kalidarling (monster-ously cute)

April Giveaway!

Beach season is right around the corner. Are you ready? Wait... you're not?! Don't worry, I can help!

This month's giveaway is for a super cute modded beach towel! An ordinary pink and white beach towel was given a little sass with a zebra print terry cloth pocket, jeweled button closures and pink ribbon accents. It's perfect for stashing your beach necessities like sunglasses, books or snacks.

I'll even help get you started with a bottle of sun tan lotion and pair of matching flip flops!

Here are the rules:

To enter just sign your name in a comment and tell me what you are most looking forward to this summer.

For a bonus entry tweet a link to my giveaway or post a link on your blog. (Make sure you post an additional comment here letting me know so you get your bonus entry!)

The winner will be randomly selected Monday night (May 2nd) at 6pm. Good Luck & remember to check back to see if you've won!

Little Feet

Things are finally taking shape. We've spent the past few days tying up loose ends, tagging and packaging finished items and finalizing displays. So exciting! I've been putting in a lot of extra hours over the past few weeks and I really can't wait to get to the show and see everything put together.

If you're in the area and you'd like to pop in and say the show is at:

Maplewood and Richmond Heights  ART FAIR     

1800 Princeton Place

Richmond Heights, MO. 63117

Friday, April 29th, 2011

I just wanted to pop in with a few progress shots. Now it's time to get back to my sewing and thankfully, my coffee.

Easter Recap!

I took a break from sewing this weekend to head home for our annual Easter celebration complete with full contact Easter egg hunt. It was the perfect break!

My Mom is a riot. I credit her with my sense of humor and a good deal of my craftiness. Her house was decked out with Easter crafts of her own. The most notable being the easter bunny she sets up outside. Ha!

Inside she decorated with Easter stockings that she made for us in lieu of baskets.

Aren't they the cutest?!?

My nephew is getting older so eventually my siblings and I will have to leave the egg hunting solely to him (the youngest of us is 23). We know our egg hunts are numbered so we're savoring them while they last! We used to have the egg hunt in a huge abandoned lot next to my Mom's house but it was recently converted into a parking lot so the parents were forced to get a little creative.

Hilarious! My brother is bigger, stronger and faster than all of the rest of us so he remains the annual champ, but we did put up a good fight. Maybe next year?

Here we are outside wearing bunny teeth that we found in our Easter stockings. A little silly, a little funny & a lot of love. I wouldn't trade them for the world. I hope you all enjoyed your Easters as much as I did! I'll post that progress report soon. The first show is this Friday. Eek!

Sunny Afternoon

The weather has been so unpredictable recently. 80 degrees one day and then 40 the next. Yesterday was hot and humid during the day before it abruptly shifted to freezing rain with golf ball sized hail in the evening. I've taken to keeping a jacket and hat in my car and have yet to put my winter clothes into storage. On the nicer days I make sure I spend as much time outside enjoying the weather as possible.

On a recent warm day we took a trip to Bowood Farms, a local greenhouse. We've been looking into possibly getting a terrarium and we wanted to look at supplies and see if there were any upcoming classes or starter kits. Once inside we realized that we need to do a lot more research before moving forward with the terrarium project so we took the opportunity to wander around the grounds enjoying the sunshine.

We we not alone.

Bowood Farms has a resident house cat. He's as sweet as can be. We never learned his name but he let us sneak in a few pets while he wandered through the herbs. What was his favorite?

Cat Thyme! Sooo cute!

Inside we found loads of tropical plants including this incredible little number.

I had never seen it before and managed to leave without snapping a pic of its ID tag. Isn't it stunning?! I love how alien it looks! Based solely on my limited knowledge of plant life it looks like an annual that could possibly be related to a snap dragon. The petals are really thin and delicate like petunias or morning glory's. Does anyone know what it is? My google searches went nowhere.

I am still knee deep in fleece and fur, but I should have some more progress photos soon as well as this month's giveaway! If you're worried about missing an update follow me on Bloglovin! I have a list of daily blogs that I read spread out across the web and this is a life saver. You create one account and list all of the blogs that you read. It pulls all of them into one stream as soon as they're updated and lets you flip through them like a magazine. I love it!

It is sooo on!

There are just under two weeks before my spring/summer shows start. It is serious crunch time! I've been working on some new items, putting finishing touches on some older ones and in general just doing everything I can to build up my stock. In addition to the ever present purple fuzz tumble weeds, every flat surface in the house is now covered with fabric, monster parts, sewing tools and really important notes written on tiny scraps of paper (Where's a Trapper Keeper when you need one?) It looks a lot like this:

Any time I'm making more than 1 of something I always construct it assembly line style. It speeds up my process and breaks a large looming project into smaller manageable pieces that offer a quicker sense of accomplishment. It's nice to sit back after an hour of work and see a large pile of finished legs or horns. Knowing that I've crossed something off of a list is the biggest relief! A standard checklist of mine would look something like this:

• Cut out pattern pieces.
• Trace pattern onto fabric.
• Cut out all pieces.
• Sew all eyes.
• Sew all teeth.
• Sew all mouths.
• Sew all legs.
• Stuff all legs.
• Pin skins.
• Sew skins.
• Stuff skins.
• Close plush.

