Sara In Akko

How do you throw an entirely successful "Very Hungry Caterpillar" 1st birthday party when you are either on a budget or live in a nation with no caterpillar party accessories in sight?
Very Hungry Caterpillar party idea are pretty easy to come by after a few dozen searches. So if your setting out to craft the bajeebeez out of your child's birthday, you're in good company.

All envelope and invitation formatting was achieved through a process of what can only be described as "futzing."

I remember the excitement of new school supplies. The fresh notebooks, the perfect folders and does anyone have a soft spot for Lisa Frank TrapperKeepers?

My oldest began first grade today, proud as pie of her new backpack (nobody in a school of a few hundred girls has one like hers), super stocked about her pencil case and the only caveat is that all her notebooks, folders, pencils must be standard blah blah blah.

She goes to a school that has asked parents to buy brown paper notebooks, clear covers, yellow #2 pencils and white erasers. No distracting stickers, please! I've never encountered a list that killed the joy of school supplies so thoroughly.

I stuck to the letter of the law when buying her supplies, somehow knowing in the back of my mind that she will come home today and ask why she was the only girl in the entire school with blank and joyless supplies.  No way my motherly cohorts will resist the temptation of colorful store-bought vigor for back to school. I feel it in my bones that no other mother fears pissing off the teacher in the way that I do, but I also know that I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Of all of the many directions given for supply purchases, the ringed binder did not come with a list of instructions, here's your instructions crazy rigid school supply list!

Tutorial for the best damn homemade fabric covered binder in this school.

Materials:
1 cheap ringed binder
1 fat quarter
felt scrap
fabric flower pattern
random trimming scraps
needle and thread


Measure out the size of your binder when it lays folded and begin folding the edges of your fabric over the top, just as you would if covering a book with a paper-bag. I used packing tape to hold the edges before securing with embroidery thread.

I'm not sure what it is that compels me to make my kid's costume instead of buying them. It just goes against my DIY nature. Also, I'm fairly sure I never had a store bought costume in my lifetime.

So here's the princess dress made entirely out of T-shirts.

My personal key ring has just undergone some major work-related changes


My key ring used to be simple (really simple) but now  it looks like that big old set of janitor keys hanging around some dude's belt. Despite the fact that they are heavy and jingle and slow me down when I'm on the go, I actually do need a surprising amount of these keys on a constant basis now and am forced to find a way to hold them along with all the other junk I tote around at work.



The tutorials online abound for this sort of project but as I only have this hardware on hand the project looks something like this:

Find heavy scrap of fabric, sew tube inside out and turn to right side, top stitch into a hand-sized loop. Attach to key ring and top stitch to reinforce. Easily find your less hideous keyring in style.


The close observer may also notice that this is the same scrap of fabric which I used to make my pinch close coin purse that holds my daily travel fare. So now it's a matching set. Find the tutorial of the coin purse remake here.

Next office preparedness craft is a true essential for your desk or purse, not to be missed.

I've recently rejoined the drudgery of the work-a-day, cubicle monkey world.

In actuality, I have a very nice private office and a predecessor who has graciously stayed on to train me as well as tidy the place before she throws me to the deep end. There's a full-sized fridge in my small department's kitchen and nobody has taken my food by mistake so far. Win, win, win on all fronts.

But I have never had an office so organized, so sterile and so in need of personalization. All
others had files and folders stacked to the ceiling, probably to hold up the walls up (non-profit charm). So while I still have clean office smell on my brain, I will be devoting the coming week to preparing myself and my office to co-habitate in style with a few simple office related projects.

Today's tutorial: ID Badge Holder that isn't gross! No, really! Not even a lanyard.

Materials:
Old "pearl" necklace or a few pearl beads- anything you have a dozen of
A bit of scrap ribbon, suede cord or necklace chain
A fabric flower-one you've prepared from chiffon scraps, purchased or re-purposed
Needle, thread, some basic jewelry findings.

Step 1). Grab your supplies


Step 2). String pearls, attach to ribbon, attach flower and pin your ID badge to the side.

I pulled this photo of a possible necklace remake a mere month ago from the Anthropologie online catalog but it has already been overpriced, marked down, clearanced and pushed aside. Time to make my own.

Even if you aren't a die-hard Martha fan, you're going to want to catch her and Joan Rivers crafting together. It's just that good!



Take a minute to process that; remake Marc Jacobs with felt and a glue gun?

I'm no fashionista, but as a sister to and mother of  2 girls with the fancy gene I can tell you that this is probably wrong. And yet, it's sooo right.This purse was made to be remade.

But I'm not entirely in love with the results of this craft session gone astray.


Step 1). If you have some spare pleather lying around in fanciful colors you can start by crafting yourself a basic clutch, any size and shape you like will work. I found this great turquoise purse for about $2. Cutting apart an old purse saves you the trouble of finding the zippers and other important purse parts.

If you're crafting your own clutch from scratch, skip to the bottom, otherwise stay with me.

*Tip: I mix paint when I've finished with one batch of hearts by adding the new paint to my original color. This keeps your hearts mostly within the same color family or tone so everything is well coordinated.

I have lamented before, but if you are new here you should know that my child is a "fancy" child. I'm learning to work with it.

After seeing a small strip of rainbow ribbon I'd been storing away in the stash, my 4 year old became wide eyed and full of delight.




Lo and behold, it was true. "Fancy Nancy, Every Day is Earth Day," features Nancy (or Mancy as she is known to us) with a rainbow headband. The kid already saw the supplies, how could her mother not agree to make one for her?


 Step 1). Draw a cloud shape and cut two from white felt.

Step 2). With white thread, stitch around the outside of your clouds.

Step 3). Draw interlocking hearts on one side of your clouds, break out the rainbow thread and start embroidering your pattern. Set aside for about 2 minutes to make headband.

Step 4). Measure your head to make sure it isn't much larger or smaller than my measurements. Press ends of ribbon about an inch (give or take) turning inward, *secure the elastic so that the final measurement of the headband will allow it to fit snugly on your head. Secure your embroidered cloud to side of headband.

*the elastic only peeks out a few inches at the bottom but should be strong enough to keep your hair back and the ribbon on your head.

You may not be aware, but Valentines day is actually totally foreign here in Israel. As a rule, you can usually count on most St. anything days being out. Some people might have a growing awareness that it's a big deal elsewhere, but culturally it just misses the mark.

Even though I grew up in the US distributing my handfuls of store bought, tear apart valentines with matching stickers, my children won't be receiving the same childhood memories. No classrooms decked out in cupids and hearts or the big sugary parties with the classroom moms. It's just not what goes on around here and I'm Ok with that.

BUT, there are so many great Valentines day crafts that have been circulating the blog world recently, I'm starting to get a creative itch for some projects that, although heart-based and adorable, but not overly Valentine-ish.

I've always loved simple softie making patterns, and this is a perfect one from LollyChops 
who created and shared this excellent pattern and step-by step tutorial about a year ago for a sweet Hedgehog named Hamie. Go check it out!

To get over my "heart ache" (sorry) my matching hedgies have bright colored hearts.



This is a great quick project and the outcome is so terribly cute, it's worth all of the tiny cutting to make the furry bits. Originally, all the tiny hearts were larger scraps so it was great to be able to plow through a bit of that left over to remake something adorable.

I'm a fan of plain muslin for dolls and softies, it's like a blank canvas for your imagination. Even if you're the biggest fan of February 14th, this hedgehog would rock any way you craft it up.