Slip on Shoes

Sometimes the simplest things feel so genius.

For Lottie’s Birthday I just had to get the sparkle checker Vans. While I am partial to the slip on style – especially now that Lottie is determined to do many things herself, these sparkle checker vans are tie up instead of slip on. The tie shoes take way to much time and come untied during heavy play. She also has a pair of Converse One Stars (I heart One Stars) that I found consignment that she never wears for the same reasons. 

So I searched out the curly Q elastic ties. I thought this would work but they don’t look the best. (o.k. they looked very silly) They aren’t stretchy enough either, I couldn’t slip the shoe on her foot when I pulled the curlies tighter. 

What about regular elastic?? BINGO!! I used 3/8 inch basic knit elastic. It works so swell. They slip on and off easily, but stay on during play.

I laced them up oh so perfectly, just like back in the day, and tied the elastic at the tongue.  (O.k., by time I got to take this picture the One Stars have seen many a playground.)

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I did both pairs of shoes  and she wears them All. The Time. 

Happy  Style'n

Growth Chart

Finally. I made a growth chart. She's only almost 3! (I say that sarcastically)

I found this ruler type growth chart in a magazine this summer and commissoned my dad to cut me a peice of prefinished pine. Once again, having custom cabinet makers as parents has come in handy. I bought the house numbers from Lowes months and months ago but didn't have a chance to get into the project until today. The project went pretty fast, even with a toddler climbing on the table asking to help measure & draw & paint. I was a good mama and let her help a bit, while also conjuring up some of her own projects to do.

We made and colored playdough this morning

I measured 6 inches from the bottom, so we can hang it above the molding. Used pencil to make the hash marks.

Then I painted. And Lottie painted.

 Painting with the play dough rolling pin

Don't look to close or you can tell that I am very elementary in making lines (my handwriting stinks too)
Each foot mark is half way across the "ruler" equaling 4 inches. the 6inch mark is 3inches long, quarter hash is 2 inches and each individual inch is one inch long. 

After texting some opinion requests to my husband, mom, sis & neighbor I decided to put the numbers up and down, not side to side.

Lottie has to be 2 inches away from what I am doing

and yes, ON the table.

I was going to nail the numbers in, but couldn't find any nails less than 1 inch (The board is 3/4 inch) so I settled on hot glue. Lottie glued too.

  Using her "cutters"

 We need to do something awesome with these beautiful triangles. 

Valentines perhaps?

The hot glue is hard to do on metal. you have less than 2 seconds to stick it on before it cools. It took me a few times to perfect my flip but I think it will work for now. The hot glue mess ups peeled off the finished wood and the metal too easily, so I suspect I will need small nails sooner than later.

Here it is. Waiting to be hung on the wall. 

And since I waited so long to start measureing my child I plan to copy her growth from the doctors notes and put major milestones until now on the chart. Cheating, I know, but *shrug*

Happy Measuring.

Sew Crazy

Now that Halloween is over I have decided to ride the sewing wave while my creativity is high and get into a few projects I have been putting off for over a year. During the past week of Halloween whirlwind I figured out how to use my sewing machine and pumped out our Halloween costumes pretty quickly. I am proud of myself for making a Lycra maternity super hero outfit from scratch.

My mom always made special clothes for us (birthday outfits, prom dresses, Halloween, etc) whatever we could dream up she would create to the detail, but always based from a pattern. It was from her that I learned how to sew from a pattern and used those skills to make my own pattern from some of my favorite maternity clothes. No, Simplicity does not make patterns for maternity super hero costumes, go figure.

The following is not a tutorial, but I hope it will inspire you to take a deep breath and try to create something even if you don't have a pattern. I highly recommend trying it first on cheap fabric and not on $15 a yard silky temperamental double knit, on a machine you have only used once. ;)

I used a newspaper end roll that we have around for crafts, folded my shirt in half and stretched it out. I measured 1 inch all around it for an easy measurement and to give leeway for mistakes. Then cut out the pattern and put it on the fold of the material pinned like crazy & cut. It literally took me an hour between each step. I would stare at it, text a pic to my mom, triple check that the material was not reversed, tend to Lottie, then stare at it some more. I  labeled ALL the parts of the pattern (sleeve hole, neck, top, bottom, front, back, fold)  it super saved me from brain blanks.

 

For the boots I put my most comfortable riding boots on the paper and traced, very wide. I then took in the leg part in and added elastic to the top & bottom. They weren't perfect ,but  I was satisfied that they didn't look like transformer feet any more.

The rest of my outfit included a simple elastic pencil skirt, belt, cape with super uterus logo (foam & felt), and headband with small super uterus logo. Yes, I had lady parts on my forehead.

 

I only had to tailor Super Ladybug's boot covers, & sew a simple black skirt. Captain Repurposed Outfit aka Super Duper aka "The Villain" aka Super Dad aka Generic Super Hero needed very little sewing. Not to shabby if I do say so myself. I heart Halloween.

Now, on to my next project! This is where I need your help.  