After each step I'll usually take a break. This method is also great for busy schedules. Sometimes I only have an hour to work at a time and with this list I can pick something small to tackle and still feel accomplished when my hour is up. What are your favorite tricks for tackling a big project?

DIY Kawaii Egg Caps!

Add a new twist to your egg decorating this year with these easy Kawaii Egg Caps!

This project would be perfect used as a Spring decoration around your house, center piece on a dinner table or name holders for individual place settings at the table. Added bonus... they work up super quick!

Before we dive completely in, if there is anyone who doesn't know how to crochet or hasn't crocheted in the round before, but would really like to try - I have a  few suggestions. SNB - The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller is a God send. I would recommend it to anyone. I am a very visual person and usually find instruction books confusing and frustrating, but this is a gem! It covers all bases in a clear and focused manner without being overly technical, and the illustrations are great.

You've tried the books and you're still stuck? Time to head to the yarn store. Not the big box chain store, that little mom n pop place whose prices are a little higher, but who make up for it with amazing quality, selection and service. You've never asked them for help? Why not?!? I have never encountered a privately owned yarn store whose employees weren't falling all over themselves to aid a fellow crafter or talk shop. A wealth of knowledge just waiting to be tapped!

Now lets get started.

For this project you will need:

• Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Sugar & Cream Cotton)
• Size F Crochet Hook
• Needle & Thread
• Felt (Assorted Colors)
• Fuzzy White Yarn (Optional - Used for chick fluff and lamb ears.)
• Craft Glue (Not Shown)
• Scissors (Not Shown)

Abbreviations:

• ch = Chain
• st(s) = Stitch(es)
• sc = Single Crochet
• sl st = Slip Stitch
• [ ] = Sets apart a group of stitches to be repeated as a whole
• FO = fasten off

* All rounds in this pattern are joined by working a slip stitch into into the top of the turning chain that started the round.

Foundation Ring: Ch 3 and join into ring by working a slip stitch into the first stitch of the chain.

Round 1: Ch 1, 5 sc in ring, join with sl st - 5 sts.
Round 2: Ch 1, [2 sc in each st] 5 times, join with sl st - 10 sts.
Round 3: Ch 1, [sc in next st, 2 sc in next st] 5 times, join with sl st - 15 sts.
Round 4: Ch 1, [sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st] 5 times, join with sl st - 20 sts.
Round 5: Ch 1, [sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st] 5 times, join with sl st, FO - 25 sts.

Weave in your loose ends & grab your felt! Cut out tiny ears, eyes and beaks, and then glue or stitch onto your crocheted cap. It's that easy!

My bunny ears are folded together at the bottoms to give them a little more character. My chick fluff, bunny tails and lamb ears were created by pulling tiny tufts of fluffy yarn through crochet stitches in my cap using my crochet hook and then tying them off  and trimming.

I left all of my eggs plain for the photos, but I'd love to see them on dyed or glittered eggs. Use them as place cards by writing names on the exposed portion of egg. So simple! If you make these I would LOVE to see your finished work so please share! Also, be sure to let me know if you were confused by any of my instructions. This is my first time trying to write out a pattern!

Good morning!

So far April is looking even busier than March. I've still been rushing around trying to get ready my show on the 29th and just found out that I got accepted into another show in June. I'm super excited but detailed scheduling is going to be more important now than ever!

I just wanted to pop in quick to say Hi! This weekend was super productive with serious help from my Mom and sister. I finished a new plush pattern and the project for this month's tutorial. It's sooo cute! I'll be revealing it later this week along with the giveaway but if you need a teaser: it involves crochet.

Hope you're having a great week! I'll leave you with a recent Elliot photo. Some days are so busy they require samurai pony tails as stress relievers.

March Giveaway Winner!

It pays to retweet! Michelle will be receiving the apron!

Not a twitter follower yet? Follow here and never miss another giveaway!

I had a great weekend and managed to take a ton of pictures so be expecting to see some in the near future! Here's one from Saturday.

After a long morning of wandering through estate sales I met up with Jeff for lunch and a few errands. We've been making an effort to stop at restaurants that we've never been to before so we stopped at at sandwich shop just down the street from the bike store we were at. It's called Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium. It's super tiny. Not much larger than a drive thorough coffee hut, but the food was incredible! I ordered the Gracie - a falafel pita with artichoke spread. It was so delicious and the weather was finally nice enough to eat outside. I'm sure we'll be stopping there again!

How was your weekend? Does it feel like Spring yet where you are?

Spring Time?

Every time I think spring is about to break through we get hit with another freak snow storm. This has made me really hesitant to start any of my usual spring activities. It did not, however, stop me from bringing a little found spring into the house. The last time I was in Trader Joe's they had just received a huge shipment of spring flowers and I couldn't resist bringing them home.

Bringing all of the flowers into the house inspired me to start some spring cleaning. I have a horrible tendency to collect and distribute clutter every where I go. I have a Spring cleaning plan but I'm starting out small to avoid getting overwhelmed. I've divided each room into small pieces and begun purging them individually.

This is our entrance way post purge. I cleared out all of our winter gear, mail and misc. clutter and filled it with spring flowers. Now I just have to finish the rest of the house. ;)

I bought the sheep in Ireland last year. I love them! Have you started decorating for spring yet? What do you use to decorate?