She's literally wearing a poppy smock!

Sure, I enjoy being incredibly frugal and barely scraping by as much as the next guy, but sometimes it just feels good to be frivolous. Like using three pilfered Taco Bell hot sauces on my burrito instead of two, using actual bubble bath instead of dish soap in the kids' bath (what? it totally gets them squeaky clean), or turning the heat on before November 1st...but I went a little crazy this time.

I made my daughter a linen dress. So, some of you may be thinking what's so crazy about that? And, really? Three TB packets? That's excessive.

Let's discuss the impracticality of linen for a moment. It wrinkles like crazy. A second in the car seat? Wrinkled. Sliding around on the floor pretending to be a snake? Wrinkled. And because of said wrinkling it really should be ironed after washing. But, in reality, I have three kids so very little gets ironed. And I like things spicy, so yes, 3 packets. But I had a yard of soft, red linen just begging to be made into a dress for my little boo. I used a vintage pattern from my stash (it's a bit of an addiction really) and made this:

I liked it but it was really missing something. Some sort of...zing! So I painted it. I've been following this amazing blog No big dill for a few years and admire her creativity. I also love the way she embroiders "no big dill" on a lot of her daughters' clothing. It really fancies things up. She also painted a dress (couldn't find the precise post) for one of her girls. So I totally stole the idea. And I LOVE it.

I dragged the kids out for a photo shoot. Well, boo had a photo shoot and the boys mostly threw rocks at each other and bickered about whether we should have french toast or pizza for dinner.

OMG. Those chubby little fingers.

I painted poppies on it. It's literally a poppysmock. Rad, no?

I wanted to name my baby Penelope just so I could call her Poppy.

But instead we named her after my manfriend's grandma.

Isn't she a peach?

I love this teal wall with her red dress. She loved the dandelion.

What? It's fiber.

Enough, Old Lady.

DIY Feather Earring Tutorial

I've been coveting all manner of fancy accessories that I've been pinning on my painfully addictive pinterest lately. Today I decided to DIY some feather earrings. It was super easy. And guess what? I made a tutorial so YOU can make some too. I know. I give and I give.

Here we go:

I started with some feathers from Joanns. These came in a bunch together with a couple other odd pieces. $4.99 less 40%

Cut them to the length you desire. Remove a few of the fringies so that you can wrap the top.

Fish hook earrings and 26 gauge copper wire.

I also decided to use some wooden beads that I had from a broken necklace.
Cut two pieces of wire about 7 inches long.

Put the beads on.

Fold your wire in half, creating a loop at the top.

Insert wire through jump ring of fish hook earring.

Twist, twist, twist. The jump portion has a tiny open spot that you'll want to close with some pliers.

Slide that whole wire contraption down through the beads until your earring is about the length that you'd like it.
Add a dab of glue under the bottom bead. I used Gorilla glue, but whatever floats your boat.

Twist the wire a few times under the bottom bead, up the back, under the second bead, and then continue
twisting it all the way up until you run out of wire. I had some extra feather part that I just cut off.
Do it again so you have a matching set.

This is what I look like in my bathroom mirror. Hot, no?

Boom. Now I'm rocking it.