This project is ridiculously easy. Stupid easy. If you can tie a knot you can make a tutu, so you don’t really need my instructions. Also, there are already a billion versions out there.

The baccarat online is a card gambling game that is one of the most popular bets for players. Where this live baccarat bet compares the cards in the player and banker hands.

(Out of curiosity, I just Googled “tutu tutorial” and there are approximately 212,000 results already on the internet.)

But since you already know how I feel about acting like YOUR tutorial is the most special and awesome and original of all the tutorials ever (and also because I have nothing else to say today)(and maybe because I just want an excuse to post pictures of my baby in a tutu)(plus I was playing with my new lens) I’m going to share my easy no-sew baby tutu project with you anyway.

For the sake of honest blogging, I will tell you this version from Plumtickled is where I started when I thought “hey, I’ll just MAKE a tutu instead of paying $22 plus shipping from Etsy!” Her’s was the first that came up on Google. But since it involved sewing I decided it wasn’t really for me. True story, I once used glue to make a throw pillow JUST to avoid sewing four straight lines. And by “once” I mean “last year” and also “that throw pillow is still in my guest room right now.” I will do anything to avoid threading my sewing machine.

So here are my instructions for the world’s easiest, no-sew, adjustable, one-size-fits-all, infant, baby, toddler and kid sized tutu.

Step 1: Buy some tulle in various colors. You will not need this much but since the easiest way to avoid cutting tons and tons of strips is to buy the tulle in rolls you can just plan to make several tutus with the extra. I promise you know someone with a baby girl who would love a tutu. You will also need ribbon and scissors.

Total cost: $16 at Michael’s including the flowers for $1 each. Because I’m fancy.

Step 2: Cut the tulle into strips twice the length you want the finished tutu to be. I did not measure, I guessed. Since my goal is to use this tutu for the rest of the year and beyond I made it medium length.

Don’t worry too much about making the strips all exactly the same length. This is supposed to be easy.

Cut up some strips in each of the colors you’re using. I did a ratio of about 3 white to each 1 blue or green.

Step 3: Cut the ribbon to a nice long length. Like I said, I want this tutu to fit for a long time so I actually cut the ribbon long enough to go around MY waist. Now tie the ribbon around something (like your leg) to make it easy to work on. Take a piece of tulle and fold it around the ribbon. Then tie the two pieces into one knot snug up against the ribbon. Some tutorials called this a “double knot” but it’s really just one knot with two pieces of tulle. SEE? MY TUTORIAL IS THE BEST.

My thigh works well, because it’s pretty much the same size as my baby anyway.

ADDED: Knot tying demonstration. The hardest part is getting the knot snug right up against the ribbon so they all look nice and even.

Try to get the knots as tight on the ribbon as possible. It might take a little practice.

I have a REALLY HARD TIME being random with my colors (thanks OCD tendencies!!) so I didn’t really try too hard. Every 2 or 3 white ones I put in a blue one, then 2 or 3 later a green one.

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you’ve tied enough tulle on the ribbon to go all the way around the baby/child you’re trying to be-tutu. You can slide the knots around if you decide you need to add any more of one color in any one area. You might as well put something interesting on TV and grab a glass of wine because it might take a while to tie enough tulle to make the tutu nice a full. Trust me though, it’s worth it.

The flower came with a clip on the back. It’s like the universe made it especially for lazy crafters like me.

Step 5: Find a bebeh model to model your tutu. Take fourty bazillionteen pictures.

And there you go. That’s the whole thing. No sewing, no glue, no fancy cutters or machines or tools needed. Just tulle, ribbon and scissors. My plan is to cut enough strips now to keep making the tutu bigger as Caroline grows and to use it for each of her month-day pictures. I’ll probably still have enough left over for at least two or three more tutus, especially if I make them a little shorter. Anyone around here need a baby tutu? I’m willing to trade for Starbucks or yarn.

UPDATE!!! Since both Caroline and Evan have beat the crap out of that tutu for the last 18 months, I thought I’d add some “how has it held up?” photos. The answer is: Pretty well!

