The Magic of Wool

Tracey Johnson is a blogger at Mamas & Papas, a fiber artist, a wife, and a mother to a beautiful baby girl named Olive. She sells custom knitting and crochet pieces of all varieties on her Etsy shop called Tracey Johnson's Shop. She also does commissions that are only limited by your imagination! So stop by and show her some love at her blog or her shop's Facebook page! 

Dear Readers, 

I'm going to tell you about a very special fiber that is respected among crafters and artists alike...

Wool comes from sheep. The sheep's coat is sheared off, the wool is separated, and it's shipped off to a mill. The Mill then sorts, cleans, dries, oils, dyes, blends, cards, combs, and draws the wool before it is finally spun into yarn.

Acrylic yarn is made from chemicals and stretched until it is super fine and spun together.

Wool roving

Wool yarn requires so much more work to produce, so it's no wonder it's so expensive. But it's so worth it.
Wool is a magical fiber. It absorbs and repels liquid at the same time. It can absorb over 1/3 of its weight in moisture before it begins to feel damp. It draws all moisture away from the skin, locking it in. Even when it is damp, it isn't clammy like cotton or any other fiber. It stays warm, and yet it is incredibly breathable. This means you can comfortably wear it in the Spring and in Winter. Pretty cool, eh?


There are so many ways to use this fiber. Here are a few...

KNITTING. My personal favorite. I use it quite a bit in my shop. Because of the crazy awesome absorbency and ability to lock in moisture, it is ideal for knitting diaper covers. I use mine for nighttime since they are basically bulletproof. You can buy a pair from me here. Or you can knit a hat or a trendy tie...

Yup, I made those. And yes, I sell them in my shop.  

Knit ties are so in right now.

FELTING. Even Martha Stewart jumped on the felting wagon. Click this to get some sweet felting projects instructed from her website. 

Little Wool Maus

 Felting is pretty much just the shrinking of a wool fabric. Do you have an ugly wool sweater in your closet (it's gotta be 100% wool)? Just boil it in a pot of water followed by a plunge in an ice bath. The temperature change will shock the fibers and cause them to shrink up really tight, making it...felt. Cut it up and make some cute little toys or even a purse.
  
A more advanced way to use felt, my personal favorite, is wool art... 

Wool sculpture by Stephanie Metz.

"Little Mermaid" by AndreasFelts. Made from wool roving.

So yeah, wool is awesome! However, some people find themselves in an ethical quandary when it comes to obtaining the yarn. Wool, my friends, comes from sheep. While it does not require harming them, it is considered exploitation of an animal by many environ-conscious consumers. There are, however, options like La Lana Wool  or other hand-spun yarn sources that guarantee they are cruelty-free. So, that's something to consider. Whatever you decide to do with your wool, treat it like the precious delectable fiber it truly is. Love it and it will love you back. Thank you and good day!

Tracey Johnson   

Party one and Two: Done and Done

I have a confession to make. I ran out of time. Plain and simple. I had a grand plan of amazing birthday decor that would transform our house from ordinary to extraordinary, but alas it was not meant to be. Between the two youngest getting sick and a mid week photo shoot (which I was happy to do) I had to go into necessity mode: meaning kids don't care too much about decor but they do want to eat and they do want to play fun games. Plus I had a handful of my old skirts that I needed to resize to give to my girls as birthday gifts. So while  I had dreams of decor that looked like this and this, it simply didn't happen. Not to worry though! The kids didn't know what was missing and a good time was had by all! 

Here is a small recap! 

 I used the hanging rosette balls that I made for Raia's birthday. You can find the tutorial here. 

Mine are slightly different.

"C" for Cambria's birthday

I tried my hand at some tissue paper pom poms. Find the tutorial here. (Mine don't look like Martha's because frankly, I'm not Martha. It feels good to get that off my chest:)

 "K" for Kiera's birthday.

I put scrapbook letters on skewers and stuck them in a bowl of rice

Here is a close up. You could hot glue them so you can't see the tape, but I didn't know how to do the dot on the "i" I guess I could have done a capital. Of course, you could also cut around the tape better. Ninja vanish!

We played pin the bow on the LalaLoopsy for party number two. I free handed this image onto a poster board after I used my large round laundry basket to trace a circle.

