something pretty

Something pretty: my very own raincloud in my hallway, complete with raindrops. You may have seen the fabric pigeons that I did on Buzz's door but this was my first fabric cornstarch project. I can see it from where I sit typing at the computer and I love it. We didn't think that we should put any nails into this particular wall because there is a fuse box located on the other side of the wall so a cornstarch fabric decal was the perfect solution. My sister gave me the polka dot fabric ages ago and I love it so much but have found it difficult to sew with as it is quite thin. Being thin however makes this fabric perfect for use as a decal, I love the way that it turned out. Its surprising how lovely a little raincloud can be.

stormy weather, wonderful results

Summer storms have brought some wonderful surprises, the garden is growing like crazy and today Buzz and I found caterpillars! He isn't all that fond of creepy crawlies yet but he was a little fond of the fuzzy caterpillars.

Take a look at the crazy awesome lettuce in my garden. This batch was the result of Buzz getting his hands on a packet of seeds and spilling them everywhere. We now have a patch of lettuce next to the neat and tidy square foot lettuce. It tastes great, I've have a couple of leaves but I haven't yet convinced Buzz to try it. He found it quite amusing that I was eating something from the garden though, it would seem that he hasn't quite grasped the concept of where food comes from. He is only 2 after all so I will forgive him that.

A Room for Buzz

I've finally done it, after much organizing, decorating, and moving furniture to and fro, I've finally taken pictures of Buzz's room. I'm a  huge fan of the room tours on ohdeedoh and over the past year or so I've found some great ideas while looking through the website which came in handy when setting up the room. We're lucky that our apartment has very sizable bedrooms, allowing lots of room for Buzz to not just sleep in his room, but play there as well.

We decided not to paint at all in this room because we aren't sure how long we'll stay at this location, instead I used lots of photos, illustrated images, artwork, and even some homemade fabric decals to liven up the walls and the door.

 Adorning the door is a great big polka dot 'B' with a flowery blue pigeon on either side. I cut these out of fabric and followed this tutorial to learn how to stick them to the wall using corn starch. It worked wonderfully and when we decide to move they will peel right off without stripping the paint.

Buzz has been lucky enough to receive some great artwork as gifts and all of it looks phenomenal on his walls. The images of the animal people are from grand ole bestiary on Etsy , I love that they are way more interesting then your average animal photo. Flash cards, vintage pennants, and postcards fill in the other space between photographs.

 A vintage light switch cover - a gift from an Auntie, was the perfect way to spruce up an otherwise utilitarian fixture in the room. The barn shelf was bought at a thrift store and for a couple of bucks and I switch out the trinkets on it often.

A giant Ikea leaf perches in the corner, even after having it in his room for over a year, Buzz still seems amazed by it. One entire wall of the room is taken up by windows, its great to have all of that natural light, however it has made it  a little difficult to arrange furniture and find curtains to fit. The current middle set of curtains are still a little short as I haven't got around to adding a piece onto the bottom of them.

An Ikea side table and two orange chairs inside the door make a perfect space for Buzz to colour with crayons. The chalkboard above the table is a vintage find, bought at a Goodwill store for $3. The orange chairs were also a secondhand find by my parents, my Dad painted them orange and they fit perfectly in the room.

 An Ikea shelf turned on its side is a perfect storage solution in the room, not only does it create a home for toys and books, but the top is a perfect place for an aquarium. The prints on the wall are part of a set of 6 (only 5 are in the room, the 6th is not yet framed or hung). These are done by a friend of mine and are perfect in his room, I like that they are pieces of art that can grow with him and that he can work into a home of his own when he is older. I made the two paper buntings that you can see strung around the top of the room. I used scrapbook paper and cut out triangles, folded them, trimmed the edges, and glued them over a length of string.

Buzz on his bed. The seahorse light is another Ikea find, it gives off a nice warm light in the evening when he is falling asleep. The seated owl piece of art to the left of Buzz is done by my very talented sister. She also made the paper mache hand puppet on the Ikea shelf. You can find more of her art and puppets here.

hot day, cold lunch

Recently, as the weather has been getting warmer, I've been making myself a smoothie for breakfast or lunch. I love how fresh it tastes and it is often a great energy booster. For the most part I make my smoothie using frozen fruit, vanilla yogurt, and vanilla soy milk. I find that if I use milk in place of the soy milk it is simply too much milk and my throat gets angry at me - thus the addition of soy milk.

