penny carnival

Sneak peak at some birthday fun

I had to take these photos covertly this morning, while Bo was in the other room, so I'll post better pictures later.

The first shots are of a little roll-up bed I made for some wooden clothespin dolls we're giving her for her birthday. I bought the dolls from Arlene McComas, one of the vendors at the Farm Chicks sale. The roll-up bed is basically a chubby version of the pencil roll I made for Bo's little buddy London a couple of months ago following directions in Amanda Soule's The Creative Family.

I don't think I'm done with it quite yet. Don't you think the dolls need tiny pillows to rest their darling little heads on?

The thing I've been busy with the last couple of nights is a birthday bunting or banner or whatever you want to call it (in its tackiest form, it's the colorful way used-car dealerships try to get your eyes off the road).
I think every craft blogger out there has created one of these, and now I know why. Fun. Easy. Festive. And much cheaper than the ones you can buy, especially if you're just using scrap fabric.

I made it say "hip hip hooray" instead of "happy birthday" so we can use it for all sorts of happy days. I'm going to make it the subject of my next HomeMaker column, so there'll be a tutorial up later this week. (Yes, this is the project I promised a tutorial for a couple days ago. Sorry for the delay.)

Pantry alphabet art

You can only spend so much time at the county pool. We took a break from the sun today, and did some crafting this afternoon.

Following instructions from Kids Craft Weekly's alphabet issue, we made pantry letter art. We're low on beans, but we had Cheerios and whole peppers. Coincidentally, the peppers fit pretty perfectly inside the Cheerios.

For Bo's "B," I squirted the glue on in segments, so it wouldn't dry too quickly. She really was enjoying herself, despite the half-baked masterpiece below. (She caught sight of the tire swing outside and set her project aside for a few minutes.)

No, Magpie isn't a crafting prodigy at 8 months old. I Cheerio'd up her initials while she took one of her once-in-a-blue-moon marathon naps. It's like she stores up a month's worth of a normal baby's nap times and bangs it all out at once.

This brings up a question. How much crafting do you do alongside your child? Bo never seems to shy away from her own art when she sees what grownup hands can do. But I still worry that she'll become frustrated at her speed, so I either usually go very slowly on what I'm doing or not take part at all (just be near her for support and instruction when she asks for it). I also don't want to constantly hover over her, so that she's always seeking an adult's reaction to her work. It's so hard to know what's right. Geesh. And we're just talking about arts and crafts here.

From garden to grub

Me at lunchtime today: Hmmm ... What does my turkey and salami sandwich need? Some mustard greens? Sounds good. Snip, snip from the garden. Yum.

Makes the gajillion shovelfuls of sod we removed this spring worth it.

I actually was quite crafty today

I just don't have the photos to prove it.

I made a crown for a 2-year-old birthday boy, but we rushed out of the house so quickly I forgot to take a picture. Then, when it came time to open it, little Bjorn squirmed and squiggled out of his dad's arms. He couldn't get away from that crown fast enough.
Funny. It was kind of like what Bo did when I made her her crown last winter. Of course, when she saw me making the one for her buddy today, she begged me to make her one too. You have one upstairs, silly, buried under a pile of other rejected toys in your trunk.
("Pile of toys" is a relative term. If you're new here, you can read about my feelings on toys here.)

The crown pattern is really quite lovely, despite what the children in my life say. It's from Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family. You can see photos of other people's Creative Family projects (crowns and more) in Amanda's Flickr pool. Just make sure you grab a cup of coffee and allow yourself some time to linger.

I'm also halfway through another sewing project, but I want to make it a tutorial and I ran out of daylight to take photos. Stay tuned tomorrow.

I did take pictures of our outing this morning to Chaps, a truly original Spokane restaurant. We used to frequent it every Saturday morning, until we wised up and decided it'd be better to go for runs and hit the gym than load up on pancakes and baked oatmeal. To die for, by the way.
So, it's our "sometimes" Saturday morning tradition now. One of the best things about Chaps is its wee little play area for kids (see top two pictures). They stock it with vintage toys that fit the restaurant's western theme, like miniature horses and cowboy hats.

Today, a festival organized by Chaps' owner Celeste Shaw (part trauma nurse, part restaurateur, part interior decorator, part volunteer with children, part wonder woman) took place outside the restaurant. It was like a smaller version of the Farm Chicks sale from a couple of weeks ago. Very down home and folksy, complete with a cake walk. (I really wanted to remove the plastic wrap from the front cake in the bottom picture below because whoever decorated it did such a cute job. Bo wanted to remove some plastic wrap too, though, so I had to shoot photos quickly.)

Anyhow, the festival was lots of fun and it will be held once a month through the summer.

