My oldest is turning 4 on the 17th, and she is obsessed with pikachu! We do a themed party every year, and this year we are going all out! 

My pride and joy of this party is the foam pit we are putting together. We followed a YouTube tutorial, and made a few changes for the items we had on hand. 

Things we used: leaf blower, plastic tubing, 3″ lite flexible downspout tubing, duct tape/packing tape, 44gal trash can, and the member’s mark gallon container of dish detergent. 

The downspout adapter fit right on the leaf blower, so my dad clamped it down, then we cut and taped it to some tubing. If you watch the YouTube video they use a shop vac, and metal pipe. (We definitely didn’t need so much power behind it for a 4 year olds birthday party) 

Tape an old towel over your partially filled trash can (fill it about a quarter full and add “a bunch” of soap- if you think it’s enough add more, we used like a quarter gallon just on the tests) leave space for an opening to insert the tube of the blower. 

We secured it in place so the bubbles wouldn’t fly out the insertion point. It’ll need to be undone if you need to add more solution though.  

Turn it on and enjoy the bubbles! Our next step is to build an enclosure for the foam for the kiddos to jump around in. 

Frankenstein was super excited and it was only a test, I’ll be sure to post the final run through of her birthday party! 

I’m off to make some Pokémon bath bombs for the “Hatch your own” portion of the party!

I had a very non-traditional proposal near the end of May, as the fiancé had told me he “wanted to feel special too”. While I had been hoping for him to propose for that exact reason, I’m not in the damsel in distress business. To show my girls I am the slayer of my own dragons, I made it rock! 

I’ve known him since we were in elementary school, and although I really wanted to make it a Star Trek themed proposal because I’ve recently been obsessed, I knew I wanted to use the quote from Disney’s Robin Hood about knowing him since we were children. I found a lot of good inspiration online, and I also collect Disney pins. One of my very best friends found the perfect pin for me to use, which was funny because he rolls his eyes at my collection. 

I decided to paint a box and put the pin inside, it was difficult because we live together and he was in and out of the room. I told him to stop walking by my “office”, which is a desk in the living room. He assumed I was working on a fathers day gift. This was the final result. 

I fell in love with this font for the sides

It was such a pain getting the vinyl letters to stick, but I finally got them on there. 

I thought he turned out quite nicely
And the inside. The pin was a perfect fit. He laughed, and apparently he had no idea I had planned it all out. His brother was in town from out of state and there was a large family gathering, and I proposed in front of the family. His cousin is a photographer and got some great shots of the engagement! 
There has been a lot of judgement thrown at me for this, but I don’t really care. I’ve been in love with him for as long as I can remember, and it took me over 16 years to finally tell him. Now I get to plan a wedding that i dreamed of as a kid, so I like to think people are just jealous. 

I never thought I would be a “work at home mom”, I loved my job in the shop as an apprentice jeweler and would have stayed there until I was able to retire. Unfortunately things got all screwed up on my way back from maternity leave, and now I “save” about $1300 a month by not going to work. The trick is getting any work done with a 7 month old and a 3 year old. 

I recently found out the 3 year old loves to paint, not in a tempra paint or watercolor kids painting kind of way either. She adores acrylics and blending and playing with color and has decided she wants to paint like me when she grows up. I hope she’s better. 

This is her very first acrylic on canvas, I am impressed and want to encourage her creativity. We are going to have a painting party for her birthday I think, because this puts Frankenstein in her zone. 

I’ve been writing some crochet patterns, and crocheting from other people’s patterns. I have renewed my love of Knitpicks “Mulberry” colorway (I am not affiliated with them, and I get no money for saying that, just want to point out that it is gorgeous)

I recently finished crocheting that shrug from a Doris Chan book, she has some really awesome patterns. I love crocheting motifs, so fun ways to join them intrigue me.

Since I last wrote, I proposed to my boyfriend. (Judge me if you want, but he was dragging his feet, and I did a super good job- I’ll write a separate post about it later.) I have decided because the shrug was so fun to make that I am going to crochet my wedding dress. I’ve been looking for approximately 3 months for a pattern I like and I have found none. I’ve found patterns I like parts of, but I cannot justify spending $12 for a pattern I will only use a third of for one item ever. 

I want a flowing skirt, a motif construction and a top that covers my chest without looking frumpy. You can’t find the flowing skirt with a top that will contain anything over a B cup that doesn’t look like something designed more for my mother. (I love you, Mommy, but I don’t want to dress like you.) So I will get to the drawing board and keep you apprised of my designs. 

I’ve also been working on a couple fun crochet patterns for amigurumi, the two that will be available in my shop this upcoming week are a dragon and Sadness from the feelings movie. I was commissioned to make the dragon, and I love how he turned out, I’ll include a coupon code her in my blog when I release them for all you wonderful, loyal readers! 

I have also come to the conclusion that I will not get anywhere near my New Years resolution, but I’m ok with that. I’ve written 2 patterns that are published in my shop and on ravelry, as well as 3 I need to do some photography for, and the 2 I’m currently working on. By the end of July I should have 10 fun toy patterns in my shop and a series of hooded baby, toddler and child sweaters that have been in the making as well. 

Any requests for crochet patterns, I will gladly work on. You can comment here, or visit my shop at http://www.the StarvingArtisan.com and send me a message there!