Etsy Treasury - stop & smell the flowers

I made this treasury for the sos team weekly challenge - flowers - and loved making it. I'd love for you to stop by my shop - sunshinemakings.etsy.com - and take a look at our sale. Everything is 15% off for the month of July...just over a week until the sale ends! 

Sweet Flower, (original wate... piinkdesignstu... $18	Czech Bead Glass Leaf Beads,... WhiteGiraffe $1.6	Ceramic Flower Earrings Rou... Ceraminic $12	Butterfly Lace Ceramic 3D Mo... Ceraminic $5
Sale, Free shipping, Flower ... RedPepperHats $15	CIJ SALE Aquamarine Swarovsk... DueAmiche $10	25 large vintage medallion p... papirvendage $4.25	Newborn Girl Photo Prop Pink... ZucchiniIsland $5.99
Cherry blossoms tree of life... MacKenziesAtti... $10	Vintage Glass Vase Green Squ... LoveMyVintageB... $25	Lace Earrings Orange and Gra... WhiteBearAcces... $20	Cotton Candy Pink Summer Rom... ItsaGirlThinge... $62
Summer Clutch Purse Floral R... FriendlyHandma... $18	Peach Linen Burlap Ruffle Zi... JuneberryStitc... $23	Glass Vase, Small Vase, Glas... restyledbyvale... $27.5	iphone case 4 4s 5 pink flor... mylittlepixels $25.95

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Playful Petals Flower: Free Crochet Pattern

**Click here to access my Playful Petals Flower Crochet Pattern**

I don't have much to say other than that I made a new free flower crochet pattern! It is my free Playful Petals Flower (skip to bottom for free pattern link) that is on the bamboo baby hats that are currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

And since last month was my birthday month, I'm giving the pattern to the entire world for free.

The playful petals flower is easy to crochet, works up very quickly, and looks adorable on crochet baby hats! It's also a great way to use up scraps left over from other crochet projects.

You could use the crocheted flower to decorate anything that your heart desires.

**Click here to access my Playful Petals Flower Crochet Pattern**

If you make a flower with the free flower crochet pattern, I'd love any feedback, good or bad. 

Enjoy!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

How to Make a Muslin Cloth Rose

If you follow along, you have probably seen the recent post about my homemade cloth diaper cake that was part of my friend's baby shower decor. This is a closer look at one part of the cake: the muslin cloth rose. I'm going to show how you can make your own muslin rose, which is a beautiful addition to a diaper cake. You could also arrange a few of these into a muslin rose bouquet or to top a wrapped gift.

There are only two things you need to make your own muslin cloth rose:

1. Baby Muslin Cloth (like these)

2. Ribbon

I obviously used baby muslins but you could also use any type of thin, soft, flexible fabric if you do not intend for them to be used by a mom-to-be.

1. Lay out the cloth and fold it in approximate thirds.

2-4. Again fold muslin in thirds, creating a long, narrow folded piece.

5-6: Roll from one side until you have about a third of the length remaining unrolled.

7. Pick up the roll and fold top edge down toward you at an angle (diagonal).

8-9. Continue to bring the unrolled length around, holding it in place as you carefully bring it around.

10. Your unrolled length will eventually end up back at the diagonal from number 7.

11. Tuck the amount of remaining length into the space under the folded diagonal. This will hold the rose together.

12. Admire your cloth rose.

Tie a ribbon around the rose to hold it securely in place. 

Here is a look at the muslin rose I used to top the cloth diaper cake...

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Easter Garden

Easter is one of the most significant holidays and it has been a joy lately to teach my children that it is about more than bunnies, eggs, and chocolate. To help them experience the true reason we celebrate Easter, we made an Easter Garden. I was inspired by this Easter Garden tutorial on A Holy Experience.

