a little amour for a friend.

it has admittedly been quite awhile since i have made any jewelry to speak of. it's sad too because i love making it, and rarely have any made & ready to go when i get dressed [that forever happens on sunday morning when i get dressed up for church]. maybe i just need to organize what i have a little better- i'm a person that needs to have all her options visible at one time to be able to effectively pick!

but all this week i've been thinking about one of my best childhood friends, an amazing woman who now lives in new york city and is pursing an acting career, and really missing her. and i got in the mood to make her a little something to say hello and for her to wear and be reminded of how cool i think she is. so last night i got to work down in my craft room [ahem... basement] and made her this little bit of amour:
it makes me think of a ring around the moon & reminds me of her. the top loop slides back and forth, and the little stone rotates inside the ring. and the little leaf at the clasp is just for fun. and it is tucked into my favorite little tiny brown paper bags and ready to be mailed to brooklyn.

so here's to good friends even though they're far away, and here's especially to finally getting back to making!

preschool crafts!

my little one is growing up faster than i can believe, and is not so little anymore! she is outgrowing the crafty projects i have in mind to make for her faster than i can get them made. some days i feel like a lazy mom because i want to do fun things with her like finger painting, but all i can think about is the ginormous mess there will be to clean up after probably about 5 minutes of actual painting. but she's super smart, and i do feel like she's almost to the age that she needs a little more structure [ie: learning!] to her play rather than me expecting her to entertain herself for any given amount of time with a stack of blocks or something.

so, off to google i went to see what kinds of preschool toddler-appropriate semi-educational crafts i could find. here are some things i can't wait to try with her!

sensory tubs
knowing me, i probably like this idea because you can theme- and color-coordinate them, and they look so fun! the only downside is i can see these being way more fun to dump out and walk away from than any actual sorting or "sensing."

child art quiet books
my almost-2-year old is probably a little young for this one too, but i love the idea of making a quiet book out of pictures the children have drawn themselves. you know i love me some quiet books of all kinds [i hope to one day have a little army of them] and you could even go soulemama-style on them and embroider the drawings first!

photo flashcards/word book
i think this would be a great way for a little one to learn words- by pairing them with photos you've taken yourself so that the image that goes with the word is familiar to your little one. flash cards are a great idea, and making them into a first words book would be fun too!

many of these ideas i found on a great website called the crafty crow by clicking on the category 18 months to 2 years old. seriously don't click unless you've got an afternoon to spend browsing... there are lots and lots of great ideas to be found there! the rest of the ones i liked seemed to all do with painting of one sort or another:

potato printing

magic line painting

word silhouette painting

tin foil printmaking

super sized marble painting

dot stampers

i also have a fun idea for how to display kids' artwork that i'm hoping to incorporate into a toy storage organizer i'm working on finishing up! can't wait to get that one done!

[photos in this post are thanks to each individual website. please check out their lovely blogs for more great ideas!]

beachy white.

just when i'm convinced my home is boring & colorless, i see something like this & i suddenly want to paint everything in my life white:

design*sponge

not to mention, move to the beach too. such lovely, cool pictures in the midst of back-to-school when it still feels like summer outside!

a little over a month.

... that's how long i've been away from this space. my little crafty world of projects and log of all the inspiring ideas out there. and i've missed it!

so i've been doing a little baking. a little bit of this kind of baking:
and a little bit of this kind of baking:
baby B number 2 is due in early march! we are so excited! unfortunately, i've also been super exhausted and in no mood whatsoever to do any crafting or anything at all productive for that matter. but as i'm coming out of the 1st trimester, my energy is slowly but surely coming back, and my to-make list is calling my name again...

it is so good to be back!

on the cheap: fabric pennant banner.

this was a quickie decor idea for my baby girl's all-pink, all-cupcake first birthday party, which co-ordinated perfectly with her pink and brown 'happy birthday' banner. this one worked just right on the mantel of our fireplace in the kitchen.
you will need:

