WREN handmade

Butterfly Valentines

I'm putting together a Valentine project to do with 3 year olds-2nd graders. I had the idea to make butterflies from coffee filters and clothes pins, which there lots of samples of online. I'm hoping it's a craft that even the little ones can do with some adult help. We'll see how it goes this Sunday. I thought I would share in case anyone is looking for a quick easy idea to do with their kids this year. I also liked these hand dyed Valentines too.

Abstract paper tags and ornament

I have been doing lots of art projects with Leo for the last several months. Mostly drawing but also some abstract painting. To make it safe for a 16 month old I use food coloring/water in a little cup with a q tip instead of a brush. It works well and isn't toxic if he decides to put it in his mouth. Here are some circles that will become tags.

I also made a big ornament (or kissing ball) out of the the decorated circles. I had Leo paint or draw on 20 precut paper circles. I got them at Paper Presentation. I've made tons of these balls over the years, including these I made at Martha Stewart Living. The how to is the same whatever size you choose. 

This makes a nice gift for a grandmother or special friend. Happy Holidays!

A stripey 1st birthday!

We celebrated Leo's 1st birthday this weekend and it was a great time. We live far from family but amazingly we had lots of family members here to celebrate along with our friends. The theme was stripes and we asked the attendees to dress accordingly. Just about everyone wore some sort of striped combination and it looked very festive! 

I ordered striped party supplies from Shop Sweet Lulu, which has very cute stuff. We had various snacks and cupcakes and mini pb and j's. It was fun to mix and match the stripes.

I love all the different stripe patterns going on.

I customized some store bought blowers to go with the theme.

We filled lots of balloons with helium and I made a stitched paper garland.

A custom birthday hat which of course Leo wouldn't wear even for a second.

The birthday boy was in awe of everyone singing to him!

I made a "1" iron-on for his shirt which he wore with seersucker shorts.

Friends and family watching intently as Leo took a long time to open his gifts.

And finally I make a backdrop behind the food table of Leo's monthly photos. I have mentioned these before, the onesies are from Culpeper General. It was hard the last few months to get Leo to sit still for the photos so I'm pretty glad to be done with that project! It looked great and is so nice to have a complete set though.

All in all a nice celebration of the past year with our little guy!

Renegade 2011

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my booth at Renegade this year! Saturday was pretty miserable with the mist and rain but Sunday was beautiful and we had a great crowd. I almost canceled because of the forecast and I'm so glad I didn't. Here are some pics of my table. Wish I could have shopped more but I was pretty tied to my booth.

These larger scale hairclips were new and sold out! I will try to stock my Etsy shop with these (and other crochet items) soon.

Renegade Craft Fair this weekend!

I am once again participating in the Renegade Craft Fair here in Brooklyn. It's this weekend June 11 +12 from 11am-7pm both days. Drop by and say hi, it's always a great sale. I'll have booth #140 sharing with Marcie McGoldrick Design. Crossing my fingers for good weather!

Crocheted mobile

I was happy to contribute a project to the book Vintage Craft Workshop by Cathy Callahan. The book is finally out and it's great to see it in print. We were asked to reinterpret a vintage craft, you can see mine in the spread below. I used a similar pattern to what I use for my crochet necklaces but scaled them up for the mobile. It's really fun to see all the vintage projects and new interpretations, check it out!

Sun hats

 I have been wanting to make a sun hat for Leo for some time now. He is so fair he pretty much needs this any time we go outside. I found a great hat pattern in the Little Things to Sew by Oliver + S. The first one I made was too big but the second one (extra small) fits great and now I have one for when Leo gets older. I added ties to the small one but it isn't even really necessary if it fits pretty snug. Overall pretty easy and so cute!

Happy Spring!

We hosted an Easter brunch yesterday which was quite festive and fun. Surprisingly the weather was very warm, in the 70's and all the trees and plants are in bloom in Brooklyn. What a nice celebration of spring.

I cut some flowering pear branches from the tree outside for some last minute arrangements.

I decorated eggs this year with a wax stylus, traditional Paas dyes and a few darker Ukranian dye colors. I drew freehand patterns and also made "placecards" using eggs for each person attending. The stylus is a little tricky to make perfect lines, so I decided to embrace the wobbly lines and more organic look.

Each person got a hard boiled egg with their name on it, to eat then or take home.

I was happy to set the table using my LuRay dishes which I think looked very Eastery in the pastel shades.

The napkins are from Winter Water Factory and the linen runner is from Dwell Studio.

Our friend Katie brought a nice assortment of cheeses and made these cute labels for them.

I made orange poppy seed cupcakes from the May issue of Martha Stewart Living. The whole poppy story is really inspiring!

All in all, a nice afternoon. Sorry I didn't get any shots with the actual people, it's always a whirlwind once the party starts when you are hosting. Hope everyone had a nice Passover or Easter!

Red and white quilts

On Tuesday Leo and I saw this show. It was an amazing display of quilts. The presentation and range of designs made it totally worth the trip. Unfortunately it was only up for a few days. Leo also seemed to really like it since he likes to look up at graphic things and lights. If you can believe one woman collected all these!

Baby blocks

Leo is now really into playing with toys interactively. I thought he would enjoy playing with soft foam blocks. I had foam cut to 4" x 4" cubes and sewed covers. One nice thing about this project is you can use up all your small scraps of fabrics from previous projects. Below is a little how to. So far they are a hit!

Cut the squares 4.5" x 4.5" for a 4" cube.

Sew the 6 squares together in a cross formation with a 1/4" seam allowance. At each corner stop 1/4" from the edge. Then sew the sides and top leaving one edge open.

Turn right side out, stuff the foam block inside and hand stitch closed.