Appreciation

Sam had a wonderful year in pre-K, so I wanted to do something special for the good folks took such great care of him along the way.

First was Mrs. S, his teacher. Mrs. S is that perfect combination of warmth and enthusiasm ideally suited for teaching. And she has the patience of a saint, which helps too, especially when dealing with a classroom of 4 to 5-year-olds. So when I heard her mention that she missed having a rocking chair in her classroom -- that in all her previous classrooms at other schools she'd had one -- I knew what her gift had to be.

I watched craigslist for a sturdy, inexpensive, rocking chair. It didn't take long before this little sweetheart came up. I happily shelled out $20 and brought it home.

This finish was in great shape, so painting it almost seemed inappropriate. But I did it anyway because I wanted to personalize it. Sam picked out fabric for a new cushion ($1.50 a yard), and together we decided to paint it black to match his fun jaguar print. I used scrapbook stickers to stencil the word "delphinium" on the back.

(Here's the story behind that: When we picked out seeds for our garden in early spring, Sam was smitten with delphiniums. (Unfortunately, none of the seedlings survived long enough to make it into the ground!) I'm not sure whether it was the word or the picture that intrigued him so, but for the next several weeks he mentioned them frequently, including several times at school. Mrs. S just couldn't get enough of his 4-year-old articulation, and said the word "delphinium" would forever more remind her of him. It seemed a fitting way to sign/dedicate/customize the chair without an ostentatious inscription like "Painted by Diana!")

If you view the pictures full-size you will notice the many flaws in the finish. I used spray paint, which bubbled up in several places where I hadn't sanded well enough to get all of the old varnish off. I couldn't ever get those areas smooth, even after sanding the bubbled areas and painting again. I also had some trouble distressing the edges. I like the lightly distressed look, but I found I had a hard time deciding where and how much to distress. (All the tutorials say "where the chair would wear naturally," but I still don't know what that means, exactly.) So I did some sanding and repainting and resanding.

Still, I'm pleased with the finished results. Mrs. S was too. She actually got a little teary-eyed, and said she'd never received a present like that. When she sat down, she exclaimed "It has that perfect rocking chair creak, too!" I bashfully admitted I'd tried to fix that (with some glue and finishing nails), but she said "Oh, no. You want that sound. It's perfect background noise for nap time."

I'm really glad she liked it.

My total for this project was about $25; $20 for the chair, $1.00 for fabric, another $1.00 for the cushion insert (from inside a $1.00 Salvation Army pillow), and $3.50 for a can of spray paint.

For her teacher's aide, Mrs. Mc, I made a bag in matching jaguar fabric and a set of jungle/zoo themed jewelry.

I'll admit the jewelry set was thrown together the morning of Sam's graduation, and I had my doubts about how it was going to turn out. But in the end I really liked it. I think the mixed metals and materials work well here. As an added bonus, most of what I used was from my purchased-on-clearance/handed-down-from-other-crafters stash, so my total material cost for the jewelry set was probably about $1.00. Add that to the 50 cents worth of material for the bag, and that's a pretty affordable gift!

Mrs. Mc was a little harried when Sam gave her the gift, so we didn't get to see her open it. But I hope she likes it too. I'll have to watch for her in the fall to see if I can catch her wearing it.

Speaking of harried, the gifts for Sam's bus driver and bus aid were thrown together in a hurry too. I had planned to bake a batch of cookies to take out to the bus stop for them, but decided the night before that was too boring. What good is a batch of cookies without a cute tote to deliver them in? So pulled out some fabrics from my stash and had Sam pick two.

He ended up choosing the same prints I used to make Arabella's purse (blogged here) last month. It was cute how specific he was; the polka dot pattern was for Miss K, and the flower print was for Miss Ashley.

I made the bags, two reversible totes with ribbon closures, in record time. I was so proud of myself when I finished and had them loaded with cookies a whole TEN MINUTES before the bus was scheduled to arrive. I was just taking them outside to photograph when the bus pulled up EARLIER THAN IT HAD EVER ARRIVED in my entire year of meeting the bus. So, no photos. But you can use your imagination: same style and size as the one for Mrs. Mc, but in Arabella's pretty black and white prints, and with a pink ribbon closure. Then imagine them stuffed with cookies and pink tissue paper, and delivered flower-side-out for Miss Ashley and polka-dot-side-out for Miss K. And that's how it all went down.

