A purse for purse week

I finished my purse for purse week and I'll still be in bed by 10pm. Lucky me.

I made a Folklore bag from One Yard Wonders. 

I really wished I'd had some yellow fabric for the lining but such is life when you plan your projects with as much notice as I do. I added the magnetic snap. My goodness, why am I afraid of these sewing things I've never done? I almost skipped this step but I'm glad I braved the fear. Easy peasey.

Taking pictures stunk big time.... Maybe I'll take better ones that aren't inside with fluorescent lighting. It really is kind of cute. Time to enter into the the Flickr pool and go to bed. There are so many good entries in there. I LOVE The Boy Trifecta's, I think it'll win. Oh my goodness --she won last year too, mad purse skills.

Apple squash muffins

This started out as the recipe from Jessica Seinfelds Deceptively Delicious book but I changed it enough that I thought I'd share:

Mix dry:

 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup bran

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

 

Mix wet:

 

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup  milk

1 cup cooked butternut squash

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 large egg

 

Mix it all together and bake at 400 for 18 minutes.

 

I didn't puree my butternut squash cause.... I'm lazy. I used baked squash and whisked it in with the wet ingredients squishing the squash as I went. There was the odd orange chunk in the muffins but guess what? Loo still ate it. I changed the recipe to use double the squash suggested because if I'm going to all that work, I want the veggie payoff to be worth it. I also added bran for Beri. Without going into details--the baby needs extra fibre anywhere she can get it.

 

 

In other news I decided last night to enter purse week. What's that the deadline is tonight at midnight? No problem. I'm 1/3 of the way done. I also just googled MST and realized I have until 2:30am my time. Any tips for taking good purse pictures at 1:00am?

 

Star Wars backpack!

I did it! I sewed a decent zipper and I finished the sew a long backpack and there's still days left until the end of September.

These 1970s sheets have made their final transformation from Loo's baby sleep sack to his big boy backpack.

I'm pretty geeked out by how cool it looks. Even if I've never watched an entire Star Wars movie, I know that Loo and Mr. Crafty Ave are pretty psyched. Loo spent a few excited minutes pointing to characters and having Mr. C. A. tell him who they were.

I even took my time with all the nasty blind stitching between the lining and the zipper. I actually researched and found out what a blind stitch was.

My original plan was to use black piping as well but I abandoned it and I think it was the right decision.

When I finished it last night and showed him, Loo asked if he could sleep with it!. Perhaps he remembers it's origin?  I almost can't wait until Beri is old enough that a backpack wouldn't knock her down like a turtle on its back. Maybe she'll get the penguin version. I can wait though, these babies get big too soon.

Conversations with a two year old

Me:                         What are we gonna do for your birthday?
Loo:                        Go to see elephants.
Me:                         Yup.
Loo:                        They won't spray us with water. We need to bring our umbrella's so they don't spray
                               us with water.

Loo:                       Make it like a thunderstorm. It's thundering!!!!

(Loo on me using flash photography. I used it out once a week ago and now he always wants the flash on, yick!)


Me:                              I sewed a zipper!
Mr. Crafty Ave:            Is that hard or something, cause you keep jammering about it. It doesn't look that  
                                    impressive....



I have a sewing post coming up tomorrow! Something sewn on my new machine......

Dum dum da dum

Shoes shined, hair did, speech written, rehearal dinnered, Beri's napping then we're bathing babies and going to the wedding!

Magic pocket blouse

Still no sewing machine! Grrrrr.

Here's something I made this summer for Beri that never made it here. It's a magic pocket blouse. I used an old brown t-shirt with polka dot cotton for the pocket. I love the pocket and it would look great with a scrap of fancy designer fabric if I ever bought any. I think I could boy it up for a cute shirt for Loo, minus the elastic neckline.

Happy weekend!

The ongoing saga of night photography

There were so many stars out last night, I decided to try to take pictures. I ignored the fact that I've already established that there's too much light in our country neighbourhood and it won't work. I ended up with photo after photo of pure black images, or so I thought. When I downloaded them into Picasa and hit "I'm feeling lucky" something more showed up. I like some of them. The dark outline in the bottom of a bunch of them is the treeline.

I included the settings I used in the camera's manual mode. If you try this yourself you have to remember to take your camera out of auto-focus or it will refuse to take pictures. It makes me really want to find somewhere pitch dark sometime to do this for real.

I think these last ones are my favourite.

 

Nope, my sewing machine isn't fixed yet.

Serging a hat and my kids are cute

I'm just about to go out of my mind without a sewing machine. I like my serger but it's not the same thing. I realized something in the past 7 days and counting since my machine jammed. Sewing is how I've been relieving stress and it's addicting.... The past 7 days I didn't have that, Mr. Crafty Ave was out of town and I just drank can after can of coke and was pretty grumpy. I have two young kids and every day or so I need to escape. I escape into my sewing room. An hour or two later I return happier and usually with something new for them to wear.

This morning just before lunch I had already had 2 coffees, 1 coke, no breakfast and had dealt with a no nap Beri. I was gonna go bonkers. Then Mr. C. A. came home, I escaped for 15 whole minutes and made this hat for Beri. It worked. I was instantly happier and I had a great afternoon with my family.

