So, I have these frames that are up on my piano, that I think will be a permanent-ish part of my décor, since I’ve had a good time so far just switching out what I put in them. So, for fall:
I just gathered some leaves and put them in there. They’re on burlap, and the big one has a book page layered in there, because it looks a lot more interesting that way than with a plain white piece of paper, which is what was there before. The book page is from my complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe, so that makes it Halloween-y, too. If you look closely. Inside the front cover of the book I found my list of things to do before I die from like 5 years ago. Number 60 is “Do more than one boy-style pushup.” I still haven’t done it. Because I can’t. Seriously, such wimpy arms.
The internet at my house is down. Blerg. It went down last night, right before I tried to post about these onsies. I lost the entire post. Not that it was really long, but it was pretty annoying. So I’m writing this in Word because it’s better than doing dishes.
I have a sweet friend who’s having her first baby next month, a boy. I missed her baby shower because of stupid pneumonia, but I finally got her gift to her:
You may recognize the style of the ones on the left from this post, but the two on the right are some new ones I thought up (except I kind of ripped off the turtle idea from Mini Boden). The submarine is yellow, which I think makes it awesome, and the turtle wraps around to the back and he has a little tail, which I think makes that one awesome.
Some close ups:
So, I’ve been considering selling these types of onsies on Etsy. I got my shop a little bit set up months ago now, but I still haven’t done it. Maybe it’s that I’m intimidated by all the fantastic stuff on there. Maybe I’m scared nothing will sell (which when I think about it, totally wouldn’t be a big deal). I’ve mostly gotten over my other fear, which was that there were a million other shops out there doing the exact same thing. I mean, there are a lot of shops that have appliquéd onsies, but they mostly seem to be little guy ties or ones with numbers, for birthdays. And the vast majority is on plain white onsies- I don’t think I’ve seen any others that are hand dyed. Or that have a hand-appliqué component to them.
So what do you think? Would mine sell? You can be honest, I can take it.
Uhg, I am so bugged right now. I'm looking for a picture of the jars that inspired me, and I cannot find it anywhere. The one with the frankenstein and the dracula and the pumpkin and the ghost mod podged with tissue paper. Where ever you are, blogger that did that, I tried to give you credit, I really did.
Baby food jars, modpodge+food coloring, a sharpie, and a string of Christmas lights. Ta-da!
There it is (was, I've taken it down). I don't put up Halloween stuff until October 1st. I haven't even gotten my fall stuff up, due to stupid pneumonia. Here's a picture from the process I want to share:
I put the holes in the lid with my rock hammer. In retrospect, there is probably a much better way to do this. Like with a drill. I did improve with the rock hammer, though. The one on the left is the first one I did (pretty sad, huh?), the one on the right looks more like the majority of them.
I just like this picture.
I would love to include some pictures of them with the lights on, but unfortunately the string of lights I used didn't work. Oh, it worked when I tested it out, but after everything all set to go and I plugged it in, no dice. And I don't have the energy to climb up into our attic loft and get down another thing of Christmas lights. Anyway, there you have it- my take on the plastic pumpkin string lights.
**UPDATE**
Thanks to the anonymous commenter that gave me the link to the picture I described. It was Crazy Domestic! Of course! She's brilliant. Here's the picture:
Here's the post. I think my favorite is the mummy in the middle. I love how the tissue strips are all wonky- you know, like the wrappings on a mummy!
Thank you all so much for the get well wishes. They're working! (Them and the antibiotics, I suppose.) I'm doing much better (although I still sound awful and need to rest a lot), and I thought I'd post some instructions for those of you who requested them for the vine pumpkin. It really was so easy, here it is summed up in one picture (that I drew in paint...ummm...it's not great).
It's an incomplete cross section, just enough to show what the vines are doing. After rubber banding them around the top, you just bend the rest into a circle a few at a time until you've gone all the way around. I'm hoping once the vines dry in that shape, I can get rid of a lot of the floral tape and the rubber band. Hope that all made sense- I looked up all the side effects of my medication and hallucinations is on there, so...hmmm.
{Sorry it's so super pixelated- I could only save the thumbnail image.}
Then I forgot about them. Then I was looking at a grapevine wreath in my craft supplies stash and I remembered them again. My version started out like this:
Yep, a pile of yard waste in my living room. Don't mind my little campout on the couch in the background- I have walking pneumonia. Yeah, it totally sucks. Anyway, all of that turned into this:
Quite a bit more rustic than the Target version, but I really like it. It's still being held together with a lot of floral tape and a rubber band (the white thing around the top), but I hope I'll be able to take most of that off once it dries. I'm not fooling myself, thinking it looks like a pumpkin, right?
**UPDATE**
I've added the how-to for this on a separate blog post
***ANOTHER UPDATE***
I took all the floral tape and rubber bands off of the pumpkin and now I love it more than ever:
Now it's just being held together with a length of picture hanging wire around the middle- I twisted the ends of the wire with pliers so I could get it really tightly. Then I took it outside because the light in my house was being crappy. Don't you love all those little curly vines sticking out of it everywhere? I do.
