Bonnet Giveaway

I am hooked on bonnets, and have made a bunch to give as gifts. I have whipped up an extra bonnet to give to one of my readers. Enter to win a baby bonnet like the one pictured above by:

• "liking" namesake design on Facebook and posting a comment about the bonnet on the Facebook page; and/or
• following namesake design and leaving a comment to let me know you are a follower on this post.

All entries must be received by 10 PM EST Wednesday, May 4 2011.  

Double Feature

Yesterday Namesake Design was featured on two baby related websites!  The woodland themed shower I hosted for my sister last year was featured on Bump Smitten, and Beatrice's nursery was featured on Baby Lifestyles.

Bump Smitten is a relatively new website that is bursting with baby shower inspiration.  If if you aren't planning a baby shower in the near future, the site is still worth a visit. Many of the ideas showcased on the site could be easily interpreted for wedding showers, birthday parties, etc.

Baby Lifestyles is a site that celebrates all things baby. In addition to great nursery design and party ideas, the site is also filled with articles about parenting, celebrity moms and dads, gifts ideas and much more. Look for the baby Lifestyles e-magazine - launching this June.

Iron Craft Challenge - Week 17

This week's challenge was inspired by the royal wedding and called on iron crafters to create something for a wedding. I mulled over ideas for wedding gifts, decorations, invitations and then decided to create something for a member of the wedding party, the flower girl. I have been wanting to make my little girl a bonnet to keep the sun off her fair haired head and I thought a pretty white bonnet would be a lovely accessory for a flower girl in a spring or summer outdoor wedding. Amazingly, I had the perfect fabric on hand (light weight, bright white, and eyelet trimmed). I also had about a yard of lace trim in the same shade of white.

I perused Etsy for ideas and once I found something I liked I went in search of a pattern. I found this pattern and modified it a bit, to achieve the look I wanted, by adding a ruffle trim and rounding off the edges along the bonnet brim. Scroll down for my tutorial.

Quick Tip: Solar Lights

Shortly after moving in we found 10 solar lights stashed away in our shed. They remained there for a year and were brought out last week to place throughout our newly landscaped backyard. They were all in working condition, but most (9) were missing the stakes that hold them in the ground. I could not find replacement stakes at Home Depot and I was afraid to order them online in the event that they didn't fit. That, and the fact that replacement stakes sell for $3-5 for per 2 pack.  The solution? I used 10 inch spikes. I purchased a box of 15 at my neighborhood hardware store for just under $15 (less than $1 per spike). They went into the ground very easily, the lights fit them perfectly, and they seem to be more stable that the plastic stakes that the lights came with.

Happy Earth Day

Print by LizzyClara

Happy Earth Day! Although we are celebrating the earth today, we try to incorporate conservation into our everyday lives around here.

• We recycle everything we can! We are lucky to live in a county where almost all plastics are recyclable; in addition to paper, glass, and metal.
• We reuse. I save all kinds of things for the kids' crafting projects. Tubes, jars, Styrofoam, you name it.
• We grow some of our own vegetables. Our yard gets lots of sun and despite the disaster that our yard once was, we manged to have a nice little vegetable garden last year. This year we are growing zucchini, cucumber, tomato, beans, sage, rosemary, and basil.
• What we don't grow ourselves we try to buy from local sources. We are lucky to live within walking distance of a great farmer's market.
• We conserve water. We have a high efficiency washing machine and we recently installed a rain barrel in the garden. Our water bill also shows us how we compare to other households (average use per person). I am proud to report that we use much less than the average.
• I even try to work conservation into my crafting. I am committed to not buying any new supplies for the Iron Craft Challenge (with the exception of peeps).
• We also buy used. Most of the furniture in our house was found in thrift stores, at garage sales, etc.

Could we do more? Absolutely! After reading about this family, I was inspired to to cut down our house hold waste. I use way too many paper towels, we buy lots of snacks with individual packages that can't be recycled (such as granola bars and juice boxes), and then there's the issue of disposable diapers.

We won't change overnight, but I think we are on the right track. How about you? How do you incorporate Earth Day into your everyday?

Outdoor Makeover

I was out of town for work this week and didn't have time to complete my Iron Craft project. The challenge was to do something related to money or taxes. I was going to make a reusable grocery bag out of disposable plastic grocery bags - I thought it would be a clever nod to the bag tax in DC. Of course inspiration didn't strike until Monday night and I just wasn't able to pull it together in time. I do plan to finish it and will post at a later date.

Despite having a growing pile of unfinished craft projects, I have been checking home projects off the home to do list.  I am happy to say that a little over 1/4 of the way into 2011, the hubby and I have completed 3 of the 10 items on our list. Today I thought you might like to see our new back yard. The old yard was landscaped about 15 years ago and was pretty neglected by the time we moved in. There were vines and weeds everywhere, a defunct pond (that we drained almost immediately), and lots of big overgrown plants and bushes in need of major pruning. The deck and patio were nice, but we really couldn't enjoy them without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of yard work.

After trying to tackle bits and pieces of it ourselves, we decided it was time to call in the professionals. After interviewing and getting bids from three local landscapers we selected GreenSweep LLC. They were competitively priced, listened to our needs, made excellent suggestions, and completed the project in a few days. Now I am turning my attention to sprucing up our deck. My plans include painting the patio furniture black (its green now), purchasing an outdoor rug, making some outdoor pillows (I already bought new cushions for the chairs), and hanging some lights.

Before GreenSweep. The tarps everywhere were my attempt to kill the invasive vines.

