pinteresting: pom poms!

like many of my fellow crafty folk, i've completely fallen for pinterest. i think it's completely genius, and it has become my go-to for all sorts of craft ideas, home decorating, party ideas, and even recipes! i check it more than i do twitter or facebook. love it.

i'm sure you've heard the saying "those who can't do, teach" & if you've seen the movie the wedding planner, "those who can't wed, plan!" well, i think it turns out that a new saying has taken hold in my life:

those who can't craft, pin!

having a second child [and a dog who is so needy she might as well be a third child] has taken even more of a crunch out of my crafting time, and more significantly, energy than i'd even expected! something always has to give. if i get something crafty done, it almost always means the house is a wreck & we had goldfish crackers & fruit snacks for dinner.

after several weeks of super early mornings with my big girl who just moved into her new big girl room & bed, i've decided it's time to invest in light-blocking curtains for her room. seeing as how many of the ones out there are ugly/boring/expensive, & how i have a difficult time choosing/committing to such a large & potentially statement making element to a room- i was having a hard time. then i remembered this image sitting in my 'pretty to make' pinboard:
pom pom trim on curtains! so i've decided to try to find simple white black out curtains, and then add some fun pom pom trim to customize them to the room & make them comparable to this super expensive anthropologie set:
i'm always amazed at how much anthro stuff costs in comparison to how simple they really are! then i started thinking about all the lovely fun things you could do with pom pom trim! pretty much anything with an edge can be made cuter- bath towels, kitchen towels, pillows, tablecloths, blankets & quilts! you can even add it with iron-on tape if you're the no-sew type! these are my favorites that i'll definitely be doing in the near future!
i even found a really fun way to try out making my own little pom poms [that i wish i'd known about back when i made my pom pom wreath]:
i can't wait to get busy pom pom-ifying everything! pinterest is the best! you can find all the original sources for these photos on pinterest.com... many of them include instructions or tutorials to make your own!

new things to come!

i teased you with a little sneak peek several weeks ago of several new things i've been working on... slowly but surely i am trying to get a leaf & letter etsy shop up and running, and trying to be super pre-prepared for my favorite craft show coming up in november. here is another peek into a few things that are almost finished!
crafty time is few & far between these days, but when i do have time to work on things, it is so fun! i got several of these fun wrapped bangles almost done last night after the babies were in bed. i'm excited and can't wait to get all this good stuff finished & into a shop!

latest custom bib!

at the end of june we were invited to a first birthday party for our sweet friend baby stella. her mommy mentioned that she was into "anything hawaiian" after their recent trip to visit family, so i thought a hawaiian-inspired lei flower bib would be just the thing!
all the teeny stems were a little difficult to stitch [and didn't show up super well] but the bright pink couldn't be more perfect for a sweet & fun little big girl like baby stella. we didn't get a picture of her wearing the bib, but here she is enjoying our little back porch pool with my crew:
yay for birthday bibs!

what we made today...

don't you love how i said that so optimistically, as though we make something every day? hah!

this evening as i pulled some play dough out of the cabinet for kenna to play with to distract kenna as i cooked supper, i thought about her how i had tried to imprint her tiny little feet in clay when she was just about finn's age. i had bought a little kit from babies 'r' us & was pretty disappointed at how difficult the clay was to work with... not like play dough which is so soft & squishy. [not to mention that little infant hands & feet love to stay all balled up instead of nice & flat for imprinting- very hard to maneuver by just one person!}
then i thought about the little dried up play dough chunklets i had cleaned up from under her craft table where they had dried overnight...

hmmn.

so i hijacked the bright pink & blue & mixed them each 50/50 with some white to make a more baby pink & blue. i rolled it out flat between wax paper & then stepped finn's little foot right into it. after realizing my big grown up girl was too big for either a footprint and a handprint [how is that possible?!?] i ended up doing her thumbprint.
i pulled out some regular old alphabet stamps to do their names [kenna's initials]. i had to stamp the letters nice & deep for them to show, & i actually thought the edges of the stamps made cute little squares in this case, kind of like baby blocks.
ohh teeny feets. love.

now, before you mistakenly think me some domestic maven of craftiness with a 2 year old & 3 month old in tow, i wish i could post a picture of me putting these quickly together all while supper risked burning in the oven, the baby squalking very loudly to be fed & cleaning up the giant dollop of yogurt spilled on the rug.

and we'll have to see if my lovely play dough ornaments are just a crackly dried-out mess by morning!

quickie kitchen craft!

i am the first to admit how horrible i am at meal planning. it's one of those things that seems like it would be simple [chose meals, make list, buy groceries, cook meals] yet i'm classic for coming home with a cart full of groceries and 'nothing to eat' because it feels like all i bought was a couple bags of chips, some yogurt, and a box of trash bags.

so i started trying to write out my weekly menus on a magnetic white board on the fridge. that lasted for all of a week before i was writing out everything i ate weekly in an attempt to start losing baby weight. [fail.]

also? i hated how the cheapo walmart white erase board looked on our black fridge. so boring. so i'd seen this idea all over blogland & thought it would be a lovely little diy alternative.

before:


after:

so, in a quick free crafting minute [in between pretending to clean/organize my studio as i've been needing to do for months!] i pulled out the following:

a white 8x10 picture frame

[clearance from target for something insane like $1.82]

an 8x10 piece of pretty scrapbooking paper

some self-stick magnetic strips

[also purchased from walmart to help the cheapo white board stay on the fridge. they happened to be exactly the perfect width for the edge of the frame. hurrah!]

stick it all together... instant quickie pretty functional kitchen craft that i like SO much better. you just write directly on the glass of the frame & wipe away!

ps. as you can see i gave up with food listing of any kind all together and just went for pretty. and that verse? perfection for a busy momma with a new-ish wee one and a crazy toddler.

not rocket science, but quick fun crafting nonetheless!

papoose.

while i'm getting a little bit of fun stuff done here & there, here's where my little man has been hanging out, snuggled up on the couch behind me [i like to sit & craft on the floor in front of the coffee table most nights]:
i like hearing his little huffy-puffy not-quite-newborn-anymore-almost-an-infant noises while he sleeps.
[he's not as suffocate-y as he looks. just snuggled.]

love him.

eee! excited.

so.

i'm finally getting a bit of a chance to work on some new pretties...

i've been making good friends with the ginormous pile of felt that's been waiting in my studio for the perfect moment... and by perfect moment i mean the 2 hours or so i have between the kids napping at the same time including laundry & all that other non-crafting stuff i need to do]. this is what my studio trash can looks like at the moment... all that color has to mean something good, right?
and i nearly cleared out my paypal account thanks to the lovely offerings at fabric worm and hawthorne threads. i decided i wanted to spring for some new fabric for this new line of products rather than counting on the stash to do everything i needed. i couldn't be happier with this big pile of brightness that arrived on my front porch this week!

& here's a sneaky little sneak peek of what's coming... cryptic, i know. i'm SO excited!