:: a happy nest ::

this is how it happens.

I finished this wreath last night, and now it's happily hanging on our front door. Whenever I post pictures of a craft project, I'm often asked how I do it all. Every time I'm asked this, I have to laugh, because it often takes a monumental effort to finish anything around here {just ask my mister}.  In the spirit of this post, I thought I'd share a little of how this wreath came to be.

There were:

• 5 days of working on this 15 minutes at a time - between snacks and coloring and playdates and cleaning up + 2 nights of work between her bedtime and when I collapsed into bed
• 1 very messy table scattered with felt scraps and drips from the glue gun {remember, for 5 days}
• 1 irritated husband {see above}
• 1 sink of dirty dishes {repeat, several times} 
• 26 curse words
• 2 times throwing the whole thing into the trash can
• 52 tears {mine}
• 3 pinterest searches
• 1 {very minor} burn from the glue gun 
• 489 tears {hers} resulting from said burn
• 1 princess bandaid
• 16 encouraging words {hers}

{this is the first version of the wreath, before I gave the lace a haircut}

. . . . . . . . .

In truth, the wreath isn't my favorite. I do love the way the flowers came out, but that's about it. And you know what, I'm going with it, imperfections and all. Because it's good enough. And we made it together. And that's the most important thing of all.

. . . . . . . . .

{and on a more serious note, I've been asked for a tutorial for these flowers. I have a few more flowers to make, and I'll post my process as soon as I can}

handmade father's day.

For father's day, Thea and I wanted to make something really special for her dad. After she spent a couple of afternoons creating pictures of things she likes to do with her dad, I had the idea to make a little book out of her drawings. The mister sure loves books, and he loves things made by his little miss, so we figured it would be the perfect gift.

I cut sheets of watercolor paper into rectangles and then folded them in half. Thea went crazy drawing her pictures: fishing with daddy, roasting marshmallows with daddy, making music with daddy, and on and on. Then, I helped her spell out the words she wanted to accompany each drawing. 

For the cover, we used a heavier gauge watercolor paper. We started out "painting" the cover with bleeding tissue paper and a spray bottle. Once the paper was dry, I cut out a rectangle slightly larger than the book's inside pages. 

To bind the book, I poked holes in each page and the cover (one at a time, since they are kind of thick). To make sure all the holes lined up, I started with one page and then used that as a guide to punch the other pages and the cover. I used a large backstitch to sew the book together.

Easy peasy! And I just love the way it turned out.

What are your favorite handmade gifts for the guys in your life?

 

stitching together.

One of my favorite things to do - especially at the end of the day - is to busy my hands with an embroidery project. There is something magical about the slow(er) pace of hand sewing: feeling the fabric and thread in my hands, the work of the needle, and seeing the project slowly come to life. 

Since I'm often with a project in hand - Thea has been asking me to teach her to sew. We have fiddled a bit with stitching before, but she seemed to become frustrated that her projects didn't look very much like mine. With mixed results, we tried free stitching, as well as me tracing a shape for her to work on. 

Yet she was determined that she wanted to sew something for her grandmothers' mothers' day presents. The projects turned out beautifully (our gift for her Omie is pictured above) - so I thought I'd share a bit about how we did it.

To start, you'll need some basic materials: fabric; a marker, pencil, or something to create your pattern; and a template to trace (if, like me, freehand drawing is not a strength).

You'll also need an embroidery hoop (I find plastic ones to be sturdier & easier for little hands to work with) and large child-safe needles (the ones pictured are plastic). And of course, thread (not pictured). We usually use regular cotton embroidery thread, all six strands. I find that using a length no more than 18 inches is easiest: it helps prevent thread tangling and wear - and is easier for small hands to pull stitches tight.

Burlap is one of my favorite fabrics for stitching with my wee girl - it's thick weave nicely accomodates the large needles we use, and I do like the look of it. I was lucky to score a huge amount of burlap at the thrift store for just a few dollars - and it has lasted me for several years.

Use your marker to create your pattern using dotted lines. The dots serve as stitch guides. Using dotted lines finally allowed my sweet girl (4 years) to create the pattern she wanted. 

I used a thick mark-b-gone pen, which made for large, visible dots that also bled through to the back of the fabric. 

This was helpful so that my girl could turn the hoop over and see where to make her next stitch.

The ink from this marker fades away when sprayed with water, leaving only your pretty stitches. I do love these pens, but I have had mixed results with burlap.

