The month of a million scarves...

.... ok, just ten. Well, twelve. If you count the one I made for myself and the IOU I gave to my mother.

See, it started like this. I found this SUPER fun and bright yarn. I decided Lily had to have a scarf made in it.

I had decided to crochet dish clothes and scrubbies as friend gifts for Christmas. You know, simple.  Single crochet, quick, I could handle it. I made Lily's scarf in the same pattern, but with the yarn, it turned out STINKING CUTE. (I've stole it twice to wear it myself.)

Then, THEN...

I went on a crochet project rampage on Pinterest. (You can see my board of crochet wonder here.) I fell in love with granny squares. So it had to be done. I needed to make a granny square scarf.

I loved that scarf. It was the same rainbow happy as Lily's scarf, but popping out bright enough to nearly make the eyes bleed. It was probably my favorite gift that I gave this Christmas, despite the fact that I probably won't get to see it very often. (Rachel, you need to come visit meeeee!) 

I felt pretty accomplished. I had made TWO scarves, right? Plus all my dish clothes. Whew. 

Then.. THEN...

My mother, bless her, asked how hard it would be for me make a scarf for each of my nieces and nephews back east. Sure, ok, I figured I could just forget about finals, right? Four more scarves, coming up!

Two boy scarves, two girl scarves, for four adorable kiddos. Whew. Really, for really done this time.

Then... THEN... THEN.... (getting the theme to this story, yet?) 

My husband reminded me that I had promised him a scarf last year. Oops. He even went with me to the yarn store (which by this time Lily won't even go with me because we go every. day. MOM.) and picks out his yarn. Then I have to whip that one out when he's not home because he may have picked out the colors and pattern, but I'm surely not letting him see it until Christmas. 

Then my sister saw his scarf. And wanted one. In the same color as Lily's. Back to the yarn store. She said she wanted it for her birthday, but I was on a mission at that point. I was going to get it made and I was going to have it ready in time for her to open. Took me most of the night, but I did it and forgot to take a picture of it. At that point I didn't care about the dang pictures. Haha.

I also decided to make a scarf for our family Christmas auction. It will make my cousin's lady friend very happy.

I really liked the infinity style of the scarf I made my sister. I mean, duh, it used the granny square stitch. I made one for myself in this super fuzzy happy yarn and it is SO warm. I wear it every day, which is funny because the universe had scarves on the brain and gave me 5 new scarves for Christmas. LOL.

Then...THEN... (just kidding)

I had enough yarn left to make one of those cute flower headbands. Lily likes to wear it and be a model for me. Cute!

I have one other crochet project to share...but I will do it in another post.

This is the happy tale of my million scarves for Christmas. If you want a scarf from me, figure out how to crochet yourself. HA!

To-Do Tuesday.

I just need to start asking for Home Depot / Joann's / Michaels's gift cards for all birthday, holiday, and special occasion gifts. I have way too many projects that I would love to try. Here's some of my current favorites: 

I am particularly fond of mushrooms. They're neat. I did a Biology experiment assignment where I grew my own mushrooms (oysters... delicious!) and have been oddly enamored ever since. Here's my latest mushroom love:

I found this photo here!

I have had a hard time finding out the original ideaster behind these adorable garden mushrooms, but they're stunning. They are also a perfect excuse for me to buy those pretty crystal dishes I always see at the thrift store. What a great way to create your own fairy garden!!

Over at Patina White, there is some really neat decorating using world globes.

I found this photo here!

Every self respecting teacher needs a globe and a good inspirational quote or two. This is a match made in heaven! I will have something like this in my someday classroom. Maybe when I get over my fear of power tools. 

I have also found a way to make use of the paint chip samples I can't stop myself from collecting. I've just about got the hubster convinced that our bedroom wall would look awesome like this:

I found this photo here!

I love rainbow anything. This seems like an amazing way to spruce up a wall that I can't paint. They used painters tape to adhere to the wall, so it would be easy enough to take down. I think this would be great in our ever changing rainbow bedroom. You can find more paint chip projects here.

As if I don't already have space issues in my house, I have been trying to figure out (since we moved in) how to fit a piano somewhere. I miss playing every day and I really want my girls to learn. Also, I want to try my hand at painting a piano.

I found this photo here!

Pinterest has so many wonderfully bright, happy pianos. When I finally get a bigger house or decide I don't need a living room couch... I'm getting my piano and it's going to be painted. No boring black in my house! :)

Moving back into the land of Realistic Crafty Projects, I am loving the rag rugs I am seeing lately. And kudos to the genius who had the idea of using jelly rolls or whatever you call them (packs of fabric strips for quilting) to save time on cutting. 

I found this photo here!

