Team Umizoomi!
Yay!  Awesome cute little math pattern cartoonies from NickJr.  Totally doable!
I’ll get some plaid, cut up some triangles.  It will be great!

Then 2 days before the boy’s birthday, we have:  Mo Willems’ Pigeon?

Complete with bus and hot dog.

Yep, those crooked circles and drawings were the perfect items for a birthday crown.  I really did want to make a Team Umizoomi crown.   But after contemplating how long it would take me to get the details just right, I opted for a simpler crown.  He really was only going to wear it for one day.  And in the end, he was perfectly happy with our favorite pigeon in addition to a dinosaur tail thanks to Miss Running with Scissors.

How has life come to craft dictating?

Craft dictatorship has come from the fact that while I know that I have fiberfill somewhere packed in one of the 4 tiny closets in this place, I needed to buy another package with the fabric for the dinosaur tail or else spend 3 nights searching for it.

Same thing for birthday candles.  I picked up another pack and somewhere there is a 4 candle hiding.  Most likely I’ll find that somewhere around the 9th birthday.

Craft dictating happens because even though it’s been over 2 weeks, I’m pretty sure there is some part of Thanksgiving leftover still in my fridge.

Finally, craft dictation is neccesary because while you put all this time and effort into birthday planning, a little boy wants one thing and only one thing – to play on the ipad all the time:

December has come upon us and in addition to not starting any xmas shopping or decorating, I am completely unprepared and idealess about the whole thing.   Mailing presents to family out of the state only moves any holiday deadlines for me up sooner.

While I continue to be in awe of all the awesome crafting for the season, I can’t help but wonder about the moms that make and blog about the utmost perfection of their creations and wish I could really be a robot.  Then at least I would be able to get more done.

Xmas ornaments coming soon.

Me: “Well, what do you think about your crown?”

4 year old: “Well, it fits.  But Pigeon’s missing the train and airplane.”

That last comment brought to you by Pigeon Love Things that Go.

What we do have is this:

I’m am so glad that Halloween is over because the month and a half plus I have been working on trying the figure out how the hell to make a Harry Potter Lego costume is time that I will never get back!
Does anyone else feel like Halloween is a nightmare for costume making?  It’s like a wedding.  You spend all this time planning creating for one day then it’s over and trashed.
Still, I am slightly amazed I was able to turn this:

Into this:

With not a damn minute left to spare before Halloween.
Be safe and have fun tomorrow. We’re expecting to get rained on.
Here’s more Lego Harry Potter in real life, coming to a door near you!

Oh! And we can’t forget Hedwig!

Only her tutorial requires an agreeable sewing machine and something about a free motion foot which I am pretty sure I can’t get for my model.  Anyway, I wanted to make them smaller and I used felt instead of fleece.  And instead of fiber I used rice as a filler. Which now I wonder if that’s a good idea with a toddler.  I imagine little rice grains everywhere from a busted blanket stitch.  Or it’s actually heavy enough to knock over other small objects.

This little guy will greet another little guy with his breakfast cereal.  And more to come, just you can’t just make one.

Damn it’s late.  Happy Friday!

Our crafting has become less frequent and definitely takes weeks to complete than the previous “hey I can whip that up in a couple of days” kick I used to be on.  And cards. 
We seem to only be on cards lately cause I am not making little felt bunnies to mail to over 25 family members who may eventually just trash them away anyway.

But the “baby boy” is now bigger and everyday wants to “do crafts!”  So while at daycare, they do daily art projects and everyday at pickup “Looky, I made” comes out of his mouth and a large painting/drawing is plopped into my hands.  
What am I going to do with over a month’s worth or art? 
We decided to send it to family for Easter.

Taking various pieces:

We used an egg shaped cookie cutter (you know, the one bought to make cool bento box lunches that I never got around to making) to trace eggs and then mama cut them out.

Little man used glue stick to glue eggs onto blank card stock (on sale 50 pack, 3 for $10, while supplies last @ Michael’s)

Then we cut up some of that annoying green grass ribbon for easter baskets and glued that to the card too:

Insert candid photo of boy taken on only sunny day in weeks at the park (I’m sorry, those photos with the Easter bunny are scary) and:

There goes 3 weekends of crafting out into the mail.

