Fluffy Purple Monster and the Tree of Seasons

I've been busy putting up my Halloween decorations around the house lately.  Nothing too over the top.  I'm much more of a Christmas nut.

However, I did take on two crafty projects this season.  One was a wreath for the front door.  Last year I received a purple and black tulle wreath as a gift and it had the letters KSU on the bottom.  A couple months ago, I found this link on Pinterest:

How stinkin' cute is that?!  & I already have the wreath!

So here's what I did:
Flipped it around.  Yep.  I left the letters on, just flipped it over.
Cut some scary teeth out of white felt.  And I even already had the felt!
Bought a pack of ping pong balls for $1.26 and colored eyes on with a Sharpy.
For the teeth, I busted out the trusty hot glue gun and glued them on to the back of the wreath.
For the eyes, I stuck tooth picks into the ping pong balls and the stuck the other end in to the wreath (which had a styrofoam base).

And Ta-da!

Rowan refers to it as the "Fluffy Purple Monster".  In hind sight, I wish I would have used a different color for the teeth.  However, next spring I'd like to pain the front door a peacock blue, so by next Halloween it won't make any difference!

There's something very Muppet-esque about this guy.  I love it!

The other project I whipped up quick was a revamp of my Tree of Seasons.  I've done a few posts in the past on it, but here's what it looked like last year for Halloween:

For Christmas last year I received the Create a Critter 2 cartridge for my Cricut machine and have been putting it to good use for this tree.  For this year, I made two new critters in much better costumes and added a much better looking jack-o-latern.

I'm so much more in love with it this year!  And look at the cute little trick-or-treat bags!  Maybe next year I'll add a spider hanging from the tree.  

Since we're leaving this weekend to visit my parents for two weeks, I think this is all the craftiness that I'll be doing for Halloween this year.  

Next up, Thanksgiving!

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Halloween will be upon us soon! I decided I better get started on Rowan's costume, especially since we'll be in Kansas for two weeks in the middle of the month.

 I really had to rack my brain for a Halloween costume for my little guy this year. He's not quite old enough to really have an idea of what he wants to be, but he's definitely old enough to know what he will (or won't!) wear. Hats are usually a no go, so I'm assuming anything else on face won't fly either. 

He's recently gotten in to the show Dinosaur Train on PBS lately, so I thought perhaps some type of simple dino costume might be fun. Then I ran across this awesome tutorial via Pinterest: http://www.running-w-scissors.com/2011/03/dinosaur-tails.html

 I followed the directions to a 'T' (for once!) and it turned out super cute!

In true toddler form, Rowan was all excited about it for 2 minutes.  He ran around like crazy in the tail, then suddenly it absolutely had to come off.  It hasn't been touched since.  Every time I suggest it, he gets all grumpy.  Now if I wear the tail, it's hilarious!  

Perhaps if I get the rest of the costume done he'll be more excited about it.  I bought a blue hoody and am going to add spikes to it in the same way I added spikes to Rowan's dino towel.  I'd also like to make some dino feet, but I haven't quite figured out how yet.  

I'll give updates as the costume comes along!

Weekly Pinterest Roundup

Here's the best of the best from my Pinterest pinning this week.  Enjoy!




Don't hate me, but yes, I'm thinking about Christmas already. This skirt is super cute! I need to get all the felt and maybe I can work on it while I'm visiting my mom in KS next month...



Rowan's been really into telescopes and binoculars lately. These would be super easy to make and I can just see him running around the zoo or the park with them. & the washi tape is a great touch!



Rowan's not quite old enough for this yet (he's got more of a prance than a hop right now), but how fun would this be to have in yard?

Don't forget that you can follow me on Pinterest here to keep up with all my pinning happiness! I'm a little addicted so there's always new stuff!

This Aint no Rolex...

Why is it that little girls get all the fun accessories?  There just isn't much fun stuff out there for little boys.  Occasionally a cute hat, but we've entered the no-hat phase (unless Daddy is wearing the same hat) so that's out.

Enter Pinterest!  I ran across a pin from a board on felt crafts that pictured a little watch made of felt.  How fun!  Unfortunately, it was a dead pin (it didn't lead to anything) so I have no idea where it came from.  Luckily, I've got mad craft skills.  Didn't take long to whip up this:

I decided to close it with a snap instead of velcro because I thought velcro was too bulky.  It's still a smidge big on Rowan, but he'll grow in to it ;)  

He loves it.  You can ask him what time it is, and he looks at it really thoughtfully and says, "Almost 6 o'clock".  

I'm thinking of selling them in my Etsy shop.  What do you think?

