Crafty (Backyard) Camping Birthday

My oldest girls turned 9yo this past weekend.  They wanted a backyard camping sleepover.  My husband and I went around and around about whether to have a 'theme' or just go with a sleepover party.  Ultimately the theme idea won - if for no other reason than it helped to reign in ALL of the ideas that the girls had about their special birthday party.

I found this great camp cake recipe/idea online and did my best to create one similar.  I think I did pretty well.  In fact, making and decorating the cake with the girls was one of the highlights of the entire party planning experience.

I picked out two crafts for the girls to do as well.  The first was a photo holder: A wooden cube that could be decorated with camping signage, and then add a groove in the top that can hold a photo.  We all loved doing these!  I found the camping signs online at Etsy, each girl got her own sheet to cut from and we used Mod Podge to secure the 'signs' to the blocks.  My husband made the blocks and then used a saw to cut the groove.  Each girl went home with a couple of blocks and one photo holder.  I kept the extra blocks until the next day and then made our family a set of blocks for camping.  I can imagine using them for so many things when we are in the great outdoors - story cubes, conversation starters, etc.

The other craft was creating shadow puppets of northern woodland animals.  The girls (painstakingly) cut them out and taped each on to a chopstick.  They practiced shining the images on the side of the tent with their flashlights (a party favor) and then my husband made up a story and they acted it out.  The whole idea/production turned out even better then I ever could have imagined.  The animal shapes were free templates from a designer on the internet - there are thousands out there to choose from.

We roasted hot dogs over a fire pit for dinner with corn on the cob, watermelon and chips.  We did the crafts right afterwards, then were inside for a movie.  Then outside again for sleeping in the tent.  Luckily the weather was on our side for the weekend.  The girls all slept really well (until 8a!) and after breakfast and some playing it was time for the girls to get picked up again.  It was a great party and after the guests left my daughters ran to me with hugs saying that the party exceeded every dream they had about it before hand.  A very happy Momma moment.

This was our first foray into a friend party - up until now, for all our girls, we've kept these celebrations close with just family.  It was a lot of work to pull of the party for kids but very much worth it.  And the party was in touch with our family 'vibe' which made it really enjoyable.  I even got to craft/create along the way.

FO's: Birthday knitting

colorway: peach melba

A couple months ago I agreed to help a friend teach 18 7-year-olds how to knit at a birthday party.  I am not sure how successful we were, but many of the girls seemed really happy with their introduction to knitting - my daughters included.

As a thank you my friend gifted me a very generous gift certificate to the store that hosted the party, a local yarn/fabric shop Stitcher's Crossing.  My girls, excited by their brief introduction to knitting, eagerly picked out a couple skeins of yarn for themselves.

And then the skeins sat.

I am not one to push knitting on my kids - it wouldn't end happily for any of us - but the lovely skeins they picked out (they have very good taste in yarn) were eating away at me.

As it turns out, their own birthday is coming up in a few short days and I convinced them each to let me knit up a quick project with their special yarn.  We talked it over and daughter #1 wanted a cowl and daughter #2 asked for a hat.  Easy peasy. 

colorway: royal

And, as I promised them, there is half a skein left to practice their knits and purls if they so choose.  Now if that yarn sits for another month I may try to convince them that they each need both a hat and cowl...they are such easy and gratifying projects I'd love to knit those up for them too.

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Maxima - the cowl is 75 sts in the round with single purl rows at 5 rows in from each end, and the hat is the Vanilla Twist Hat, substituting cables for a rib edging.

Second Birthday

My youngest turned two years old this past weekend. Hard to believe that my little baby isn't so little anymore, and she most certainly isn't a baby anymore. She's a toddler thru and thru; playing an endless game of keep-up with her older sisters. On her birthday we kept asking her, "how old are you today?" and she'd reply with a firm, "FOUR years old." I wish I could explain to her that there's no rush, no race to grow up. Stay young forever was my wish when she blew out her candles.

This was another low-key birthday in our household with only my parents and one uncle in attendance at our small party. The afternoon was full of homemade, however. Homemade cupcakes, birthday crowns and presents. My mom and my other daughters made the cupcakes and my mom also sewed her a cute little corduroy jumper with a star-and-moon print. My SIL made her a wonderful handmade doll, and sent it up from Tennessee.

I did manage to squeeze a quick crown-making session on the morning of her birthday. I had the forethought to cut extra pieces when I was making these, but never assembled it. It didn't take anytime at all and all three girls looked great wearing their crowns all day.