Well, it actually went out earlier this week but I didn’t get a chance to post until now, which title clearly states, “Not a last minute easter craft”

Perhaps not the snazziest card, but, hey, you can only expect so much from a 3 year old.  I’ll get him whipped into shape for mass craft production eventually.

Have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy!

Anyway.  Valentine’s day crafting was non-existent and my family is all “Hey, you have this little boy, right? Can we get some pictures?”  So, after finding a leprechaun beard craft to go with the Dollar Tree’s hat (re-sewn to fit a 3 year old, cause all they sell are adult sized ones,) we have this:

Well, that’s the extent of it along with a repurposing of an old valentine’s day card idea with stamps,

It’s raining shamrocks over here!

Well, really it’s just raining.  All the time.

Here ya go, Grandma.  Thanks for keeping me on my crafting game with subtle guilt.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  May the luck of the Irish be with you all along with multiple pints of your choice!

Oh, Fred Meyer.  Why do you torture my son so and force me to publicly look like a bad mommy.
Anyone from the Pacific Northwest will sing the praises of Fred Meyer, a basic superstore where you can nab organic food in one section, some Converse shoes in another and pick up a new sofa lounge while you are at it.  Often cheaper and cleaner than Walmart, without the exposing yourself to people of Walmart. (Please click for long time scariness!!)

It is also one of the main stores that carry:

Pillow Pets™.

If you have not heard of them already, it’s a pillow, it’s a pet.  It’s a Pillow Pet.™  Basically a soft stuffed animal shaped like a pillow.  I know, brilliant, right?  It’s not like he’s seen it on television.  I guess it is my fault for teaching the boy how to read words.  He is obsessed with this Pillow Pet thing even though he has never laid a hand on it.  “We go to Fred Meyer and buy a Pillow Pet” is often what comes out of his mouth upon waking up in the morning.

The other people in the store are like “Come on lady, it’s only a stuffed animal.”  And at only $20 bucks it’s not like it will put us out or anything.   I just don’t like them.  Please don’t be offended if you own one.  I understand they are suuuuuuper soft and comfy.  But he’s only 3 and he already demands that we must buy Legos from the internet, I can’t give in to every wide eyed want that catches his fancy.  My solution?  Focus on another obsession:

Nintendo DS.

Ah, Nintendo DS.  Another thing that we don’t own but is often shared with the boy by older kids who are looking for a way to get a 3 year old off their back.

So here’s the Kirby pillow:

Yeah, I know I made a pink pillow for my boy.  What can I do, the damn thing’s pink!  And fabric came to about $5 bucks so it was a cost effective solution for never having Pillow Pets™ mentioned again.

I still go to great lengths to avoid the Pillow Pet isle every time we go to Fred Meyer, though.

In celebration of that, I have been meaning to post a new year’s tutorial and giveaway.

Stop dreaming of rain mobiles priced $25 and up!  And make one yourself.

If you don’t want to make one (take’s less than an hour depending on your speed) then throw your hat in for the the giveaway of this one.

Here goes:

Make a cloud image on white felt and cut out:

Hand stitch (or machine sew) to another uncut piece of white felt:

Leave a bit at the end to stuff with fluff, make sure you push into the poofs for extra fluffy cloud!

Sew up and cut out your cloud:

Start cutting out raindrops for 3 – 6 or however many you like.  You will sew 2  raindrop cutouts together:

I’ve picked rainbow colours here with matching thread but you can you use greys and blues like this one here.

After drops are stitched, use coloured thread to attach to bottom of cloud.  Use white thread to attach for hanging  and you are ready for action!

Guaranteed to brighten your day rain or shine!  Total cost of supplies is under $3.

Also these instructions can be modified to make yourself any mobile you like be it balloons, stars, animals or any other similar to one you have already hearted on etsy.

Please leave a comment to win this little happy cloud by Monday January 24th and thank you in advance for reading.

