Etsy for Hair Accessories!

As I wait for Baby to fall asleep in my lap I rifled through the pages of Etsy's on line offerings. I could probably spend just as much time looking for things I never knew I needed on the site as I would at a fabric store. TROUBLE.  Thus far I have resisted as I have no events to prepare for (phew!) and no steady stream of income for frivolous flights of fancy. In the meantime a girl can dream, right? 

I came across peony bridal hair accessories and have no idea why I didn't look into this for my wedding since my bridesmaids and I carried peonies. Thinking back, it would have taken away from the smattering of East Indian details with the one-shouldered gowns they rocked down the aisle, so that might be why. Anyway there are thousands of listings for bridal hair flowers, but Pink Peppermint Design and Deeds and Petunia are my favorites at this time.

I've seen tutorials on making something like this as long as you can find the right kind of fabric flower to take apart. You'd also have to have a vintage or knock off cluster of something shiny to put in the center.  If you're not crafty or short on time, why not support the experts on Etsy who know what they're doing? 

**I haven't purchased anything from either vendor so this is just by listing description and photo**

Pink Peppermint Designs on Etsy is offering this vintage flower for $13.95

Deeds and Petunia on Etsy sells this one for $58 with a vintage detail in the center

As always, thoughts welcome.

Cake Pops

A friend posted cake pops inspired by Bakerella that she made on Facebook almost two months ago. I was inspired to try making them myself.  While I was not successful at getting the cakey goodness to stay on a stick for very long, I have found a new thing to do with left over birthday cake. I ended up making cake balls and they were just as yummy.

Mine were lemon cake with cream cheese frosting dipped in vanilla melting chocolate. I am definitely making something like this again but would probably roll them a bit smaller since they are quite decadent. I don't know that I ever want to make something super fancy like Bakerella, BUT it can't hurt to have goals, right? If anyone has any tricks on getting them to stay on a stick, let me know.

These would be very sweet wrapped in cellophane as gifts for your attendants or smaller pops for your child attendants (maybe as a bribe to get them to make the hike down the aisle?). I think they'd also be adorable as favors for a shower, birthday party, reception, etc. Baby B's birthday isn't until the fall, so I have plenty of practice between now and then.

Fabric Key Chains

One of the girls at work was using stretchy thin elastic around her wrist as a key chain strap. It was really sad.  I offered to make her something sturdier and after doing some research ( I really love Google). I came across Hip Girl Boutique's tutorial on Fabric Key Chains that are really easy to make.

I used cotton webbing and grosgrain ribbon but fabric scraps would work just as easily.  I ordered the webbing and hardware supplies from Crafter's Vision because they were super inexpensive as well as very quick to deliver.

Materials I used:

1.25" Cotton Webbing
1" Grosgrain Ribbon
Double sided fusible interfacing
Key Fob hardware
Coordinating thread
Sewing machine
Pliers
scrap fabric (to wrap around hardware when clamping)


It took less than an hour from start to finish. I had trouble with clamping the key fob hardware, but that's mostly because I was afraid that I'd break the hardware if I clamped down to hard. I made mine to be 8 inches and it's definitely not going to make it over my knuckles to get to my wrist. I just needed the loop to hang off of my fingers as I'm walking from the car to the house. The ones I make for the girls at work will be 10 inches around since they wear them around quite frequently. Hopefully will get those done in the next day or so. Wish me luck!