Crafty Tuesday

Well, I tried.

I had the best of intentions, and I even sorta-kinda followed through on them.

And yet, here I am once again on a Tuesday without much Craftiness to share...

But for once, it's only the showing that's lacking and not the doing! I did get crafty this past week, but I forgot to take pictures. Doh. I just can't seem to get it all together these days!

Anyway, for at least a couple months now I've been entertaining plans of getting all creative and delivering a grand, handmade gift for my nieces' birthday. But then time just kept slipping on by in that unrelenting way it has, and before I knew it we were days away from the big event and I didn't have anything planned, much less done. So, we ended up going semi-homemade.

Thanks to my handy-dandy Michael's discount, I brought home a wooden dollhouse kit. I must admit I was glad to have an excuse to buy one of these kits, as I've been eyeing them for a while - they just seemed so gosh darn cute! And they really are cute.

But, they're also a bit of a pain in the neck. I spent Memorial Day morning punching out and piecing together a veritable puzzle of tiny wooden shapes. The directions that come with the kit, well, they're meager at best. Actually, I'm not even sure if they can be called "directions." It's more like "okay, these are the pieces you should have, now good luck figuring out on your own how they all fit together."

And then there's some maniacal laughter. Hahaha.

Oh, and also? I learned the hard way that building a dollhouse is something better done without the "help" of a three year old. Just in case you were wondering.

Thankfully, despite all that, I did manage to construct a house-shaped object out of them. It's even relatively sturdy, more so than I'd expected. And it's CUTE!

Here's the one and only photo I snapped of the construction-phase of the house.



We included some paints for the twins to decorate the house themselves, as well as a little family of yarn dolls. I'd thought Nadia would like making the dolls, but not so much. She was too busy selecting some of her own toys and books to give to her cousins. That was one heavy gift bag! And yet - as should have been expected - the lollipops ended up being the hit of the day.

Despite the frustration I expressed above, I really did have fun putting the dollhouse together. And, Nadia totally loved it and played with it all week until it was time to pass it along. So I think I'm going to pick up another dollhouse kit for us to do, and maybe one of the dollhouse furniture kits, too. Maybe I'll remember to photograph the process next time??

Now I have to brag a bit on my sister and her incredible crafty goodness. As my Dad said, we should call her Martha Stewart-Without-the-Jail-Time. She made birthday crowns, a birthday bunting banner, birthday tablecloth, and birthday goody bags. Among other things. While parenting four little girls. She's amazing.

You could see the crowns a little bit in yesterday's post, but here's a better picture of them. Aren't they totally adorable?!?!? The little one had one for her birthday back in March, too. And, shhhh!, but she's going to make one for Nadia, too!!



She also made some very clever felt dolls for the girls, with clothes that can be fastened on and off with buttons. She should open and Etsy shop, shouldn't she?



The twins each got their own birthday cake.



Here's a few more photos from the party, just because I think my niece is cute. And golly is she a poser! Unlike my girl, those girls love the camera.





Sweet little girl hugs. Everyone together now - awwww!



Okay, time to move along and start my day! Happy Tuesday everyone!