SHE'S SEW CRAFTY. She's just my type.

I turn 36 on December 20th.  I got myself a stuck-on tattoo!

This snapshot isn't the best, but the tatt is on the inside of my arm, lower right forearm.
My birthday/christmas present to myself.  I kind of love it!

Tomato pin cushion, sewing & crafting inspired tattoo.

Happy Holidays Postcards

I created postcards again for our holiday cards this year to mail out to friends & family. I got one heck of a deal at Overnightprints.com & they were printed and sent lightning fast.  I just love the simplicity and uniqueness of a postcard, plus the postage is a little easier I'm cheap & proud of it on the wallet too!
I actually had intended to get their premium printing on my cards, but because I had multiple designs and wanted my order separated out in smaller quantities, the best way for me to purchase them was with their basic printing service. 
I was a little nervous about how the printing would turn out, but they were crisp, looked just right for my postcard design and were completely charming!  You can just upload your photos & design your card using their templates & tools right on their site, or create something in photoshop and upload that.  I did a blend of both for my cards.  I also had to make a correction that was my own error and the guy I spoke to from their customer service was fabulous.  He fixed my mistake & then still sent me my cards on time with the date they'd promised, plus another 50 or so extra cards arrived, free of charge, so that I had more than enough for all my friends.  I was so very happy with their service. 
Holiday cards have always been an important gesture to me, because they sort of represent my small way of saying to friends, "I'm thinking of you & if I could I'd buy you each a gift, but here's a tiny token of my appreciation for your friendship".  Of course I couldn't make up my mind on which design I liked the best, so I had a few different ones printed and sent various ones out to different people. They were all designed and sent with love! 

Have yourself a cozy little Christmas & holiday season! From the Teeter Totter Tot family to yours!

{ Halloween 2011 }

My 3.5 year old in the hand crocheted Yoda hat I made him, pictured with his bestie. Complete with the home sewn cloak robe I whipped up. Her mommy put together her little blue Jewel bird from the movie Rio ensemble. It is amazing, she is so creative and made her feathered wings that span out across her back. She is one master glue gun mommy! They look too cute in their hand crafted Halloween costumes!

I put together my own Frida Kahlo inspired costume.

Yoda the Jedi master & Frida the master painter.

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Freedom!

My son turns 3 years old today!

This boy brings my world joy!

 Thank you son for giving me the best past three years of my life.
Love, Mommy

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I did an Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' theme for my son's playdate birthday party. This is the caterpillar cake & cupcakes I made. :)
The cake is just a store bought white cake mix, super simple, and I used a tub of regular store bought frosting and just added drops of red food coloring until it was the color I liked.  I did the eyes, nose & cupcake green frosting the same way and added green M&M's for some texture.  Our market has a cupcake bakery area & the lady baker gave me a small cup full of just green M&M's that she had in  their supply of treat toppings.  So, I didn't have to pick green M's out of a package.  Lucky me!
I colored those small wooden craft spoons purple for the antennas, and gently inserted them a couple inches into the cake.  The candy surrounding the cake is an assortment of M&M's and Skittles.

"The next day was Sunday again. The caterpillar ate through one nice green leaf, and after that he felt much better." -VHC

  :: These are the little egg carton caterpillar crafts each party goer created to take home!  I just saved up cartons for awhile before the party, had them pre-painted (a project my son & I did together), and then brought the embellishments for the kids to use to make their own unique caterpillar (snake, dragon, centipede, worm).

 Caterpillar balloon surprise!
I used small pieces of masking tape to hold the balloon caterpillar together & to hang it to the wall.  The face is just card stock I colored with markers & cut out into face pieces and taped on.

 "On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.
That night he had a stomachache!" -VHC

 :: Little caterpillar decor I setup for my boy's party.  Party favors included a large rainbow swirl lollipop & stickers and of course they each took home the eco-friendly caterpillar craft they made!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Little Caterpillar!

I made him this special felt birthday crown too!

Forty Toes: Forty Toes Photography LOVES it's fans GIVEAWAY

Image Source

One of my favorites, the FABULOUS Forty Toes Photography owner, creative photographer, designer, mom of four, is so over the moon about her 3,000 plus fans on her Facebook business page, that she is hosting the most AWESOME Giveaway as a way to say thank you to all her supporters!  Go check out the incredible prizes of handmade delights from a variety of vendors & designers waiting to be WON.  Just head over to her blog to see the details about how to enter, or if for nothing else, go "like" her on Facebook & swoon over the exceptional photos she takes, of her gorgeous daughter modeling the work & creations of numerous other designers!  It really is too stunningly much art, color, design & creativity for the eye to see!  You could WIN or, like me, you might just fall head over heels in ♥! 
Forty Toes: Forty Toes Photography LOVES it's fans GIVEAWAY

Estate Sales :: Tis' the Season

A .50 cent Vintage Cherry Red Handolier & $1 Green Cheese Grater by Tupperware.

