31 days: pumpkins & ghosts

Posted on 2011/10/03 by daisyeyes

Day 3: Spooky Decorations for your front Yard

Our neighbor has these hanging plastic pumpkins and ghosts in their tree and my daughter has been begging to get some for our house. Ever the frugal one, I thought…we can easily make these.

The hardest thing about making these little guys was finding some cheap balls to put inside. Styrofoam isn’t cheap and I wasn’t going to pay $10 just to buy 8 balls of styrofoam. Then I thought, I’ll find some cheap whiffleballs. They aren’t cheap either. Try $3.50 for one! Then I found this pack of 12 tennis balls for $4.50 and voila…something reusable and finally cheaper.

Here’s the how to:
First gather your supplies
balls of your choice
13″ squares of white and orange fabric
ribbon or string for hanging
sharpies for making faces
rubberbands
a tree

Cut your squares to roughly 13″ and then fold in quarters to find the center and mark it.

Measure your ribbon or string…we only did ours 13″ long because I was short on ribbon. You probably need it at least 18″ to have a good length for hanging.

After you have the center marked, sew the ribbon on by hand or with machine. I’m sure you could do this a million other ways, but if you have access to a sewing machine, it’s the easiest/quickest way to go.

Now you are ready to stuff with balls and decorate!

Put the ball in the center, wrap a rubberband just under the ball and find a couple of willing helpers to draw on some spooky faces.

Hang in a tree and enjoy!

31 days = meet mr. bones

Posted on 2011/10/02 by daisyeyes

Welcome to day 2 of my 31 day creating challenge.

Meet Mr. Bones.
I’ve never really been one for decorating for really any holiday or season, minus Christmas, but something about having children (and a daughter who almost demands decorations) and Pinterest I’ve been driven to decorate. But, then there is Halloween and I just have this fine line between having fun with Halloween and crossing over into the gruesome. But, when I saw this hanging felt skeleton in Pottery Barn Kids this year I knew I had to make it. He’s just too cute and funny looking! But not cute enough to spend $39+ on him.

Here’s the how-to if you want to make your own!

1. But about 1/2 yard of white felt. You could use the sheets, but honestly it’s more cost effective to use the yardage.
2. Find a template for bones online and print it out. Here’s where I got mine. If you do use this one, I didn’t use the shoulder bones or the tailbone.

3. Print out your template and go to town cutting it out. Make sure you cut two of each piece. You will be stitching them together. I just guessed on the hat and face parts, going off the original picture for Pottery Barn.
4. Sew a black zig-zag stic around each bone. The hands and feet I had to stitch a straight stitch to make it work.
5. Use embroidery floss or clear filament thread to sew each piece together.
6. Sew on a little ribbon to hang and enjoy.

He makes me smile every time I see him.

31 days of…

Posted on 2011/10/01 by daisyeyes

CREATING.

It’s only fair in my world that as I plan to do this once a day creative posting that I already change my little 31 days button!

But here it is.

My goal in these 31 days is to actually create some stuff. I’ve only been on Pinterest for a month or so and my boards are already overflowing, so this month is the month that I’m going to do more than pin and actually make.

What might you see during these 31 days?
Anything and everything.
From cooking to decorating to sewing projects to activities and crafts to do with your children.
I’ve got a handful of other things on the daisyeyes table that I’m also working on that will be sprinkled in.

So, bookmark or subscribe to daisyeyes so you won’t miss a single day.

As my button says: stop just watching the balloon, but hop in for a ride! For many people it’s risky to actually make what you see, but the view is so much better!

I’m blogging with a HUGE group of people for the next 31 days. You can find one the hosts here @ the nester, along with links to gobs of other people. If you found your way here through the links, please leave a comment so I know you stopped by!

Here’s what I’ve created so far:
Day 1: Introduction and my goal
Day 2: mr. bones (a felt skeleton for your front door)
Day 3: ghosts & pumpkins for your front yard
Day 4: The beginnings of a yarn wreath
Day 5: felt flowers for the yarn wreath
Day 6: the yarn wreath is complete!
Day 7: a fall snack mix
Day 8: creating a freezer inventory board
Day 9: our favorite bread recipe
Day 10: organizing the zoo in my daughter’s room
Day 11: part one of the kid’s bathroom re-do
Day 12: the bathroom AFTER
Day 13: decorating with flashcards: before
Day 14: the creating occurred, but the post didn’t happen (thankful for a little grace)
Day 15: the flashcards are up (the AFTER post)
Day 16: creating is…
Day 17: chocolate chip streusel bread
Day 18: crockpot applesauce
Day 19: the beginning of an embroidering (and a potential give-away!)
Day 20: a completed embroidery (and the teaser of a give-away in the next week!)
Day 21: when creativity goes bust (or sewing sparkly skirts for a friend)
Day 22: creativity is sometimes using what you’ve got
Day 23: a book sling
Day 24: reorganizing a bookcase/tv stand
Day 25: a turkey tee for my little turkey/chick-a-dee
Day 26: a giving thanks give-away
Day 27: give-away winner announced and homemade brown sugar
Day 28: a kitty cat costume
Day 29: norweigan pancakes
Day 30: gone missing
Day 31: give thanks banner