rose hip

enco-o-o-re!...

   

...yes, another pile, although this time they're cushions instead of pillowcases! I know I promised to share the finished woolly blanket with you in this post, but I just can't seem to get around to sorting through the photos I took of it (I usually take much to many photos and then it takes me forever to go through them!) and I really wanted to touch base with you before the month of May is up. While I did mean to show you the blanket along with these cushions, I'll save the blanket (along with some other goodies) for my next post. These cushions are part of my bedding project which I mentioned here and which you may start getting a feel for by looking at these three photos together:

 

This is just a first glimpse of these cushions as I will come back to them in greater detail in future posts and show you more styles I made but haven't gotten around to photographing yet. I was hoping to be able to update you more regularly about the progress I'm making with my bedding scheme (including the above-mentioned blanket and an appliqué item I'm putting together at the moment), but my month of May has been a bit frenzied so far... For one, after a bit of a slow start due to waiting around for plumbers, electricians, etc., to become available (ah,the joys of house renovations!), our basement reno has definitely gathered some momentum as we just had concrete poured over the floor, thereby embedding the radiant heating floor system which we had installed (we will have warm toesies next winter!). We are now looking into polishing the concrete to give it a nicer finish and we have also started the framing work. I did take a photo of what it looks like but it just looks like a dark, depressing cavern right now since some of the window openings have been boarded up to make way for new windows, so I decided I'll hold on to the photo and show it to you as a "before and after". (Ooooo, I can't wait for the "after" phase!)

With May being here and everything growing so fast in the garden, I've also been going to our lake house and doing lots and lots of weeding, because if I don't, I'll only have clover growing everywhere! I do have the most beautiful lupins unfurling there at the moment (I collected the seeds from a nearby lupin meadow two summers ago which I then sprinkled all over the place) which puts such a huge smile on my face because I've tried so many times growing them in Vancouver to no avail... Isn't May such a wonderful month for gardens as they are always so full of promise at this time?! I do hope your month of May is going well and showing lots of promise for the beautiful months to come and I do hope you will be back for another visit very soon... Thanks for popping by!

my precious woollies...

 

 

...and no, I don't mean my woolly long johns, but my stash of woollen fabric that I have been slowly collecting over the years! I know the mercury might be rising where you are (it certainly is in Vancouver as it feels like summer today...) and woolly fabrics might be the last thing on your mind at the moment, but I have been working with them lately in order to make a patchwork blanket (as mentioned in my last post) and therefore, despite the weather, they are on my mind a lot these days!...

 

 

Precious they are because, for one, I love fabrics with wool in them, as they tend to have yummy textures which makes it fun when combining them together or with other fabrics; you can't even begin to imagine how much fun I have when I pull out a whole bunch of cut squares like the ones above and play around with them to make a patchwork (as I write this last bit I can just hear some members of my family saying that maybe it's time for me to get out a bit more but I know you know what I mean!)...

 

 

What makes working with woollens all the more interesting for me is that I collect them from many different sources; some of them are actual wool fabric yardage, others are thrifted sweaters which I felt in my washing machine, and still others, vintage woollen clothes like pleated skirts made of Scottish wool. So, when I pull together a bunch of squares I've cut from all these different sources into a blanket, I get a real sense of satisfaction as I truly feel like I've made a patchwork, or a needlework in which miscellaneous pieces of cloth of different designs, colors, and textures are sewn together.

 

Now, my woollen stash is precious to me because, as I said, I love working with it, but also because I find nice woollen fabrics hard to find locally; very rarely have I found yardage at my local fabric shops which I would be willing to buy despite it being pricier than a lot of other types of fabric. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons I can't find any at my local shops is that I'm looking for wool fabric with punchier colors and textures than most people are willing to make garments out of these days. So, most of the yardage I have collected over the years is from thrift shops as I always keep my eyes open for pieces of wool fabric during my thrifting rounds, even when I have no immediate plans to work with wool fabrics, and even in the heat of summer when wool is the furthest thing from my mind! In this way, I think I've succeeded in amassing a swell little stash as a lot of my woollens are vintage pieces from the days when people were into wearing garments made of bright plaid and houndstooth woolly fabrics! Do any of you like to work with wool fabric and, if so, are you willing to share your sources with us... perhaps you even know of a good online one?...

