tulle pom-poms + garland tutorial

I promised a tutorial after my last post. It took a little longer than anticipated. I ended up having my granddaughter, Madi, spend two whole days with me. I like to give her my full attention when she visits. She's also a talker, so getting anything done is a little difficult. :) She is seriously one of the most hilarious little people I know.

Then I was called to a new position at church. I know. I did not see that coming. I loved my calling as RS Meeting Coordinator and I will miss working with so many wonderful women. More on that later.

a simple surprise: Easter decor

While Ella was at school the other day, I spread some Easter love around her room. She was so surprised and thought it was wonderful! 

celebrate | madilyn's fairy party

My granddaughter, Madi, turned four a few weeks ago. Her party was at our house, since she just moved to Idaho and hasn't made many friends there yet. It won't take long though, she's a little jabber jaws and makes friends very easily. :)

super {simple} saturday 2012

I'm excited to share our collection of projects for Super Saturday 2012. For those of you who don't know, Super Saturday is a sewing/craft day we have each October for the sisters in my ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My calling in the Relief Society (women's organization) is the Meeting Coordinator. This event is a great time to socialize, learn new skills, create projects that strengthen our homes and families and be treated to a yummy lunch.

We've focused on simple projects that focus on creating memories and traditions, celebrations, strengthening family and preparedness. Each project has a time element suggestion, so consider whether you want to work on projects at home or finish them at Super Saturday.

*To my ward: see RS announcements for date, time and location.
*I've updated this post with tutorial and download links.

A-FRAME TENT
Taught by: Ruth Dangerfield

ss tutorial: felt flower hair accessory

As promised, here's the first of our Super Saturday tutorials.

 

SUPPLY LIST:

sheet of felt
hair clips--I like the metal ones with a double prong.
fabric covered button--tutorial here.
glue gun and glue sticks

fabric-covered buttons tutorial

I LOVE fabric-covered buttons. I've used them to make hair elastics and magnets and they embellish the center of our Super {Simple} Saturday flower hair accessory. I thought I'd share a quick tutorial on how to make them before posting the hair accessory tute.

super {simple} saturday

Hey Sisters, it's time again for our fall Super Saturday. The board has been working hard to bring you some delightful (and simple) projects to pretty up your place (and peoples):) or to give as gifts for the upcoming holidays. Here's the line-up and information:

Thanks to our darling model, Kelsie Bybee. :)

gifted: teacher gift trinket cup and matching magnets

Ella had a great year in preschool. It's strange to think she'll be in Kindergarten next year.

Elle's teacher, Ginny Winters, has been perfect for her. She's loving but consistent and has kept things very structured. And she did the most darling crafts with the kids each week. You know Ella loved that! Elles learned a ton. I only hope we can find more teachers like Ginny in the coming years.

This is Ella with Ginny on her first day of preschool two years ago. She's so little!

Elles on her first day of preschool this year. Work it, girl! Just a little more confident, I'd say. :) I loved that little dress. I can't wait until Madi starts wearing it.

easter egg garland

This past weekend was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On Saturday night there's a Priesthood Session for the men. When the boys were younger, Lynn used to take them (and their friends) for milkshakes at Purple Turtle after each session. They've now graduated to dinner before each session. It's a fun tradition they've had for 15 years now.

Ella and I decided we'd make it a girl's night too. I told her she could choose what we'd have for dinner and then we could do something special together. She chose pizza for dinner and then to do a craft (no surprise there).

Our craft was this simple Easter egg garland. I got the idea from the blog eighteen25.

spring quarterly Relief Society meeting

Our quarterly RS meeting was delightful! We ALL had a great time, including the board. We kept it super simple--love it!--and were able to visit and join in too. Marina told a funny story and oh my goodness, I laughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my neck. :) Good times.

This was our invitation:

flower designs: Crystal Wilkerson

St. Patrick's Day projects

I wasn't going to decorate for St. Patrick's Day since I actually thought it was this week (yep, duh!). I even dressed Ella is green for preschool--got her all excited. She's upset that our Patrick has a day and she doesn't. I told her big brothers have to share their day with little sisters. She thinks that's great. :)

I found these simple and delightful St. Patty's Day projects over at The Tomkat Studio. I've seen a lot of fun ideas for goin' with the green lately, but these are my favorite. LOVE them!

photo source: The Tomkat Studio

photo source: The Tomkat Studio

I'll have just enough time to make them. Kim Stoegbauer (designer/editor of TTS) designed them for HGTV. There are tutorials and free downloads for both projects, and some other great projects on the post too. I LOVE Kim's simple design style--both projects and styling. Her princess party is my favorite.

pinked felt wreath

I saw this felt wreath on The Idea Room blog and loved it! I ran out and purchased the supplies and sat down to cut out a lot of 3" circles from felt.

