A little gift for Miss Thing

Miss Sarah is expecting a baby soon! This baby is oh so special, as Sarah bravely made it through multiple miscarriages, and had some scares early in this pregnancy that kept all of her readers on edge. So overjoyed that Miss Thing will soon be making her debut! A special gift was surely in order.

Sarah indicated that she wanted to do a mini quilt wall in Miss Thing's room. Sarah loves thrift stores and flea markets, and has a wonderful assortment of vintage linens. I am sure she will have no trouble putting together a wall of this type on her own, but I thought I could add one little quilt to the effort.

My inspiration was the book Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tone Finnager. This is one of those books I look through in wide-eyed wonder, pausing on each page to try and take in all the details on the projects themselves as well as everything else shown in the pictures. I took this design from the "My House" Tapestry shown on page 55 of the book.

After making this teeny tiny quilt version, I just cannot fathom making a full-size one. But, it was so rewarding to put together this one using fabrics all from my stash (still love pink, aqua and red together after all these years), cutting and sewing the appliques, as well as adding the embroidery.

Hope Miss Thing enjoys the fun room her mama is designing for her!

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Favorite of the day: The most beautiful wedding toss in the whole wide world

Working on: Too much at once!

Thanksgiving hostess gift

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend at my parents' house in Arizona! It was a welcome relief to not be hosting/fussing about the details after many years of doing so (like here, here, here, and here). Other activities during our visit included Joe's Farm Grill (from Dives, Diners & Drive-Ins - totally worth the hype, though, outside of the media recognition), Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo, a visit to Goldfield for the little guy, and Trader Vic's for the big kids.

Since I didn't have to worry about preparing the food, I could focus on making a little hostess gift for my mom. Years ago, this was a big deal to bring each other something when we visited each other. I have kind of laid off the tradition, as I am usually running short on time or funds, and I am kind of over the mass accumulation of "stuff" (or contributing to somebody else's accumulation of stuff). My mom, however, is always so kind as to bring a little something for each of us when she comes to visit. I figured it was time to reinstate showing her the same kindness.

I made some very cute hot mitts modeled after a store bought pair. This is really the perfect combo of style and ease of putting on. I see a few more pairs will be making their debut in December. The fabric for this pair kind of called to me from the shelves at JoAnn. I give cosmic kudos to the creative person that put the two together on the shelf, as I would probably not have been able to come up with such a perfect duo. The towel used on the back of the mitts was destined for the thrift store, but ended up being the perfect color to go with the mitts.

After wrapping the mitts with a pair of beautiful Williams Sonoma dishtowels (that *may* have been a gift from my mom in a previous year - shhh), I took a couple of paintings Hank made this month at daycare and cut out fall leaf shapes to adorn the package. Homemade, useful, and small from daughter and grandson - it doesn't get much better than that!

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Favorite of the day: My favorite blog of 2010 365 day challenge comes to an end!

Working on: Cleaning the fridge. Despite allllll the other stuff I have going on this month, I am inspired to get some stuff done around the house as well.

Fall "wreath"

More like a door hanger, really.

I was all set to use this wreath, which I "fallified" by adding bands of burnt orange and mustard yellow. I made all the little fall gourds and yo-yos on a driving trip up to San Francisco. Everything was set and ready to go, and then plop - I dropped the wreath on the ground as I was trying to hang it up. It broke into four unrepairable pieces.

On to Plan B. I used a plastic macrame ring I had on hand and glued all the pieces I made to it. A little small to use as a wreath, I made a door hanger out of it. It is cute, but kind of lamenting the hours it took me to wrap the yarn one...oh well.

(Fairy tale pumpkin purchased for 99 cents post-Halloween!)

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Favorite of the day: Evie D! I heart you!

Working on: T-day hostess gift (for the first time in many years, I will not be hosting)

Merry Grinchmas!

Looks like we picked a good year for a Whoville themed Christmas tree :)

(Purchased from Target, Michaels, and Ikea)

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Favorite of the day: N/A

Working on: T-day hostess gift

Battery update

In case anybody remembers (and cares) about our Battery Free Until He's Three goal, here were the battery added toys added during year two:

- A ride-on dump truck (from BT's mom)

- 2 garbage trucks (one from BT and one from his mom)

- a roaring tiger flashlight (from mama)

As a reminder, here is where we were at with batteries last year. I still think we're doing ok overall keeping batteries (and toy noise) to a minimum. Hank's favorite toys are a barn set, Duplo Legos, and a wooden train set from Ikea.

