Lazy Links

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We call them Floorios around here.

I’m not a fashion blog person (unless someone made one of just sweatpants outfits) but I enjoy reading Katie’s.

My favourite, Sara M Lyons, is running an amazing sale this weekend with tons of new products!

Elf of the Shelf: What You Need to Know

I need this.

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A couple things Gwen wore recently.

A final reminder that anyone who wants to receive a banner in time for Christmas/New Year’s should place their order by the end of the weekend AND as an added bonus all ready-to-ship banners are now 25% off, no code necessary.

Kim, There’s People That Are Dying…

Kim there's people that are dying #unicornparadeshop

… to get a banner for Christmas (and don’t forget new Year’s Eve decorations)! My cutoff for holiday orders is this Sunday, December 1st- I can’t actually guarantee orders placed by this date will arrive before the 25th but I’m like… 99% sure they will. Orders placed after the first may still arrive in time but I can’t promise anything.

Also, if you follow me on instagram you will have already seen these (I’ve been blowing up my own feed) but I’ve made mini stickers to start including with banners (for free), and I think they are so cute!
I know I've already posted these twice but I'm IN LUV with them #unicornparadeshop

Also: don’t forget to “like” my facebook page for pics of recent work, shop announcements and promotions!

DIY Day: Felt Party Hats and Crowns

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Supplies & Equipment
– stiffened felt, this is available at craft and fabric stores and comes in 9 x 12″ sheets in a variety of colour (and with glitter, which you know I had to use)
– decorations like pompoms, rhinestones, feathers, etc (optional)
– 1/8″ or 1/4″ elastic
– needle & thread (to match your felt colour)
– scissors
– ruler
– binder clips
– cardstock (for templates)
– pencil or marker
– glue (optional)

Party Hat Instructions
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Mark and cut a half-circle from the cardstock to make your party hat template. You can use a plate or a bowl as a template for your template.
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Trace the template on to the back side of the stiffened felt and cut it out. Depending on how wide you want the base of your hat you may want to trim a wedge off one half of the circle, as pictured below.
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Twist the felt half circle into a cone, overlapping the edges by about a 1/2″ and clipping in place with a binder clip.
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Sew the overlapped edges together. Go as high up the cone as you can, but remember it’s not necessary (or really possible) to sew all the way to the tip. I double stitched mine for extra durability.

Crown Instructions
For the crowns the only template you need is a triangle in the size you want the points on the crown to be. This can be as large or as small as you like.
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To make the sides of you triangle symmetrical, fold the cardstock in half and cut a half-size triangle from it.
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Once you have your triangle template, you need to mark the crown on the back of the stiffened felt and cut it out. Lay your ruler on the felt along one of the long, 12″ edges. This will be the part of the crown below the points. Place the triangle template on the felt above the ruler. Trace the triangle, move it over, and repeat until you have fit as many triangles as you can on that edge. There should be a small flap left at the end; this will be the overlap for sewing.
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Clip the ends of your crown together with the overlap on the inside and the “valley” between the two end points matched up. Sew together up from the base of the crown to the “valley.”
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To make a larger crown cut two pieces, one from each long side of your felt sheet. Clip the two pieces together with the overlaps on the inside of the crown and sew together.

Finishing Touches
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Cut a piece of elastic in the proper length to fit the head of the child or adult (or pet…) who will be wearing the crown. For children especially you don’t want the elastic to be too tight. I like to make my elastic long enough to go around the back of the head like a headband, rather than under the chin (which I find uncomfortable). Sew the elastic to the inside of the base of the crown or hat.
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Decorate your hats and crowns by sewing or gluing pompoms, feathers, rhinestones or whatever items you have on hand.

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hattrio

Bits & Pieces from the Weekend

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On Friday Taylor & I watched The To-Do List

idk if it’s a good movie. It’s certainly a GROSS movie; Taylor was very traumatized by one scene in particular. I spent a goodly portion of it screaming my head off because nineties.

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One super amazing thing that happened this weekend: Gwen walked! She’s being walking around holding our hands or the couch, or while pushing a chair ahead of her for a long time, and a couple times she’s taken a single step on her own before “taking a knee” (as we call it), and dropping into crawling position. On Saturday though, she took three whole steps, all by herself!

Gwen is also in the process of eliminating her morning nap, and the change from being a baby who naps twice a day to a baby who naps once a day hasn’t been easy. The past couple days have had her falling asleep on the living room floor, falling asleep while eating, and falling asleep in her stroller… but then having a temper tantrum when I put her in her crib because she’s overtired! Personally if it was up to me I’d never give up the morning nap, but babies have their own opinions about these things.

