PONY (pizza princess) PARTY: the final three

So, as I should have anticipated, the last three ponies were a mad dash rush. School seems to be pouring out homework and exams and papers and certification exams... so I was crocheting around all of that while trying to remember important things like bath time, dinner time, laundry time, and snuggle time. Being a mom is tough! Being a school attending mom of two who is working on her teaching certification and with a compulsion to crochet awesome gifts (and blog about it!) makes for one extremely busy schedule.  So, I'll apologize for my lack of blogging/FB updating/emailing lately. I also can't express how much your well wishes on FB as I was taking the ginormous tests for my teaching certification meant to me. You helped me pass! Really!

Now on to the moment I've been promising.... PONY PARTY EXTRAVAGANZA!

To read about Pony Party Part 1: Rainbow Dash, click here.
To read about Pony Party Part 2: Fluttershy, click here.
To read about Pony Party Part 3, AppleJack, click here.

Pony number four was Twilight Sparkle. This was no regular Twilight Sparkle, she had to be an alicorn. For you non-MLP people (is it alright if I come stay with you for awhile?) that means a pony who is both pegasus and unicorn. It's a big deal. There was much screaming and joy jumping at my house when Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn.

Cute, right? You can't see her wings very well in this picture, but I promise you, they were much appreciated by Lilster.

Pinkie Pie fought me. Every. step. of. the. way. First, the original colors of yarn were not quite right. Found and bought new yarn, didn't realize the weight was off. So Pinkie's a bit smaller than the others. She also looked like a deer without hair. Not even kidding a little bit. I had lost my camera right before I finished Twilight, so I couldn't take any pictures. At least I know I can crochet Bambi if need be.

Despite the Pinkie drama, she turned out to be so sweet and cuddly. Her hair is so much twirly fun!

I need to pause and set the stage here for a moment...Picture this....

It's the night before Lily's birthday party, which was actually the day before her birthday. Constant questions all day long had made their way out of my extremely excited daughter. The one that caused my heart to pound with anxiousness was, "Mom, can you give me your present at my party?" This meant that Pinkie and Rarity had to be completed in less than 24 hours. Less than 24 hours....

I stayed up really late, finished Pinkie, woke up, headed to the local cafe to sit and crochet Rarity.

If you look closely, you'll see Rarity is missing something. Can you tell what it is? Hmm?

If you guessed ears, you'd be right on the money. I was crocheting right up until 11:30 at which point I had to rush home, wrap without getting caught, and away we went to the museum/pizza/squeal-fest that was my daughter's birthday (more on that in another post!) and it wasn't until I was wrapping her that I started using words I don't allow my daughters to use as I realized Rarity was actually incomplete.

Oh well!

Lily L-O-V-E-D these. Best birthday present ever. She won't put them down. I have even had to stop her from taking them to school where they would be confiscated. She picks one each night to sleep with. She talks about how I need to make their cutie marks and their elements of friendship. Oh, and could I please, please please crochet Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and Dr. Whooves and Shining Armor and......

Long, long story short: I'm pretty much the best mom ever. I can drag out this gift forever as I am virtually unlimited in the number of ponies I could make. I'm also exhausted. :) 

Pattern info: visit acrylicsheep on Etsy or Ravelry for the pattern I used to make all of these delightful ponies!

I have linked this post to: Hooking on Hump Day and Craft Frenzy Friday!

PONY PARTY Part 1: Rainbow Dash

Look what I got in the mail yesterday.

A WHOLE BOX OF YARN! 

Aren't the colors pretty? A little scattered, I'll admit, but that's because I'm working on my latest project.

Lily's birthday is a little over a month away. She'll be 9 years old. 9 YEARS OLD. Every year I do this. I wonder how the heck she's grown so fast. Then I cry about it a little.  

Lily l-o-v-e-s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We watch it all the time. We have conversations about the "mane six" characters. My husband can quote the characters. I'll admit, I am a bit of a pony geek too, it was one of my favorites when I was little. 

I had the idea brewing to make her the ponies as a birthday gift, but had no idea how to pull it off. So I did a bit of searching and found out that MLP crochet is actually a pretty popular activity. Who knew? There are some gorgeous patterns and plushies out there. I bought a few because they were so cute. (I don't normally buy patterns, but the madness overtook me.)

AcrylicSheep on etsy had the pattern that I decided to actually use. Look at her adorable ponies!!!! 

Find this picture and the pattern here.

They're small enough to realistically do all six and the pattern gives you instructions for all the pony accessories! I may have become a pattern-buying convert. I'm so excited! With my first week of school out of the way and homework already piling up, I need quick and easy. This fits the bill without sacrificing cuteness or the end product. I love that I can do any pony from the show with this pattern. I may have to add in one or two extra if I have time. Lily would die if I could pull off some of the other characters like Princess Celestia or Princess Cadence. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I apologize. I guess I should have put up geek warning sign at the top of this post.)

I've started on Rainbow Dash first. She's one of my favorites. 

The pattern was very easy to follow. Since this is my first attempt at amigurumi, I'm extremely pleased with how little Dash turned out. 

I'll post each pony as I complete them so be prepared to see lots of pony pictures over the next month. Next, I think I'm going to work on Pinkie Pie. 

Did you know that there is enough guy fans of this show that they have their own "BRONY" convention? Isn't that kind of awesome and goofy at the same time? Girl fans go by Pegasisters. The things people come up with these days! Very clever...I do love wordplay.

