Sipping & Seeing

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to co-host at my home a sip & see (post pregnancy baby shower) for a dear friend of mine.  The whole thing was lovely, the food was delicious, and snuggling with an adorable newborn was a welcomed treat. 

I take no credit for the amazing food and decor.  My only real work was getting the house and myself semi decent for a dozen ladies to enjoy their afternoon.  Amy T. and Summer Block, you gals are amazing and I will co-host (and eat all your goodies [Amy T. made FROM SCRATCH macarons!!] and appreciate your decor taste) alongside you anytime!

Octoberfesting

It may still be flip flop weather here in Southern California, but that's not stopping us from celebrating a great Autumn season.

How's your celebrating coming along?

I love naps. And love.

I've been coordinating the kids' afternoon naps to happen at the same time.  Those 2ish hours are a heaven sent treat to finally finish a cup of coffee, shower, nap on the couch,  watch "Pan Am", and sometimes even all of the above. 

Lately, I've been trying to catch up on some ideas I've had bouncing around in my often foggy head.  This Valentine mobile has been one of them.  Thankfully, I had quiet hour to finally execute my idea.

{Sticks found on a walk.}

{Sticks wrapped in yarn with felt scraps and thread.}

{The hardest part was deciding where to hang it.  The front door was the winning choice.}

***BONUS!  BONUS!  BONUS!  I loved making this so much that I'd love to make you one too!  From now until Monday February 6th at midnight pacific time I will send you a mini version with each purchase you make in my etsy shop.  Just enter "VALENTINE" at check out and I'll be sure to add a sweet treat to your package.***

Also, if you are inspired to make a mobile of your own, I'd love for you to comment here with a link or email me a photo of your creation.

Yarn Wrapped Bracelets

I've been so inspired by all the colorful yarn wrapped wreaths popping up around etsy and the DIY blog world (see some cute ones here, here and here), that I decided to shrink that inspiration and make some yarn wrapped bracelets for a few of my gals for Christmas.

Each one took me about 5 minutes to make and made for a nice excuse to sit down in front of the tv while the new "Bachelor" was on.

Supplies needed:
bracelets (I used a $4.99 set of 6 bangles from target.)
yarn (each bracelet needed about 3 1/2 feet)
glue (I like this "3-in-1 Advanced craft glue" the best.  It dries clear, smooth when manipulated and actually adheres to felt, yarn and other fabrics rather quickly.)

Just tie the yarn to the bracelet,
wrap over the beginning knot and around tightly until the bracelet is covered,
add a strip of glue the that last half inch of yarn,
and hold tightly for about 30 seconds so the glue has a solid chance to grip.

These would be so much fun in a ton of different colors and variegated threads or fabrics or ribbons too.  I'm now hooked and adding "find various bracelets" to my thrifting hunt list.

What have you been inspired to make lately?

Evan just made a batch of cookies for me. Too bad I can't smell them.

I'm sick.  Evan's sick too.
Fever, chills, congestion.
Oh, and I have pinkeye.
I feel awesome. 

We now have super plans this weekend.
Plans that involve couch naps and movie watching.
And eating cookies.
And blowing our noses a lot.

Speaking of couch naps and movie watching... we started Christmas decorating this week.  Now our fevered (and my pink) eyes can lazily glance up from the couch and dream of far off wintry villages. 

{Thrifted ceramic holiday houses}

{Houses now painted white}

{What Miller lovingly refers to as "Christmastown".  Tree forest from Ikea, ceramic houses and glass church thrifted.}

"Treat Yo Self 2011" (AKA this year's advent calendar)

I'm proud to be ahead of the advent game this year.
And by "ahead" I mean finishing just before midnight last night.
That counts enough in my book.

Taking inspiration from this pin, I had an 11x14 white canvas lounging around so I covered it in 24 squares of felt- gluing only along the vertical sides and bottoms to make tiny pockets, cut out and glued on some numbers (this was the most tedious part.  thank goodness for small scissors and entertaining shows on my dvr.), and finally tucked in some teeny chocolate santas.  (The pockets are pretty small, so if you'd like bigger treats, I would suggest starting out with a larger canvas.)

Once the kids are older and more heartily involved in the holidays, I'd love to tuck notes and poems and other holiday acts of kindness into the pockets.  Until then, chocolates will just have to do.  Darn.  :)

**Update: Wondering where to place our new advent calendar, I remembered I had some strips of magnets. They easily attached to the back of the canvas and now we have a great holiday reminder greeting us on our refrigerator.

Let's hope he has a little more enthusiasm about his costume when it's all together...

Just a little pre-Halloween costume teaser.
Just a little pre-Halloween "I don't want to wear this" costume meltdown.
Maybe a trial run at a local festival tomorrow will cheer his spirits.
Or at least the candy will.

{Coloring the outside of a covered diaper box...}

{He'll be less defiant when the straps are on his train box and his engineer outfit is on.  Right?!?}

Autumn, Autumn, where for art thou, Autumn

Los Angeles lacks seasons.
Los Angeles also has amazing taco stands.
Priorities.

{It's a hundred degrees outside.  So we stayed inside and made a tree.}

{Miller helped me pick out orange pages from a magazine. I drew some leaf like shapes and quickly cut them out.}

{Miller colored a simple tree picture while I cut the leaves.}

{Gluing leaves.}

{Proudly displayed on the fridge.}

Project Runway, here I come!

