Sewing Patterns Make Me Happy

Some of my earliest memories are of my mother's sewing machine.

I remember her cutting out patterns in our basement, sorting through fabric, deciding which would look best with whatever it was that she was making at the time. I remember her excitement when my father built shelves in her little sewing corner so she could stack and organize and I remember when he made her a table that she could work on... I can't remember what she used prior to the existence of that table, but I DO remember that she didn't always have the table!

Mom tried to teach me how to sew at one point... I think I did pretty well, but I'm sure she would tell you otherwise. There was always a bit of a power struggle between us when I was growing up. Translated? I didn't listen to her, and then I lost interest in learning.

When my hubby and I moved from Ontario to Newfoundland, I decided to pick it up again though. I never really forgot the basics mom showed me when I would listen, but most of what I know now has been learned through trial and error and patient phone calls with my mother. She is really quite the saint for putting up with me the way she does!

Given that I'm mostly self taught the idea of sewing clothes scares the life out of me! But I decided that I need to challenge myself if I'm going to continue to grow and develop my skill. So I bit the dust a few weeks ago and ordered 2 patterns, and they arrived today!

I want to make the dress on the left for my brother-in-laws wedding rehearsal next summer in July (I figure this gives me PLENTY of time!) and the other was more just for the fun of it! I have dreams of being in a 1950's movie wearing a beautiful dress, so I thought I just might make myself that beautiful dress! what could possibly be more fun then that?!!?

and what makes it so much better is this little mark on the top left corner of the patterns!

You see I love vintage! I love vintage like I love to breath, however it's a little more expensive then my hubby likes to dish out for clothes, so it's something I have sacrificed in order to avoid potential rolling eyes, scowling huffs or little arguments that could happen whenever I wear a vintage item. I don't intend for this to last forever mind you! But given our current location in the world, coming by fantastic thrift stores is easier said then done, and not all online vintage shops offer the same pricing points...

So I get to try and make my own "vintage" clothes!

Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday

This is after almost a week of healing... it did look even more horrible! but he's pretty proud of his "oowie" and in all this we found out that his little brother's head is even harder then we originally thought!

Cupcakes for Dinner

I had cupcakes for dinner tonight... I'm not sure how many to be honest, I stopped counting around the third...

At the time it seemed like a fantastic idea, but my tummy is no longer in agreement with that decision...

Cards

Because of the hurricane our little town, here in Newfoundland, has been pretty much cut off from the rest of the province/island.

To get to us, there is only 1 road with 3 bridges along the way, 2 of these bridges were washed out by Igor. Which means things are getting pretty scarce for us at the moment. The peninsula that we live on didn't have any gas or other supplies come in for almost a week.

For that reason we've been pretty careful about how frequently we use our car. So for the birthday party on the weekend, making a 20 min drive into our main centre and then 20 min back, just to get a card really seemed quite silly. I pulled out all my scrapbooking stuff and had a great time Friday evening making up a bunch of different cards!

This is just some, but I think these ones are my favourites! The colours are just so happy and fantastic!!!

Ah, it feels so good to be getting my craft on again!

It's been too long!!!!

Pillow and a Doll

Today we went to a birthday party for a little girl my boys play with. I decided it would be fun to do up a pillow for her with her name on it and one of my dolls. I was thrilled with the result!

I had a great time making the pillow. It turned out a bit larger then I had expected, but I wanted the letters huge so it only makes sense the pillow would also be a bit larger!

I printed out her name using a font I liked in a ginormous size (350) and cut it out.

I don't really applique the right way... but I like my way so I stick with it! I cut out each letter in interfacing and then ironed on the fabric, then I cut out the letters just inside the interfacing borders. In my mind, this helps the fabric from fraying... and I find it makes it a bit sturdier when sewing...

I stitched them onto the fabric for the pillow using a zigzag stitch.

I measured around the finished top panel for the pillow and cut out a strip of fabric about 8-10" longer and about 4 1/2" wide. I sewed the ends together, making a big circle, folded it in half (long side to long side, making a long circle about 2 1/4" wide) and pressed it. I opted to baste it to the front panel of the pillow because I was worried about shifting when I positioned the back piece on.

After I basted the fringe, I plopped the back panel of fabric on and sewed it together leaving a space open in the bottom to flip it right side out and fill with stuffing. Once right side out, I ironed it and then stuffed it, closing with a ladder stitch.

