Wonderland

Happy Fourth Birthday to my little “Alice”, you make my world Wonderland everyday! 

I have said it before and I will say it again, I LOVE to plan me a party. Not many themes are more fun than Alice in Wonderland. I have been obsessed and Ava and I had a blast planning and creating this celebration.  From the storybook invitations to the eat me cookies I am so proud of this party.  The table was adorned with goodies found from Craigslist, Goodwill and the Flea Market.  I hand sewed bread and butterflies, made place cards for each character and made “drink me” tags for the tea pots.

The guests entered Wonderland threw a tunnel and a cardboard rabbit hole.  I had a bin of costumes, some hand made some purchased, to dress up in.  My Little Alice however is sporting an adorable apron found on Etsy from, Peapodray.  Could she be any cuter?  I also purchased amazing Wonderland things on a stick from, Joosycardco on Etsy (SO FUN).  They decorated a cardboard house, the white rabbits house, with markers and stickers.  They collected roses scattered throughout the room to paint red, had a caucus race, and played some croquet with a flamingo and hedgehog of course.

Tea sandwiches, fruit, decaf berry tea, eat me cookies, shortbread and chocolate tea bag cookies and cupcakes rounded out the menu for the little ones while the mama’s sampled quiche and mimosas!  YUM!  Ella LOVED her cupcake and I love that I captured her little tongue frosting tasting.

The project I am most proud of has to be my wool felt mushroom stool with a tree stump base.  It is so cute and sturdy.  I cannot wait to put together a little reading playing nook for the girls to house it in.

Take Me:  I made each favor bag unique with an image and quote from the original story.  The guests took home their tea cup and saucer, four playing card mint truffles and an Alice sticker book.  For the girls I made Alice character inspired hair clips and for our “Mad Hatter”, who sadly was sick and unable to attend (Missed you Noah), a hedgehog finger puppet. Overall, a whirlwind but a whirlwind of success.  It may be 10 months away but time to start planning for next year Ella will be two.  A balloon party it is!

“Sometimes I believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

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Something Special

I am sure it is not just Ella, but most second children, who get very little that is theirs only. I have bought a couple outfits that her sister did not first adorn but mostly it is hand me downs. Even true with Ella’s room which is basically Ava’s old nursery. I have tried to add a couple small details and when it is time to shift to the big girl bed I will work my design magic for something uniquely Ella. Until then she has her hand made yarn name (seen in the previous post) and this new hair clip holder.  I found the tin sign on sale at Hobby Lobby and knew it would be perfect.  The perfect colors and saying.  When Ella was first born and of course came out crying I held her and sang, “You are my sunshine” and she completely stopped crying. Ever since it has been our song.

Here are the other hair clip holders I have made in the past.  Love these too but is just perfect for Ella!

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Valentine Cards 2012

So I have yet to enter the rabbit hole of Pintrest. That however has not stopped me from using it as a wonderful search engine of endless craft and inspirational ideas. I have decided that once my business blog is up I will officially set up an account. This year Ava completed two different crafts.

For her teachers she created traditional Valentines using stickers, doilies and foam shaped hearts. I added a Starbucks sleeve and gift card to the back and the saying “Ava Loves you a latte!” I love them!

For her classmates and friends we made heart shaped crayons!  Ava was a great label peeler and crayon breaker for about 30 min.  She did color each tag and sticker them with hearts and it was an excellent color sorting activity.  This project could not be easier.  You just peal the crayons, break them, sort them by color family, fill the silicone heart shape molds, bake 300 degrees for 10 min or until melted and let cool.  We added about a teaspoon of glitter to each mold before adding the crayons for a little sparkle!

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Christmas Gift Crafting: Travel Train and Car Mat

What would Christmas be without something homemade!  Since Ava’s favorite toys these days are Thomas and the characters from Cars what could be more fitting than a travel train and car mat.  If you remember last year I spent countless hours hand stitching a felt zoo and farm play mat.  I LOVE it but this time I decided to save time and order this very cool fabric on Etsy (which I can no longer find so no link) that had the scene already on it.  All that was left to do was back it with denim and create a side pocket area for all her friends.  I also sewed a ribbon on the end to roll it up, tie it shut and pack it away!

The True Story:  I totally bought the wrong Thomas trains for Ava’s wooden train set on Craigslist.  Feeling beyond dumb and taken I had to find a creative solution to use my un-usable trains and turn my major faux pas into crafting genius!  So now her wood trains stay home and her Take Along Thomas can travel where ever she does!!!  Plus it is pretty cute and I get to say, “Ya, I made that!”

 

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Presenting….

Ava’s big girl room…

DONE! Last night was Ava’s first night in her new room. She was so excited, slept in and woke up with a huge smile! SUCCESS!

