Flip Flops for my Fashion-ista

I used to read a book or watch some great HGTV before I went to bed at night.  For my birthday in May my family treated me to an ipad.  Yippee.  Now I spend my time before bed surfing the blog  world and half paying attention to the real housewives of somewhere on tv.  

During one of my insomnia filled evenings I came across this adorable flip flop tutorial http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2011/05/decorated-flip-flops.html  and thought they would be great for my little fashion-ista niece Lolly.  She would love getting to pick her shoe accessories each day, yes one more accessory.  Maybe a new choice added to her morning routine will buy my sister a few more minutes of morning peace. 

This idea was bouncing around in this ping pong /slot machine brain of mine for a quite a few weeks.  Finally I found a moment to sit down and work on them.  The tutorial called for snaps to hold the bows on, these were too wimpy for my tough kids, so I ended using some heavy duty velcro that Athena already had at the house. 

 

My other niece could care less about bows and glitz, she is more into gabba and skate boards.  When I found this post http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2011/07/monkey-and-frog-hair-clips-east-coast-mommy.html  with these cute monkey and frog hairclips, I thought those would make cute shoe toppers for Kathryne.  Below is my attempt at them.  None of them are perfect, but my girls loved them.

So this past weekend after lunch at Cheviche on Canton St. (yummy!), I wandered over to the Chandlery and found an adult version of the same thing.  http://www.lindsay-phillips.com/  They are 50% off this week.  My feet are too big for theirs so I am thinking about making my own.  This will be a great way to make my men’s, basic black, reef’s, the summer go to shoe in my house, look pretty and girly.  Here is a tutorial I found for the adult version.  http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/03/interchangeable-flip-flops.html  Is anyone else interesting is trying with me?  This might be another fun idea for a future meeting.   We could make them for the adults or the kiddos, the boys might love some with little cars or super heroes.

Best,

Portia

R Name??

Okay so I know that Athena does not love our name.  I also got the impression from Colleen's eye rolling that she is not in love with it either.  I am out of ideas for a new name, but have a great blog for you to check out that might offer some inspiration.  Crafting Chicks... they are so cool.  http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/01/photo-wreath-valentines-day-style.html
I think that they started out kindof like we did, now they have a fancy site and all do postings that are based around each of their different strengths. 

I also love this picture wreath and think it would look great on any of our mantels.  We should keep it as an idea for an upcoming craft night. 



I have to admit, while this looks awesome, the idea of having to cut circles out scares me way more than necklace knots. 

Hope you are all having a great week!  Can't wait for our next craft.

Best,
Portia

Jewelry Making - Mastered

Okay, so not really mastered, but thanks to Lindsay's great guidance we all went home last weekend with a great new piece.  Thanks to everyone for coming, it was such fun! 

I was quite under the weather last weekend so I also have to thank Mom, Athena, Katie and the little girls for all their help getting the party ready.  It turned out wonderfully.  We had Athena's salad with homemade dressing from Kathy.  Rob grilled chicken and make a fresh loaf of wheat ground bread.  Katie treated us with cookies from Alpine Bakery, yum!  Amanda also brought some treats and goodies including ?Macosta? wine?  She said it is a sweet dessert wine.  I have not tried this before and I looking forward to having some soon.  Have you tried it?  Do you have a favorite wine flavor?

I have to admit the the best crafting of all may have taken place the day of the party in my yard.  I was sick in bed and Athena went into her awesome take over mode and decided that my yard needed an HGTV makeover, courtesy of Athena, Grandma Liz, and the little girls (who added broken water balloons and chalk pictures to the design). 

I think that Brooke took a few pictures for us of the night.  I hope that she will share them with us soon.  Can you believe that we forgot a camera for our first meeting?  I hope that Athena will also post some of my awesome yard makover.  Everyone probably got to see it since they had to walk in the yard, not the driveway :) but daylight photos do it more justice. 

I can't wait for our next meeting.  We are all brainstorming ideas and should nail down a date soon.  I remember Colleen talking about dates that would and would not work, did we decide on one? 

Best,
Portia

First Meeting Success

Last night was so much fun. We enjoyed it. Thank you to Lindsay for dealing with our lack of confidence and roudiness. Lindsay, we really appreciate it and you were fantastic. I had so much fun that I am thinking that we could meet again in just a few weeks at my place. We are looking for any and all ideas about future projects and meetings. Please share your thougts. I hope that everyone had fun and that you all enjoy your creations. Thank you for coming.

Athena