Peek of the Week - July 6, 2012

What's Peek of the Week you ask? It's our semi-regular Friday feature where we hear all about what cool things you other crafty families and blogging types have been up to. Tell us about your projects, finished or in-progress, a funny kid moment, a personal accomplishment or just something that made you smile.

Each week I'll get the ball rolling by sharing a Peek from our week and then invite you to do the same by linking up to your own post.

Today's Peek: Stop. Motion.

I did a few projects this week and I decided to record the process. See?

This little project has helped with my recent desire to restructure our days. Since we got back from our N.C. trip ideas have been flying through my head. Things I want to do with the kiddos, things I want to do myself and ways I want to structure our days and weeks. And I wanted a visual way to organize all that. So, I made the new calendar and put it in grand central station - our kitchen.

But being me - I couldn't just throw a whiteboard up there. I had to make it pretty.

A few things I mustache you to do? I mean come on.
I love that I did not spend a dollar to do this project. I already had a white board and all these sheets of vinyl decal material laying around. And I love that I finished it in less than a day. Can't tarry around here. Gotta make time.

And thennnnnnnnn,
I wanted to spruce up our very very ugly door for summer. I had a spring wreath on there with a background that said, "Spring has sprung. Breathe Deep." But it's 107 degrees outside. Spring has long since sprung.

 

Fun! Fabric scraps, modpodge, and a few canvasses and viola. This one took one whole naptime and that was it - and without taking a photo between every scrap you could get it done licketysplit. 

What are you doing for summer? Do share...

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Spring is in the air. Beathe Deep.

Can you smell it?

Yes there's still snow on the ground, and yes...
darn it, yes...
it will snow again.

But it's getting closer.

Spring. Will. Come.

So, as is our tradition, we crafted up a peachy spring wreath. We started with hand and footprints of the two babies who were home at the time (Eli was in N.C. with the fella). 

 Look at bitty Hazel back there eating her puffs. Precious kitten.

A little cardboard circle and some tissue paper...

 and one bath to occupy the 2 year old. Just crumple and glue.

What? You don't craft while your kiddo bathes? Just watch that your hotglue gun doesn't fall in the tub!

The kicker is the chalk cloth backdrop. You'll never guess where I found the idea. Yup. Pintrest.

See:

 Donchya love it? Here's the source.

Aside - if we ever buy our house I'm getting a pretty front door 1st thing. This door is fugly.

 

So, take note weatherman. Our door is ready. Bring on the spring. 

There's Still Time...

Tomorrow's Fat Tuesday.

Just in time we have another installment from guest blogger and resident wreath expert, Sarah - my college friend and super crafter!

Mardi Gras is this Tuesday, Feb. 21st. 

This wreath was created on a wood wreath form using cut-up beaded necklaces and favors gathered at parades, and plastic babies (which are hidden within one of the traditional foods of the season, the King Cake). You should probably do a better job than I did cleaning off the loose strands of hot glue after your project is finished.  

I no longer live where school is closed for Fat Tuesday and local krewes throw bashes and parades in the weeks leading up to the biggest day and last hurrah before the start of Lent, as signaled by Ash Wednesday.    

So, if you are like me, and not one of those Divinely Blessed individuals who actually resides within the Mardi Gras region, you can still send up a virtual toast to the holiday, have a fun reason to throw a themed party, and try to create for yourself a little pitiful (I-wish-I-was-at) Mardi Gras. You can festoon your residence with beads, mix up some Hurricanes and Sazeracs or any of the many other cocktails of Big Easy origins, and order a king cake from, say: www.randazzokingcake.com  or  http://paulspastry.com. 

Also, for festive attire and gifts go here: http://www.fleurtygirl.net/ 

And here: www.mardisgraspot.com

Laissez les bon temps rouler, y'all

Thank you so much Sarah! Let those good times roll!

Guest What? It's Something New!

Without even noticing, I became a stalker. I have begun to stalk my friends as potential guest bloggers. Anyone who posts something cool on facebook is immediately inundated with comments from me about guest blogging on Happily Home Sewn. 

Here is an example of such an exchange that JUST happened...helping me realize that I might have crossed over into annoying:

Friend X (soon to be HHS guest blogger hopefully) mentions that she's trying to start a blog to share recipes and health stuff.


Jessa (that's me) pipes in: sweet! Happily Home Sewn needs a guest blogger for such a topic. Wanna guest blog sometime???

Jessa (instantly realizing her annoying-ness) comments: See how I just made that all about me? Sorry about that. That is going to be an awesome blog and I can't wait to read it and get inspired.

Friend X graciously courtesy LOLs. 

That was the actual exchange.  Sad. 

BUT!

A similar exchange occurred a few days ago and happily resulted in our first Guest Blog by one of my crafty or otherwise fabulous friends! 

