Blankets, Pillows And The Great Outdoors

My good friend Danielle over at Danielle Huddleston Photography and I have been planning this photo shoot for months now.  For one reason or another it kept getting put off.  Today was the day, and while rain in the forecast made it look like we might have to put if off again, we had perfect temperatures and partly cloudy skies.  A little more cloudy than desired but better than rain.  I can't wait to see what pictures Danielle captured, I'm really happy with how mine turned out.

The quilt used for the tent was made by my grandma as a wedding gift.  She made one queen sized quilt for each of her 5 children and 10 grandchildren.  As well as throw sized for her 11 great grand children.  Each one is machine sewn and all except the most recent little ones, have been hand quilted.  She does amazing work.

Love these shoes.  My mom found them at Children's Place last year. For $2.50!!!! We have them in size 6, 8 & 10. My mom is an amazing shopper!  Thanks again mom.

This is a favorite book of the girls.  They can also be found reading it here.

The pink lemonade was a big hit!

Thanks Danielle for all the hard work getting this shoot ready and keeping your back yard so photo friendly!

Capturing The Sweet Moments Makes Me Smile

I was checking my email this afternoon and looked over to find that my girls were sitting sweetly together in our big recliner.  So I grabbed my camera and hurried over and believe it or not they didn't take off or start fighting they got even sweeter to each other.  Little Miss Ava Grace started giving her big sister kisses which is totally funny if you're the big sister.  And yes it is afternoon and one is in her diaper and the other is still in her jammies.  Sigh, glorious Saturdays, when daddy only gets them dressed if they are going to leave the house.

Ohhhhh how I love these sweet girls.

The Show Must Go On

All sorts of things happen before a show, or during a project, but as "they" say "The show must go on".  Or in this case "The project must go on"

The girls both took turns learning from experience that you can not lean against a cardboard puppet theater.  This time I just happened to be taking pictures while it happened.  They are not in focus but they are pretty funny.  The expressions on Little Miss Ava Grace's face are priceless.

Love it.

Puppet Masters

To go with our Fox Theater we made some princess puppets.  They are made from felt and little odds and ends most of which recently came in a box from my grandma.  I did not do pictures for a full tutorial.  I was into just enjoying the project with Sweet Lily Girl then just wanted to get it done when I heard Little Miss Ava Grace waking up from her nap.  One year olds and hot glue guns do not mix.

One picture I did take was this one.  It does not have great coloring but I did want to note that this is how much space I left around Sweet Lily Girls hand.  After doing a blanket stitch around the outside of the two layers i found that it was a little more snug than desired.  I would suggest leaving more space.

I cut out all pieces before sewing or gluing anything together.  I had no pattern I just made it up as I went and had to re cut several pieces but I think they turned out really cute.

I hand stitched the two layers of white together with a blanket stitch.  Click here for a clear tutorial on how to do a blanket stitch.  Then used a hot glue gun to add the dresses, hair, crown and accessories.

"Hi. How are you today?"

We have been having so much fun with our puppets and theater.  If you ever have big enough box I highly recommend this project for you and your little one(s).

The Fox Theater

I grew up not far from Detroit, Michigan.  There is not a whole lot from that city that I would be interested in sharing here.  But while we were making our very own Fox Theater I couldn't help but laugh at the comparison to the "real" Fox Theater.

Our Fox Theater

The "Original"

Ours I think is just as GRAND don't you think?

For this project I decided to set aside my desire for things to be "beautiful" and looking how I picture in my mind.  This is a struggle for me but I find that I end up being the one doing the project as my sweet girls stand by bored watching me have all the fun. I wanted the girls to have a great time with this project and they did.  They helped with every step except using the utility knife.  I thought we'd wait a year or two or several before we turn them loose with sharp blades.

The box came from a foam mattress that we recently purchased.  Did you know they can ship a queen sized mattress in a box?  I didn't.  It was vacuum packed in plastic put in a card board "sleeve" and slid into another box.  All this packing = future crafting fun.  On delivery day I was excited for both the new mattress and the potential projects.

After the cutting process was done we did a base coat with a quart of "oops paint" that I picked up over a year ago.  I did not get pictures of this part of the process.  We were all a little to messy for me to think about touching my camera.

Next step.  The fun painting:

I let the girls choose the fabric for the curtains as well.  Sweet Lily Girl insisted that it must have flowers on it.  I didn't do anything with it besides cut it with pinking shears and duct tape it to the back.  Knowing that this is made from cardboard and that it's life span will probably not be very long I did not want to put more work into it than it is "worth".

We also made puppets.  More to come on that soon!