a journal about 2 sisters who happen to be mommies by day and crafters by night
Stop by and say “hi”! We would love to see some familiar faces. And with over 200 vendors, we’re sure you will leave with at least one handmade item! 
. More info here.
Hope to see you there!
Update: Our booth? 190! Event is FREE!!!
big sis and lil sis
Lil sis and I went through a mock set up Thursday night…almost in the dark, on my driveway. the best part…with sidewalk chalk! All in preparation for today’s REAL set up here. My sis and I…all I can say is why? We are so paranoid that we did not bring one doll! Meanwhile, the other vendors were getting ready with all their products. Hey, if I’m worried that my house is gonna get flooded and sink my dollies, then why would I ever think about leaving them overnight somewhere else. And really, would I be able to get a good night’s rest wondering how they are doing? In all seriousness, those dolls represent 2 months of barely seeing the light of day! OK, I’m exaggerating. but barely seeing our husbands in the evenings b/c we’ve locked ourselves in our craft rooms, barely getting to watch our Tivo’d programs, rarely going to bed before 1 am…all these reasons make us that more paranoid!
Anyways, here’s our lil booth. Lil sis wanted a picture of the “blank canvas” as she calls it but I was too worried about hitting that darn LA traffic that I forgot and started setting up
Yes, we drove to LA just to put tablecloths down and hang those darn pom-poms!
I’ve got tons of emotions. Current one: butterflies. Maybe b/c this is the largest craft show we have done. Maybe b/c this will the longest I will be away from my twins. Maybe b/c I wonder if lil sis’ husband will be OK watching Lila for such a long extended time by himself. But come tomorrow morning, it will only be about RENEGADE and having fun and most importantly shopping!
Look for booth 190. You can’t miss it! Just look for those pom-poms!
big sis
We are super excited to have been featured on the Storque! The spotlight is on the Renegade vendors, and our shop was featured here.
Puts a big smile on our faces!
We’ll be doing a mock set up of our booth tonight. There are so many items on our checklist…we’re both getting so anxious.
Here is a pic of our unfinished button board. Crossing our fingers that the boards and our sticky putty will stay put throughout the fair!
In addition to the bobby pins, we have ponytail holders and brooches all adorned with a cute fabric covered button. Get your buttons!
lil sis
New product, new packaging, lovin’ it!
assortment of fabric covered buttons on silver bobby pins can be purchased here.
big sis
10 days and counting…to Renegade, that is. Lil sis and I have been talking, thinking, dreaming, planning for this event for SO LONG and the time has finally come! Yikes! The twins and I have been busy going to summer school. That + non-stop crafting, I don’t really feel like it’s summer. But as my husband likes to remind me, everyday is summer for me. All you stay at home moms know you want to ring his neck!
I’ve been living in such clutter and chaos
and now that I’m done with my dollies, I am giddily putting things away. Want to see something so pitiful? If you look real close at the picture, you will see a tin Altoids container. That, my friends, is where I store my pins and needles! I know, I get a good laugh at it myself…every time I slide the top down and reach in for my pins. I just have not gotten around to making a pincushion for myself.
I am super excited for the summer (post-Renegade and mommy and me summer school). I hope to plan a ton of vacations and at least go on 2 Lil sis and I talked about swimming at her pool and sadly, we’ve only accomplished this once. So tons of things to look forward to and I CANNOT wait. I hope to post a few more pictures of my completed projects before July 11.
Have a great Wednesday!
big sis
Well, you know how I feel about mommies who let their kids wander aimlessly without guidance…BIG pet peeve of mine. But who am I to judge, right? Our teacher from our mommy and me class invited her 2 classes over to her house for a pool party. Inviting 50 2-3 year olds…I would NEVER. There were 5 fathers present and they were immediately designated lifeguards…my husband included. 2 rambunctious 3 year old kids (NO swimgear on)+ mothers chit chatting away, nowhere near their kids = BIG TROUBLE! And that’s exactly what happened. 1 kid went under in the jacuzzi! We don’t know now long he was struggling but I saw him and immediately yelled for help. My husband jumped in. It was the saddest sight. And although he was not mine, I was shook up by the sight. That event scared the mommy straight, so to speak, and she never left his side for the rest of the afternoon. ugh…did it really have to take that incident for the mom to keep her eye on her kid?
Anyways, on a happier note. I am nearly done with my pouches.
please excuse the wrinkles. ironing is scheduled for some time next week
These are one of a kind…did not have the energy or time to make double of these.
