We had another birthday party to go to today. My friend Haikumama’s daughter is three today! We got her this Green Toys Indoor Gardening set. I love this set, because the plants really grow well. My daughter, C received it for her birthday. It was great fun for her to watch the plants grow a little bit each day.
I decided I wanted to continue the garden theme for the wrapping paper. My five-year old daughter, C and I created this easy-to-make tissue paper flower bouquet.
We started with some very roughly cut tissue circles. We used old tissue paper that had been salvaged from presents and was languishing in the bottom of the wrapping bin.

We made the flowers each with two tissue paper circles and a pom pom. The pom poms came from the Target $1 bin.

We used white glue to glue down the tissue circles in pairs. I had to use the glue gun to secure the pom pom centers. After each center was dry, we crinkled the “petals” on each flower. I also used the glue gun for the grosgrain ribbon stems. I was going to cut the stems flush with the edge of the box, but decided I like the effect of having them hang off slightly. I think this would be a good design for a wedding shower or baby shower gift too.
Happy Birthday G! You are the sweetest!

 Average Jane Crafter’s mad-for-Legos son had a Lego-themed birthday party this weekend.  My kids and I wanted to do something special to wrap his presents.  I am never happy with the choices for buying wrapping paper at the store.  I prefer plain paper that I can decorate myself.  We used brown wrapping paper, Crayola poster paints, and Duplo Legos to make this printed paper.  In order to make the print, we first put paint on the top of the lego to make the circle print.  To make the block portion of the print, we flipped the Lego over and printed the outer square “on top” of the circles. 

Square Lego Print Side

Circle Lego Print Side

Lego-wrapped Legos!

My son made a short video how-to.

I can’t stop making skirts. I made this one a little shorter than the last.  I started sewing late and ended up with the kids asleep in their sleeping bags, not far from the machine.  I am a little bit in love with this mod, floral fabric from JoAnn’s.

When I looked at something with a bias tape edge, I assumed it would require a super human amount of dexterity and the ability to sew an exactly straight line.  Fortunately, neither of those were the case.  I made this fantastic wrap skirt in a  Stitch Lab class.  It reminds me a little of something, Kitty, the mom on That 70’s Show would wear.  The class was taught by Becky Joiner of bj and the neil. Becky is a great, natural teacher.  She explained things very clearly, and was very patient and encouraging.  I can’t wait to take another class from her.

I have finally taken enough sewing classes that I am feeling more confident with my sewing machine.  I love this simple pattern from Oliver + S.  The pattern, Lazy Days Skirt, is a freebie from their blog. I am going to make a bunch of these for the girls for summer and school in the fall, when it will still be so hot here. There is an awesome flickr group of pictures of pieces people have made with Oliver + S patterns.  The group is great to look through for inspiration.

On Tuesday we headed out to the release party for Rick Riordan’s final book in the Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian. H had a great time with his friends at the BookPeople event.  He climbed to the top of the climbing wall, posed in a chariot with a gold sword, and went into battle! Now we are looking forward to his session of Camp Half-Blood this summer.