Tulle has a tendency to attract dog hair/lint/fuzz/every single crumb within 100 yards so looking back, white might not have been the best option. But it’s also pretty easy to brush off and/or lint roll and/or spray with a water bottle and shake out.

The tulle has gotten pretty tangled from being so well loved (and also stored bunched up in a corner) but can be smoothed out if I comb through it with my fingers. Although the sort of bunchy look isn’t really a bad thing – I feel like it really fits Caroline’s personality. Her nickname is Little Mess.

The ribbon waist was a really great idea, since she still fits in it easily. Even though Caroline is still tiny peanut munchkin toddler, Evan has definitely gotten bigger and the tutu still fits him (although her wouldn’t agree to post for pictures). And it’s easy to slide the tulle knots around to make it even.

Have I talked you into making a tutu yet?

I *should* write a big wrap up of all my best posts from 2010 but that seems really time consuming and I’d rather watch this repeat of 30 Rock and stuff my face with the cookies I made this afternoon with my Amazing New KitchenAid Mixer. Maybe I should just write a love letter to my Amazing New KitchenAid Mixer and call it a day. Or I’ll save that for 2011.

Besides, I can’t really pick my favorite posts. I loved playing party planner with the eight zillion different posts about Little Evan’s first birthday and Caroline’s Baby Shower. I met some AWESOME new people with blog hops like the Home Tour and the Tat-Tour. There were posts I was really proud of, even if they were about silly things like my kid’s hair or baby kicks or not going to BlogHer. I got my first DSLR and took a zillion pictures of birds and gorillas and Little Evan with a toilet on his head and that conference I went to in Minneapolis. And then of course there was big stuff, like E re-enlisting,  a new pregnancy and a new baby and all the excitement that goes along with that. So yeah, hard to pick which posts I would include in a best of wrap-up.

So instead I’ll just say thank you to every single person who ever read my little bebehblog, whether you comment on almost every post (I SEE YOU AND LOVE YOU) or accidentally clicked over here once after Googling “fat person will belly button ring” (two hits from that one today!) I appreciate your readership. If you’re a reader who doesn’t comment, please feel free to join in any time. If you’re a commenter with a blog, please make sure I know so I can add you to my Google reader. And if you think this whole blogging thing is kind of silly but keep coming back for cute pictures of my kid, I promise there will be EVEN MORE (now with Girl Bebeh!) this year.

I hope we can be better friends in 2011. Happy New Year!!

I don’t think I can find words to describe how much I enjoy knitting. It’s sort of silly to think that something that’s been around for hundreds (thousands?) of years can still feel so cool and so new and so fun every time I pick up my needles. At any given moment I probably have four or five different items in progress with the yarn & patterns ready for another half dozen…and then I get on Ravelry.com and end up starting three more projects I had no idea I even wanted to make before I saw them right. that. instant. There’s a reason my Christmas knitting is way behind schedule and it’s not because I don’t knit every chance I get.

There’s just something about yarn – the colors, the textures, the way it feels on my hands – that I cannot resist. Yarn stores have replaced bookstores as the most dangerous place on the planet for my wallet. And then! Turning it into things! Things I can wear! Or other people can wear! It’s like magic! I’m shocked every single time I put on something I made with my own two hands and think “this used to just be yarn and now it is a HAT. HOW did that happen?!” Despite the image I’m trying to project here on the blog with my crafts and projects and creativeness I suck at almost all forms of domesticity. I’m still not good with fabric and terrified of my sewing machine – I’ll leave that to my amazing, talented, awesome, inspiring blog friends – but me and knitting? Amazingly, we’re BFF’S.

Want to see what I’ve been doing instead of finishing the nursery/new bedroom/cleaning/cooking/wrapping presents/deep breathing exercises/taking care of my family? I’m not going to spoil anyone’s Christmas here, so this is just the stuff I’ve finished recently that I’m NOT giving as gifts.