I couldn't wait until February to hang it, so it's on the mirror over the fireplace already. This project is super simple and doable and looks beautiful. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it. After my crafty girlfriends saw mine, we made them for craft group.

Here's a quick tutorial of my version. I changed things up just a bit. I love anything with scalloped or pinked edges, so I cut my circles with pinking shears instead of regular scissors. I love, love, love the texture it adds.

tea cup pedestal

When choosing gifts, I like to make/purchase things I like myself. It makes it more fun, but also a little harder to give away sometimes. :) I’m loving my tea cup pedestals, so I decided to make one for Ella’s preschool teacher and her play therapist as Christmas gifts.

When we went to Family Night at my brother’s house, my sister-in-law asked me what I was giving Ella’s teacher for Christmas. (She’s a teacher.) She wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything with an apple on it. I assured her she’d taught me well. I explained what I was doing and it met her approval. Whew! ;) Actually, it’s a great idea to go to a teacher to find out what another teacher might like or not like.

So here’s a quick tutorial on making tea cup pedestals. Super simple and I love them.

Christmas stitchery

I finished Jen’s project from my craft party. I love it. It was a simple project and didn’t take a lot of time to complete.

I think the red frame with the robin’s egg blue blanket in the stitchery is perfect. Thanks, Jen!

crafts for the big girls

I’ve wanted to throw a craft party for a few years, ever since I saw an invitation in the Paper Source catalog. This year, I finally did it. And I’m so glad I did. It was oh, so fun! It also gave me an opportunity to actually use my craft studio.

wool felt garland ideas

I’m loving wool felt right now. I cut circles from some this morning for a little project I’m doing. I’ll share later. Here are a couple of ideas for garlands using felt I thought were delightful:

I love these wool balls. I want to make a garland for my tree from them. Source: msk (I can’t remember who that is. Darn!)

a simple thanksgiving

I've been prepping for Thanksgiving this morning. I blanched green beans, chopped the shallot and bacon. (I'm trying a new veggie recipe.) I cut the sweet potatoes and mixed up the topping to sprinkle on top. The kids didn't want turkey, so we got a Honeybaked ham instead--yummers!

And Patrick is bringing the best whole wheat rolls from Flour Girls and Dough Boys bakery. I bought the ingredients to make pumpkin pie, then ended up buying one at Costco this morning. Super simple meal--my favorite.

vintage hip

I woke up at about 2 a.m. this morning and checked on Ella to make sure she was covered up. I could tell she was dreaming because she was shaking her head up and down as if saying "yes." I was hoping it was a happy dream. This morning when she woke up, she ran out to me and yelled, "Mom, I had a dream last night and it was a good one! It was Christmas and I got lots and lots of presents!"

I'm sure you've also notice the Christmas departments in many stores were set up even before Halloween this year. I know it bothers some people, but personally I'd rather have more time to do my shopping--maybe even relax a little. :)

I've been thinking about some fun traditions to share about Christmas in our family both past and present. I'm getting a little list compiled.

Here's a little something I ran into in the last little while over at Urban Comfort.

ella's preschool halloween party

The first words I heard Ella yell Tuesday morning were, "It's been two days!" Translation: it's the preschool Halloween party! The first words I yelled were, "Are you kidding me?" Translation: there's six inches of snow on the ground. Dang!

I lucked out on Ella's costume this year. She really wanted to be Tinkerbell and Grandpa McMurphy bought her this outfit back in February. I just bought sparkly shoes and we were done. Grandpa also surprised Ella with a Tinkerbell jewelry making kit this summer, so she wore an authentic Tink necklace and bracelet too.

Ella was so excited to bring her special "treat" for her friends.

wicked fun no. 6: decorating indoors and outdoors

INDOORS
I've had this in my idea file forever. I tore it out of an issue of Better Homes and Gardens.

I love garlands. And I love how the designer spray painted these dog biscuits white. There's also big plastic spiders, acorns and dried citrus fruit. They drilled holes through each item and strung them on 22-gauge wire. It's not super simple, but just the dog bones in an apothecary jar might be a great decorative element.

OUTDOORS

There was an entire article about this porch in Home Companion magazine a few years ago. I've taken some of the details as inspiration for my own porch over the years--the pumpkin lanterns, mums, pumpkins, etc. Obviously I haven't staged my entire porch like this, but I've been happy with it. There's a black chair again. Hmmm.