DIY Tutu!

Hi everyone!

Wow, I am on a roll with posting, aren't I?
Let's just see how long this keeps up for though, ne? ;)

Today, I'd like to share with you a tutu that I made with Ella Rose today.
It took maybe about 30 minutes, and is already a fast favorite.

The total cost was $10.47 and only required the following items:
(though the only thing I had to buy was the tulle -- scoooooore!)

- 3 rolls of 6" x 10-yard tulle (colors: white, pink, magenta -- all sparkly)
- 1 baby fabric headband
- 1 canister of Trader Joe's French Roast (or something equally cylindrical and large)
- scissors
- ruler

Now for the steps (sorry I didn't take photos!!):

1) Unroll tulle from the white roll, measure to 36" long, and cut

2) Repeat this step to all the rolls
(I didn't keep track of the number of strips this gave me, but I believe it was about 9 per roll even)

3) Stretch your baby headband around the coffee canister

4) Fold a strip of tulle in half, feed the head of it behind the headband, and loop the ends over and through it, tightening
(Your skirt will now be about 18" long -- half the length of the original 36", see? ;) )

5) Repeat all around the headband with the rest of the strips of tulle

6) Enjoy and spin around with all your heart!!

I really am happy with how easy, quick, and satisfying this project was for the both of us.
I alternated the colors as such: white --> light pink --> magenta
Going for a gradation effect ;)

And the sparkles really light up when the sun hits it.

 

Looking forward to many a puffy, shiny, sparkly day with my little Fairy Ella Rose. ♡

Well, that's all for now.
Happy Tutu-ing!!

Collapsable Solarpowered Clothing Dryer!

A.K.A. our clothesline ;)

With summer here, drying your clothes outside is the way to go in terms of energy saving, stain fighting, and adding lovely outdoor fragrance to your laundry.
But what do you do when your property is .12 acres total -- like ours? ;)


Well, when I realized that the backyard was far too tiny for one of those permanent hexagonal (?) clothesline fixtures I'd always dreamed of, I knew it was time for some creative problem-solving.
Hence the trip to the hardware store that racked up a total bill of $6 or so.

Below is a little run-down on how it came to be and what it looks like.

Supplies:
- 3 eye hooks
- 1 cleat hook
- 1 double-headed carabiner
- long rope
- two permanent poles/walls


Step 1:
Locate two sturdy poles/walls that you will give you adequate space to hang a load of laundry. And ideally in a location that gets lots of sunlight.

Step 2:
Screw an eye hook to one of the posts, high up but not so high that you can't reach a line hung from that height.

Step 3:
Attach one end of the carabiner to that same eye hook.
Tie rope to other end of the carabiner.

You'll have something like this so far (sans the bag of clothing pins)

Step 4:
Screw the second eye hook into the pole opposite the first, at the same height as the eye hook.

This is what it looks like with the rope fed through it

Step 5:
Screw the third and last eye hook into that same pole as above, approximately 3 feet below the first. Pretty much so that it is high enough off the ground to not let clothing hung from the line touch the ground, but low enough as to give the clothing hung from the line above adequate room. Like this:

Step 6:
Screw the cleat hook into the first pole (opposite it), at the same height off the ground as that last eye hook.
You get the picture? Pretty much, the three eye hooks and cleat hook, are creating a square shape, and the rope fed through them all create a sideways "U" (sorta).

Wrap that rope around tight!

 Step 7:
When the rope has been fed through the two eye hooks, and then wound tight around the cleat, you have your two-tier clothesline!

What's is nice, is that when you are not using that space for drying your laundry, simply feeding the rope back through the eye hooks, and hanging it around that first one with the carabiner frees it back up again with only some non-obtrusive hooks giving the whole thing away. ;)

So far it's been working very well, though we are considering utilizing another set of poles under our carport to double or drying load.
Well, we'll see~!

Until then, enjoy this lovely sunshine and Happy Laundering!

Ukelele Ladies and more~

Hi everybody!
I just got back from a week-long retreat to my sister's in San Jose and I am feeling refreshed and so happy to be back!
The point of my leaving was to snip the laaast lingering thread of breastfeeding Ella and I had going on. That one breastfeeding session first thing in the morning...
Don't get me wrong, it was a lovely and cozy time for us, but toward the end there it was getting a little brutal with long nails and pulling and general lack of "lovely and cozy" feelings.
So! I hopped a train to San Jose and enjoyed a week with my sis doing the following things:

- knitting!! (photos of projects done there coming soon!)

- baking, cooking, fixing up the house

- running a half marathon in the San Francisco Marathon in place of my sister! (2:20...not bad?)

- eating out at all sorts of great places! (In 'n' Out, Indian buffet, Buca di Beppo, sushiiiii~)

- listening to a lot of NPR... :)

And now I'm back to find my little girl's...really grown!!
Things she and Daddy have been up to while I'm away?

Building a kite from scratch for one!! :)
Hopefully I'll post a shot of this thing in action, because boy can it fly~!

It also turned out that there were doing a little guitar shopping, and Daddy was able to trade in one of his electrics, for two adorable Ukeleles from the Fingerboard Extension!

It's far easier for Ella Rose to handle than a regular-sized guitar, and we've had a couple fun sessions of singing to the finger-plucking goodness of the ukelele. ♡

Well!
Just wanted to pop in and give some updates.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend, and Happy Ukele-ing~!