As for presents, we gave her this book, and this book. And earlier in the week I shoved all else off my plate in honor of making her a faux butterfly specimen case. I saw one just like it here (there are lots more links for other inspiration there too) and knew my daughter (we?) needed one too. It's perfect in her room and she literally jumped out of her seat when she saw it. "Budfry, budfry, budfry" she chanted as we all gazed on in wonder at this little ones uncontrollable enthusiasm.

The project took no time at all really. The most labor-intensive part was marking the foam mat so I could place the butterflies in neat rows and columns. I did this with a template made from a paper grocery bag, cut to the size of the mat. Then I drew grid lines on the bag and poked holes through it, leaving a mark on the mat at each intersection of the grid lines. That let me center the foam dots that are below each butterfly.

The butterflies are made with a butterfly punch (ala Martha) and the display case I found on clearance a couple months ago. The covers of my back issues of Cooking Light and Knit Simple provided the colorful paper for the butterflies themselves. If you look closely you'll see knit fabric, polka dots and even a red onion on the wings of the butterflies.

Birthday knitting, crafting and sewing

My mom's birthday and my twins' birthday are a day apart in August. You already knew that my SIL's birthday was earlier this month too. This means a lot of crafty possibilities every August. This year I made crowns (ala Soulemama) with my girls and knit a pair of socks for my Mom. I put the socks inside v.2.0 of my re-usable fabric gift bag.

I cut and assembled the crowns, but the girls picked out the felt and accessories; they wanted noticeably more bling than the ones I envisioned :) They also decided on the placement of the flowers and the jewels. I couldn't find my darn glue gun, and didn't let the craft glue dry long enough, so half of the little beads fell off during the day. I guess we just get to re-decorate them all over again next year.















The socks are Spring Forward by Linda Welch knit on size 1.5 birch dpn's. I knit a pair of these earlier in the year for myself, in orange.


















This gift bag is a slight improvement over my previous version as the seams are thankfully inside the bag this time and the drawstring works better. The only thing I still can't figure out is how to make the entrance and exit holes for the draw string sit on the outside of the bag. The ones pictured here turn inwards. I'm sure this doesn't make sense, but in case it does, do you have any advice for me? Might I have to make the casing as a separate piece and then sew it to the bag?

After seeing my first bag, jsknitter (aka Joan who popped over from ravelry) talked me through making a proper drawstring and some advice on french seams. I'll be sure to incorporate her advice in v.3.0!

Progress

It is slow going, but here is my progress on the helena sweater for Maddie's big day. I've got about one more repeat on the skirt and then it is on to the sleeves, the ties and finishing the edges. I'm really happy with the color (bright, but not garish) and not too 'girly.' We have enough pink in the wardrobe, that's for sure. The pattern is great to follow so far and I haven't run into any problems. I did need to frog it, just after the bodice, (three times!) before getting the lace pattern correct, but that was my error: too much late-night-knitting-while-trying-to-catch-up-with-the-hubby isn't such a great thing. I am making the 2 y.o. size which means she will have to grow into it, but maybe she'll get an extra year of wear out of it too?

Baby quilts

I love quilt month. It has given me the opportunity to blog about many of the things that make our daily lives rich and unique. Here is one such example.

The women in our neighboorhood have a tradition. Everytime on of their daughters or sons has a baby, a quilt is made. It is mostly coordinated and constructed by the mothers in the neighboorhood, but Ten Finger Workshop and I have been in on making a few too.

We come from a close knit community with very talented and loving mothers, all whom have become friends too now that we are having kids of our own. It is hard to explain what it means to receive on of these quilts upon the birth of a child, but it means a lot. Everytime I was frustruated about colic, unable to sleep or navigating some such parenting trial, I only had to look at these quilts to know that many families have gone before me, and lived (rasied wonderful kids) to tell about it.

Each quilt is unique and the individuals invited to contribute squares vary from family to family. I recieved two quilts when the twins were born and a third when Madeline arrived. Below are some of my favorite blocks, but they are all special, unique and made with love.

Essentially, when a daughter or son is expecting, one of the mothers from the neighboorhood sends out an invitation for squares. They go to family members, friends (near and far; many squares are sent internationally) and the neighboorhood women. All who can contribute, do. Once each block is complete it is sent to one of the the neighboorhood women that has volunteered to do the sewing and then the magic happens. Little elves pour over the squares and find just the right background and backing fabric. The quilt is assembled, pillowcase style, and finished off with hand ties. Don't they look amazing?