Our Initial Supplies: 

Large Plant Pot, Plants, Compost, Small Plant Pot, Stones, Candles, Small Candle Holder

Supplies for Later in the Week:

Wax

Small Piece of Cloth

Butterfly

I took my little girl and boy to the garden centre and let them choose plants for our garden. We also bought a large plant pot and compost. We found all the other supplies in and around our house.

It was such fun to arrange and plant the plants together. I let the kids decide where they wanted everything. We put the small pot on its side and partially filled it with compost. Ann (A Holy Experience) suggested writing the words Grace, Resurrection, or Joy on a stone near the 'tomb' and my kids chose Joy. I'm pretty sure it's because being 3 and 4 years old, they understand what Joy is but are still trying to grasp the concepts of Grace and Resurrection.

We made a path of stones leading to the tomb and our freedom from death. I love this imagery. We filled a small candle holder with water and sunk it into the dirt to be our small pond. We then placed candles around the garden which we will light one each night leading up to Easter. Making this Easter Garden with my children was such a joy and a really special way to inspire conversation about Christ's great sacrifice and resurrection.

In the days to come, we'll do the other things suggested in the tutorial: 1) Planting seeds on Palm Sunday to represent the hope that is coming soon. 2) On Good Friday, make a wax caterpillar and cover it with cloth and place it on the tomb. 3) On Sunday, there will be a butterfly in place of the caterpillar to represent new life.

After making this, I've also realized that I love having live plants in the house. It relaxes me to glance over and see lovely green growth, such a contrast from the grey misery outside the windows. 

If you have a moment, please take a look at the tutorial on A Holy Experience. Ann uses her words in such a magical way and the symbolism of the Easter Garden may become clearer from reading her original tutorial.

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Sunshine Makings: new etsy shop

I am so excited to announce that my mom and I have just opened our Etsy shop: Sunshine Makings! This has been a goal of mine for the last two years and when my mom mentioned making some things for my 'future' shop we realised how special it would be to have a shop together. It is thrilling to have just pushed the key on my keyboard that sent the shop into existence. We would love for you to visit Sunshine Makings and share in our excitement.

For now, here is a peek at what we've got in our shop:

You might remember reading about my lavender harvest a few months ago. Well, I've used the lavender in these lovely relaxing eye pillows.

These cheerful mug cozies made by Kay (my mom) are great for keeping a cup of coffee, tea or hot cocoa warm.

Who can resist amigurumi? I love making these cute little animals like this little mouse and elephant that you may have seen here.

My absolute favorite is this baby blanket. It is so soft and I love the combination of colors.
I would keep it if I still had a baby. :-)


I hope you enjoy this small peek into our shop! I'll be announcing here when more items become available.


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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Friday Foto - Busy Bee (35 of 52)

Harvesting Lavender

I don't have much of a green thumb, but one thing I've managed to grow very easily is lavender.

I love it. The smell gently blows in through our window and is so relaxing.

This year I want to hold on to it  even when the flowers finish blooming, so I learned how to harvest and dry lavender. Here is what I learned...

First, make sure you do it on a dry day in the morning. It was a great way for me to get outside earlier than I normally do. I felt so healthy! The kids played and I was able to keep an eye on them while I go to work. It was a little frightening at times because we have a LOT of bees that love the lavender as much as me. I put on a brave face and reminded myself of all the beekeepers that handle bees on a regular basis and then I began to cut. The stems I cut were about 6 to 8 inches long.

As I cut, I would bundle 20 stems and hold them together with a rubber band. When I ran out of rubber bands, I took my crop inside to do the rest. By then, my kids were ready for lunch so inside was a good place to be.

After getting the kids settled with their food, I unfolded enough paper clips and slid them through the rubber bands. You could also use ribbon, string or another type of clip.

My bundles were then ready to hang. They could be hung from a hanger, nails, hooks, etc. I hung them from our drying rack...

I made sure to space them apart enough so that the air could circulate.

Then I put them in a dry, dark place. Our only dry, dark place was the drying closet... 

I'll peek in on them occasionally so I know when they're dry...and to get a good whiff of the soothing scent.

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