penny carnival

12 Days of Crafting, Day 5: Repurposing vintage Christmas cards

OK, so I'm 23 hours, 45 minutes into day 5, but it's still day 5 so take it or leave it.

Today's tutorial for my 12 Days of Crafting series over at Dwell Well is not so much a tutorial but a list of ways you can give new life to vintage Christmas cards.

You can find the cards in an antique store or just search through Flickr. 

I have more details over at Dwell Well, but here are some pictures of the things I made ...

Cupcake toppers (or cookie toppers if you didn't have time to make a batch of cupcakes):

 

Might be cute to cut these with a scalloped-edge scissor or pinking shears.

Garland:

 Place cards for the dinner table:

 

Napkin rings:

 

And gift tags:

Any other ideas? 

 

 

 
 

Christmas craft tutorial No. 1 of 12, and surviving the grocery store

My house looks like a Christmas explosion right now. There are baking ingredients dusted all over the kitchen floor, "cherry wink" cookies covering every inch of countertop, glitter-covered crafts on one end of the dining room table and handmade greeting cards on the other. Oh, and millions of little bitty pieces of red yarn under the table because when a 2 year old decides she can entertain herself for 30 minutes by cutting cheap yarn, you don't complain.

Thank you, thank you for all the great feedback on the Santa dilemma. After giving it a lot of thought and talking with Bo's teacher, we decided we're just not going to emphasize the big guy this year. We're not going to sit her down and tell her the truth; we're just going to focus on other holiday traditions more, like the Nutcracker and singing Christmas carols and building gingerbread houses and making cookies and crafts (hence, the mess). I'll put more of my thoughts on that issue in the comments section of my previous post when I get a minute.

Speaking of the Nutcracker, Seattle magazine had a darling idea in its December issue: Throw a Nutcracker-themed party for kids before or after attending the show. Pink tulle tablecloth. Cupcakes that look like toy soldiers. Invitations that look like theater tickets. Squeal! More details on my Kids' Parties site.

And if you're heading over to the Kids' Parties site anyway, here are a few other things I've been working on over there:

-Food to serve at a kids' Christmas party (that one is a work in progress--I plan to add many more pictures and recipes in the coming weeks)

-Theme ideas for a kids' Christmas party

-And this one wasn't my idea, but I love it so: an Advent calendar of books. Every day, a new Christmas themed book to open and read together. Brilliant idea courtesy of Babyccino.

On my other blog (seriously. how did I end up with so many blogs? my computer is like a rabbit), today marks the start of my 12 Days of Crafting. Between now and Dec. 17, you'll see a new tutorial every day for something holiday related. I started with these twig stars today--easy, cheap, earthy:

You can use them as tree ornaments or string them together like garland or make a super big one to hang on your door.

Much more on the 12-Days-of-Crafting front coming soon.

Let's see ... what else? Our first three holiday cards have arrived from the Kids' Craft Weekly card swap. Bo looooves opening these.

Yesterday, we had breakfast at Chaps, one of our favorite Spokane breakfast joints. Hee haw! The Christmas decorations were darling:



(Yes, I took a picture of the bathroom.)
 



Best children's play area ever. Vintage toy kitchen appliances. Pink cowboy hats. Tin tea set. Love it. Love it. Love it. Thanks, Celeste (owner). You're brilliant.

Lastly, a quick tip courtesy of a friend of mine from high school (thank you, Facebook). After swearing that I would never again take my wild-animal children to the grocery store, Rachel suggested I have the kids make their own grocery lists before we go and use them once we get there. The girls cut pictures from the Wednesday newspaper ads (all based on what I actually needed), and glued them to paper. I made dotted letters spelling out the products for Bo to trace.

And, yes, that's turkey food. We didn't host Thanksgiving this year and we're missing the leftovers.

We headed to the grocery store this morning and the lists worked like a charm, as long as you don't mind your kids lying on the floor in the middle of the aisles so they can cross off what they've just put in the cart. 

 Sorry for the crappy cell phone photo blur. 

Thank you, Rachel!  

I better clean up this mess before this guy comes home. Hope all is well, bloggy friends.