Since these purses were made entirely from material that had been in the stash for years, I'm calling them free.

Rachel

Angela

Dawn

A couple months ago my friend Dawn brought me a big box of stone heart charms that had turned up as freebies at her work. No one else was taking them home, and she knew I make jewelry so she delivered the whole stash to me.

I can't tell you how much fun we've had with these. Sam loves to count and sort them by color. I love to imagine the project possibilities. So far, I've only managed to use them in one project, this set of earrings for Stephanie. But when I learned that Dawn recently had a birthday, I knew the hearts had to make a prominent appearance.

I paired turquoise hearts with shell discs for a bracelet and earring set. My photos, unfortunately, did not turn out well this time (and the camera may be permanently broken, so that doesn't bode well for future photo shoots either), but in person the set is really quite pretty. I love the movement of the bracelet. The look and feel is just perfect for summer. And luckily, there's no shortage of supplies for these babies. So there might be a set just for me sometime soon.

Party all the time

I'm way behind with posting projects, and mostly it's because I've been doing too much partying. For example, a few weeks ago my friend Tiffany organized a fun and crafty group of ladies to make and exchange baby girl hair bows. I'll admit I'm not a make-a-million-of-the-same-thing kind of crafter, but I powered through and made these beaded flower clips.

They came together pretty quickly and I'm happy with how they turned out. But I'm even more happy with the stash I brought home.

One of each of these babies. (Picture stolen from Tiffany.) Pretty sweet haul!

Speaking of sweet, here's Grace modeling one of the pretty daisy clips made by my good friend Angela. Unfortunately, Grace is not as keen cranial ornamentation as I am, and most of our hairdressing sessions end like this:

But still, it's cute while it lasts.

In other party news, there's been a epidemic of little girls having birthdays. I tried out this pattern for adorable little girl purses and came up with this for my sweet three-year-old friend Arabella.

I wanted it to be reversible, and have a button closure, and be equally cute on both sides. And since I'm not very good at planning ahead when it comes to three-dimensional inside-out construction, there was some trial and error. I spent some time with the seam ripper. But in the end I loved how it turned out enough that I considered (very briefly) keeping it for myself, and then (more seriously) making a big-girl version of my very own.

Sharp-eyed observers will note that the ribboned ornamentation on the polka-dot side of the purse is one of the hairbows I brought home from the exchange a couple weeks ago (see photo above), made by none other than the hostess, Tiffany. I felt kind of weird including someone else's craft with my gift, but it matched so perfectly -- entirely by coincidence! -- that I had to include it. Besides, my chances of ever getting it to stay in Grace's hair were slim, so it might as well belong to another little girl who might actually wear it.

And then (I know I'm stretching my credibility here, but it's true!) it happened again! I made another little bag for another little three-year-old which happened to match another bow from the exchange.

See? Look!
This one went to Ella, who shared her birthday with four-year-old Alison (green purse) and five-year-old Caroline (black and pink).


Alison's purse is embelished with a wire-wrapped star. Her mother, Angela (of the pink daisy Grace is wearing above), made a necklace at one of my jewelry parties using one of these stars, and I knew that Alison loved it. I thought for her birthday she could have one of her own.

The embellishment on Caroline's is another hair clip, but this time it's one I made myself. The black and white disk was from a package of pre-made yo-yos I purchased at the infamous JoAnn Fabric Closeout Sale. The pink yo-yo I made myself -- my first ever! -- and then I sewed it all together with a button and glued on some fancy feathers. It's almost my favorite part of the bag. Except for the handles, maybe. I really like the double handle version, I've decided.

Here's the reverse on all three.

(In the background, right behind the garden hose, you'll see a little sneak peek of the backyard patio I coerced my sweet husband into building for me. More photos will be coming soon!) The only other thing I have to mention about these purses is that my almost five-year-old Sam is the one who assigned the purses to each birthday girl, and if you knew these birthday girls, you'd be amazed at how accurately he pegged their personalities. As always, this boy is frighteningly good with the ladies.

