Something about the annual plant sale at our school puts me in the mood for all sorts of things outdoors. This morning, I picked up a hibiscus (Tradewinds Hurricane Lily). I loved its dark green leaves and bright pink flowers.

Now I'm thinking about this:

Wouldn't it be fun to have a lady bug house? I'm guessing its one of those "If you build it, they will come" sort of things.

The Topsy Turvy Upside Down Tomato Planter makes tomato growing seem much easier, because it eliminates the need for cages and stakes to protect the tomato.  Given the insane price of fresh vegetables lately, I've decided to try to grow more of our own produce this summer.  

This Moroccan garden lantern would be perfect for intimate garden parties. 

I like the idea of rain chains. They work as pretty, musical downspouts in place of the boring gutter ones.  These particular ones are copper, so they'll eventually develop a patina. 

This nesting block attracts native Mason bees, which are a kindler, gentler bee than your average honey bee. They're not territorial, so they will fly away rather than sting. Which is good. They don't make honey (or wax) and they're solitary, which is why the little nesting block is sufficient. Still, they're excellent polinators, so they go a long way toward helping the garden grow. A few hundred of the Mason bees can pollinate nearly an acre of fruit trees.

This site also has a large selection of houses for Mason bees and some good information on growing and managing your population.  They'll even custom make a bee house based on your own design.  For more information about Mason bees and other solitary bees, start here.  

For the past few days, I've been working on and off (mostly off) on a baby quilt for a friend's new baby. I keep hitting snags and things aren't going quite right, so I've taken that as a sign that I need a shopping break.

More on my purse hunt:

For displaying spring flowers:

For a Spring tabletop:

For keeping the kids busy while you shop for Spring:

 

All of these are from Ten Thousand Villages.  If you haven't heard of them before, Ten Thousand Villages is one of the largest fair trade organizations in North America.  They've been around since the 1940's, supporting artisans from around the globe and helping to grow the fair trade phenomenon. 

While they have a growing number of retail stores, their website is full of fantastic finds at great prices. Ten Thousand Villages works with over 100 different artisan groups around the world.  In particular, they seek out artisans who are disadvantaged.  Most importantly, Ten Thousand Villages provides a consistent source of income (through regular purchases) for the artisans and ensures the artisans are timely compensated for their crafts.

What this means for you and me, is that we can confidently purchase authentic handicrafts from around the globe, knowing the artisans were fairly compensated for their work.  Which means we can all sleep easy.

Something about Spring makes me want a cupcake. They're just so bright and happy.  I've found, though, that cupcakes never seem to taste quite as good as they look.  Too often, I've found myself biting into a cupcake and tasting, well, just plain old cake.  Don't get me wrong, cake is good. I like cake. But somehow, I just expect cupcakes to taste like so much more.

 

This cupcake, though, goes beyond vanilla.  It's a Mimosa Cupcake, created by the author of the Cupcake Project.  She comes up with these great cupcake ideas that are literally wedding-worthy.

And while these may not look as elaborate, they're made with real strawberries.

In case you missed Martha's cupcake week earlier this month, find it here, along with the perfect choice for Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican Chocolate Pudding Filled Cupcake:

 

The perfectly pretty Spring cupcake:

 

 

Amy, a sewing genius and author of the best sewing book ever, has a great tutorial to turn any doll into a mermaid:



Heather is offering a free download of her Sew News embroidery design over at her blog, Hello My Name Is Heather.



If you haven't seen Heather yet, she's the designer of beautiful fabrics and creator of all sorts of great things, like these.  Her blog is beautiful and has several great tutorials and projects.

In case you missed it, a few weeks ago Hillary posted the bunny and bear pattern:



Hillary does some amazing embroidery and comes up with the best designs. I love her Tulip Fairy Stitchette, which really makes me want to learn to embroider.  Someday...

Well, Marcia No. 7, actually.

I stumbled on Marcia and her friends somewhat accidentally. But I believe I was meant to find her. Marcia is for sale at Hasenpfeffer, an Etsy shop owned by Daniela and Chris and their bunch of bunnies.  They have a great little shop that uses old clothing (and other vintage fabrics) to make these little "handhelds." 

They make other stuffed animals and felted jewelry, too.

Problem is, their cat Andre got sick. That really sad, poor prognosis kind of sick.  Daniela originally created Marcia to cheer herself up. She packed it full of good vibes, and decided the proceeds from the Martians' sales would go toward Andre's medical costs. 

Look at this face:

My papercrafting has been neglected over the last six to eight months, while I focus on learning to deal with fabric. Lately, though, I've been itching to scrapbook or make some cards.  Finding these cute stamps has only increased my desire to return to the paper.



I'm a big fan of these little nesting dolls lately.  My oldest daughter received an authentic set on her fourth birthday from my mom.  One of the little inside dolls has been sitting in the craft room/office/guest room for the last few weeks, and I think I've been inspired by it (wait until you see the little Matryoshka covered buttons I ordered last week!)  Check out The Small Object for a little set of four nesting doll stamps.

And how cute that you can get a custom name stamp that resembles the named person?! That Craft Pudding is amazing.



And shoes! Sweet little toddler shoes.



I also love the idea of a unique return address stamp.

Such a pretty return address might just motivate me to get those handmade cards in the mail.

As soon as it was released, I rushed out to buy a copy of The Creative Family by Amanda Soule.  I'd been reading Amanda's blog for awhile and was anxious to find ways to incorporate some of the great stuff she was doing into my family's life.  Enter project number one:



I had admired Amanda's crowns on her blog, so it was one of the projects I was most looking forward to.  The book arrived at almost exactly the right time, just before the big birthday party. Unfortunately, the crown didn't even get started until a few days ago, as I was too consumed planning the party to work on it.  Nonetheless, the crown's arrival was still quite timely, as this week is the school's big Shakespeare festival, for which the children will arrive in costume.  Rumor is that crowns were very popular during Shakespeare's time, so says the pre-kindergarteners.



The purple fabric covering the elastic in the back actually matches the cape she will wear during her performance (capes were also popular during Shakespeare's time, as were princess dresses).

I have plenty more to say about this book, including a review of other projects and ideas for incorporating creativity into family time.  Stay tuned.