The Santa situation, Thanksgiving costumes and more daily life

Oh, you guys who keep coming back to read Penny Carnival after these long breaks between posts are too good to me. Even J has been scolding me. 

I'm sorry for my absence. It's been, well, nuts.

Thanksgiving was lovely, though. How about you? 

We visited my family across the state and had a fun dinner at my sister's. The kids put on a "First Thanksgiving" play, dressed in costumes we made at the 11th hour (me, anyway).

Despite some historical inaccuracies (we're going to let that slide for a few years), it was downright adorable.

The play ended with the kids sharing a Thanksgiving feast of rice crispy treats shaped like corn on the cob and a blessing that led us to the dinner table.

 
You can read more about it on my Kids' Parties site.  

I did find time to make myself a pilgrim apron following Heather Bailey's fantastic Daily Spice pattern. I say pilgrim because it had a black bodice and skirt and a white waistband and ties. No pictures yet. I always seem to be behind the camera instead of in front of it.

The plan was to make four identical aprons--one for me, my mom, my sister and her friend who had dinner with us. But I only had time for one and it turned out a bit wonky (you know how it goes when you're using a pattern for the first time) so it's all mine. Maybe I'll try for a Santa style one for Christmas (red, black, red?) ... or maybe not.

Speaking of Santa, we're in the midst of our annual dilemma. J and I feel so strongly about being truthful with our kids. It's utterly painful for us to carry on with the Santa story. We do it, cheerfully, but this year is more challenging than ever because both girls have developed a phobia of the big guy. 

It seriously goes beyond a normal fear, especially for Bo, who is 4 now. I think Magpie (who is 2) gets scared because she sees her big sister crying. We tried to go to our city's annual tree lighting, but she wouldn't step foot in the building because she knew Santa would be there. The poor kid was hysterical.

We stayed in a hotel near Seattle last night in a city that throws a holiday parade--totally fun. Fake snow falling from the sky. Toy soldiers on stilts giving out candy canes. People dressed up like reindeer and snowmen and penguins. I don't even know if Santa was there because the girls didn't want to have anything to do with it. 

I take that back. Bo was happy to meet the Snow Princess. 

My mom was with us and she tried dancing the jitterbug with Rudolph to help the girls get comfortable with the costumes, but it didn't work (and then Rudolph's helper said to my mom, "OK, lady. Let's not get Rudolph too hot in there." If you know my mom, it was a classic Nancy moment.)

I kind of wonder if Bo is so scared because we're so honest with her about everything else. She's in the heart of those years when she's trying to figure out how the world works, and here are her parents telling her that some old guy is going to park his reindeer on her roof and shimmy down her chimney one night. I think I'd be freaked out, too.

I'm seriously considering telling her the truth and focusing on the historical story of Saint Nick, not to mention all the other wonderful Christmas traditions. But here is how the conversation usually goes when I suggest this:

Megan: I don't like being dishonest with my kids.
Friends and Family: When you were little, didn't you believe in Santa?
Megan: Yes.
Friends and Family: And it was fun, wasn't it?
Megan: Yes.
Friends and Family: Then why rob your children of some of the magic of Christmas?
Megan: Umm ... I don't know.

Plus, what if she told all the kids in preschool the truth about Santa. Would we get expelled??!

Advice please. There are four weeks until Christmas and at some point I'm going to need to go into a mall.

In other news, we made our first snowmen of the year:

But it's these snowmen I'm really craving:

(Photo taken at Madeleine's in Spokane) 

And if you're going to make a snowman, you might as well do it in style, right Magpie?

 

We enjoyed a recent playdate with a friend:

 

which resulted in these cookies:

and this sweet moment in Bo's bedroom:

Bo won her first coloring contest, which bought dinner for four so we're happy to report that she's now earning her keep:

And check out this adorable Princess and the Pea toy my nieces' grandmother made for them after seeing the idea here:


 Squeal! Don't you love the little pocket for the pea?

I'm sure she would want me to tell everyone that she didn't make the doll, but she's an accomplished seamstress so I know she could make any doll she wanted to.   