These coffee coozies take almost no yarn and no time so I still plan to make a zillion more before Christmas.

Super easy and comfortable fingerless gloves made from one skein of something really fancy, like baby alpaca and silk (I lost the wrapper so I can't remember exactly). I also lost the other glove, but by "lost" I mean "it's in the hall closet somewhere and I will definitely find it as soon as I get up off this couch."

Bebeh pixie hats. I made three (four? five?) more of these and sent them to friends who were/are expecting babies soon. The yarn is ridiculous - and inexpensive - but it makes for great newborn pictures.

This may never make it onto a baby, because I sort of made up the pattern and it MIGHT be too small for an actual infant, but if it fits? OMFG TEH CUTE!

More fingerless gloves (can you tell I'm afraid to knit fingers?) But they work great when I'm taking pictures or trying to buckle car seats so I'm going with it. These were the Mom's Night Out project Megan wrote the pattern for, designed to be easy enough for even a real beginner.

And this. THIS is me accepting the fact that I am totally having a Christmas baby who will be wearing this pretty much from the moment she's born. I'm OK with that. p.s. I totally made up this pattern too, based loosely on the pixie hat. I'm pretty proud.

And now, back to the knitting.

The other day I saw a comment on Twitter that said something like “Before you post a craft tutorial or idea on your blog, always Google to make sure someone else hasn’t already posted one.”

And then my head exploded.

To be clear, the tweet wasn’t directed at me. Crafting is only a teeny tiny part of my blog and definitely not my area of expertise. I have never gotten a nasty email or comment about the originality of my projects. And I try very, very hard to keep it that way. There is no reason at all I should have taken the kind of offense to the remark that caused my brains to splatter all over the wall behind me.

I understand that people copying each others work is a big problem in blog land. There was the cooking magazine that reprinted a blogger’s post without her permission and then told her “Well the internet is free, so technically we can print anything we want! Plus, we edited your crappy writing so much, YOU should really pay US!” (No, really, this just happened.) And just this week Jill found her recent craft tutorial on a site that claims it “collects” posts from across the internet and republishes them – without giving her byline. But they’re doing it to help you! You’ll get tons of traffic! From this site no one has ever heard of and has no valid contact info!

I also know stealing someone’s design/craft can be a huge problem for handmade businesses, since there’s really no way to copyright something like a ruffle or a rosette. That’s not cool. Don’t rip off creative people you admire – SUPPORT them.

BUT. Posting a recipe for, say, zucchini bread even though there are already a zillion recipes online for zucchini bread is not plagiarism. Neither is posting a how-to on a ribbon mobile or felt flowers or using an empty frame as a whiteboard, although if you Google any of those you get dozens and dozens (hundreds)(sometimes thousands) of responses. Demanding no one ever use an idea someone else has had is like saying “OK, Mommy bloggers, since I’ve already read posts about cloth diapers, potty training, making your own baby food, pooping while giving birth and cute kids, ALL THOSE THINGS are off limits.” If we limited the internet to only 100% original thoughts it probably wouldn’t exist. Neither would most books, movies, art, music, etc. Have you ever read the New Testament? Some of those dudes totally tell the same stories, even though they were told before!!

How about instead of assuming you are such a special snowflake all YOUR ideas are one-of-a-kind and it’s everyone else who’s stealing we agree to some rules for polite blogging?

1. If you are “inspired” by someone else’s idea, link to them in your post.
2. If you flat out USE someone else’s tutorial, link to them in your post, and maybe stick to just posting pictures instead of your own “how-to”.
3. Changing the NAME of a recipe is not the same as inventing a new recipe. You have to actually modify the ingredients/instructions to make it new.
4. Use common sense – don’t be a douchecanoe. When in doubt, link link link.

But for the record, the internet is a really huge place. I promise there is more than enough room for everyone’s yarn wreath tutorials (coming soon to bebehblog!)

Like I said, I didn’t really need to get so pissed off about this – I’m just having a pissed off sort of day and angry blogging is the pregnant woman’s equivalent of drinking a bottle of wine.

