Theme Thursday: Chocolate + Plum

Plum Truffle Vintage Button Brooch by Callooh Callay

Labor Day has come and gone, so I guess Fall is officially here.  Well, technically not for a couple more weeks, but it always feels like Autumn after Labor Day to me.  One of my favorite color combinations for Fall this year is chocolate brown and plum.  So rich and decadent, and simply gorgeous together!  So this week's Thursday Theme is "Chocolate Covered Plum".  Enjoy!

Witch, Fairy, Cat, or Mermaid?

So Little G and I have been talking about what she wants to be for Halloween this year.  She has been having trouble deciding, so I suggested we go to Jo-Ann's to look at costume patterns.  I was feeling brave this morning, so I decided to take both kids along.  As we were scanning the aisles of pumpkins, ghosts, and all things Halloween, and "Let it Snow" was playing in the background...wait, what??  Can't we at least get through Halloween before we are bombarded with Christmas?  Yeesh!  Way too soon for that, but I digress...

Anyhow, so fortunately Baby B napped nearly the whole time, which made it much easier for Little G and me to look through the costume pattern books.  And of course, on every other page she exclaimed, "I want to be that one!"  After flipping through the books, we narrowed it down to a few options:  witch, fairy, cat, or mermaid.  In the end, she decided on the mermaid.  So we picked up this pattern:

 
I think she's hoping that I will also be a mermaid along with her, but I'm not so sure...after all, I wouldn't make nearly as cute of a mermaid as she will!

Since Baby B was still napping, I thought it would be wise to go ahead and pick up the fabrics for the costume too.  I like to involve Little G in the process as much as possible, so I let her help pick out fabrics.  However, if I left it completely up to her, it would likely end up every color of the rainbow and looking more like a clown than a mermaid, so I tried to guide her a little bit, and gave her a limit of three colors.  So we're going with green for the skirt/tail and fins, a sparkly cream/gold for the bodice, and a shimmery pink for the overlay and ruffles around the arms.

I'm not sure when I'll actually get started, but I'm glad to have the shopping part out of the way early. I know it's just now September, but Halloween is not really all that far off, and I don't want to be scrambling to get something together at the last minute.  Hopefully since I already have the supplies, I will actually get a head start this year.  We'll see how well that works out.  :)

Theme Thursday: Stormy Weather

Seems like we've been getting a lot of thunderstorms here in Maine lately.  Depending on the severity of the storm, they can either be soothing (a gentle rain with low, rumbling thunder) or intense (pouring rain with loud crashes of thunder and splashes of lightning).  Looks like the latter is in our forecast for the weekend as we have a hurricane on the way.  Yikes!

So I made this treasury, inspired by our Stormy Weather:



Stay safe this weekend, everyone!

Inspiration + Hoarding Craft Supplies = New Items!

When inspiration strikes and I have a new idea for a project, I often find it difficult to focus on anything else.  It doesn't seem to matter how many other things are on my to-do list that should take priority over starting something new...that new idea is all I can think about!  So over time I have learned to just accept that fact and allow myself to dive right into new projects, even if I have 20 other things waiting to be finished.

This weekend, I had one of those "ah-ha!" inspiration moments: 

When I make my felt barrettes and hair elastics, I end up with the lots of little scraps of felt.  Being the craft supply hoarder that I am, I've been hanging on to these little bits of felt thinking that surely one day I'll think of some use for them.  Well, I'm happy to say that day has arrived!  As I was staring at my bag full of these little scraps of felt, I finally got that idea that I had been waiting for.  So, I give you the Confetti Felt Necklace:

Here's a close up so you can see the detail better:

And of course I had to make some earrings to match:

I love how these came out, and I'm already excitedly thinking about other color combinations to try.  Maybe a firey orange, red and yellow for fall, or maybe more subtle earth tones, orange and black for Halloween, red and lime green or red and white for Christmas...the possibilities are endless! 


A fun new item to make, and a way to use up little scraps (which means zero waste of felt!)...this is definitely a win-win.  Plus it helps me justify all those other craft supplies I've been hanging on to.  Given enough time, I'm sure that someday I will have an idea for how to use them up!

Back to work...

So my maternity leave recently ended, and I have returned to work part time, which means that baby is now in daycare 3 days a week.  Little g was so excited to have her baby sister join her.  Though they aren't in the same room, they do get to see each other on occasion throughout the day.  The first day baby b was there, she went around excitedly telling everyone, "My baby is here today!".  Awww, such a proud big sister...so endearing!  These are the little moments that melt my heart and that I will forever cherish.

While the transition from relaxing-being-at-home-with-baby days to getting-both-girls-and-myself-ready-and-out-the-door-rushing-to-work days has been a challenge, we are finally starting to get a routine down.  And working part time creates a nice balance between mom-time and work-time.  But it has made it difficult to squeeze in time for crafting.  And of course, I have more ideas than ever right now!  I guess I'll just keep jotting them down with hopes that someday I'll get to each and every one of them.  It may take me 30 years, but I bet I'll do it.

Getting in the Mood for Autumn

I love Autumn. And although I do enjoy Summer, I must confess that by this time of year, I've usually had enough of the hot weather and start getting in the mood for Autumn. Fortunately for me, I get a little taste of all things Fall throughout the Summer while working on Modern Handmade Child. If you're ready to take a little peek into Fall, be sure to check out our Autumn issue, which was just published this week:


I've also been working on some new Fall and Halloween inspired designs in felt hair elastics. Fun! Here's a little sneak peek at what's to come in my Etsy shop this season:

red apple felt hair elastic

acorn felt hair elastic

yellow birch leaf felt hair elastic

pumpkin felt hair elastic

ghost felt hair elastic

So be on the lookout for those soon. And if you have any other designs you'd like to see, please don't hesitate to ask...I love custom orders! :)

Happy Birthday, little g!

My, my, what a summer it has been! While a bit hectic at times, it has certainly been fun. I must say, I have thoroughly been enjoying my maternity leave, and am a bit sad that it will be ending soon. Time has just been flying by.

We just celebrated little g's 4th birthday. Wow! How did she get to be 4 already?? We hosted our first birthday party with some of her friends from preschool this year, and it was so much fun! I let her help in the planning and creating things for the party, which she really enjoyed. Being summer, I suggested a flower/garden theme, and she loved the idea.


The first thing we did was make the invitations. She finger-painted flowers on the front of the cards, and used a crayon to color stems and grass. Well, some of them had grass...others were left with just a stem, because, as she said, "they were in the snow". It was interesting watching her make these invitations. I could definitely see myself in her as she was creating, wanting to make sure each one was just right.

I thought it would be fun to make some giant tissue paper flowers for the party. I was thinking we would just have them for decorations, but little g had a great idea for them: stick them in the yard to make a flower garden, and all her friends could "pick" them. What a fun idea!


I also wanted to have a couple of games for the kids to play, so I made these cute little ladybug bean bags:

They were fun and easy to make. (You can hop on over to the MHC blog today for a tutorial to make your own ladybug bean bags.) After playing a couple of games with the ladybugs and picking flowers, it was time for lunch, and of course, cake!

All in all, it was a lot of fun, and I'm sure it was the first of many more birthday parties to come. Happy Birthday, little g!