Pinterest Challenge Winter Edition.... Felt Balls....

It's time for the Pinterest Winter Edition hosted by Bower Power and Young House Love

I finally made myself a felted ball wreath! This has been on my to do list for years. 

Inspirations from here. LOVE LOVE LOVE the original. 

I can't even begin to tell you how ridiculously long this took me because I continually underestimated the number of balls I would need to finish. I never want to wet felt another thing in my life... I think there is around 350 balls on this 16" wreath... And the first round of 100 balls that I made were way too small so all of those had to be redone... I'm balled out. 

 But isn't it GORGEOUS in my entry?! (whatever I love it! lol) After my 3rd batch of balls proved to be insufficient I was really hoping Uber would tell me he hated it (he had said when I showed him my pinspiration picture that he wasn't a fan) so I was ready to scrap it and use the balls elsewhere. Unfortunately -fortunately?!- he decided that he actually really liked it.... so one more day of felting and I finally was able to complete it... I absolutely have to say that this wasn't a process I enjoyed I just wasn't willing to shell out the cash for this many premade balls.   

To make these I tightly rolled the felt and spent a few seconds needle felting it into the ball shape to make sure everything would stay in place. Then I wet felted using hot water and soap. Generally I worked with each ball twice and when I was done I ran them through the dryer on high heat for two hours. 

 I thought making them would be fun to include Micah in. He did get a kick out of it. However the ball making part was lost on him. He liked squishing the balls and putting too many balls in the water... and playing with soap and generally making a massive mess. 

It was highly entertaining for the both of us. Then I set him up with a hairdryer and let him blow them around... because it made him very happy! When he was bored I threw them all in the dryer. 

If you are looking for a fun kid project this was definitely enjoyable- just don't expect results!

 Totally worth it! (now that it's done!)

Micah's Tee Pee (the Pinterest Challenge Summer Edition)

I finally got my act together to participate in the Summer Pinterest Challege hosted by Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June (love them!). Since I am completely addicted to Pinterest it's awesome that someone has taken the initiative to get everyone to actually do something with their pins. 

For my project inspiration, I originally pinned a teepee featured on Happiness is Eva, who I started following after she used my garland for her daughters first birthday party. Hers was purchased from Angel at my Table which is an Australian company. I loved how beautiful and finished it looked. So after much additional perusing of available children's Tee Pee's I knew this was the one that I wanted to reproduce. 

My version--

I am thrilled with the way it turned out. I looked all over trying to see every random picture of these Tee Pee's I could find to figure out how they put them together. I finally lucked out when I found (duh!) the assembly instructions at their site. It filled in all of the details I wasn't sure about.  

It's large enough to grow with him as he gets older. (Uber and I can sit in there with him comfortably now...at the same time...) It's roughly 8 feet tall (to the top of the poles), 68" tall inside and 60" across at its largest point. 

I used a set of herringbone sheets (found at target), 5 bamboo poles, 5 dowels, 5 cord stops, clear vinyl plumbing tubing, cotton clothes line rope, velcro, scrap leather and leather cord to create my own version of the tee pee. It ended up running around $70 in supplies and took about a week of nap times to finish. 

close up details.  Seriously I think the photo below is my favorite. 

It was completely worth it to add such a fun (and I think stylish) play space to our living room for Micah. It sits in a corner that was wasted before and lucky him it has an awesome view of the TV. The adults in the house (and most who visit) may or may not spend time in there hanging out and wishing it were theirs. 

the lucky little boy!

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. I tried so hard to make a tutorial for you guys on this one but I got to the sewing part and was all DARN IT... they can figure this out for themselves!!! But if there is a lot of interest I can do a post on the set up and at least point you in the direction of how to go about it on your own. I really have to say the project turned out exceptionally well ... and believe me I tried very hard to mess it up!