 

When in thrift shops, I also regularly check the skirt section for longish, pleated wool skirts, which are often made of lovely Scottish wool fabric in beautiful colors; when taken apart, they are a great addition to my stash despite the time needed to undo all the seams in the pleats! And, of course when it comes to wool clothing at thrift shops, the sweater section is a must... Over the years, I have been building up a lovely collection of wool sweaters in a rainbow of colors which I felt by throwing them into the washing machine set on a high spin warm/hot water cycle. I look for sweaters in pretty colors, brights and pastels, solids or in simple patterns such as stripes; several years ago you might remember, the Gap came out with collections of patterned sweaters in pretty colors, such as pinks and aquas, which can still be found in my local thrift shops and which I find especially sweet when used in a patchwork blanket. However, the catch with finding wool sweaters at thrift shops these days is the price; when I first started buying them, I could find great sweater treasures for only a few bucks, but, nowadays, a thrift shop chain like Value Village regularly prices them at $9.99 and upwards which, when you factor in the cost of felting the sweater and the fact that, once shrunk, the sweater (unless a very large one) doesn't yield a lot of patchwork squares when cut up (because of the irregular shapes of sweater pieces, there is usually a lot of remnant felted wool which I usually try to save for other uses...), makes for expensive woollen fabric! Despite their higher cost, I'm still always on the lookout for sweaters that I think would work nicely in blankets and, while I may be more choosy in what I end up purchasing than I used to be, I'm still constantly adding to my collection because they make a patchwork blanket so much more precious!

 

While a little unseasonal for a lot of you, I hope you didn't mind my woolly little post and I also hope you will come by again shortly as I will be posting about my finished blanket very soon. In case you're also wondering (and I know some of you are judging by the emails I've been receiving of late), I will be putting together a batch of pillowcases for my Etsy shop this week... Thanks for the visit!

playtime!...

...that's what this photo's all about for me: figuring out how to trim all the cases... So much fun! With some, my first try at a trim makes me happy right away, while with others, it takes several trials of different yarns and motifs before the finished look feels just right to me.

 

Now, this colorful pile is a bit different than the previous pillowcase piles I've shared with you in that it is part of a bigger idea of mine, which is to put together a little bedding collection made up of a pillowcases, cushions, and blankets. I've been inspired by a sweet, girlie fabric print which I'm using as a starting point for this little bedding scheme and which I will eventually show you...

 

In recent years, I have put together a few collections for my friend's shop, Molly's Furniture Salad  (which she has since sold and I no longer deal with, as I prefer to spend the little time I always seem to have on my online venture...), and have always had so much fun at it that I thought I would put another one together and try my hand at selling it in my Etsy shop. Initially, I was simply inspired by the sweet fabric I mentioned earlier and thought it would work nicely in Nico's room (who just turned 11 last week and really likes the fabric in question...), but then the idea grew and, as her room could use a bit of a facelift, why not design and make a little bedding collection around it, and then, well, why not just make a few more and list it all in my shop!?

 

 

So, in the next little while, I plan on sharing with you my progress with this bedding project as I go along; I have already started cutting some woolly fabrics to make a blanket which I will post about next.... Thanks for the visit and I hope you'll come back soon to see how my little bedding adventure is coming along!

ladies-in-waiting...

  

...that's what I think of these pillowcases which are sitting nicely right by all my cotton yarn reserves... I found them all stashed and forgotten in a basket during my basement cleanup and decided to pile them up somewhere I can see them better. So, what are they all?...




I guess they may be called my "samples" or pillowcase styles that I have already replicated and sold or, in some cases, decided not to sell, at least not yet, for different reasons...

 

Some, I haven't replicated because I haven't been able to do so as I've simply ran out of the fabric or yarn needed to do so, often because I used it up making something else or a different pillowcase style; so these styles are as if "on hold" or my "ladies-in-waiting" as I try to figure out what to substitute the missing fabric or yarn with...

