~singing bowl resting pillow~

 Bought this beautiful singing bowl

as a birthday present for a good friend of mine.

Have you ever heard a singing bowl?

They can be used for meditation or healing

and they make such a beautiful sound. 

You rub a dowel along the edge of the bowl

and it makes music....a sound that's indescribable. 

Almost hypnotic.

When I was at the store buying it, I noticed they

had them displayed on pillows. I knew right

away this was how I could put my 

personalized touch into this store bought gift.

With a little swatch of velvet fabric and some findings 

in my jewelry making supplies I came up with this:

 I put the jewels in the center to button tuck the pillow

so it would sit level and not roll off. 

 I thought the contrasting color really makes

the color and beauty of the bowl stand out

while it's resting on the pillow.

Here's to a year of peace and beauty Lyns...

a beautiful gift for a beautiful soul and a beautiful friend :)

~inspiration and a pirate party~

In preparation for the Momma 

makeover I'm going to do in January,

I've been browsing Pinterest and other

blogs for ideas and inspiration.

There is some AMAZING stuff out there!

-BUT-
...it seems like the more I look at, the more I
lose my own insight and inspiration. 
I need to lay off the Internet for a bit and
get back to the basics.....
-my dress form
-my sewing machine
-my style, ideas and creativity

I want to hurry and finish all my Christmas projects
so I can start with the fun stuff :)
(can you tell I've had enough of kids stuff for awhile?)

SO...that being said,
let me show you the pirate party we had for my
little guy based SOLELY on other people's
ideas I found off the Internet.


These first pics are of the main table for the 
kids to sit at:

disclaimer: my pics are NOT good.

I was scrambling before the party to get them.

I decorated the living room too.....

didn't get any pics other than this: 

 We did a treasure hunt outside with the kids.
At each station we did a game after which they 
received a little piece that slowly transformed them
into a pirate (i.e. hat, patch, earring, etc.) 
We tried to decorate the deck like a ship
and I only took one picture of it....
and the picture is NOT good but I'll share it anyway.

 After the treasure hunt we came back inside to 
do presents and cake and ice cream.

 The work was worth it....
the kids all had a great time
and our little guy will be talking
about it for a long time.
Which is a good thing because it's 
going to be awhile before we do another
one of these.
At least one of this magnitude.
:)

~personalized cupcake toppers~

My little lady turned 1 a couple days ago.

I can't believe it. 

WOW....that year flew by!

For her birthday I decided to make cupcakes

for everyone instead of a cake.

I thought about buying some cute cupcake

toppers but got a great idea to make 

some with the pictures I've been taking of 

her at each month mark.

I loved the way they turned out

and everyone had fun looking at them.

 

 I know the pictures aren't the greatest but

I think you get the idea. 

To make them I printed up the pictures,

cut them out and then just used clear packing tape

to cover and attach them to the toothpick. 

For the rest of the toppers I tied ribbons around

the top of the toothpicks and called it good.

 

I learn so much with each party I have for the kids.

What I learned from this one:

cupcakes would have photographed better if

they were lined up on something flat instead.

Also-don't wait until the last minute to get things done.

Have it done before the actual birthday so I can 

enjoy the birthday with them :)

This week my mind is on one thing:

Pirate Party.

My little guy's birthday party is in one week

and I have A TON of stuff to do. I want to get it

finished within the next few days so I'm not scrambling

at the last minute and stressed out. 

I have found some super cute ideas.

I just got introduced to Pinterest.

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?

I love it!

Now if I could just figure out how to use it.

Linking up with Positively Splendid.

~birthday banner-Tim Gunn style~

Remember the list of projects I told you about

the other day? I decided to start off with the

easiest project......the birthday banner.

It turned out adorable!

I totally winged it.

I didn't take pics during the process because

I figured it's pretty self explanatory.

Pretty easy and IMPOSSIBLE to screw up.....RIGHT?

WRONG!

The process of getting it to this final result was 

not as easy as it would have been if I'd given

it a little thought before I dived (is this a word?) 

into it. Maybe I should have researched and

read some tutorials about them eh?

Anyway-I cut the triangle flags out with a pattern

I made out of a piece of paper. 

I used fabric scraps I had on hand here.

The letters are from a cardboard birthday banner that

I have been using for years to decorate with.

I cut the letters out and painted over

them with some Martha Stewart acrylic glitter paint.

Next, I sewed the letters onto the flags.

I decided to use a piece of thick, gigantic rick-rack

to sew the flags onto. 

I folded it in half and started with the center flag

and worked my way out, pinning the flags to the rick-rack.

Last step was to sew the flags onto the rick-rack.

I finished it late Thursday night and was

excited to hang it up and show my son Friday morning,

as we had been working on it together and talking about it.

Well-I hang it up and soon realize,

"CRAP! This sucker is huge!"

I forgot to measure the space I would be hanging it in.

I normally would hang it in my bay window above 

my dining room table. Well-I tried that and it 

swooped down to the floor.

(sorry-no pic)

I thought to myself,

"Well-I'll try it on my main living room wall."

This is what it looked like on that:

Not the look I was going for.

B-A-D......BAD!

So....in true Tim Gunn fashion I

was faced with a "make it work" moment.

I didn't want to take the time to unpick

the flags and cut the rick-rack smaller so I decided

instead to do a gathering stitch on the part

of the flags that lay behind the rick-rack.

Like this:

(Wow....this is a really bad picture....sorry.

You get the idea right?)

Notice my stubby fingernails.

Projects such as this make me chew my nails :(

After I adjusted the gathers across the 

entire banner I LOVED the result.

I think it gives it a happier vibe and 

it's different than any I have seen around.

It fits perfectly in the bay window

and I can't wait for our birthdays to roll around

so I can hang it up.

The banner was easily fixed......

my nails on the other hand

will take a couple weeks. 

OUCH!