I'm Hosting a Giveaway!

I'm quite delighted to be hosting a very special Valentines Giveaway this year. 

Shabby Apple is an online boutique offering women's to little girl clothing and accessories

specially made for the modern girl, but with all the flare of our favorite vintage classics.

 Shabby Apple has generously offered my readers

 10% off all orders made in the next 30 days,

and one very lucky winner will receive their very own sunny yellow Lighthouse dress

that yours truly is modeling. 

In addition to the yellow version I'm wearing,

this cotton summer dress also comes in a very pretty hue of turquoise. 

The Set Sail collection at ShabbyApple.com 

is most defiantly my personal favorite. 

If one or two of the collections catch your fancy,

and you think you may want to make a purchase in the very near future...

please do not forget to use "ittybittybirdy10off" upon checkout.

Entry rules:

1st. entry - Like Shabby Apple on facebook

(come back and leave comment)

2nd. entry - Leave me a comment letting me know 

what Shabby Apple collection is your favorite.

3rd. entry - Like ittybittybirdy - yoyo creations on facebook

(come back and leave comment)

(p.s) I will also be giving away a $20 custom yoyo creation

on Valentines day to one of my Facebook followers

I will (randomly) pick a winner Valentines Day!

Best of luck!!!

Play Theater: DIY

I've been pondering quite a bit lately my responsibilities as a foster parent.

Because the children in my home are not my own, 

I sometimes let myself be anything but the perfect parent.

I put the kiddos in front of the television far more

 than I should like to think I would ever do with my own little pumpkins. 

I'm not proud of this, and I believe more than anything

that I'm fooling myself if I think 

one day I will wake up to my perfect dream life

and hence become the person I truly wish to be. 

If I'm going to be the type of parent that turns the tv off 

and instead tunes into what's going on in "my" kids lives

I've got to start now - before this rut gets too deep.

So for the last few weeks I've started to try doing at least one special thing 

with our kiddo's each day. 

We've been going to story time at the library, 

drawing in our sketchbooks together at the kitchen table, 

and this week I embarked on a little project of my own.

It started out as a puppet theater but I soon discovered my design 

had much more to offer. 

Beside a puppet theater, you can turn it around and enjoy your own 

personal show.

Or upside down

where little one's can hide and play inside

or up on a table 

you can give a show with plenty of room for props.

Actually the more I think about it, this is the perfect little theater for finger puppets,

or perhaps hang some paper and play with shadow puppets.

But I think the traditional hand puppets are my favorite,

but as you can see if I can think of all these other uses

a child'd imagination can surely find even more!

And so I think it's more appropriate to call my project

a play theater. 

If you think your kiddos 

would also like a play theater of their own

I've put together some step by step instructors 

What you will need:

3 square moving boxes

one twin sheet

glue gun, and lots of glue sticks

 kitchen scissors 

Trims (optional)

At this point your theater is pretty sturdy with 2 layers of cardboard

but once you start covering up the inside you will add a 3rd,

which is pretty dang important when you have little ones.

You could certainly get really fancy with your inside covers -

on the panels you could add batting and tufted buttons,

and your curtain swag could be much more elaborate if you chose. 

I kept mine rather simple, but added a bit of ruffly trim here and there to finish up some 

unpleasant looking seems

and then adorned the outside corners and center of the swag 

by making fabric flowers out of my remaining sheet fabric. 

So I guess my next project should be making puppets -

how I wish I had a working sewing machine. Sigh!

It's All in the Packaging.

I have a friend who once told me that I was a sucker for anything with eyes.

Thank goodness this statement applied only to random objects and not men,

but she was right. 

When I first started to thrift I was always drawn to objects with beady little eyes,

there was something about them that just said

"take me home!"

Well I still have plenty of little chats with plenty of little faces

but I don't feel the need to take quite so many of them home.

This is of coarse a great relief to my husband.

So all that said, the old me would have purchased 

the mates to these friendly little bear clips. 

Believe it or not these kawaii Bag clips came from WINCO!

If you live in Washington, Idaho, Nebraska, California, or Oregon

you know that this grocery store is for bargain shoppers.

It's the type of place that has bins of candy, grains, beans and such,

and where you can find your favorite brands for typically less than Wally World.

I'm not quite regretting that I held myself back from purchasing the kitty cats and frog clips,

but then again when on earth are you ever so lucky to find such a score at the grocery store?

I'm also a sucker for vintage packaging.

I almost didn't pick up these cookie molds,

telling myself it was ridiculous to buy something you will never use

just because you like the graphics.

But then LIGHTBULB!

(I say "lightbulb" in my head just like in Despicable Me.

If you haven't seen Despicable Me, well shame on you! j/k - kind of)

anyways my idea is that the kiddos can use these as molds for their play dough.

I can't even recall when or where I picked up this 

Basket Liner - it's sat in a box for at least a few years.

I searched and searched on-line for info on the Dora May company 

but didn't come across anything. 

What a shame, I think it's rather sad that we manage to loose the histories 

of Companies that made such fun and useful items. 

I wouldn't mind having a few more of these liners 

- especially with this style of basket being so inexpensive. 

i found mine at Hobby Lobby for around $6. 

Christmas Sale!

One of the things I really look forward to is family pictures.

Getting to coordinate outfits and accessories 

to pull together the picture perfect photo shoot - SWOON!

For now I'll just have to live out my dreams through

my friends and customers

who are constantly challenging me to put together headbands and clips

to bring their vision to life. 

 

So today I'd like to thank my dear friend Ashley

for her many custom orders

and for sharing her beautiful little family -

photographed by Alison Phelps

of Phelps Photographic Art

Ashley is a girl after my own heart

wearing one of my yoyo hair clips,

and her baby girl wearing a custom made

baby girl headband inspired by a traditional headband

 I had in my shop at the time.

And right now you can snag a great deal on all pre-made

Christmas headbands and clips currently in my shop. 

Get 25% off - good until Christmas day!

And for those not so familiar with my work

I put together this little catalogue to showcase my work,

and what makes each yoyo creation unique and just the right fit

from baby girls all the way to us big girls. 

So before it's too late

jump on over to my shop and take a peak at 

my Christmas Sale section. 

Sketchbook Sneak Peak

I'm currently participating in this years Sketchbook Project

which is challenging me in more ways than I ever imagined.

If indeed I finish my book on time, it will be the first sketchbook

I have EVER finished in my life. 

But as with all my sketchbooks... there comes trouble.

Typically it's brought on solely by myself,

ripping pages, and scribbling through my own drawings when not pleased

(and sadly I must report I ripped out 2 pages my first day)

but I've actually been very pleased with my work and efforts 

so it's very disheartening when its founds its way into a little person's hands

and that little person decides they want to include a few drawings of there own.

I also accidentally layed it on my husbands shoe polish cloth! UGGG!

But I keep on keeping on!

The theme I chose was 

"Encyclopedia of"

and I decided to do crazy hair styles

from A to Z

I'm currently at M,

however all but this one is actually complete.

So with the deadline looming in just a month and a half,

I still have a lot of work ahead of me...

and for my sketchbook that probably means more torture to come. 

My hope is to turn some of the drawings into finished artwork

 sometime next year.

Although I still don't know quite how to do that.

I really would LOVE to take some illustrating classes...

but I'm not sure what I would even look for.

there is so much I have zero knowledge of

and it makes me sad and frustrated because I would love

to bring my drawings to life with color.

well perhaps my new years resolution should be something like

learn at least 3 new techniques 

for coloring my pencil drawings

yes that sounds good, now any suggestions?