 

 

Others, however are ones that I'm simply not sure about the fabric, yarn, or trim motif combinations, and perhaps need to be tweaked a bit more, or simply discarded into the "what was I thinking?" category! I do find myself (quite often!) putting together certain combinations of patterns and colors, thinking that they are great at the moment, and then, when looking at them again down the road, thinking that they are, without any doubt, very "off".

 

 

In fact, over the years, I have found that my hormones and monthly cycle can definitely play a part in how I put together patterns and colors; because my moods have always been hugely affected by my cycle, I think there is a difference in how I view colors and patterns depending on where I'm at in my cycle, at times being more conservative in how I match these and, at times, definitely edgier... Do you see that in yourself as well?

Whatever the case, experience has taught me that trial and error is essential in my design process, so if something looks good one day even though I may feel like I'm pushing my personal "envelope", I go for it and try it out and, if it looks totally off the next time I look at it, that's fine because I know my brain has picked something up from this trial despite it being not quite right, something perhaps very subtle but which will undoubtedly help me in a future design exercise. I'm convinced of this because, as much as I love putting colors and patterns together these days, I remember being in my 20's and finding it very difficult to help my then-boyfriend now-husband match a tie to a shirt when he was shopping for some office clothes! So whenever I hear my children or other children, or even adults for that matter, saying things like "I'm not good with colors!", I quickly tell them that you'll amaze yourself at how good you may actually be once you start playing around with colors and patterns, as well as making a point of staying open to your surroundings and looking out for and noticing color and pattern combinations; whenever I see a combination that appeals to me nowadays, I often take a photo of it and store it away for the days when I'm in need of inspiration.

I do hope spring has hit your neck of the woods and, if it has, have you noticed how incredible, bright, and varied all the "greens" are at this time of the year?... I will be back soon, well, with probably more color and pattern... Thanks for the visit!

Happy Easter!...

 

 


 ...Wishing you a very Happy Easter!...

 

 

dabbling...

 

 

...with some new ideas for cushions and blankets instead of doing all the things I should be doing at the moment, such as finding a new home for the piles of things I retrieved from my basement cleanup which are just lying on the floor right now, making my house look very shabby (definitely without any of the chic!), is what I'm up to in this second week of my children's spring break... Spring has also hit Vancouver and I should be gardening because my garden is also looking very shabby in its winter coat of dead leaves and debris. In the end, I probably won't get much of any of this done this week as I'm off again shortly with my kids to our lake house, where we haven't been in a while and where I'm really looking forward to go just to get out of the city.

 

These photos are just little peeks into my dabbles and I will definitely show you more as soon as I figure more of my ideas out. So, off I go again and I hope to be back soon with some new photos from our lake house. (Hmm, I wonder if my fledgling garden looks any different than when I last saw it...) Thanks for the visit and 'talk to you soon!

 

 

mid-March...

...already and I can't believe I still haven't said hello to you yet... How has your March been so far? I do find that there seems to always be a bit of madness to my month of March because I spend the first half of it trying to get a lot done before spring break starts for the children (starting today for us). So, not surprisingly, I've not had time to write a post so far this month and, because I'm leaving shortly on a mini family ski holiday, I just wanted to tell you that, no, I haven't abandoned my blog (far from it!), but that I will be back with a meatier post soon after my return. But before I run off like a mad March hare to do all the things I need to do before going away, I just wanted to thank you for being so supportive of my Etsy shop and making me sell out of my pillowcases so quickly! (I will be re-stocking upon my return...). Thanks for your visit and have a great start to your spring break if yours is beginning as well!

topping up...

 

...my Etsy shop with pillowcase styles I put together way back in December for my pillowcase giveaway... Yikes, finally! (Sold out! - Thank you... I will be listing more of these in the coming week)  Some of you have been wondering when I would be listing these new pillowcases so I thought I would update you about it. (In case you're interested, I will be listing the stripey one in about a week.)

