30.5.11

Pretty floral hair wreaths

My fashion inspirations may seem like an odd mix to many: Gwen Stefani, Erykah Badu, Joss Stone, Queen Elizabeth I, Dita von Teese, Alexander McQueen, and Laura Ashley.

I recently added a new favorite, Audrey Kitching. She's so super cute. I love clicking through her hair pics alone.

Now check out this awesome headband tutorial from her blog. Matter of fact, Audrey is really, really into floral headbands. I am extra into large, awesome stuff to wear on one's head ever since I fell in love with Ban.do.

Remember the pretty floral wreath I made for my wedding in 1997? Or remember those fairy princess birthday tiaras I made for my cousin's birthday a few years ago?

Using our day excursion to the Renaissance Festival in Muskogee as my excuse, I worked diligently into the night making some new goodies.

Thus inspired, this time I used a soft, thick nylon baby headband for Lucy. I attached pieces of bright colored tulle and ribbons, then hot glued flowers. I tested to make sure the inside was still soft and comfy for baby girl's head as I went along. Obviously, this isn't something your baby would rock all day or all the time, but it is a great prop for a photo shoot.





Some of the flowers had wonderful little opalescent beads on the ends of their stems that looked like tiny bubbles. For safety reasons that should be obvious, I actually disassembled them and added a dab of hot glue, then slid them back into their little holes carefully. Despite all my efforts, I burned the hell out of myself...while putting the glue gun away.


For my adult version, I wanted it to be expandable and was more concerned with cuteness than comfort. I used floral wire, twisting about four pieces together to get a decent base to work on, then wrapped with floral tape, and finally with ribbon. For these wreaths, I used a sheer ivory. 

All of the supplies for today's project came from Dollar Tree, mainly because we were there procuring pirate swords. 

Anyway, Tina wanted yellow and white to match her dress, so I next cut and tied small pieces of white ribbon and tulle on the wreath, just as I did with the baby's.

Next, I selected my flowers and hot glued to high heaven. Here's the finished product.



Finally, I twisted the end of the wire into little loops to slide the ribbon through, cut two long lengths of ribbon, slid them through the little loops and applied a dab of hot glue to each end where the ribbon folds in half,  This way, the wreath is adjustable.

29.5.11

New life for ugly baby headbands

My girlfriend Taeh calls those horrid little baby headbands "brain squeezers," as pictured below:



Lucy inherited loads of them, and bless her little bald head, just looks plain silly in them. So I did what any mommy would do...I fancied them up a bit!











Get the tutorial here.

25.5.11

Pimped out baby shoes

So...I am a bit of a hoarder.

Not like the ones on TV. More like the grandma who hangs on to every coupon since 1989 kind of hoarder. I just can't throw away anything that might possibly be useful in the future, no matter how remote the possibility, so that despite the fact that we have probably two dozen pairs of infant shoes that we've either purchased or received as gifts or hand-me-downs, I've been hanging onto some of Arthur's more unisex shoes as well.


So I decided to bling them out a bit, along with a couple pairs of the more drab second-hand shoes, using glitter paint and old nail polish, seriously, and ended up with shoes suitable for a mini Katy Perry.
Here's what we've ended up with:



20.5.11

Recommitment Ceremony Prep

Here are a few pics of preparations I've made for our ceremony on Saturday. We'd originally planned a big bash at a local venue, but decided in recent months it might be best to tone it down with the new girl arriving just five weeks before. However, throwing a smaller backyard party means more work, so here's some of what we've been up to.

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We used a variety of ribbons, more "masculine" fabrics and lace


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Loads of these hearts for hanging

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Pretty paper flowers to match our papel picado:

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Paper flowers


We always like to have a big basket of dress-up clothes for the kids and grown-ups to play with (just like at a Flaming Lips show)

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You'll just have to wait and see what this is for:

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Really...more kid pics.







13.5.11

Blogger ate my boob vampire post

I wrote a really awesome, amazing post about my little boob vampire.

Blogger ate it.
And yes...I saved as I went, but blogger still ate it.

So for now, cute kid pics. I hate "Look How Freaking Cute My Kids Are Cause I Don't Have a Life" blogs, but honest to god, I don't have a life outside of breastfeeding and daydreaming about hygiene. So gratuitous family pics. Eat 'em up, YUM!














Arthur and cousin Noah at El Guapo's









Yoshimi-inspired pink robot made by our friend Cassie Angel








Arthur's Hide-and-Go-Seek fail










Artie dressed up to see Thomas the Train Live (or something like that) with his Mimo and Papi






Artie at Joe Momma's







And finally, Arthur's new favorite toy...a 25-piece Disney Clubhouse puzzle he can finish in about 20 minutes flat. What a smartie pants!