Rainbow "Belly Dancing" Bra

Greetings, friends!
Pardon the long absence -- but life has been busy in the best kinds of ways, and I am happy to come back to my blog with a special little something to show off ;)

This little "beauty" took two (rainy) days to make and did not even require a pattern! It's just your ol' trusty dusty garter stitch (knitting every row in two straight needles) with decreasing where necessary, with my first ever i-cord to do the borders and straps!

The shells were picked up on the beach back in April when we visited Dash's father in Florida. He drilled a little hole at the top, painted the rainbow pattern on them, and then I affixed them to the bra with thread.

I suppose the rainy, dreary weather was really getting to us -- especially considering that it's mid-July for crying out loud -- hence this summery colorful piece.
But the root of its inspiration was at the Farmer's Market and Oregon Country Fair last weekend.

At the Farmer's Market, there was a demonstration put on by the Corvallis Belly Dancing Performance Guild that Ella (and Douzen!) were simply mesmerized by. That planted the seed...


And the abundance of belly dancing bras for sale at the fair only catapulted  Ella's interest to obsession. While we were drooling over some of the more creative bras, I could sense that Ella was thinking along the lines of "waaaaant", but just when I was about to say "Oh, Ella I don't think we need one of these..." Ella turned to me and proposed: "Maybe we can make one."


@_@


And so you have...well...the prototype for a belly dancing bra. At least it looks like a "bra", right?

Now to knit a pair of panties for it...if only would only agree to put something like that on! Let's just say she's taking after her Mama's nudist tendencies...

Well!
That's all for now, and happy knitting/belly dancing to you all!!

The Mantel - Spring Ver.

My, this is a belated post indeed!
In keeping with our Mantel Tradition, we've been decking it out in springtime icons -- mainly in the form of birthday cards!

That's right, Daddy's Mama's and Ella's birthdays all fall within a month of each other.
Daddy - March 28
Ella Rose - April 1
Mama - April 25

Not to mention the Easter greeting cards, thank-you notes, and baby announcements :)

All in all, a very paper-filled mantel.
When I had been looking forward to the Spring Mantel, I was envisioning more flowers and whatnot, but they would wilt so quickly...and there was barely any room for them anyway~~ {: )

June 21st, the Summer Solstice, is coming right up, at which point we'll start to furnish the Mantel for summertime. I wonder what it will look like. Probably more flowers, kept in water-filled vases this time, and hopefully some good old-fashioned handcrafted works. Strings of knit yarn and such. ;)

Well! Until then, Happy (late) Spring~!!

Two new sewing projects!

That's right, you heard it here first.
I'm actually sewing now! @_@
Sure, I've mended things in the past, and there were those bread bags back in January. But those were sloppy hand-stitched items.
Say hello to my sewing machine aided creations!!

(1) Knitting Needle Case


Using fabrics and ribbon I had hanging around, I finally got around to organizing my knitting needle collection (recently augmented by the stash inherited from my abuela) in a somewhat pretty, but definitely functional, knitting needle case :)


Don't get me wrong. I didn't come up with this pretty little thing all by myself.
I used the most wonderful tutorial from Made By Loulabelle.
If you want to make one of these yourself, I highly recommend following her tutorial with clear instructions and pretty photos to boot ;)


And before we say good-bye, to the Knitting Needle Case, here's oooone more photo:



Okay! Onto project #2...

(2) Dog Bed


Okay, so it doesn't look like much, but let me show you what's going on here:


First, that is one happy Tak'e.
But I kid. Really, look close, you'll see that this bed is comprised of three simple things:


- 2 old towels
- batting (scored for free at a garage sale!)
- and yarn scraps


Again, not my own idea, but totally right up my alley in terms of (1) frugality (2) repurposing and (3) functionality. I have the amazing Martha Stewart to thank for this one. That's right.

To recreate this in your own home, simply sew two towels to each other along 3 of their 4 sides. Then fill the pocket you've created with batting, sew shut, and then thread yarn through random areas of the bed to keep the batting in place. DONE.

And, because you haven't seen her on the blog in a while, here's little miss Ella Rose attesting to the awesomeness that is that new dog bed:


Can you feel the enthusiasm?
...

Well, that about wraps up my latest endeavor so to bid you all a good night, is Tak'e on his dog bed. :)



Take care and happy sewing!!

Happy Mother's Day -- to Kae!!

Happy Mother's Day~
To all the lovely ladies who give their lives to their families to give them the best of everything, physically and emotionally!

And to one mother I know who is the epitome of a mother who really gives her whole self to her beautiful family. My incredible friend, Kae. ♡
Between engaging darling Douzen all the time to make him one of the brightest children I know, to taking care of the household in all its realms to make it as clean and comfortable for her family, she still finds time to bake the most incredible dishes I've ever seen.
Like this beauty:


How sweet (pun!) of her to bake this masterpiece for my birthday -- patiently waiting until we were back from our trip East and settled down, and then giving it to me on Mother's Day to top it all off! :) It really made my day, to say the least. What a sweetheart! (more puns!!)

Not ten minutes after she left, I had to have a taste and look what's inside too!:


Strawberries on top and inside?! She is too good to us, I swear!

Much love to you, Kae, and many many thank-you's for the Soule Mama book too!!
Hopefully, I will be able to make something for you from the book very soon ;)

Until then, Happy Mother's Day once again and take care to all~!