I hope February blahs haven't hit you too hard -- I have been keeping them at bay by working on some new pillowcase and cushion designs which I hope to show you soon... Because I seem to be on a roll as to mixing and matching my fabrics and yarns, I must run and get back to it, but thanks for stopping by for a little visit and, to all of you blah sufferers and fellow dwellers of the Northern Hemisphere, take heart, it's March tomorrow and you know what's around the corner...

look what I found...

 

 

...when I was cleaning my basement: a bunch of forgotten projects, a few still waiting patiently for some last touches... As I keep telling my children, cleaning up does have its pluses and finding one's lost treasures is at the top of the list!

 

 

I made the faceless stuffed doll with Eva (our third born) probably when she was 10 or 11 (she's 13 now); one winter afternoon, we drew it out together, made a pattern, sewed it up in fabrics Eva chose, stuffed it and meant to finish it up the next day by giving it a face, hair and some extra clothes to stay warm...

 

 

Hmm... poor girl needs to be sewn up soon or else she'll lose all her sweet plumpness!

My appliqué phase... Like the babushka above, I appliqued the dahlia-like flower on a bag which I still have to finish as it needs to be lined. I love appliqueing (it's by far my favourite sewing technique!) and rediscovering these bags makes me want to get back into it!

 

I also found some of my babushkas which I had made a garland with by attaching a few on some pompom trim which I then hung across my old workspace... I would love to revisit these dolls as well at some point!

 

And then there's the dachshund stuffie I started making quite a few years ago out of some tweedy wool fabric... While he seems well-fed, all bouncy and begging for his daily walk in this shot, he was not so when I found him in the basement, un-stuffed, moth-eaten with one big hole in his backside... shamefully unloved! I thought of him (or should I say his mere shell) though one Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago when Nico and I were the only ones at home and Nico, who had a bad case of January blahs, mused that if she had a puppy she would most certainly not be feeling as she did. After a quick perusing of online puppy classifieds (just for fun, at least for me...), I showed Nico the dachshund shell and suggested that we make a puppy out of it... Nico jumped at the idea!

 

We got right to it and our dachshund grew before our eyes as we stuffed it, gave it some well-needed eyes and an essential puppy nose, and to hide his unseemly moth hole, we blanket-stitched him a heart tattoo. Nico also insisted that we make him a collar as well as a leash so she could take him for walks. (I so remember doing just that with my dog stuffies when I was Nico's age by tying some string around their necks and dragging them all over the house... Did you do that as well?) To make these doggie accessories, we ran out to the hardware store and got some chain for the leash and used some fake suede I had lying around to make the ever-important dog collar. And voilà... a sweet puppy ready to love, except for one last thing: puppy is still without a name... any thoughts? (Oh yeah, even though I've been calling it a he all along, it's actually a she...)

Thank you so much for your comments to my last post, especially all your advice about our beer-capped basement column; while your thoughts have been very helpful, the debate is still raging around here!... I do hope that you are enjoying a very sweet Valentine's Day today with all those closest to your heart... Thanks for the visit and 'talk to you again very soon!

seeing the light...

... at the end the tunnel is a good way to summarize my month of January... Let me explain: back in June, I posted about our upcoming house renovation -- finishing our basement where we will make a bedroom for our oldest daughter and then redoing our kitchen -- which meant that I would be spending a lot of time clearing the basement where the reno is to be done and compressing my work space with all my fabric and assorted stuff into the only finished room in the basement. Well, while I did spend a fair amount of time down there on and off since then, I have to admit that I had a hard time staying motivated about this daunting task of mine given the sheer volume of clutter to be found there. You have to understand, that when I clean, organize, declutter, I do it at a snail's pace because I look at every single item (down to the last button!) and try to figure out where it should go. I do not prescribe to the cleaning method (my husband's) which involves sweeping it all up into a pile and basically chucking it...