Last week I read this article on the blog of a friend of mine and she suggested using cinnamon in a smoothie, so today I did. I would suggest following the rest of her recipe, I'm sure its great, however I simply added cinnamon to my regular smoothie recipe. Cinnamon was such a great addition that I am most definitely going to use it again and again. Thanks for the wonderful idea Sarah, cinnamon in my smoothie made my day!

sneak peak

I promise to get a tour of Buzz's room up shortly, but in the meantime here is a bit of a sneak peak. Buzz was quite excited to jump around on his bed yesterday and I happily snapped some pictures.

I heart storage.

Hello sweet sweet storage space! I'm so glad you've decided to be a part of our family!

For the past few years we have lived apartments without an extra storage space and when we moved to our current apartment which is smaller then our previous place the issue of all that extra stuff a little more daunting. Do we own too much stuff? Probably. Should we get rid of some of it? Definitely. Can we get rid of all the things that take up valuable space in our closets and corners? No. We simply had some things in our apartment that needed a new home, one that was away from our every day path. Enter the storage space. In our current apartment building there are only a hand full of storage spaces down in the basement, not everyone can have one but we've been persistent about it, reminding the superintendent that we badly wanted one. Our persistence paid off and now the hockey equipment, golf clubs, camping equipment, and several other large items have found a new home.

There is still room down there and we will be emptying out another closet of rarely used items so that they can live down there as well. I can't believe the difference that it has already made in Buzz's room, while he didn't seem to notice the large smelly hockey bag in his room this past year, I'm sure that sooner or later he would have and he wouldn't have been pleased. Now that his closet is clean we finally have a place to put all the boxes of baby clothes that were sitting in a corner, the difference is amazing. 

Keep an eye out for a tour of Buzz's lovingly curated room to show up sometime soon, now that the clutter is gone, only the awesome is left.

Urban Garden

Hello there, its been a while. We've had a great couple of months, its been busy, but great, Buzz even turned 2!

The weather has been a mix lately, beautiful days split up by a whole lot of rain. While the rain isn't all that great for our outdoor playtime, it has been pretty awesome for our garden. You heard me... our family may be apartment dwellers but we are also proud cultivators of a garden all our own.We were lucky enough to procure a spot at our local community garden. We now have a plot about 24'x12' in which to plant whatever we want. I've been beyond excited about this garden, however it definitely needed some work and luckily E stepped in to help out with that. He worked hard and made a new fence so that we could keep the rabbits out and keep Buzz in.

Once the fence was up I set up the plots and planted a whole lot of vegetables. Lettuce, peas, beans, snow peas, carrots, beans, spinach, rhubarb, its all in our garden and its starting to grow. Its such a lovely day when we're able to go over and spend some time in our garden, not only are we able to get some gardening done, but we've met some great people while doing it. Most people are pretty amazed to find that there are community gardens all over the city, we are simply delighted!

When I first learned that we were able to partake in some gardening I went to the library and took a look at their gardening section. At the risk of sounding like LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow, if you're looking for a good book about gardening in the city head to your local library and check out Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. I read it and was totally inspired and pumped about getting things planted in my own garden. Novella's book is all about her adventures in running a farm in the middle of the city and while I doubt that I'll ever raise and slaughter my own rabbits like she did, it was great read.

If you are able, start your own garden, even a few veggies or some lettuce in a planter or hanging basket, the whole experience of growing your own food is intoxicating. Our first summer salad is going to be phenomenal.

Buzz is turning 2, time for cupcakes!

This time two years ago I was in labour, in fact I'm pretty sure I was just getting to the hospital after a rather horrid ride in the backseat of the car. Fast forward two years and Buzz has turned into quite an inquisitive, active, and cheerful little boy for whom we are throwing a birthday party. Thus - cupcakes! Lots of cupcakes in fact. I've made three batches of cupcakes and one birthday cake and so far so good. They will be iced tomorrow and hopefully at the end of the party they will all be gone, happily eaten by lots of little children.

I decided that this year for his party I would make reverse colour cupcakes. I'll be leaving the icing white and the cake has had food colouring added to it to make it all sorts of fun colours. Buzz was quite enthused with the prospect of making cupcakes and was eager to help, he is quite good at putting cupcake cups in the tray.

I also made a blue cake for his actual birthday cake. I'm not sure what he'll think when we put the candles on it though, he wasn't too impressed with the candles the other day when I showed him how to blow one out. We shall just have to wait and see, maybe when the candle is nestled in a pile of cake and icing he will think that its just great.