So, without further ado...check out these Post-Christmas-Dead-of-Baltimore-Winter crafty musings (and a warning about goats) from my friend Sarah:  

Since Christmas is over and Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras are more than a month away, and I needed to find something artistically inspiring about the start of real WINTER in Baltimore to inform my aesthetic.  Even more, with the big Christmas wreath gone, some very ugly cracks in the wall paint of our vestibule were once again exposed (this is honestly what inspired one of my first wreath-making endeavors about a year ago--laziness--I'd painted the vestibule no more than 5 (Okay, maybe it was more) years ago and I didn't want to do it again anytime soon.

While walking the dogs last week in our city neighborhood, I came across a tree whose trunk was surrounded by perfectly-formed acorns. Most had lost their caps, although the caps were also scattered on the ground (and you can make stuff with those as well). I picked up as many of the acorns as I could find, some I had to sort of dig out of the ground.  Surprisingly (or maybe not for Baltimore) nobody asked me what in the world I was doing as I sat there on the sidewalk with my Tupperware container full of acorns. I took them home and washed them well with soap and water and let them dry for a few days on paper towels in a bowl. I didn't have enough acorns to make a whole wreath (I cased the sidewalk trees of the neighborhood to no avail) so I decided to go with a "shades of brown/squirrel-food" themed wreath and bought a big bag of mixed in-shell nuts at the grocery store. I used a flat light wood-colored wreath form from Michael's craft store and hot-glued my nuts and acorns to the form.

When Googling "acorns" and " acorn crafts" I came across the factoid that only types of Oak trees produce acorns. Oak leaves and acorns are poisonous to horses, goats, sheep, and some other animals, so leave your goat behind when you go gathering acorns. I was reminded by the photos on Google of how pretty the shapes of oak leaves are, so instead of a bow to accent the wreath, I decided to draw some oak leaf shapes on cream and brown felt and cut those out and hot-glue them to the wreath. I bought adhesive-back felt for the interior leaf of the design. That is just about the greatest thing; sticky-backed-felt.

A nut/acorn wreath could be a crafty way to memorialize a favorite tree.  Gathering pecans is a memorable activity in the American South and a wreath made with the pecans from a special tree or location seems like a swell idea. My next Dead of Winter craft projects include: a Mardi Gras wreath made from hot-glued Mardi Gras beads and plastic King Cake babies, and 3 small bare winter tree black ink/brown watercolor drawings framed in three differently-shaped small white frames (say, an oval and a rectangle and a circle or square). The latter will cover those wall cracks nicely and match the colors in the nearby Acorn/Nut Wreath.

Sarah Ramirez Cross
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaryBellesBirthday

Thanks so much Sarah! I'm heading out now to get me some sticky-backed-felt (never heard of it before! Thanks for tip!) and to gather some acorns. I'll leave our goat at home. 

Make sure to visit Sarah's etsy shop. I've known her since college where she was my R.A. freshman year. She's crafty and clever and was willing to turn a blind eye to the harmless silliness 18 year old girls. Best R.A. ever (except for perhaps, my husband, who bent more than a few rules sophomore year when I became his girlfriend. no comment).


 

Peek of the Week - September 30, 2011

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!



It's been a while since my Peek of the Week has featured any new projects. It's been all kids being born and kids doing cute stuff and videos from cute stuff past. Which is all good stuff, don't get me wrong, but I do love a good reveal.

We've been doing lots of fall crafting around here lately. Eli chose his own crafty supplies at Michael's and had a project in mind. He went right to work on it when we got home.
I did the same.

Aside - one of the hardest parts of motherhood for me is when I get a crafty project itch and I want to just dive in head first. I miss being able to devote myself entirely to the project without regard for meals or time, or you know...attending to the people I made and keeping them alive.

So when I got home from Michael's I did little bits of my project in fits and starts until everyone was asleep so I could get down to business. And I finished it!

See it?

Aside: The boys love raking leaves. It was a good three hours of entertainment today.


It's the wreath! I made the shiniest, blingiest, glitteriest wreath on God's green earth and it is fantastic. And...it's square. I really had my heart set on a square wreath, which was not available at Michaels', so I bought a sheet of floral foam and made it myself. Take that Michael's.

And I love it.

I know it's nothing big. But it's a crafty project finished and that's kinda huge.


Ok, now you!
You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Peek of the Week - April 8, 2011

It's Friday. Put Your Peekin' Pants On!


Our new Friday feature - the Peek of the Week - is all about you. I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your own blog posts about your own Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

Here's my peek:Remember this little gem from last spring? It was featured in the first post ever of this humble blog. Dizzy and I spent three days crafting it at the first hint of the arrival of last spring.

This year I remembered that I have toddlers and that expecting them to focus on a project for three days is folly.

So instead of embarking of a whole new project, we gave this one a little sprucing.
The boys were quite up to the task.


It was the perfect post-bath, pre-bed quick and easy project. And it involved Dizzy's favorite tools - scissors and pins. Boogie liked 'em too.
My heart is glowing by how proud he is of his wreath. And he's so excited because he knows the Easter Bunny is going to love it.
I think he's right about that.

Now here's where you come in - let's see you Peeks of the Week! Inquiring minds want to know.