Now that your computer has crashed from opening all those photos ... come back soon because I'm working behind the scenes on lots of good stuff. Twelve--count 'em! twelve!--tutorials for Christmas crafts. That starts Dec. 6, but hopefully I'll have something worthwhile to say before then (but don't hold your breath). 

   

  

The Little Red Riding Hood birthday party

Hooray for another birthday party! Last night was Magpie's Little Red Riding Hood-themed 2nd birthday. These are getting more fun all the time--so many kids running around the house, so much excitement beforehand, so much more time for the grownups to catch up with each other now that the little ones are more self sufficient. 

Something always goes a little wrong, but that's part of the fun, right? Right?! 

Besides, the look on this face makes the mad scramble at the end worth it:

 

You can see more pictures/details on my About.com Kids' Parties site.

You might notice that she's clutching a couple of her birthday gifts there--a stuffed pig and a plastic giraffe. Almost every picture I took last night shows her with those two toys in her hands. I guess she took a liking to them right away.

She's also wearing another gift--this apron I sewed her (modeled by Lulu the lamb the other day so I didn't ruin the surprise):

 

I wish I'd had more time to make her some other handmade gifts. On my to-do list were a Mimi Kirchner doll (dressed as Little Red Riding Hood), a felt cake and a camping blanket, but time ran out. Oh, well. There's always Christmas.

Anyhoo, she was happy to get the apron, especially after having to borrow her big sister's for the last year or so. Magpie is an avid cook--I can't make anything without her "helping" these days--so I'm glad I got that project done for her.

Moving on ... to Christmas. 

I really don't see the point in decorating the house for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, but we're not going to be here for it, and why put the effort into decorating for Christmas if it's only up for a few weeks?

So we pulled out the crates labeled "Christmas" today and put a few things out. 

 

The big hit was the nativity set (the one I let them play with). You wouldn't believe the adventures Mary, Joseph and Jesus had today. My goodness. Did you know Mary is a princess? Yep. 

The best part, though, was that every time Bo would say something about "the baby Jesus," Magpie would look up and ask me for a "cheese stick." 

Tutorial: Coloring Book Birthday Party Favor

Have I mentioned here that I used to be a teacher? Eighth grade. Language arts and U.S. history. Three years in the late 1990s. I won't go into the why-I'm-no-longer-a-teacher thing tonight (the kids were great; it's just not what I wanted to do forever), but I will share two things I learned from the experience:

No. 1: Drinking a shandy is a great way to end the week. I'm having one now. Coors Light with about an inch of Sprite at the top. Delicious. I picked that up from an Australian exchange teacher we had with us one year. That may or may not have been the same night that the middle-aged science teacher flashed her boobies in the bar where our staff gathered on Friday nights. It was a small town. I'm not sure what she was thinking. But it was hilarious.

No. 2: Students try harder on writing projects if you tell them you're going to bind their work into a hardback book when they're done. 

The old book-binding trick came to mind the other night when I was trying to think of what favors to give at Magpie's Little Red Riding Hood birthday party this Saturday.

The original plan was to make red hats shaped like hoods (similar to last year's elf hats for the woodland party) and wolf ears for everyone, but time is not on my side this year.

So, instead, I made hardback coloring books that tell the story of Little Red in pictures. The kids will get them along with a small pack of Crayons for their colorin' pleasure. 

 

The faux bois fabric is from Jo-Ann's. 

Wish I could say I had the skillz and the time to do the drawings myself, but I just used some pictures from one of those freebie coloring page sites.

For the photo-illustrated how-to, visit my About.com Kids' Parties site. 

The girls and I also made a pretend forest in our foyer the other day because what Little Red Riding Hood party is complete without some trees made from empty carpet tubes?

 

 

 

That tutorial will be coming soon.

Now we just need some food, a cake, some gifts and a wolf. Stay tuned.

Halloween costumes 2009

Just a quick note to show the Halloween costumes I made for the girls.

