family friday :: pom-pon garland

if you follow me on twitter or facebook, you may remember me talking about teaching my little dude how to make yarn pom-pons. he literally spent 4 straight hours making them once i taught him how. a project i thought i was going to be doing myself was almost entirely finished by my 5 year old!



here's what i ended up doing with all the pom-pons he made. we made 3 different sized pom-pons in 6 different colors. when they were done i strung them on yarn.



once they were all strung, i hung them up with small nails around 2 walls in the boys' new shared room. i have a few more left that i want to hang from their new (used) bunk beds. once the bunks are spruced up, i'll share some photos of the entire room.

family friday :: wings

who would have known that some cardboard, string, and 5 minutes could make me mother of the year? i seriously spent 5 minutes making these wings for the boys and they can't get enough of them. (and i apologize for the horrible quality photos this morning....)



they're really good for flying around the house.



and who knew, they're even good for sitting and watching a morning cartoon!

if they continue being such a hit, i may just make some nicer versions. i'm thinking cardboard framework but covered in batting and fabric as they do pose a little hazard when the boys aren't watching where their wings are going!

get some cardboard today and make yourself mother of the year in your own house!

in other news :: play money on designing moms

i have a new post on designing moms! check it out!

family friday :: watercolors

last week i saw martha making homemade watercolors (as well as homemade sidewalk chalk) on her show. the boys have been all about watercolor painting lately so i thought we could try to make some of our own! the recipe was super easy and maybe took 1/2 hour including gathering ingredients and clean-up. super easy and fun project for the kids.



here are our watercolors when they're still wet. i put ours in an old mixing palette i had. the amounts fit perfectly in the large spaces.



and the boys, satisfied with their work!



and here they are after they've dried. our plan is to try them out this weekend. here's the recipe if you're interested:

homemade watercolors:
mix 4 tablespoons baking soda with
2 tablespoons vinegar until fizzing stops

add 1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
2 tablespoons cornstarch

mix until a uniform consistency

pour the mixture into individual egg carton cups (or other containers you have handy)

add food coloring to individual containers to create desired colors. (be aware that your purple will look really awful when wet. when it dries it becomes much more color accurate!)

color recipes:
reddish pink: 10 drops red
orange: 1 drop red, 6 drops yellow
yellow: 5 drops yellow
leaf green: 3 drops green, 7 drops yellow
sea blue: 5 drops blue
violet: 4 drops red, 2 drops blue

valentine's day garland

happy valentine's day!

i made this simple valentine's garland for a valentine swap hosted by carina of crown and canary out of a few basic craft supplies and some vintage buttons. super easy and cute!

family friday :: school valentines

the little dude and i made these cuties for his valentine's day party at school. it's a version of something i saw on martha once. i punched 4 hearts per pop and hot glued them together and attached them. the little dude wrote "love finley" on a leaf for each flower. they were a big hit.

family friday :: octo-dogs

i made a very special treat for the boys last night. i need to preface this by saying it wasn't my idea. i saw it on a blog or a magazine recently, but have no idea where. if you know, please let me know so i can give credit where credit is due.

ok. so we don't really eat hot dogs in our house very often. i might buy them once a year for the boys, but when i saw these i knew they'd get a kick out of them. i bought some turkey dogs to try to keep it a little healthier and got to work.



i cut each dog into 4 pieces and then threaded 4 pieces of spaghetti through each one. (so they'd have 8 legs when done)



just throw them in a pot of boiling water and boil like normal until the noodles are done. OCTO-DOGS! i served them up and the boys were in heaven. they thought they were the coolest things on the planet. the little dude even had a second helping which never happens. he was stoked when he found out there were left overs for today.

things i want (and made myself) tuesday :: an apple a day

i found this amazing poster online at the end of the year. the idea is that each day you place the sticker from an apple on the corresponding date to remind yourself to eat your fruit! i take no credit for this idea. (although i wish i had thought of it!) since i'm trying to loose some weight i thought this would be a fun thing to try! i made up a poster of my own and started on the first day of the year.



so much for an apple a day keeps the dr. away. you can see after day 4, there are some spots without stickers. yeah, that's because i came down with the flu after 4 days of apples. coincidence? just kidding. so anyway, i wasn't up to eating much for those 5 days so i stamped it with the letter "s" from my kids' stamp set so that i know why i didn't accomplish my goal that day.



