LoLo's Circus and Carnival - 4th birthday party

Long time no see! That only means that I've been busy working on so many projects I could not find time to actually take photos and post until NO! Tararararaaaa here are the photos of LoLo's party, which would have been washed away had it not been for my quick thinking husband, who had a genius idea to ask a nearby hotel for a space. And there we were in one room instead of our spacious courtyard but ce la vie! With many adjustments and reconstruction we were able to have fun and enjoy another LoLo milestone ...

I found this old poster on the internet and edited in the words. I used picmonkey, the only editing program I can sort of use. 

The food table ...

Home-made: 

* Paper fans on the wall are from newspaper and card stock; The circle in  the middle is a paper plate trimmed to size.

* Tablecloth. Made from 99. cent plastic table covers that you can buy in any party store. The yellow and white were cut on the fold lines to 4 equal strips, shirred by hand and taped with clear tape to the bottom (red) tablecloth. Make this ahead of time if you are thinking about one for your party. It takes a while!

* Banner. Easy! Paper plates with letters printed from word on them (I have a silhouette that I can't use :); holes punched on two sides and tied together with a string. They work very well on the wall, but making them stand upright against the tablecloth was a challenge at time ...  

*  Circus train. Made from boxes bought at Staples. The wheels are doubled black paper plates, the chimney is a toilet paper roll wrapped in yellow paper and another one wrapped in stripy paper. 

 * Photo. The picture is an enlarged black and white photograph from Staples and glued to a white foam board. 

I am very proud of the circus train, though London hated the idea of the animals and cages and I had to promise him that they will be let free once the party is over. The photo of them on the train is an actual photo from a train ride we took in Budapest past summer.  

* I made the stacked pom-poms with newspaper straps at the bottom

* I am pleased with my printables done with picmonkey.

Food: 

There was cheese, crackers, grapes, popcorn in a fruit barrel and hummus cups with celery and carrots and I baked cheese and chive biscuits (that came out yummy btw :).

I did not want to overload the kids with desserts and candy, so we had cream puffs and cookies with milk (that we forgot to serve until the last minute). There were also peanuts in bags and lollipops and mini chocolate coins at the prize table. We ordered pizza for a quick lunch and then there was the amazing cake that London and Lola's x nanny, Didi made!  I thought it was just the right amount of food for a kids party. 

We also had a photo booth. Though I did learn something .. don't make the booth adult size for a kids party! How about my jeans I am most proud of?? I bought them from a boutique in Carroll Gardens. The had my name written all over them and were on sale! Nobody wanted them for ages until I appeared ... Do not be mistaken! I wear them in the summer on a regular bases and get compliments all over the city. I've had people calling me wonder bread girl :)) I've gone back to the same little shop in hopes to buy another funky pair but they do not carry the brand any longer and I wasn't able to find them even on the internet .. :( 

By the way ... as it turns out nobody likes clowns! Many people are afraid of them, I just simply do not like them. The reason being that when I was growing up, my mom would take me to the circus all the time and when the clown came on stage I was expected to laugh and smile like all the other kids, but I never found falling off pants on a guy with a big red nose funny .. lol .. now maybe I would :))) My mom would always check if I had a smile on my face, which I never did for the clown and she'd proceed with questioning if I didn't like the show and why and so on and so on ... As a character I now think they are cute .. I mean how would anyone not like that huge rainbow afro??? 

The TATTOO station ... I bought circus themed tattoos from amazon. 

Another activity was the bean bag toss ... bottom right!

There was face painting by our talented aunt Janet. We picked five designs to make it easier for everyone. Rainbow really wasn't among the choices, but Lola insisted .. 

Activities we did: 

* Photo booth * Face painting * Tattoos * Bean bag toss * Pin drop * Coloring station * Duck pond 

And what we could nod do, because of the rain :(

* Clown race  * Hula hoop  * Hopscotch  * Bubble station  * Baby rug

Nana was in charge of the prizes! They included almost anything and everything you can buy at a party store and toothbrushes as papa is a dentist :)

I also made a circus sock monkey for the prize table .. How did she come out so cute?? 

The cake Didi made was AMAZING! It was like the Hungarian "dobos torta". Yumm!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LOLO!