So, since June, I have been trudging down to the basement, spending an hour here and there, slowly sorting and clearing, and it is only in the past week or so that I'm finally seeing the light after all the tunneling I've done. The photo above (where my daughter's bedroom will eventually be) was taken in the first half of January and most of the stuff you see has been sifted through and cleared since then. So, I am celebrating now because I feel like I have finally rid myself of the albatross that's been dragging me down for the last while and kept me away from my creative self and working on some new things that I've been dying to start on... Yippeeeeee!!! Of course, I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself because we still have the actual renovation to contend with and, well, if you've done one of those before, you know what that could be like... Nevertheless, I think it is still cause for me to celebrate and as some wise person once said: one step at a time! Now before I take leave of my basement, I just wanted to show you a point of interest in our basement which we inherited when we bought the house: the supporting column bedecked with beer caps from the 70s...

What do you think?! I wanted to share it with you because it is a contentious topic for our family -- some of us want to keep it as is and others are dead set against it featuring in our newly-renovated digs... Any thoughts or counsel?!...

 

'Just wanted to also show you a recent photo of my workspace... As you can see, the fabric is slowly finding its place in what I think are some of the best shelving units around (the one in the forefront which my sweet husband made for me) which I will definitely show you more of in future posts. There is still a lot of stuff to locate (a lot of my notions still need a proper home) and fabric lying on the floor to put away, but, bit by bit, I think it will get done...

January has also been sweet since my flower square pattern is featured in the ebook shown below published by Allfreecrochetafghanpatterns.com which has just come out this month (I can't help but also be excited that my photo of flower squares has been used as the background for the cover!). If you're interested, check it out here -- it offers a lovely selection of flower square patterns from beginner ones to a little more advanced and, great news... it's downloadable for free!

 

While I was writing about the ebook above, I realized that I hadn't shown you yet that one of my pillowcase pile photos (shown below) was featured in last October's issue of UK's Inside Crochet as part of an article on crochet edging... all very exciting to see one of your own photos included in such a lovely magazine as Inside Crochet! Anyhow -- enough of all my horn-tooting! -- I hope you will all have a fine start to the month of February (yes, it's February tomorrow!) and I hope to be back next week with some new goodies that I've been stitching up... Thanks for your visit and 'talk to you then!

 

 

 

 

revisiting...

 


...a crafty childhood pastime of mine -- working on a crewel embroidery kit -- is how I spent part of my Christmas holiday. My mother bought me my first kit which involved stitching a poodle when I was still a pre-teen and I remember being so proud of myself when I finally finished it; my grandmother made it into cushion which took center stage on a chair she also slipcovered for my bedroom. (I wish I still had both the cushion and the chair!) I guess seeing how much I enjoyed the kit, my mother indulged me with another kit, this time a bit more complicated: a landscape of a field with an apple tree in full glory, all very 70s (1974, in fact!) as the linen fabric included in the kit was in one of the favourite colors of that era... yup, harvest gold! I also completed this kit and my mother framed it and hung it in our very harvest goldy kitchen... While I didn't hold on to my apple tree masterpiece, I recently stumbled upon someone else's unframed finished one at a local thrift shop which I quickly snatched up all for the shamefully low price of $1.99; all those hours spent over a hoop valued at $1.99... what can I say... a true labor of love! I have taken some photos of my $1.99 treasure to show you... and, no, it isn't mine because the back is way to neat!

 

So, coming back to my Christmas holiday... We spent part of it at our lake house where I dug up a box I had stashed away which was full of crafty things to do on rainy days or, simply, when the mood is right. Now, over the years, because I'm such a natural-born collector and unabashedly sentimental, whenever I've come across a vintage crewel kit (more than likely, unopened) with a design that appeals to me at a thrift shop, I've purchased it, often at such ridiculously low prices (the yarn in the kit is usually worth so much more than the asking price!). Last summer, I brought part of my collection of thrifted kits to the cottage and, as I looked into my crafty box over the holidays, I unearthed a charming one depicting a basket full of lilacs which looked like one I might even be able to finish in the somewhat near future... So, I pulled it out of its sealed bag (something so satisfying about pulling it out after it being in a bag for nearly 40 years!), stuck it in a hoop, remembered how to make a daisy stitch, and went right for one of those scrumptious lilac flowers...