Magpie was a pirate and Bo was Glenda the Good Witch ... for about three hours. Then she decided her costume was too scratchy so she put on the Cinderella dress I made for her birthday. Ay caramba. I did the same thing to my mom every year from about 1980 until 1985. Payback's a beeyatch! I would have gladly skipped the Thursday night wrestling match with three yards of tulle if she hadn't begged for it in the fabric store. Who's in charge here? Oh. These two are:

 

 

 

About to be blown away to Oz:

J and I dressed up, too, but he won't let me post the photo. (Every party has a pooper and he's the pooper of the party. I tell him that sometimes. Somehow it doesn't inspire him to be less of a party pooper. Did I tell you I am an awesome wife?!). Our costumes were very last minute. I bought us both Superman T-shirts and we wore them under white dress shirts with the buttons halfway undone. We also wore black-rimmed eye glasses. You get the picture. Clark Kent about to become Superman. I'll try harder next year.

The craft room has seen some serious action in the past week. Last night I frantically stitched up a pair of Montessori slippers for Magpie's first day at her big sister's school. Very exciting. I'd show you a picture, but the slippers hardly had time to be in existence before they were whisked away and put to use in the actual school this morning. 

And this week is all about preparing for Magpie's Little Red Riding Hood birthday party this weekend. Oh, and working. Not sure how it's all going to get done, but it always does. Details coming soon ... 

P.S. The pirate costume was Simplicity 3680 ... with some serious shortcuts. The Glenda dress was Simplicity 4139 ... with some serious tulle.

About ... my new gig. And little red riding hood love

I'm pretty sure I hinted that I was up to something new behind the scenes. Did I say it sometime last week? Last month? Honestly, the days are running together and I'm quite proud of myself for remembering to wear pants today. Sometimes I even brush my teeth (but not if I go to bed after midnight, in which case I wear my pants).

Are you following me?

Anyhow, for the past two months I've been preparing for a new writing/crafting gig that just went live the other day. I'm the new "guide" to kids' birthday parties and other celebrations on About.com.

Here's my new site:

kidsparties.about.com

It's really a writing job, but I'm planning on putting all sorts of birthday- and party-related tutorials on there (hence, the crafts). I'll always alert Penny Carnival readers here when there's a new toot there, but feel free to bookmark that link, too, for your party-planning pleasure. Just some basic stories are up right now and links to existing articles from other guides, but I'll be adding content almost daily so check back often.

Can you believe someone is actually paying me to write about how to throw birthday parties?! This is right up my alley. Really, it is a TON of work, especially as I've had to learn their whole formatting, programming gobbley goop (Hello! HTML coding?! Who has to do that anymore? Why don't they just use Typepad? Oh, because then their site would look as crappy as my blog does right now. I see.)

But besides the late nights, I'm having a blast brainstorming all sorts of birthday themes and crafts and decorations. And with the holidays coming, I've been writing about how to throw Christmas parties for kids (Caroling! Polar Express in Your PJs! Gingerbread House Making!) and what to do for Hanukkah and New Year's Eve and everything. By the way, we're totally going to celebrate Kwanzaa this year. I hate to admit it, but I didn't know a thing about it until I wrote a little article for about.com. What a beautiful holiday!

Rest assured, it is not going to be a site about how to throw over-the-top Super Sweet 16s and how to beat other parents for the best party favors. Good grief! You can read more about my kids' parties philosophy of the bottom of my bio page.

By the way, I also am featuring "real" parties on the site, so please, please, please tell me about any fun ones you've thrown and send me pictures. kidsparties.guide@about.com.

So without further delay, here's one of my first tutorials for the site: How to make birthday invitations by creating a fabric collage, scanning it, and then printing it out. 

 

Step-by-step photo instructions at that link above.

I made those invites today for Magpie's 2nd birthday party (like how I'm multitasking?), which will have a Little Red Riding Hood theme.

Speaking of Little Red, a friend hired me to make matching Red Riding Hood capes for her daughter and her for Halloween. I didn't get a shot of the little one, but here's the mama version:

I'm kind of in love with Little Red Riding Hood right now (as if you can't tell).

OK. An hour until midnight. Maybe I'll make this a pajamas-and-clean-teeth kind of night. Maybe I'll even floss!!!!

