my first TGFFF sale!!!

If you haven't already, be sure to become a fan of the PinkPooka etsy shop over on facebook. Today I am having a TGFFF sale (that's thank-goodness-for-fabulous-fans.) All camera strap covers are $5 today only and I have also listed some of my "camera love" bags, which are perfect for your little one for valentines day!


One of my favorite camera strap covers is this one...it's done with a fabulous Heather Bailey fabric. If it doesn't get snatched up, I might have to put it on my camera strap!


I promise, you won't find them cheaper anywhere else, so now's the time to snatch one up! I've had them on sale for a while now, so Monday I'll be returning to regular prices.

You can see what's in the store HERE.

Thanks for all the support! I have the best friends and fans!

cheap and easy holiday headbands

I'm hoping to get the girls' Christmas pictures taken over the weekend and the only particular thing I had in mind for them to wear were cute headbands with a big flower or something on the side. Because I'm cheap and crafty, I decided to tackle the headbands myself. These are so easy, anyone could make them!

I started with headbands already wrapped in grosgrain ribbon (3 for $1 at Target in the dollar spot), felt poinsettias with adhesive backs (intended for scrapbooking. $2/pkg of 6 in the holiday section at Hobby Lobby), felt and fabric scraps.


I thought the poinsettias were a little small, so to give them more presence, I decided to stack them on top of some other things. Directly underneath each flower is a fabric yo-yo. They are super simple to make and you don't need anything other than a needle and thread. I cut my original circles a little small (pictured above) but you should cut yours about twice as big as you want your final yo-yo to be. Trace a large cup or small coffee can to help you get the shape.

Using a thread and needle (knotted at the end), stitch along the outer edge of the circle. After you've gone the entire way around, pull the thread so that the outer edge gathers in the center. Make a stitch or two to keep everything in place and close with a knot. Super easy! Normally, you'd press the edge over before stitching so that the raw edges don't show, but since they won't show or get any wear on these headbands, I just left them.


I used the sticky backs of the flowers to adhere them to the yo-yo's and also added a few stitches, just in case. For the bottom layer, I cut a circle of felt just slightly larger than the flower and yo-yo. Fold it in half and cut small notches, then fold in half the other way to notch the rest of the way around. This helps to keep your notches fairly even (I am not very good at this part! haha)




Using a hot glue gun, I glued the yo-yo flowers onto the felt circles and then glued them onto the headbands. SUPER EASY!!!


The entire project cost me about $1 per headband! Yay for cheap and easy!!!

Official Christmas pictures coming soon!

fine dining with feathered friends

Operation: Rainbow Bright is moving along. Our bathroom project is just a day away from being finished! This week I also got some things finished up in our eat-in kitchen dining area, which is our only dedicated dining space for now (the formal dining room is our office space.)

I admit, I am not very inspired by kitchen and dining spaces. It's hard for me to come up with creative ideas that will work together, but I came across this wonderful idea to make fabric birds and mount them on a branch, and I knew it would be perfect for our space. The bird pattern is by Spool and can be found here. I made a bird to represent each person in our family. The girls had a blast playing with them before they went up.

Oh, and I have made the executive decision that the ceiling beams are getting painted (white.) We have someone to do it, we just need the cash. I keep trying to work around them and make them less noticeable, so we are gonna paint those suckers! It will give the kitchen a very cottage-y look (we've seen it done in other houses.)




We have a very large window and I wasn't sure what type of window treatment to do, so we went with an inexpensive patio shade (which I'm not sure I love, but it will work until I decide.) We don't need a ton of privacy from it, but it would be nice to have something to cover the window at night when it's easy to see in.


I also hung up some decorative plates that I've been collecting. I LOVE them and am so glad I have a place to display them now. I intend to keep collecting and continue them down the wall.




The plates compliment my teapot collection, which is now over the sink. I'm still working on unpacking, so there may be more to add to the display. It's all just sort of thrown up there for now to get it out of the way. LOVE my new Alice in Wonderland teapot!


When we moved from our old house, I made the decision to replace our dining chairs. The table was in ok condition, but the upholstered parsons chairs had been trashed by the kids. Originally, I wanted to go with some sleek, modern chairs from Ikea to contrast with my cottage-y/shabby things, but they discontinued the ones I wanted! Plan B was put into place, which was to collect old chairs and paint them all a fun color. Unfortunately, finding chairs is not easy! Tables = easy. Chairs = not easy. I scoured craigslist.com for a while until I found someone selling a collection of 6 chairs + a table for $60. We wound up using 4 of the chairs and the table will probably go out on our covered porch. Scott's mom found this great table with 2 leaves for $5, so I had her get it and I freshened it up with some 3-in1 stain. (Our old table is now my sewing table since it doesn't have the leaves.) She also found the two end chairs for us for $3 each! I love a bargain!



In the plate picture, you can sort of see into our family room, which is a few steps down. Just wanted to prove it's a mess!!! lol It's next on the list - I've been working on it. It's a super dark room because of the covered porch, but we're making progress with brightening it up.

