The Tutu Tower

A few weeks ago I mentioned the invention of a new state of the art contraption that will likely change the lives of tutu owners everywhere (well... at least its changed my life, but I'm probably one of a handful of people who own more than 2 tutus).  But in any case it's changed my life and made my tutus so much more organized!

For Georgia's ballerina birthday a few weeks ago, I made sure to have at least 24 tutus on hand since the guest list for this party included 20 RSVPs!  As my pile of tutus grew and grew, I thought to myself that I needed a good way to stack and store all this tulle so that it would keep its shape and decrease the risk of crinkled tulle.  I explained my dilemma to my dad, and saw him get that problem solving glint in his eye... the next day I was presented with a rolling base and PVC tubing, along with a triumphant smile from my dad.  Although I was skeptical at first, he retreated into the man cave/garage area and within a week I had the Tutu Tower, and it worked beautifully!

Before the tutu tower....

After!  This is the lower half...

And the top half!  I needed it in 2 separate sections to fit into my car...

Fall Tutus

I got to go on a little get away this weekend up to Tahoe, where the colors are swiftly changing to warm fall shades, which made for a beautiful drive and planted a seed of inspiration for a fall colored tutu.  JoAnn's is great for always having lots of seasonal craft items on hand, including tulle, which is great for my seasonal tutu making ventures.  I love the colors I found for this tutu, lots of warm burgundy and plums, along with green and gold makes for an awesome autumn tutu.

I made this Halloween tutu a few weeks ago and have been meaning to post about it for awhile.  Here it is as if it grew off my parents lemon tree, a bit sweet and sour at the same time, perfect for a Halloween fairy to do some trick or treating in.

Soon we'll be falling back and changing the time, which is always a bit bittersweet for me... officially saying goodbye to summer and longer days, but with fall colors and warm holidays ahead it's not such a bad trade off!

A Backyard Ballerina Birthday

It was a beautifully sunny day for little Georgia's ballerina birthday this past Sunday in San Mateo.  The birthday girl greeted me in her leotard and tutu, with pink bows in her hair, ready to turn 4 and to celebrate... ballerina style!  So that's exactly what we did!  Heather, Georgia's mother had a beautiful set up in their backyard, and Georgia's guests' eyes grew wide as I wheeled in my tutu tower (the tutu tower deserves its own blog post...to be attended to at a later date), stacked high with over 20 tutus for Georgia and her guests to choose from.

But, first things first!  We had to set the mood of our dance lesson by sitting down to read Angelina Ballerina.  After our reading, we warmed up by trying out some of Angelina's moves, including our arabesques, which were beautiful, but had the unfortunate effect of knocking over Mrs. Mouslings cheddar cheese pies (insert silly miming by the dancers and an explosion of giggles).  Being nice and warmed up, it was time to choose tutus, then we paraded around in butterfly wings and perched on flowers, skipped in partners across the patio and finished things up with a game of freeze dance using our fairy wands. 

Once our curtsies finished up the dancing portion of the day, it was time to make our own fairy wands, and there were some beautiful creations, these were some crafty ballerinas.

It was such a fun afternoon, Georgia was the perfect hostess and all her guests were charming as was the setting of the party.  Thank you to Georgia and her family for letting me celebrate with them!