How it works:

1. Each Friday I'll post my peek of the week, and give you space to link us up to yours.
2. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
3. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
4. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.
5. Visit some of the other linked posts to see what folks are glowing about this week.
Leave them some comment love and expect some to be coming your way.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Wreaths Around Here Come in Twos

After completing our first wreath on Saturday (see yesterday's post), we took a two hour walk. We went back to the tree with the fantastic frilly acorns and collected a bunch more.
This second wreath required a lot of hot gluing, so I put the boys down for naps and went to work solo.

Following my "don't buy anything to make these wreaths" rule, I reused the smaller spring wreath as the starter for my acorn wreath.

Nothing scientific here. Just glue glue glue.


By this point I was half way through my bucket o' acorns and little critters were crawling all over the place.

I love this wreath. I wish I had a prettier door. It's so bland and white. It needs a window or a burst of color, but I think our landlord would frown upon that. And since she's already a little over us, what with the chalk drawings all over the brick (can't even blame the boys for that one) and the sandbox we lugged up to the third floor patio. So I'll just have to jazz up these boring doors with super seasonal decor!

Dizzle: "The leaves are falling on the ground. That means it's fall!"

There's something full circle, or partial circle, about this entry. You see, I began this blog in the Spring, with a post about making Spring wreaths with the boys.

As soon as one blossom burst onto the scene around here, we celebrated with new door decor.

Well, a leaf has fallen. A change of season is upon us.

With the fella across the pond, presenting a paper tomorrow at Oxford (good luck Mr. Smarty Britches), we had a completely crafty Saturday, just me and the boys.

I had a loose idea of the wreaths I wanted to make, but more importantly, I had a few don'ts in mind when conceiving the project.

Don'ts:
1)I don't want to change out of my pajamas
2)I don't want to leave the house
3)I don't want to spend any money
4)I don't want it to take three days (like the spring wreaths did)

I had some Dos too:
1)I do want the boys to get to help
2)I do want to use some fabric
3)I do want to use stuff I have on hand
4)I do not need these to be keepable forever. I'd be happy to disassemble one or both of them at the next change of season.

I didn't have a wreath form on hand. But going to buy one would break don'ts one, two, and three. After 10 minutes or so of pondering, I had a plan:
Wreaths don't have to be circles.


Fabric? Check. I used the quilting loops to hold the fabric (love this pattern!).

I stuffed in grocery bags and stitched the fabric closed (very inexactly).

A bit lumpy, but that'll be covered up.

Next step: leaves. I drew up some quick leaves and let Dizzle go to painting. He did a beautiful job.

cut cut cut...pin pin pin.

Add a few of those fabulous frilly acorns (I knew I'd find something fun to do with these cuties).

Nothing around here is complete without a sassy owl friend. He's hiding a really ugly ringer/peep hole box.


Ta Da! Love it!

I love how the creative process worked today. As we worked, new ideas came to me. I thought of different supplies to use and additions to make. After making this first wreath we took a two hour walk (yeah, I got out of my jammies) and lunch break. We gathered more acorns to make our second wreath. More on that tomorrow.

Happy Fall!

Spring in the New

Spring in Colorado is a big ol' tease. Two nice days...eight inch snow fall. Sixty eight degrees one day...school's canceled the next. Head to the park wearing flip flops in the morning...throw on your parka and snow boots in the evening to check the mail.

Dear Spring,
Get here and stay already!
Sincerely,
Frozen Mother of Energetic Toddler Who Lives in Tiny Apartment

So, in preparation (and pleading) for the permanent arrival of Spring...I am engaging in the following symbolic acts:

1) I started this blog today, because Spring is for new things, right? Coincidentally:
2) I opened at Etsy shop for my home-crafted goodies. You can find it here. It contains mostly my sewn creations, but keep checking back for new things because things are just heating up over there (much like the temperature outside, hopefully).
2.1) I started Happily Home Sewn the blog and etsy shop because I've entered the Springtime of mother-of-two-hood. Meaning, the fog of having a new baby is beginning to clear, inspiring and allowing me to dabble in enjoyable ventures like crafting, blogging, and etsying.
3) The moment the mercury rises above 55 I change my entire family into summer clothing.
4) Picnics, picnics, more picnics.
5) My 2.5 year old, who shall henceforth be referred to as E-Dizzle and I spent three days crafting springy wreaths for our doors.

This ain't our first rodeo. We know that a vat of almonds and some nose picking are required to complete such a project.
Spoiler Alert - See that? That's what this blog is going to be all about - learning through craft...and some other ways too hopefully.
You too can make some spring for your doors! I got these wreath ideas from two fabulous crafty Mamas whose blogs I read.

A tutorial for the larger one can be found here on the hilarious, craftily inspiring, and most recently miraculously surprising Secondsister Suaviloquy (see her exciting newest post here).
The smaller one blossomed (pun intended) from this holiday wreath blogged about by another crafty Mama who inspires me.

Don't let those 8 inches of snow fool you. It's time the ice skates came down.

Ta Da!

Have we done enough to lure you Lady Spring? Will you come to stay?