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No new faves

Working on: A gift for a blogger

Hank's Trash Party

The trash party went off without a hitch! Even the weather was perfect, which was in question in light of recent days of high heat and winds, or rain.

Here are a few pics of the set up. The party was held at a local park, as we still don't have a backyard. I tried to keep things kind of casual and earthy. The tables were covered with brightly colored sheets and had potted vegetable plants in compostable pots (similar to here - complete with a bottle cap decoration, which I mounted on a stick to put in the pot).

In an effort to promote was reduction, we used the paper lanterns hung between two poles instead of balloons for decorations.

In the invites, we requested that people not bring a gift, but instead bring a book for a book exchange with other party-goers. The favors were also on this table.

I brought Hank's playmat from home and his collection of trash trucks. Everybody was surprised to see how many he has. We try to keep toys to a minimum, but somehow the trash truck collection has gotten a little out of control (groan). The kids had fun with the trucks.

BT built the truck shown in the first pic out of cardboard boxes (and a few of the cheesier/scratched records from our collection - bye, Claudine). We also had a bin of recyclables for kids to throw into the back of the truck.

The truck was brought home, and has since been modified to allow Hank to crawl into the cab and includes a steering wheel - he loves it! Who needs toys when cardboard boxes are so fun?

The kids at the party were pretty young, so we didn't have any games. I did set up a table to make paint chip puppets a la Jek. There were also magazines, stickers, and construction paper to decorate the trash truck.

We had the party catered by a local Greek restaurant. For the kids, though, I made little lunchbags each filled with a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, chips, raisins, a tangerine, and a juice box.

The kids could keep their lunchbags, and the plates and flatware used by the adults were all compostable (I even bought some of those fancy wooden forks)

For cake we had dirt and worms cupcakes!

The party was fun on its own, but the highlight was certainly a visit from a real trash truck

I will never forget the look of pure joy on Hank's face as he grabbed his dada's hand to run to the trash truck. It was totally free for the truck to come (even without my connections - call your local sanitation department or waste hauler, and I'm sure they would be happy to do the same for your trash truck loving kid!), and much more entertaining for the kids than a bounce house.

Happy Birthday to our little trash man!

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Favorite of the day: nada

Working on: a diet plan - I really hated seeing myself in the birthday pics :(

Trash party - Favors

No birthday post on the birthday boy's day. Why? He has a bit of a sinus infection, and therefore we had a bit of a rotten day yesterday. No worries, as he will now have some meds, has a mini party tonight with Nana and Grandpa, and tomorrow is his super fun trash party!

Anyway, here are the favors for the party. I know party favors are getting a bit of a bad rap lately, but I tried very hard to put in things that are a little different, better quality, and might actually get used.

First, some Pustefix bubbles (link is the store I bought them from - cheapest I found for the small bottles). It seems most store-bought bubbles have gotten weaker as I have gotten older (or maybe granny can't blow them the way she used to...) Pustefix bubbles are pretty awesome, and they last a really long time. They are always a hit at the park when I bring them out.

Also included in the bags are crayons shaped like dump trucks (closest I could find to trash trucks - from this etsy seller), some coloring cards I printed out from online sources, and a bag of Annie's fruit snacks. The bags were finished simply with yarn and a sticker.

I am using a similar idea for the treat bags for Hank to take to school next week!

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Favorite of the day: This just may be Hank's annual Christmas hat. I forgot how much I loved The Monkees!

Working on: Cupcakes!

Trash party

A certain little boy is turning two years old tomorrow!

Here he is enjoying one of his favorite past times - playing with trash trucks. Now, as you may recall, my job is in the waste management field. Did I have something to do with the trash truck obsession? More than likely, as I work at a yard where the giant stinky beasts slumber. Thursdays, trash days, are a big deal around here, and seeing them driving around town evokes excited yelling from the back seat.

There was no question as to what theme we would use for this year's birthday party. I sent out most of the invites electronically to save paper (although he likes trash trucks, were starting to introduce the concept of recycling and waste reduction as well). But, we made a couple of fancy ones for the neighbors using a snack-size Nutter Butter container and Matchbox cars. The sleeve gave the party details, including a request to not bring gifts to the party in the spirit of waste reduction :)

More details to come!

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Favorite of the day: Cute!

Working on: Party prep

Tiny dancer

In determining a gift for the shower, I took a look in my gift bin for inspiration. I found a pair of crocheted ballerina booties that I had intended to use as a topper to a diaper cake for my sister-in-law's last baby. Unfortunately they did not arrive in time for that shower, so in the gift box they went. I also had on hand a cute thrifted fabric printed with tiny ballerinas. I figured I could make a little ballerina themed gift!