Now, let crafting begin (again!)

LO(lo)V(i)E to all readers who stuck with me during all these quiet months!

Elvi

Easter sheep

It is so cold outside I had difficulties persuading myself to do some Easter crafts with LoLo and wanted to make Christmas tree ornaments instead. But for sake of the spirit of Easter and Spring I decided to just do it. These cute little sheep came to me while half asleep ... (how appropriate?!)

They are made of a toilet paper roll - my favorite medium.

You will need:
TP roll
old newspaper
glue
cotton wool
eyes
black cardboard
ribbon
clothes pin (black paint)

Take the clothes pins apart and paint them black. Like you see my fairy doing it ... 

... or my little race car driver (as he calls himself) concentrating real hard here ... 

Take the tp roll and make 4 holes to push the pegs through. Do not make the holes too big so that the  pegs (I mean legs) can stand sturdy. They probably won't, so just glue gun them where you really want them. Stuff newspaper into the roll and start glueing around sticking cotton wool to the tube. This is a great activity for 4 years olds; they loved the glue. Cut out a shape of an old style telephone from black cardboard and glue on the eyes and the nose. Glue the head to the body and add a ribbon to the neck or ear. Baaa baaa baaa .. Am I cute, or what?

Baatiful Easter to you all!!!!

LO(lo)V(i)E, Elvi

Pouf: "A love story"

Happy Valentine's Day LoLovies!

Believe it or not, this project started 17 years ago.

Picture me, an 18 year old high school graduate sitting on my bed in a post-communist Slovak apartment building's ground floor room with two needles in my hands, among skeins of wool of the colors of the rainbow. The radio in the background is playing "Give me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman, Sheryl Crow's "If it makes you happy" and Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me". I just returned from a trip of my life, from the United States. During the 2 months of working at a summer camp I've pocketed memories and friendships to last a lifetime.  Add 5 crazy weeks full of adventure of criss-crossing this vast country; traveling by Greyhound to San Francisco; living on bagels and 25 cents cup-o-noodle soups and a hippie bus trip back to New York through the national parks and cities of the southern states. That's an experience that has been hard to replicate ever since.

But back to the sweater ... as an arts and crafts counsellor at the camp, I met this long, blond hair grungy guy. He was a tie-dye specialist and I taught macrame. He liked me and I liked him. After the summer, he was about to start his last year of high school, I just got a job at a local high school to teach English (I was going to be only a temporary solution to my wander lust).

But back to the guy ... I was in love with him ... I knew that I wasn't going to marry him and that we were not going to be together because of all the circumstances and oh pleaaaseee! He was 17, I was 21! Every fact was telling me, that I would never see him again. So, I decided that I was going to be with him even without being with him. While feelings can be temporary, objects are permanent (mostly). And so, I create. It is and has been a healing process for me for sadness and a way to create attachment to a person that I may loose. I am most creative when I am motivated by fear .. go figure! (Needles to say, LoLo will have two storage rooms full of "stuff" I made for them .. :)

Back to the sweater ... I made it the way my guy liked it (at that time) :) ... Colorful and crazy and XXXXL. I packed it in a beautiful Christmas box (he is Jewish) and sent it away to New Jersey.

Life (faith?) often works in strange ways ...
I am married to my tie-dye guy and we have LoLo .... and now a sweater POUF! ...

This what you do .... cut the neck and the sleeves of the sweater creating a tube. You may want to sew below the cut line before you chop up the sweater, so the knitting doesn't unravel. 

Once you are done just gather one side of the tube.

Start filling the "sack" with anything you don't want :) (Or anything you want for future but have nowhere to put it at the moment :) Cheap pillows work well, but make sure you put something heavier to the bottom. Old jeans or towels work well. Once you filled up your pouf, take fiber fill and stuff the sides so your pouf is symmetrical and round.

Remember that your stuffing will flatten out with time, so make sure to fill it well.

Gather the top and voila!!! I wanted to sew buttons in the middle, but realized they would not be comfortable. Instead, I cut out a round piece from my old jeans and used that in place of a button.
I filled these also a little with fiber.

LoLo love the pouf! They jump on it, roll it from room to room and fight over it! 