I have found that on burlap, the ink does not disappear, but instead migrates to the edges of the fabric. With that said, I will still use it for projects with my girl, but I will be sure to factor that into my cutting of the fabric

Be sure to start with a large enough piece of fabric, stitch, and then spray. Once the fabric has dried and the ink migration is complete, you can cut out any additional pattern (I traced a circle using a regular pencil).

To create the template for the word "love" in the middle of the heart, I printed out the words in a size and font that I like. I then positioned it where I wanted it on the back of the fabric, using tape to secure. Then I taped the fabric to a window and traced the letters.

The photo above is the finished gift for her Mema. Thea helped picked the fabric, thread colors, and buttons, and, after she had stitched the hearts (all by herself!) I stitched the remaining elements together.

She is so proud of her work! And I am so proud of her.

merry making.

We've been busy little elves preparing our home for the holidays. I always forget how much I love crafting decorations for the season. It really seems to get me in the holiday spirit.

My most favorite creation so far is our winter snowflake wreath, which hangs on the front door. Ours was inspired by Annalea's - once I saw hers, I had to make one of my own.

I love the combination of colorful yarn, vintage lace, happy jingle bells, and my mother's doileys. I didn't have one quite large enough to span the entire center of the wreath, so, to fill the space, I ended up knotting it together with another piece of vintage lace.

I also made one to hang on my studio wall.

Thea and John collected some greenery from the yard to decorate our window boxes. I made these bows from red and white ribbon, and I love the cheer they bring to the front of the house.

And the snowglobes! I've seen these mason jar snow globes lots of places around the web, and, since Thea has been begging for a snowglobe of her own, I knew we had to make a few. They're so simple! And lovely too.

We also made several of these felt snowmen (made from felt beads and felt scraps), and we thought a few would be fun in the snowglobes.

This mama and baby deer is Thea's favorite one.

We have all of the snowglobes clustered on our mantle.

And speaking of the mantle, I strung a colorful garland of felt balls to brighten things up. I'm really loving decorating with lots of bright colors this year.

And tonight, I finished new stockings for me and my mister. Photos of those to come soon!

And now I'm off for a bit of rest so that I can {try to} keep up with my girl tomorrow.

teacher love.

Over the past month, I've twice put together gifts for Thea's teachers. Pictured above are our holiday gifts. I made ornaments from polymer clay, stamping words onto each one and adding texture with fabric and notions.

I'm still not sure how I feel about polymer clay, as I'm not convinced of it's safety, but I do love the result.

(Silly me, in my rush of holiday crafting, I didn't thoroughly research this product and any potential risks or side effects before hand. That's the last time I'll just assume that a craft supply that is "safe for kids" is non-toxic without doing my own research first!)

In the photo above, I stamped the clay with ink and used a corner of one of my mother's vintage doileys to create texture. I first saw this idea on pinterest, and I just love it so much!

For several of the ornaments, I used a vintage button to imprint a pretty design into the clay.

I also created texture with fabric (burlap looks fantastic!). On the ornament above, I pressed a scrap of lace fabric into the clay.

The ornaments hung outside to embellish the bags, which we filled with homemade vanilla cookies. I love that with the recipe we used, the dough did not need to be refrigerated before rolling.

For her two regular teachers, I also made a grouping of paper stars.

I used this tutorial, which I originally saw on Maya's blog.

In November, I made the teachers appreciation gifts for all of the hard work they do taking care of and teaching all of the littles. I made rolled felt flower pins, which hung on the outside of a bag filled with local chocolates.

The flowers are so easy and fun to make! To create the pins, I grouped three different sized flowers together.

What are your favorite teacher gifts?

chevron felt wreath tutorial.

We started decorating for the holidays today, and after seeing Rebekah's sweet wreath, I was inspired to make a little something of my own. I've been very into chevron lately, and I thought it would be fun to try this on a wreath.

Here's how I made it:

supplies:

straw or styrofoam wreath (mine is covered in burlap, left over from an unfinished project)

felt (I used wool-blend scraps left over from another project a total of about 78" x 9" for this 12 inch wreath)

scissors

ruler

pencil

cardstock for making template

fabric or ribbon for hanging your wreath

 

First measure around your wreath so you know the width of your felt strips. My wreath measured 8 inches around, so I made my strips 9 inches wide to allow for some overlap.

Next, make your template.

 I cut a piece of cardstock to 9 inches in width.

Use your ruler to make 2 parallel lines. Mine were 3/4 inch apart.

Make marks to create the diagonal lines for the chevron pattern. Mine are 3/4 inch apart from each other (so the dots on each line are 1 1/2 inches apart - does that make sense?)