G'night.

Birthday party planning and other tidbits

I'm knee deep in a work project right now. Did I say knee? I meant neck. It's time consuming but fun, and I'll tell y'all about in a few days.

Deadlines aren't what they used to be, though. When I worked full time for newspapers I used to thrive on knowing a story had to be filed by 9 p.m. After being wherever I had to be to cover the news, I'd have half the thing written in my head by the time I got back to my desk. And if I didn't, I was in trouble.

Everything changes with kids, though, especially when you work from home. Except when the girls are at preschool, there's never a guarantee that I'll have time to focus on what I'm doing and get it done by the time my editors need it. That uncertainty is more stressful than any breaking news ever was.

A phrase we seem to keep repeating around here is "It is what it is." In other words, quit complaining. Be grateful for the fascinating careers/assignments/life we have. Get it done. And move on. 

But here's a phrase I came across tonight--on Sarah Jane Studio's blog--that I like much better:

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -Thomas S. Manson

I wish that had been in my head last night as I was frantically trying to get the dishes done before bedtime while Magpie was crying and tugging on my leg, begging for my attention. Instead of turning off the water, parking my rear on the floor and loving her up, I scrubbed those pots clean like a madwoman ... and eventually let all the noise turn me into, well, a mad woman. 

Ridiculous. I'm not advocating being at kids' beck and call at all times (they need to learn patience, right?) but two minutes of quality time probably would have calmed her down and allowed me to finish the dishes in peace.

I read something once that said even if we do something we regret with our kids--even if it happened just a second ago--we have the option of changing our direction and taking a more positive route. In the next moment. Right then and there. Turn the corner. Don't look back. 

I don't know how that looks when your kids are older, but at 2 and 4, usually that means shifting gears from frustration to total silliness. Usually that comes naturally to me. Other times, the dishes win. Grrr ... moving on. 

I really just meant to pop on here to share a few tidbits:

-I'm getting a lot of hits right now on my pumpkin carving tutorial from last year. Just thought I'd post a link to it here to make it easier for newbies to find.

-Everybody and their brother also seems to want to bake an owl cake right now (based on Google searches that find their way to Penny Carnival). You can read about my adventures with owl cakes here and here.

-At some point, I'm going to have to start planning Magpie's second birthday party. The original idea was to make it a parade-themed party, which was inspired by these invitations I ordered. 

Aren't they adorable? They're even cuter in person, with their sweet little rounded corners and all.

But the weather has become downright frigid here, so I'm not sure I want to subject a bunch of kids to a late-October prance around the neighborhood. I think I'll save the invitations for Bo's July birthday, since she's the one who's been begging for a neighborhood parade anyway. A parade party could be so much fun--tell the kids to bring their bikes/strollers/wagons, have a stash of streamers and flags they can use to decorate their rides, do the parade thing (inviting neighbors to cheer them on), then come back to the house and serve a long, skinny cake that's frosted to look like a street. 

So I'm working on a Plan B now. Little Red Riding Hood birthday party? Three Little Bears? Alice in Wonderland tea party? Vintage circus? Hedgehogs? Mary Had a Little Lamb? OK, I need to have more kids so I can fulfill all my toddler birthday fantasies.
Update: I just want to acknowledge that I realize the birthday theme should be all about what the kid wants, but Magpie is at an age where everything is awesome to her. "Do you like moldy bread?" "I like mo-wee bed." "Do you like Brussel sprouts?" "I like bussybouts." 

Other things I'm loving right now:

-This idea for thank-you cards (just in time!)

-A work-in-progress by Anna Maria Horner. I will never get tired of rainbows.

-A lovely white dress

-and Art Nest Studio's (a.k.a. Susannah, the highly talented portrait artist) fawn softie pattern. Oooh ... another birthday theme possibility. Those could be the favors!

The princess party

I will spare everyone the details of my inner turmoil over Bo's princess birthday party yesterday. You already know how I feel about the princess trend, so, yes, it was kind of hard to see my daughter go so bananas for all things pink and princessy over the last few weeks. There's no doubt that it has caught her attention, though, so we just tried to avoid the Disney stuff and focus on the fairy tales and the magic of it all. In the end, it was a very sweet birthday party and, needless to say, Bo was over the moon. Which is kind of the point, huh?