I really want to share craft with everyone and it shouldn’t have to be time consuming (I know you all have real lives!) nor should it break your wallet.  Those $20 – $30 etsy purchases really do add up people.  Save your cash for food or your kids college fund for god’s sake!

Sending all the best wishes to everyone for a rich and crafty 2011!

….. .  .   .    .     .

And the winner of the mobile is:

85 – Karen Chartier!

Thanks so much everyone.

I can’t explain what it is about it.
You really can make anything out of it.

xmas lights:

crazy eyed bunny hats a la NormaW style:

fireplace tv ornament with real twigs (idea swiped from somewhere, I can’t remember where, sorry):

And what do you do when your blog friend that you’ve never met transforms your family into Fisher Price People stamps?

Well, you do the same to hers using, yep, felt!  And make them into People ornaments.

If only I had her craftsmanship.  Thank you Tracy!  You’re the bestest!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.  I think Christmas crafting is over for me, now it’s on to cooking.  Who’s idea was it to have guests?  Oh wait, that was me too.

Next year, I am starting on the Advent Calendar early, like June.  Cause this just ain’t cutting it anymore:

“Look mama, Shrek hands!”

This was after scrubbing.

Happy 2011!  Here it comes.

Our birthdays here are intimate gatherings.  We have yet to do the party at the pizza joint playland, or the home trashing with 10 kids running around.  Plus, a December birthday means no outdoor picnics or pool parties.  Maybe an indoor pool party. Hmm, must call local pool.

I like to send out handmade thank you cards to family with new birthday pictures and I fell in love with rainbowroom’s felt rainbow card.  Only at $7 bucks each (I needed 20,)  the idea of over $140 for a mailing (from the UK no less) forced me to pull out the sewing machine again.

This years request for a crown came along with one for a super hero cape.  I came across all these cool tuts for capes but settled with my own lazy version of a basic rectangle with snaps sewn in the corners.  It’s a little bunchy at the neck but no one seems to mind.  And hey, it’s reversible!

“Ok, What do you want on your crown this year?”
“I want i stink crown.”
“You want a crown that’s smelly??”

For those of you that don’t know “I Stink”:

It’s a book about a talking garbage truck.  This year I was hoping maybe he’d pick one of those cool Very Hungry Caterpillar crowns, maybe Dr. Seuss.
Nope, it’s a garbage truck for my little birthday baby.  Ok.

It worked out.

And local gourmet cupcakes (quickly slaughtered) topped off the evening with little 3 candles from Dollar Tree.

A birthday card from a relative came with a $10 bill for the boy, with which he proudly proclaimed “Goodwill books, here I come!”

Goodwill?  Aww, he’s a chip right off his ol’ mom’s cheap thrifty block.
I couldn’t be more proud.

It’s just like me too to disappear all summer (and fall) then have to bust out a costume before Halloween.

We’ve all seen the commercial on tv, where the mom is piecing together a box with one of those stick-up lights to make her son a Iron Man costume.
That will be me.
“But Maahhhmmm, Why can’t we just get a costume from Target like everyone else!!”
That will be my kid.

I can’t be a show off mommy without some kind of handmade garb.  So here’s my whip up of a slightly bulky Cat in the Hat costume.   And thanks to the PBS revival, the boy actually agreed to want to be him for Halloween.

I even contemplated making a trick or treat bag in the shape of a fish bowl with a felt goldfish on it.  But that would be pushing it too far.   Luckily we snagged The Cat In The Hat bag ages ago from Target.

Before you start imagining some laborious creation on my part, please note that the body was pieced together from a pattern of footie pajamas.

After several (3) attempts to make a tie & white belly out of various materials, I settled for the black outlined stitched versions, thinking it would give it a more cartoony look.  If I would have thought of that first, I would have completed this costume weeks ago!

Also note that there are no fasteners or zippers to attach the costume together.  This is where I praise the ingenuity of safety pins – every lazy crafters dream.  I did think of hot glue, but then the whole going to the potty thing would have been impossible.  Safety pins it is, cause all I really wanted was for it to function for a moving toddler which it does:

And this time, it didn’t bust a hole in the crotch!

Must give mad props to DANA – MADE, whose tip of glueing pipe cleaners inside the hat prevents it from flopping over.  Brilliant.