Use your ruler to connect the dots to make the zig zag/chevron pattern.

Use your template to create your pattern on your felt.

Measure all the way around your wreath to make sure that you have enough strips of felt to cover the whole wreath.

I laid out all of my strips to confirm I had cut enough strips and to make sure that I liked the color pattern. I lined up the points in the diagonal to creat the chevron pattern.

And then I started glueing:

You could also glue down the points in the chevron, though I got lazy and didn't do this all the way around.

Glue all the way around your wreath, making sure the diagonal points in the chevron pattern line up.

My strips were out of alignment on the back side, but I just kept going.

It may look a bit messy and out of alignment when you get back around to the top of the wreath, but don't worry, as this will be covered up by your hanging ribbon.

I took a 3 inch piece of fabric, torn selvedge to selvedge and wrapped it around my wreath to cover the place where I started and stopped gluing the strips, tied a knot and hung it on the wall.

I'm now wishing the strips were a bit closer together, but oh well. I think it just needs a little embellishment - maybe some jingle bells - and then it will be holly jolly.

Happy creating!

 

 

an autumn wreath.

I know most everyone is moving onto anticipation of the winter holidays, but I'm holding onto autumn for just a bit longer. I was late in making my autumn wreath for the door, just getting it up a couple weeks ago. It makes me happy whenever I look at it, so I'll keep it up for at least a few days more.

Thea and I made the main part of the wreath together. She helped me tear strips of fabric and wrap them around the wreath, and picked which colors would go where. We used a mix of modern and vintage fabrics, including one of my favorite vintage prints featuring sweet little flowers and mushrooms. Bits of yarn and lace finished it off. She proudly hung it on the door.

I loved it, but felt like it was missing something, so I decided to try making a few rolled felt flowers. They ended up being super easy and were just what this little wreath needed. I'll be sad to take it down.

And now I'm a bit addicted to making these sweet flowers!

I hope you're having a lovely week!

in progress: thea's new room

For the past couple weeks, I've been working hard on transforming Thea's room into a sweet space for our curious and playful three (and a half!) year-old.

Here's a little peek at what I've been up to:

deciding

 

painting

stitching

crafting

and some new {old} furniture too.

There's still a lot to do, but I'm excited about how it is coming along. I'll be sharing more details soon!

 

celebrating.

Yesterday, our sweet little girl turned THREE!

Last week, we had lots of fun getting ready to celebrate.

I made her a birthday shirt.

And a special birthday crown.

We made cupcakes, and used this fun teplate to make happy flags to top our sweet treats.

And we made our own crayons to give to Thea's friends from her preschool class.

I think I had as much fun (or more) as she did!

What are your favorite ways to celebrate your little ones?

 

the 65 roses project : take 2.

As many of you know, in October 2009, my niece Caroline was born with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic disease that primarily impacts the lungs and pancreas - leading to severe lung infections and reduced ability to absorb fats (and more importantly fat soluble vitamins) that, taken together, substantially reduce life expectancy.

Caroline has the Delta F508 gene mutation. This mutation is considered the most severe CF mutation because it affects BOTH the respiratory and digestive systems. We are so grateful that at 18 months, Caroline has remained incredibly healthy, and is a thriving little girl.

Last year, to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, my brother and his friend Matt hiked 30+ miles through the mountains of North Carolina. In support of his fundraising efforts, I made and sold 65 fabric roses - raising $1000. Last year, my brother and Matt raised over $30,000 for the the CFF.

When my brother told me the significance of the phrase "65 roses," I knew that this would be the theme of my fundraising efforts. "Sixty-five roses" is what some children with CF call their disease, because those words are easier for them to pronounce. You can read the story about how this phrase was adopted by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation here.

This year, my brother is a hike leader and the group of participants has grown from 30 last year to over 80 this year. Last year, the group raised $160,000. This year, they're almost at $300,000!

 

I was so happy to learn that $.90 of every dollar donated to the CFF goes to RESEARCH to FIND a CURE for CF.

 

This year, in support of my brother's fundraising efforts, I am making several types of roses - sewn fabric roses (two styles in various colors), earrings, hair clips, and sewn t-shirts. Those pictured in this post are a few examples of what I will be offering for sale.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing more about Caroline's daily life as a kid with cystic fibrosis, as well as a bit about the good that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is doing  - including how they recently advocated for my brother's family when Caroline lost coverage for her care at UNC.

 

 

I hope you will check back for updates. Thanks in advance for your support of my family, and of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.