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On Sunday Taylor and I took Gwen for a walk. When it’s not raining I always feel like I should be getting outside, getting fresh air, blah blah blah but it’s freezing cold so it’s kind of a hassle with the baby. She needs to be dressed up super warmly but if you go anywhere indoors she instantly overheats. Last week I had to bring her with me to the hair salon and I swear it took longer to get her all dressed in her sweater and coat and hat and gloves than it did to get my hair cut.
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very bundled!
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I couldn’t figure out why Lost Lagoon seemed so different and then I realized: all the geese have flown south! It’s all just ducks now (and swans, seagulls and cormorants, plus pigeons).
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Also: a quick reminder that if you are thinking of ordering any banners for Christmas or New Year’s Eve you have until Sunday, December 1st to place your order to guarantee* delivery before the holiday.
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Happy Holidays, ya jerks!

*not an actual guarantee, I don’t control the mail

Lazy Links

The power went out so we went shopping.

omg these are so adorable, I want them all.

Old but still good (and relevant), Kris Atomic’s holiday gift guide.

Loving this new line of bags.

I just… don’t even…. what.

A stripey Gwen.

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED THAT JULIANA HATFIELD HAS A NEW BAND????

My 90s heart can die happy now.

These highway sing-a-longs combine many of my favourite things… people blasting music out of their cars, embarrassing public singing, etc

Feelings on Graves

Arctic Baby Bear.
picture unrelated to post content, I put it here to make myself feel better, haha

I had an appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday so I thought I should post a little update on my Graves Disease. Update: I still have it, and it still sucks.

I mean… I actually feel fine most of the time, my symptoms are mostly negligible (mostly, as in I still have occasional jittery days, sleepless nights and OH MY GOD I AM SO HUNGRY ALL THE TIME) and really, is it so bad to take three pills a day (reminder to self: take your pills today!) and have a blood test/specialist appointment every three months? No, no it’s not. I’m lucky because my Graves is under control right now.

BUT. Just because it’s under control doesn’t mean it’s not still there, and there are things about it that I can’t not think about. Like babies. As in, what if I want to have another one (I do…)? Tapazole (the antithyroid medication I’m taking) isn’t exactly fetus-friendly, so if Taylor and I decided to were were going to try for another baby it wouldn’t be so simple as being like “Hey! Let’s get pregnant!” Will I have to have surgery first to remove my thyroid? Or maybe that WACK-ASS iodine treatment where you have to be isolated from the rest of humanity for a week afterwards because you are RADIOACTIVE??? No one wants to do that.

Idk, I have a lot of feelings about this and I can’t really express them. I just…. like people have given me lots of tips and resources about books to read, facebook groups or discussion forums to join, etc etc, and while I appreciate all that the thing is, I DON’T WANT TO. I don’t want to read any books about it, I don’t want to join groups and forums and discuss it. I don’t want to think about it, and I don’t want to have it.

Blackout and Blue

My power went out for an hour this morning. I spent 45 minutes sitting in the semi-dark with Sym and Gwen before deciding “this is dumb! Let’s go out!” Sym actually left to go to her dad’s (she’s skipping school to hang out with him as he had a tonsillectomy yesterday) so it was just me and the baby. I got us both ready and packed up her bag and then literally the second we were walking out the door the power came back on! Typical….
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Since we were all dressed I decided to go out anyway. I had a gift card to Urban Outfitters from some boots I returned* that I wanted to spend, and I figured we could meet up with Taylor on his way home from work.
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It was very cold and windy out (probably what caused the outage) and I was very glad we were both bundled up warmly in coats and scarves and hats! Taylor wasn’t so lucky; it was raining when he walked to work yesterday so he only had his waterproof jacket, which isn’t warm at all, so he was only wearing a sweatshirt for warmth.
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It’s funny, but I was talking about power outages just the other day- I grew up in the country and outages were frequent and often lasted for hours. I remember one time when there was an outage we had a family sing-a-long, if you can believe it. I remember my mom fashioning a toastrack out of a wire hanger and making toast on the woodstove. And I especially remember how we couldn’t flush the toilet when the power was out because our well had an electric pump. That was the worst, haha!

*I’m super irritated about this, all I want is a pair of plain, simple, flat black leather boots with no straps or buckles or zippers or geegaws for under $100. I thought I lucked out with these (even though the leather is SO cheap it is basically plastic) but I couldn’t even get them on my feet! I had sized up specifically to avoid this problem, but no dice. idk if the problem is with the boots or with my feet, but this is the second time this has happened to me- and the first time was with some really expensive Fryes (long time readers may remember this). idk, I just want some boots!