I LOVE ALL THINGS VINTAGE & antique & retro & full of history from another era.  Second, only to my son, is my passion for thrift store finds, garage sale deals, antique store treats and estate sale treasures!  There is just something so beautiful about the way "old stuff" preserves history and tells a story.  The colors, the style, the texture, the smell of so many vintage things, make my heart sing!  I love to do a little (okay a lot) of online window shopping, just staring at all the unique finds that exist on etsy.com, or ebay.com, or Craigslist.  Some of the things I adore are way out of my price range (more than $10), so they exist only as a museum item, curated by me, in my own favorites list, to reference and savor and spill over on another day. 

I went to my first estate sale of the spring season yesterday & it was a goodie, but I felt so weird poking around this late old lady's precious things, with her children & grandchildren sitting there helping.  I've thought about this in previous years, how it feels so strange to go through boxes of someone's stuff that obviously has history & a story and was beloved, not to mention these people (the family of the deceased) are probably grieving, all while they watch you buy their mom's dishes for .25 cents. Sigh.  Hopefully all the people digging through the estate finds will cherish or appreciate the things they buy, as much as I do/will/would.  I'm on a neverending mission, hunt, adventure for mid-century decor, vintage tupperware, vintage pyrex, dishware, Black Americana memorbilia collectibles, children's toys & books, retro Fisher Price items, pots & pans, cool frames and currently, stuff to help me recreate a shabby chic inspired vintage look, in my own suburban totally un-chic modern home bathroom.  To be continued.  I have a vision. 

So, as much as the estate sales can truly be bittersweet, I will continue my journey, respecting the previous owners of the stuff I bring home to live with me.
It does make you realize though, how having too much stuff is so not worth it, so much in the end, it ends up in strangers hands, it's just stuff.  I love trinkets & vintage & antique & history and I cherish the idea that each thing was potentially valued and loved by someone, but I still want to minimize my "stuff o' crap", before I'm ashes to ashes & dust to dust. :)
That being said, I picked up some great tupperware, a package of fun lil vintage napkins & a retro handmade felt birdie ornament at the sale. LOL!

I ♥ Estate Sales & Vintage Tupperware!

FREE to be you & me

I have some amazingly conscientious, compassionate, creative, crafty friends in my world.  They make & do wonderfully artistic and cool things.  They share ideas & inspire me.  They model for me, in my attempts at improving my photography.  They let me do play dates and be a guest in their homes, a lot, because my home is tragically guest unfriendly.  They make me happy & make my son & I feel loved.  One of my mommy friends handmade this cute personalized felt pillow for me.  She is doing fabulous things with her hands and I feel lucky to have something she created, of my very own, in the flesh, to have and to hold forever.  A place to rest your head, your mind, to unwind. 

Comfy handcrafted pillow by MamaZshanna.

She also gifted me one of her exquisite print drawings.  I luuuvvvrrree it & everything she does.  This woman is one talented mutha!  You can see more of her creations if you stop by her http://www.mamazshanna.etsy.com/ shop.

How To Be Alone

Blessed Be Alone....
I love this precious video. It's such a delightful, creative capture of how beautiful and simple and non-frightening being by ourselves, with ourselves, and having solitude can be. Finding comfort in aloneness, this is a state of being that I personally cherish very much. Being happy by yourself, with yourself, creating your own happiness, what a gift to give & receive for yourself. Just wanted to share this & wish peace for you too, in your solo movie date, dinner having, wine toasting, bubble bath having moments of aloneness.
Namaste.

Recycled Chunky Crayons Valentines

  My son & I recycled crayon pieces & melted them in a mini heart cupcake pan to create Valentine's cards for his lil sweetheart munchkin friends.

Interested in creating some of your own crayon Valentine's? 

They are super simple, homegrown, heartfelt & make wonderfully unique non-edible treat cards for your tots' friends.

I followed the basic instructions in this tutorial over at  

Make and Takes to make ours.

I found the silicone heart shaped mini-cupcake pan at Michael's in their clearance Valentine's stuff for just a couple bucks, but you can use whatever mini-cupcake pan you find.

• Parents cut old crayons with knife up into smaller pieces, or have your kids help you by breaking them up.
• Arrange your pieces into the pan.  We found that a good mix of light and dark crayon pieces made for lovely heart chunks.
• Cook the crayons in the oven at 275 degrees for approx. 10 mins, or until they look melted.  Keep a watch on them.
• Remove the pan gently and try to keep it still so the colors don't completely melt into each other, they will blend nicely on their own while you let the pan cool.  We stuck ours in the fridge to cool a bit faster.
• Make your cute cards with a Valentine's saying or whatever your heart delights.

I taped the crayon heart to the card.

Have a Colorful Valentine's Day!

Our finished homemade colorful Valentine's chunky crayons.

{ Handmade Lollipop Photo Card Valentines ♥ }

Need a last minute super duper cute handcrafty 'Simple Photo Valentine Treat'?

Check out this craftabulous lil photo card idea that we made for Lil Teeter Totter Tot's friends. Perfect for your child's preschool classmate valentines!
Thanks to our crafty mama friend Felicia over at 3 Little Birds Stitch Co for the cute idea!