 

 

As my needle moved from stitch to stich, I think I recaptured the feeling of total enjoyment I had as a kid when I use to work on my little kits. What is it about these kits that I so enjoy?... I don't know, perhaps it's because I find them relaxing and so rewarding; everything is totally laid out for you, no decisions to make as far as which yarn or stitch to use, just like a paint by number, and with every stitch you make, a lovely little design reveals itself to you, bit by bit. Not that I don't like the creative process -- I love it and crave it! -- but sometimes it's simply nice to turn your brain on automatic, especially during the Christmas break after all the frenzy leading up to it!...

 

My dedication to my crewel work while at the cottage (we won't call it an obsession... at least, not yet!) piqued my 10-year-old Nico's interest (I sometimes think that, of all my children, she's my mini-me when it comes to all the crafty stuff) who asked me if she could try her hand at stitching some of it; I gladly showed her the daisy stitch, and off she went adding little lilac clusters all over (who doesn't like to daisy stitch?!)... How fun!

 

 

 

I brought my lilacs back with me to Vancouver, and while I don't have so much time to work on them here, I hope to still be able to finish my little crewel project by April, which is, of course, lilac season as well as Nico's birthday month; I'd love to be able to make it into a cushion and gift it to her for her birthday... Whether I manage to or not, it is still so much fun to work on a kit that was designed and stuck in a bag since, oddly enough, 1974 just like my apple tree kit!

 

Have you ever tried your hand at one of these crewel kits? (You can find a good selection of them on Ebay, although they are definitely pricier than those I've come across at thrift shops...) Whether you've been crafting or not, I do hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday and feel refreshed and ready to start a new year. I certainly do, and will be listing a batch of pillowcases in my shop as soon as I get my sewing machine back from being repaired (sniff, sniff)... should be soon though... Talk to you soon!

 

 

 

from the bottom of my heart...

 

 

...thank you so much for all the amazing comments you left on my pillowcase giveaway post -- What a heart-warming way for me to start the New Year! And now for the winner... handy-dandy random number generator picked:

Diane Gray, who favoured the pinkish skiing snowmen pillowcase as she thinks it will be a perfect fit for one of her daughters... I hope you and your daughter enjoy it, Diane -- Congratulations!

 

 

 

Some of you have been wondering when I will be listing more pillowcases in my Etsy shop... Well, I had every intention of doing just that over the holidays, but my sewing machine has been a bit capricious of late and I haven't been able to finish up my latest batch of pillowcases. However, I hope a quick visit on Monday to my local Pfaff shop will remedy my machine issues and I will be able to list some in the coming week...  On the up side, without a sewing machine in good working order, I "branched out" and had some fun doing a bit of embroidery over the holidays; I will share my little embroidery project with you as soon as I sort through the photos I took of it... 'Shouldn't take too long, so I hope to see you back very soon for another visit!......

 

P.S. As a consolation prize for those of you who didn't win, I have some scrumptious bloggy eye candy right here... Citrus and Orange -- Isn't Susana's blog ever so lovely?! If you're not a follower, I would highly recommend it...

 

 

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an invitation...

ready for Christmas?...

Merry Christmas!...

an invitation...

    

... for you to enter a pillowcase giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment to this post specifying which pillowcase would make you the happiest (there are 7 in all); the giveaway will run for a week, or until January 3, 2013 (yikes, already!...), at which point I will give at least one of these pillowcases away and perhaps more, depending on the traffic. Before you choose your favourite, take a look at some closeups...

 

Take note that the aqua-reddish stripe one has a top with stripes going one way and a bottom with stripes going the other way, as well as a trim with a slight color gradation since I used two different shades of pink to make it (although I don't know if you can spot that in these photos...)...

 

 

 Two of the pillowcases have a different fabric for the top and bottom -- the first and fifth pillowcase in the pile below...

 

 

Now, I don't have any names for these pillowcases yet (something I'll have to figure out when I start listing them in my Etsy shop), so simply describe them as best you can... I probably won't be posting on New Year's day because I'll be away so I'd love to thank all of you, dearest readers, for making my 2012 that much more special with all your many visits and fabulous comments and here's wishing you a very, very Happy New Year!...

 

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look what I got!...

cotton candy...

ready for Christmas?...