The entire project took about an hour and now we've got this amazing piece of living memory to jump on. It is so special. Every time I see LoLo fighting over it, or using it giant snowball,
I have to pinch myself how life turned out. 

Thank you Geoffrey! Happy Valentine's Day! I love you all! 

Happy Valentine's Day LoLoVie readers! Spread the love and make some sweater pillows!
And remember .. if you want to keep a love interest, just knit him/her a sweater!

xoxoxo
LV

Little Miss Valentine

You probably know by now that I love .. no LOVE ... no LOLOve recycling "stuff" into better and new "stuff!" :) Such is my obsession with toilet paper rolls ... (TMI: The other day I found myself staring longingly at an empty tp roll destined for garbage in a restaurant bathroom floor; then I had to stop myself from actually pocketing the item. Don't tell anyone! lol)

Not that long ago I showed you how to make Christmas angels from cupcake liners, teepee rolls and a ping-pong ball. This time I expanded on the idea and made my angels into little Valentine's Day dolls.

The difference: no halo, heart felt (heartfelt also) wings and pipe cleaner arms. Otherwise the process is exactly the same and you can find it HERE. Insert the pipe cleaner arms BEFORE you layer the cupcake liners! It gets a bit tricky, but nothing that a pair of crafty hands couldn't manage!

May I say cute? 

Stay tuned for more MORE recycling, upcycling and tricycling (:) ideas ... and ++++ ...

Oh and though I still haven't posted the button, I am on Pinterest .. look for LoLoVie of course. Or join me on Facebook.   

Happy week to you Lolovies!

xox LV

LoLo's room

When LoLo was born I had no idea how to decorate their room. There wasn't much creative anything in my mind as I prepared to care for these two little munchkins. I looked around the internet for possible ideas, but almost all designs were either for boys or for girls; never for both.
So, LoLo's baby room turned out cute and functional for babies, but soon they've outgrown the teddy bear pattern and were ready for something else.  Space is limited and I knew that a bunk bed is not a great idea for 3 year olds, plus it would cover the entire window. What I wanted for the room was a rainbow of colors, functionality, playfulness and interactiveness. I wanted the room to scream "play" and "imagination".

I've seen many scrapbook wall ideas and I've always loved patchwork, so I decided to make LoLo a house of their own in their room. It took me an entire morning to mod podge these pages to the wall. After I was done and realized that the house looked very similar to the tower of Pizza, I actually went to look for a level and you know how that turned out ... The entire house was about 3 inches off! Hah! I corrected it by patching it here and there, but you could never tell because the pattern is so crazy :).

This is how it turned out: 

The windows are made from Ikea box shelves, the toys are placed in an outdoor planter and you see the house number? That's LoLo's birth date all the way from Home Depot! The roof is made from cork, so we can pin photos and artwork and holiday decorations on it. I can't wait till it's Christmas again so that we can make a Christmas house. LoLo is loving the planter teddy holder!
We've re-discovered so many old "friends". I thought about making a few tiles chalboard, but we already have a chalkboard in the living room and I am not a big fan of chalk dust, so I scratched the idea, but I still think it would work great.   

I attached a long mirror to the side of the cabinet right by the entrance and
made it a dress up corner ...
 

Here is the opposite side of the room ...
LoLo loves books and I love reading to them, so a book display was a must!

The shelves above will serve not only for more storage above, but also for a reading nook once I find the perfect curtains to hang from them. The carpets are also from Ikea and we drive around those streets so much! All worth the 20 price tag!   

And here is how LoLo sleeps ... 

There are still many details missing from the room. I want to make floor pillows (a pouf is one step from being done), a hair accessories organizer,  buy those curtains for a hide-away play and secret reading time, make storage boxes for the shelves, pillows for the bed, a chimney for the house, LoLo's old clothes patchwork quilt for the bed, play kitchen on the other side of the book shelf, a potted fabric flower for the window and I am almost finished with a bunting!
Once that all is done I will be really done :)
(Though LoLo may be 25 by then lol). Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading. Let me know if you make one of these little houses or what you think. This is what LoLo thinks .. open mouth, eyes wide open "Mommy, this is beautiful!"  

Lo(lo)V(i)E to you all, 

LV