I am so proud of all that went into creating this space and so happy with the results.

The walls are adorned with handmade yarn letters, a handmade origami mobile, tree decal from Land of Nod, hooks and small fabric a from Anthropologie, a fabulous $10 sale clock, my favorite black and white prints of Ava and Larry, and a hand drawn canvas using sharpies (inspired by Schumacher wallpaper).

All the furniture was either Craigslist or reused from my former classroom. I am not quite sure I plan on ever refinishing a dresser again but I LOVE the results, from the anthropologie knobs to the fabric lining the drawers.

Both the bedding and curtains are Land of Nod and the largest splurge in the room.  All the other details were extremely economical.  The bookends were each $2 (I especially love the frog prince I found at ROSS of all places), dollar bin orange chalk buckets,  and the wire baskets and jewelry box were flea market finds.  Finally all her Jelly Cat friends to keep her company.  Jelly Cats are my FAVORITE stuffed friends and the most cuddly!

Thanks to daddy as well for the well hung decor and painting expertise!  love truly is in every detail!

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A Fairy House

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” ~Albert Einstein

Ava loves fairies. She asks Larry daily to fly her around the house as she shouts, “I’m a fairy. Look I’m flying, I am a fairy.”

With all the rain here in the northwest it was time for a project. Larry decided a fairy house was the perfect solution to our rainy Sunday!  The finished product is pretty amazing if you ask me! We even had furniture from Auntie Sara waiting for a doll house someday… for now a fairy house will do!  Every time she walks past it she says, “Thank you mommy and daddy for making my fairy house.”  I just love this age of imagination where everything is magical!

There is something about her look of wonder that I just love about this photo!

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TOP 10!!!

WOW!!! I am so honored! I entered my handmade felt play mat in Rikrak’s Homemade Olympic contest… AND… it made the TOP 10!!!!

I cannot tell you how exciting this is!  If you have a moment please click on the Rikrak picture link below and vote for my item:

Felt Play Mat by Tulle and Toile! There are so many amazing items in all the events so take a look around!  But vote for me~ HA!

CLICK ON PICTURE TO VOTE!

 

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Craft Frenzy #5: The Oven Mitt

So I have come to the conclusion that crafts and sewing is a dangerously addictive habit! And I have not even broken out the sewing machine.  So far I have been an all hand stiched gal!  For what ever reason the sewing machine completly intimadates me!  I am hoping for some help when my mom arrives to finish up the crafts on my list!  It certainly will be a lot faster!

Ava’s two favorite things to cook in her oven are cookies and cupcakes both items that demand a proper oven mitt! Her Melissa and Doug cookie set came with an adorable red and white check oven mitt but her kitchen is pink! What to do?

So, I used the red and white oven mitt as a pattern and created these which perfectly match her adorable kitchen and aprons. I lined them with a fun flannel pattern and made loops adorned with buttons to create proper storage. With no where to hang the oven mitts I purchased S hooks from Lowes! PERFECT!

**They have no real insulation purely for play! Plus toddlers should not handle hot food even with the proper mitts!

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Craft Frenzy #4: The Purse

OK so I think I am finally hitting my crafting wall despite the fact that there are more projects on the to do list. The nesting motivation is slowing which hopefully means we will be welcoming Ella any day!  Perhaps my mom and a sewing machine tutorial can help me finish up my list next month.  Meanwhile I will share my felt finale… THE PURSE!

As I said I loved the flowers from my hair clip organizers so much I just had to find another use for them…. the answer, a purse.  Ava loves carrying all her STUFF so now a pretty purse will help with the task! It was fun and has endless possibilities in size, shape, colors… I could just make these!  However as I said, for now a break from the needle and thread…

 

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Craft Frenzy #3: Hair Clip Organization

NESTING!  NESTING!  NESTING!

I am obsessed!  My house needs to be spotless, the baby stuff cleaned and ready and everything, I mean EVERYTHING needs to have a place!  I am normally organized.  Some may say slightly OCD but when I hit a pregnant nesting phase watch out there is no stopping me.  Just look at how much I have blogged this week.  I am determined to get all my drafted articles published and caught up before Ella’s arrival~

I decided that Ava’s former diaper caddy needs to now move upstairs to Ella’s area.  This sent her hair clip and pony tail holders to the land of no home which is unacceptable!  Since I cannot seem to snap out of my creative felt addicted state I came up with the perfect solution!  I LOVE these!!!!!  The ribbons hold all the clips I need them to and the felt leaf pockets at the bottom hold pony tail holders! Not to mention that the flowers are so fun!  Someday when I start an Etsy shop these will definitely be among my products!  I loved the flowers so much that I am currently creating a new flower purse for my little princess.  More to come on that later….

Check out my most recent hair clip organizer here!

 

 

 

 

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