Whatever Wednesday -- Cute Little Bag

I recently had a conversation with E that made me giggle.  I thought I would share it with you.  But first I have to let you all know that E doesn't like that I call her E on my blog and she asked me if I would call her Daisy instead.  So forevermore she will be referred to as Daisy.  Anyway, here is how our conversation went.

Daisy:  Mom, can you make me a little bag...sort of like your purse, but waaaay smaller? 

Me:  Sure.  What do you want it to look like?

Daisy:  I want it pink and green with two handles.

Me:  Okay.  Do you want fabric or yarn?

Daisy:  Yarn, of course!  (a girl after my own heart.)

Me:  Yarn sounds good to me.  Do you want anything else?

Daisy:  Yes, I want it to be cute.

Me:  Okay.  Anything else?

Daisy:  One more thing.  Can you make sure is has plenty of fashion?

Me:  Of course!  (trying very hard not to laugh before she was out of earshot.)

Seriously.  Could my little 7 year old be any cuter?  What am I going to do when she's a teenager?!

And here it is.  What do you think?

I'm linking to these sites.  Go check them out.

Whatever Wednesday -- Cutest Little Bows

Aren't these the cutest little things you have ever seen?  I love them.  I first saw jumbo ones made out of paper at Christy's Creative Chaos.  I loved them so much I decided to try and make them out of ribbon.  I showed you how to do that here.

I love how easy they are and how quickly they go together.  My only problem with them is how heavy they are when you use a hot glue gun to put them together.  I was thinking about it while I was falling asleep the other day and when I woke up I knew just how to do it with a needle and thread.  I tried it today and I love it!  I made some mini ones using 1/2 inch ribbon, but you could yse the same technique to make bigger ones.

Mini Bow Tutorial

• 1 yard 1/2 in. ribbon
• scissors
• ruler
• matching needle and thread

Cut your ribbon in the following increments.

• 4 - 6 in. pieces
• 2 - 5 in. pieces
• 1 - 2 in. piece

1. Starting with your long pieces, make a loop in each end and have it meet in the middle.  Follow the pictures to see what it is supposed to look like.


2. Holding the loops with one hand, stick your needle up through the middle of your ribbon.

3. Continue making loops and stick them on your needle.  You will want each set of 2 ribbons to make an X and then offset the X's so that it fans out like a bow.


4. After you are done with all of the long pieces, use the medium pieces and do the same thing.

5. With your last piece make a single loop.

6. This could be a little tricky, Holding the loop, push the needle up through it and then feed the needle back down through all of the ribbon.  Then tie it off on the underside of your bow.

7. There you have it!  If you want to make bigger bows, just use 1 in. ribbon and double the length of each piece.

You could use these to wrap packages, embelish scrapbook pages, on hair clips or headbands.  I think I'm going to glue some alligator clips to the back of these for my girls.  What do you think? 

I'm linking to these sites.  Go check them out!

• Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
• We Did it Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
• Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
• Strut your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
• Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of my Favorite Things
• Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
• Home and Family Friday @ Home is Where my Story Begins

Flowers and Bows

Due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to be the guest blogger over at Miss Crafty Pants last Friday.  I was so bummed when it didn't work, but super excited when Erika came up with a brilliant solution.  Thanks Erika!

Whoever you are and however you got here...WELCOME!  I'm so excited you are here today.  I can't wait to show you what I've put together.  I hope you love it!

For those of you who don't know, my name is Sarah and I have a really great life.  I have been married to Mr. Wonderful for almost 10 years and we have 4 of the cutest little pumpkins you have ever seen.  We had all 4 of them in 4.5 years, so it gets a little crazy at our house sometimes.  It's a good thing we like crazy!  In addition to everything that I do as a stay at home mom, I also teach preschool out of my home 2 days a week and I have an etsy store to go along with my blog.  I love to do fun stuff with my kids, decorate my home, crochet, bake, and a ton of other things that I try to squeeze in when I can.  The Pumpkin Patch is full of creative ideas to do with kids, home decor, parenting advice, recipes, and a ton of other stuff.  I just started hosting 2 different linky parties...Messy Monday and Transform Tuesday.  I'd love for you to join in on the fun.  Now, let's get crafty!

I have chosen 2 projects to show you.  The first one I introduced on my blog a few weeks ago and I have had so many people ask me about it I thought I would share it again...with some tweaking to make them even better.  The second one I saw on someone else's blog and I changed it up a bit so it was something that I could use.

Crochet Rosettes

Don't let the name scare you.  I have made a ton of crochet flowers, and I think these are SUPER easy.  If you don't know how to crochet, then scroll down to the next project.  I promise you will love it.

Materials

• cotton yarn ( you can use synthetic yarn, but I prefer cotton)
• J hook (use whatever size hook you need to get the flower size you want)
• yarn needle
• scissors
• coordinating felt (optional)
• tacky glue (optional)

Row 1: loosely chain 51.