If you want to make multi-coloured cupcakes for yourself simply add a decent amount of food colouring to the batter and mix well with your egg beater before baking. The best part about adding the colour to the cake instead of the icing are the looks of surprise when the kids bite into them, definitely a great addition to any party.

It would seem as though winter and spring are competing in our neck of the woods recently. Throughout the past few days it has snowed, rained, snowed, and now it is precipitating some combination of the two. The temp has been hovering just above freezing and there puddles are everywhere. Buzz is quite excited by the sheer amount of puddles, I think that they're only okay, of course I do not have race car rain boots and a blue raincoat like he does.

One good thing that has come out of all of this rain is that my productivity has gone up and I've come made a bunch of little stuffed lovies. Some are larger like the one I posted about previously, but my favourites are the teeny little ones. I even carved a new stamp for their faces. Buzz is exceedingly fond of these lovies in particularly and he keeps trying to sneak them away even though he has 2 of his own all ready. Our home is starting to be over run with small stuffed creatures, I definitely need a good place to keep them all.

There will be more things to come I'm sure, after I finish up a few more little lovies I'll be working on bandanna bibs and hopefully a few more new projects.

A few dolls to share.  I quite enjoy making these dolls, each ending up with their own personality. They never turn out quite like I imagine they will, somewhere along the line they move away from what I expect them to be and become something different, a slightly different version of what I originally had in mind. In any case they end up being one of a kind.

The first two dolls have embroidered faces and are available on my etsy page, the third doll has a stamped face and has been given to my son. I will be running it through the wash a few times to be sure that the face doesn't disappear before I put any up for sale.

You can read more about the first two dolls on their individual listings on Etsy, just click on their pictures for a direct link.

Organize Agonize

Organization is alluding us. Too much furniture, not enough space. When I look at the ceiling all I can think of is how I can possibly put some furniture up there, get it out of my way. I'm a pack-rat, I'll admit it, I've accepted it and thats probably the worst thing I could ever do. Accepting my pack-rat status means that I no longer feel the need to excuse the mess, to hide it completely. Of course we tidy up, we attempt to organize, to create space where there is none, but the wall by my desk will be strewn with post its reminding me of my next great idea, a lunch date, phone numbers.

Despite my great displeasure at cleaning, I do quite enjoy being in an exceptionally organized space. The mess and chaos do get to me at times and I wonder if it is possible to separate the character of the room, of my home, from the clutter that seems to be on every surface. Is organization only possible with money? Or I suppose the lack there of, if you have no money to buy anything then there is nothing to organize. We are somewhere in the middle, enough money for things, not enough for the furniture to store it all in.

There is one room in the house that is, for the most part, organized. My son's room is quite neat and tidy. His toys in there are easily put away, on a shelf, in a toy box. His clothes are organized into drawers, shirts at the top, pants at the bottom. His room is the best in the place. The rest of the place is a work in progress. With any luck we will get it all organized and have at least a week or two before we decide to up and move again.

New Year New Projects

It is 2011 and I finally have time to run errands again! For the entire month of December I found it almost impossible to get anything extra done, extra being all of those things that didn't need to be done before Christmas Eve. December was a whirlwind of Christmas shopping and Christmas crafting with no time left to do all of those other crafts that I've been wanting to try for ages now. I suddenly have a slew of unbooked weekends and thus enough time on my hands to go to stores and buy supplies to make awesome things.

I've started out by learning to carve my own stamps. I've made a couple stamps for future use in other projects and of course a couple of stamps that say Mrs.Sewbot. I'll now be making my own business cards. Learning new skills rocks.

E and I now have the time to visit a thrift store or two while we're out and about and it has paid off. Buzz will soon be the owner of his very own doll bed. It used to be ugly, it is now half way to being adorable. For the low cost of $5 and with the use of some leftover paint his stuffed animals (and I'm sure one or both of the cats) will have a great bed to sleep in.

Next up - a play tent for my son who loves to spend time in a fort.

Bear? Puppy? Badger?

