Enchanted Fairy Tea Party: Part 1

14

Sep
2016

My good friend, and Playful book Stylist, Meta Coleman and I put on an enchanted Fairy Tea Party for our little ones in honor of my Fairy Friends book series out this week!

It was filled with giant paper mache flowers, delicious cake and cupcakes, book reading, fairy doll friends and lots of costumed fairy fun!

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I had the amazing Dolce Bella by Erin make this delicious cake and I grabbed some wild flowers and berries together and Meta decorated it. It was just as delicious as it was lovely to look at.

Each girl had a fairy doll go along with her fairy costume color, blue, pink and yellow. And if you’re interested in Fairy Dolls to go along with your fairies and books, you can find them in my shop here!

We had such an enchanting time and can’t wait to share more photos and tutorials for the flowers and costumes. More to come!

Catch us on Studio 5 today as well where I do a brief walk through on the wings as well as team up with Gibbs Smith books for a Fairy Friends book giveaway. Don’t miss it!

On Milla: Hand Dyed Dress by Neve and Hawk; On Maja: Red and White Smock Dress by Shop Arq; On Julia: Ivory Linen Pinafore by Wren and James

Photos by Shannon Weight Photography

Fairy dolls and Fairy books!

07

Sep
2016

Friends as you may have heard (if you follow me on instagram) my Fairy Friends books series with Baby Lit books is out this week! woohoo. We’ve got a lot of fun stuff in store including a fairy book signing and scenes from a fairy tea party that I can’t wait to share!!!

The books are divided into 4 primer to help your child learn basic principles in a magical way. So i have Fairy Friends Counting, Seasons, Opposites and Colors. They are all so fun. I can’t pick a fav but I really love Counting and Amelia really loves Opposites (she can nearly “read” the entire book back to me – she pretty much has is memorized). And of course I had to make a fairy doll to go along with the books! You can pre-order your own fairy doll in either Blue, Yellow or Mauve, as well in my shop, merrileeliddiarshop.com.

Her First Day of Preschool!

30

Aug
2016

She’s been waiting for this day for a long time. Me…not as much. Today this little lady got her back pack out, insisted on carrying and lunch and toted it all off to her first day of preschool. I just got home from picking her up and she had a great day. I however am still trying to grasp how my baby is old enough for this rite of passage.

first day of school sign found on remodelaholic

dress from our favorite Nev & Hawk.

shoes from Zuzii Footwear.

Back To School with Kohls

30

Aug
2016

The kids and I had a lot of fun working with Kohls this year to get geared up for back to school. We even put together a pin board with pins to help us get inspired for the transition. The boys are going to a new school this year so we’ve got a lot of changes so anything to get us pumped is good.

Miss Amelia just went to her first day of preschool today! I cried. she didn’t. She’s been waiting for this day for a long time!

I’m still in denial that I have a 5th grader. I’m excited about the things he’ll learn this year and he’s already so much fun to talk to.

This kid is excited to be a 2nd grader and is already reading like a pro. (more…)

A Back-to-School Round Up

12

Aug
2016

Back-to-School time has always been a favorite time of year for me. I love school supplies and making them even more fun with quirky pencil holders or adding a flower on top is just the ticket.

Here are a few of our favorite ways to spruce up supplies:

Playful Pencil Holder Heads:

We made these for my book PLAYFUL and they are so easy and fun. We love having these friends hanging around our art table. Get the DIY here.

DIY Silly Face Supplies Apron: Perfect for having all your creative supplies at the ready!

School Lunch Notes and Sticker Downloads: Perfect for just that little bit of encouragement

Decorate Duct Tape Canisters:

It’s so easy to make the fun supply cans. Just grab a discarded empty container such as a tin can, cover in duct tape and decorate!

These guys are perfect for plants as well. See more here and here.

Easy Flower Pencil Toppers: so easy for little ones to make and so fun! so more here .

Round up of Some of Our Favorite Supplies!

DIY Play Clock:

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Host your own Kids Craft Camp!

24

Jun
2016

Hi Friends! I’m over on Studio5 KSL today talking about how to run your own Kids Craft Camp from your very own home!

