"Retail is for suckers"

That's a quote from Seinfeld and it was the first thing that popped into my head after I finished this craft.

From the moment I saw this Butterfly Mobile in my Pottery Barn catalog, I couldn't get it out of my head. It is so simplistic, so sweet, so whimsical, and so so so pretty.

It also happened to be "so" expensive.

It's Pottery Barn, after all.

There's a reason I hoard their catalogs but never buy anything.

Their butterfly mobile cost $38.

And isn't it the prettiest thing ever?

After I caught my breath, I tried to think of how I could come up with $38 (plus probably $8 more to ship it). Or actually, how I could justify spending $38 + $8 on it. I couldn't. Dang.

But my next thought was "I could totally make that".

So I did.

Mine is, naturally, a little bit different, with a slightly less amount of butterflies, but it does the job.

I took the center ring of an embroidery hoop, covered it with lacey fabric, and attached wire to it:

Jesse can tell you, I debated long and hard (mostly long) about whether I wanted to keep it all white or add some color.

Part of me wanted to keep it white, so it would more closely resemble the Pottery Barn one.

But when I found this coral rose-ribbon, I loved the way it looked and it just seemed wrong to NOT use it.

Some of the butterflies escaped and flew up to the top, landing on the pretty rose ribbon:

As I said, I hand-cut & glued every one of those butterflies. And only after I spent 2 hours doing that, did a price tag of $38 seem like a little bit less of a price-gouge. I still have hot-glue all over my counter top. But it was worth it.

The only downsides:

1. It tangles very very easily. Therefore, it should NOT be placed by an open window (learned that the hard way).

2. I don't have a nursery with a crib to hang it over. :(

I do, however, have 3 girls who thought it was pretty cool, so it's going up in their room. You're never too old for something pretty.