What do you think? BEST PRESENT EVER, or what? My kids are so lucky to have me as a mom. Hehe. It's a good thing I'm pretty humble about it.  *wink wink*

I have shared this post with Hooking on Hump Day Show and Tell Saturday Frugal Friday and Overflowing with Creativity!

I'm Blue (da ba dee)

While little Miss Sage was sleeping away the afternoon....

Lily and I had a bit of one on one time. Nic and I have instilled a new policy at the house. We each make sure to spend at least 10 minutes of time one on one with Lily a day. Usually, it ends up being more time, but we start with the ten. We take her to the grocery store because she is an excellent list-checker-offer.You will never lose your list when Lily's in charge of it. Or we go outside and play on the tire swing. Nic and her like to race, him on his skateboard, her on her bike. Just a few minutes each day independently with Mom and Dad to make sure that she is not feeling like she's missing out now that there's a very demanding baby in the house. It's working like a charm.

Today we colored and made cupcakes. Blue was the theme as we were coloring a card and making cupcakes for Lily's biological father's birthday. She knows it's his favorite color (his walls are that color in his house, his christmas tree is all blue, his car is blue...) so it was blue everything. 

She drew him a blue cake with blue candles. I didn't realize that when she asked me how old he was, she was using the information to add the exact number of candles on the cake in her drawing. She was very proud that she was able to fit all of them on there. We talked about how there is even a little bit of blue in fire (for the candles) and what her favorite shade of blue is (sky blue).

Next came the cupcakes. In Lily's world, cupcakes are a mean business. The colors have to be just right. She can hardly contain her joy while waiting for them to cool enough to frost. Frosting is never enough decoration. I have 8 different kinds of edible sprinkles in my cupboards just for cupcakes.


Since these were boy cupcakes, I brought out a secret stash of candy to use as decoration this time.

At first I was worried that she was going to balk at the idea of using bugs and mushrooms because of their lack of sprinkliness, but she surprised me and picked out her favorite bugs and mushrooms to grace the cupcakes.I tried to argue for white cupcakes with blue frosting, but got shot down. So, we have bright blue cupcakes with white frosting and super fun bug/mushroom toppers. Since I was on a countdown with Sage's nap, these were just box mix and easy cream cheese frosting. Honestly though, the cake mix cupcakes are always my favorite. Call me weird, but I make cupcakes with Funfetti mix more than I make mix from scratch because it always tastes better to me. Overall, I think the cuppycakes turned out cute.

To finish off the blue theme we decided a bit of the Smurf movie was in order. All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon and she was so very proud to give her gifts. I'm trying to turn her over to the handmade-gifts-are-better darkside. Hee.

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Magical Melty Beady Bowls

I found out today as Lily and I chattered our way home from school that tomorrow is her teacher's birthday. She was pretty insistent that we get her a present and I couldn't disagree because this teacher has done amazing things with Lily and has been wonderful all year long. Every day as the first graders pile out of the room past her, she smiles and hugs every single one. Ever since I started working on my teaching degree, I pay attention to which teachers do things I would do in my, as of now, imaginary classroom. And while I would probably be labeled a weirdo if I hugged my high school students, the simple patience to take a moment to acknowledge each one every day is absolutely going to be filed away for future use.

Anyway, when I asked Lily what she wanted to give, she told me something that she had to make with her imagination. It took me a few minutes, but I thought of something. Please welcome what Lily named Magic Melty Beady Bowls.

It's a pretty simple concept. You take plastic beads, arrange them, throw them in the oven, shape and cool.

Handy for me, I still have a huge box of pony beads. When I say huge, I mean a tool box that unfolds and has tons of little compartments. I've had the box since I was younger and spent hours making candy bracelets with friends of mine. It refuses to empty itself of beads.

Since this was my first time attempting this, I wrapped my cookie sheet in foil. The plastic didn't stick, but I make a lot of cookies at my house and I need my cookie sheets. Lily and I each made our circles. I was stuck in pattern mode, but she just kind of went wild. She really liked the glitter beads.

I popped them in the oven at about 450 degrees for ten minutes or so. I kept checking them until they were totally melted. I've read lots of complaints about the fumes this creates. I opened my back door and had a fan going and it wasn't a problem for us. It also gave me an excuse to use my newest Scentsy scent. :) Once they were out of the oven, I shaped them with oven mitts on. They're pretty hot and harden quickly, so I put them back in the oven once or twice until the shapes were what I wanted.  I let them cool and that was that!

Lily wanted hers to more bowl shaped so her teacher could use it for paper clips or whatever. I love the random colors!

Here it is all wrapped up in fabric since Lily doesn't believe it counts as a present unless it's wrapped.

We kept the crafty going by making a card to go with it. I can't exactly remember where I got the general concept for the card, but it is made with an apple stamp.

Lily loved this one too. She adores painting and she was chomping at the bit to get to this part. She had a paintbrush in her hand for an hour waiting to get to it. Haha. She did a few practice runs and then we stamped the card, I added  the stem, leaf, and seeds, and the twine knot and message. I am so making more of these for a teacher stash. They are perfectly adorable.

I had an absolute blast doing all of this with Lily today. It was so much more fun than watching My Little Pony for the umpteenth time. I want to try and make bowls out of vinyl records or green army men. The pictures I have seen are awesome. I get the impression that if you have anything small and plastic, it works, but I'm a little hesitant to just try melting things in my oven all willy nilly. I hope her teacher likes the gift and I have to find a place or use for my pretty rainbow bowl. I'm sure this is another one we'll be doing again as Lily wants one for her room and I think they would also make cool coasters or light catchers.


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