Felt Clip Craft Project

With the exception of Daphne’s birthday party decor, I haven’t done anything creative or crafty in months. And you know me, I always need a project to channel my creative energy or I get antsy. Since most of my sewing and crafting stuff is in storage, I decided to work on a few small projects for Daphne.

I’ve always liked the look of felt hair clippies for little girls and decided to make a few clips to coordinate with Daphne’s fall and winter wardrobe. Making this project even easier, I purchased the felt flowers already cut from Etsy seller Carefree Glimmer. I decided on some fall/winter colors, plus a pack of pinks and then I could mix and match. So here are the combos I came up with and a picture of each next to its coordinating outfit.

I will still need to add some embroidery, maybe some buttons and other little touches to each before they get glued onto hair clips. And I’m not sure I’ll make all of them. I mean, her Gymboree Cupcake Cutie cardigan is busy enough without a giant felt flower in her hair. I don’t know. But I love how the flowers match Gymbo’s Harvest Leaves line.

Once I get that done I might make a few other felt clips, like these from Tiny McSmall:

or these felt covered barrettes from Angry Chicken. And I want to find wool felt instead of using acrylic. Anyone have a good source?

Origami Butterfly

I should be sleeping. But after a week of poorly timed vitamin taking and sick baby, my schedule is completely thrown off. So instead of resting, I’m up making origami butterflies for Daphne’s birthday party decor. I’ve actually never done origami before (unless you count those fortune teller things in elementary school) and was a bit intimidated when the instructions for this particular butterfly were 18 minutes long. But it turned out ok. I think I’ll hang some of these from the chandelier in the dining room and maybe decorate the birthday banner with them. The instructions are here, if you are interested.

That’s a Lot of Pink

I have temporarily taken over my mother’s dining room table with decorations for Daphne’s 1st birthday party. I decided to spread everything out so I could see what I had, and what I still needed to get. It’s a pink nightmare currently:

I admit my first response after seeing everything laid out was, “wow, that’s a lot of pink” then I remembered that line from Steel Magnolias, “my colors are blush and bashful.” But I guess in Daphne’s case her colors are rosacea, extreme embarrassment and Oompa Loompa. And I’m ok with that. I don’t know about Daphne, but MY signature color is certainly pink. One of our family members made the snarky comment about Daphne’s wardrobe being mainly pink (which is SO not true). All I can say is the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I have so much pink and black in my wardrobe Project Runway could have a challenge where they refashioned it to outfit an entire gang of Pink Ladies.

This weekend, Mom and I will do a trial run of the cake. I need to get started on her birthday banner. I bought a bunch of pink, hot pink and orange scrapbook paper and want to try a banner like these two from Flickr (here and here) or like a few of the banners on my Etsy favorites (from the Etsy widget on my sidebar). I also need to figure out what hors d’oeuvres to serve and at the risk of going all Sandra Lee possibly a special cocktail. Is that totally inappropriate? I don’t think so. I mean, Daphne will be the only child there and obviously won’t be partaking. But with the possibility of my mom and dad in the same room for more than 2 minutes, I will definitely need a drink. Just kidding. (Not really.)

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

The other day I saw an idea for a rain gutter bookshelf on one of my mom’s forums. The picture that accompanied the article is pretty horrible, but you get the idea:

Here are a few others from Flickr: bookshelves by pilatfamily and rain gutter bookshelves by Lagomorph. What a great idea for a play room! I think I’ll do this in Daphne’s next room. She has a wonderful bookshelf made by her Grandma & Grandpa Rice, which she’ll enjoy for years to come, but it is hard for her to get the books in and out of the rails.

Has anyone tried using gutters? Seems like an easy, cheap solution.

Fabric Help

Ok, I need a little help from my crafty readers. I’m trying to locate a US source for this Japanese fabric:

I know Japanese fabric and crafts have been really popular for a while now, but it was never my thing. Until now. I’ve tried Superbuzzy and Reprodepot. Any other suggestions? Are there Japanese equivalents to Michael Miller, Freespirit or Moda? Currently I’ve just been Googling with Snow White fabric Japanese, it might help to have a manufacturers name to add in.