However, it isn't just the uniqueness of the squares that makes me speechless when I glance into my kids' rooms and see these quilts strewn about, no doubt from some recent make believe adventure. It is the love, time, attention and care that went into making them that means the most. People stiched love, care, their thoughts and prayers for me and my family into each square. That is what makes me speechless.

I only hope that I can do the same for my babies one day, when they have babies of their own. This is a tradition worth carrying on forever.

Cupcake decorations

Here's a picture of the last birthday craft I did for the girls' party. In addition to the banner decoration I also made some decorations for the cupcakes. With it being summer and there being lots of kids I decided against candles and made these up instead. I think they turned out great. I can't say exactly where I got the inspiration from - I am sure from surfing around, but there wasn't anyplace that the idea came from directly.

The decorations are little felt circles free-cut with pinking shears, with smaller circles glued to the middle. Then I glued toothpicks to the back. What a great way to use up bits of my felt and add to the festive party atmosphere. I am sure I could have used a template and made them more round, but I think that the akward shapes added to the character.

I am thinking there are lots of things you could do with this decoration too: felt onesies for a baby shower, wedding dress for a bridal shower, numbers for birthdays, suns for a solstice party, ah, the list goes on...

The one thing I didn't get around to this year that I wanted to was to make the girls some felt crowns (ala SouleMama). I guess that is getting moved to the list for next year. Besides, they got so many Cinderella accessories and princess crowns from friends/relatives that they weren't missed.

Birthday gifts

Here are some pictures of the colored pencil wraps I made for Abby and Olivia for their third birthday. The inspiration for the project came from Mr. Monkeysuit, but the (modified on accident) pattern is from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (Hoverson). I love, love, love this book and it is now on the list of books to purchase - along with Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac, but that's a different story for a different post.
The exterior is a white embroidered linen that I picked up from the remnant shelf at JoAnn's. The interior is sewn from a selection of the vintage fabrics and the ties are some basic ribbon from the stash. The interior batting is flannel; in this case an old receiving blanket from when the girls were itty-bitty babies. The only difference between the wraps is the color of the outside ribbon.

I say accidentally modified pattern because I intended the wraps to accommodate 12 pencils each, rather than the 24 called for in the pattern. However, when I was cutting the pieces it was quite late and I cut them exactly as the pattern stated. This meant they were two times too long for my project - or so I thought. So, I took my scissors and cut the length in half. Duh. I forgot to make room for the seam allowance on either side and thus have sliced the first and last pockets a bit. I also decided to machine stitch the top opening which resulted in an extra line of stitches along the top, but I don't think that matters much to the little ones. I really like these as a gift for kids, of all ages. There is enough left over fabric that I may do two more for my twin nieces that will turn 3 in October.

The last picture is of 10 bean bags I quickly sewed up for the birthday party we're planning. They will be the superstars in a bean bag toss game - reminiscent of the one on the old Bozo Show (boy, anybody else remember that show?) The vintage home dec fabrics came in handy here and make some pretty fresh looking bean bags. Now, it's up to the husband to mount some cans on a board and we should be ready to go.

The last craft that I did for the celebration are some cupcake decorations made out of felt that will be mounted on toothpicks. Pictures of those to come (once the cupcakes are made and frosted)!

Birthday Banner

Here is a picture of a recently completed project! I am proud to say that I started and finished this one and there are no pieces of it sitting on any shelf, anywhere. This banner idea is so great I can't believe it. I made one that says "Happy Birthday" on one side and is just colorful patterns on the other. This way we can use it for all sorts of celebrations without worrying about the message. But, I am sure that this will also make it into our family birthday traditions for this year. I have kept it from the girls as of now and am excited to show it to them when their special day arrives late in the summer.

The best part of the banner, in my opinion, is the dysfunctional family fabric. I admire the cartoon representation of what life sometimes is really like around here!









The tutorial for this banner is from See Mommy Sew. She has wonderfully clear directions and pictures to follow. However, I did modify it for my own work. I wound up making the felt letters first, and then had cut the triangles to fit. Mine wound up being 5 inches wide by 10 inches tall. I did go ahead and use pinking shears on the edges of the triangles too - I thought it really added to the retro feel of the fabrics that I chose.









I also have to thank Homemade by Jill for organizing some of her favorite "to try" projects into one place. So far I have snatched two of the ideas from her list and added them to mine!