Good Things, Small Packages

After complaining on my last post about never winning anything, I forgot that I totally did win something cool a couple weeks ago from redshoearts.com and it just came in the mail yesterday. Okay, it was not $120.00 but it was still full of fun! Unfortunately, the fun that I saw in the little pink bucket was a bit harder to find than I thought...

I tried to take a good picture with Illusia as we were trying to make a little (unrealistic) construction paper and paint image of ourselves, but it just would not happen. In fact the project we were trying to do just would not happen. I tried to involve her, explaining what we were doing, having her help pick out colors, etc. However my dear, loveable daughter was intent only on throwing colored pencils on the floor, tearing up the paper I was trying to use, taking my cellphone out of my pocket and calling strange numbers, trying to steal the scissors and eat everything non-edible in sight. In other words, acting like a 1 year old.

   

When I got her something appropriate to eat (yobaby yogurt) she refused by shaking her head 'no' vigorously and doing the whine of doom. So I put it up in case she changed her mind later. Only to try our project again. When no more than 20 seconds later I noticed things being a bit too quiet and looked back to the area I put the yogurt at to see her standing on tippy toes knocking it down, and smearing it on the dresser, the walls and piling it in her mouth. I then exclaimed something like 'WHA-WHY-AHHH!!' before collecting myself.

I tried to be as calm and non-annoyed as possible while picking her up and taking her into the bathroom for a good hand and face washing (somehow she missed her clothes) but she must have sensed I was still secretly yelling 'WHA-WHY-AHHH!' inside because she started crying when I picked her up and all through her washing. :( Obviously, I am the worst mommy ever for not letting her play with scissors, tear up paper and smear yogurt on the wall. After her mini-bath, she came in and took a nap (I was then secretly singing hallelujah) and I get a little more done.

Look at that angelic face! How can I stay even slightly annoyed at her? Darn baby superpowers! The image is about half finished. I used painted, glued on coffee filter for the hair and wings, construction paper for the face & body and the extra coffee filter dabbed in paint for the dirt and what might turn out to be a tree, if I can manage to make it not look too craptastic. I might just decide to scrap it and start over----While Illusia naps, lol.

P.S. Thanks redshoearts.com, I am sure we will get a lot of use out of this :)!

Very Faerie Birdhouse

 

After Illusia's nap, we finished decorating our birdhouse. Well, I might add another thing or two to it, but it is mostly complete. We now just have to get some hooks and it will be up and ready for our feathered friends.

I must've lost all of my paintbrushes during the move, so it kind of put a damper on the decorating. I also seemed to loose the tinkerbell stickers I was going to put on it ;(. So, I improvised with an assortment of q-tips, fingers and colored pencils dipper in paint. And I used a mini hot glue gun to glue on the little faeries. I think it could have been a lot better looking than it is, if I had found the proper painting supplies but, I still am proud for finishing it and I doubt Illusia minds my sloppy decorating.

I really hope the birdies like it!

Crafty, for Nature

Earlier today we went to a local 'O.K. Kids Day' hosted by the Great Plains Nature Center here in Wichita. It featured a lot of cool crafts and information on the local wildlife. Illusia got to help in the making of simple wood bird house (which we plan to decorate and post the finished results later!) 

We made a great bird treat with a pine cone and some vegetable shortening covered in birdseed. We got a free pouch of wildflower seed and a wonderful little Burr Oak Tree sapling to plant. Lastly, Illusia got to practice her artistic skills on a pair of toilet paper roll binoculars! She got to see a lot of other kiddies and seemed to have a great time being crafty, for nature!

Here are some pictures of the event:

             

Fast, Fun Tutu-orial

Maybe I just wanted another clever way to work the world 'tutu' into a blog post title. Or maybe I just wanted a reason to post the adorable tutu making photos I took of my lovely assistant, Illusia. Either way, this is a really simple, cheap, fast way to make a cute, poofy tutu w/ no sewing or crafty experience necessary!

A little back story: I first wanted to buy a tutu for my daughter's birthday but found out they are very freakin expensive. At about $15-30 dollars a pop (depending on fanciness, number of colors, etc.) it was not in my budget. That is right my girl deserves nothing but the best I can afford.

So, I looked up some tutorials online, more than some, there must be hundreds. I finally narrowed it down to one that had good instructions and images: plumtickled tutu tutorial and followed what worked.

It looked pretty simple even for a person like me who has about 10 accumulated hours in sewing experience from high school Home Ec. I went in the wedding section of Joann's Fabric and got two rolls of 1 yard X 6 inch pink tulle at $2.50 ea, a pink 'princess' ribbon for $1.99 and a roll of elastic for $0.99. With tax that came to around $6.00.

First you need a cute assistant. Preferably one under 3 feet, with very little teeth but lots of unneeded input. Like so;

Measure the person you want to tutuize. Mine happens to be one in the same as fore mentioned assistant. They state to measure 3 inches less to your elastic but I actually measured it 2 inches more because of my alternative plan to sewing. I call it the 'tie it in a knot' plan.

Also I was more comfortable making slipknots rather than double knots because they were easier to line up and fix and it just went a lot faster. I just looped them one after the other and tied the tutu together at the end and cut off the spare elastic. Here is an excellent tutorial on slipknots: Slipknot Tutorial

Afterward it is just a lot of slip, loop and repeat until you have the whole thing covered to desired density. 1 roll almost fit Illusia's waist but I wanted something a lot thicker and frillier so I went with 2 full rolls. This whole process should take about a half hour of looping and stringing and 2 days of fending off your assistant. This is what I finished in day 1:

In fact I might recommend a second assistant to watch your first assistant and keep her from crawling away with the tape measure, trying to eat the tulle and staring in awe at the shiny scissors and making you a nervous wreck. Just a tip.

As far as the ribbon goes, I just used some fabric glue to glue on the ribbon over the top edge of the tutu. It came out okay. But it is my first time. I am kind of addicted now and waiting for a reason, any reason to make another one.