Category Archives: Projects

Transition

26 Monday Nov 2012

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We are half way between pumpkins and snow here.  Ada finished her last piece of coveted (and formerly forbidden) Halloween candy today and moved directly into making Christmas decorations.  A mysterious box arrived in the mail from Aunt Laurel, containing a full advent calendar in the shape of a stuffed elf that is as big as the girls.  Aunt Anna came up with the idea of filling and mailing the advent calendar to a different member of our family each year and Ada is completely intrigued by the elf’s full pockets.  There are lots of beautiful advent calendar ideas on the blogs this year – Oh Happy Day and You Are My Fave have some great ones.  The change in the season always brings on a flurry of making around here.  We have surrounded ourselves with yarn, glitter, felt and fabric and are excited about secret gift plans.  What are you getting excited about for the upcoming season?

DIY German Glass Glitter Stars

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Party!, Projects

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German glass glitter is amazing stuff.  It tarnishes as it ages and creates a super-sparkly vintage look.  We used silver to make our stars, but the glitter also comes in lots of beautiful colors.  German glass glitter is actually made from glass, so you need be careful and wear gloves when you work with it, but the results are worth the extra care.  We made these star and moon decorations for a friend’s birthday party.  They hung on the edges of a stage and were bright in the candle and stage lights.  We took some home for Ada’s room after the party.  To make your own Glass Glitter Stars you will need:

*Cardboard (We used recycled boxes)

*German Glass Glitter

*Craft Glue

*Hole Punch

*Scissors

*Large Paintbrush (To spread glue)

*String to Hang

*Wax Paper

*Rubber Gloves (to protect hands)

1. Draw stars and moon shapes onto cardboard and cut out.

2. Punch a hole in each for hanging.

3. Lay cardboard shapes out on layers of wax paper and squeeze a generous amount of glue on each star.

4. Using the paintbrush, spread glue evenly over the entire surface of stars and moon.

5. Put on the gloves.  Sprinkle glitter heavily over glue and leave a thick layer of glitter as the glue dries.  Be sure to leave the punched hole clear of glitter.  Use a pencil to clean out hole if needed.

6. Carefully shake off excess glitter onto the wax paper when glue is dry.  The paper can then be folded and extra glitter returned to the container for reuse.

7. Flip stars and moon over and repeat glue and glitter process.  (Don’t forget to leave your hole clear for hanging).

8. When both sides of stars are dry, string them up out of reach of the kids.

*These stars would make beautiful Christmas tree ornaments or garland!

Some other sparkly projects you might like:

DIY Vintage Crepe Paper Flower Hat

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in Party!, Projects, Vintage

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My Mother-in-Law gave me this amazing How to Make Crepe Paper Flowers book for my birthday last year and I have been waiting for the right time to put it to use.  My copy is from 1922 and contains the secrets to making realistic flowers from crepe paper.  Needles to say, I am in love with this book!  Ebay has several copies for sale here.  The flowers turned out better than I had thought possible and we used them to make a special birthday hat for our friend Sandy.  To make your own Crepe Paper Flower Hat you will need:

*How to Make Crepe Paper Flowers book

*Variety of Crepe Paper (We used this 100 gms paper from Papermart, and each flower used less than one roll of paper)

*Headband

*Floral Tape

*Floral Wire (We used straight 18 gauge wire)

*Craft Glue

*Scissors

*Pinking Shears (optional)

*Card Stock for Patterns

*Ribbon to Tie Hat (optional)

1. Prepare patterns.  Our copy of the book did not come with the original patterns, so we followed the drawings in the book and made our own from card stock.  Label each pattern for future use.

2. Following directions from the book, make up flowers and leave stem wires long until you are ready to apply to the hat.  We used 9 flowers to make our hat.  It is helpful to hold finished flowers in a vase or cup as you go.

3. Lay ribbon over ends of headband about 2″ and glue.  (Our hat was a little heavy, so we added the ribbon to make it more secure for dancing).

4. Wrap headband with floral tape up until the point you want to add a flower.  (Start on one side of the headband and add flowers up and over to the other side).

5. Put a spot of glue over the floral tape and wind a 1″ strip of green crepe paper around the headband over the tape, gently pulling tight as you go.  This will be the visible headband covering, so try to keep it neat.  Our strip was about 15″ long x 1″ wide.

6. Trim the wire on first flower to about 3″, position it and use floral tape to secure to the headband.

7. Wrap green crepe paper over floral tape as you go, covering the headband between each flower.

8. Position the second flower and repeat the wrapping.

9. When all flowers are in place wrap the floral tape and crepe paper down to the other end of the headband and secure crepe with a little glue.

10. Allow the hat to dry.

Get your party on!

You may also like these projects:

Happy Birthday Lily!

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Likes, Party!, Projects

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Happy Birthday to my beautiful, brave, friendly, inquisitive, funny, crazy friend Lily.  Thanks for the adventures- from traveling the world to chasing Monita around Manhattan to searching for secret subway tunnels with the double stroller…We are so happy you are in our lives! XOXO

Thrift Store Sweater Update

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Likes, Organizing, Projects, Vintage

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Some of my favorite clothes for the girls are vintage finds from thrift and resale shops.  Clementine Consignment in Manhattan and LuLu’s Then and Now in Brooklyn are frequent stops for us.  These resale shops also buy gently used clothing and will donate items they can’t resell, so they are a great resource for moving your kids’ outgrown items.  We got this sweater at LuLu’s for under $10, changed out boring buttons for pretty vintage ones and added black lace over the pockets.  Flea markets, Ebay and Etsy always have great stashes of vintage trims and buttons.  We keep ours in these big glass storage jars.  Our little white sweater is now as Josie would say: “fancy”.

