In my recent post on how to crochet a shamrock garland, I mentioned that there are a couple of adorable (and wearable) items I’ve made for Emma using that same shamrock pattern. Here they are, in all their cuteness!

A wee lil’ Irish shirt and a matching hair clippie? I’d say miss Emma is ready to celebrate her Irish heritage! This is a super simple project that anyone can do. I crocheted the lips and shamrock, but if you don’t crochet then simply cut out the same embellishments from felt or scrap fabric and adhere to a shirt by either sewing or using a heat-n-bond material. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! For those of you who want to give this crochet-embellished shirt a try, here’s a rundown of the steps necessary–a “tutorial” of sorts:

• Add the words to your shirt using iron-on letters, which can be found in the t-shirt aisle of your local arts and crafts store (I found these pretty gold letters at Michael’s). Follow the instructions for adhering them and you’re good to go!
• Make a shamrock using the shamrock pattern found here. You can make it as big or as small as you like, but I made mine using an I (5.5mm) hook.
• Make the sweet little lips using this simple pattern–

The hair clippie was a cinch to make, as well, using two leftover shamrocks from my garland (one made with an I-5.5mm hook and one using an H-5.0 mm hook). I put my glue gun to work and hot glued coordinating ribbon to an alligator clip…

… hot glued the shamrocks on top of one another, and hot glued the entire thing to the hair clip!

Now if only I could find something green to wear this St. Patrick’s Day. A matching shirt and hair clippie for mama, perhaps? Hmm… somehow I don’t think this outfit would look quite as cute on me.

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that my family loves to celebrate. My mom’s grandparents came to Boston from Ireland during the potato famine at the young age of 15. I never had the chance to meet them, but my mom’s memories of her grandmother (who they lovingly called Marty) and her Irish brogue are ones that always make me smile. Scott also has an Irish heritage as his grandmother was full-on Irish. It doesn’t seem surprising that our daughter has beautiful red hair, now does it?

In the spirit of this special day, I have a few crafts and recipes that I’ll be sharing through the next couple of weeks! Today, I’ll kick things off with a simple and adorable wreath that my mom and sister made. I call it the Irish Ribbon Wreath, and after seeing how theirs turned out, I totally want to make one of my own!

My mom decided to hang it in the front entryway instead of on the front door–with a little encouragement from her daughters.

With the framed printable and Irish-decorated tree (smart use of a Christmas decoration, aint it?), this wreath is a perfect fit.

I don’t have a tutorial for you (boooooo me!), but it’s really not a complicated process. I was sewing a dress as the ladies worked, but I did manage to catch a few peeks at how they did things:

1. Wrap a foam wreath with a wide ribbon–the wider the ribbon, the less time it will take you to wrap! Always good to remember. They didn’t even need to hot glue along the way–just a little at the beginning and a little at the end. Feel free to add dabs of hot glue as you work your way around, though. If you have the time then it can only help!
2. Once your wide ribbon is securely wrapped, take a variety of thinner ribbons and cut into strips several inches long. You can add a few strips and spread them out or add a lot around the whole thing (like you see below). This is really all about personal preference–no science to it. Tie each one in a double knot as you go.
3. Once the smaller ribbons are tied on, go back around and make sure they are all fairly even, trimming wherever necessary.
4. Attach your paper shamrock or other Irish embellishment onto a final piece of ribbon and tie to the top center of your wreath. You can also use this ribbon to hang your wreath.

Now if I could only make another trip to Michael’s without my hubby finding out… tee hee!

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while are familiar with the weekly pictures and updates I would post of sweet Emma every Monday. I got lazy after her first birthday and stopped doing them, but Scott recently brought to my attention that he would love to see me do more of those posts again–which I find really funny and super cute, seeing as how he sees her every day and still can’t get enough. He’s such a good daddy!

