Valentines Baby Headband Tutorial

Happy Monday!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Do you ever sit down to write on Mondays and honestly can't remember a thing about your weekend?  That was me this morning.  We had a good weekend--grabbed dinner with friends, rented a movie or two to get caught up for awards season.  

Last week I shared little miss's Valentines inspired heart headband and today I wanted to share a little tutorial so you can make one of your own!

To make your own headband you will need: 

Red and white ribbon.  I got this spool as a gift from my aunt (does she know the way to my heart or what?) 

Measuring tape

White elastic (the softer the better--this is for those soft baby heads!)

Two 4" by 4" pieces of felt one in red and the other white

White embroidery thread

Fabric glue (not pictured)

Small binder clips, chip clips or clothes pins (not shown)

A scrap of graph paper and a pencil (optional)

First you will need to know what size baby head you are working with.  You can do this either by measuring (which can be tricky--they are very wiggly subjects) or what I prefer to do is use the head measurement from our last doctors's visit and add an eight or a quarter inch to that measurement for each month past the visit.

Now, measure and cut a 4 inch piece of elastic.

After you have done that, subtract 3.5 inches from your measurement.  That is the length you need to cut two equal in length pieces of ribbon.

Now, this is the trickiest part (and it not that tricky!)...lay one strip of ribbon face or polka dot side down.  Run a moderate strip of glue down the entire length of the ribbon adding extra glue on the last quarter of a inch at each end.

Next take the other piece of ribbon you cut and lay it face down putting glue only on the last quarter inch of each end.

Now take the elastic and lay the last quarter inch of the elastic on the last quarter inch of the first ribbon.  then fold the second ribbon over on the elastic and first ribbon, pressing along the way and removing any excess glue with your finger.

When you get to the last quarter inch of ribbon bring the other end of the elastic around and place it between the two ribbons and press firmly.

Now take your binder clips or clothes pins and clamp them where the ribbon and elastic meet.  Set aside to dry.

While the headband is drying cut a heart shape out of your read felt.  I free handed mine but if you aren't great at free handing use a piece of graphing paper to sketch out a pattern.

Using the red heart as a guide, cut two hearts out of the white felt that are an eight of an inch larger all the way around.

Using the embroidery thread and a straight stitch stitch your read heart however you would like.

Take the read heart and glue it onto one of the white hearts.  After the headband is finished drying take the two white hearts and place glue on them and press them around the ribbon just off center.  Wait to dry and then try it on your little model!

I would love to see how yours turned out!  

Happy Friday and Some Internet Love

This week has been seriously exhausting.  The mister has been out of town again for work add to that little miss is going through a growth spurt, teething and constantly on the go crawling, climbing, crumbling crackers, smooshing bananas and generally being a busy little adventurer and you get one tired momma.  

I have a few new lenses I am looking at for my camera, plus a few toy cameras so my lens/camera lust has motivated me to try and master the manual setting on my Canon.  Luckily I have a subject that is willing to work for a few crackers and a piece of banana.  

Here are a few of my favorites:

In addition to this little love, here are a few things from around the internet that have caught my eye:

1) I already make my own vinaigrettes but I think I will try making my own honey mustard via this recipe over the weekend.

2) I have been trolling Craig's List for a little piece of furniture for our guest room just like this one.

3) Our medicine cabinets are pretty beat up and in need of some care.  Thinking about doing something like this.    

Monday I have plans to share a little tutorial.  Hope you have a great (and restful) weekend!

Creative Room Makeover {After}

Hey, look!  I am actually following up on an after post on one of our home projects!  As I shared in my 12 in 12 post and in my "before" post we have a room right off our entry way that was made for a home office.  It has two closets, which make for perfect storage for all sorts of stuff, vaulted ceilings and a big window.  We needed the space to function in 4 different ways:

1) As a home office for T's day job.  You know we need some space for filing, tech gear, etc. and it also needed to be a space that was acceptable to be seen in the back ground of skype meetings.

2) As a quiet space away from sleeping babes to play music and hang out.  Since T is a musician he needs space where he can write and play anytime without waking the little bear, especially since most of our free time is after she goes to bed.  

3) As a reading nook and library.  We both own waaaay too many books and love to read.  Having a place to store our books and to curl up with one is a must in our house.  

4) Last but not least I needed a space to be able to sew, blog, scrapbook and edit pictures.  

In addition to these four functions, it also needed to be baby safe for days when either of us needed to wrap up a project while the little miss played.  

