Teacher's gift

Surprisingly (not) I like the idea of home made gifts. I don't always have time (or enthusiasm) to make them, but other times my mission becomes to surprise someone with a thoughtful and meaningful gift. LoLo's teachers were great all year around. LoLo loves the entire class including children and teachers (dress up corner, car tracks and worms from the garden - as for Lola - very much) and so I thought it would be nice to make a gift for the teachers from the entire class.

Recently, I've been productively using and getting addicted to Pinterest. Considering I didn't even understand the reason why one would want to have a Pinterest account at first, I turned 360 on the issue. I now have my lifelong craft plan cut out and I just fulfilled one ambition from the list.

I stumbled upon sharpie projects on porcelain. "Just draw on the plate/mug/vase with a sharpie marker, stick it in the oven at 350 F for 30 minutes and it will be done" were the instructions on most sites. Among many talents I seem to have, drawing is not one of them though, hence I like handprints, fingerprints and any other form of art where I do not actually have to use a brush. The idea was born! Fingerprints on a mug for the last day of school from the entire class!

We made three mugs - red, purple and a green one for the three wonderful teachers: Beth, Daisy and Nicole.

Besides the fact that they are just wonderful, any teacher who sends out this note below deserves a caterpillar mug :))))

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Hi Families,

Just a quick note.  If the children mention a flood or water in the classroom, this morning (Monday) water came into the classroom from the street. The children did not get wet and we quickly got it under control.  We pretended we were on a submarine and a boat.  We ate our snack on the dry rug pretending it was a picnic.

Best,

Beth

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The children in the class loved the idea of a "secret" project .. although I am not sure how long it took for someone to make it "not so secret" :)))

And here is me playing still life photographer ... 

It was so much fun making the mugs.

This could also be a great father's/mother's day gift. 

Night night, Lo(lo)V(i)e from us all, 

LV xox

LoLo's mini doughnuts...

I am trying out I- phone blogging today. It has been raining all day long in NYC and on our way from school I came up with plan B instead of the usual park trip.
We went food shopping!
LoLo could place anything in their baskets as long as it was a thumb up kind of food. See, we have divided all food into three categories - thumbs up, thumbs down and asi asi :)))

  

... this is what we bought ....

We did agree that pretzels were in the asi asi or more like the thumb down category, but we also talked it out and the fact that one can splurge once in a while ...

With all that shopping I decided to try to make mini doughnuts with cinnamon and sugar and chocolate ....

It was so easy to make! I definitely see more home made doughnuts in our future! These were not not the best donuts I've ever had, but a great first try .....

Lets  see  if  this worked ... LV

Owl be there for you ..

Aren't owls just the cutest creatures? I can't help myself but go awww awwwww aaawwwww every time I see anything with an owl on it. Now, I am not obsessed (though I do have a pinterest board dedicated only to owls) but once in a while I think about creating something owl dedicated and sometimes I even go through with my owl plan.

I've been terrible with sending/giving baby gifts recently (recently = the past 10 years?). I always get excited for a new baby and run to the store, buy outfits of all sorts and then I don't send the gift  for ages. You guessed it! By the time I would actually get to the post office, the baby is walking or taking metaphysics classes in college ... So, no more outfits, I said! I will make an owl .. an owwwlll .. an owl pillow! Or even better, I will make three and gift them to some of my favorite baby girls (not including but leading with Lola but of course).

I decided to forgo inventing the wheel again, as there seem to be enough owl aficionados out there to be able to find a pattern online. A short search produced a free pattern found on  "Make it and Love it" blog by Ashley Johnston. The pattern is HERE. It really is easy. The only tricky part is inserting and sewing the side pannel.  You could get rid of it in theory, but the pillow would look much different and I much prefer this wholesome handsome owl look.

A portrait ...  

Other owls I adore: 

Owl BAG by Gingercake

Owl goodie bags for a party by Stamping with Erica

Crocheted owls by Bunny Mommy (pssst I am actually working on this one already)

I am excited to show you my projects in progress soon .. a crocheted blanket and a mermaid costume for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade for Lola and momma ... Lots of shimmer, shine and shells coming this way ... But not before I will share Governor's Island Flapper picnic photos and also hoping to lemonsqueeze a post from our 2013 LoLo's Lemonade stand
(coming soon to a street near you!) ...  

Ciao LoLovies, LV xox

P.S. I don't have my pinterest button here, but if you search for "lolovie" you can easily find me ... then you can adore 75 owls on my board and love me for collecting them all in one place :)) 

P.S. 2 . As always, if you've made anything owl recently or not so recently, please share with me.

Lola's Circus Dress

As many of you know, LoLo celebrated their 4th birthday two weeks ago. The theme of the party was Circus/Carnival. We all enjoyed it very much despite of the last minute rush to find an indoor place because of the cold and rainy weather.

