Have a heart

Quite a while ago, almost a year ago, I entered my first swap. It was for handmade hearts. The swap coordinator, Sheri, who no longer has a blog, made the deadline sometime in the beginning of december but the date got moved to the end of January. So, in my typical fashion, I procrastinated and put things off and finally got them done. That's what my daily projects were for Friday night and Saturday. I only had to make 14 so it wasn't a huge project just slightly tedious and a bit difficult to come up with 14 different ones.





Anyway, here they are...

and now they're off to the post office.

Paper craft and Little pouch

I said that I needed to find a non-sewing project which was fine. I came up with all sorts of things. One problem...I can't find any of my craft supplies. They're all in boxes somewhere. So I sat down and started tearing into a couple of magazines and made this little scene...

Which I'm not all that pleased with. I don't know if it's the fact that it's not what I wanted to be doing or because I'm just not happy how it turned out. Either way, it'll go in the drawer until I can come back to it.

Luckily, when my brilliant sister came home she reminded me to look in the little compartment in the sewing machine for extra needles....duh! And they were there, of course. So I got back to work on my little pouch. I thought it was turning out so well but once I started to work on the zipper, I figured there were a couple things I did wrong but this being a first time, that's alright. It's all about learning as I go. So here's how it turned out...

Cute, no? I'm having issues with finding things, as I've mentioned, white thread included. But no biggie. The fabric that I used is part of a fat quarter from a vintage sheet that was part of a vintage sheet fat quarter exchange I participated in a while back. The lining is from the same swap. I actually don't really like the lining fabric but the colors matched perfectly with the other fabric so I couldn't not use it.

The best part of the whole thing, I think, is the strap...

I'm really good at making straps and handles for some reason.

So, next time there are a few things that will be done differently but for the most part, I like it. Now what should I make tomorrow?

Don't forget five more days till the give away!

I'm in the crafting groove

Since I went so long without a sewing machine (from the end of August to the middle of January) I have been going a little crazy and coming up with all sorts of things that I want to try and make. I’ve been finding all sorts of tutorials all over the place and bookmarking them or I’ve downloaded the pdf versions of them and saved them in my “Projects to try” folder. Basically, I’ve been hording ideas like a mad woman.

So, now that I’ve got this borrowed machine I’m trying to do some of those projects. The lunch bag was one of them.

Then came the pencil roll. Actually, this was supposed to be a Christmas present for someone, but better late than never, right?

Notice there are no close up shots of the inside. This is very much on purpose because to be quite frank, I can not sew a straight line to save my life. So all those little pencil pockets are a little wobbly but they get the job done.

Then last night I started on a small zippered pouch. This was to be my first zipper ever, that is until I broke the needle on the sewing machine right at the point where I was ready to put the zipper in. Oops! And it was going so well too. I refused to take pictures until it was finished so there’s nothing to show of it but rest assured it was coming out better than I thought it would. When I’m able to go get new needles, probably tomorrow, I’ll finish it and show it to you.

Anyway, I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do a project a day this week just to get myself back into the crafty swing of things. I guess tonight’s project will have to be a non-sewing one. Anybody got any ideas? All my horded ideas seem to have all been sewing projects. Guess I’m going to have to do some more digging. Off I go…

Don't forget to sign up for the give away if you haven't done so already!!

The cake will not win!!

One of my coworkers and I put ourselves in charge of buying a cake each month for all the employees who have birthdays in that month. So last night I picked up the cake and this morning it's sitting on my desk right next to me.

It seems to be willing me to open its container and take a swipe at its frosting. I can almost hear it whispering, "Come on, you know you want to...no one will even notice."

It's an evil cake. With an evil little whispery voice and evil mind manipulating powers. You can hear its little evil song, too, can't you?

But it doesn't know that I am a super hero. This receptionist gig is just my mild mannered alter ego. I'm really Ms. Power, Ms. Willhelmina Power, Will for short. That's right folks, Will Power is here to save the day. I, with my cape billowing in the breeze, will stop that evil cake!

Take that, evil little cake!!

*no actual cakes were harmed in the making of this post.

