Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Clippie Contest! Enter at Your Own Risk!

Charlotte has very little hair.

Ahem.

This is hard for me to admit, which I why I cover her head with ridiculously large headbands in obnoxiously bright colors. (For the record, she gets about 600 compliments on her cuteness factor each time she wears these bands.) But I look forward to the day when she gets hair, because her mama is gonna be prepared, y'all.

Very prepared.

You see, one day in March I was at a consignment sale, and a talented, enterprising little gal was sitting at a table selling little homemade hair clippies for babies and girls. I bought one, brought it home, studied it, and then groaned inwardly as I realized that I had bought something for $3 that I could easily have made myself for about $.50. I'm happy to have helped a stay-at-home mom trying to earn a little extra money, but come on. I'm a stay-at-home mom who should be saving a little more money. I don't need to be $2.50 in the hole for a hair clip.

Anyway. To the point.

I would like to hold another contest! And what, you may ask, but only if you're as slow as I am about picking up on the plot, am I offering the future lucky winner?

Feast your computer-addled eyes upon these:


Ta-da!

That's right. Once I realized that I could do this myself, I bought some supplies and made a few clippies, hoping to be able to use them on Charlotte one day. They ended up being too heavy for her wispy, near non-existent baby chick fluff hair, so I thought I'd have some fun and offer them up on the blog. And no, I'm not planning on making this into a business. Really, I just wanted to see if I could do it. And I could. It feels good, I'll be honest.

Now before you get too impressed, let me explain a few things. Here, I'll list them, just because I like lists (I'm a Type A, can you tell?):
  1. I used the wrong alligator clips for this batch. They aren't the kind that narrow at the tips; these are the same width the whole length of the clip. Therefore, the grosgrain ribbon doesn't cover all the silver on the front. Either you find this kind of cute or very tacky.
  2. As I said before, because I accidentally bought the "wrong" kind of clips, they're heavier than your average bear. Er, alligator clip. So whoever wears this needs to have sturdy hair. If your hair is at all like Charlotte's, consider yourself disqualified.
  3. I forgot to heat seal the edges of the ribbons. Therefore, in time they may very well fray.
  4. I am the last person on Earth you should give a hot glue gun. I burned myself at least 53 times doing these five measly clips, and there is glue everywhere if you look very closely.
  5. DO NOT LOOK VERY CLOSELY.
  6. I used small objects to decorate the clippies. It was only after I had applied the last accessory, a scrap booking button, that I realized, "Oops. Babies and little girls wear these. Babies and very little girls like to put things in their mouths." If you get this and your baby eats the baubles and gives you a choking scare, please, please do not sue me. My only assets are children.
  7. Are children assets? If not, then my only asset is my beloved minivan. And you wouldn't be that cruel.
  8. I love the color combo of pink/brown/white. Therefore, I didn't branch out from these colors.
Okay, now that I've laid all of that baggage down at your feet, let's get this contest going! If you want to enter, simply leave a comment telling me what you would do with them if you won. Wear them yourself, give them to your niece, clip them to your lapel (not a bad idea), use them as bookmarks--be honest! I realize this contest sort of leaves out guys, but not really, if you think about it. Guys, enter. Then give them to the girl, little or not, in your life.

I'll shut this bad boy down on Friday, April 10th (2009, duh) at around 8 a.m., or whenever the boys wake up that morning, whichever comes first. I'm making the deadline their wake-up call because I plan on making the random selection of the winner a highly scientific affair.

Oh, yes ma'am. We believe in science in these parts. Especially science that involves little boys, scraps of paper, and a hat.

I won't say any more.

So comment away! Please enter my contest! You don't want to make me feel like a loser, do you? Besides, I like holding contests. My readers who otherwise lurk in the shadows, just beyond my line of sight, sometimes comment, leaving me saying, "Oops. I didn't know they were reading this. I have probably offended them about 15 times in the last week."

Just kidding. I don't care what in the world offends you. This is my blog! Ha!