During the overhaul. The large area with wood chips is the future site of a play house for the kids.

After! We can't wait for the grass to take root.

There were a few things that we did that I think helped make this process a smooth one.We spent a lot of time thinking about what we wanted to do to the yard. We divided the yard into zones (A, B and C) and made a list of everything we wanted to accomplish in each zone.  We had a few wish list items like a new fence to replace the chain link along one side of the yard, and a sprinkler system that didn't make it into the plan. We nixed the sprinkler system after learning that they are not common in this neighborhood and wouldn't result in much of a return on investment. Also, the yard is not very big so we can water it pretty easily. A new fence would be very costly and is something we can live without for now, but save for and complete at a later date.  Once we finalized our list we gave the same list to each of the landscapers that gave us estimates. This really helped to ensure that all of the bids included the same things.

We also tried to work with what we had. We kept most of the established shrubs and bushes, relocated plants from areas that would become the lawn to the new beds along the fence, and turned the pond into a rock garden/construction zone for our son.

Lastly, we have started an outdoor art project over the weekend that will grow and add color and personality to the yard over time. I helped kids to create little paintings (on wood) that we attached to side of the shed. We'll create new pieces each season and someday hope to cover the whole side of the shed.

Shop Alert - Changes to Coloring Books

Wedding season is right around the corner and I've made some changes to the way I sell my coloring books. Now, instead of paying a design fee per page and and an assembly fee per book, customers will be able to pay a flat fee for a 4,6,8, or 10 page book that will be emailed to them as a PDF. This allows the bride and groom to produce as many copies as they like of their book. Unfortunately, I will no longer be offering to print books for customers. The time it took to print and ship the books did not make economic sense.

I just completed a book for a May bride in NC (excerpts pictured below) and I am working on a book for a June bride in VA. If you would like more information about my books or would like to place an order please visit, http://www.namesakedesign.etsy.com/. You can also see examples of my work on my portfolio page.

Pretty in Pink

This past weekend we celebrated the first birthdays of Beatrice and my neice, Natalie. Our house is still over flowing with pinks, greens, and butterflies! I had so much fun decorating for this party, and definetly went over the top.

1. I had Sassy Photo Creations create this custom inviation based on another one in her shop. It fit the theme perfectly. I have worked with Agnes twice and love her work.

2. I made this birthday banner (sorry I couldn't get it all in one shot) for Elliot's first birthday (which was also a joint party with a sweet little girl named Allie).

3, 4, and 5. The favors consisted of little pink and green watering cans (picked up at Micheals for $1 each), butterfly crayons by Ducks in a Row Boutique, and number one cookies by Sugar Coated Cookies.

6. I revamped the wish tree from my sister's baby shower by adding little crepe paper flowers to it. I found the pre-cut white  butterflies and oval cards with scalloped edges at Paper Source.

7. The flowers were all pink and green and I had several of these arrangements throughout the house. They are also very similar to something that I created for my sister's baby shower.

8. I whipped up some butterflies to dress up drinking straws. They were a hit with grown-ups and kids.

9. I used the Paper Source butterflies as a stencil to create these little butterflies that I placed throughout the house. To make them, I took two card stock butterflies, sewed them together (straight stitch on the machine) and folded them so that they could stand on their own.

10. Besides the adorable birthday girls, this was my favorite element of the party. I used Duff brand fondant (available at Micheals) and set aside almost an entire morning to bake and decorate the cake. This was my second fondant attempt, I think I am addicted. It is so fun to work with!

11. I have been wanting to make tissue paper pom-poms forever. I used this very simple tutorial. I hung them from the chandelier with thread so that they looked like they were floating. I am loaning them to a friend for a party next weekend, and afterwards will hang them from the playroom ceiling.

12. This is the best picture I got of the birthday girl that shows off her number one t-shirt. Both girls had matching shirts and tu-tus.

Lacking a number, but probably of interest, is the table cloth.  Its actually three yards of this fabric. I am planning to use it to make floor pillows for my living room.

Please leave a comment if you'd like more detailed instructions for any of these projects.

Is it April Already?

Wow, time is flying and I have been creating and decorating up a storm. Unfortunately I have been so busy crafting that I haven't had time for blogging. Well this week I'll be catching up on blog posts and catching you up on a few recent home improvement projects, all the fun I had planning my daughter's birthday party, my weekly submission to the Iron Craft challenge, and more.

Its Wednesday, which means its time to post my Iron Craft submission. This week's challenge, "use peeps as your medium" was tough. I have been wanting to enter this contest for ages, and totally missed the deadline this year - I won't next year. I didn't have time for something quite that elaborate so I went to CVS looking for peeps and inspiration for a simple but cool peep project. After finding a bunch of green peeps and remembering that I had a foam ball, a dowel, and polka dotted flower pots from another project; I decided to make a peep topiary.

How hard could it be? Stick ball on top of dowel, use tooth pics to attach peeps to ball, stick ball in pot filled

with floral foam, wrap dowel with ribbon, line top of pot with paper disk (just a circle of paper cut to fit around dowel on top of floral foam0, top off pot with M and Ms. Yeah, thats not exactly how it all went down. Peeps don't like to be stuck. They kept sliding off the tooth picks and their sugary coating was EVERYWHERE. I managed to get them all stuck for the photograph (an hour or so after I started sticking peeps on tooth picks), but I will be needing a better solution if I want it to last until Easter. Suggestions?

Check out all of the other Iron Craft peep projects here.