This weekend's project.

Because we have a very very far way to go to get the house where we want it I've got a list of projects that will take approximately one weekend to get finished. This weekend's project got put at the top of the list because we are having a candle party (think Tupperware but with candles and candle holders) and we have very limited seating. So, I decided I'd finally make cushions for this chair...

My family has had this chair since I was a kid, when my dad brought it home from somewhere. I always sat in this one (he brought home 2, this one and one with arms that are arch shaped) reading or watching TV, usually with my feet in the air and my head hanging over the edge of the seat. It's really a huge chair if you can't tell from the photo. For the last 8 years I've had it in my possession in this poor state. No cushion, paint peeling, etc. I kept telling myself I'd get to it but never did. Finally, though, due to necessity, I have. I spent the weekend making these cushions...

The seat cushion was made from scratch but the big pillow is a pillow form that I bought and I just made a sham. I love that Alexander Henry fabric on the seat cushion. There's something about the black and white combo that really speaks to me.

Eventually, the frame will be painted white and the arms black but for the party, this is ok. The back of the big pillow looks like this...

I was originally going to put buttons with loop closures on it but I just thought it would be too much. I'm a minimalist at heart.

I've made pillows and pillow covers before but the big cushion is a first for me. It was a challenge. I've never done anything box like. Making sure corners all meet up was an interesting experience.

How did you spend your weekend?

They grow up so fast!

Remember this little kitty...

When did she turn into this big cat??

I think it happened over night. Big jungle kitty is now bigger than little pampered dog.

My first apron

It feels good to have a sewing machine again! Ours is still loaned out but my sister belatedly remembered that she teaches sewing as an elective every summer and has 10 sewing machines just lying around her classroom during the school year. She loaned me one of those and, frankly, it's a better machine than our own. So now I can make those Christmas presents that never got made, maybe they'll end up being Valentine's Day gifts.

Anyway, I joined a swap on swap-bot called "Sound of Music - My favorite things" swap. Basically you make something that is inspired by the lyrics of the song. So I made this apron as my "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes" interpretation. It's my first apron. It came out a little narrow but other than that it came out pretty decent. I lucked out and found this 3 inch wide satin ribbon at Joann and just used it like bias tape for the waste band / ties. And used some white eyelet from the stash so it was a very cheap project and a quick one too. I finished it in just about an hour a half...for me that's super quick.

In other news, I got a pleasant surprise the other day when I got home from work and this was in my mail box...

My very cute ornament from Edward and Lilly. Isn't it adorable?! Thank you, Rebecca!

One of my resolutions

Ok, let me start by saying that I stopped making new year's resolutions when I was around 20 because I never stuck to them and I figure why set myself up for disappointment on an annual basis. So instead of resolving to stick to my resolutions I resolved to make no more resolutions.

This year, though, I decided to make a couple, ones I know I can stick to. The first is to cook more, eat out less. So tonight I made myself dinner (yakisoba noodles with soy steak stripes, garlic, and corn - we're low on groceries right now) and dessert, this dessert...

I call it Cinnamon Pear Crumble. I've never made this before or actually anything like it, I'm more a cake/cookie person so it was something of an experiment. It came out rather well, I must say. That's why I decided to list the recipe (or what I think ended up being the recipe :) ) I hope you enjoy it!

Cinnamon Pear Crumble

Filling:

1 can quartered pears

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Topping:

3 or 4 tablespoons brown sugar (I used light brown but it would probably be even better with dark brown)

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees (Farenheit).

For the filling I drained then divided the pears into two ramekins then divided the cinnamon and sugar between the two and made sure the pears were well coated.

For the topping,melt the butter and mix together with the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour until all flour has been mixed in. Crumble on top of pears. Cook for 20 minutes.

I'm not generally a cooked fruit lover but pears are one of my exceptions to that rule. They're just yummy!!

Happy New Year! and my butt hurts

Happy New Year everybody!! I tried valiantly to stay up last night and ring in the new year with, if not some revelry, at least some wakefulness. Alas, I fell fast asleep well before midnight then woke up again at 12:05, so I missed the ball dropping and Dick Clark. That's a symptom of age, or so I hear.