And you need to know, if you don't already, that clippies are like the most popular thing ever right now. There is a huge underground movement, I swear. My friend Rebekah just opened an Etsy shop selling clippies, and I assure you, she and many other people do a much, much better job than I do. (Rebekah's are just downright adorable. I may have to support her cause. And she even makes hers no-slip! Fay-un-cee!) If you Google something like, I don't know, "how to make hair bows" or "how to make clippies," be prepared for very secretive, slightly catty results. Seriously. It's a little goofy how ridiculous some of these women are about upholding the mysteries surrounding bow-making.

As in, "Buy this pattern on how to make a boutique-style hair bow--for only $9.95!"

Folks. For real.

Oh, and Raechel? You'll have to sit this one out. I'm sorry! I know you are dying to test Oliver's hair length and all, but you'll just have to make them yourself, okay? I have great faith in you after you and your sister made your own BabyLegs.

(What in the world makes us so cheap?)

Enter away, everyone who is not Raechel!

13 comments:

Rebekah said...

Thanks for the shout out! I love free advertising. =) And, for the record, your clippies are pretty darn cute, too. Miss Charlotte just needs to get some more hair so she can wear them. Or you could open your own Etsy shop! I'd even share some trade secrets with you (not here, of course). =) BTW, where did you find the adorable flowers for these clippies? That's been my biggest challenge so far--finding cute embellishments with which to decorate my clippies.

Gallo Pinto2 said...

So at first I was super excited thinking they might be perfect for my friend's 8 week old until I realized if they won't work in Charlotte's hair they won't work in little Anna's either...

So I have a question for Rebekah. How heavy are yours? Because if they aren't too big or heavy my friend might very well fall in love with you and your Etsy shop!

4cunninghams said...

Those are so cute! I would totally put them in Kylee's hair! Those are basically the only kinds of clips we use in her hair. Held back with a ponytail (because she actually has hair now) they stay in great! We are girly and love bows and clips of any kind.

And for what it's worth-Kylee had almost NO hair till she was over a year. She had way less than Charlotte has and look at her now! So there is hope for Charlotte!

Rebekah said...

My clips are very light weight (especially the ones that are just ribbon, with no buttons on them), and with the no-slip grip, they should work okay even in fine hair. I haven't tried them in baby hair yet, though.

Kelsie Dales said...

I think the clips are adorable! I have a best friend that has a 2 1/2 year old, Ava. They would look so fun in her hair, she's also into pink/brown combo's, so they'd be perfect!!! You're so creative!:)

Raechel said...

I'm not entering - just commenting for comments sake. And, come on, choking hazard schmoking hazard, isn't that what fashion is all about?

Love and baby chick fluff,
Rae

Susan Graham said...

I would enter (as I am one of your unseen readers) but I don't think my husband would appriciate bows on our son :)

Tracy said...

Olivia was like your Charlotte. She didn't have hair to hold a bow for a very long time. I always ended up pealing the bow off the metal and putting a dab of toothpaste on it and sticking it to her head. Worked great- plus it smelled minty fresh.

Anyway, she has hair now- so I'd use them to keep her bangs back.

Janie said...

darn it. i thought you were going to have a contest on who could come up with the cutest, most adorable, big and flashy hair bow/headband for little charlotte! I came up with lots of ideas! then i realized your contest wasn't that cool. see, now you're not going to be mailed a bunch of creative and fun hair bows! and now i can't win b/c i have no little girl and no use for little clippies, and therefore no idea how i would use them w/o little girls w/ little girl hair! next time test the creativity of your readers by asking for free things.

Janie said...

by the way, i'm VERY proud of your creativity!!!! and impressed.

4cunninghams said...

Thanks for posting the link to the etsy site. I think I'll have to budget in some money to spend there! The clippies are adorable!

MELISSA said...

Nice job! I've thought about attempting these, but can't find the motivation. Unfortunately, my daughter has very fine hair (I was hoping she'd get her daddy's thick wavy hair but that doesn't seem to be the case), so I doubt they would stay. But well done!

Christine said...

Melissa, I'm still entering you. I can easily make them non-slip. And if anyone else is hesitating because of fine hair, go ahead and enter.