Row 2: Starting in 3rd chain from hook, single crochet (sc) across. Chain 1. Turn.

Row 3: Skip first sc. SC in next sc. (Skip sc, 5 double crochet (dc) in next sc, skip sc, sc in next sc.) Repeat from ( to) across. In last sc, finish off, but leave a 15 in. tail.

There will be an extra little bump on one side.  It will become the center of the flower.

You can finish this off 2 different ways.  I like them both depending on what I am using the flower for.

To finish it off with felt, take your felt and cut a 2 in. circle.

Arrange your flower by spiraling it loosly around itself and cut the tail off so that only an inch or so is left.

Once you get it to look like you want it to, carefully set it down. Spread glue on your felt and put your flower on top. I just used tacky glue.

Quickly make your final adjustmets and press it down into the glue. After it is dry, trim off any extra felt and you are done!

To finish it without felt, take your yarn needle and thread the extra yarn from the tail you left.

Arrange your flower by spiraling it loosly around itself.

Now flip it over and you can see the spiral patter on the underside.

Carefully take your needle and go through each ring of the spiral and come out the other side.  Do this several times working your way around the circle.  Don't pull the yarn too tight or your rose won't hold it's shape.

Once you have it securely stitched together, cut off the extra yarn and you are done!

What do you do with these little cuties?  Whatever you want.

How about gluing a clip to the back of it and putting it in your hair, or making a headband out of it.

How about gluing a pin to it and putting it on your jacket or purse.

How about pinning it to your daughters sweater?  The possibilities are endless.

If you don't want to make them yourself, but love them, I'll make them for you.  I have several colors already listed in my etsy store and am adding new ones each day.  Go here to see them.

Ribbon Bows

I first saw these made out of paper at a super cute blog called Christy's Creative Chaos.  I loved them out of paper, but wondered if I could do it out of ribbon, so I set to work.

Materials

• 2 yards of 1 in. grosgrain ribbon
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• matches or candle

Cut your ribbon so that you have 8 pieces that are 6 in. long, 4 pieces that are 5 in. long, and the remaining piece should be 4 in. long.

Burn both ends of all of your pieces of ribbon.  (Be careful not to let any little fingers get in the way.)

Glue all of the ribbon pieces (except the 4 in. one) so they look like this picture.

Glue the 4 in. piece into a circle.

Glue the ribbon together following these pictures.

There you have it.  Cute as can be right?  You can use other ribbon too, it is just easier to start with grosgrain because it holds its shape well.  You can also use thinner ribbon.  If you use 1/2 in. ribbon, cut the length of each strip in half.  It will make a smaller bow.  If you want a bigger bow, use 2 in. ribbon and make each strip double the original length.  For big bows, wired ribbon works really well.

These would be so cute on birthday presents, in little girls' hair, as a pin on a dress or jacket, as ornaments on a Christmas tree.  There are so many possibilities!

I hope you've had a great time visiting The Pumpkin Patch and hope you come back again.

New Hair Cut

When I was drying my hair this morning I noticed that I had a few dead ends (gasp) and I was not very happy.  Time for a haircut!  I've been cutting my own hair for years.  I know my hair better than anyone else, so I know what it can do and what it can't do.  I started cutting hair when I was 11 and have been cutting my own and other's hair regularly since then.  I love it!  Maybe some day I will go to school for it.  We'll see.

I cut about 2 inches off of the back and sides.  Then I layered it, and added some bangs.  What do you think?

New items in my etsy store!!!

I have spent HOURS crocheting over the last few weeks and am happy to announce that my crochet beanie hats and crochet flowers are finally listed in my store!  I still have a few more to list, but there are plenty to choose from, so go take a look and tell me what you think!

All hats and flowers are made from 100% cotton yarn, and come in infant, toddler, and child sizes.  (I can make an adult size for anyone interested).  The flowers are on alligator clips, so they can be clipped to the hat or to the hair.  You can buy one hat and several different flowers and easily change your look without breaking the bank.

http://www.pumpkinpatchdesigns.etsy.com/

Here's a sneak peek of a *few* of them...

Want to see what I've been up to?

Here's a sneak peek!

One of my girls wants to be a ballerina for Halloween.  We already had a leotard, but needed a tutu.  Why pay $30+ for one when I can make it for $10...besides, mine is way cuter!  I forgot to take pics while I was making it so I could offer a tutu tutorial (try saying that 10 times fast), but I found a good one here.

Aren't these cute?  I've been playing around with crochet hat patterns for a while, and I finally settled on this one.  I LOVE it.  You can wear them plain like these, or you can spice it up with some of these little cuties...

If you put the two together you get these...

Don't like these colors?  How about one of these?

I'll have them posted in my etsy.com store in the next few days...along with few other things I have been working on lately.