Shed a Little Light

If you've been following, you've seen that I've been slowly reworking Rowan's room.  No more Winnie the Pooh.  Hello tractors!  Here's a few pics of what I've done so far:

So as you can see, I've got a tractor/country thing going with the chambray and the check.  Very little boyish, if you ask me!

The next thing his room needed was a lamp.  All I had was the overhead light.  The problem was that I had to place to put a lamp.  Heaven knows I couldn't put it on his changing table, and we're not quite potty trained enough yet to do away with changing table.  

Well now, what about that blank wall by the door?  Hmmm...how about something for some toy storage/organization?  So while my husband was out of town, look what appeared!

It's a handy little set of cubbies!  I'm thinking about painting it red?  Thoughts?  

So now that I have something to put a lamp on, what next?  There just so happened to be a lamp that was not in use, so I snagged it!  (You can see it above without the lampshade.)

Nothing special.  I think perhaps it came Wal-Mart.  But what a boring shade!  Wait!  There's extra fabric from the curtain and pillowcase project!  I could totally cover the shade.  Should be a piece of cake.

Let me just say that that's a super tricky shape to work with.  Luckily, I had a bunch of big, blank paper work with.  It only took me two tries to get a decent pattern to work with.

I ended up laying the shade down, holding a pencil on the end and rolling it as I traced the shape.   Then I divided it into 2 pieces and added my seam allowances.  I used those pieces to cut out the red check for the tap piece and the chambray for the bottom.  Next, I sewed the pieces together and hemmed the top and side edges.  I wanted to make sure that the bottom was nice and even, so wrapped the fabric around the shade and clothes pinned it at the top.  Then I pinned up the bottom making sure I was even.  After the pinning, one more hem to be sewn, then off to glueing!  

A few squirts of fabric glue and a ton of clothes pins later, I had this:

At which point I realized I forgot to sew the ric-rac down.  *head smacks on desk*  So i cheated and glued the ric-rac down too :)  Maybe it's not technically cheating, but it sure felt like.  I'm curious to see if it will fall off sometime down the road...

A few hours later the glue seemed mostly dry and I had this:

I think it looks super cute and really ties the room together.  However, I can't lie.  The picture looks better than the finished product.  In reality, it's a little bubbly.  Somehow the fabric just wouldn't lay on there exactly right.  Just don't look too close at it.

And yes, that's a piece of Tupperware filled with money.  Rowan broke his piggy bank awhile back and we haven't replaced it yet.  A plastic box seemed like a safe alternative for now.  

Does Rowan like the lamp?  Honestly, I don't think he's even noticed it.  But gosh darn it, it makes me happy!

Here Comes Mickey

I finally finished the patterns for my Mickey quiet book!  I'm really quite excited.  At first, there were only going to be about 10 pages, but there ended up being 18!  Once I started brainstorming, the ideas just kept coming.

For a quick preview, here's a list of the page titles:

1.  Build the Clubhouse
2.  Button Mickey's shorts
3.  Tie Minnie's bow
4.  Help Goofy get dressed
5.  Buckle Pluto's collar
6.  Find Donald's hat
7.  Brush Daisy's ponytail
8.  The gangs's all here!
9.  Match Clarabell's cookies
10-11.  Count Pete's beads
12.  See what tools Toodles has
13.  Solve the picture puzzle
14.  Try on Mickey's glove
15.  Count the Mickey's
16-17.  Drive the toon car
18.  Catch a gooey fish

Yesterday I got all the muslin and interfacing cut out for the pages.

I know using felt for the page bases is all the rage right now, but I chose to go a different route.  I'm just not convinced that felt will hold up over time to the rough use of little hands.  My grandma made most of hers out of muslin and they're still in great shape for my little guy to play with.  Also, muslin (with some light interfacing) is oober cheap compared to using high quality felt!  I added some lightweight interfacing to give the muslin a little more body and to help hide some of the stitching.

Here's a little embroidery trick I've picked up this past year: print your pattern off on the computer, cut it out, pin it down, and just stitch right over it!  When you're done, use some tweezers and pick it out.  This is by far the easiest way of transferring a pattern.  & it works on any type of material.

Now to start cutting out all felt pieces....

Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's a few treasures I found on Pinterest this week!




My inner child and my inner Star Wars geek both love this picture :)



One of the pages I've been designing for my Mickey quiet book is "Catch a gooey fish". This is great inspiration for how to do it! There's a paper clip sticking out of the top of the fish and then there's a magnet in the "hook" on the fishing pole. You can actually fish with this page! How epically cool is that?



I LOVE this bag. To pieces. I've been thinking that Rowan needs a bag other than the diaper bag to haul stuff around in. Something like this would be big enough to fit his quiet books in AND it isn't super girly. Next time my husband wears out a pair of jeans, this bag is happening.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day weekend and isn't melting in the humidity :)