Maralyn's Quilt

My adorable friend Maralyn had a baby boy a few months ago named Rhett (isn't that a fabulous name?!?) and I finally finished the activity blanket that I had been making for him.  I bought the pattern at a quilt shop, so I can't post a tutorial for it, but I can say that the pattern was very simple and a lot of fun to make.  Here are some pics:

Spring Banner

I'm loving all the cute banners on pinterest lately and all the fun spring crafts!  I decided to update my mantle with a fresh look for spring, so I made this banner.

The first thing I did was cut out the circles and letters on my Silhouette.  I cut out 5.5 inch circles in a bunch of different shades of orange and blue.  I also cut out a scalloped circle in white from the stock library and letters to spell the word "spring." 

By the way, I love how you can see my bright pink old lady slipper socks in this picture.  I'm sure I was also wearing sweat pants and some old t-shirt that used to belong to my brothers while doing this.  Classy.  Anyway, what I did next was cut strips of brown butcher paper to make the backing.  The strips were 8 inches wide and 24 inches tall.  I folded the paper back and forth in one inch folds to make a little accordion strip.

Then I smushed the accordion together and wrapped a little twisty tie around the center.  It ended up looking like a bow tie.

I spread out the folds and taped the edges together with some clear tape so that it made one big circle.

I kind of had to fuss with it to make a nice, even circle.  There were some parts where my folding got a little wonky and so I also trimmed up the edges so that they would be nice and even.

Finally, I took a glue gun and glued the colored circle onto the butcher paper backing.  I only had to use a little glue to secure it.

And then I threaded some twine through the butcher paper and strung up the letters to make my banner.

I spray painted a few things that were already on my mantle a pretty robin's egg blue and covered a few ugly looking books with some spring-y paper to brighten things up a little.  I also took a branch of fake flowers and wove it into my fireplace grate, then tied a ribbon at the bottom to hold it all in place.  It still needs some work, but we are definitely on the way to a crafty little springtime cottage.

New Year's Resolutions

Here is an actual picture of one of my student's new years resolutions:

It would be even funnier if you knew this kid—he walks around with a black shirt around his neck, which, whenever I'm not looking, he pulls over his head so his eyes are peeking out the neck hole and ties the sleeves behind so he actually does look like a ninja. A ninja wearing an angry birds shirt who cannot stop giggling .