I am covering the princess part of this chair. Sorry Aurora, you must go. It has been so long since I planned it that I forget which fabric I wanted to use, plus I found some more cute fabric.

  

Options 1 & 2 

Option 1. The pink & green floral on the left. Some of this fabric and coordinating fabrics will be in the playroom.

Option 2. The bold burgundy floral on the right. I like it a lot but, it wont "match" the playroom or the living room & I am worried about the burgundy color against the fuchsia pink. What do you think?

 

Option 3. This moddish jungle fabric. I have tons of it. It is so cute. If I did the pink chair in jungle I would get a red chair for Jr and cover Lightning Mcqueen in the same fabric.

 Please let me know which fabric you like. I like them all!!. What to do??

Happy Sewing.

Fun with Felt

I had been brainstorming about making a felt toddler calender for a couple of weeks. When my friend Jessica, so crafty BTW, showed up to our preschool homeschool with an awesome farm scene felt board I knew I just had to make one too! This is Jessica's Farm Scene.

Lucky me, there was a huge roll of green felt in Manville (the shed thing) leftover from one of my husband's trips to Burning Man, pre meeting me. The green plus some borrowed blue felt and a stack of felt from Joann Fabrics has gotten me 2 beautiful felt boards for only 2 dollars! (o.k. I had a $5 credit for a return that day, but still, not so bad.)

Here is what to do.

Get a giant piece of cardboard. My pieces are about 25" x 30"
Wrap the felt around the cardboard and measure a bit over. For the scene board cut the blue and green at the same time to make the valley.

I duct taped mine to the back then fabri-tac'd a large piece over it. This is what Jessica did. I thought it looked nice and I'm not about to reinvent the wheel.

Now you have your basic backgrounds.

For the toddler calendar I googled and googled until I found a layout I liked. This was my inspiration.

For our calender I wanted the months and seasons to be color corresponded and I also wanted to keep it from looking cluttered. The dimensions were the part I stressed over the most. Once I knew how big to make the main area, everything else fell into place.

The main cream area is a full sheet of felt. 9x12"
The months and days are 1x4"
The numbers are 1x"
The seasons and weather are 2x2"

After freehanding and goobering up a few numbers I did all the rest with pen first. Tip: A super small brush and lots of paint worked better than a wider brush. You can see that I haven't gotten to painting the months and seasons yet. I did try sharpie on Monday and it looks better than just the pen, but I'm not completely satisfied with it, so the days and months will eventually be paint too. Tip: if you can tell that there is a fuzzy side and flatter side to your felt, paint on the flat side. The fuzzy side is more apt to stick and the flat side is easiest to paint or write on.

The seasons are my favorite. I love how they turned out. They are a mix of felt cutouts fabri-tac'd on and paint. I used acrylic paints and they worked super well. 

Tip: Use old egg cartons to hold the paint. The plastic ones work best but we have used the cardboard ones too with success, it sucks up a bit of paint though.
Tip: You could use Elmers glue for the gluing, but Fabri-tac is awesome.It sticks anything to anything. Instead of using the squirt top, I like to use whatever stick like item is closest, pencil, end of a paint brush, whatever. When it dries you can peel it off of hard surfaces like some crazy cosmic rubber (if it is thick enough).

Here is the mostly finished calendar. It is not perfect, but I just love it! If you attempt to paint felt, there are some flubs that you just have to let go. Tip: Make room for weather. Today was rainy then it turned sunny and windy. I may redo the large area to have room for 3. The weather could be sunny, windy and cold couldn't it?

 

As for the basic scene felt board, I started with a garden scene. I meant to start with insects for a little lesson I'm teaching in a couple weeks, but I thought the insects needed a place to live. Plus, I felt creative and did the flowers freehand. I wasn't in the mood to cut out a grasshopper.

The number of each flower was an after thought. One daisylike chrysanthemum, 2 Purple Coneflowers, 3 Pentas, 4 Zinnias and 5 Blackeyed Susans (Rudbekia). It will be fun for Beans to count and rearrange the flowers, she was putting them in very specific places as I cut them out. The sun is a pre painted super light weight wood one from Joanns. I fabri-tac'd a rough side velcro strip to the back.

There are so many opportunities for these felt boards my plans include:
A parade of insects (obviously)
farm animals (using Jessica's already cut out patterns)
more animals,
Stories such as the 3 little pigs, Goldilocks and other simple stories.
Shapes in different colors to do patterns, counting and matching.
A clock

Beware... If you hear giggles in the distance you may find a child wallowing in a shower of felt pieces. :) I need to find a better location to put it. Tip: The large cream area ended up being too heavy to stay up so, I put a few pieces of the rough side of velcro on the back, I may put some velcro dots on the rest of the pieces too.

I am sure I will use them for years and come up with all kinds of things to do.

They are super easy and fun, you should make one too!

A special thanks goes out to my husband, who played hard all weekend so mommy could immerse herself in a much needed creative outlet.

Happy Felting.