Or I could just break down and buy it directly from a Japanese company. I’m just not sure how much of a hassle that would be.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

More Birthday Plans

The move has really put me behind in terms of planning for Daphne’s 1st birthday party. Normal people probably just buy some plates and streamers at a party supply store, get a cake from their local grocery store bakery and blow up some balloons. Not me. I’m completely not normal.

This week we need to get a good picture with her birthday hat so I can create invitations, have them printed and get them mailed out to the family. Now that I have a partner in crime (Mom) I’ve decided to try and decorate Daphne’s birthday cake and cupcakes, instead of going to a bakery. My mom usually decorated our birthday cakes growing up and that’s a tradition I’d like to keep going. Her color scheme is hot pink, light pink and orange and theme is a butterfly/flower thing (which coordinates with her hat and the print of her birthday dress). We’ve been inspired by a few cakes and cupcakes, like these:

This is from Butterfly Sweets. It’s a little over the top, but we wouldn’t have to put so many colors or designs on it (I mean, I’d like it for me, but since her hat and dress are so busy I think a super busy cake design would just take over the pictures.)

Another from the same blog. But I don’t love the taste of fondant and neither of us have ever worked with it before.

Cute cupcakes from Flickr:

As far as decor, I’m thinking paper lanterns or flowers. I love these from Lunabazaar.

But we probably don’t need those, since I plan on doing these flower balloon bouquets from Martha Stewart:

She loves balloons.

I picked up a few books today to help with the cake thing. The Whimsical Bakehouse and Hello, Cupcake! Both books are incredible, but I just love the cupcake book. Seriously, if you have kids or ever need to make cupcakes for any holiday or special occasion you must get this book. The Shark Attack cupcake instructions are worth the $10 you’ll pay for the book on Amazon. See what I mean?:

Now I just need a little boy so I can plan a shark themed birthday. Alright, back to Daphne. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please send them my way! I’d love the input.

Tinkerella Creations

When I was a little girl I was totally obsessed with Snow White. And I have already decided that Daphne is going to be dressed up as a little baby Snow White for Halloween this year (hey, I gotta do it now before she gets older and can have an opinion and want to be Dora or something). So I squealed just a little when I saw this outfit on Etsy today. A custom boutique Snow White shorts set (for everyday wear I suppose):

And look at this adorable Cinderella shorts set:

Check out the rest of Tinkerella Creations’ Etsy shop here.

Artwork Collage

An idea to file away from Design Mom, the Jan Eleni Collage:

Jan Eleni scans in your child’s art work, edits into thumbnails and it’s printed onto archival quality paper. It’s pretty expensive, but this would make an easy DIY project. I love it!! What a great way to see and save your kid’s artwork without having them plastered all over your fridge or office. And it has such a clean, modern look to it. Love, love, love.

Cowboy Hat Headband

Cowboy Hat at Loretta Lynn

Originally uploaded by Naughty Secretary Club

I’m strangely drawn to this mini cowboy hat headband. Since we’ll be living in Texas I’m sure I’ll have more opportunities to wear a hat, although I’ve never been a fan of cowgirl/country music style. I remember a friend in college from Minnesota was shocked that I didn’t like country music. She had just discovered Garth Brooks, Rockies jeans and Ropers boots and was loving it all. Yep, you can be from Oklahoma and not like country music. So unless U2 goes country I don’t plan on tuning into any country stations. Wait, I do have a Dixie Chicks CD. Does that count as country these days?

Spoonflower

I saw Spoonflower’s site featured on decor8 today. Awesome idea!!! It’s still in beta and not completely open to the public yet, but it allows you to print your own custom fabric. So the next time I need nursery bedding and can’t find a pattern I like, I’ll just design my own fabric and sew it myself.