Make Something Sunday

...post it Wednesday!  I went to my younger cousin's baby shower on Sunday.  While I usually bring diapers, because Lord knows babies go through TONS of diapers, I thought a jazzed-up presentation would be great.  A diaper cake would be too precious for my cousin, so I hunted around on the Internet.  Hurray for the creative souls who post on various sites!  Craftipatti gave great instructions for how to make a motorcycle diaper cake.

It looked great and was a big hit!  I did tweak Craftipatti's directions a bit, though.  I substituted the pair of baby booties for a felted cardigan cuff from a previous project for the handlebars.  What a cool project this was!

Pipecleaners + Jello = Spiral Curls!

5/16/11 - Ah, finally at a desktop.  I've added links below.
I've been trying to add some "girly" to my appearance - getting out of jeans and sneakers, doing more than pulling my hair back, and even *shock-and-awe* putting makeup on.  These developments are almost revolutionary on my part.  Growing up churchy, I never experimented with trying to look attractive.  Doing in-home social work for the past 5 years hasn't motivated me to channel my inner girl (or inner drag queen, depending on your perspective on 6ft. "girls") either.  I've got a lot to learn.

Enter the internet.  The web is a never-ending source of new information!  I started my and DD's locs with Cherie King's Bradelocz ebook.  The Little Miss's are almost 5 years old and mine are 4.  I did a bantu knot set two weeks ago.  The knots are uncomfortable to sleep on and uncomfortable to wear running errands.  And the curls fell after 1 day. *humph*

I needed to find a nonchemical way to get the set to hold longer.  The Fedora Lounge forum mentioned sugar water, honey, flaxseed gel, and...Jello.  I had Jello in the kitchen cabinet.  A little more searching and I found a Jello setting lotion recipe on Imitation of Vintage Life (her finger waves look great).

Bantu knots weren't gonna cut it this time.  Twist-out? Braid-out?  There were web discussions on using pipecleaners for spiral curl sets (Youtube doesn't work on my phone). We're a crafty household - we've got pipecleaners!

I tried it on my hair Sunday night and wore the pipecleaners to work Monday and I got a bunch of compliments. I had curls on Tuesday and they lasted till I washed them out this morning.  Yay!
Sadly, I didn't get pics of my hair.  Soooo, I had to experiment on the Little Miss's hair!  And I got pics!

Slow Cooker Chocolate Croissants

I have been a fan of slow cooking since college.  Baking in the slow cooker is new territory for me though.  This lovely experiment worked pretty well!

All it took was some leftover chocolate (how any chocolate escaped scarfing in this house I don't know), crescent roll dough from the fridge, and a greased crock set on high for 1.5 hours.  1 package of crescent rolls make 4 chocolate croissants.

I used a vintage round Crock-Pot and vented the lid.  The pastries closer to the edge browned more than the one in the middle.  The kids didn't care - I could only get 1 pic before they finished these two off!

Refashioned Flower Headbands

I made these two embellished flower headbands as a birththday gift for one of the Little Mister's classmates.  The bear was the only willing model who wouldn't leave stray hairs on the headband.

I found great links to inspiration photos and instructions at Make Hair Bows and More.

For the first headband, I used denim from  an old pair of my jeans, embroidery floss for the crochet flower, and a bead from the Little Miss's collection.

For the second headband, I used scraps from an old skirt for the fabric flower, embroidery floss for the crochet flower, and (*wink wink*) a few more beads from the Little Miss.

The headbands were super cute!  I just wish the Little Miss would wear headbands...