Baby Headbands (205:365)

I don't have any shots of them yet, but my friend Kuei and I made headbands for her baby girl today. 

We made them with silk flowers. 

One with a cream colored daisy, one with 3 little purple flowers in a cluster (that turned out CUTE!) and one that is HUGE. It was more of an experiment, to be used as a prop for a photo shoot of her baby on Monday. 

It was fun to see her excited about creating something beautiful and useful with her own hands. 

Challenge:

You all know how to do/make/create something that someone else doesn't know how to do. Sometime before Valentine's Day, share that skill with someone else. Then come back here and share it with us!

Felt Flower Headband and a Photoshoot (144:365)

I got to take a nap yesterday (thanks honey!) 

so I was a bit wired last night.

While wired, I made this at 1am.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

I used organza ribbon to wrap the headband, securing it with my new favorite thing, "Fabri-tac" (thanks Jesa!).

Then I cut out 3 circles for each flower and sewed them like this.

Then I attached vintage buttons I found at an estate sale and some fun orange feathers from Hobby Lobby. On the back of the flower/feather piece, I made loops so I can slide it off and on from my headband, making it interchangeable! Because the worst part of making a headband is covering it. Boo.

I also got to help out on a photoshoot for my friends the D family, with my friend Jesa the photographer. She is really great and was generous to give me many tips!

I had a lot of fun trying to help freezing kids smile ('cuz it was like 17 degrees outside!) and to reflect light back onto those smiling faces.

It was my first time and I learned a lot. Thanks for letting me tag along!

The Bazaar (129:365)

It's finally over.

All that work and now I can sort of breathe. 

My next project is filling custom orders (yes, I had two!) and getting product up on my etsy shop.

I have put a couple of things up so far.

Check me out here!

Here are a few pictures of my display at today's bazaar.

(Those cute hats are my friend Julie's.)

Earring Display

Some Cute Chrysanthemum Earrings

Darling Handmade Button Earrings

Button Rings

Lovely Little Hairpins

Giant Button Paperclip Bookmarks

And one of my favorites, the Elegant Bird Ponytail Holder

I wanted to send a shout out to my honey Scott for staying up and tying bows until 1am, my mom for writing price tags until 2am, my sister for going with me to set up and for helping me stay calm, Ashley for encouraging me to try doing a bazaar and letting me share her table, and Julie for pushing my merchandise on all her friends that dropped by our table. Ashley and Julie, it was a pleasure doing business with you both. Let's do it again soon! 

You all rock!

Lucy's First Boo at the Zoo, Rosettes and my Halloween costume (105:365)

Our local zoo does a fun "Boo at the Zoo" every year where you trick or treat around the zoo at booths that local vendors set up. It's really fun! You even get to see whatever animals can handle the cold (it was like 35 F last night!), which were just Santa's Reindeer and 5 penguins.

Goose got many awwww's, and Dee did too, both being the cutest little kitties.

We had fun with some friends too. Thanks for meeting up with us!

I've also been working on some rosettes that I will be selling at a local craft fair next month. Boy, I am feeling overwhelmed by it and I am barely doing anything. Probably just because it is my first time selling anything.

And I am working on my Halloween costume.

I'm going to be a witch.

I got this awesomely bad huge black shiny shirt at Goodwill for $0.99 and I'm making it smaller and uglier for my costume. I want to make the bottom jagged, but the fabric frays like crazy! I think melting the edges will solve that though.

Headband Flowers for the Family Picture (91:365)

Today I made flowers for the girls to wear with their cute new skirts for our upcoming family pictures. The fabric I used for the flowers was just leftover scraps from the skirt project and a little bit of a black fat quarter that I have laying around. I also made little rosettes for the center of the flowers.

I also wrapped a headband in fabric for Dee's flower to attach to (her flower has a Velcro backing). Goose's flower has a clip on the back so it can attach to her crochet headband.

Thanks to my friend Heather for the inspiration.

Here are my lazy iPhoto pics.

Brown Petal Flower Barrette (75:365)

My friend gave me a much more elegant version of this barrette for my birthday (which I LOVE) and I decided to try and replicate it. I'm really not that happy with it to wear myself, but I think it will look cute on Dee. 

This is a terrible picture of it, but I guess it represents how I feel about it, drab.

Oh well. At least I tried, I guess.

Here's to tomorrows project turning out better!

Feeling overwhelmed today and wishing I had a serger so I could make these darling little bows. I tried them on my sewing machine and it was a sad mess. 

Sigh.

I shall not covet my neighbors serger...

Refashioned T-Shirt into a Dress for Dee (65:365)

I found this medium sized adult woman's t-shirt at Goodwill and decided it had potential for a really cute little fall dress for Jane, if it didn't fit me (and I was too lazy to try it on). Well, it didn't fit me, therefore, it is now a preschooler dress.

In all my haste, I forgot to take a before picture...

When I gave Dee (Jane) the completed dress, she looked at it for a minute then looked at me and exclaimed, "I love it!". 

Now that is satisfying.

WARNING: New Dress May Induce Giddiness.

Ruffled Flower Corsage (54:365)

I made one of these tonight. I've been wanting to make one for a long time now, but was just feeling like I couldn't do it. Like I wasn't going to be able to make mine cute or something. Anyway, I did it, feeling anxiety the whole time, and yet it worked out just fine. 

Great actually. 

It was sooo easy and fast! 

(Once I had all the fabrics picked out that I wanted to use. Still having some fear/ anxiety cutting up old stuff I don't want because I feel like I'm going to regret it so bad later! Lame, I know...)