Last summer I held two Kids Craft Camps and it was a blast! We split things up into units such as Camping, Nature, Portrait, Animals, etc. I learned a lot such as how to set up a classroom, keep kids engaged, and how to start of right so that everyone is on on the same page and things don’t get too out of control 😉 as well as what type of crafts seemed to wokr best and how to get kids to think outside of the box and put their own stamp on things. I put all of this in a little syllabus, on top of the 8 engaging craft DIY videos, badges for each unit and toy downloads, in our online Kids Craft Camp and am sharing it with you this weekend at a 10% discount using code “studio5“.

If you hold a camp we’d love to see pics and hear how it goes! tag pics with #kidscraftcamp on Instagram and Facebook to share. Can’t wait to see your little Picasso’s at work!

Doll Sale over on Brickyard Buffalo!

14

Jun
2016

The lovely Brittany of House that Lars Built is the guest editor over on Brickyard Buffalo this week and we’re thrilled that she picked our new doll shop to be a part of her curated selections.

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New Doll Site Launched!!

07

Jun
2016

Friends I’m so excited to finally share with you my new doll shop, merrileeliddiardshop.com. It’ been a long time in the works and it’s almost surreal to see it finally come to life! Each heirloom doll is one-of-a-kind, handmade with a hand painted face. They are oversized at 26″ long (with the exception of the mini dolls) and are the perfect playmates, star gazers, tea party guests, snuggle buddies and the very best of friends.

It was such a pleasure to work with photographer Chaunte Vaughn and stylist Meta Coleman as well as so many darling little models for this magical venture.

I do hope you’ll hop on over and grow to love our little friends as much as we do around here.

xoxo

Mer

Doll Face

07

Jun
2016

We had a fun time playing with some extra cardboard laying around the house (online shopping…you know the drill :0). I decided to make a little doll face mask for Miss M and my little performer loved it. She has her first ballet recital in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait. She’s going to be one of Cinderella’s bunnies. Hop hop.

Oh and everyday she insists on wearing tights or leggings (even though I tell her she doesn’t need them in the summer with her dresses). Her current favorite are these ballet ones with the heel holes. Crazy kid.

Meanwhile…at the Banister House

20

May
2016

My goodness it’s been a long time since I popped in over here. I’ve been pretty active over on Instagram but I guess I needed a bit of a break from the blog format for a bit. Just long enough for me to be missing it again. I’ve been working on so many projects such as my dolls and the website which I’m working hard to get up this month. Oh man…so much on my plate and sometimes so much of me wants to kick it all to the curb. I’ve loved this journey I’ve been on but I feel a need for a change a bit. Not sure what that is just yet but I’m sort of tired of the social media world. Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere but I am trying to find my place in it all as a mamma of three whose children are growing older and and one who is growing older right along with them (funny how that happens).

Looking at my oldest, seeing him and how he’s been on this journey with me for this whole creative blog journey. It’s been great. Creativity looks different for him today though. He’s always loved patterns, and art with order. Which is translating itself into math and programming. He’s really intersted in video game programming and really wants to be a You Tube gamer (oh boy). He loves reading too and is in the middle of the Harry Potter series with is pretty magical to see. Today he woke me up at 6 AM telling me he needed a Dumbledore costume stat for his fictional character dress up day at school. Thanks for the notice kid ;). So I made a quick beard and sent him off to school with one of my black drapey jacket thingys and Ollie wore his Harry Potter costume from last Halloween.

Well not two hours into school I get a call from his school saying he face planted on the playground after tripping on the Dumbledore robe. He told me he thought he’d look cool with the robe trailing after him as he ran (which no doubt he did) but it backfired on him. He was pretty shook up as he blacked out for a bit and couldn’t get up right away so I checked him out of school and let him rest and play puzzles (another one of those orderly things he loves to do) at home the rest of the afternoon.

I had Milla’s little cousin over today as well and the girls were the cutest little dress up crafters. They changes about 5 times and ended up in comfy clothes going nuts at the homework/craft table. (more…)