* a couple of fabric squares (i alternated 5 inch and 6 inch squares)
*a 3 yard-ish spool of ribbon
*pinking shears
*sewing machine or hot glue

this can be a completely free project if you have these basic things in your craft stash, but if you don't, it's not too expensive to find a spool of ribbon and a half-yard or so of fabric (or a scrap-bag!).

here are the steps:
(you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!)
and ta-da! hang and enjoy! you can also use bias tape if you want it a little more secure [or just have that on hand]. i think this would be really cute in a mix of reds and greens to hang at christmas if you have a little empty corner that needs something festive, or maybe make one with teeny tiny squares to wrap around the tree!
i also reused it with my crocheted heart garland for valentine's day:
and it's currently adding some girly sweetness between the two windows of my daughter's nursery! here are a couple of great tutorials for other simple pennant-style banners:

diy fabric garland

celebration flags

or you could just buy some sweet little scalloped ones on etsy if you didn't feel like diy-ing!

teeny tiny kitchens.

thanks to an impromptu stop at ikea on the way home from an out-of-town wedding last weekend and her momma's penchant for all things mini, my daughter is now the proud owner of a teeny-tiny pots & pans set, little bitty baking cookies set, and miniscule silverware set. [or at least she will be when christmas comes around.]

now she just needs, um, a kitchen.

unfortunately, the perfectly sweet and gorgeously adorable ikea kitchen had a not-to-adorable price tag to go with it, especially if you add on the tiny microwave.

then i remembered that surely i had seen some crafty creative blogs out there where folks were making amazingly cute and personalized little play kitchens for their kids out of cheap things like leftover bedside tables. and let me tell you, there are some CUTE ones out there! here are three that are insanely inspiring me to run out to goodwill right now and search for a little discarded wooden something that could become a lovely little play kitchen for my girl:

play kitchen from a nightstand by my little gems

play kitchen renovation by domestic simplicity

[make sure you check out the before picture!]

and a very manly little future-chef gender neutral play kitchen by homemade by jill

[inspired by vintage songbird!]

and even if you had absolutely zero intention of ever making a play kitchen out of anything when you started out reading this post, if you check out the flickr group for play kitchens i pretty much promise you're going to want to by the time you're done. man i love flickr for that!

[seriously, this one? could that be my real kitchen please?]

now that i think about it, i must admit that my current bedside table would be pretty perfect for this particular project, and would be pretty special since it used to be my mom's until we redid it together when i was in high school.
but i'm not quite ready to give it up as a bedside table just yet.

and if i'm going to make her a kitchen, i'm going to want to make her an apron and matching cake. of course.

garden party!

i was looking through the older archives of martha's craft of the day [super fun website the by way!] and though most of these ideas were technically easter-related, when looking through them in rapid succession i kept thinking what a beautiful garden-themed little girl birthday party they would make when put together! check out these images, beautiful as only martha can make them [source links are beneath each picture]:

[hanging tissue paper flowers]

[paper basket centerpiece]

[flower cupcake stand]

[lollipop flower cupcake]

[paper daffodil votive candles]

[mini flower pot cakes]

and then, of course, have you seen kara's birthday party ideas blog? seriously, don't plan another party without it. you will be inundated with inspiration, ideas, and photos of beautiful parties! inundated, i tell you. and these would be perfect with the garden theme:

mason glass drinks in a picket fence box and party favors in tiny buckets! [the little eyeball-looking things are earrings on a card, to give you an idea of how tiny the buckets are!]

[from garden shower featured by kara]

and to keep things from being a little less super-girly and more lovely-nature-y, i'd add pretty much everything from the through the woods party she also featured. especially the moss and tree stump decorations, and the smores bite kabobs!
ok, who i am i kidding- i would love someone to throw this party for me! why should little kids have all the fun [and hard work!] and then not remember it? nothing beats a fun over-the-top birthday theme!