How To: Woven Heart Hair Clip

Long time, no see! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, now on with Valentine's Day!!

Here is a simple guide to making woven heart hair clippies for your little darling.

You'll Need:

3/8th's width ribbon- any color, or style you want, though Grosgrain works best.
1 alligator clip, snap clip, barrette, or headband
Scissors
Hot Glue

1. Cut your ribbon to the length you want- I just kind of wing it, but it usually comes out around 4" in length.
2. Cut this ribbon in half, leaving two equal lengths.
3. Seal the ends with your desired method. I use a lighter to melt my ribbon ends, but fray check will work as well.
4. Glue the two pieces of ribbon together by the ends, so they form an L shape.
5. From here, lay the ribbon down, and take the piece that is glued to the back, and fold it so the end is laying on the front side of the ribbon, but right next to where the ribbon is glued on the backside. Glue it down.
6. This should give you a sort of a lower case b shape. Take the other ribbon end, which should be the only un-glued end at this point, and fold it backwards. You'll need to weave it through the ribbon, so that the end is against the back side of the ribbon. The weaves should be woven opposite of what is there. Glue the end to the backside. You should have a heart now with a woven center.
7. Add glue to the top of your pre-lined alligator clip, and attach it it. You can add gemstones, sequins, or even glitter glue to make it sparkle. 

You can use a single color, or two colors of ribbon. Patterns are all right, but it should be two sided, as the single side ribbon will be flipped to show the unprinted side as well.

Below are photos step by step, including showing you how to line an alligator clip, and how to use crafting foam to make a No-Slip-Grip for your hair clip. 

Raegan's Snow Ball

Raegan, my oldest daughter, is ready to head off for her first semi-formal dance- the Snow Ball. I did her hair and makeup, the dress and shoes are Goodwill, and I made the hair flower for her. :)

I love how her hair turned out- and even as I did it, I told her it was an accident, and there is NO WAY I will ever be able to recreate it, but after 4 different hair styles, it totally just fell together and looked awesome.

Facebook Sale ~ Hair Bows, Necklaces & More

I've been MIA a lot lately- I know! I've been busy. I started a hair bow business, a facebook advertising business, and I've been dealing with kids, family, planning Thanksgiving, Christmas, and juggling craft shows.

I'm one pooped mama!

But, I'm here to shamelessly promote myself and other facebook boutiques- for those who haven't found the niche yet, there are a lot of people who sell boutique items through facebook. Similar to Etsy, but without the fees, and you connect one on one with your clients.

This weekend, using my advertising business, I'm hosting a large Black Friday shopping event- lots of fantastic items (such as Melissa & Doug educational toys, hand knitted hats, hair bows, jewelry, embroidered clothing, and more!) to be found at great prices.

Below are my own auction photos- please do not bid here! Each one will be linked directly to the Facebook page, where you can bid on the items. I work with trusted sellers, and it's a great way to support hand crafted items, and get some shopping done without leaving the comfort of your home.

These are my first 10 auctions, which are open for bidding through Sunday night at 8pm, EST. I have 10 more that will be posted tomorrow- again, all with $1.00 opening bids, and each one is a set of items- anywhere from 5-12 items per set! Better than the dollar store!

If you are in the market to get some Christmas shopping done, stop by and check it out!

Frugal Bath & Body Works

I got an email today about their Signature collection (the body washes, lotions, and sprays).

The collection is buy 3, get 3 free right now. The lotions and washes are $10.50 each, making it 6 for $31.50 before tax/shipping. The spray I originally added, I didn't realize was $14.50, so I ditched that, because of course, THAT one didn't ring up free.

Then, there's a coupon code- 20holiday

It takes 20% off the total, and knocks shipping down to $3.00 flat.

The total in my cart right now is $28.20 after shipping, but before tax.

But, for 6 Christmas gifts, it's not a bad price. These are the full size bottles.

More on Gillian

It's been a few weeks since we got the official diagnosis on Gillian, and already, she's made great improvements in class with visual cues, social stories, and break time.

Gillian was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome a few weeks ago, through a series of tests that her school did with her (with our blessing). Even though she was only recently diagnosed, the school was aware of it being a possibility since last year, and while they could never officially put the social stories, visual cues, and break times into effect, they were able to do a few things that didn't require the help of the OT.

Right now, Gillian has a card on her desk that just describes behavior that is good, not good, and really not good (I can't recall what they call it, but they are divided by a Green, Yellow, Red system for good, slow down, stop). It describes different things, like raising her hand is good, while blurting out is not good. Hitting or shoving are really the only two things I recall in the Red section.

If something happens in the Yellow section, she is reminded to look over her card. If it happens more than once, she gets points taken away. If she does something in the red, then the school recognizes that she needs a break to regroup, and she goes to the break room, which has a lot of sensory items in it, such as a trampoline, a soft squishy "people squisher" (kids kind of roll through it, and are light squished, which is great for sensory), plus other items. She's allowed to request a break if she's feeling flustered, but what I noticed on Wed, is that she was requesting it just to go. I think right now, she's just loving it, and wants to go as much as possible.

In class, she also has a ruler she keeps on her desk, or carries around. On the back, there are numbers 1-25 on it in marker, then they have a laminated 'slide' with a window that is wrapped around it with her name. Every day, the ruler starts out on number 10. If she does something in the yellow or red, she gets a point taken away. However, if she does something good, she gets to add a point.

The traditional method in class is useful with the regular students, but does not work good with kids who have outside problems like Autism or Aspergers. For the other kids, they have a popsicle stick. They start off in box 1, and it gets moved down if they misbehave (usually after a warning or two) from Green, to Yellow, to Red.

With that system, there are no rewards for positive behaviour. A lot of what Asperger's kids struggle with, is social interaction. They may not know how to react, so they just react however they want, where as other kids learn early one that it's maybe not all right to brag about winning, or to scream if someone looks at them wrong, or what not. With the slide ruler point system, Gillian gets rewarded with points for good behavior while also getting points taken away for bad behavior. She has room to make up for having an outburst, where as before, she would just go down hill, because while bad behavior was recognized, good was not.

She has been doing a lot better in class, and has a great group of support at the school to help her. She loves her break times, and she'll tell anyone who asks all about her "Ashburger Syndrum".