Wow, I had some sort of sleeping sickness after Easter. Took a while to shake off. I just sort of lay down and then didn't get up for a while, other than to make Bridget push an occasional load of laundry through the system or rouse myself to sling an approximate amount of hash.
Or cause it to be slung by someone else. There was a day in there where it was — “Order Chinese.” And that's saying a lot about my state, which could be summed up as “extreme lethargy” — because one reason I'm very anti-ordering out is that where we live, restaurants are… not good. The kids spent a lot of time looking things up and we ended up with the same fairly wretched stuff we always (and by “always” I mean “seldom”) get, but it was a necessary wretchedness, because there was no food here and I couldn't have even mustered the energy to tell people to go buy and make some in time to do it.
Better now. Can deal and cope. Can care. Can blog.
There were two fun things I came up with this Easter, though, that I thought I'd show you.
First, I just had to embellish my Easter garland. Remember it? Pretty, but sparse.
And I tried making this pompom thing complicated, I really did.
I spent quite a while on Pinterest arranging boards reading recipes searching for chairs looking at pompom garlands. In the end, though, it couldn't have been more simple.
You buy your pompoms (and this was the last package in this colorway at Michael's, a sure sign from crafting heaven that you are on the right track despite your suspicions that there might be other, more appropriate, possibly less tacky pompoms somewhere there. No, there are not.).
You temporarily lose your mind over the fact that there are different sizes and neither they, nor the colors, are equally distributed. You see great possibilities for making things complicated.
You try. You fail.
This is all at night that I'm working on this, which is why the photos are a bit dark. I was heavy with the responsibility of documenting the process.
In the end, the process is as follows:
Make a knot in your pearl cotton.
String the pompoms.
Make another knot.
You will need a needle.
There will be so many pompoms in that package that you can do something a little process-y, like big-small-small-medium-small-small-big, or pink-blue-green-pink-yellow-pink-lavender-blue.
But in the end, you will do one or two 6-to-8-foot-ish strands like that, and then a few that are more or less all one size, and your brain will stop worrying about the colors but just try (and sometimes fail and then not care) to keep from putting two alikes together.
And yes, the pompoms may slide a bit along the thread, but you quickly see that you will not be able to knot them all into place, because forsooth, you have other things to do.
And you will have two for the living room:
One:
And some for the kitchen:
The second thing is the cole slaw that brilliantly shows off the ginger-garlic paste I used some of in the chicken liver pate (I know — cole slaw? Easter? but it has bacon in it… ) — equally as easy as pompom garlands, and so, so good. But I'll leave it for tomorrow…
Rebekah says
“Because forsooth, you have other things to do.”
That right there is why I love your blog.
Elizabeth says
I am suffering from the same malady, all the way out here in the Midwest. I thought maybe I was going crazy, because I. have. no. energy. But my chiropractor says there's some kind of bug going around. I'm putting chili in the crockpot, and then I'm going to lay on the sofa and read to my children for the rest of the day. And maybe I'll try some pom-pom things when I've recovered!
Kathy says
I really enjoy these types of posts as much as the 'meaty' ones – it doesn't not go, and looks bright and cheerful too. I say it isn't bad to overdo the pom pom project!
Mrs. C. says
Too funny, my mantel is also currently sporting deer antlers from my yard!! My hubby thought I lost my mind when I put them there so assured him he could cut them with his miter saw and give them to our dog when we tired of them. The deer antler treat at the pet store are incredibly expensive.
Patty says
Haha, Rebekah. Yes, exactly!!
Lisa G. says
Overdo it? But all you were doing was trying to unify the look throughout the whole house, weren't you? 😀
Very cute and cheery.
Sue says
So sorry to hear that you've been under the weather. It never ceases to amaze me that the same viruses going around over here are also going around over there. OK, so I amaze easily!
I love this idea. The simplicity is beautiful. Now I have a year to see if they sell big bags of pompoms anywhere around here!
Laura says
Fun activity but a bit frou-frou for me!! Glad you are feeling better!
Valerie says
Sorry to hear you were under the weather (and having to eat wretched food).
Your pom-pom craft there looks very festive! Cute for birthday parties & baby showers…
mary says
I'm going to try this! They are adorable!
Kate says
I was having bouts of depression and extreme tiredness which was making my family miserable, especially my husband. I think most of it was hormonal since I recently turned 50. At someone's suggestion I began taking evening primrose oil every day. I feel so much better! But I don't know if pom-pom making is in my future.