We played pin the bow on the Hello, Kitty for party number two!  I also free handed this.

My hubby provide entertainment while this kids waited in line:)

We had coloring pages . . .(free handed this too)

My dear friend, Ashley, of Bany Canyon, who is incredibly amazing at many things made this little outfit for my Kiera so she could feel like a Lalaloopsy.

back:

We played this AWESOME game. Put a baseball in one leg of a nylon (we used little girl tights) and knock down a row of water bottles. You can do it as a minute to win it game and try and knock them down in one minute, but we did it as a relay. Knock a bottle down, then race back and hand your headwear to the next kid in line. They loved this and wanted to do it again and again.

Then we had another relay. We used two big kitchen serving spoons in which we place an egg. The runners goal was not to drop the egg.

They had to jump over an ice chest . . .

go around the toy car . . .

and drop the egg in the basket before running back to tag their teammates hand. This was also a lot of fun and a big hit with the kids.

We ended the day with ice cream cake a birthday song and lots of presents!

We did the same thing two days in a row with two different sets of birthday girls and two different groups of kids and both groups had so much fun, though the 9 year olds were WAY more competitive. I hope this can give you a few ideas on which to make your own!

Now, I just have one more party to survive throw! The family party that will be in a few weeks. I have saved all the decorations and maybe just maybe I'll get to add a few. We'll see!

Follow my birthday party ideas on Pinterest! There are a million fun ideas out there!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

Oh Baby Baby Hop

Welcome to the Oh Baby Baby Giveaway Hop hosted by The Shopping Duck! After entering this giveaway, be sure to enter the Grand Prize Giveaway where you can win a prize pack worth over $250 or an $80 Babies R Us Gift Card! Each participating blogger is also hosting a prize worth at least $25. Be sure to visit each participating blog listed in the linky below and enter to win!

 

We are pleased to be taking part in the Oh Baby Baby Giveaway Hop! After entering our giveaway please be sure to check out the other blogs hosting giveaways for this event at the bottom of the post! The giveaway on this blog is open to US residents.

***NOTE:  Booty Buns Cloth Diapers & Amy's Craft Bucket are EACH giving away an Original Booty. Please enter both giveaways on each blog & leave comments on both posts. Who knows, you may just win both!!***

The lucky winner from our giveaway will win an Original Booty Cloth Diaper in the color of their choosing.

COLORS INCLUDE:

 *Pink-A-Booty      *Love Booty        *Pun'kin Booty

*'Nana Booty       *Cutie Booty        *Lucky Booty

*Moon Booty      *Royal Booty      *Snow Booty

*Night Night Booty

For those who found our blog through the linky, 

I'll give you a little bit of background about our company & diapers.

ABOUT BOOTY BUNS CLOTH DIAPERS:

Booty Buns Cloth Diapers is the official cloth diaper sponsor for Operation Showers of Appreciation. We donate cloth diapers to each of the baby showers they throw throughout the year. Our first donation to them was for their Phoenix, AZ that took place on March 31, 2012.  We also donate cloth diapers to babies with debilitating diseases. Many of the families of such children have so many other things to worry about including doctor visits & bills that diapers should be the last thing they should have to worry about. We also have desires to donate cloth diapers to developing countries; because, many babies in these countries are wrapped in old t-shirts because their parents can't afford to diaper them.

At Booty Buns Cloth Diapers, we desire to cover the booties of the world with cloth. For every cloth diaper we sell, we will donate one to a baby in need whether local or around the globe. We are trying to make the world a better place ONE BOOTY AT A TIME™, join us in our efforts!

ABOUT OUR CLOTH DIAPERS: 

Our patent pending design the world's only TRUE one-size cloth diaper that fits from 3-45 pounds; so you only need to buy one set of cloth diapers. The cloth diaper itself consists of a waterproof outer polyurethane laminate layer and a super soft suedecloth inner layer. The Original Booty comes with double gussets and back elastic designed to better contain messes. Each cloth diaper comes with 2 inserts {1 newborn & 1 large size} and a 100% cotton flannel liner to place between your baby and the diaper to make BM clean up easier. It also helps those babies who have a sensitivity to suedecloth. We also include a double sided cloth wipe so you don't have to buy anything on the side.