I started by making a fun baby tutu like people use for fancy photo shoots

I didn't believe the instructions, that said to use 6 yards of tulle to make the infant version, but now I wish I had used more tulle to make it even flouncier!

Next I made a tiny headband using bra elastic and pre-made tulle flowers

So precious!

A big round of applause for my model, Curious George.

As mentioned, there was a time sensitive nature to getting this gift ready if I wanted it to get to Arizona for free. The night it was due, my sister-in-law came over to find me cramming a ruffle-laden quilt through the machine.

I somehow finished the binding of the quilt and tying it off in about an hour's time.

Is it perfect? No. Is it pretty darn cute despite its flaws? Absolutely.

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Recent favorite: Aren't the colors used for this shoot fabulous?

Working on: Hank's birthday prep

Wish wreath

Another project for the Italian themed baby shower, a wish wreath!

Initially I wanted to do the traditional wish tree, like this, using a manzanita branch. But, I remembered that I would eventually need to get this to Arizona. It seemed like it would be a lot of money to ship a branch to me, fancy it up, and then send it to AZ.

One day at the craft store, I noticed the grapevine wreaths (grapevine - Italian - get it?) I thought there would be some way to use the wreath to allow guests to write their best wishes for mom and baby. Then, I saw this project which I linked to previously, and it sealed the deal - I would be making a wreath instead of a tree.

To prepare the wreath, I added a beaded garland from Michaels and a wired ribbon bow. I knew I also wanted to include a bird in a nest on the wreath. Problem: Michaels is completed focused on Christmas right now (and cheap stocking stuffer crap that visually clutters our small local stores and makes it not enjoyable to visit), so the two stores I visited did not have larger bird nests in stock. I looked in the floral supply aisle and saw those woven wicker balls. I figured I could do something nest-like with one. With a lot of glue and lots of moss, I think I made a pretty good nest!

I feathered the bird's nest in a similar fashion to Rebecca's teacup nest that she made for me so many years ago, with a strip of sheet music, feathers, a glittered shell, and two pretty buttons.

The saying, A ogni uccello il suo nido e bello, is an Italian proverb that literally means (as near as I can tell) To every bird, his own nest is beautiful. It most closely translates to, according to the Internets, our There's no place like home.

And the wreath stand -- let's just say my husband rocks the power tools. It was fortunate, in a way, that I couldn't find a wreath hanger to buy, as it forced me to be creative. I had the wooden base on hand, and purchased a dowel, a robe hook, and a pretty knob to use as a finial. I *knew* BT could put everything together, but it seemed to me that drilling holes into a small round cylinder would be difficult. Of course he came through, and we made a wreath stand for about $5!

Hidden within the wreath are the teeny tiny clothespins. Guests should get a prize for finding one to clip their wish to, as they are cleverly disguised by the wreath itself.

Finally, I needed tags for folks to write their wishes. I stamped the tags with a cute Wish stamp, tied a bow at the top, and added a little glitter detail. I also made a little sign to tell guests how to use the wreath, but didn't get a pic. At this point the wreath and my gift are headed out to AZ via a family friend, so no more pictures until the shower!

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Favorite of the day: This shop came up on Ohdeedoh, and I simply *had* to have a top for Hank's Christmas stocking asap.

Working on: A crazy last minute gift that everybody has told me to quit and forget about it.

Party girl

Another party to prepare for - this time a baby shower for BT's cousin! Unfortunately I cannot attend the shower in person, as it is on the same day as Hank's birthday party, but I said I would help out with a few elements, including favors.

The shower colors are lavender, dark purple, lime green, and chocolate brown. In addition, the baby's name will be Italian, and means "little present." So, what better way to celebrate by giving a "little present" to the guests!

Even better that the boxes are Italian made, and the lime green and purple foil wrapped truffles inside (from Cost Plus) are flavors like hazelnut and pistachio. The sticker was a sample on this etsy seller's site (she does custom orders, but I was happy with the sample as shown!), and was easily converted by the seller to use as labels on the boxes by flip-flopping the colors. I *love* when things come together like this!

Tomorrow - a shower project that I volunteered to do, and ended up so much cheaper than expected. And includes Italian elements :)

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Recent favorite: I'm pretty sure this is the best scarf project to hit the internets. Not sure when she bought the perfect scarves, but my Dollar Tree does not have them...hrmpf.

Working on: Mad scramble to get the shower stuff done by Wednesday so I can send it to AZ with my mother-in-law to save on shipping!