I am off to start on my tissue cozies and paperweights!
big sis
my all time fav nursery song! Yes, despite my dislike of most creatures with feathers, I still include them in my craft projects! I suppose they can be cute…as long as they are nowhere near me.
Lovin anything I can applique to my pouches! The lil ducks/chicks are made out of felt and the details are embroidered.
I hope to be motivated enough to take pictures of some big sis dolls soon. They are a cute batch, if I do say so myself. I have just been so busy with my list of things to do that unfortunately, once a doll is completed, she is put away. Not much to report…just busy sewing away
big sis
busy, busy, busy = disheveled me.
despite staying up until 1am almost daily and sewing, cutting, ironing with no end in sight, i have managed to keep it all together meaning, take care of my twins, go to summer school with them, take them out on outings, eat lunch with lil sis and Lila, hit the gym in the evening, and spend whatever time i have left with my husband (poor guy). my calendar tells me i have very little time left before the big fiesta but fortunately (for everybody), i am on track.
batch #1
batch #2
taking a break before i start batch #3.
with 26 dolls almost completed, nearly 30 pouches sewn SHUT, lil sis and i are very much looking forward to a break and we’ve already started scheming. what’s next for this sister duo? you’ll have to wait and see!
big sis
I thought I would escape that feeling of having a sore butt from sitting all day. I used to have an office job sitting in front of a computer all day. Now that I’ve dedicated my afternoons and evenings to sewing, I’m reminded of that feeling once again!
Oh well for now! Here is my first batch of four square bags…off to make some linen ones
-lil sis
Yay ~ the baby shower was a success! The baby mama had a great time, and that’s all I was hoping for.
Now on to the pics…
I made different shades of pink and green tissue pom-poms. Tutorial can be found here on Martha Stewart’s site. They even sell MS pom-pom kits at Wal-Mart and other selective stores, but they usually only come in certain colors.
Emily Sign – made out of cardstock and plain white computer paper. I used Century Schoolbook font in like a 600 font size! The pinwheel looking things are called paper rosettes, and you can find the tutorial here on the Paper Source website. 
Diaper cake -
Flower Centerpiece - I absolutely love peonies! I was so happy to see that Trader Joe’s sold them! I mixed peonies with a bunch of white/green flowers. I wish I took a picture of them before they bloomed because they looked like ugly white balls, and after two days, they opened up to these beautiful butterfly looking flowers!
Baby Mobile – made this out of patterned cardstock, clear wire, glue, circle cutter, and the wooden circle that is holding everything together is an embroidery hoop. This was very inexpensive to make; it just took some time. The wire cost me $.99 at Wal-Mart, and the embroidery hoop was $1.79. I wanted to incorporate the elephants from the invitation, so I drew a bigger version of the elephant and used that as my template. If you don’t have a circle cutter, just draw one by free hand and use that as your template to cut others. The possibilities are endless!
Food – assorted mini sandwiches, smoked salmon on crackers, green salad, fruit salad, pita chips/hummus, veggie dip, cheese and crackers, mini cupcakes, and Izze drinks. My girlfriend made cute pink and green signs for the food and stuck them on bamboo skewers. I don’t have a picture of the favors, but we made chocolate dipped strawberries and wrapped them up in cellophane.
Fruit salad in a baby carriage – I cut out the watermelon the morning of because of the lack of fridge space, but I heard you could do this the night before. The how-to can be found here. This was a hit! Great conversation piece
One of the games we played was the “Match as many pairs of baby socks”, and it was SO MUCH FUN! If you need a good ice-breaker game, I highly recommend this one! We could not stop laughing watching each person fumble with these tiny socks. The mommy to be actually won this game with the grand total of 15 matched socks at 40 seconds.
All you need is 25 pairs of baby socks (or less and just shorten the amount of time), a stopwatch, a basket to mix the socks, and a pair of adult socks. Ask the mommy to be to fold the pair of adult socks as she would with her own laundry because I realized after seeing my roommates in college that there are many variations of folding socks! Each person has 40 seconds (adjust the time according to the number of socks you have) to fold as many pairs of socks as possible according to the way the mommy to be folds her socks. Let the fun begin!
Of course, I had to make the mommy a lilsprinkles doll.
Yikes…I gotta get to crafting now! The Renegade is less than a month away. June is really kicking my butt right now!!
More baby shower ideas can be found here. and here.
-lil sis