My husband thinks I am crazy, but I like to make sure all the party details are in-synch including not only food, decorations, gifts and games, music, but also clothing ... I've made a few dresses for Lola in the past (yes, poor London) .. (Flapper Dress, Apron Bird Dress, Upcycled Winter Dress, Blouse to Toddler Dres)  and so I decided to persuade Lola that circus dresses are just as cute if not cuter than her huge pink tutu that she wanted to wear.

I bought an Apron Knot Dress pattern from Pitter Patterns and cut out the pieces one night, sewn it another day in about 2 hours. The instructions are very clear and well written, though the top part of the dress came out at least an inch wider than what it should have been in my opinion.

Lola loves the dress and after the party she wore it to the ZOO .. this is the photo from my Instagram taken just before leaving our home ... 

And some photos from the Bronx ZOO ... 

My next project is a sharpie plate, so stay tuned!

Have a LOLOvely week Everyone!

LoLOve, Elvi

LoLo's Circus and Carnival - 4th birthday party

Long time no see! That only means that I've been busy working on so many projects I could not find time to actually take photos and post until NO! Tararararaaaa here are the photos of LoLo's party, which would have been washed away had it not been for my quick thinking husband, who had a genius idea to ask a nearby hotel for a space. And there we were in one room instead of our spacious courtyard but ce la vie! With many adjustments and reconstruction we were able to have fun and enjoy another LoLo milestone ...

I found this old poster on the internet and edited in the words. I used picmonkey, the only editing program I can sort of use. 

The food table ...

Home-made: 

* Paper fans on the wall are from newspaper and card stock; The circle in  the middle is a paper plate trimmed to size.

* Tablecloth. Made from 99. cent plastic table covers that you can buy in any party store. The yellow and white were cut on the fold lines to 4 equal strips, shirred by hand and taped with clear tape to the bottom (red) tablecloth. Make this ahead of time if you are thinking about one for your party. It takes a while!

* Banner. Easy! Paper plates with letters printed from word on them (I have a silhouette that I can't use :); holes punched on two sides and tied together with a string. They work very well on the wall, but making them stand upright against the tablecloth was a challenge at time ...  

*  Circus train. Made from boxes bought at Staples. The wheels are doubled black paper plates, the chimney is a toilet paper roll wrapped in yellow paper and another one wrapped in stripy paper. 

 * Photo. The picture is an enlarged black and white photograph from Staples and glued to a white foam board. 

I am very proud of the circus train, though London hated the idea of the animals and cages and I had to promise him that they will be let free once the party is over. The photo of them on the train is an actual photo from a train ride we took in Budapest past summer.  

* I made the stacked pom-poms with newspaper straps at the bottom

* I am pleased with my printables done with picmonkey.

Food: 

There was cheese, crackers, grapes, popcorn in a fruit barrel and hummus cups with celery and carrots and I baked cheese and chive biscuits (that came out yummy btw :).

I did not want to overload the kids with desserts and candy, so we had cream puffs and cookies with milk (that we forgot to serve until the last minute). There were also peanuts in bags and lollipops and mini chocolate coins at the prize table. We ordered pizza for a quick lunch and then there was the amazing cake that London and Lola's x nanny, Didi made!  I thought it was just the right amount of food for a kids party. 

We also had a photo booth. Though I did learn something .. don't make the booth adult size for a kids party! How about my jeans I am most proud of?? I bought them from a boutique in Carroll Gardens. The had my name written all over them and were on sale! Nobody wanted them for ages until I appeared ... Do not be mistaken! I wear them in the summer on a regular bases and get compliments all over the city. I've had people calling me wonder bread girl :)) I've gone back to the same little shop in hopes to buy another funky pair but they do not carry the brand any longer and I wasn't able to find them even on the internet .. :( 

By the way ... as it turns out nobody likes clowns! Many people are afraid of them, I just simply do not like them. The reason being that when I was growing up, my mom would take me to the circus all the time and when the clown came on stage I was expected to laugh and smile like all the other kids, but I never found falling off pants on a guy with a big red nose funny .. lol .. now maybe I would :))) My mom would always check if I had a smile on my face, which I never did for the clown and she'd proceed with questioning if I didn't like the show and why and so on and so on ... As a character I now think they are cute .. I mean how would anyone not like that huge rainbow afro??? 

The TATTOO station ... I bought circus themed tattoos from amazon. 

Another activity was the bean bag toss ... bottom right!

There was face painting by our talented aunt Janet. We picked five designs to make it easier for everyone. Rainbow really wasn't among the choices, but Lola insisted .. 

Activities we did: 

* Photo booth * Face painting * Tattoos * Bean bag toss * Pin drop * Coloring station * Duck pond 

And what we could nod do, because of the rain :(

* Clown race  * Hula hoop  * Hopscotch  * Bubble station  * Baby rug

Nana was in charge of the prizes! They included almost anything and everything you can buy at a party store and toothbrushes as papa is a dentist :)

I also made a circus sock monkey for the prize table .. How did she come out so cute?? 

The cake Didi made was AMAZING! It was like the Hungarian "dobos torta". Yumm!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LOLO!

Now, let crafting begin (again!)

LO(lo)V(i)E to all readers who stuck with me during all these quiet months!

Elvi