I finally used part of my birthday gift certificate to Sew L.A. and took a sewing refresher course.  It had been well over 10 years since I've used my machine.  And even then, I didn't really know what I was doing with it (or to it for that matter).

After a few hours of hearing that machine stitch away, I'm now hooked.  I'm hoping that this newly reborn passion can get some easy special projects finished for Christmas gifts this year.

Lately, I've been browsing a few of my favorite sewing blogs for some inspiration.  Each of these gals is RIDICULOUSLY talented and often I tend to feel overwhelmed with how effortless their sewing skills seem to be.  I have to remind myself that I'm only going to get better with practice and that these gals started at the beginning at one point too.

Luckily, there's this whole wonderful blogging world I'm obsessed with that can guide and inspire me through it.

{Made}

{The Purl Bee}

{See Kate Sew}

{I Still Love You}

{Cotton & Curls}

I'd love to know where you like to go (blogs or otherwise) to get your sewing eye candy and ideas...

P.S. It's FRIDAY!!

Evan doesn't know it yet, but we're turning a side table I found this week into a play kitchen for Miller and Ivy's room.  See the inspiration here and here.

I'm also trying to get a head start on some christmas shopping/crafting.  Hopefully, on Saturday I can make it out to oh, hello friend's vintage pop-up shop for some inspiration.

Speaking of vintage, check out Miller's favorite toys this week.

{Handcarved wooden animals found at the Melrose Trading Post last weekend.  The poor ostrich needs to be leveled so he can stand up properly with the rest of his buddies.  }

{Fifty cent camera.  Say "CHEESE!"}

And by "favorite toys this week" I mean "the latest toys we're finding stuffed under the couch cushions."

What's on your agenda for the weekend?  And what awesome new treasures are you obsessed with?

Monday Motivators

This is my day.

 

But now that both (BOTH!!!) kids are napping soundly, the AC is cranked to high, I have a chilled diet coke by my side, I can focus on a few writing projects and other creative endeavors I've been procrastinating.  (I'm not talking to you, laundry.)

Although, I really should be napping too.

In other Monday news, how awesome is this stuff?!
David Bowie's "Space Oddity"
Make your own oilcloth fabric
Broken glasses, schmoken glasses.  Oh, how I wish this ring wasn't sold out.
JGL

Sweet, sweet thank yous

It's rather tough to get anything productive done around here when all I want to do is snuggle up with the kids, my pillow, or a crispy cold diet coke.

{Honestly, how cute are these two?  And by cute, I also mean very demanding of my time. :)}

Needless to say, among many other tasks, I still have a few thank yous to send out from birthdays last month, my sprinkling a few weeks ago and tons of other recent gestures from friends and family that we are definitely grateful for. 

I have been meaning to share one thank you I'm quite fond of that I managed to get done on time for the gals that threw my recent shower.

The weeks before the shower, I searched local thrift stores for unique planters that matched each of the four ladies' personalities.  Even though I was only looking for four, it still took a little patience searching a few different spots.  I'm glad I waited to find just the right piece. 

Loaded with some jade ("lucky plants" or "friendship trees") and a quick note of thanks, I made sure those four ladies knew how much I appreciated the efforts they made to make me and not yet born, Ivy, feel truly celebrated. 

She fits perfectly.

We can already tell she has big dreams for her little life.

Keep your head in the clouds

I'm a dreamer.  It took me years to take ownership of that and not feel faulted by it. 
I'll take as many years as I need to to make sure my kids take ownership of it too.

I'm hoping this mobile I just finished for the little gal is a constant reminder for her to always keep looking up and allow herself to be defined as a dreamer too.

{I traced and cut 2 layers of felt with cardstock cloud shapes, wrapped the inside of an embroidery hoop with yarn, and blanket stitched and stuffed the felt layers.}

{Hung the clouds to the hoop with white thread and criss-crossed clear thread at the top of the hoop to center balance the mobile to the ceiling.}

{Floating in the late afternoon sun*}

*Pink photo series above the crib are the 5x5 versions of these from the beautiful etsy shop of one of my favorite blogs Little Brown Pen.  The photo above doesn't even do them justice.  The chunk of drywall missing under the last picture on the right doesn't do them justice either.  :)

Friday! Friday! Friday!

A shift in the weather lowered the temperature just a few degrees these last few days.
Which in turn, shifted me a few degrees.  A few LOT of degrees.

I can see the outlines of my anklebones again.
I don't feel like a sweaty hobbit around 5pm anymore.
And I've had energy to catch up on (or start) some much needed nesting projects I had hoped to finish by the end of this month.

Enjoy a few teaser photos of the kids' room we're hoping to finish this weekend.

And of course, enjoy a picture of some socks too while you are at.

I'm wishing you have an ankle viewing, less sweaty, productively wonderful, celebratory, socky kind of weekend ahead of you as well.

Two'in it up

I had grand schemes.

Rustic jars with burlap and pebble tablescapes.  Papercut camping scenes throughout the food table.  Butcher paper ribbons streaming in the breeze.  Homemade mini pies.  Toilet paper roll binoculars.  Vintage sheets turned into tented sanctuaries.  S'more pops.

I had grand schemes.

Then I remembered that he's 2.  And I'm 9 months pregnant.  And everything doesn't need to look like it's out of a magazine or event planning blog.

Evan and I re-focused our tasks and made sure we had the basics for a great party - good food, cold beverages, shade from the heat, and plenty of room for lots of littles to run off all those sweets.

The day was perfect.

And I know Miller thought so as well.