The sewing craze continues

Finally, I sewed something for myself.

A skirt for the Fourth of July.

We don't normally decorate ourselves so much for the Fourth of July around here. Don't get me wrong--it's one of my favorite holidays. But we usually just scrape together a red T-shirt and some blue shorts and call it good.

We're in a parade this year, though. That's right. We're IN the parade, not just watching it.

I haven't been in a parade since I was on the flag team in high school (flag team was cool at my school. I swear. OK, is it bad that I had to say that?).

It happens to be the best Fourth of July parade in the country. The oldest, too. 223 years and counting. Quick. Do the math. It started in 1785.

One of my wonderful aunts is being honored in the parade, and so part of the fun is that you have your family march with you. So, I hope that explains all the red, white and blue sewing of late. You might see a post in a couple of weeks about how to decorate a stroller with streamers and silliness, once we reach the other side of the country.

Anyhow, here's my skirt. The main fabric is a very lightweight cotton--it almost feels like cheesecloth or your dad's oldest hankie. It was 60 percent off at JoAnn's. Sweet. It's perfect that it has little anchors on it because the parade is in a town that's big on boating. The lining is just red cotton.

It's not the most flattering skirt in the world, but it's very comfortable--especially for a parade. I used the bottom half of a dress pattern and added a casing for a 1-inch elastic waistband. God bless elastic waistbands. Magpie is eight months old, so I can't use the postpartum excuse anymore, but who doesn't appreciate a little forgiveness on the waistline now and then?

My next craft project will be

a little sign with an embroidered message that tells people not to knock on my door or ring my doorbell while the girls are napping. Any suggestions on a nice way of wording it? Is "ring the bell between noon and three and my uncles will breaka your knees!!!!" too harsh?

Cake me

After yesterday's post about Bo's upcoming birthday cake, my friend Nissa sent me a picture of the cake from her daughter MK's (I'm using an abbreviation, Nis. Not sure if you're OK with full names or not) 2nd birthday last year. Her mother-in-law made it. It's the cluster of cupcakes frosted up to look like Hello Kitty in the first photo below. Too cute. Nice work, Nana Bubba.

I was reminiscing with a friend recently about the cake my crazy babysitter Amy made for me when I was in the fifth grade. I was a huge Duran Duran fan (who wasn't in 1985?), and I especially loved the shy drummer Roger Taylor. So she made me a bust-of-Roger cake. I wish I had a photo here. It was hilarious. This was before the whole Ace of Cakes craze, so she was a pioneer.

I thought it'd be fun if you all e-mailed me photos of cakes you've made (or had made) for your kids or other loved ones or cakes from your childhood. I'll post them here. They can be amazing or amazingly simple. Send 'em in.

The bottom photo is of pink ruffle cake is Bo's from her first birthday, made by someone with much more skill than me.

Update: I was so excited to see an e-mail from Charith with some of her amazing cake creations. Thanks for sending them, Charith! The duck and the drums were from her daughter's first and second birthdays and the train was for her son's first. Gotta love a little girl who wants pink drums on her birthday. How great. Keep 'em coming, everyone.

How to: Make a kid's cake topper

If rainbows make you barf, you might want to take a break from Penny Carnival for a couple of weeks. We're full steam ahead to Bo's rainbow-themed third birthday party. I was going to sew her a dress, but I found this one at the mall yesterday which will save me some time. Of course, I can't leave well enough alone, so I am going to alter the top a bit (it's a little bit hoochie mama right now).

Anyhow, Magpie and I just made this topper for big sis' birthday cake. Mags basically just chewed on felt the whole time, but she was here for moral support. I needed to make something to adorn the cake because it's going to be frosted white on the outside, like a cloud. The rainbow will be on the inside (stay tuned ... the party is June 29, and I'll have pictures).

These directions could apply to any shape you want to make. Dogs. Teddy bears. Birds. Buddhas. Heck, I could move to California right now and sell these as wedding cake toppers! Sweet.

Here's the play by play:

Cut out two identical sets of the pieces you need from felt. If it helps, draw a template first and use it as a pattern. That'd be especially helpful if you're making several things (i.e., 101 Dalmatians. Man, that would suck.)

Lay a piece of cardboard flat (I used an empty cracker box).

Glue the first set of pieces to one side of the cardboard. Cut the entire shape out. Flip the cardboard over and glue the second set of pieces to the back, placing one or two wooden skewers between the felt and the cardboard.

Once the glue dries, jam that bad boy into a cake of your choice and you have a colorful, reusable topper ... just in case your daughter wants a rainbow theme again next year.

The first photo below is the finished product. The rest are the process pix.