Getting Ready for Halloween

Anyone else out there having a hard time believing it’s almost October? I was reminded again how close we are to Halloween and then the holiday season yesterday when Daphne opened a package from her Grandpa & Grandma D. Isn’t she cute in the outfit they sent? Ignore the hair accessories. I couldn’t find her fall hair curlies.

And do you like her little whispies above her ears? She has started to brush her own hair. Actually she just takes the brush, puts it on the back and sides of her hair and brushes straight up. I didn’t catch her in time to take the brush away from her today so she pulled out some of her pigtails with her “brushing.” She’s hilarious.

Speaking of Halloween, Daphne’s Snow White costume still needs a red headband/bow. I was going to order one from Etsy, but the darn thing sold before I could order and I don’t really feel like convo-ing the seller to see if she could make another. So, I’m going to try and make my own bow then glue it to a headband. Stop laughing. I know I totally SUCK at bows, but I found this awesome tutorial on youtube and I’m feeling more confident now. In fact, Daphne and I are headed out to Michael’s for the supplies after she wakes up from her morning nap.

And here’s the link to their other videos. Please send good bow tying vibes. Thank you.

Etsy Finds

Sometimes looking for items on Etsy is like searching for a needle in a haystack. I realized the other day I had never purchased any clothing for Daphne from Etsy. I’ve been tempted, sure, but most of the items I was interested in were more special occasion things and not practical for everyday wear. And when you search for say, “toddler dress” you have to wade through 10 bazillion A-line jumper style dresses, tutus and pillowcase dresses. Yeah, not really what I had in mind. Today I got lucky and found a number of really great things like these vintage inspired looks:

Black Polka Bow dress from Rocker Baby (everything in their shop is to DIE for!!!):

And from the same shop, the Chloe dress:

1960’s style Lauren dress from faithworks4U (ahhhhh!!! the cuteness!! again, everything in that shop is totally adorable):

And check out my Etsy Favorites for a few others. I think I need to order something for Daphne.

High Chair Tutu

Easily the most “over the top” element of Birthday Party Central is the high chair tutu I made to coordinate with Daphne’s other party decorations. Here are my disclaimers- I shouldn’t have used a lighter pink in with the medium, hot pink and orange tulle. It’s too distracting. Also, I never should have tried a no sew thing (it worked well for Daphne’s tutu, but not for this project) but it would have been a total pain in the ass to find all my sewing stuff in storage and actually sew one. And finally, this really didn’t photograph well. At this point you are probably wondering, well why show it at all? Because I still think it’s a good idea, even though my execution sucked.

So, I used 4 different colors of tulle, hot pink and light pink rhinestones (which don’t show up too well in the photo). I had a hard time figuring out how to cover the top, since I didn’t want a really poofy tutu I didn’t stuff the tulle onto the elastic as much as I did for Daphne’s tutu and you could see a bit of the elastic peeking through. Normally I’d weave a piece of tulle in between the tulle strips, covering the band, but that wasn’t working too well since I had already secured the tutu to the high chair. So that left me with hot pink ribbon, hot pink boas- um, no. So I decided to take the light pink curling ribbon I had used on her birthday banner, cut 4-5″ strips, curled them and attached them to a long piece of curling ribbon. I basically created a curling ribbon boa for the top edge. Once I tied it onto the elastic I was done. But I still think I want to add one more element (like a little medallion with Daphne’s initials or something) to the front center. Hmm…

Etsy Finds

I love these hats. Unfortunately, it’s totally not practical to buy any of these for Daphne because it just doesn’t get cold enough. In fact, I don’t even think she needs a heavy winter coat this year. So, for those of you with little ones and snowy winters, here are some darn cute hats:

Newsgirl Beanie from The Portland Beanie Company:

Crochet Baby Hat from Adrienne Kinsella:


Little Bear Baby Mohawk from Infantile:

Goldfishin Bag Hat from knitschmidt (how hilarious!):

Cotton Mini Monkey from citefuzz:

I think I might need that monkey hat as a photo prop. Precious.

What’s Wrong?

Let’s see, what is wrong with this photo? Could it be that I’m up working on Daphne’s banner at 1 am? Especially since I didn’t sleep at all last night. Really, not even a wink. Or that I’m drinking a margarita (because I can’t find any fricking Tylenol PM) while using an ice pick, scissors and staples? If my husband knew I was doing this I’m sure he’d tell me to come to bed because I’m a total klutz and will probably end up stabbing myself. When did I become nocturnal? I was always such a good sleeper.

Last night I was up lovingly cutting, gluing, bedazzling and glittering (ok, I know that’s probably not a word) the banner and just as I was going to bed around 1 am, Daphne woke up. And for some reason (teething maybe, she has a top tooth coming in) she never went back to sleep. I finally got to take a nap at 6:30 this morning. I’m so messed up. Anyway, at least the banner is done. Here’s a close-up:

This party is going to be so over the top. And as my mom told a friend recently about our party planning, “We are so over the top, we can’t even SEE the top!” Yep.

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!