And damn, those bats from Country Living really do make a huge difference in the house!

Have a Happy Halloween and lots of fun!

And those cloth snack bags are all over etsy but my sewing machine can at least stitch a straight line, so it’s about time I utilized it to actually make an everyday necessity.

I would have gotten a more cutesy fabric, but then again I have a boy.  And although he’s only 2, he’s gonna get bigger and I can already hear him tell me the sparkly bits are just not gonna cut it anymore.  So I opted for your classic lines and colour pattern for the bags.

And you never know, the husband might want to use one too.

Part 1: Measure.

Mine is big enough for an actual sandwich about 7 inches long.  So the total length was 16 inches leaving one inch on each end of the fabric for a fold over to stitch the velcro on to.   Leave about a 1/4 inch on the side for extra width to trim after you sew together.

Part 2:  Sew on velcro pieces, then fold and stitch.

A little bit of glue stick helps keep the velcro in place for sewing.

Part 3:  Fold together the fabric and sew.

Part 4: Turn out, stuff with snackies and you’re ready to go!

I know you really didn’t need a tutorial.  But if you did, there isn’t any reason why we all can’t have cool handmade stuff.

Now if only I could get blog sponsors and a craft book deal (yeah right,) I could quit my day job and have someone else support my craft habit.

And hey, maybe I still can get a book deal.  Although I doubt it would be about crafting.  And even if it was, I would probably tell you not to buy the book and just wait until it comes to your local library.

But then what kind of capitalist profiteer would I be?

Well, at least I cloth diaper.

And the celery sticks were strictly for display but the boy actually took one out of the bag and ate it!  Results not typical.

I adore handmade.  And I understand that time and craft have been put into it.  But, once I get a craft item in my hands, I have often had wondered why I paid so much, and sometimes not much at all, for someone else’s handmade work. Especially when I could have made it myself.  We all have gone to craft fairs and handmade markets and seen really wicked items.  But, even if sometimes that item is only $5, I may pass on it.   Cause in the end, it’s just some item that anyone can make really.

Now, I don’t want to steal people’s stuff.  There is some really really original stuff.  Then there is stuff that is only a few steps up from a child’s craft project.  The do-it-yourselfers like me get flack all the time for doing it ourselves, like we are not supporting handmade.  I just don’t think that I should empty my wallet for the benefit of supporting someone else’s handmade.  What about your own?

With that, I have recreated the child’s craft of mod podging paper to glass.

You can obtain a glass votive candle holder from your local dollar store, although this one was the 1/2 price colour sale at Goodwill making it 50 cents.

My 10 years of playing classical flute in school orchestras has provided me with stacks of sheet music.  But you can print your own out from the internet.

Now go and fill your evening with light and music.

Without PayPal and shipping costs.

Rockin’ the Dollar Tree 2 inch clay pot 3-pack, I made a mini rooftop garden for inside the house.   I’ve got some permanent markers of various fine points and some various city skylines.

There is a multitude of artwork you can find online for your cityscape of just make up your own.

Here is the beginning of Paris.

Hand sketching the buildings in pencil first, I then retraced with the marker and erased the pencil marks once the ink dried.   Fill in the buildings and you’re practically ready for planting.

I gave them a coat of Mod Podge as a sealant and you can see they have developed some dirt stains in between because I used too thin of a coat.   Or you can use a different type of sealant but the permanent marker is not going to wash away.

Here are San Francisco, New York, and Chicago with plants rescued from Home Depot.  Besides the jade plant, I don’t have the rest of the names cause I tossed the original packaging they came in. Doh!

Come on Spring!

Now I must begin by saying that I have hard times following patterns. And those instructional youtube videos are completely lost on me.  Knitting for me has been like a journey into a dark tunnel.   I have no idea when I will get to the end and since I am not sure where I am going, it’s hard to gage my progress.  So, I basically just started knitting and knitting until I ran out of yarn and tried to see how far it got me.