I think we were able to make it all happen, so without further ado here's our Creative Room:

We started with taking everything out of the room as I shared in my before post, so we could paint.  We chose Benjamin Moore's Divine White color matched to Behr Premium paint and primer in one.  I chose Divine White for a couple of reasons, first, the furniture is dark and the red accents bright so I wanted to go lighter and brighter.  Divine White is also what we painted the entry way so visually it would make that space seem continual and draw the eye in and make the art wall the focal point. Plus, I had a gallon left over from the entry way project, so bonus!  It took three coats to cover that yellow up.  Each time we tackle a project to cover the yellow I always under-estimate how dark it the yellow really is--ugh!  

Once we finished painting we brought the furniture back in.  And weeded through some of our books.  Some went to half price, some went to the attic and some went to other areas around the house.  But we slimmed it down so we could add some knick knacks and whatnot.  

This little snail vase is one of my favorite little details.  I found him at a florist around the corner from our house in Indy.  I am hoping in the spring when the selection is healthier at the local green house to pick up a little succulent to plant in there.  

I am too much of a nerd to not organize my shelves according to genre even though all the home decor sources say to organize according to color, but I did try a little color clustering on my shelves with in genre and only did it with colors that would compliment the other colors in the room like the red and cream.  My thought was the colors that didn't fit could blend into one another by not being placed by one another and the colors that did go together could pop.  

The wall the bookcases sit on is the tallest, largest expanse of space in the room with no doors or windows along it, so I had an art wall in mind that could capture some of our loves--music, memories, babies, letterpress art work.  

In the corner across from the chair on the other side of the big window I created a little nook for me to blog, craft and do my thing.  I saw the NORBERG desk at Ikea a few months back and thought it might do the trick and be a space saver.  Really there is plenty of room for another full sized desk, but I thought a desk that could fold down would be good at motivating me to tidy up my mess at the end of the day...so far...so good. Also, I wanted whatever desk we chose for this corner to be able to be used else where in the house because I have a little more in store for this room when we can afford certain pieces of furniture.  

The chair was free.  It was left behind at one of T's gigs a few years back and so we drug it home and it sat.  And sat.  It was originally a dusty, pinky, orange and covered in dirt from outdoor and music festival gigs.  I cleaned it off, sanded off the nasty old paint, primed and painted it with a white semi gloss.  The basket is to keep track of current projects and they stay on the chair (away from little hands) when I am not working on them.  

I organized some of my other items in mason jars on the desk.  Thread and ribbon and whatnot.  I wanted to hang three of the FORHOJA cubbies above my little area for more storage, but alas Ikea is sold out.  Which is probably good because it will force me to find something more creative or unique off Craig's list.  

I am pretty happy over all.  The room is cleaned up, organized and meets all our needs. It also is light and airy and feels more like "us" than the dark yellow.  I am hoping to tweak it here and there, add a few more prints to the art wall, and of course the cubbies about the sewing desk.  And the mister digs it and I know the little miss likes it now because she can actually hang out and play.  

So there it is!  Our little project.  

Tuesday Crafties

Valentines Day is just around the corner and I now have two loves to think about this year!  For my little love I wanted to fix her up with something cute to sport this spring and beyond.  So I made a quick headband she could wear on her baby adventures. You know, cruising the house for lint to taste, pulling up on the couch and practicing all our new sounds.    

Doesn't my little love look so cute...and so stinkin' BIG?!?!  

I really like being able to make her little things and I hope that when she looks back on her childhood that it's some of these handmade things that are the most precious to her and that she can see they were little labors of love. 

Pssst...want to make your own?  Check out the tutorial I posted here!

Creative Room Makeover {Before}

We started 2012 by tackling one of our house projects.  It's by far not our most difficult or daunting project, but we are really happy with how it turned out.  Plus, If we are ever going to get this house feeling like "ours" its going to be room by room one little project at a time.  

As I shared in my 12 in 12 post we have a home office just off our entry and formal living/dining that needs some help being pulled together.  Its actually a great sized room, has two closets and is the perfect space to turn into a space for playing music, crafting, reading and being creative.  

I snapped a few pictures the day we closed on the house to document the "before."  Again, you can see the yellow paint everywhere.  

The yellow paint extended into the creative room and made a room with vaulted ceilings, french doors and a big window seem much smaller and darker that it actually was.  

Since we've moved in we have had a desk and our books shelves in the room but it has mainly been the catch all where we have piled those last remaining boxes that didn't have a home yet.  

And I am horrible at true "before" pictures.  I guess its because when it comes to tackling a project I am SO sick of the before and SO ready for the after I dive in and forget to snap pictures.  But here is one before I snapped with the ol iPhone of the little miss helping with the demolition process.  

I am super excited to share how we transformed the room to meet our needs and create a beautiful space to read, write, play and create.  Stay tuned!

