Let The Sun Shine In
Chalkboard art for summer days:
Caramel Ice Cream with Nectarines
Yummm, I needed something sweet tonight after the delicious and oh so rich dinner the mister made tonight.
The title says it all: Caramel Ice Cream with Nectarines. The fruit is perfectly ripe, the ice cream is sweet and rich – heaven on a summer evening!
50 Things To Make And Do
Vivi got a book for her birthday called “50 Things to Make and Do” and it seems like a pretty fun book. She spent the morning looking through it and picking out projects to try. She originally had a list of six things she wanted to do today but I managed to bargain her down to two.
One of the projects was a ‘Royal Picture Frame’ – we had to cut out pieces of cardboard to make a frame, and then glue smaller pieces to it like mosaic tiles. Finally we’ll need to paint the whole thing and tape her princess picture so that it shows through the hole in the front. The glue didn’t dry in time to paint it tonight.
Dom joined in too, so we all three got to enjoy crafts this afternoon.
Blue and White Friendship Bangle
It’s kind of a low key evening after an already busy weekend. I’m transforming a simple metal bangle into a friendship bracelet bangle by knotting white, blue and slate embroidery floss around it. The color scheme is currently matching my pajama pants and nails.
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
Today my baby girl turns five, and we made this cake for her party with her family tonight:
Its surely a candidate for Cake Wrecks (although that’s professional cakes) but we had a lot of fun decorating it. Princesses courtesy of Vivi (FYI the princesses are to the right on the cake 😉 ). Also, the icing on the edges isn’t grey its lavender, but I didn’t have time to adjust the colors.
Hydrangeas
There is a big Mop-head Hydrangea bush in the garden bed in our front yard, and when it blooms it might be one of my favorite things about our house/yard.
Bunting Night Four – All Done!
I finished the bunting! Yay! It turned out really cute. I used 5/8-inch polyester ribbon and sewed each triangle onto the ribbon. I just estimated the spacing so its not always entirely even but that helps its sweet folksy look. I decided to divide the triangles into three strips (lines?) of bunting so that it would be easier to hang them in the yard and they’d be more flexible for future decorating. I ended up with 33 triangles (11 of each color) so each separate bunting had 11 triangles and measures about 15 feet.
The open sides (tops) of the triangles frayed during the dyeing and washing process, so my original thought was to fold them in with the ribbon between the sides and sew it that way, but I ended up leaving the raw edges turned up and just zigzag stitching with the ribbon pressed inside – again, it adds to the folksy look.
Bunting Night Three
Tonight is night number three for party bunting, in which I dye the fabric triangles in three lots: pink, green and orange.
I used a few galvanized pails I had handy and set up my dye station out on the patio. Now its getting real up in here – its not often I have to wear rubber gloves to work on a project! The process is straightforward – I followed the instructions on the dye which were basically to mix the dye with water, salt and detergent and let the fabric soak for 30 minutes. Then rinse the fabric until the rinse water runs clear and machine wash and dry.
This is the first time I’ve ever dyed anything and its so fun! I’m going to do more I’m sure. Tomorrow night I’ll sew the bunting triangles onto the ribbon and be done. I think its going to turn out really nicely.
Bunting Night Two
Tonight I sewed all the triangles for the bunting and turned them right side out. The fabric is pretty subdued so I’m thinking I might dye it a few different colors.
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