Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Today we are celebrating flowers. Not just any flowers, mind you, but flowers that don't wilt, don't cause allergies, don't cost money, and don't go out of season. Yes, today we are celebrating pom pom flowers.  I love pom pom flowers for a myriad of reasons, among them the fact that you can choose any color under the rainbow that you want and you can dress up little corners of your house and then just forget about them.

I've had many comments about the flowers seen in this post and many more emails asking how the flowers were made. Well, hold on tight because you are about to embark on a journey of discovery and learning, my friends.

The first thing you must do and the second most fun part of this craft is picking out the color you want (don't worry, I'll get to the number one most fun in a bit).  I chose yellow and white for a simple yet summery feel.

Once you've chosen the perfect shade of color, you have to decide how large you'd like your flowers. I tend to make mine a variety of sizes by altering what I'm wrapping the yarn around. I've been known to use a fork for smaller flower all the way to to my entire hand for a larger flower. Typically I alternate between two, three, and four fingers.

After deciding on the size of your flower, just start wrapping. If you are choosing to wrap around your fingers, you may want to keep them apart a little so that your circulation doesn't get cut off from wrapping the yarn too tightly.  Have fun wrapping and keep in mind that the larger the flower you want, the more wrapping you must do. I tend to like full flowers so I wrap a lot - 100-115 wraps for a small flower, 110-125 wraps for a medium flower, and 130-150 wraps for a larger flower.

When you've finishing wrapping the yarn around and around and around some more, carefully take the yarn off your fingers (or fork or whatever else you found to use) making sure to keep a finger in the hole of yarn.

You will then take the bit of string you cut previously (oh, you didn't? Don't worry, I always forget, too) and carefully push it through the hole and tie it as tightly as possible in a double knot.

Then take a pair of scissors, place one blade in the hole and cut opposite of the knotted piece of yarn.  Don't worry if it looks like a floppy mop, you are now at the funnest part of the craft: trimming the yarn.

The trick to getting a perfect pom pom flower that isn't floppy and yarn-y is to trim, trim, trim. Never have I trimmed too much, but many times I haven't trimmed enough.

Even this guy needs more trimming! Just keep trimming, just keep trimming.

When you've finally got the little ball of fur perfect, with a dab of hot glue in the middle of the yarn ball firmly place the small twig into the flower.  I like to try and get the twig inside the center of the flower careful not to come out the other side.

There you have it - a beautiful pom pom flower.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

My mother taught me everything I know about being crafty and creative.  Growing up she always had fun activities for us to do such as ironing crayon shavings between wax paper, cutting out snowflakes, and sculpting with play dough. In fact, she is the most artistically crafty person I know - somehow her snowflakes turn out better than I could imagine, her dyed Easter eggs are more vibrant that the sun, and her drawings are more beautiful than real life.

As a child, I wore mostly homemade clothes; they were beautiful and I wish I still had them. She decorated our house beautifully with homemade wreaths, hand quilted quilts, and sweet knick knacks.  I am slowly following in my mother's footsteps but am still in awe of her skills: sewing, knitting, crocheting, drawing....

Enough boasting about how great my mother is.  I simply wanted to share her latest creation she whipped up this weekend. 

For those wondering the details of making a yarn wreath, here is what my mother shared:

          "It used about half of a skein of cheapy Lion Brand Homespun. 

          I just used one of those plastic wrapped straw wreaths (the plastic

          was helpful to keep it from snagging during the wrapping.)  And 

          I used the squares of felt from the craft section that come in lots 

          of colors. You can get one big flower and one or two little flowers 

          from each square."