oven mitt hand puppet

A few weeks ago when I was making Monkey and Crocodile finger puppet sets (get your template HERE), I also made this guy:

It was supposed to be a crocodile, but looks more like a demented dragon to me.  I almost considered it a craft fail, but my kids LOVE him ... so there you go.  He'd look more like a crocodile with some eye bumps, I think.  And we'd have to do something about those teeth.  Hmm.

Anyway, I used Melanie's Oven Mitt Pattern from The Crafty Cupboard (a great pattern - I used it often this past Christmas for kitchen-themed gifts).

The green, brown, and orange-red fabrics are all jersey, and the teeth and eyes are made of white felt.  I fused a layer of fusible fleece interfacing to the green jersey and brown to give the body a little more stability.  And obviously, I cut the top pattern piece in half to add those pointy scales up the middle.

He is good for munching monkeys,

and little girls.

Hope you are all having a good week!  We've been playing non-stop with visiting family recently, and I had the sudden realization that I am moving in like two weeks.  Yikes.  Better get to work!  So if I am not around as much at the beginning of August, now you know why.  :)

serger scraps hair clip

Remember those beautiful serger scraps I posted last week?

The hoarder in me couldn't bear to throw them out right away, so they sat in a pile on my kitchen table for several days.  Late one night while I was baking cake layers, I wound them up as you would make a yarn pom pom (just not quite as dense), tied it off at the center, trimmed up the resulting puff, and hot glued it to a hair clip.  So easy, and it was a perfect match to the rainbow dress (since that's where the scraps came from, of course).

rainbow birthday party!

Rainbow parties are super fun!  It was totally overboard for a 1-year-old party, but we combined with Ruby's cousin, Violet, and the rainbow theme was so fun, and let's be honest ... I just got carried away.  :)

We had a blast with our rainbow treats and rainbow outfits and rainbow decorations.  It resulted in two very happy birthday girls.

 See the girl's rainbow dresses posted here, and directions to make a lickety-split birthday crown here.

I couldn't have pulled it off without my in-laws ... the sister-in-laws were enthusiastic decorators, and grandma and grandpa were the grill masters, whipping up a delicious BBQ dinner.  Thanks, guys!

The decorations were fairly simple.  We made a streamer canopy inside the shade tent, hung paper lanterns (remember them from my spring Relief Society activity?), and a watch-me-grow birthday banner.  I really liked the rainbow circle garland I saw at Sweet and Lovely Crafts, so I made a smaller version.  The dots were punched out of rainbow colored card stock using a 1-inch scalloped circle punch, and sewn together on the sewing machine.  Easy, peasy.

The bean bag toss was fun for the kids.  There was no formal game or prizes ... it was just out for fun.  I got the idea from born.in.japan, and just ran with it.  If you are in the Santa Barbara area and want a (free) lovingly handmade bean bag toss board, email me!  I have no space to store it.

I also used some toys we already had as entertainment:  a tunnel to climb through, a kid's play parachute, and all the rainbow baby toys I could round up for a little baby zone in the shade.  

There were jars of crayons on the table with cute rainbow coloring pages (courtesy of Style Me Gorgeous) for anyone interested in coloring.

I didn't do an over-the-top dessert table that are so popular these days, but there were plenty of goodies to go around.

My big splurge for the party was this rainbow popcorn, to go into those beautifully cut rainbow popcorn boxes.  I ordered it online from Sakida.  It was tasty, but if I had to do it again, I would have tried to make it myself.  Just be warned - the shipping is atrocious (which I did not know until I received my invoice - ouch).  It sure looked pretty though.

A much bigger hit with the crowd was the layered rainbow jello.   It was kind of beautiful, and delicious!  Get the recipe at Glorious Treats.  I have an aversion to Cool Whip, so I substituted vanilla yogurt and it was really yummy.  Two tablespoons of each layer is just enough to fill a clear 8-ounce plastic cup.

Of course, you can't have a rainbow birthday party without doing THE rainbow cake.

I wanted it to be the real deal, so I went directly to the source - Whisk Kid.  She may or may not have been the first person ever to make a rainbow cake, but she certainly started the internet sensation.  Whisk Kid's cake recipe was the perfect amount for a 6 layer cake.   I used my go-to Wilton Buttercream Icing recipe for the frosting.

The reaction from the party-goers when I cut into this cake made the effort of baking it so worth it.  It tasted great, too!  Ruby was supposed to have her own little cake, but I had a gluten-free baking fail.  So she ended up with gluten free cupcake from Santa Barbara's most delicious bakery, Jeanine's, and she devoured it with gusto.

