penny carnival

Ridiculous me

This is going to sound absurd no matter how I write it, so let me just begin.

Martha Stewart needs to hire me.

OK, so we probably all feel that way, and, like I said, I’m ridiculous. But when I opened the new issue of Martha Stewart Living yesterday and saw a project I JUST DID THE DAY BEFORE, it sealed the deal. Martha, I’m all yours.

The project in question isn’t rocket science, and it’s something we’ve probably all been doing since the third grade: braiding fabric scraps. The Martha folks came up with all sorts of new uses for braided fabric, including using the braids as shoe laces and, um, wrist cuffs (keep reading).

Here’s the whole story. Lucky you, huh?

When my friends visited for the Farm Chicks Show last month, I’d purchased them each a couple of welcome-to-Spokane gifts, including bottles of local wine. To make them look a little bit cowboy, I braided some strips of fabric and tied them to the bottles’ necks.

Fast forward six weeks: the braids got left behind and have been sitting on my kitchen counter ever since.

A colleague from The Spokesman-Review called yesterday to ask about the kids’ crafts I’m planning to lead at the upcoming North Idaho Fair. She wanted to make sure we were on the same page:

Bark boats, inspired by Rhythm of the Home? Check.

(10 points if you can name the Spokane pond pictured there.)  

Newspaper mobiles, inspired by the Queen of Tarte, Kayte Terry and myself? Check.

Nature crowns, following Maya Made’s instructions? Check.

 

And then my colleague asked, what about the wrist cuffs you’d mentioned? I thought you were planning on making those, too.

The wrist cuffs … right … well, no, maybe … um … (and then I spotted the fabric braids on the counter). Yep! We’re still doing wrist cuffs. I’ll send you a photo in two minutes.

Ta da! Panicky phone calls are the mother of invention.

OK, so they need a little refinement before the make-and-take booth debut ...

I guess the whole point of this post is that when you see me (self-conscious, ridiculous me) putting up pictures of kids making these in late August, you will most definitely know that I did NOT rip off the idea from Martha. The other projects, well, yes, I’m borrowing those. But the braided wrist cuffs are mine, all mine. (And the millions of other adults who’ve been braiding fabric scraps since the crafty ‘70s.)

Got it, Martha? Good.

Cawl me, K?

 

The Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping birthday party

We celebrated Bo's fifth birthday last night, following her desire for a Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping theme. 

I'm going to let these photos tell the story, and then you can hop over to my kids' parties site where there are more pictures and all the juicy details.

Thanks for cheering me on here and over on Facebook as I prepped for the party as the kids camped with J over the weekend. I had planned a totally darling setup, with all the bunny favors sitting at place settings at the table under the trees before the party began, but we had this crazy dust/wind storm here yesterday, so I had to scrap that idea. It would have been charming, but as J put it, "you could have thrown cow pies on the lawn and those kids would have had a good time."

See why I need you fellow craft addicts in my life?

Party favors (thanks, again, to the great tutorial from Wee Wonderfuls):

 

Princess ice cream, before Bo decorated it:

 

Princess ice cream, after Bo decorated:

Anyone else laughing at my old tirades against princesses and Barbie dolls? A lot of it still bothers me (like the fact that my daughter tells me she likes "skinny dolls, not puffy ones"), but we keep it to a minimum and it's generally not worth the fight. I've learned to pick my battles. There are plenty from which to choose.

A few of the girls eating dinner (gotta love the compost bin in the background--that's charming):

Dinner:

Playing pin the crown on Sleeping Beauty:

Cake and wardrobe change No. 2 for Bo (one of her friends gave her a matching outfit for her birthday):

Chocolate-frosted cupcakes with roasted marshmallows on top to fit the camping half of the theme:

Blurry. Sorry.

Many more pictures and a description of the whole party here.

T minus 3 months to Magpie's third birthday. Better start planning. 

  

Plan B

Tell the truth. Were you all snickering behind my back when I said I was going to make nine of those dolls to give as favors at Bo's birthday party? Holy moly. I didn't realize how long each one was going to take.

This is the ONE I've been able to make so far:

OK, I realize she has a slight jaw issue and her embroidered eyes and mouth are a little funky, but I still love her. 

This is definitely a pattern I'll use again (using matching thread next time, ahem), but I'm scrapping the plan to make nine of these, unless I can get Bo to agree to push her birthday party to December.

Plan B: Instead of making nine princesses for the "Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping" party, I'm going to focus on Briar Rose's little forest friends.

Mr. Bunny here took a fraction of the time to make:

 
Thank you, Hillary Lang, for your sweet and simple tutorial.

I'm either going to make nine bunnies or do a mix of owls and bunnies. Wish me luck. I have about 30 hours until J returns with the girls after camping.

 

One birthday project down ...

... many, many more to go.

Bo had the great idea to play pin the crown on Sleeping Beauty, so that's what this is for. I had a spare piece of plywood in the garage and used the girls' poster paint. I'm not sure if she earns the name "beauty," but she was free. 

More to come.