Miss Emma is only a couple of weeks away from turning 18-months-old, which is insanely hard to believe. My little baby is turning into a little girl, and very quickly <insert sigh here>. I’ve gotta say though, life really is more fun the older she gets. I often miss the days when she would drink her bottle and promptly snuggle up in my arms for a nap, but I still get a taste of the cuddling every now and then (which is asking a lot of a toddler). We have so much fun watching her run around and play. She’s saying more words each day, the newest being “Dank yoooou!” However, her favorite word to say is most definitely “Up!” She says this for everything–being picked up, being put down, crawling up the stairs (with me behind her, of course), and the most fun being her playtime with Max. After watching Scott and I interact with him, Emma has learned that if she holds his ball over her head and says, “Up!” then Max will jump up to fetch it. Their little minds are like sponges at this age! God’s design is so cool.

I’m combining today’s Emma pictures with another quick post that I’ve meaning to share–my second attempt at sewing a dress. I’m not as excited to share this as the last one because I’m definitely disappointed with it. Don’t get me wrong–it looks super cute on her, but my crooked stitch lines and uneven folding are extremely obvious. It’s frustrating, too, because for every crooked stitch I made there’s an equally beautiful straight stitch! I finished this dress with excitement as I expected to hold it up and see my best sewing project yet. I was completely bummed when I instead found its many imperfections glaring at me, but my family reassured me that this is only my second dress. Second. Am I a tad hard on myself ? Why yes, yes I am.

Anyways, without further ado, here are a few weekly photos of our sweet little girl and her pretty new t-shirt dress–handmade with love.

As cute as they all are, my absolute favorite is the button for my crochet shop! It’s currently just another link to my Facebook page, but I’m working on setting up a page on this blog for quick and easy purchasing… which is what this will eventually be used for!

Who do I have to thank for these wonderful designs? My sweetest of sweet friends, miss Nat from NatSprat! If you haven’t visited her blog before then you really need to check it out. Her talent and eye for design simply blow me away (just look at the evidence above)! She also has a shop page, All Things NatSprat, where she sells her beautiful creations. I bought each of my sisters (and myself, of course) one of these gorgeous necklaces for Christmas. Needless to say, they were a HUGE hit:

So dainty and pretty, right?! It’s a personal favorite of mine, and the rest of her items are equally drool-worthy. Stop by and tell her hello!!

You may also have noticed that, with the addition of new buttons, I did away with Google+ and Linky Followers. To be honest, those are two online tools that I didn’t see myself doing much with; sometimes less is more. I’d instead love to focus on making these other tools as useful and user-friendly as possible, so that your experience of following my blog is an enjoyable one! On that note, I invite you to look around, admire my new sidebar, and explore your options for following Little Rays of Sunshine!

This pattern happened on one of those lazy afternoons when Emma was playing, Max was sleeping, and I was fiddling around with my crochet stuff on the couch. I’ve had a few ideas in mind for St. Patrick’s Day, one of which is a lovely little string of shamrocks to bring some luck o’ the Irish to our home.

Aren’t these little guys adorable? Good news–they’re super simple to make, too! I put this garland together in a half hour, tops. And wouldn’t you know, I remembered to write down the pattern to share with all of you!

You can use any size hook that you like–the bigger the hook, the bigger the shamrock. Just be sure to use nothing larger than an I hook for the stem, which will keep holes minimal.

1. Starting with a magic circle, sc 7 times and join in the first stitch.
2. In the next stitch, work the following: slip stitch, sc, hdc, dc, edc, tc, edc, dc, hdc, sc.
3. Slip stitch in the next stitch,
4. Repeat the pattern from #2 in the next stitch.
5. Slip stitch in the next stitch.
6. Again, repeat the pattern from #2 in the next stitch. You should now have three leaves.
7. For the stem (switch to a smaller hook, if necessary): slip stitch in the next stitch and chain 5. Sc in the second chain from the hook and in the remain 3 chains across. Slip stitch into the last stitch remaining and fasten off. Weave in all ends.
8. Once you’ve made the number of shamrocks you want for your garland, it’s time to string them! Using the color yarn of your choice and a tapestry needle, carefully thread the string through at least two stitches on the back of each shamrock (preferably towards the top of the middle leaf). Leave enough string remaining on either end for hanging and then trim off the excess.

Ta-da! There you have it! Of course, these tiny shamrocks can be used in a number of other ways. I have a post coming sometime next week in which a certain little girl wears them for St. Patty’s Day.

Happy crocheting!