It's perfect for her right now because her hair is just long enough to always be messy. In her eyes and always in tangles. I've tried barrettes, headbands and pigtails and they only last a few minutes before she gets them out. I'm a little worried she's try to swallow a barrette. She has a fascination with putting tiny things in her mouth, I even found a rock that made it through her system and into her diaper this week. Today for most of the day, this hat stayed on her head, I might have to sew serge a couple more.

It was pretty hard to use pictures of Beri modeling a hat without showing her face, hence the writing above. My kids are cute! Every once in awhile I struggle with whether or not to show their faces here on the blog. It's one of the things I like the most about other mom blogs... and my kids are seriously cute. Beri has the biggest blue eyes and Loo has dimples that would melt your heart. But try as I may I'm just not comfortable with it so if and until a time comes when I change my mind, what you see is what you get. There's a pretty good chance that if that happened this blog would pretty instantly turn into a blog of kid pictures so maybe it's a good thing anyways.

Can I have Darth Vader?

My craft bug was itching last night (still no sewing machine) so I decided to do a quick freezer paper shirt for Loo.

I was trying to find an easy Yoda but Loo caught me on the computer and requested Darth Vader. Turns out it was an easier stencil to find and Loo and Mr. Crafty Ave are quite happy. Glad I stocked up on plain shirts when I found them for $3 earlier this year.

And this is the thanks I get, being windmilled in the camera by froggie.

A whole new batch of goals

I had so much fun with my old goals that I've been busy thinking of new things I want to try, I've been collecting them all week in my notebook, but I'm sure I'll forget some things. Here they are in no particular order...

Do a cleanse or detox, I don't know anything about them but I want one that includes food, not juice.

Try to re-organize my blog and give it a face lift. I am so over my collage header..

Possibly change my blog name? About 2 weeks after I started my blog I realized what I should have called it and it hasn't stopped nagging the back of my mind.

Post all the leftover sewing projects that don't make it here.

Figure out what a walking foot is and decide if I need one.

Sew slower. Pay attention to details. Not use cheap break-y thread. I'm starting to appreciate these things a lot more.

Make at least one new recipe a week.

Sew a dress for me.

Follow through with LLTSA.

KCWC this fall.

Learn more camera stuff and take more pictures, now that Beri's mobile, I'm at work and the days are getting shorter it's getting more challenging.

Enter giveaways for things I really want. My self fulling prophecy is getting old, I can't win if I don't play.

Keep up with monthly kid updates, I really enjoy looking back at them.

Volunteer.

Decide on clothing labels for my sewing projects.

More Skype dates.

Happy weekend!

Thank goodness Mr. Crafty Ave is on his way home this afternoon. He's been in Texas all week, his first overnight trip in over 15 months (the first time since Beri's birth.) For the past five days I've been outnumbered. Too bad Mr. C.A. couldn't change diapers or wipe faces through Skype. I'm sure that technology is on it's way but I'm sure it won't surface before his upcoming trip to Germany.

Beri's new dress

Beri's turn for one of these. Super duper comfy and goes well with Loo's new shirt.

My sewing machine isn't fixed yet. I dropped off my bobbin today and it's going to be at least another week. Is it standard practise for the repair man not to even look at your machine unless you bring in your own bobbin?

Harvest time

After going on and on about planting seeds this spring and watering them for weeks, then watching them shrivel up.... this is what we ended up with. About 20 tomatoes. What you don't see is the all the money I wasted in seeds, and a whole whack of plants I bought after I killed my seedlings. They they were neglected but the tomatoes survived.

  

What you also don't get to see is the huge smile on Loo's face when I brought him outside in his pyjamas last night to pick our tomatoes. The care with which he carried them about. His yelling at Blarney when he sniffed at them. And all the weeks we've been watching them grow and ripen together.

All this excitement from a two year old who doesn't like to eat tomatoes.

Sew-along - back pack - part one

I realize it's almost the middle of September and I'm supposed to be sewing up a back pack for Loo. I've got a challenge ahead of me. I'm facing 101 projects in the next couple weeks (my brother and Margot's wedding is less than 2 weeks away!) and my sewing machine is in the shop. I've decided on my fabric and cut out the pattern pieces. I haven't looked for the elusive strap adjusters yet or bought the dreaded zipper, but I'm feeling optimistic that it will all work out. The idea is to transform this ratty sleep sack of Loo's into a super functional backpack.

(A sleep sack that Chantilly made for Loo one late night at our house with some vintage Star Wars sheets she brought over !!! It was well loved and the shoulder seams are falling apart. Beri's out of her sleep sacks now too so I was faced with storing it forever or trying to re purpose it. I'm not sure but if you travel way back in the My Girl Thursday archives* you might find a picture of his cute little baby face on her blog.)

On the plus side going a few days without sewing hasn't been as bad as I thought. It's given me plenty of time to plan, relax, look up recipes and I just might head off to have a bubble bath and reread some Women Food and God. Or go have a snack. Or do both.

I will start finish this back pack. I will. I am entering the giveaway and if I don't win.... I might just take pity on myself and purchase a pattern.



* Oh my gosh, I found it.... I forgot about the pee tents.  Chantilly, we love you.

My mom makes my clothes

Now Loo doesn't even have to open his mouth to tell people.

Have I mentioned how much I'm loving Figgy's Tee for Two? To change it up for this one I didn't do any exposed seams.