 

Hay bale seating

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and Bo's birthday party is as good an excuse as any.

Hay bale seating.

There will be a food table between the bales by Monday.

I can't remember whether it was my friend Emily who first brought the idea to my attention or a picture from Country Living's website in my bookmarks. You can find more hay bale goodness at these links (warning: looking at these pictures might make you wish you could do your wedding all over again.):

From Ruffled

From Eventualities

From Sparkle & Hay

From Fiore Fresco, a slightly different take on it

We bought four hay bales tonight for $5 each from a delightful man named Sergey we found on Craigslist. For a moment, I thought J had found his new bestie.  

Advice: you need the quilts or some sort of cover on the hay. Unless you enjoy the hokey pokey.

These lovely quilts happen to be very special to me. The blue one was made for my dad by his grandmother, so it's about 70 years old. The holes are courtesy of my childhood dog Rocky, who had a thing for blankets, Barbie dolls and hippity hops. 

The red one was something I spied at the Farm Chicks Show his year. I must have visited it 10 times, and then, at the end of day 2, I came around the corner and saw my dear friend Nis holding it.

"Here," she said, thrusting it at me. "You have to have it."

I truly think of her every time I look at it. Thanks again for the wonderful gift, Nis.

Bo's reaction when she saw the hay bales tonight: "What does hay have to do with Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping?!!" (which is her birthday theme, if you're just tuning in).

Don't be silly, I replied. Don't you remember the horse the prince rides in the Sleeping Beauty movie? Well ... horses eat hay! 

Oh, yeahhhhhhhh. 

Good, good. Glad we're all on board. Now if poor J would just stop sneezing.

Doll shop

Just wanted to take a sec to say thanks to everyone who has "liked" Penny Carnival over on Facebook. I see lots of familiar faces and lots of folks I didn't even know were out there. Some of you I've never met, but I know from old comments that you've been reading this blog for a long time. Seeing your names feels like home.  

I also added a way for you to subscribe to new posts ... over there ...  ---->

... in case that's more your style. 

I'm gearing up to redouble my efforts--more toots (tee hee hee), more posts, more links to great things around the web and maybe one day a fancier look for the blog (but don't hold your breath). 

Thanks for following along. Without you, my husband would be forced to listen to me talk about crafts, parenting and (striving toward) simple living more than he already does. He thanks you, and I thank you.

On the agenda this week, making nine of these dolls to give as favors at Bo's birthday party Monday. 

Pattern by Bit of Whimsy and image courtesy of her, too.

I'm going to make them with the eyes closed, though, to fit the "Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping" theme. The dolls' eyes will be closed. Not mine.

We're sticking to a budget of $150 for the party (including presents--thank you, Craigslist). Helping in that effort is the decision to make this a little girl's party (as it probably should be) rather than a get together for our friends (who drink beer and require more sustenance than tea sandwiches) with a scoop of birthday on the side. 

I was discussing this with the nice woman cutting my fabric at Jo-Ann's today (9 party favors total cost: $26, thanks in large part to healthy supply of fabric scraps in my craft room). While I was there, I couldn't resist a little purchase for myself. McCalls patterns are on sale for 99 cents today, and I think this hat pattern will come in handy come fall.

It's the brown one, center top, that I want to make, minus the braid. And for 99 cents, I think I will. Some of the others would be perfect if I decide to go as Mrs. Roper on Halloween this year, don't ya think? 

P.S. It's J and my anniversary today, so I couldn't resist posting a picture from our wedding in 2002.

This summer also marks the point when we've known each other as long as we haven't. 18 years without him, 18 years with him (give or take a few years when we were didn't want anything to do with each other). I know quoting the Dave Matthews Band is tragically unhip these days, but "you come to me like wine comes to this mouth so tired of water all the time. You quench my heart, and you quench my mind."

Cheeeeeesy. I know. Sorry. He's just so dang great.

Here he is patiently getting "help" from the girls while fixing the sprinkler system:

And here is the result of letting your daughters think that they're being useful:

  

 

Kids, nature and some 4th of July crafts

We're back from our first (real) camping trip of the summer. I walked away with only three mosquito bites and perhaps an extra pound thanks to s'mores and beer, so I'd call it a success.

It's amazing to me how few behavior issues we have when the kids are dinking around with Mother Nature. I can't think of a single whining or fighting incident among the girls, and--believe me--we get plenty of that here at home. Does anyone else out there camp with kids? Do you notice the same thing?

Here are the girls preparing for a hike. So serious:

J setting up our temporary home:

 

See the lack of fighting over who got to get the newspaper off the front porch and who got to press the garage-door opener? Ahhh ... maybe we should live in the woods. 

 

Counting the rings on a tree stump:

Finding shapes in nature:

The last load of laundry is in the machine right now. Maybe tomorrow my hair will stop smelling like a campfire.

Back at home ... we made some 4th of July crafts tonight. This was a "cracker rocket," as the girls called it:

 

This is Bo's interpretation of the U.S. flag: 

 And this is Magpie's:

You need to see it from the side to fully appreciate it.

 Happy Fourth of July!