Craft Show "Browser" - Ethical Issue?

Ok, so this evening I have made one of the cuter things, in my opinion, that I have ever made.  I made a tooth monster for holding lost teeth and collecting the 'mullah'(sp?).  I found it on Pintrest (duh).  Now, I pretty much made a rough replica of exactly what I saw and upon making it again I will be making all sorts of different shapes and colors and such.  (They were actually super fun to put together!)  The Pintrest pin, though, was not of a craft someone made and was sharing, it was a pin of something someone saw on Etsy and liked.  Me, I tend to browse Etsy for ideas.  Never, have I bought anything.  I look, memorize, and do it myself.  Is there a problem with this?  I am also that person at the craft show who walks out looking like she just hit the mother load of greatness but is carrying not a single bag.  It’s all locked upstairs ready to unpack the moment I hit my craft table.

For me, I figure if I make something and someone sees it and wants to copy it, go for it.  I'm not going to give you my pattern, but I’m certainly not going to put up a fuss about you using your own diy-ness and figuring it out.  There are more than enough lovers of crafts without a crafty bone in their body to go around and keep the market going, right?  Also, I never sell anything.  I love making stuff for people, but I would never take money for them.  Too much pressure! 

So, my question, is there an issue with replication?  

Btw: our first tooth monster...

The Pregnant Gardener 2013: Whataya know?

So, who would have guessed it?  I am able to grow more than a kid this summer!  This year has definitely been slow.  I was slow to prep, slow to plant, slow to everything.  Never did get to the rest of the boxes that had overgrown with weeds AGAIN, but We do have pumpkins plants taking over (only a more favorable side of the yard this time), the great cucumber monster has risen from sleep, we have the great bean field, giant sunflowers, and squash (did see a squash bug, though, so we'll how long that lasts).  That's about it.  

We had a little run-in with some garden bandits.....yard people, that I had cancelled, randomly showed up, weed-eated the new-ish pumpkin vines that had found their way over the garden box, took out my husband's hopps plants, and then to top it off, cut up the tubing to out pool pump.  Yes, I tried to call and yell at them, I emailed them, I FB messaged them, AND I left a nasty note on the site where I found them, but, NO, I have not heard from them again.  At least I have never received a bill.  They better not even think about it.  Anyway, the pumpkins have repaired nicely, the hopps, sadly, are gone for this season, and my pack-rat of a hubby, had extra tubing.  So, back to normal, for the most part.  Luckily, we have found a yard crew that knows the difference between food plants and weeds.  You wouldn't think that would be hard to find, right?  Sheesh.

So, went out today, and the monsters of my yard are starting to produce baby monsters, just ripe for the picking!  I had a little help bringing in the first harvest.  Yay!  Hopefully, I can keep up a little better now that our weekends are starting to settle out some.

Choo Choo Train Birthday

So, we finally made it to June and the Choo Choo Train 3rd Birthday.  This will be the last BIG event until the after the baby comes.  I had fun putting it together and I love seeing my kids have a blast, but I really am glad our last planned weekend is over and now I can just rest and work on baby stuff!  As with the pirate ship I took photos step by step in the making of the train and some extras.

The train was a total of 3 cars: the engine, a boxcar, and the caboose.

The Engine:

 2 boxes

 the smaller one, I added a large piece of cardboard to the top to get a rounded shape

 

 cut out the door opening and some windows

 

 tape them together

I wrapped the train in wrapping paper because I don't have a big enough space or area that I wouldn't mind having paint everywhere as a result.

The Box Car:

 a box - cut an opening in the side...

...and wrapped it.  this was the easy one!

 

The Caboose:

 2 boxes

 closed the big one up at one end

 cute a semi-opening and some windows

 cut some windows out of the top window

 put one on top of the other with the openings facing the same way

 wrap it up

Other stuff:

The Cow pusher (snow plow)  I took a rectangular peice of cardboard and semi-cut two triangles and folded them together and taped them.  Then I fully cut two traingles from the remaining corners.  Then covered it in foil.

 The wheels: 

I have to admit this was my husband's genius.  I had decided to use black paper plates, however, i didn't know how i was going to attach them as well as the cow pusher.  He suggested pipe cleaners.  So I took a knife, and while holding the plate up against the box, i punctured 2 slits and then used half a pipe cleaner to secure it.  Slipping it through both sides and twisting it like a twist tie in the back.  The technique worked on the cow pusher as well.

Front walk - Just a train track on the sidewalk made with black duct tape.  Came up easily afterwords.

The cake:  Used mini loaf pans (5 in a pack at walmart) for the train cars.  Got a board from the garage and covered it in foil.  Then I used those astro-belts or sours strings, whatever your local store calls them, to make a track.  Just used a little icing to glue them down.  Then on each cake, i just iced the top, not the sides, then we put different candies on each on.  I put the "3" candle on the front car.  Each kid got to pick a car to have a slice from.  1/3 to 1/2 of each car is an adequate piece for a kid.