So if you have read any previous posts you would know that we were in a bit of a kerfuffle about what Buzz should be for Halloween. We had a lot of great ideas, but nothing seemed just right, until I went back to basics with a rather adorable animal costume. My son is going to be a bright eyed spotted white tailed fawn for Halloween. He got a chance to try out his costume today and I must say he looked very cute. I crocheted his hat and used a  brown onesie as the base for the body of his costume. I had some felt handy around the house and so I used what I had to make his spots, the inside of his ears, his tummy, and his tail. In a long running family tradition I was sewing quite late last night so that I could get the costume done for today. Yes I know that I have a full week before Halloween but we were giving the costume a test run today for some early Halloween events. It was a little cold and rainy in the neighbourhood but we layered and Buzz seemed to do just fine. The only issue we had was that no one seemed to be able to pinpoint what type of animal Buzz was. We heard bear, beaver, badger and puppy, however as soon as we said deer people looked at the whole costume and got it. He may have to wear a name tag proclaiming that he is Bambi for Halloween. We will see.

I was amazed at the lack of homemade costumes today, in fact I think that I only saw one other than Buzz's own. In the small group of children that were out in costume there were actually doubles of some. I'm a crafty person from a crafty family who grew up with homemade costumes, are there simply less of them out there now or has there always been more store bought costumes and I simply didn't notice them?

rice crispies

Dear Buzz,

 I understand that you love rice crispies, however next time you find yourself in possession of a bag of them please do not throw them on the floor. After you have not thrown them on the floor please don't proceed to lick them up. This is not the way to show that you love rice crispies.


Love Mama

sleep and bowties

Just as easily as my son slipped out of his bedtime routine, he has found his way back to a peaceful nights sleep. Children are a mystery, but be sure that I'm not complaining. Now that he is going to bed more easily I have some time to get down to work and do the sewing that simply must get done. Last night I even had enough time to iron the bowties that needed to be ironed, putting me ahead a day in my work. Its wonderful for the evening routine to go so smoothly, I'm not sure how long it will last, but for now I'm enjoying it. My bowties are looking wonderful, you can find my cherries on black bowtie for sale on my etsy shop. http://www.mrssewbot.etsy.com/ 

delicious snack and a little rambling

I love that I can make a very satisfying and delicious snack in the time that it takes for the previews to play on my DVD. Simply melt the marshmallows, add the cereal (this time I used cocoa rice crispies and toasted o's) and at the last second before you put it in the pan to cool you add the chocolate chips. Delightful! The best part about all this wonderful snack making is that the babe is asleep and so I can quite peacefully watch my movie while enjoying my cereal square. 

On a different note I  have quite possibly come up with my cutest creation yet. Up on my Etsy shop you will find lamb headbands. They come complete with ears and are quite adjustable. I am dying to see them on a baby, except for the brief moments that I can manage to get one on Buzz's head, he simply won't wear it. I don't blame him, with the bow above the ear it makes him look like a girl. He will however tolerate his mohawk hat, which is a very good thing because the cool weather is returning.

Speaking of cooler weather, how adorable are children when they play in leaves? Alright, I am rambling, time to crochet until my fingers stumble.

so many projects.... so tired

After browsing many wonderful crafty books at the store today I am simply bursting with ideas of many many projects that I want to do. I am so overwhelmed with crafty ideas that I can't focus on the crocheting that I should be doing. Arg. No matter, I am too tired to do anything anyway, off to bed I go.

Buzz's Room - a work in progress

In the months leading up to Buzz's birth we lazily put together a room for him. We were reluctant to get rid of the clutter and we never really got his room ready before he showed up. To make matters worse he spent the first few months of  his life in our own room, and by the time he would have been moving into his own space we found ourselves moving into a whole new apartment. Around Buzz's first birthday we finally got our act together and set up his room just for him. Due to the small space in our apartment, or rather the great amount of things in our apartment, we are still working out the kinks in his space and ours. Currently Buzz is sharing a space with my craft desk. It works well in that I can work on crafts while he plays, however Buzz got his hands on a packet of sparkles this morning and he shimmered in green for the rest of the day. The one thing I do love about his room is his art. Buzz's art collection is better than my own, and more abundant for that matter. With all of his art and photographs I love that he can go to sleep at night surrounded by photographs of family, and art created by those who love him. Our latest change in his room has it split in half so that there is a play area and a sleep area with a shelf separating them. So far the setup has been working well for him and us, easy to tidy, and with his toys in his toy box he is less likely to scatter them everywhere.

I'm sure it will change soon enough, but check out the pictures to see some highlights.

I promise that sometime in the near future I will post a full tour of his room, fish tank and Mr.Nippers included.

Costume Dilema

Another year, another halloween, and it would seem that we are once again in the age old dilemma of what to be.

