convincing me to adorn "Good Goat" with a halo. It made it just that much more special! I almost miss them and wish I had kept them for myself!

Making Monsters!

Last month we were out and about, perusing the goods at some local toy stores, when the kids came across UglyDolls. From what the nice lady at the store told me, these are the latest rage for the kiddies and I have to admit, my kids were pretty taken with them. But, being the thrifty person that I am I could not see spending $29.99 for some polar fleece and polyfil! I promised the kids that after Halloween we could dig through my fabric stash and they could pick out some polar fleece and I would MAKE them custom monsters. I had the Monkey Man draw a very basic pattern for his monster. I just needed to know the specs, arms or wings, fangs or a tongue, how many eyes, what type of ears, etc... I also quizzed the Piggy on what she wanted. It was cool to see how different their monsters were! So, here is step by step instructions on making your own monster!

Step One: Make a pattern out of cardboard. I will be the first to tell you that neither of our monsters were symmetrical in any way. That's just not how I work! Also, make the pattern about an inch bigger all the way around to take seam allowances into account.

Step Two: Lay the pattern on two layers of fabric and cut it out.

Step Three: Use other polar fleece or felt and cut out the eyes, nose, fangs, etc... handstitch those onto the monster. I handstitched the pupils onto the eyes first then handstitched the eyes onto the monster. I used a triple folded length of yarn for the mouth and handstitched it onto the monster.

Step Four: Sew the monster inside out. Make sure you leave a decent sized spot unsewn so you can stuff it.

Step Five: Turn the monster right side out and stuff the little bugger! I used regular polyfil and I stuffed it until it was pretty taut. I used a wooden dowel to smush the polyfil into the arms and ears.

Step Six: Talk your wonderful mother-in-law into slip-stitching the hole! :-D

Step Seven: Present finished monster to a very eager child and get that warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart!

Now I wouldn't have paid $29.99 for these silly things, but I had a WONDERFUL time designing them with the kids and it probably cost me less than $5 in materials for both of them! So it was a total win/win situation and the kids ADORE them! Now go wild and make your own monster creations!

Rainy days and domestic bliss, sort of.

Finally RAIN! An entire day of life-affirming, garden-nourishing rain! My garden and lawn are SO happy right now! And although I was thrilled to get the rain, I was a little bummed that it happened on a Saturday. Why oh why can it never just rain like hell on a Monday or Thursday? But I took advantage of the soggy weather to clean my house and to work on some projects.

Yes, the house. It seems no matter what I do it is in a constant state of disarray! Bionicle and Lego pieces in every nook and cranny, paper (half colored with the latest masterpiece, then forgotten when the attention span ebbs and something else looks more enticing), shoes on the stairs, in the entryway, behind the chair, in the bathroom, play dough in the window sill and dinosaurs... EVERYWHERE! So what does one do? Send the nasty little buggers upstairs to play and knock out as much of the downstairs as possible, then wait until they are in bed to work on the upstairs! It's a fact, cleaning up after children is much like shoveling in a snowstorm! But I'm happy to admit, things are a bit cleaner and semi-organized. At least to the point that my eye doesn't twitch everytime I walk through the house!

Luckily, my entire weekend wasn't all Swiffers and vacuum cleaners. I managed to set aside some time to finish one of the Piggy's little shirts AND to start and finish a new dress! I happened to be at Jo-Ann's last week and picked up some CUTE fabric and a couple of new patterns (yes, I'm delving into patterns now, scary)!

This specific pattern was considered to be a 1-hour EASY, for me it was more of an 8-hour, HOLY SHIT AM I DOING THIS RIGHT! But I did finish it in one weekend, so not bad! I will start a new one today. I'm thinking I might like to take a sewing class or something in the near future. I haven't really sewn, other than half-assing Halloween costumes, since I was in Home Ec in high school. I need a refresher! But I'm proud of my work, it's not perfect, but it's done and it's wearable and she seems to like it!

Little pink shirt!

Little "A" cut dress, it's cute, right?

All in all, a fulfilling weekend. Getting things done, feeling that small sense of accomplishment, and honestly, feeling fairly motivated for the week! Nice.

Another project done!

After a friend's bridal shower I was given about 6 pots of little succulent plants. They were super cute, but I had no idea what to do with them and they were drying up and not thriving in the little pots. So I had this great idea to buy a strawberry pot and plant them in there! It turned out SO cute! I had been looking for something interesting to put out front and this was the perfect size and I love it! If you care to re-create something similar, I used various types of sedum and an orange bulbine at the top!

Little spring dresses

A friend of mine turned me on to some really cool fabric! It has a "ruched" top (I hope that's the correct term) and regular fabric at the bottom. I understand that it is available at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Hancock, not sure about Hobby Lobby. So here's how to make sweet little sundresses with minimal effort, minimal price and you don't have to be sempstress of the year! I was able to make two of these dresses for less than $8, cheaper than Wal-Mart! Yee-haw!

Step 1: Cut to the length and width you want. I just wrapped it around my Piggy and pinned it where it fit snug. Sew a seam down the back and hem.

Step 2: Make some little straps with the leftover fabric. I chose to make 4 so I could tie the dress over her shoulders and it would be adjustable. You could make two straps and halter it instead.

Finished!