Garden 2013: The Pregnant Gardener

So, I've decided to call this year's version of our garden "The Pregnant Gardener".  As you may know or have guessed already, I am pregnant.  I'm nearly 24 weeks along with my 3rd child and I am determined to still have my garden.  The only year I have not had a garden in the past 6 is when I was pregnant with my second child, but that's because he was born at the beginning of June and I was WAY to round to get down on the ground!  This year has been rather slow in coming...about 2 months ago, I weeded all 3 of our garden boxes......our boxes are about 3ft by 20 ft each.  I was still feeling good and capable and was anxious for the spring.  Well, then we had a range of icky and nice weather, but I knew there was still a frost potential so I waited.........well, guess what happens when you have a range of icky and warm days and fertile boxes of dirt?  Unless you are from another planet, then your guess is probably right...stuff grows!  I went back out right after the last frost about 2 weeks ago....and you would have thought I had never touched those boxes.  Devastated much?  Well, there is a big difference in 2 months ago to now......namely a little girl, all curled up and, up until this past week, with her back flat up against my pelvic bone.  Doesn't lend to the ability to bend over for any length of time easy......at all!  There is only so long that I can either hover over those boxes or be in the downward dog position in the grass before I'm just worn out.  So, I have been doing a 5-6 foot section at a time and calling it a night.  I have now cleared 1 2/3 boxes.  Hope to get the second totally done this weekend and maybe the third....maybe.  I have gone ahead and planted things as I have found the good soil again.  Stood up my trellis tee-pee and planted cucumbers which have started to peek through already.  Got some pumpkin plants going and they are about an inch tall now.  Tonight, I managed to put in some sunflowers, beans, yellow squash, peas, and butternut squash.  It was hot, though.  I was never so happy to read on the package of pea seeds "scatter and cover".  Hot damn!  So, there you have it.  The beginning of what I hope will be another successful year.  Learned a few lessons last year about positioning my cucumbers so I can see all the plants instead of going on safari to get them and putting the pumpkins near the outer part of the garden so they can grow out into the yard instead of into the other boxes; creating our own pumpkin maze.  Getting a late start, but our growing season was extensive last year so even get a percentage of what we had last year would be quite the haul!  At some point I'll get some pictures up here, but not until the other boxes are done........how embarrassing otherwise!  Maybe I'll even convince my sister and friend to post some of their pics too since they have quite the produce sections themselves!  Signing off for now.......I'm EXHAUSTED and being kicked!  Happy gardening!

Scary Mou.....umm...I mean Minnie Mouse Cake

So, my first cake to sell..........disaster.  Supposed to be a Minnie Mouse Cake

Rectangle cake and I also made a round cake to start with.

cut out the top piece and set it with the circle on a platter....so far so good...

face on......not too bad.  color was good.  then i tried to cut a corner and bought pre-made black icing.  bad idea.......it was like tar and looked like it to.  by the time i got to the finishing touches, i was tired and DONE.  and Scary mouse was born.  brace yourselves.

Yikes.

Y is for Youngins'

Well, the young ones have certainly got us wound up!  Both going through some new stage at the same time!  5 1/2 year old has decided he's going to be extra defiant and then throw a fit when he's called out.  Never seen temper tantrums like this out of him!  The 2 1/2 year old has missing ear syndrome....you know, where suddenly his ears don't work and he just looks at you with a blank expression and keeps right on doing whatever he's doing?  I know, with the 2 year old, that this is just a phase, been there, done that, survived.........will not actually last as long as it will feel it does.  The 5 year old, however, not really sure if this IS just a phase or something else going on?  Anyone else go through this?  In actuality, it's only been 3 days of unusual behavior........so, of course, I've already determined there's a phase to be dealt with........love the first child stuff.........mom and dad have no clue........he's one step ahead........it's great.  Oh well, just love the child and get some sleep.  One more day, yall!  I think I can, I think I can........

X is eXcellent dinner!

OK, so I'm a day late, surprise and all.  Lat night, we served an excellent dinner to accompany an excellent movie.  We had chicken korma with rice, some kind of flat bread that isn't Nan, a yogurt and cucumber dish and then a Carrot Heal for dessert.  The movie was Monsoon Wedding.  We had 5 people from church over for the evening as part of an auction item.  Our church does an auction each year to raise money and the items auctioned off are donations of evenings or events or stuff from other church members.  So we donated a dinner and movie at our house and people bid on the slots to come.  Pretty neat arrangement, I think.  Anyway, it was great!  Thank you to my wonderful hubby for doing the cooking!  OK, I will do my best to blog something better tomorrow and Tuesday or the last 2 days!!