Here are some shots of the fun we had ...

First the princess cupcakes, starting with a crown:

And then a glass slipper:

And my personal favorite, the pumpkin:

And here's how it all looked together:

Bo wanted to put the top cupcake in this cute little birdie I found the other day at Goodwill, so we added it later:

I had a grocery-store bakery make the cupcakes and frost them, and then I made the fondant toppers based on some ideas I'd seen on Flickr. I know in the past I've touted the ease of making your own fondant out of marshmallows and powdered sugar, but--holy cow--that box of fondant you can buy at Michael's is even easier. And it doesn't taste that bad, especially if you're 4 years old or so.

To decorate the table, we used our handy-dandy "hip hip hooray" banner from last year:

I made princess party hats using the same method we made rainbow hats last year, except I added a bit of tulle and star garland to fancy them up a bit. 

We don't like to go overboard with gifts, and Bo was just as thrilled to get some simple things she really likes, like a pack of bubble gum, a bicycle helmet (pink, of course), and a battery-operated keyboard I found for $5 at a garage sale (FYI, we're totally regretting that one this morning. Don't do it!!).

I knew, though, that what she really wanted was a princess dress. So this is what I made.

Cinderella, following McCalls 5494:

I used cotton to try to tone it down. It's quite a full dress, though, and sewing the bodice to the skirt was like sewing a quilt because it was so thick. 

By the end of the party, she had to try it on.

And she pretty much hasn't taken it off since.

I also made her a Princess Fiona (from Shrek) dress.

Yes, the sleeves are ridiculously long. They're supposed to be flowy and Medieval, but they're really just hard for her to deal with. I'll shorten them when I get a chance.

But my favorite gifts Bo received were the homemade cards from her friends and cousins.

She loves them, too, and keeps asking me to read them to her this morning.

The 'P' word

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time is going to love this:

Bo wants a princess birthday party this year.

Arrgh!! What is a feminist, Disney-loathing mom to do?

I'm actually not freaking out too badly (especially compared with J). In fact, believe it or not, a princess birthday was my suggestion.

She was starting to talk about having a Hawaiian-themed party after attending a luau at her cousin's school. But I could tell she wasn't in love with that idea, and I've been watching her slowly start to pay attention to princesses over the last few months.

It was never our plan to completely ban something she took a natural liking too. We just didn't want to be the ones to suggest it or introduce her to it, especially since we don't like how Disney over markets itself to young kids and because of the whole girl-rescued-by-a-boy theme in most of the stories (some of you have kindly pointed out in the past that many of the princesses are quite strong characters in the stories. Thank you. They still have giant boobs.).

So she was talking about the luau party the other day when I had a sort of out-of-body experience and heard myself say, "You know, I think a luau would be fun, but I've been hearing you talk about princesses lately. Maybe you want a princess party this year."

"YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Now we have two months to come up with a princess party that she'll love--and one that her father and I are willing to attend. I'm still trying to steer clear of the Disney characters and go with a non-commercial theme. I'm struggling a bit, though, and would love to anyone's suggestions. Here are some ideas I've gathered so far:

For party favors--

"Gold" crowns made from lace, a beautiful project by Bitter Betty.

For the cake--

The Princess and the Pea (a story she loves), by Seven Cakes

Or maybe a simple cake with this Cinderella topper from an awesome online shop called Bake It Pretty:

I love how pissy Cindy looks. 10 points for whoever can come up with the best caption for what the happy couple is saying.

For a gift--

A princess dress sewn from a pattern like this one. Yes, a Disney brand. I know. But maybe I'll switch the colors up a bit, just to put a personal stamp on it. And to give my kids one more thing to discuss in therapy 20 years from now.

For fun--

Make a plywood drawing of princesses and princes with holes where the kids can put their faces for photos, like this from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle:

OK. Help me. I think I'm getting a cavity just looking at all the sweetness when I do a Google image search for "princess party." Thanks.