DIY Knitted Hoodie

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

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Despite the 65 degree day we had here yesterday, cooler weather is on its way.  This is one of my favorite knit hats for kids.  It is from the Lyalya Hoodie ABC Pattern, available from her Etsy store here.  (The pattern provides directions for adult, baby and child sizes- hence the ABC).  The hoodie is simple to make up and keeps little necks warm in the wind.  We used this amazing yarn from my favorite yarn and craft shop Brooklyn General to make ours.  The cashmere is soft and warm and lightweight and this hat will get passed down from big to little sister.

DIY Knit Bloomers

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

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This is one of my favorite knitting patterns.  These bloomers are roomy enough for wearing over big cloth diaper butts, and they are good for layering with tights or leggings as the weather gets colder.  Ada wore her pairs of knitted bloomers for a couple of years and now they have been passed on to Josie.  This new red pair is for cousin Emeline.  The pattern is adapted slightly from Debbie Bliss’s Romper Panties Pattern from Essential Baby.  (Most of the knitted keepsakes at our house are from Essential Baby patterns).  The elastic waistband is added after knitting and I used this tutorial by Knit In Your Pants.  This method of elastic attachment keeps the waistband stretchy, but flat and comfortable.  Hooray for knitting weather!

**You may also like these knitting projects:

DIY Felt Fish Necklace

05 Monday Nov 2012

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We originally made these fish necklaces for part of our Halloween costumes.  Josie has since claimed them so I decided to post about how to make them.  We also made some individual fish for use with the play kitchen and Josie has been cooking them up all morning.  To make your own felt fish necklace you will need:

*Various Colors of Felt (We use wool felt from Wool Felt Central)

*Embroidery Thread in Contrasting Colors

*Embroidery Needle

*Stuffing

*Scissors

*Card Stock to Make Pattern

*Pencil

1. Draw fish shape on card stock and cut out.

2. Stack two sheets of the same color felt, hold fish pattern on top and carefully cut out fish shape.

3. Place a bit of stuffing inside of two fish and use blanket stitch to sew together with embroidery thread.  Older kids could do this part themselves.

4. After stitching the perimeter of the fish, put the needle up through the head and sew an X through both sides to make an eye.

5. Pass the needle and thread down to the center of the fish’s tail and leave hanging until all fish are sewn.

6. To make a necklace, use the hanging threads to sew fish head to tail.  To make individual fish, just cut the thread.

*These would make a cute garland, or the long string could be tied to a dowel to make a toy fishing pole.

**You may also like some of these earlier felt projects**

Good Fences…Back Yard Progress

02 Friday Nov 2012

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We finally have a fence! We have been working on plans for the back yard since we moved into our house in August 2011 and we now have some progress. We still have a lot of work to do out there, but it feels good to get something solid done. Some days living in a house full of projects seems overwhelming – Especially when Chris and I have pretty full lives and a learning curve for each project that comes our way…Here are some before and after photos so far:

*The Back Yard Before We Moved In (I was too chicken to walk back there)

*And Now

*View From Above, (With Metal Awning)

Chris did a lot of research and decided on Northern White Cedar for the fence. A1 Fence is not in our area, but they have a good description of cedar use for fences here. Our contractor ended up getting our wood from Minnesota. We like the non-chemical and low-maintenance aspects of the cedar. It smells lovely and weathers well without painting – and withstood the hurricane winds quite nicely. Chris also devised a crazy contraption to sift the debris out of the soil. (A post on that will come). We hadn’t realized how much trash was out there when we moved in – What the heck were people doing out there?

*Some Debris From the Back

When all of the trash is out of the soil we plan to lay out sod in the spring and eventually Chris will build a play house for the girls using the scraps of fence and bricks from a previous project. The girls and I planted bulbs and bushes right before the storm hit last week. The plants seem to have weathered it quite well and we cannot wait to see green back there come spring! We ordered from Spring Hill Nurseries and White Flower Farms and all of our plants came at the right planting times per our zone requirements. We are gardening virgins here, but we are dreaming of these blooms next year: Hyacinth, Tulip, Iris, Lilac, Peony, Helleborus, Narcissus, Fritillaria, and Lilies. Hooray for future plans!

Found Marbles

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

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We have been doing a lot of work in our back yard, in hopes that the girls can get out there next year.  (When we moved in, we mistakenly told them they could play outside before we realized how much trash and glass and creepiness was back there).  About a month ago we replaced the chain link fence with a cedar one, had an overgrown (15 ft!) shrub cut down and ripped out the strange metal carport that someone installed as an awning.  Chris has devised and built an amazing soil-sifting contraption that fits over the wheelbarrow and he has been slowly working through the rich, but trash-filled soil that was the former back yard.  He has come across so many marbles in his sifting!  We found a few marbles poking out of the ground when we first started looking back there, but digging has unearthed so many more.  We are up to 37 now, which we keep in a glass in Ada’s room.  Marble hunting has become a sport at our house.  We wonder where they all came from.  Were they put there to decorate a garden?  Left by kids playing?  I love the mystery of an old house…