They're good for everything. And they only cost sixty cents! I use it, of course, when I go to IKEA, but I also use it when I go to Costco- I don't bring it in to the store, but when I'm loading my car in the parking lot, I put all my smaller items (small for Costco, at least) in the bag so they're easy to unload when I get home. I use it when I do my normal grocery shopping sometimes, too- especially if I've gotten a lot of cans. You could use them as a picnic basket, even. Or a small tent!
I have a door in my living room that opens onto a porch that we don't ever use. The plan is to enclose the porch and have it be my craft room/office someday. Ahhh, someday... Anyway, I saw a post about giving flat doors a paneled look with moulding a few days ago. I can't find it anywhere- if anybody out there knows what I'm talking about, let me know so I can give them the credit for inspiring me. All the interior doors at my house are flat and varnished wood, like the one above (except without the windows), and it's always been my plan to add moulding and paint them, but I think I might actually get around to it now (at least within the next few months). It really was inspiring to see how good the doors looked after. So, last night I was thinking about how I wanted to change my doors, but thinking about how the Depot was closed and how I've used up my craft allowance already, so it wasn't going to happen until next paycheck, but then I looked at this door (the porch door).
HA!
I realized I could change how it looked for free. Hopefully it will tide me over until I can buy moulding and do all the rest of the doors. I was ok with them for so long, but now that I've seen how they could be, I'm itching to paint and panel them all. Here's how the porch door looks now:
It brightens up that corner so much- it's awesome. And I just used leftover trim paint, so like I said-FREE!
Another thing that made a difference to me- see how much more the hardware stands out? It's cool stuff, too. It's kind of bronzey coppery and I really like it.
The hinges:
Now I just need to figure out some curtains for it- no way am I putting the old blinds back up (they were old and had a permanently dirty look to them).
Even though I only have one child, I feel like I'm an expert on bibs. I've tried so many many kinds, and this is the one I use day to day:
These are great. However, there is a type of bib I like even better, but that I only just got around to making. It's the kind my mom has at her house for the grandkids to use. This kind:
{It looks like she's going to cry, but she wasn't sad.}
It's just a dishtowel and some knit scraps. But the coverage is wonderful. And that's what I'm looking for, now that most of the food Mim drops is intentional, the pocket bibs are not as effective as they once were. Anyway, it's super easy. I got a dishtowel from the dollar store and cut a hole in it. Then I cut a strip of knit the same length as the circumference of the neck hole.
The strip of knit I used was 3.5 inches, so after it was folded in half and you take the seams into account, the finished width was 1.5 inches. I added a simple applique at the bottom out of the same blue knit- a bird.
The eye of the bird isn't permanent- it'll wash out (and I'm glad, because it looks weird). Here it is, in action:
I'm liking it a lot. I'm going to make a bunch more, since you can't just rinse these in the sink and reuse (which is great about the baby bjorn one). There are, however, a lot of pros:
+Total coverage- I don't have to strip Mim down at all, because this covers everything. +At 1$ and less than 10 minutes to make, it's not a major investment in any way. I know they'll end up being stained beyond recovery, but it won't be a big deal. +It comes up snug underneath her chin (no gaps for food to fall down and ruin clothes). +Comfortable- sometimes the pocket of the stiff bib would prevent Mim from leainning forward like she wanted to. +The length. Any food that does get dropped unintentionally just rolls down the bib and onto the floor, leaving her clothes untouched. I'm going to have to clean the floor anyway, so it's not a big deal.
One major drawback: not waterproof. That's getting to be less and less an issue, though, with her hand eye coordination improving. Hooray!
I think I'm going to switch over entirely. Ah, to the dollar store!
Still nothing new. I did get out my fall decorations, though. I haven't distributed around the house yet- that'll probably be this weekend. Although it is the perfect weather for it now (those other Utah people out there know what I'm talking about- 75 during the day and down into the 50's at night- lovely, wonderful, perfect). Anyway, I found these when I was going through my fall stuff:
My no-sew fabric pumpkins. I made them at a church activity the fall after Mike and I were married- they were one of the first decorations that I made for our little apartment and they're still one of my favorites. They're also one of the easiest I've ever done. Ready? You take a circle of fabric- for the littler pumpkins I think it was about 18-20 inches in diameter (I'm betting a fat quarter would be just about right) and for the larger pumpkin, about 30-32 inches in diameter. Then you put some poly fill in the middle of the circle and gather the fabric up around it. Make sure it's not going to be to full- you need to be able to maneuver it around to create a flat-ish bottom and a more pumpkin-like shape. Then you take a twig or cut stick and hold that in the middle of your gather and tie it closed with raffia and/or some scrap fabric. And... done! So easy, right? And the possibilities are endless- I'm going to make some with orange and natural burlap, and I'll probably replace the raffia with twine on the ones I've already made. You could make an orange felt one and then cut out jack o lantern shapes and faces on black felt, and then you have a toy/decoration, which are so so useful.
{The rest of my 3 pumpkin set}
I thought of a new craft for tomorrow. That's right, I'm going to make something for the first time in like a week. Weird.