Anyway, My sister and I have gone back and forth over the last 2 months since moving into the house on what sofa to get. We agree that we want a dark color (probably dark brown/chocolate) but other than that we can't seem to agree. I like clean lines, she likes the poofy overstuffed floppy looking sofas. So we have yet to get one. In the meantime we've been sitting on all manner of chair. From dining chairs to camp chairs to outdoor chairs, which is what I'm sitting on now. This is why my arse is continuously sore, at least while I'm watching tv or on the computer. If it were solely up to me, it would be one of these...

They are all from this company their & names are 1. Park 2. Arlette 3. Lola 4. Metropole. I love them.

Babies

The babies are everywhere these days! I just thought to myself the other day that for a single, childless woman, I sure do buy a lot of baby clothes, toys, items, etc. I guess my friends and I are all in that age group where having children is the thing to do. I don't mean to make it sound like some passing trend, I just can't seem to think of better wording right now.

Here's one of the most recent arrivals...

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

A while back one of our This is topics was favorite children's book and I listed my favorite story, Peter Pan. However, I don't really consider Peter Pan a "children's" book, unless you're talking about "children of all ages" because as an adult I enjoy it as much as I did when I was a kid. Then a couple weeks ago I was reminded of a book from my childhood that was, by far, my favorite. It's called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett and illustrations by Ron Barrett.

The story is a grandfather telling his grand kids about a town called Chewandswallow where all the food the town eats comes from the weather.

It rains juice and snows mashed potatoes and peas and there are big hamburger storm clouds.


The weather comes three times a day

They have a roofless restaurant

And things were good

Until....

Things started to go uncontrollable

Way out of control

So the townspeople decide to leave Chewandswallow by making boats out of huge slices of bread

They go across the sea where they are welcomed but where they have to get used to things like grocery stores.

And they all lived happily ever after. Or something like that. It's a great story and the illustrations are alot of fun to look at. This copy is going to be a certain little girl's Christmas present because she loves books. A girl after my own heart.

O Tannenbaum!

Yesterday's Eye-spy post made me want to write up a post about our Christmas tree. It's funny, a few years back we bought a fake, pre-lit tree because we both had gotten tired of the clean up and maintenance of a real tree. In fact, last year we didn't even put up the fake one. We got as far as taking out the ornaments but never got out the tree so we ended up pinning the light, non-breakable ones to the ceiling (one of my sister's kookier ideas).







However, as soon as we saw this house we knew we were going to get a real tree. The big picture window made it nearly impossible to resist. So over the weekend we went and bought us a 7 footer (2 feet bigger than any tree we had while living in the condo).

We both have a strong aversion to the shiny metallic garland and tinsel so for many years we used this giant chenille ric rac...

Unfortunately, since this is a much bigger tree we didn't really have enough to use on the whole tree and of course, I have no idea where I got it. So, we stopped about 3 feet from the floor but turns out that was a good thing because of this little critter...

So far she's been very good. She has climbed up the trunk a couple of feet but hasn't knocked anything off yet. But I just know that if that ric rac were closer to the ground it would prove too much of a temptation and we'd come home to a horizontal tree. That's why we loaded it up with non-breakables and kept all the pretty glass or ceramic ornaments that we've collected over the years tucked safely away in the ornament boxes.


So, we have mostly cloth and metal and a couple of plastic ornaments most of which were gifts, and a lot of which are handmade...

I've always loved decorating the Christmas tree. This year even more so. I don't know why, maybe because of the new house or the new kitty or maybe all of the above.

Our audience while we decorated the tree.

Something arrived in the mail today...

I wonder what it is!


Ahhh a pretty little tin


from Tinnie Girl! I had my eye on the pretty flowered tin the moment I saw it in her shop.


So I broke down and bought it. I picked the "surprise" colorway and what a pleasant surprise it was! Full of my favorite color...Purple!!


I urge all you crafty folks to visit Tinnie Girl's shop. It's one of the most unique shops on etsy. And if you like grab bags, you'll want to buy a tin.