Bye-bye hair!

I'm not usually one to keep my hair long, as I often find it a bother to deal with.  Plus having a toddler who likes to yank on it all the time is, well, just plain annoying.  So growing my hair out has been a challenge, and I have been eagerly awaiting the day when it would finally be long enough to cut and donate.  Well, I'm excited to say that the day finally arrived!  

I was planning to make an appointment for a haircut here in Portland, but hadn't had a chance to yet.  So when I was recently visiting family in Kansas City, my mom booked me for a haircut with the stylist I used to go to when I lived there.  Perfect! 

Since I was planning such a drastic change, I thought it would be a good idea to have my daughter come along to see it.  She kept entertained by taking some pictures:

Now on to the cut!  This is me before:

Here we go....

Chop, chop!

Ta Da!

My hair is now 10" shorter, and feels about 10 pounds lighter too! 
Now I just have to mail it off to donate it.  Hooray!

A big thanks to Joe at Lulu's for a fabulous cut!  You rock, Joe!!  :D

Whew!

What a whirlwind month this has been!  I keep waiting for my life to calm down, and it only seems to be getting more and more hectic.  I've been super busy with a couple of side projects, and haven't had much time to devote to my crafting or my blogging the past few weeks.  The first was a special mini-issue of Modern Handmade Child celebrating motherhood:

I love this issue, and I'm sure you will too.  Be sure to see my article on page 21 about the Etsy Baby Shower.

The other big thing I've been working on is EtsyKids.  When I recently returned to work at the florist shop full time, it quickly became increasingly difficult to keep up with everything that I have been doing.  The EtsyKids Team has grown so much over the years, and I feel like it's time to get organized, and get lots of help from our amazingly talented team members.  So we did a team survey, and I have been sifting through hundreds of thoughtful responses from our members.  It's a super important task, and also an incredibly time-consuming one.  But the end result (finding a bunch of enthusiastic people to help out with various team related tasks) will definitely be worth it.  I guess it's like they sometimes say, things will get worse before they get better.  Or in this situation, busier before they get calmer.  But when that day finally comes, I will appreciate it even more.

I'm not blogging, I'm just typing text on a screen

Recently little g has become the queen of euphemisms.  It all started when she threw something she wasn't supposed to, and I told her not to throw it.  Her reply?  "I didn't throw it, I just passed it."  From there we moved on to, "I'm not hitting, I'm just patting" and "I'm not biting it, I'm just holding it with my teeth."  I know laughing at this behavior will only encourage it, so I do my best to hold back the giggles when she says these things.  But today I just couldn't keep from bursting into laughter with the newest euphemism.  I was laying on the sofa when she climbed up and sat on my belly and started bouncing.  When I told her not to bounce on me, she said, "I'm not bouncing, I'm just sitting up and down."

Florist Friday: Blogging and Facebooking

At the florist shop where I work, we have decided to expand our online presence.  I think this is a great step for us to take, and am very excited about helping out with it.  So now in addition to arranging flowers, I now get to blog about them, and post about them on our new page on facebook.  How fun is that?  So if you've been enjoying my "Florist Friday" posts, be sure to follow our new blog and become a fan of our page on facebook!

Primroses - new design for spring!

I'm not sure what happened to February.  I know it's a short month, but really!  I think perhaps I crammed to much into it, because I feel like the entire month was a big chaotic blur.  So March is my month to get back on track.  One thing I need to do to get back on track is make good on my promise to myself to set aside time each week for creating. 

So this week I started working on some new designs that I had in mind for my hand sewn felt flower hair clips.  I have a long list of flowers I've been wanting to design, as well as several pages of sketches.  So now it's time to fine-tune the designs, make the patterns, and try them out.  At the top of my list were primroses.  I love primroses...with their vibrant colors, they are such a cheerful sign of spring.  And who couldn't use more cheer in their life?  So here's a little cheer for you:

I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, and have already made a few, which I will be listing in my Etsy shop very soon!

It's often the simplest things...

...that bring the most joy to children.  After countless hours spent making dolls swing on imaginary swings with my daughter, I decided it was time to bring this activity into reality.  After all, if she was this happy with imaginary swings for her dolls, just think how happy she would be to have an actual swing to put them in!  

I know that there are doll swings out there, as I have seen them in stores, but rather than go out and spend who knows how much money on a doll swing for a child that already has plentiful toys, I took a look around the house and thought about what we already have that I could use to make one.  And when I explained to little g what I was doing, she exclaimed, "Oh!  You're making me a swing?!?" in her sweet little voice.

I knew at that moment I had to find a way to make this work.  My first idea was to take a doll stroller that she has, and some how attach it to a tension bar in a doorway.  I knew we had some old tension rods in the basement, which I thought would be perfect.  When the first one I found wasn't quite long enough to fit in our doorway, I looked around to see where else I could put it.  I found the perfect spot for it, but it wasn't big enough for the stroller.  Hmmm...could I make a swing out of something else for her teensy little dolls?  

Of course!  All you really need for a swing is something for the doll to sit in and string to attach it to the bar.  So I fashioned a couple of swings out of the top of crayon box and a tea box that were headed for the recycling bin anyway.  All I did was tie a string around each end of the boxes, then secure the string and cover the boxes with some pretty blue duct tape I had on hand.  I tied the other ends of the strings to the tension rod and secured with some more tape.  Voila!  Two new doll swings, much to the delight of my daughter.

Still determined to turn the doll stroller into a swing, I went back to the basement to search for a longer tension rod.  I found one, brought it up and measured it against the doorway.  Perfect!  Now all I needed was a way to hook the stroller to rod.  Aha!  Ribbon!  I cut two lengths of ribbon, folded over one end on each, and stitched it down to create a loop for the rod to slide through.  Then on the other end, I sewed on some velcro so that the ribbon could wrap around the handle of the stroller and attach.  Now "Smaller Baby" can have a swing too.  And Pingu and Evan and Bobo, and all her other friends. 

Sometimes it pays to think outside the box, and use things in a new way.  These swings have already provided hours of entertainment, and the best part is, they were completely free!