The last party in my circuit was this morning, a baby shower for my friend Briste. I used this pattern, created by the crafty host of Homespun Threads to make her a trio of baby shoes. The shoes turned out pretty cute, despite a several maddening blunders and way too much time with the seam ripper. But now that I've made three sets, I think I have the process down.

Only, I don't have all my processes down, obviously, because in my rush to make it to the shower on time (I was still late!) I forgot to take pictures. So until next week, when I make some more for my friend Rozannah, (shhh! Don't tell.) you'll just have to use your imagination.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This set of bibs is for my friend Rabecca's adorable new baby, Samuel.

Rabecca is a librarian, and I knew she loved Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My initial plan was to applique a onesie similar to this one I've seen around. But when I stopped to buy a pack of onesies, I couldn't find any plain ones. I'd already exhausted my 2-year-old's patience with errands that day, so I decided to just make do with whatever I had at home. As it turned out, I ended up completing this project 100% from the stash. In fact, some of those scraps have been in my pile for over a decade! There's something really satisfying in that.

Throughout the process of making these bibs, I fell in and out of love with them several times. There are many flaws. I spent way too much time fighting with the snaps. I should have done ties. And I'm not sure how I feel about the the zig zag borders. But I love how the appliques themselves turned out. I do wish I'd been able to do a full set of seven bibs for each of the hungry caterpillar's hungry days. But abundant as my stash is, I didn't have any purple fabric for plums. And I'll admit it was laziness that kept me from tackling the day when the caterpillar eats chocolate cake, a cupcake, sausage, a pickle, cheese, salami, and a whole watermelon. (Among other things.) Maybe next time.

I used a bib template I found here, and based the apples, pears and leaves on some clip art from here.


***
Edited to correct my spelling of "caterpillar" every single time I typed it. And to join Kimba's DIY party. Go see some seriously cool stuff right here. Go. Go!

The Amber Collection

My friend Amber had a birthday several weeks ago. She tried to keep it a secret, but I have my ways of collecting information. (That is, I overheard someone else telling her "happy birthday.") But even if I'd know about her birthday months ago, her gift would probably still be several weeks late, cause that's how I roll.

Anyway, I'm all about interchangeable jewels these days, so I wanted to make an amber-themed set of mix and match earrings and pendants. I think I pushed the bounds of Amber's style with the long green dangles, but I bet she'll wear them anyway just to humor me. She's great that way. (For example, I photographed these in Amber's own back yard while she was inside making me dinner.) I do like the bicone cluster set especially though, and I think that suits Amber's personality. Plus, I bought the beads for the baby bracelets for her sweet little girls a couple months ago, but didn't end up using them. It seems fitting that they end up in Amber's jewelry box somehow.

I want it

I'm not really blog stalking, because I know her and she knows me and all that. But she doesn't necessarily know that I read her blog every single day even though it means I have to wipe up puddles of envious drool afterward. She's just so freaking fabulous, funny, and creative.

That's Cally.

And this is the bag I want.
What's that? You want it too? Then maybe you should go over there and tell her so. (Even though for my sake I'd prefer you don't. Because I want it.)

Rozannah

It's an earring wardrobe! Rozannah's new to the world of pierced earrings, so I thought she might appreciate a variety pack.

I only had ear wires in one size, so I had to do some creative bending to give the set more variety. Again, my wire work is not perfect, but good enough. But it's the dangles that are the most fun. I really had a good time coming up with baubles to dangle, and ran out of time before I ran out of ideas. Expect more interchangeable sets to come.

(Also, for some reason this photo looks out of focus when it's small, but is just fine full size. Why is that? I have no idea.)

Orion

It's one thing to declare a moratorium on gift buying when your gift list includes mostly trendy young moms and their soon-to-be born babies. Five-year-old boys are a little trickier, however, as they don't have quite the same appreciation for buttons, ruffles and beads. Which is why I almost took Sam to the store and let him pick out a toy to take to Orion's fifth birthday party. But I just couldn't do it. Moratorium or not, as a mom, I'm sick of toys toys toys everywhere, just lying around waiting to get stepped on and broken. And I didn't think Orion needed one more piece of flimsy plastic any more than Sam does.