Merry Christmas!...

Merry Christmas!...

 

 

 ... I hope this post finds you enjoying a lovely Christmas day with all who are dearest to you! I just slipped away for a moment from doing just that to send you this little Christmas greeting... I have been so very busy getting ready for Christmas, putting the final touches on things like packaging body butter bars with Nico (shown above) which are her handmade gifts to family and friends, that I never got around to taking photos for my Christmas pillowcase giveaway. However, I did manage to take a few quick snaps of the pillowcases to give you a sneak peek of what to expect and I hope to have it all up and running by tomorrow  (I've had to push it back till tomorrow, the 27th, because it's simply been too dark and grey today for any decent photo-taking... ). So please do check back again soon to enter the giveaway but, in the meantime, I'd love to wish you a Christmas day filled with lots of joy, love and happiness!...

 

 

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ready for Christmas?...

look what I got!...

ready for Christmas?...

 

...well, when I started writing this post last week I would have answered that by "not even close!", but this weekend I felt a bit like an elf in Santa's workshop... You see, my two youngest, Eva (just turned 13 yesterday!) and Nico (10), decided this year that they would like to give everyone gifts handmade by them. Of course, their initiative put a big smile on my face, so this weekend, which fittingly begun with going to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Nutcracker, we spent most of it together sewing, soapmaking, and baking, and had an absolute blast doing so! And I have to admit that, in light of Friday's Connecticut tragedy, I can't imagine a better way to spend my weekend than hanging out with my children and relishing my every moment with them... How fortunate am I?!...    

 

 

I know I promised a pillowcase giveaway in my last post and it is coming... Perhaps it's this time of the year, but I'm flying in too many directions at the moment and I still haven't quite finished putting the final touches on this new batch of pillowcases of mine; it's coming though and I figure my giveaway will be up on Christmas Eve or day and run until New Year's day, so please come back then to enter the draw! One of the things I have been working on is starting up my lunchtime crochet and sewing workshop at Nico's elementary school. I have had a lot of fun putting together the following bag project for them which will involve a bit of sewing and some basic crochet work (they are mostly all beginner crocheters): as you can see in the photos, the bags will be made of two pieces of felted wool sweaters which they will blanket stitch together. They will then use their newly-acquired crochet skills to make the handles for the bag and, lastly, have fun adorning it with some simple crocheted flowers I will show them how to make. The best part about the project is that they will end up with a bag where they can keep all the yarn and supplies they will need for my workshop! I think the girls (yes, they are all girls...) are quite excited about the project and I will keep you up-to-date on their progress as we make them...

 

Now, changing the subject entirely... I have been blogging for over 6 years now and I haven't yet done something in my blog that a lot of bloggers do as soon as they first set up their blog... What do you think that is? Well, I haven't show my face yet to you! As much as I love taking photos, I'm absurdly camera-shy -- I cringe when I have to be in photos... Well the time has come for me, dearest readers, to show my face to you as well as the readers of the November issue of a lovely UK crochet magazine called "Inside Crochet" since, a little while back, they flattered me by asking me if I would like to be featured as their "favourite blogger" for their November issue. Of course, I said yes despite knowing that I would have to include a photo of myself... Yikes, so here goes... here I am!...

 

 

...and if you want to read the sweet blurb they put together from their interview questions I answered:

It was quite the feeling to happen upon this issue at a Chapters bookstore (Canada's answer to Barnes and Noble or Waterstones), nervously flip through the pages and then see yourself staring back at you!... I have to say that I'm very pleased with it all and especially thankful to all of you who read my blog because you are the reason I got this opportunity! It's also so very gratifying to be included in a magazine which seems to get lovelier which each issue I pick up (suprisingly, I can actually find this magazine in Vancouver which isn't always the case with a lot of overseas magazines!); here are some of my favourite pages in this issue...

Sweet, aren't they?!...  Well, now that I have shown my face to you, I must run and work on Christmas prep as well my pillowcase giveaway which I hope you'll come back for... Talk to you soon and thank you so much for all your lovely words about my lampshade which I showed you in my last post!!....

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