We headed to the Blue Ridge mountains for a quick escape from the pollen. This area had a massive ice storm on Christmas Day and the debris remains everywhere, as you can see at the bottom of the hill here. But look at this. Who doesn’t get excited about a rainbow?
Now back to reality. Hopefully I’ll get back to posting this week.
Alphabet Print from Creative Thursday, $65.
Traditional Japanese Circles fabric, $8.50 per half yard from Muer.
Citrus Fruit Linen Tea Towel, $14 from The Cottage Cheese.
Saurus wooden dinosaur, $20 from Wildernest.
Market Necklace, $45 from Nest Pretty Things.
Handmade Marigold Flats, $95 from Smartfish.
Vintage Handpainted Glass Plates, $24 from Vintage Interiors.
Spring Blend Botanical Soap, $6 from Oakmoss.
White doily, $35 from LaWoodstock.
Tired of your husband sitting around gathering dust? Make a cozy for him! This is a great project to use up those fabric scraps and try your hand at patchwork.
Supplies:
To get the head measurements just right, have your spouse lie down directly on the fabric while you cut around his head with a pair of large, sharp scissors. Careful around the ears! Next, keeping the spouse’s head inside the fabric, take it to your sewing machine and sew around the head for a snug fit. Cut any loose hairs that peek through the seam.
And finally, put your new cozy on display! You can put him on the shelf or have him out for the kids to view. This would also make a fun papier-mâché project; just be sure to add air holes.
Happy April Fool’s Day! No husbands were harmed in the making of this cozy.
The winner of the Magpie Patterns gift certificate is #145, Amy. Congratulations! Be sure to visit Magpie Patterns to see all the goodness you can whip up this spring. And thanks to Amy of Magpie Patterns for contributing the gift certificate. From one Amy to another, I guess.
It’s good to get things done. I just finished up the two auction projects for my daughter’s first grade class. Neither of these projects was my idea. The first is a scratch foam printing project that I saw at Glitter Goods. Ours is a night time scene of Atlanta to fit with the auction’s Starry Night theme. The children made drawings, traced them onto styrofoam and I printed them. Hint: Remember that words will need to be mirror image for the prints, so you can scan in the drawing, reverse it and print it out again for the kids to trace. I forgot this, so had to make some fixes. Or you could just skip the letters in your project.
And the wall hanging/table runner is a batik project that I saw on Swallowfield, but the tutorial can be found at That Artist Woman. The kids glued on the fabric, let it dry for a day, painted it, then I washed off the glue and sewed the pieces together. I gave them some ideas about patterns, but they mostly came up with their own designs. I debated if each square should just have one color, but in the end I let the kids decide. As you can see, most kids decided to use multiple colors. Hint: These first-graders found it tiring to squeeze the glue bottle and you do have to squeeze pretty hard. For younger kids, you could cut the tip off the bottle to allow the glue to come out easier. Also, I was going for a brighter color palette, but the fabric paint does fade a bit so be sure to go darker with the paint.
Both of these were manageable projects for kids and weren’t too overwhelming. Good auction project ideas. Thanks to Glitter Goods, Swallowfield and That Artist Woman for the creative inspiration! I can’t wait to show these to the kids today. For those of you with younger children, I have found first-grade to be sort of a magical year — they can do things for themselves, can understand much about the world, and they get jokes. But they’ll tell you that sarcasm is rude and that you shouldn’t use the f-word. Everyone needs a first-grader around.
