Before easter is gone and we’re on to the next holiday (MayDay! MayDay!) I wanted to show you this little project my kids and I did. A little while back, I saw this picture:

and I thought it was the happiest thing ever. Eggs in the mail! How awesome is that? The photo led me to this post on giverslog about how to send plastic eggs in the mail. So I picked up some big plastic eggs and we stuffed them full of balloons, chocolate eggs, bunny tattoos, and confetti. Then we taped them shut and took them to the post office. My mailman was little wary and very picky about labeling, but in the end he stamped them and send them on their way.

We didn’t send them far, mostly around town, but I’ve heard they made it and were well received. Yay! It’s got me excited to see what else I can mail. At giverslog, AmberLee has a whole category called happy mail, where she mails all kinds of awesome things: a shovel, a frisbee, a bottle. Getting mail is still super exciting for me–probably because growing up in the sticks it was the only thing that happened all day–but it just got so much better.

You say you’ll never dress your kids in matching outfits, but then you have a bunch of kids and realize how freaking cute it is when they wear matching outfits. So you do it even though you know they will hate you for it later.

The bow tie is of the fake variety. I made it with the help of a lemon squeezy tutorial. The tie tie is the real kind. The pattern is the little boy tie from the purl bee. I made one last year for easter as well. It’s a very mediative process, making a tie, lots of hand sewing and ironing. Sounds no fun, which is why I forgot how much I love it.

The whole orange/floral match matchy thing actually came from this dress, which came from a garage sale last summer that my husband and daughter went to. I wouldn’t have ever bought it and he doesn’t remember buying it, but whatever, we had it and it fits perfectly. I decided the tie was the worse bit about it, so I cut it off and made a new one.

Not perfect, but at least better. The orange headband was a last minute addition after my daughter cut herself some super de-duper short bangs. Right in time for grandma to see. Nice.

We had a lovely Easter with lots of  little kid cuteness and a beautiful brunch too. I hope your weekend was full of baskets stuffed with candy and not too many candy induced meltdowns.

I need a little help picking out material for curtains. Sadly this is the story of my life, which is why all the curtains in my house are white. I can not commit to a fabric. Ridiculous. The kids’ room is too white for white curtains. And they go to bed before it’s dark out these days, so they need a little light blockage action if they are ever going to get to sleep. Here are the windows (sorry one is a before picture, the other is a during): window one, window two. The fabrics I’m thinking about are pictured above, they are:

1. nani iro painting muji canvas
2. joel dewberry herringbone
3. nani iro saaaa saaa (it looks like I randomly typed some letters, but that’s really what it’s called)
4. alexander henry pirate grid

I want something dark blue and something hand drawn-ish.  So vote away! Tell me what to do. My kids will never sleep if you don’t tell me which to get. Really. And if you have any other suggestions, I love to hear them.

This is all a part of me redoing my kids room and you helping. The posts about the process so far are Before and During.

The winner of Teach Yourself VISUALLY Crafting with Kids is #7 : Krista who said

April 19, 2011 at 5:35 pm

i really like your version with the stick! we would love to win

Congratulations Krista! I’ll be in touch with you soon.

The photo doesn’t have to do with anything except that I am an out of work baker who uses her bench scraper to pick up legos. Also, I am a genius.

May is going to be a big month on elsie marley. I’ve got some fantastic interviews scheduled, a round up or two and of course the always amazing Kids Clothes Week Challenge. There are already over 100 people signed up!  KCWC has been such a big hit in the past that traffic on the blog doubles for the month. That means over 100,000 pages views! I want you (and your blog or shop) to get in on the action. Sponsor spots for May are 40 dollars because of those super big numbers.  I really try to keep the prices low enough that bloggers and indie shops can easily afford it–and I hope you can.

Sponsorship introduces my readers–almost 4000 subscribers to date–to your shop or blog. And it gives me the resources to create tutorials and patterns and all of the good stuff you love about elsie marley. If you are interested please drop me a line at

elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com

If you don’t have a blog or shop, but would still like to support my crafty endeavors. The best way to do that is subscribe through your email or an RSS reader (there is a subscribe button on the sidebar at the right). Then I know you are out there! And the more subscribers I get the more support I get the more projects you get!  Sound good?!