Chelsea's Bow Holder

As a little girl with A LOT of hair Chelsea has a daily need for a hair bow or clip. I originally had them housed in a cute little vintage china sugar bowl but there are now too many of them and it was getting hard to see the selection in the bowl. I decided to make a bow holder. I was able to put this together in less than an hour with scraps and bits and bobs I already had on hand. The best kind of project!


I took a small unfinished wood piece (found at Michael's or any craft type store) and glued on some vintage wallpaper. I added a satin flower and some vintage velvet leaves I had purchased a while back at Tinsel Trading. I had quite a bit of the gray gross grain ribbon - interestingly enough I took it from work! An award we order on a yearly basis comes tied up with this ribbon but we do not give the ribbon to the awardee - just the storage box so into my ribbon stash it went and I'm quite glad that it did. I cut a small piece and glued a loop on the back of the wood and then cut three lengths and glued each on the bottom of the wood and viola! Instant bow holder.


Most of these clips came from McClippies, a really great Etsy shop run by two sisters. I also adore this Etsy shop for hair clips. Chelsea will be sporting her chocolate bunny clip on Easter!

McClippies clips have great attention to detail and they each include a non slip surface perfect for soft baby hair.

Here is the full length view of the bow holder. I might have to make another one soon! I don't like to have a lot of visual clutter around so this actually hangs inside her closet where I can easily pluck the daily hair bow to match each outfit.

This is the cute clip that was designed for Chelsea's first birthday. Love the bling!

On My Feet This Morning...

Rain rain go away. We are in the midst of several days of rain. Weather people are saying we are going to get the equivalent of a two month supply of the stuff over two days. Looks like these will be my footwear for a bit!

Can Can Skirt

This is a better photo of the skirt I made Chelsea. I saw this post on the Made blog and instantly fell in love. Dana's posts and patterns convince me I can sew. I asked her if the pattern was truly for a beginner and she offered lots of encouragement as did a very knowledgeable co-worker so I decided to dive right in. It ended up taking me quite some time as I had to work on it here and there during naps and after work. When I finally finished it I was so proud of myself and I didn't even ask for help. Granted it is not as beautiful as the ones showcased on her blog, but I knew it wasn't going to look perfect. The great thing about this pattern is that you can size it for anyone, even an adult (with or without the chiffon ruffles). I might just have to get some Sis Boom or Anna Maria fabric and give it a try for myself.

A First Birthday Party

We celebrated Chelsea's first birthday this past weekend with a party at a local restaurant (March + my house + everyone one needs to invite to a first b-day = not enough room for our guests). It was quite nice to not have to worry about set-up and clean-up! I did want to personalize the party as much as possible. I made the above birthday hat for the occassion.

I bought the kids these party favors. I had a photo uploaded to this post but it seems to have disappeared!

I made goodie bags filled with candy. I originally wanted to use circle labels but time lapsed and I didn't order them so the old standby rectangles had to do the trick!

I had this empty frame and just made the sign on the computer and used a rubber stamp and colored markers for the flowers.

We purchased the main birthday party cake but I decided to make the cake she would squish. I'm not much of a cake decorator and too much of a perfectionist so Jeff bought a small store bought cake instead and we did not use this cake. This ended up being a good plan as the pink icing got all messed up during transport to the restaurant.

I had some extra chiffon and used it to decorate her high chair.

Not the best photo, I'm looking a bit weathered by this point! But I wanted to show you a photo of the skirt Chelsea was wearing. I made it! I'm very proud of this as I am not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination. My in-laws gave me a sewing machine for Christmas and Jeff gave me a bunch of supplies. I purchased the Can Can Skirt pattern from Made. The chiffon I picked doesn't give quite enough of a color variation and there are certainly many mistakes but the ruffles hide a lot! If I attempted this skirt again I would match the base fabric to one of the chiffon colors.

Here is the birthday girl digging in! She had a great time smashing the cake though didn't really eat any of it. A few licks of frosting and she was happy.

Tomorrow is her actual birthday. Jeff and I are taking the day off from work and going to the zoo - more birthday photos to come!

For the birds...

Before...Cheap porcelain birds purchased in a lot of odds and ends at an estate sale.


After...

A coat of spray paint and new life! They now reside on my mantle and mimic the current trend of neutral colored animal figures that can be purchased for lots of $$ at some of the various decorating haunts.

Excuse the overexposed photos. I took them in a rush before leaving for work.

My Sewing Area

Really bad photo and I did not stage it at all either (note the framed money from the first sale of my old dog treat business) but here is my little evolving sewing area. I have not sewed much since 8th grad home ec but I have wanted a sewing machine for the last several years. My mother and father-in-law gave me the machine for Christmas and Jeff gave me lots of sewing goodies so there was no longer an excuse to not jump right in.

I made a skirt for Chelsea's 1st birthday (coming up on the 18th!) and will post some photos. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out though there are lots of mistakes. It contains ruffles so they aren't that noticeable. Hee hee. Now I'm getting more confident and I think I might try some summer outfits for Chelsea. I will start small and easy and see how it goes. If you know of any easy patterns for little girl outfits please do share.

I have an old abandoned chair that I rescued from my father-in-law that I will be remaking into my sewing chair and I'm going to clean this area up a bit but for now it works. It is in the basement so natural light is at a premium. The old Singer table (with the machine still inside) is my husband's. He does have an eye for the good stuff after all! (Just kidding honey).