Hair Cuteness

Me and hair bows?  We go waayyyy back.  I love to make them and buy them.  I love to decorate Brynn's head with them at any opportunity.  It turns out that Brynn is getting to an age where bows may not be her first accessory choice.  Bummer.  So, I had to find something to keep her head adorable.  Enter the singed flower, super hot right now (giggle) and the felt rosette.  Equally as hot, just no pun to be had there.  Here we come to the part where I am unable to accept that it may just be worth it for me to purchase these items premade, rather than attempt to make them myself.  I am certain there are many, many tutorials about just these types of things, but I have some unrelenting desire to punish my crafty self and do it the hard way.  No tutorial.  Just me and some fabric.

There were a few, minor, incidents.  Not really anything to talk about.  The small fire was relatively easy to put out and my glue gun burns are healing nicely.  The repeated trips to the fabric store for yet another piece were okay too, since the material is so cheap.  BUT, the good news is, I've got it now!  And boy, did they turn out cute.  Even Brynn likes them.  Score!  We will be putting them in the goodie bags for Brynn's teammates.  She has a gymnastics meet on Sunday and we always give a little something to each of the girls after they compete.  I will try to remember to take a picture before I give them all away. 

Oh, you wanna see the ones I made for Brynn?  Here you go...

 

This one is for Valentines day.  Maybe Easter too.  It depends on the dress we get for her.  She adores headbands, and this one seems to suit her.  I wrapped the headband form in white ribbon (good luck keeping that clean, huh?), than added the felt rosettes.  I love it!

 

This one is my favorite.  My mom has worn it once and I wore it around the house the day I made it.  Brynn wore it shopping today and got lots of compliments.  i just think these are so feminine and can work for almost any age.  I'm thinking about putting a few on pin backs to add to scarves and purses.  What do you think?

I'm working on my picture taking skills. My hubby is far better at it than me, but I have improved A LOT! Scary, huh?  Thanks for looking!

Taming the Clutter: Art Binders!

My Parker.... he's an adorable child, really.  I'm not just saying that.  But my goodness.  The art messes he makes would drive even the most patient (of which I am not) mother crazy.I am so thrilled that he loves art and that he would rather draw than just about anything, but our house is a fire hazard from the sheer amount of paper he leaves laying around.  He does use both sides, so he is eco-friendly. :)

I had to come up with a plan.  I wanted something that would contain his paper and drawing supplies and was portable, as we take art stuff everywhere we go. Along came "The Art Binder".  I'm sure this idea has been thought of before and it really is simple, but it works for us.

First, I made a simple cover to slide in the front.  I also printed his name out for the side as I have plans to make one for Brynn and it will be easy for them to grab from the shelf.  The back is empty so he can slide his favorite drawing inside.  

Since I chose a 3" binder and knew it would hold 500 sheets, I hole punched an entire ream of paper (we have an electric hole punch that makes it SO much easier!) and put most of it in there.  That way I am not always being asked to refill it.

Finally, I had a lot of pencil pouches laying around, so I filled one with crayons, one with colored pencils and one with regular pencils, erasers, pens and a pencil sharpener.  I have plans to buy him some different types of drawing pencils, I just haven't made it to the store yet.  

 

Sometimes he takes the pages out to draw on, sometimes he draws right in the notebook.  The beauty is that he can keep them all together and they are not all.over.my.house.  I haven't really decided what to do with all the papers once he is done with the book.  Do I recycle them and start over, do I keep them?  If so, how?  I would love to hear your ideas!


Linking here for her "Time to Shine"party.  Check out all of the cute stuff others have posted.  Love it!