The colors I used were Navy, Light Pink, Light Blue, White, and Light Brown.

I'd like to make another with some better fall colors and these seem a little springy to me. Yet, I still love it.

I think it's really cute and can't wait to were it on a fall jacket!

Flower Barrettes and Handmade Gift Boxes (52:365)

A little girl from our church was baptized today and her mom is getting married tonight, so they are moving right away to another state. That's a lot of changes for little girls! So I made her and her little sister some cute flower clips (one is that vintage-looking flower I made the other day with a homemade button in the center) and handmade the gift bags that I put them in. The gift bag tutorial and printable template is here. 

I think they turned out cute!

Gathered Flower and a Homemade Button (46:365)

I made my first button! I bought a kit like this one and just whipped one out! It was really easy. Then I figured out how to gather fabric and made this cute little vintage style flower. 

Purse clip, jacket clip, hair bow for the girlies? 

I'm leaning towards clip so I can put it on jackets and bags to cuten them up. 

How do you think I should use it?

T-Shirt Flower Headband (44:365)

I made this headband on the way to our favorite "adult" store, Costco, since it takes an hour to get there. It's like Disneyland for adults. Bought some more of our favorite "ABC" (already been cooked) bacon. If you want to read more about my Costco obsession, click here and more about my "ABC" bacon obsession, click here.

Anyway, here is the headband. Another made from old t-shirt scraps. It has a black button in the middle that you can't see because the flower right behind it is black too. Wish I'd done green, then the black button. Oh well, too lazy to fix it right now. Maybe another day.

Also, I think the flower is a little small for my head, so this one will probably be passed on to the little ladies of the house.

New Flower Designs and Bacon (41:365)

While whittling my time away this evening (crafting), Scott and I enjoyed an hour of Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale from our beloved Netflix queue streaming out of our TV (yes, I LOVE IT). Oh man, this guy is a FREAK!!! But in a good way. At least the first half of the routine. Then it gets kind of lame. Anyway, here is a little snippet of goodness from the show. Enjoy!




Now back to business.
Here are some of the flower designs I worked on tonight from scraps leftover from yesterdays project and some other old t-shirts and lace. I want to make some t-shirt headbands and a couple of barrettes from them.



I actually completed one, as a little sassy black barrette for Lucy. She's still pretty thin on top, but I'm hoping it will work on her soon.

Flannel Board Complete and More... (39:365)

I finished making my flannel board today.

Now I just need to finish
cutting out all the fun stuff to put on it...


Also, yesterday I cooked with turnips for the first time (put them in a yummy "throw it in the pot" soup, i.e., throw whatever is left over in the fridge into the pot and boil. I chopped the turnips into cubes, sauteed in butter for 10 minutes and dumped it ALL into the soup.
The Soup = Leftover chicken drumsticks from a failed Weight Watchers recipe [failed our tastebuds], kale, carrots, chicken "better than bullion", water, pepper, basil, northern/white canned beans. Yum!)


And, yesterday, for my friend's birthday, I made this flower, va-va-voom!

into a brooch so she can put it on a bag or jacket


and made another brooch with 3 poppies out of some fabric sample scraps I got from an estate sale and buttons I got from another estate sale.



Those are my favorite things now, estate sales...except that I have a huge garbage bag full of awesome fabric (that cost only $5!) taking up space in my living room...so many projects, so little time.

Patacones and a Chiffon Rosette (34:365)

Tonight I made patacones for the first time. They are a love of mine that I discovered half my life ago in Costa Rica. I got the recipe here. That blogger also had some good tips. Fried plantains. Yum. I like to use them to scoop up refried black beans.

Jane actually tried a bite and enjoyed them enough for 2 bites, then ate her first taco! (She is a typical picky toddler.)

Scott, my ever sceptical palate, ate them right up!
Here is his happy face.

Lucy is struggling with solids and did not like me trying to get her to eat some before her bottle. Instead, she just played in it for a while.

I also started a project I've been meaning to do for 2 months now. I am making a rosette necklace out of hot pink chiffon with a chain wrapped throughout. This is a TERRIBLE picture because I was feeling lazy, but it will not the be last. Once it's totally done I'll take another and post it.

Silk Ribbon Flower (33:365)

Today I squeezed in a new cute and crafty flower. I found the tutorial here. I didn't have any ribbons that I loved, so I used a random pieced of red ribbon that I probably have left over from Christmas (or maybe even from one of our wedding gifts...I'm a hoarder. Don't judge.). I think it turned out cute, but even better is the little rosette that's in the middle. I'm excited to try the rosette out again using more two-toned ribbon. Best of all, no sewing is involved. You do need to be handy with the glue gun though.
I'm not sure yet where I'm going to use this new fancy flower...any suggestions?

Flower Headband from Old T-Shirts (30:365)

For my friend's birthday I decided to be brave and try making something I've been wanting to do for a while.

I made a flower headband out of old t-shirt material, a scrap of lace I found at my grandma's house, some beads and a little piece of elastic.

I copied the (way cute and easy!) headband idea from this website and based the flower loosely on flowers I found online at various sites.

What do you think? I can't wait to make one for myself!

Rosette Ring (1:365)

A couple of weeks ago I started making rosettes of different sizes after my friend Jessicah showed me how flippin' easy it was. I'm totally addicted to it now and just love how cute and dainty they look. Today I decided to make a ring out of one of my tiny rosettes. Isn't it cute?! I feel proud.