No one actually mentions how long it takes them to hand sew these babies together. Anyone know? I imagine it would be fairly simple to braid the strips. However, hand stitching and I don't get along so well. I have also seen some stunning rugs done with grocery bags or with (swoon) wool roving. I can't seem to find multicolored grocery bags though, and I don't have a bajillion dollars to spend on that much roving. I'll stick with fabric! :) I did find one tutorial that used a machine to stitch the rug together, so maybe there is hope for me yet.

Well, that's it for this week's to-do list. I may accomplish one of these projects in a year or two! HA! I need to take a vacation with my crafty supplies and my sewing machine. One weekend, no sleep, and no interruptions, I could get a whole pile of to-do items done! Of course, then I would complain about missing my babies and the husbandy face. Can't ever win!

Watermelon cake and movies in the yard.

When I saw the all fruit cake over at See My Footprints, I fell in love. What an amazing alternative to sugar and frosting. It's been pinned so many times, but I couldn't really find anyone else who had tried it!

When my aunt asked me to bring a treat for her Movie in the Yard night, I knew what I was going to make.

Movie in the Yard night is a winner of an idea for some summer evening fun. It's like the drive-in, only on lawn chairs and blankets. They had a projector and screen set up complete with popcorn, candy, and other yummy snacks. We watched Despicable Me, a movie I will never get tired of.

"It's so fluffy, I'm gonna DIE!!!"

*snicker*

Anyway, so here's my cake made of watermelon and other assorted fruity magic.

The cake done at See My Footprints had the rind removed, but because there was going to be lots of kids and dark, I decided to leave the rind on. I also wanted it all sliced for ease of snacking. So I sliced a whole seedless watermelon and then rearranged the slices in staggered tiers just to make it look pretty. I used strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and kiwi to decorate my cake.

As you can see, it was a little lopsided. I messed with it forever and just finally gave up. So the advice from me would be to make sure you cut your slices really, really straight. Doing the decorating was seriously the best. I think I ate as much fruit as I put on  the cake because it was all so fresh and tasty.

Lily helped me cut out the cantaloupe shapes. I found some plastic flower and heart cookie cutters in two sizes that I had bought to fancy up her peanut butter sandwiches. (Side note: has anyone else noticed that a simple PB&J with a bag of chips is not a cool enough lunch anymore? I should have never shown Lily the lunches over at Meet the Dubiens.)  As long as the melon wasn't more than about 3/4 inches thick, they handled it just fine and Lily could help. I would love to find some smaller cookie cutters that would work for the kiwis. 

I had absolutely no plan when it came down to a "design" for the cake. I am, and always will be, a woman who works better just winging it. The key here, is lots and lots of toothpicks. Which was handy because people re-used them as they were picking off fruit. I probably went a bit overboard with the toothpicks, but only because I had to transport the cake in the car and I did NOT want anything falling apart. 

It was a total hit. I was told it was adorable, a wonderful option for those on diets, and that I was very talented. Seriously, all the compliments were making my head swell. See My Footprints did her cake for her child's 1st birthday as an alternative to real cake, which I think is so very smart. Although, I do love a good messy toddler playing in cake at a party. There are several other versions of cakes that she has done as well. Check them out!

And there you have it. Watermelon "cake" that tastes delicious. I love finding new recipes and foodie projects for big group get togethers. With a huge family, it's good to have these things in your back pocket! ;) If you ever need a summer party idea, I'm telling you, try the movie outside idea. All you need is a projector and something to use as a screen. Oh, but watch out for ditches. Haha. Some of the boys were catching frogs and I suddenly had a very muddy, very wet Lily on my hands shortly before the movie started.   I was lucky to have an aunt who was nice enough to run home and grab a change of clothes so Lily didn't freeze. It wouldn't be a night out if Lily didn't do something crazy!

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Cornstarch Paint and a surprise...

 I saw this on pinterest as soon as warm weather hit and have been wanting to try it out. Lily is a painter. When she grows up, she wants to be an artist. The hard part of getting this marked off my to-do list though, has been remembering cornstarch at the grocery store. I finally got it though, yay me!

You can find a million recipes for this, but my favorite was the one at Pink and Green Mama because it was pretty simple. Cornstarch, food dye, water. Go. Ha! I'd add a little cornstarch here, water there, and had way too much fun playing.

The darker colors were much more vibrant. They had quite a bit of food dye, at least 15 drops or so. I had a mini muffin tin, which was the perfect size for quite a bit of paint in more colors than a regular pan. Lily is all about the color selection. I did get asked why there was no yellow, brown, or black. How was she supposed to draw trees or the sun? *smirk*

Nic was setting up the pool in the backyard. This has been an epic battle that the pool is currently winning. Pool: 2. Humans: 0. Tomorrow we have to drain it and fill it for a third time. Our back yard is slowly forming into a mountain or something, because that pool leans like crazy when we fill it up no matter where we put it. Anyway, Lily decided that painting the table we have in the yard was better than the sidewalks out front. I thought it was fun and it washed off fine, so I gave the green light. I don't know what part she liked better, painting or playing with the hose under the guise of washing off her "canvas" so she could start over again. She painted for two hours.