i'm also not limiting myself to apples. any large-ish piece of fruit counts. i try to eat it with, or before, dinner so that i eat less of my other food. tomorrow will be day 20. so far so good!

homemade :: holiday gifts

first of all i need to apologize for the blurry first photo. i forgot to take final photos of this gift until after i gave them. i had to take photos in the evening at my mom's house.....



this was my first official cross stitch design that i've ever done from scratch. i've done small cross stitch projects in the past from patterns, but had never designed one myself.



it all started when i saw the quote: "home is where my mom is" somewhere on the interweb. i knew i wanted to do something with it, and finally decided on cross stitch. i made one for both my mom and my mother-in-law.



i was surprisingly able to create these with mostly thrifted materials. the hoops were all thrifted, some of the thread, and even the aida cloth. i bought maybe 2 or 3 skeens of thread retail.

thrifted :: holiday gifts

the title of this post is a little deceiving. this week my thrifty finds images are not of items i thrifted, but of items i made from thrifted materials.

several years ago i was at a church sale (those are the best! lots of old people's vintage things! if you're looking for genuine vintage, church sales are the way to go!) anyway, i was at a HUGE church sale. they had an entire room full of craft supplies. i happened upon a gigantic box of vintage lace, trim, etc. it fills a huge rubbermaid tub now. i can't remember what i paid, but i honestly believe it was under $5 for the entire box. i had no idea what i was going to use all of it for, but i couldn't just pass it up!

i brought it home with me and it sat in my craft storage room for several years until this year when i decided to make handmade christmas gifts. i found the perfect project to showcase all the fantastic designs....brooches.



here's a photo of just a small selection of the brooches i made. i tried my best to match each brooch with the personality of the person i was giving it to. it was a harder process than i anticipated!



a close-up of a purple trimmed crocheted lace brooch which ended up finding a home with one of my god-daughters.



and another close-up of an eyelet trim brooch.

i still have an entire tub full of the trims/laces. either i need to find another project to use it all or go into business making brooches!

holiday card 2009

i know i said i was taking a blogging break, but i forgot that i still needed to post our 2009 holiday card. i was waiting for everyone to receive it in the mail before posting it here. i think the coast is clear now, so here's this year's design:

marzipan monday :: holiday favorites

for this week's marzipan monday i thought i'd share some of this year's favorites from both of my companies: marzipan inc. and fin+roe.



if you're shopping for a more traditional card, how can you resist this dashing snowman from marzipan inc.? seriously, a mustache, vest, tie, AND a top hat! he is one dapper dan. you can purchase him at your local retailer or online at shades of violet.



our new fin+roe embroidery line for 2010 is in the works, but we rolled out the holiday cards and a few other products in time for holiday shopping. there are 10 cross stitch patterns you can choose from, 20 colors, and 3 different fonts!



i thought i'd include a magnet memento card from last year's line. we're also developing them for this year, but haven't made them live on the site yet. if you're interested in seeing a magnet memento card with an embroidery pattern, let us know. we'll be happy to send you some to choose from!

my halloweenies

this year the hubby volunteered to make the boys' halloween costumes. the boys loved them and we got loads of compliments on them....especially the little dude. one teenage boy even said: "whoa, that robot costume is tight!".

magazine rack

i wanted a magazine rack for our sunroom and was on the lookout for quite awhile every time we went thrifting. the problem was that all the ones i found were either brass or really ornate, curvy stuff. then, i came across this simple, clean-lined, beauty! i painted her up in a glossy white and then added the same pattern that's on our new floors to the inside of the rack.

happy anniversary baby

today is the hubby and my 8th wedding anniversary. we agreed not to do gifts this year since we have spent so much money on our house this summer with all the renovations. i was fine without spending any money, but i wanted to have something to give to him so i created the print below. it's the lyrics to the song "my best friend" by weezer. they pretty much sum up how i feel about him. he is my best friend, without a doubt. happy anniversary baby. love you. here's the next 8 years and many more to come!

design*sponge feature (again!)

i'm so excited that grace from design*sponge featured my latest project! i purchased the follow sewing bench/stool at a garage sale last week for $2! the before photos make the seat look more red than it was. it was actually more brown. blech. i removed the old seat, pin-tucked and top-stitched some new fabric into a "wave" pattern, and painted the base a glossy red. i then finished off the inside with a surprise little pattern. here's grace's post over at design*sponge.