Make Your Own Fascinator!

 I originally published this post on 5/21/2018. I had made my very own Fascinator to wear to work on the day of the Royal Wedding. While Fascinators aren't exactly high fashion in the United States, they are a LOT of fun to make and wear!  And with Halloween quickly coming, I thought someone might like to make something like this to wear as part of their Halloween costume!

I made a Fascinator on Thursday to wear to work on Saturday in celebration of the Preakness - oh, and the Royal Wedding.  It was actually very easy to make!

I used the pages of an old book that was falling apart to make a large paper flower.  Since I used a Dr. Seuss book, I used bright purple berries to make the centers of the flowers.  I hot glued the flower petals together.

I bought a spool of tulle and a found a spool of sparkly rhinestones in the endless crap supply in my basement, and a headband from the grocery store.  I scrounged some floral wire up at work, and the next thing you know, I had a fascinator.

I looped the tulle into 8 very big figure 8's, and then tied it in the center with the floral wire.  I did the same thing with the blingy tape, and wired it onto the tulle with the same floral wire that I wrapped around the tulle bow. 

I then hot glued the paper flower into the middle of the bow.  I wrapped the wire from the flower around the headband and Voila!  It's a fascinator! 

Oh, the feathers!  I forgot them!  We had a stash of feathers at work that someone brought in for craft projects.  I brought 3 of them home to use for my project. 

Note: Don't you love how I didn't bother to link any directions on how to make that flower in the middle? I know I cut petals from the book. I know they were rounded on one end and a square triangle on the other.  Honestly, what was I thinking when I wrote these directions?  I didn't have a Cricut at the time, but I seem to remember cutting out the petals that looked something like this: https://sweetredpoppy.com/how-to-make-large-paper-flowers/ and then took some poetic license with the shape of the flowers and the size of the petals to make a flower that would look decent on my head.  Seriously, why didn't I post the link or the pattern?  What was I thinking?  

They're Made to Absorb

I originally published this post on July 7, 2016.  Enjoy this walk down memory lane!  

 Daughter worked the register for a full shift on Saturday. I met her in the parking lot with one of those wonderful cold drinks from Starbucks when she finished. A Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher.  She's always so thirsty when she gets off work, I knew it would be appreciated. 

While I was waiting for her to finish, I had been shopping for various necessities, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, Kotex pads. 

On our way home, daughter was reluctant to drink anything for fear that she'd spill, and the bright red liquid on my tan car seats would make a huge mess. 

"Don't worry, we're stopped at a light", was my rather stupid response. 

She drank a quick sip, went to put the cup back in the cup holder when tragedy struck! The lid popped off and the bright red liquid went everywhere. Undeterred, she started grabbing receipts to sop up liquid while I looked for a safe place to pull over. 

I pulled into a parking lot, and daughter was out of her seat before I had the car completely stopped. She reached into the bag in the back, pulled out the package of Kotex, unwrapped a single pad, pulled the sticky strip off the back and attached it to the palm of her hand. 

That was a genius move!  All of the liquid was quickly absorbed into the pad. You can't even tell there was a spill of bright red on upholstery!

I tell you, from now on I'm carrying a few extra pads in the glove compartment for the next time I spill something. I know it's going to happen. They really are designed to absorb!  (Quick thinking young lady!)