To make your own-

:: Snap a photo of your darling tot with arm & fist outstretched. Photoshop (I used Picnik editing tools) a lil Valentine's greeting onto the photo. Make some copies (I printed them on the self-help machine at Walmart). Purchase a bag o' lollipops.

:: Snip or exacto knife two tiny 'x' slits, one at top of fist, one at bottom, to slide your Valentine tootsie roll pop lollis into. Finally, hand out your crafty cards to the sweeties in your world & give em' a smooch while you're at it!

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y

Giveaway Monday over at Tatertots and Jello

Another awesome chance to WIN a beautiful Word Art Sign from Barn Owl Primitives!  Hip, quality, fun wall art, doesn't get much better than this!  I am just dying to get my hands on one of these amazing, hand painted signs, one way or another & you can too!  Click on the link, head on over to Tatertots and Jello, check out the blog, check out the BOP signs, and get yourself entered into the giveaway!  Hooray!

  I've got my eye on the You Are My Sunshine sign, and I love the Family Rules by kids one too, but honestly, I'd be happy for any of the signs to come live at my house.

My Orange Crush

I have just a teeny tiny obsession with all things vintage. I mostly just window shop online, swooning over etsy goodness & obsessing over things that delight me, but occasionally I'll take the plunge and actually indulge myself on a little something. I could get seriously giddy over things from just about any historic era, love antiques, love vintage cars, vintage ads, vintage fabrics, unique European designed things, kitchenware, furniture, art, you get the picture, but I probably have the biggest passion for mid-century/circa 1940's-60's, the Mad Men (love that show btw) type household goodies. I also have just a teeny tiny obsession with tea, both hot & iced. I drink ice tea pretty much daily. Yowsas! Bright fun accent colors in my kitchen make me smile too! So, naturally I really should treat myself to this fabulous orange vintage tea kettle from the etsy shop Linea72, now shouldn't I?

Polly, put the kettle on?

Yes, please, Polly, put the wondorously unique cheery vintage European orange kettle on, and we'll all have deliriously happy tea.

P.S. We won't mention too loudly here that my husband partner man of the house dude also recently sent me into tea kettle depression when he left the stove burner, with my cute current red kettle sitting on it, on all day when none of us were home, burning it, discoloring it and ruining it's appearance. Luckily though, his wee (moment of dementia) mishap did not burn down our house, and a kettle can be replaced. Rightfully so, I'm due for some replacement tea kettle love real soon.

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y

Mama in Pigtails

I rarely post to my blog (note to self, gotta work on that). I don't really know what to post or what to share. I have no followers, so this makes it super duper easy for me to participate in Ashley over at

Little Miss Momma 's self-portrait party. No one will peek anyway. He, he, he.

I do not like my face photographed here or there, I do not like photos of myself anywhere.

I don't like my pic in a house, not with a mouse, not in a box or with a fox.

I just don't like my face too much, not in the rain or on a train.

Try it, you might like it? Try taking my own pic you say, try it, try it & I may.

If you will let me be, I'll try taking a pic for you to see, I'll give you one, okay Ashley?

Hey, it's not that bad, I don't mind the silhouette you see, there it is, here it is, the pic you see below that's

ME.

'Mama B'

A little line inspiration borrowed from the book:
'Green Eggs and Ham' By Dr. Seuss

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2011

"My country tis' of thee, sweet land of liberty"

"Let Freedom Ring!"

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

For many years now, I have attended our local Martin Luther King, Jr. marade (march/parade). It's an important day to me, as it symbolizes something that matters a great deal to me, it represents freedom, it honors the people in our history that suffered, that were spit upon, ridiculed, burned, tortured, hung, killed & because of them my life is better, easier. They affected our world, they made our world a better place, and the world my son lives in a better place. My mixed-race adoption was made possible because others paved the road for me to experience equality, for my parents to adopt the child they selected & wanted. My son exists, because I am able to love, learn & journey in a country where free choice is possible. We choose the religion we want, we vote, we have opportunities in education, etc., much of which was affected and changed for the better because of people like Dr. King.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pioneer, a peacemaker, a dreamer, a progressive, a pacifist, a martyr, a preacher, a thinker, a writer (Letters from Birmingham), a leader, a prophet. I continue to honor and respect him on the holiday America set aside to do this, because I believe in what he sought for our future. I want my son to know his roots, our country's roots, and to be a peacemaker & a dreamer & a thinker too. I want to strife for a better America & for my son to have courage and determination, like that we saw & continue to see in leaders of the civil rights movement. Today, we did not make it to the marade, but I wanted to share a piece of this historical movement with my son, in some way.

I have this poster on the wall in my little home "office" space. It's the 'I have a Dream' Martin Luther King, Jr. speech poster. I look at it everyday. I played the video clip of MLK's speech for my two (almost three) year old son, and he climbed up on my lap to watch. I pointed to the video & then to the poster & told him that this was the same man. He said, "wow look at that mom, wow." It was pretty neat. It felt good to have him experience the MLK speech "live" and also make the connection to our home life, where he sees this poster everyday.

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

W O R D L E S S W e d n e s d a y