hedgehog mobile.

i think margot has one of the coolest mobiles ever, partly due to all of the amazing people that made it happen.

someone i know and love, who has requested to remain nameless (wink wink), has access to some very cool things, like laser cutting machines. and when i heard about this, i kind of took advantage of said person's kindness.

i designed the tiny hedgehogs in inkscape and then through the miracle of technology and some amazing people, these lovely white plastic hedgehogs showed up on my doorstep all the way from virginia.

then jon sharp rigged them all up to the structure from a photo mobile and hung them up in miss margot's room (he may have had to hang them more than once, due to having a demanding wife).

 

and miss margot loves them. she thinks they're the bee's knees.

chalkboarrd globe.

i got this globe awhile ago at the thrift store for three dollars and was never quite sold on it's bright blueness.

it's nothing that a coat of white spray paint and some chalkboard paint can't fix though. (jon warns margot that i may spray paint her if she sits still too long--i may have a slight problem.) 

and now i have something else to practice my chalk-boarding skills on.

three months.

man. this kid. makes my heart explode.

really, heart gunk everywhere.

 

month four may not make it into that onesie.

a tree for margot.

i've been having great fun decorating the house for christmas. even margot's room has gotten a bit of a festive touch.

 

this tiny tree (if you can even call it that) came together in a matter of minutes. all that it took was a branch from the yard, a thrift store carafe, some aptly labeled very small rocks, and  a few ornaments.

i decorated using a handful of these paper stars that i made and some pink and red bells that didn't make the cut for our big tree.

accessorize with a wooden ball and a glittered stegosaurus, and voila, a touch of christmas for miss margot.

wreath.

since i never took our christmas wreath down last year, it no longer felt very festive (i had every intention of taking it down, i just keep forgetting...for twelve months...it happens). thus, a new wreath was in order.

this project came together fairly quickly, and all i needed to buy for it was the faux foliage. i went with eucalyptus branches, because they seemed to be the best bang for my buck at hobby lobby. i was really surprised at how expensive fake flowers are. even the eucalyptus seemed pricey at seven dollars for the bunch shown below, but at fifty percent off, i got out for only three fifty.

since i was going for a light weight look, rather than buying a wreath frame, i just used some heavy gauged garden wire to make my wreath base. i drew out a circle on some cardboard, hence the lampshade, and then ran the wire three times around my traced out circle. i finished off the base by tacking the three loops together with some of the floral wire, just to make the whole thing easier to work with.

i then wrapped the eucalyptus around the base, doubly thick, tacking as i went along with floral wire. a couple of coats of white spray paint later and some festive bunting cut from red card stock, and i have myself a new wreath.

 

and i even have some supplies left over, so mayhaps i will be making some more wreaths.

rocking chair.

i've finally got around to reupholstering the rocking chair we bought for margot's room back in may, and i'm pretty excited about the results.

we found the chair at an antique store in the area that used to be a grocery. it had great bones, but its most recent upholstery job left me wanting, both in style and in padding. that thin little seat cushion just wasn't going to cut it with my bottom.

so, after reading just about every tutorial on the internet and carefully removing the original fabric, i was committed. before upholstering it, i gave the chair a light sanding and stained it slightly darker to match margot's dresser. i didn't get a lot of process shots, but it mostly looked like this--me destroying the living room with a lot of fabric and batting scraps and a staple gun.

 

the most stressful part was deciding how to to cover up all of those staples. i like the look of double welt cording but was pretty intimated by the process. i ended up using this tutorial, which made it seem really approachable, as it didn't require any special sewing machine equipment (i may still be afraid of the 'zipper foot'). i was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went and how sharp the results look. totally worth the stress.

and a before and after. so much better with two inches of foam padding added to the seat. my bottom is thankful.

dapper woodland animals.

for margot's room, i wanted to do a wall of art, and when i found four of these frames at the thrift store, i knew they would be part of it.

of course the plastic faux wood look and the country images had to go, but they had potential. to go in the frames, i decided to embroider a series of dapper woodland animals that i had drawn awhile ago.

this is clarence the fox. i started off by stitching his outlines and a couple of the clothing details, and i then filled in the areas with colored pencils.

after i finished stitching, clarence got cut out and glued to a fabric backing i had added to the frame. after clarence, i also stitched henrietta, archibald, and margaret.

and here they are, a dapper mr. fox, miss doe, mr. badger and miss rabbit.

i think they look quite swell on margot's art wall. there are still quite a few empty frames, but it's coming together nicely. we'll see how long it takes those last four frames to be filled.