Two warnings:

1) Wear clothes that can be stained. Lily has an eclectic mix of play clothes. She's very much a girly girl and has to wear sparkles and skirts even when painting her masterpieces. Fancy Nancy has nothing on my girl. She was devastated for about five minutes when she realized she had blue on her cupcake shirt. When I reminded her it was too small to wear to school anymore and it was play clothes, she then asked if she could paint the shirt. Haha.

2) It might not be the smartest idea to paint on glass with this stuff. We had the weirdest thing happen today and the the only thing we can think of as a cause is something to do with the cornstarch paint. We went outside to find our table like this:

The glass completely shattered. We could hear the glass crackling and breaking as we stood over it in disbelief and confusion. It was the strangest thing. I washed off most of the paint yesterday, but there was still some on there. The table had sat overnight completely fine, and then half way through the morning, boom. Nothing heavy enough around it that could have hit the glass to shatter it. No pre-existing cracks. Just millions of pieces. There could be other reasons, but where kids are the ones painting, I wouldn't want someone to get hurt. I can't wait to make this again for Lily to play with, but I'll stick with sidewalks from now on to be safe.

I'm bummed about the table. We just got it last summer. I only ate dinner on it one time this summer. Boo. Nic cheered me up by suggesting several different options of fixing it. His favorite is to turn it into a wood top and letting me paint a mural and sealing it. My husband has a secret crafty side.

 Anyone have any good ideas? It's a metal frame.

Moral of the story: sidewalks, people.

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Inspiration Station

So after a wonderful weekend with the mother-in-law (who was kind enough to buy us a shiny, new air conditioner!!!!) and my sister, and my other sister's baby shower (new baby!!!!!) .... I am exhausted.

At least my sunburn is from actual sunshine this time.

I haven't had much crafty creative time, but I sure found some great ideas to try! So I am going to annoy you with commentary on each idea. :)

I have been working on this post for two days and I keep getting sidetracked. The internet had too many arty crafty fun blogs and ideas! My brain wants to implode!

So welcome to Inspiration Station... I'll be your tour guide through some happy fun today!

First up, we have a fun kiddo craft that is happening at my house as soon as the Idaho weather decides to cooperate. Key words there are "Idaho weather" so it could be August. It's Bubble Prints!

Side note: this is hands down one of the best kid art blogs I have ever seen. The blog is run by a K-6 art teacher and there are HUNDREDS of ideas. If you need something to do with your kiddo, go here. I spent an hour looking around and still didn't get bored. I want to try about 15 other things with Lily including a summer memory quilt idea that was inspired by this blog.

Next up, we have pure genius. If you are on pinterest, chances are you've seen this, but it is so amazing that I have to share it. Addicted 2 Decorating has made this amazing mirror out of.... SPOONS!

I love everything about this. It's from spoons. It has a gorgeous color fade. It's pretty. I have seen other spoon mirrors out there, but this one takes the cake. It is full of win and I can only hope some nice family member will take my children for a day sometime in the future so I can make this. It would look awesome in yellow or maybe purple.

Moving on... is an adorable headband from Love Stitched. I actually made a bracelet using this knot the other day, but I want to do a headband for each of us three girls in the house. It took five minutes to learn the knot. Plus, t-shirt recycling, always a favorite of mine. 

If you're more attached to your glue gun than your sewing machine, this is a crafty must do for you! I think I personally would sew the ends together, but that's just cause I want to use my sewing machine as often as I can get my sticky, grubby mom hands on it. I love the two-tone bands she has done as well.

And finally, for the knock-off win of the century, Besserina takes home the gold. I fell in LOVE with the Georgina duvet cover from Anthropologie.  I tried for several months to figure out how to afford a duvet that was worth as much as several months rent. I still have the picture of it. This is the original:

Isn't it stunning? Gah! Love love love it. Well, Besserina has a wonderful tutorial on how to make my own. It might take me a few years to get all the flowers done, but I am DOING this some day. She does her's for a toddler bed size...so very adorable.

It may say something about me, but I think a good knock off is even better than the original. It takes some pretty fine talent to create something from a picture and make it as good (or better) than the original. I love this in white, but it would last about 2.5 seconds at my house before getting stained, so I would have to make it colorful. 

Well, this was super fun, so I'll have to do it again. Hope you find some time to get lost in Blog land and find some lovely adventures to undertake!