If you have never knitted anything before, this thing took me 7 days of what seemed like continuous knitting (I pretty sure that this was technically “purling”) although I would say that each skein took about 7-8 hours to knit through and I only had three skeins.
And this experiment was filled with slipped knots and loose loops and apparently there is a way to tie off the end but hopefully my knitter friends will give me a “A” for effort. I’m sort of the type that needs to do something once to get my head around it, so now I can attempt a real knit pattern and actually have an idea of how long it will take me.

The only suitable place for this item is outside à la knitta, please style.

Husband comes home:
husband: “What the hell is that?”
me: “Tree cozy?”
me: “Trunk warmer?”
I got nothing.

I think he was hoping I was making something for him.
Guess I better get started on that Bauhaus scarf, oh dammit, that’s crocheted.
Back to the knitting books for me. I continue to welcome any advice or guidance.

This was mean to be a kids craft with coloring the eggs with water color paint. Until the boy got bored and mom had to paint the eggs all by herself.

In the end, used the sewing machine to stitch them all together and now the house looks a little more festive.   Even if we have 6 inches of new snowfall today.

Top it off with felt peeps bunting,

and felt chocolate bunny

and Easter is here!  Have a great holiday everyone.

Not to forget Goodwill.  Love you Goodwill.

I have never once thought about remaking clothing until a recent visit to the $1 sale at a local used clothing shop had me buying this:

See, we’re a little Paul Frank monkey crazy over here.

I assure you, everything here was bought second hand or deeply discounted.

Why does a 2 year old need a monkey wallet?  Damn you Dwell magazine and your Small Paul ads for making me think I can’t be a cool hip designer mom without them.

Anyway, I finally took the plunge into recycling, upcycling, revamping, what have you  - to come up with this:

Now if I can only pimp him out with some felt hip hop bling. Hmmmm.

And while I was at it, decided to resew some old record label shirts I thrashed and was never gonna wear again.

Perfect for a little boy, though.

I’m actually quite amazed I was able to pull it off.   But don’t get too excited, you will still find better quality sewing from the Dollar Tree and I will not be showing you what the inside of the shirts look like.

I dream of being a katiedid.

While the sewing machine and I are often at odds, this time I was the victorious one.  But not without a fight.   That Singer made sure it got a needle in my middle finger before it was done.  Visit to emergency room not required.

So, yay!   More clothing saved from the garbage.   And that Paul Frank shirt has become what it always should have been.  A piece of clothing for a toddler and not something for a prepubescent 12 year old girl.

And now when the other moms see it, they can be like:
“Oh my god! That’s so cute! Where’d you get it?”
And I can be like:
“I totally got it on sale at Target!”
and they will be like:
“For real?”
And I can be all:
“NOT, beoches!”

Oh, I’d never say that.   To their faces.

And somewhere in the distant background, the music from The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” is fading out…..

Then, Lara @ Sew Many Stitches Later came along and gave me a Beautiful Blogger award even though she has no idea what I even look like.  Talk about sweet.

Thanks ladies, I am totally blushing, you have made my month.

And I get to share the love too by passing it along to some other bloggers I’m diggin’.
so here are 17 (5 for Beautiful & 12 for Sunshine) in no particular order:

playing food
playing with food? If it’s felt of course!

dollie-cious
cute cute cute AND felt!

crafter by night
Another late night crafty thinking person.

dollarstore crafts
crafts made from stuff from the dollar store!

geek crafts
the name pretty much sums up the coolness

modern roots
husband & wife team, David & Miranda have created a crafty community

giver’s log
creativness on multiple levels

dolly asylum
crazy hilarity with a bit of craft twisted in

recycle this
you want to creatively reuse something, chances are you will find the answer here and more

And an award goes also to each of my fellow swappers, who are brilliant in addition to the fact that they agreed to join my swap.  Here they are below with their featured items inspired by our shared love of all things Meomi:

Tif sent this to Tracy:

Tracy sent this to Kate

Kate sent this to Becky

Becky sent this to Lia

Lia sent this to mE!

I sent this to Jennifer

Jennifer sent this to Tiffany

Amy sent this to Melissa

Melissa sent this to Amy

Such cool stuff, all very rad!  Check them out!