I have been everything from a princess to queen of the lawn gnomes and many scarecrows in between, however the pressure to come up with a good costume has never been so great as when Buzz was born. Even when he was a teeny fetus in my belly he was part of our costume, I went as Juno, my husband went as Pauly Bleeker, and Buzz played the part of baby in the belly. He did a very good job. Last year we were already thinking about which costume he would wear all the way back during the summer. We had ideas and plans and then a friend mentioned that with his pale skin and chubby chins he looked like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And so a costume was born! E and I even went as Ghostbusters, the only problem that we have now is that we have a ton of pressure come up with a costume that is even better than last years. Ideas?

Check out the instructions below to make your own baby into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Materials Needed

1 white outfit. It works best with a hood as well, but a white infant hat would be fine instead of a hood. We used a white fleece one piece outfit with a hood. Halloween tends to be a little cool in Canada, so it was great to have the extra warmth.

4 pieces of felt. 2 royal blue, 1 red, 1 white.
thread
white fabric paint
black fabric paint
thin ribbon

you will also need a sewing machine (or you can hand sew everything) and scissors.

Because the main part of the costume is already done with the white outfit the only things that need to be handmade are the hat and the collar.

Collar

Cut out the shape shown in the picture out of the blue piece of felt. Sew two pieces of ribbon at the top of the opening so that they can be tied together. Cut the red tie shaped piece out of the red felt and sew onto the front of the blue piece.

Use white fabric paint to make the white line around the blue collar. Alternatively you could use white ribbon and sew the line on, but the white fabric paint is super easy and quick.

Use black fabric paint to add realistic detail to the red piece of felt.

Hat

You will need to cut out a large circle from the white. If you use a round dinner plate to trace a circle before you cut you will have the perfect size. Cut a small circle from your second piece of blue felt or from your scraps. This should be a bit bigger than a toonie, don't worry, it doesn't have to be exact as it will look just fine in the end. Also from the blue you should cut a strip that is about 4 inches by about 11 inches. You will also need to cut a red piece in the shape of two pieces of ribbon, its easier if they are attached at the top sort of like a wishbone.

Now for the the construction of said hat. you want to layer it so that the white circle is on the bottom, the red piece is on top of that and the blue circle is on top of that (refer to the picture). Be sure to centre the blue dot in the middle of the white circle. Sew around the edge of the blue dot securing the red piece as you go. You may find it helpful to pin it although I find that the felt sticks together nicely.

Next fold your long blue rectangle in half lengthwise and sew the edges together. This will add a bit of structure to the hat so that its not smooshy. Sew the two shorter edges together to create a loop. Next pin the edge of the large white circle to the blue loop, you'll have to gather as you go, but just try and keep it as even as possible. Make sure that all the seams are on the inside of hat. When the hat is sewn together turn it right side out. Hurrah! You have made a hat. Use the black fabric paint to add detail to the red tie and the white fabric paint to write 'STAY PUFT' on the band of the hat.

I used stitched the hat to the hood of the white outfit in a couple of places to keep it in place, but you could also use safety pins.  The collar will tie on over the white outfit and your little one will be the cutest marshmallow man on the block.

And so the work begins...

I was feeling a bit like a hamster on its wheel, running, running, running, and never really getting anywhere. That however has changed, thankfully. Now I have a goal in mind, a big day, a finish line that is only the beginning. I have a show. Hurrah! I'm finally in a craft show. Now, I'm prepared for it to kind of suck, I have no idea how the show will be and it already seems a little unorganized. I'm putting my doubts on the back burner though because the price was right, and they provide my table and a chair. Yes people, for a reasonable price and a table and chair you too can have Mrs.Sewbot show up at your show. I'm that easy. If you're nice to me I may even bring muffins or some other delicious treat that I can bake on the cheap. I'm a good neighbour and much like a boy scout I'm always prepared.

So now the real test of my perseverance and gusto is ahead of me in the coming couple of weeks. I have to find the time. The time to sew and create simply so that I have something I can sell. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. When Buzz is awake he is attracted to my scissors and pincushion as if they were candy. Also, I'm pretty sure that he's jealous of the attention the sewing machine gets. Jealous or just very curious. He makes it difficult to produce anything. And so dutifully I get all of my Facebook page updating, Etsy checking, and picture taking and editing done while he is awake. When I put him down for his nap (oh man do I wish he still took two naps) I take about 5 minutes to eat my lunch before I get down to business and sew sew sew. .

I quite hope that its all worth it, that at the very least I do some networking and sell a couple of things, at most I would love to sell a bunch of things and get the scoop on a couple more shows coming up. Must pass out now, tomorrow I have a date with a sewing machine and a jealous little boy.