TP Teacher Cards

Hurray! I got the thank you cards for Lily's teachers done. It took until 3:39 AM, but whew. Deadline met. If you have seen any of the toilet paper roll craftiness going on, you'll recognize the inspiration for these cards.

It took me about two and a half toilet paper rolls to do this. My husband suffers silently and just smiles and nods when I ask him to do random things like not throw empty tp rolls away. I'm a lucky gal.  I decided to make four cards, one for each of the teachers who have been fantastic in working with Lily this year. I did one flower with five and the rest with six petals. Six looked better to me and fuller.

I folded the roll flat and tried to cut the strips evenly, but it was late and I was working around a baby who wouldn't sleep. So  then I just tried to match skinny and not so skinny strips. I ran a glue stick along the edges of the side I was gluing down to attach them to the pretty paper I had picked out. Still with me? That sounds kind of confusing so if you look at the next picture, it will hopefully make more sense. I coyldn't get a clear picture of where I was putting glue on the tp pieces.

The petals were by no means even. Deadline, remember? So I let the flowers dry to the paper and cut them out. This was actually the tedious part because it can get a bit awkward. Best advice I can give you is go slow and prepare to bend your scissor hand funny.

If you look in the picture, you can see the ragged edges of the paper. I trimmed these as best I could. It was about 1:30 AM at this point, so my eyes were probably not the best. I really wish the paper would show up better, it's really quite pretty. I have this neat glitter spray that I sprayed the back of each card and the center of each flower. The spray was something I found on clearance at Michael's, and have never found again, which is kind of a bummer.

I glued the flowers to the cards I had on hand. They were not folded cards, more like post cards. To cover up my uneven centers and to make the flowers look more finished, I spent half an hour looking for buttons. When that didn't work, I looked for flat beads. After striking out with that as well, I had an idea that ended up working out.

I took my roll of never-ending hemp and coiled it, making a perfect center. I closed the coils with a dab of glue and then used as much glue as needed to glue them down to the center of the flower. To keep in with the hemp theme, I glued a hemp stem and leaf on each card too. I feel pretty proud of myself that my crafty skills were still working on so little brain power. I wish I would have had more time to tint the edges of the card or sewn borders, but there's always a next time!

After another mad dash search for my brown marker to write the message, I gave up and settled for a turquoise crayola marker. Again, not my best work, but the space was small and I didn't have enough stickers for four cards. I really, really need to invest in some alphabet stamps. (Note to self, don't let Lily use them and I might actually keep the whole alphabet intact.) I wrote a personalized note to each of the four teachers, stuffed the cards into their envelopes and then realized I wanted a gift for Lily's main teacher.

I found a huckleberry soy candle in a mason jar that I wrapped with ribbon and called it good. Just as I settled down, the baby woke up again. Haha, the life of a mother who has a crafty obsession. Now I'm off to make my living room NOT look like a bunch of drunken elves had a paper cutting party in it last night. I love that these cards are made from something that would just end up trash. I can always get behind using household items to make something pretty. 

T-minus two hours and forty-five minutes until school's out....I wonder how long before I hear, "I'm BORED Mom!!"

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Jubilant Jessi: Take Two

So.... I dropped off the face of the Earth.

So much in fact, that I've been sitting here for a good 45 minutes trying to figure out a blog name only to remember I had one. Then I had to remember how to log into it. So now that I'm all set up and ready to go again....

 Hi. :)

As a way to reintroduce myself, here are a few of my newest loves...

1) my lovely daughters. Yes, daughters as in plural. I have two of them now. A fact which makes me super smiley on a daily basis. Wait, make that a minute basis. Or maybe not, since it doesn't really make sense. My two beautiful flower girls, growing like crazy. I am constantly tickled by the things that comes out of Lily's mouth and I go gooey inside when baby Sage coos at me. I am under the impression now that I want a houseful of children and the Husband is enamored like I am so he thinks its a great idea. We'll see.

2) my addiction known as Pinterest. If you don't know what Pinterest is... go there now. Take a bathroom break and grab some snacks first because you won't be moving away from the computer for awhile I apologize for causing the hiccups in your social life that will result, but you'll have an amazing imaginary house, tons of recipes you might just try, and more crafty inspiration than you will ever know what to do with.

3) May 5th. Random? Yes. The last day of Spring semester? Kaaa-Ching! No more school until August. This is most excellent. I will have all summer to play with my new sewing machine, the blank journal I have, the creative ideas collected on the above mentioned addiction. So. exciting. I will get a read a book. A book I want to read. Woot!

So stay tuned, I'll have lots of time on my hands this summer and I'm sure I'll be spending a bit of it here in my little slice of bloggy land. And now, I'm off to go study chemistry. Blech. I can't put it off any longer, the final is Wednesday. Wish me luck!