Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week

This is Teacher Appreciation Week and the girls and I were all sitting down scratching our heads wondering what special thing we could do for their wonderful teachers who do so much each and every school day for them. I found this great idea over on Little Birdie Secrets to make these cute little fabric covered button magnets and tacks and knew this was the perfect gift to give. They were so simple to make that even Xiera and Zella were able to help!
Just Look at how pretty they turned out!

The little ones make the cutest little tacks.

I think I have found myself a new hobby. Can you imagine these on hair clips and hairpins? A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!
I also wanted to share this adorable treasury made by bibsblanketsandmore. She included my Hip Chick Hat. :)

Kitten Love

We have been fostering these sweet and adorable kittens. We are trying to find them a forever home since we are at our capacity of animals. (1 cat, 2 guinea pigs, and 1 gerbil.) Needless to say that the girls are in absolute heaven!




How can anyone resist the cuteness?

April Showers Bring......

RAINBOWS!!

Patriotic Stars

I just finished this adorable little custom drawstring purse for a dear customer of mine. I think it turned out so cute! I made it to match this cute little pageant outfit.

Painting With Yarn

Today Zella wanted to paint so I brought out my inner preschool teacher and got a little creative. Instead of the regular paint brushes to paint with, why not use pieces of scrap yarn? (Which I have lots of!)

Materials we used were...

construction paper
yarn scraps
wooden clothes pins
washable paint
paper plate

First I placed small amounts of paint in a variety of colors onto a paper plate. You can also use a regular plate. I just wanted clean up time to be as easy and fast as possible. Then I attached small pieces of yarn onto wooden clothes pins and dipped them into each color of yarn. Zella then picked out a piece of construction paper and we were ready to paint. She dragged the string along the paper like a worm and laid it in different ways to create different designs. It was a lot of fun. We also used texture yarn for a different design effect.

It turned out really neat!

Happy Late Easter!

Our Easter was a very busy one, hence the reason for my late post. We spent all Friday and Saturday coloring eggs. We colored some eggs using duct tape, lace, and stickers. We then added some sparkle and glitz to a few others. On Saturday we saved the day to color eggs using old silk ties and handkerchiefs we found at the local thrift store. I found the silk tie egg coloring idea on Martha Stewart's website and they turned out amazing!! Just see for yourself!

I think this is going to be a new tradition for us because we had so much fun making them.

I made the girls these adorable lambs for their baskets. I got the idea from the April issue of Crochet World. Field the lamb is actually on the front cover. We named Xiera's lamb Daisy because she is Field's girlfriend.

Sunday morning the Easter bunny came and gave the girls lots of goodies. They were absolutely thrilled.

We then got ready and went to church. Although I bought Xiera a new dress to wear this year, she decided she wanted to wear the same dress she wore last year. It still fit her and she looked adorable. Zella wore Xiera's skirt and peasant top set that she had outgrew. They looked so pretty.

Our Easter was a rainy one so the girls enjoyed an Easter egg hunt inside the church.

They didn't seem to mind.
Happy Resurrection day from our home to yours.

Spring Ruffles and Buttons

A customer of mine emailed me interested in having a skirt and halter set to match the blue bunny hat I had made awhile back. So I took on the challenge and came up with this!


It actually really hurts to let this set go as it turned out absolutely breathtaking. Of course Xiera wants me to make her one now. I am thinking for her upcoming lalaloopsy birthday party perhaps. (Notice, the brand new exclusive only at target Cotton Hopalong mini lalaloopsy doll in hand. We just LOVE our lalaloopsys!)
The most time consuming piece of this set was the 3-tier ruffle skirt with a total of 96 buttons sewn onto the scallop trim of each tier of ruffles.

I purchased the pattern for the skirt on etsy by mytreasuredheirlooms. You can find it HERE.
The halter top features the blue bunny face on the bodice with scattered buttons that match the trim of the hat.


I purchased the pattern for the halter top from anjibeanecrochet. You can find the pattern HERE.

I also finished 2 pairs of leg warmers for 2 sweet sisters. One sister wanted lavender leg warmers accented in pink and the other sister wanted the reverse of that.

I just love how these turned out.

I also love how they are mismatched. If my girls were to pick the colors they wanted, Xiera would say she would want hers all pink and Zella would say black and white striped. Yep they are completely opposite. :)

A "Birdie" Party For My Little "Tweetie"

We finally were able to celebrate Zella's Fourth "Birdie" Party yesterday with our family and friends. We originally planned for her special day to be held on the 19th of February but Zella and I were sick with the flu. We then rescheduled it to be held last Saturday but then hubby/daddy came down with strep throat. So we rescheduled it once again for yesterday and it was a success! Third time is a charm right?
The theme for her party was birds. And even though it was a yucky rainy day outdoors, we brought early spring indoors with lots of pastel pinks, blues and yellows. Xiera and I spent most of the week cutting out birds from pretty spring designed scrap paper. We made enough to string together to create a garland of birds for decoration.

The party table had a lot of yummy treats.

Xiera and I made these delicious chocolate bird nests and marshmallow pops the night before. For the marshmallow pops, we stuck lollipop sticks into the center end of a few handfuls of large marshmallows. Next, we poured a bag of semisweet chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and melted them in the microwave. We then dipped the opposite end of a marshmallow into the melted chocolate and sprinkled them with candy sprinkles. For the final touch we added half of a jelly bean to their centers. You can use M&M's too.

We made the bird nests by mixing melted peanut butter and chocolate chips together. We then added chow mein noodles and spooned them out onto wax paper. Finally we added jelly bean eggs for the bird eggs and set them in the freezer overnight so they would be ready in time for the party the next day.

The bird nest serving tray was made out of old dishes and glasses I found at our local thrift store. I was going to glue them together but decided not to. I thought I might reuse them somehow later on.

Being a perfectionist, I didn't think the cake turned out as I had hoped. Who knew making a simple 3 layered round cake could become such a hard task? But I guess when you start on it after midnight, the morning before the party, and are sleep deprived, things can get a little wonky. I made a large chocolate bird nest to put on the top with candy coated chocolate eggs inside. The mommy bird I purchased from Party Hoppers on Etsy. She made it to match the cute birdie on Zella's invitations. Everyone at the party loved the cake and it got the birthday girl approval so that is all that matters.

I found the adorable birdie gift boxes at Oriental Trading Company. They were just too sweet to pass up.

Inside each little box was a bird whistle, little bird ornament art project, (both I found at Oriental Trading Company.) bird stickers, gummy worms (bird food), and a smiley foot ring, because honestly what is a birdie party without a smiling foot ring?

For craft time, the little guests made feathered birds. We had lots of beautiful colored plumes to chose from.
Zella loved all of her wonderful gifts she received. Xiera was there to help her little sister every step of the way. :) I think her favorites were her coloring books she got from grandma, her new A Fairy Secret Barbie, and her adorable Lalaloopsy dolly, Blossom Flowerpot.

Make a wish my sweet little princess!

Her BEAUTIFUL party hat was made by Kel of Posh Party Couture. Kel makes the BEST party hats around. We simply adore this one and plan to keep it as a keepsake on Zelly Belly's shelf. Just look at all of the detail!

Happy Birthday Zella! Even though you are 4 years old now, you will always be my sweet baby girl.