I sent our little guests away with some gold coins (idea found at the blog, it is what it is) - as you know, there is always gold at the end of a rainbow (party).  Bulk gold coins found at Smart & Final.

As my nephew frequently reminded me, "Jill has gone rainbow crazy!"  It was such a fun day, and while I know Ruby won't remember it when she is older, she can look at pictures of this party and know her mama really loves her.

rainbow birthday dresses

Birthday girls deserve special birthday outfits, don't you think?

Both dresses were made using Lil Blue Boo's Sienna Dress pattern.   Ruby's dress goes red to purple:

 and Violet's dress goes purple to red:

The fabric for the dresses came from t-shirts, and the number is appliqued.  I divided the skirt pattern piece into 4 to make the stripes and didn't add extra seam allowance (dumb, dumb, dumb), so the dresses came out a little short.  Nothing leggings or bloomers can't fix!

We are partying this weekend, so I'll have more to share next week of everything put together.  Hope you are not too sick of rainbows yet.  :)

rainbow bean bag toss

As I was gluing a bazillion 1-inch punched paper rainbow dots to Ruby's bean bag toss board yesterday, I realized about 3/4 of the way through that a similar effect could have been achieved much more easily with some pretty wrapping paper.  Duh.  Motherhood may have melted my brain, but apparently has boosted my patience.

At least bean bags are fast and easy to make!

rainbow popcorn boxes

I've been getting cozy with my Silhouette this week - cut, cut, cut.   About two weeks ago, I went to their digital download store to see if they had a popcorn box shape.  Imagine my surprise when it was the free shape of the week!  How fortuitous. 

I re-sized the template and arranged it so I could fit all the pieces on one page.  Then I cut ... and cut ... and cut ... and started gluing.

This morning I finished my stack:
 

Can't wait to show you what is going inside!  If only the FedEx guy would hurry up.

rainbows galore

Rainbow birthday party prep is in full swing at my place, so the apartment is looking a little ... colorful (meaning scraps and threads and cardstock covering every inch of space).

Not sure that it is healthy to have a favorite pile of serger scraps, but if it was, this would be mine:

One thing I did to save time (and money) was to use an e-vite to the party.  I've never been a huge fan of them, but am recently converted to Paperless Post.   They have a beautiful selection of letterpressed stationery that you can customize and send out digitally.  It even comes delivered (to your inbox) in an envelope!  How's that for cute.

Paperless Post is not totally free, because you do have to buy "stamps" to send them out, but it is really well-priced.  They gave me a bunch of stamps and coins (used for designer cards and special customizations like an envelope liner) just for signing up, so my e-vite for this party was free.  Can't beat that!  Here's what I chose for the party:

p.s. Paperless Post is not sponsoring this post - I just like them!

happy birthday, ruby!

My sweet and saucy Ruby turns one year old today.  I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!

One of Ruby's very favorite activities is singing the Monkey and Crocodile song.  She thinks it is hysterical and bops along to the song, giggling and grinning.

For her birthday, I made a set of monkey and crocodile finger puppets, and I'd also like to share the template with you.  Get the monkey and crocodile finger puppet template HERE.

If you are not familiar with the song, here is a copy of the text, as we sing it:

We are doing some light birthday celebrations today, but the big shindig is next weekend when we have family in town.  We are doing a double party for Ruby and her cousin, Violet, complete with a festive rainbow theme.  Lots of details to come later.

Happy birthday, Ruby!  I love you.

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Fourth of July Playdate Dress

Happy Fourth of July!  If you are celebrating with us here in the U.S., I hope you have barbeques and fireworks on your agenda today. 

Over the weekend, I whipped up the Playdate Dress from Craftiness is Not Optional.  Jess is a blogging all-star and is constantly putting out free tutorials and patterns for super cute girls clothes.

I didn't deviate from Jess's pattern at all, and though it is sized 2T, it was a perfect fit for my behemoth 1 year old.  Ruby isn't quite walking, so I made the dress super short (nothing frustrates her more than getting her knees caught up in a dress) and paired it with some matching zig zag bloomers using Dana's Perfect Diaper Cover tutorial.

It was such an easy sew and looks really cute, so I foresee many more playdate dresses in Ruby's wardrobe.

Just for fun, here's a photo of a neighbor's patriotic dog statue:

Wouldn't it be fun if we all had that level of enthusiasm for the holidays?  :)