Happy Monday and A Little Baby Cuteness

Woah, it's Monday again!  It seems like the weekend just flew by.  I guess that's what happens when you are trying to soak it up as much as possible.  I am getting ready for another week of momma and baby adventures and tackling my still woefully behind to do list.   And I have a few little things to share including a house project.  

And because it's Monday and everyone needs a little extra cuteness I have a little video for you. Remember Friday when I said I had been teaching little miss to go "Ooooh!"? Well here's a short little video...just ignore the goofy mom coaching.  

I thought this was a goofy little trick but she is now all of a sudden very interested in her books that use the words "who" and "moo" and is trying to get those sounds out.  But mainly its adorable and funny and makes me SO happy to hear that little "Ooooh!" as she crawls around the house.  

Remember my 12 in 12 list?  Well, I am off with a bang and with the help of the mister have tackled #7 Get the "creative room" pulled together which I will be sharing later today.

Happy Friday and Some Internet Love

Happy Friday everyone!  We had a great week...not sure about that to do list, but we did survive T's first week of travel with flying colors and even had a little fun!  I taught baby girl to go "Oooooh!" and now she does it every time she gets excited or sees something she likes.  Too cute.  And this weekend we have a great little family outing planned.  

Here are a few things from around the internet that caught my eye this week...

This article on being a parent really touched me and apparently a lot of other people too since its made the rounds this week.  It captures the paradox between absolutely loving being a parent and also counting down the minutes some nights until bedtime.  It gave me some solid ways to talk about this wondrous and challenging calling of parenthood. Check it out.

Another parenting article but equally as insightful that I read this week.  

And how cool is this Lego taxidermy!?  Such a cool addition to a little guy's room.  You could do a whole woodland theme around them.

Love the idea of painting up a fun little camera like the Holga with a chevron design.  

Hope you have a great weekend!

Tuesday Crafties {Baby Crafties}

Adelaide is getting to the age where we can do some age appropriate little projects together.  After all, she made her first piece of art work at church already!  So this week I thought I would finally tackle the whole "baby's footprint and handprint" pages in the baby book I spruced up earlier this spring.  Yes, this would have been ten time easier when she was little, little but better late than never right?

Here's what you need to get those little baby paws down on paper for posterity:

1) Paper, pages from the baby book or card stock (what ever you want/need/have)

2) A non-toxic ink pad 

3) baby lotion

4) a wet towel or dish cloth

So set everything up--pages, ink pad and wet cloth before getting started.  Then I took my willing little assistant and applied lotion to her hands and feet and to my hands.  The purpose of the lotion is to create a thin barrier between her hand and feet and the ink, thus making it way easier to wipe off.  Putting it on my hands did the same thing.  That's my big secret trick for this whole project.  Then I did her feet first to get her used to the idea and placed each one on her page, wiping them off in between.  

Finally I did her hands which proved to be waaay trickier and a wee bit unsuccessful because we are at the age where we are the master and commander of our hands.  But it was a fun project to do together and now I have a little something in her baby book to remember those cute little piggies. 

It's Monday

It's Monday here.  It's overcast and windy but warm, another deceptive weather day here in Texas. We are off to a pretty productive start to the week, considering T is back to traveling during the week for the first time since July.  He's gotten these two girls pretty spoiled around here, so I am pleased that today has started so well.  I have a few things that I hope to share with you all here on the blog over this week and next as I try to get back on top of things, find my routine again and tackle my long list of to-dos.  I am shamefully and embarassingly behind on things for the shop, blog and around the house.  So my plan while T is gone is to soak up time with little miss and get that list tackled.  

So here's to Monday, tackling to-do lists and trying not to miss the mister too bad.  What's on your slate for the week?

iPhone Photo Dump

We will get back to some semi-regularly scheduled programing here soon.  There's been some crazy changes going on around here but in the mean time here's a big photo dump of our last month.

I love wrapping gifts and making my own tags

We are a playing machine these days

My little present under the tree

Love this face, so funny

Whiskey sweater

Our first piece of art work--see the little blue specks?  We did that :)

Date night at a local tapas place.  Yum.

I've been pre-prepping my smoothies.  Momma breakfast awesomeness.  

Showing baby Jesus a little love

My little present

My smiley little girl with her Christmas present from her mom and dad!

Auntie snuggle time

More Scrabble time with the fam

Oh, you know, just admiring my dad.

Airing out our piggies on a long walk

Little elf

NYE with my sis and sis-in-law

When it's not a smoothie...

Troubled teether

Warm sunny winter days in Texas

Baby on board

Tackling a house project or two...

Trying our hand at crackers