So I enlarged the pattern for the tie applique I found here, sewed it to an inexpensive kids' undershirt, and added a pair of matching pj pants. This set will never make Amazon's "Ultimate Gift List for a Five-Year-Old Boy," and I'm sure a Shrek 2 Rotten Root Canal Play-Doh Play Set would have been more fun to open. But Orion's mom was happy. So I am too.

Abygail

Stephanie II

Another attempt at bending my own earwires. They're not perfect, but I think Steph likes them anyway. And I resisted the urge to slip in a note reminding her "it's the thought that counts." It's true, of course. It is the thought that counts. (The thought I was going for: You'll be missed.)

Once Coach wrote me a love essay. He quoted R.W. Emerson, who said: "Jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself... it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith’s."*

I'll admit I kind of like the irony of turning Emerson's statement on its head by giving jewels that are a portion of myself. But more than that, I like the underlying sentiment, that something from me is better than something from a store, even though that something from me is not ever perfect. It's fitting, really, because neither am I.





*From Essays and English Traits, XIII Gifts, quoted here.

Applique

Due to recent crafty indulgences at a Jo Ann fabric store that went out of business, I'm not allowed to buy any gifts for a while. I have to make them all.

But don't worry! My pockets are shallow, but my stash is deep.

So anyway, this is probably cheating, but after I made this little baby shower gift for my friend Sheena, I stumbled upon the Five Dollar Challenge, sponsored by the craftabulous Lindsay. And although this is not decorative item for the home, per se, I totally followed all the other rules. Accidentally, of course.

I found a stack of heavyweight Hanes sweats and t-shirts at my local Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. I could tell the batch was full of "irregulars," and a lot of the clothing had visible flaws. But I parked myself on the floor like any persistent dollar shopper does, and sorted through that stack until I'd found a couple baby t-shirts and a pair of baby sweatpants that looked perfect.

I brought them home, dug out some fabric, buttons and embroidery floss from my stash, and got to it. (My inspiration for the dragonfly design came from a project featured in this book.) I can point out lots of flaws (puckered stitching, messy seams), but I still like the end result. And with any luck, so will Sheena's baby.

Total spent: $2.00

And as long as you're still here, I might as well show you the little shirt I made for Stephanie's baby boy. (I also made matching pajama pants and a burp cloth in the firetruck flannel, but I didn't include those in the photo. Why? Because I'm an idiot.)

This one only cost $1.00, because I made the (invisible) pants myself.

You can't tell this from the photo, but my favorite part is that the dog's ear is fuzzy. Like a dog's ear. Here look.

Yeah, there's some genuine dog hair stuck to that shirt too. I didn't include that in my cost breakdown, cause my dog gives it away for free.

Mom

I made this necklace for my mom last summer, and only got around to photographing it last weekend. She wears it often, and says she gets lots of compliments. I'm still a little bothered by the way it hangs -- the links get twisted and keep it from laying flat. But I really like the colors and the concept, and I have to admit it really does look great in the sunlight.

Maybe that's all I need: more sunlight around here.

Kashann

When I'm making gifts for friends, I always try to think of that woman's personal style and make something that fits. Sometimes, though, when I like a piece a lot, it's hard to tell if I've hit her style, or just my style. These blue dangles, for example. I love them. They remind me of the smooth glass pebbles my sisters and I used to pick up on the shores of Lake Erie. I remember being disappointed when I discovered the pebbles lost their shine when dry. We experimented with ways to keep them shiny, but mostly we ended up with jars of wet, stinky rocks, which were eventually discarded. But wet or dry, these stones don't lose their luster.

Anyway, I want to make a set for myself. But would that be cheating -- to give a one-of-a-kind made-just-for-you gift and then copy it? I can't decide.

It is always interesting to see what people prefer. I happened to give these to Kashann when she was at my house for a jewelry party last week. The brown disks (left over from Kristie's necklace) seemed to be a group favorite. Angela gushed over the clear glass. And I love the blue set (as previously mentioned). Individual taste seems surprising and predictable all at the same time. It's like, it's hard to say ahead of time "that's exactly her style" (although I try to do just that), but when she says herself "that's exactly my style" I can say, "you're absolutely right."

So anyway, I hope I've captured Kashann's style here. Or close enough anyway. I loved this project because it went together so quickly (yay earrings!), but still looks so pretty.