 Every part of the diaper is 100% machine washable ~ shell, inserts, liner & wipe.

These cloth diapers were designed by a mom who has not only your baby, but your budget in mind. She was frustrated that if she wanted to cloth diaper her baby, she had to buy 2-3 sets to cover all the sizes her baby would be between birth & potty training. She couldn't understand why a cloth diaper was called a 'ONE SIZE CLOTH DIAPER' if not all babies are 8-10 pounds at birth, or 30-35 pounds when potty training. Her family is on tight budget & couldn't justify buying 2-3 sets of cloth diapers, and knew that there are many other families in the same boat.

This is exactly why she designed The Original Booty with the ability to mimic disposable diaper sizing from preemie to potty training pants.

Night Night Booty Sized To Preemie

Royal Booty Sized To Potty Training Pants

 

Being a mom of multiple children with limited time & money, she sought a truly one-size-fits-all & gives all diaper; however, since nobody offers what she wanted and needed, she decided to create it & offer it to other moms & dads who seek to cut the fat in cloth diapering & get everything they need all at once - included with the diapers.

{Here is her daughter (left) & niece}

She worked really hard to create a diaper that addresses the top complaints about cloth diapers, while throwing in some things that she feels are necessary while cloth diapering; and, she is pleased to introduce the world to a whole new generation of cloth diapering! 

Just to review, with each cloth diaper you will receive:

2 inserts {1 newborn & 1 large size}

1 100% cotton flannel liner

1 matching double sided cloth wipe

AND. . .

with each diaper you buy, you are helping make the world a better place

ONE BOOTY AT A TIME™

You can buy the cloth diapers designed with both your baby and your budget in mind here.

Please use this RaffleCopter form to enter our giveaway

Rainbow Cupcakes

Last year, my oldest was obsessed with Tangled. So, when her birthday came around she had to have a Tangled cake. She wanted it to be rainbow inside, so I made a rainbow layer cake & handed it off to the family cake maker, Aunt Lisa. She did an amazing job on the cake & it was so cool to see my little girl's eyes lit up when she saw it. 

Her birthday falls on St. Patrick's day, so we have done a couple of Irish/rainbow themed parties in her day. This year she wanted another rainbow cake; but, this year her little sister is on the move so I don't have the time to be in the kitchen for 2 hours straight. Some how I convinced her to do cupcakes instead & they turned out great! Here is the tutorial should you want to make some for yourself.

What You'll Need:

{This yielded 16 very big cupcakes for me}

* 2 boxes of white cake mix & whatever it requires

* 6 bowls

* 6 spoons

* Food Coloring

* Cupcake pans

First you'll want to make the cake mix according to the box; then you'll divide it into the 6 bowls. Add food coloring until the desire shade of each color is achieved. I ended up using the whole red one because I used it for red, orange & purple. 

Line your cupcake pans. How cute is this? The baby wanted to help make cupcakes! 

Start with the purple and add a small spoonful. Aww, she is so cute, I just could help but let her help :)

 

Next spoon blue on top of the purple & continue working backward through the rainbow bowls. Here is what it will look like. Instead of taking a picture after each color, I just did this to show you.

By the time you reach red, you should reach the top of the liner. Don't worry, it will make up & muffin over. The kids all went crazy at the size & color of these cupcakes, so it'll be ok. ;)

Yum!!

Look at what it did to the wrappers ~ so cool!

As always,
Happy Crafting!

Party Games on the Brain!

The count down is on to party day and the big question is . . . how do you keep a bunch of little kids entertained at a party? With fun games of course. Here are a few games that I found via Pinterest.

1. From Girlygirl109.hubpages.com, I found this awesome carnival themed Party! How great would that be!

2. I found this great activity to use in lieu of a pinata from Celebrate the Big and the Small

3. From Calebandshelley.blogspot.com, I found this fun game. I have already played it and it DOES NOT disappoint. So fun!

 4. This is a great game too, from One Charming Party. I have also played this with my kids before but we used sponges to carry the water from bucket to bucket.

I Love all of this inspiration that I get from Pinterest. It is so much fun to see what other people are doing! I can't wait to show you what we do!

Happy Party!

XOXO,

 Amy