I couldn't be happier!!

A House Full of sickies

The boys and I have been fighting an awful bug for the past 3 weeks or so and it's kicking our butts!

So far hubby's been able to escape the bug. I certainly hope he manages to stay good and healthy, because I can not handle two little ones, plus one with a man cold!

Hurricane Igor

Our little town in Newfoundland Canada just survived Hurricane Igor. It's amazing to see the power of the weather sometimes. Here are some pics from around town that I pulled either off of facebook or the weather network...

roads were literally washed away:

a lot of homes were flooded

this was a popular walking trail:

No injuries were reported in our area, although a man in another town was "swept to sea" as they say. Our house made it though the storm with no damage, which we could not be more thankful for! We did have a bit of excitement last night with the wind blowing a power cable off the hydro tower between our house and neighbours, resulting in a fire. It took about an hour and a half to two hours for the power people to arrive and kill the power to the street so the fire could be put out. We had power back up and running in record time though! When the fire started we just off the power to the house to be safe. After about 3 hours without power though, we noticed our neighbours across the road had lights back on, so we tried ours and we were set! We were amazed at the speed.

One of the bridges on the main road attaching us to the rest of the island collapsed in the storm rendering us pretty alone at the moment. So now it's time for the community to band together and clean up the mess Igor left us with!

6:30am Vs. 6:30pm

My living room first thing in the morning...

Before the boys are up and my day gets crazy...

This is my living room at the end of the day...

it should be noted this is also after some clean up...

Books!

I received a package in the mail yesterday and I'm so excited!!! There's something about getting packages full of books in the mail!

I simply can't wait for the kids to go to bed tonight so I can give each book my undivided attention!!

Quilt Magazine

Now that Zac is in a big boy bed I really want to try and make a quilt to go on it.

I follow a few blogs diligently and remembered this post while trying to decide what exactly I wanted to make for Zac. I set out right away trying to find a copy of the magazine Kellie made the pattern for and, through a surprising amount of effort, finally found and ordered a copy. And hurray! it arrived today!!

It's going to be a lovely evening... too bad that is neo-citran in that mug and not a nice cup of tea... but no matter! an evening with a new pattern and a warm drink, I can't think of any better way to spend it!

Dinosaur Stuffies

My guys have recently discovered dinosaurs and how fantastic they are! So naturally I dove right into this phase and wanted so desperately to make them dinosaur stuffies. This task proved to be so much easier said/thought then done though!

We have this lovely little book that both the boys love...

and on one of the pages the little girl is playing with toy dinosaurs and I decided that this was the look of the dinosaur stuffies I would like to make for them. The only thing is... there is no pattern in existance matching the look I wanted. So my hand was slightly forced into making my own pattern...

I have to say though, I was quite pleased with how it turned out! now to make another!

A Song

I think this is a beautiful song...

Dump Cake

I made a dump cake yesterday for a church pot luck today. About half of it came home with us and we ate it all... in almost one sitting... it was fabulous and far to easy not to share!!

2 cans of pie filling (I used cherry), one box of cake mix (I used golden) and 2 sticks (1cup) of butter!

Dump the cans of pie filling into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan, dump the dry cake mix over top of it (even it out, but you just leave it the powder!) and then slice up all the butter and arrange it all over the top, bake at 350 for about 45-50 min until it's golden on top and bubbly on the bottom.

Best to give it a couple of hours or a day to rest a bit.

It's just lovely!!

Big Boy Bed

We moved our oldest little guy into a "big boy" bed today.

It was a strange and emotional experience for me, I will admit it! Even my husband took the plunge into the land of sap, once everything was assembled, remembering how carefully he drove the three of us home from the hospital 2 days after Zac was born.

Zac doesn't deal well with change... but really do any 2 and half year olds?

Although we were able to get him into his bed and leave the room, within 10 minutes he was calling out a little scared, so my sweet hubby crawled in with him to keep him company in this new, huge and unfamiliar bed.

The plan was to be in there a minute or two, just long enough to ease any first night jitters... alas half an hour later I still have yet to see the return of my husband... which realistically could hurt us in this process for a little while, but knowing that my oldest takes such comfort in the presence of his father warms my heart so much, I don't mind the possible set back at all!