{bunny houses}

Before Nonna & Boppa left for home, we all sat down to make some bunny houses! We made them from graham crackers and used some of our abundant Easter candy for decoration. It's always a fun activity with the kids and is cheap & easy, which is even better! I did a tutorial last year that you can find HERE.




You can click the pictures to see them larger.

~sweetness~

I took some v-day pics of the girls today. The main reason was to get them done in time to order prints for Sarah's preschool class's v-day cards. After gluing the print to some scrapbook paper, we are going to cut slits and insert a real sucker. I've seen similar ideas all over the place and thought it would be something fun to try. They will look like better versions of this:

Of course, the rest of the pics are for the grandmas and grandpas! Hopefully I'll have time to make some scrapbook pages with them. The twins are still not cooperating AT ALL at picture time! Maybe by the time they're 12 I'll get eye contact and smiles!

Here are the twins last year....so little! And not-good editing. lol

And Sarah...

Ooooh, I've had a secret!

I have wanted to make myself a camera strap cover for some time now, and recently I got the idea to make them for some of my best e-buds! I was so excited to send them off - I couldn't wait for them to get them! I used some Amy Butler fabrics that I had purchased as swatches for my future bedroom decor. I just made the pattern up as I went - a fast and easy project!

The fabulous ladies that received them were:

Steph - we have really become the best of friends!

Shannon - so talented and funny! I love this girl!

Meg - so classy, chic, and hip. I admire her so much!

Anyway, the ladies received their gifts this week and I managed to keep them a surprise! It was so much fun and I hope they enjoy them!

oh boy, oh boy!

Last week we tried a new craft - cinnamon "gingerbread" boy ornaments! It was fun and easy and very inexpensive!

They look like the real thing, but should last for years! The twins would probably tell you they taste like the real thing too - they keep trying to eat them.

Here's the how-to:

1/2 cup cinnamon

1/3 cup applesauce

1 T tacky glue

Mix together, roll out (using cinnamon instead of flour to dust your surface), cut out (use a straw for the hanger hole), and put on a baking sheet. You can either let them air dry until hard (about 48 hrs) or put them in a low oven until hard (2 hrs at 200' or less.) We put ours in the oven and they seemed to warp a little, but I'm not sure if that's what caused it or not. Once they were hard and dry, I decorated them with some fabric paints and added ribbons for hangers.

They smell great hanging on the tree and make great gifts for teachers!

While we're on the subject of gingerbread boys, here's a sampling of the real thing! We made our first batch of Christmas cookies yesterday. Sarah did most of the decorating and I used a pre-made dough, which makes it so much easier!

For the birds...

Sarah's friend {E} was back at our house today, so we whipped up some holiday treats for the birds! We've done this project before, and it's always fun and easy. I went out this morning (in the rain) to hunt for pine cones. (Why is it that you can never find any when you want some, but when you don't, they are everywhere!?) The girls smeared the pine cones with peanut butter and then rolled them in bird seed. Add some wire or a pipe cleaner for hanging, and you are done!

Oh, give me a home...where the marshmallows roam!

We've made gingerbread-house-making a tradition in our house for both Halloween and Christmas. It's so much fun and a candy laden structure is always a festive touch to the holiday decor! We make ours using graham crackers, using the method I described in detail HERE.


I invited Sarah's friends, sisters {K} & {L}, to join us in the fun. All the kids had a blast! The twins were far more interested in eating the candy, as usual, but they managed to produce a decent house.

The older girls were very concerned with the details on their houses. We had doorbells, chimneys, gardens, all sorts of things! I decided to be brave this time and gave each one of them their own little packet of piping icing (wax paper cones), which proved to be interesting and only slightly messy.


In the end, the houses looked great!

Seriously, why do I do this to myself?!

Today I decided to attempt a *simple* project - making a garland for the banister out of old Christmas cards (circa 2000) cut into stars, glittered and tied together. Easy right? Well, it took me all stinking day! I hate when that happens and it happens all the time! It looks kinda cute and was a recycling project, but I don't know that it was worth the effort. Maybe if my kids were old enough to help...



This garland project brought to mind a similar garland making experience. Two years ago, I decided to string some popcorn for the tree to make it more of a child-like tree for Sarah, and it took me forever! Literally, I spent 3 days on it, probably a good 7 hours of sitting and stringing. Took me so long, I wasn't about to throw it out, so I have saved it and reused it each year since. LOL It's stale, but fine. Who needs fresh popcorn garland on their tree anyway?



My pain-in-the-butt project last year was huge felt ornaments. I saw some in the Pottery Barn catalog and thought they'd be easy to make and perfect for filling out our tree, which I thought would be bare without my glass ornament collection, which I wasn't putting out because of our toddling twins. Quickly I realized that putting felt on a round form was impossible! After lots of frustration, I found a pattern online for ball pillows, so I sewed some up. They look more like Christmas pumpkins, but they definitely fill out the tree!



One day I'll learn!