The Vintage Pearl {giveaway} Hip Hip HOORAY!

I am SO EXCITED to announce that my sweet friend, Erin {of The Vintage Pearl of course} is giving away a $50 gift certificate, right here.... On this blog. My blog. The blog you are reading, right now. To one of my LUCKY readers. This may be the best odds for free TVP ever! Let's have a margarita and a chocolate bar to celebrate! 

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[mmmm. chocolatemargaritaville]

If you've never owned a piece of Erin's hand stamped jewelry, you are MISSING OUT! I am so fortunate to own a few pieces, but my MOST FAVORITE PIECE OF JEWELRY ON THE PLANET IS THIS NEST {aptly named the messy nest. I am certain Erin was thinking of my house when she named this piece}! It is customized with my 4 little birdies' initials <3 Such a precious keepsake....

I know you are sitting there, salivating. But hey! Wipe off that keyboard! Go visit Erin's site, pick out what you might like to buy if you win and then come back here and tell me about it in the comments section of this here post.

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Are you an overachiever? Would you like to increase your odds of #winning {in a TOTALLY un-sheen way?} Here are some handy-dandy ways you can get additional entries:

1) Follow The Vintage Pearl on Twitter 

2) 'Like' The Vintage Pearl on Facebook

3) Follow The Vintage Pearl blog {on google friend connect}

4) Follow my blog {on google friend connect}

Please send me ONE EMAIL with all tasks you've completed {including your blogger name} if you do more than post a comment.{c'mon, you know you wanna.} When commenting, PLEASE make sure the profile you are commenting with is linked up to an email address so I may contact you if you win :)

This giveaway will end at 8 pm M.S.T. on Friday, April 22nd. 

Make this! An easy { & quick} easter hat

Looking for a last minute hair pretty for you {or your favorite girl(s)} to wear on Easter? Look no further. This little fascinator style headpiece is quick, easy and cheap {my 3 favorite qualities in a crafty project!}

I made these hats my girls are wearing to match the dresses I made them to wear to my aunt's birthday {tea} party. They do look splendid on a hair full of curls, don't they? {thank you, foam rollers.}

Ready to make one? One hat will take about 10-20 minutes to make, depending on how you are making your ruffle (by hand or by serger) and is a SUPER DUPER DUPER EASY project.

First, gather your supplies:

A glue gun. I would use a low temp. It dries quicker and and is much less hurty.

A bushel of hydrangea type silk flowers. These are from Joann's and are on sale right now for 50% off. Woot. Woot.

19" of any type of stretchy lace {shown in pic} or FOE or really? just plain elastic, if you have enough hair to cover it up or that's all you have on hand and you are freaking out that Easter is in just a few days...

3 yards x 3 inches wide of soft netting or tulle. You really could use any lightweight or sheer fabric.

A circle piece of felt that measures 2 inches across.

...

Ok, got all that stuff together? 

Then, let's get started, shall  we?

PLUG IN YOUR GLUE GUN RIGHT NOW.

{I always forget to do that when I start a project, get all my stuff together and then d'oh! HATE that I have to wait the 10 minutes or so it takes my gun to heat up. I am so impatient!}

Now, gather your fabric up to a length of approximately 18 inches. It should look something like this.

If you have a serger with adjustable tension, did you know you can gather on it without a ruffling foot? The easiest way is to set the needle tension to 7 or 8. {you might have to go lower, depending on your machine. Sometimes my thread snaps at 8 and then I have to re-thread and go down to 7.}

And the side knobbies? {ummm, yeah, what are those called?} Set those to look like these:

If you are gathering by hand, bless your little heart.

Ok, so when your fabric is gathered, set that aside and grab your felt circle and stretch lace/FOE/elastic.

On the 'wrong' side of your felt, glue both ends of your elastic to form a loop {future headband} overlapping the ends about an inch. I didn't take a pic of this, but glue down the elastic on both sides, all the way to the edge.

Now, take your ruffled fabric and starting at the outter edge, glue ruffle around the circle a bit at a time.

Continue to coil around, gluing gathered fabric to felt in a swirl pattern.

You will eventually get something that looks like this.

Now, pull your hydrangea blooms off of the bush so that they look like this:

Pull away the fluffs of the ruffle and put a whole lotta hot glue {LIKE A REALLY, REALLY BIG MOUND OF IT} in the center. I do love to use a lot of hot glue...

Finally, stick the stems of the flowers, one at a time, into the massive mound of hot glue. Let it dry for a few seconds, and batta bing, batta boom! You've got yourself a cute little hat for Easter. Or a wedding. Or a tea. Or, whatever.... to take the garbage out in?

Looking back - Kennedy's 4th birthday {tea} party .or. why having little girls ROCKs

A lingering by-product of attending the Creative Estates blogging/crafting conference this past weekend, is that I am STILL so filled with inspiration- which has caused some self reflection as a by-product... Said inspiration and self reflection led me down the path of 'let me search through the mish-mosh insanity which is old photo files on my computer and FREAK THE FRAK OUT when I think pictures have disappeared and then wet myself with happiness when I find them' and then I wept with pure joy when I was fully immersed in the trip down memory lane. And I decided to stop off here, at one of my most favorite birthday parties EV.ER!
Please indulge me in a trip down memory lane, to February 5th, 2007 :)  

{thanks, in advance.} 

Kennedy is one of those little girls that has always been ALL GIRL! And so, it was a no brainer to have the pinkest party I could create. 

I really wanted everyone to be able to sit down together, so I put a couple of regular {Costco} plastic banquet tables together, end to end {after convincing the mister to remove almost all of the furniture from our living room so it would all fit.} I used quilts as table clothes <--- best part of that? No ironing involved!
I made pillow-shaped chair back covers out of fabric already in the stash, and simple cloth napkins to match.

The boys and Michael were our 'waiters'. All of the courses were plated in the kitchen and then served to our guests at the table. {I did have to pay the boys - not to actually serve, but to wear the little half aprons LOL}I remember them commenting that the ladies there 'sure did drink a lot of diet coke!' Truer words have never been spoken.

Miss Piper was ....extremely grumpy.... that day. She refused to smile for any pictures. She was taking Singulair {for SEVERE asthma} during this time. It made her all sorts of CRAY.CRAY.CRAZZZZY! I didn't know what was going on at the time. I thought I was just a really bad mom. Ah, well. Oh. And I made the girls frocks to match vintage hats I bought off ebay. See them ruffles? I have really been obsessed for far too long.

First course was heart shaped chicken salad sandwiches on delicious, fluffy, EVIL white bread. {did you hear? We are on a gluten free diet now. This pic of those sammies is for real making my mouth water!}Fruit cabobs and heart shaped cucumber and tomato salad. I can't remember the recipe I used but what I DO remember is cutting out all of those cukes with a wee heart shaped cookie cutter at 3 in the morning the night before the party. Oh, what a crafter will do for cute!

 I didn't have a pic of the second course, but remember we had warm chocolate chip scones and heart shaped buttermilk puffs with strawberry preserves - both dusted with powdered sugar. YUMMO!

The mister came out of the kitchen occasionally, to refill tea cups with peppermint tea {and to take pictures. And to giggle with the guests. He really is all sorts of awesome.}

I made everyone their own mini cakes. {can you say SUGAR OVERLOAD?!} But, Kenny's was the only one with a Cinderella candle on it.

This really was a great party. Even if I looked like I had a flower pot growing out of my head.

Such a pretty {albeit grumpy} day. Poor baby.

 

Ugh. Why do they have to grow up so fast?