Since the new “nursery” is more of a playroom than an actual nursery (I’m still debating whether or not we’re buying a second crib – so far, “no” is winning) I’m way less interested in making it perfect than making it fun and functional. At the same time, I feel sort of bad that Baby Girl is going to be forced to share her space from the very beginning with an older brother so I’m putting a lot of effort money thought into special touches just for her. I mean, it’s SUPER AWESOME that we’ve already banished most of the ugly, plastic, music playing toys to the second floor, but it also means a pale pastel princess color scheme is totally out of the question. Good thing I was already into the idea of bright colors.

Instead of boring the crap out of you with hundreds of individual posts explaining every step of each project, I’m going to do them in weekly (bi-weekly? monthly? OMG it can’t be monthly because I only HAVE a month left to finish all of this DEEP BREATHS DEEEEEEEEP BREATHS) round-ups.

Project 1: Find a way to display the vintage embroidered bib my mom saved from my (her?) childhood

I *think* it’s a cow surrounded by flowers. Or maybe a vase. Or maybe I’m still high on spray adheisive.

Since the bib is sort of pastel and the room is mostly bright, I wanted a bright frame to put it in.

Green frame from Target: $6.99, tiny fabric squares: free from my swag bag at The Creative Connection, but I’ve seen them at Joann’s for a few bucks a pack

Then I used the spray adhesive to stick the little squares to a piece of off-white cardstock.

I KNOW YOU ARE SO AMAZED RIGHT NOW.

Then I put the bib on the fabric/paper and popped the whole thing in the frame.

And now I have a lovely, girly, almost-free piece of art for the new nursery

Project 2: DIY Ribbon Mobile

I did not come up with this idea, not by a long shot. A Google image search for “ribbon mobile” brings up tons and tons of slightly different versions and it’s not like you NEED instructions. But I learned a few things in my attempt so I’m going to post a tiny how-to.

I only ended up using the larger embroidery hoop and even though I did spray paint it yellow I didn’t really need to. You don’t see enough of the hoop for it to matter.

Figure out how long you want the mobile to be and cut ribbon to approximately twice that length. DON’T go out of your way to make it perfect, since the uneven lengths is what makes it sort of whimsical

I discovered that the thinner the ribbon, the easier it was to work with. I actually gave up on the wide orange kind because it kept coming unlooped. The grosgrain mid-sized ribbon also worked very well once I figured out how to tie it. I originally bought a bunch of ribbon at the fabric store but found MUCH cheaper options at Michael’s – 50 cents a spool with tons left over.

You would think randomly choosing the color order would make life easier, but instead I spent far too long worrying there was too my orange or pink in any one section

In theory, all you have to do to secure the ribbon to the hoop is hold it double, wrap the end where the ribbon is folded around the hoop, then pull the ends through until it’s tight. But with anything thicker than 1/8th inch ribbon, it’s hard to pull it tight enough to make it stay – and I was NOT looking forward to gluing each one individually. So what works is after you pull the ribbon through the loop end, take the free end and pull it through the loop again on the right side. It makes sort of a little knot without changing the way it looks too much.

Ta-da! Beautiful, one of a kind ribbon mobile for the nursery

Project 3: Chalkboard tray as door sign

I used to collect vintage trays and display them as wall art in my living room, so when I saw a chalkboard tray in the Pottery Barn catalog I thought it was a super cute idea. And one that is obviously so ridiculously easy there is no way anyone should bother to buy the one from PB for $200 (sadly, I can’t find the tray online to link to, but it was in the Thanksgiving issue.)

Supplies: totally NON-vintage tray I bought for 10 cents at church rumage sale, chalkboard spray paint, ribbon, Tacky Glue

Yeah, you don’t need a step-by-step for this.

One day, we’ll pick a %^&# name, and I’ll write that on the sign

I’m going to hang it on the door.

Now I’m going to go spray paint some more stuff in my dining room. Because I’m sure that is AWESOME for the baby.