I want to thank everyone again and just say a big shout out to crafting.
If it weren’t for craft, this blog would not be possible.
We’ll it would, but there would probably be a lot more whining and ranting.
And it would have a different name.

Hooray for Craft!

I am awoken to a bonk on the head and over my eyes I see the same familiar thin hardcover.

“Wead oouss book.”

No hi, mommy.  Good morning, mommy.  I love you, mommy.  Not even a “please.”

“Op on pop.”

Growing up, I never had Dr. Seuss books in the house.
Don’t feel bad.  I had 4 Cabbage Patch Dolls.  A complete kitchen set. Barbies, Atari 2600 and ON-TV. You remember ON-TV. An extra descrambled cable channel before there was ever cable.

So I am excited the boy has taken to the books so much and we would never be able to have a proper birthday celebration for the author without this:

Well, I think the eggs turned out okay, anyway.

My plan eventually will be to make a calendar with all the cool events for crafting.
Fat Tuesday, Arbor Day and the rest of them that I can’t remember now and will probably forget later.

But in the meantime, here is my rhyming contribution for the day:

Little Mary, six years old, heard something at her school.
The boys were talking of a thing and said it was uncool.
‘Twas something she was not to do,
for she was never told.
About her little brother William,
a lad of four years old.
Why, pals they were and they had fun.
He was her bestest friend.
The riding bikes and snowball fights,
it all would have to end.
She thought of laughing and of songs,
a recent kick ball game.
To reject him and ignore him now,
well, that would be a shame.
She knew not when it was disallowed
or why it was so silly.
She could not fathom such a thought
and not play with her Willie.
“He needs me and we’re family!” “It’s awful and unkind.”
A protective sister, yes she was,
and gave them a piece of her mind.
“I can not do it! You can’t make me,
that thing you earlier said.”
“What’s that you say? It’s still okay.
It means something else instead?”

Probably not appropriate for children’s reading.

One thing I had discovered here was that one of my favorite illustrators MEOMI had designed the mascots for the olympics.  Apparently they were unveiled back in 2007 but hey, I have been known to live under rocks…

I adore the characters and the uber cuteness.

I assume it is only a matter of time before the Octonauts or other Meomi creatures will be at a theater near you.  In the meantime, pick up (or borrow from library) a book and check out the websites:

http://hellomeomi.livejournal.com/

http://www.meomi.com/

http://www.octonauts.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meomi

Giveaway schwag!
To get everyone in the Olympic spirit, I picked up a couple of goodies that may not be readily available in non-host cities and I wanted to share.

Please leave a comment and I’ll send this guy out to meet his new family along with some other little gifts.

As for the swap, let me know if you are interested in the same comment.  You do not need to join the swap to enter the giveaway but the more the merrier!

Pick any favorite Meomi character and create a handmade craft inspired by it (plushie, drawing, knit, etc.) to send to someone and get you’ll get a handmade item from someone as well.
I don’t have timelines, I was thinking a month or so to make something and send out.  Will finalize that once I get all the participants down. We’re setting up the mailing deadline as March 20th.  Signups for the swap are still being taken. Swap closed.  l sent everyone their partners Fri. 2/19.

Last day to win Quatchi is Monday, Feb.  22nd.

Open to everyone, everywhere.

Yay World!

and here’s a little boy, obviously unenthused by it all.

…… .  .   .    .     .      .

And the Quatchi goes to:

Sarah @ Neoteric Traditional.

Thanks everyone for playing! Happy Olympics!

You can’t eat these though.  Actually, you probably could eat felt.  But I don’t advise it.  I imagine it is very bland.

Grandma’s too old for sweets but these shouldn’t be too sweet for her.  I just wish I could find real chocolates and candies that looked like these for myself.

But I got the Valentine’s Day crafting and gift buying finished way before V-day!
Woo Hoo!  I’m done!   Thanks to the Dollar Tree for the one buck heart shaped box, and thanks always to JoAnn’s for continuing to bring the felt.

Break time.  Don’t be expecting any other holiday crafts to be completed in a punctual fashion. This was a complete fluke.  I’ll be trying to whip up some shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day morning, I am sure.