Looking for Inspiration

I know that I have been absent from the blogging world. We have run into a snag. You all know that I do in home day care, well the 2 boys that I watch just kinda up and left. Ok , well not really. They were going to be leaving in September when the oldest one started preschool. The preschool that they are going to have 2 openings for them now, so their mom decided to enroll them now. Its kinda put a snag in all of my plans. I planned on doing a give away last month, and posting pictures of our new garden, starting a whole new "line" in the shop, as well as making a whole ton of dresses for a consignment shop in Texas. Its just been so hard to focus when you don't know where the money you so desperately need, is going to come from. Not only that my focus has been on trying to  find more kids to watch.

There has been very little activity in the shop aside from custom orders. I was in the punk baby swap on craftster, and that was hard. I need some drive, some inspiration, or something to get me out of this funk. Sorry to all of my followers... all 17 of you!!! I love you all.

Maybe a give away or a contest is what I need. Some busy work would be good.

Sparkel Power Giveaway

If you havent already seen this blog you should check it out. She's doing a giveaway, Good Luck!

The Girl Turns 3

 

I am so sad now that the girl is 3. I know it sounds bad, but I wasn't ready for her to get older. Despite of grief, I managed to make the pumpkin a birthday dress. I let her pick her own fabric and she wanted a "Marty" dress. Marty? The zebra from Madagascar. I think it turned out pretty cute. I think that I want one for myself. Which, by the way I am working on a womens line for the shop.

 

This is her poor, poor cake. It was going to be a 3 tiered masterpiece, complete with hand painted zebra stripes by yours truly. Unfortunately when I put the last tier on, the middle tier just wasn't strong enough. If I ever do this again DO NOT USE THE CAKE MIX WITH THE PUDDING!!! I managed to clean it up a bit and hid some of the damage with some ribbon. The girl still liked it. While I was making it I swear I could have been the next Food Network Star. I made fondant, colored it, rolled it out, put it on the cake and even did the rubbing thing that the cake decorators do when they put the fondant on. Watch out Duff Goldman. LOL!!!

Outside Fun : Picking Flowers

I normally do not let the children pick the flowers in the back yard. I have daffodils and tulips, along with some lilies. Lucky for them my yard has been taken over by dandelions. I don’t know why this simple past time of collecting a little yellow flower by the bunch, has small children so entertained. I see the kiddos’ walking by with fist full’s of flowers. The girls put them in their hair. Everyday the Pumpkin brings me a flower, which by the way absolutely warms my heart. Then she tells me to smell and she does too and says that it smells so beautiful. They "plant" them in their gardens. They even put them in little rows in the planter area.

My favorite thing they did with the flowers.

"Hanging Gardens"

Who would have thought that picking dandelions would provide hours of fun, free, entertainment.

New Stuff In The Shop

This is a custom item.

Croc Upgrade

Her 1st of 2 pairs of new Crocs arrived in the mail today.

They are extremely cute and there is plenty of growing room. I love them. But, because these will be mainly the only shoes she wears in the sticky summer months I thought an upgrade was needed. Don’t get me wrong these are just fine as they are, but there's nothing wrong with a little dazzle.



The Upgrade
First you will need to gather your supplies. shoes, velcro, ribbon, a hot glue gun, felt and anything crafty you might have lying around.

Second- you are going to need to cut your felt to size. There really isn't a right way to do this. It’s all trial and error. So you do that until you get something like this. * A great tip is to do one and use the 1st one as a template for the other shoe, just remember to flip it over when you go to the next step.

Next you will need to cut 4 strips of ribbon about 2 inches long. You'll need ribbon that’s wide enough to attach your velcro to. After you've cut your ribbon, glue one to each of the "y" ends like this.

Now you need to attach the velcro.

Here's the fun part, decorating !!!

Pom Pom's

Fabric Flowers

These tie on with ribbon insted of velcro.

The posiblities are endless. I'm gonna get some silk flowers and some fake jewels for a blinged out Croc.

Outside Fun: Grocery Bag Kites

As you all may know I live up here in the frozen north- Wisconsin. It’s a place that hasn’t got the memo that it’s spring. So we’re all putting our jackets and jeans on to play outside. There have been a few warmer days but the wind is still a bit chilly. So when life gives you lemons, you make grocery bag kites. This is the easiest and fastest windy day fun creator. It’s so simple I’m not even going to give step-by-step detailed instructions on how to make them


You take a plastic grocery bag and tie yarn, string or ribbon to both handles. Then you run. It’s that simple. It’s also a great way to reuse plastic grocery bags.

Oh I got my new camera, so a better fat quarter skirt tutorial is coming soon.

Enjoy!!!