a new hat for cole

cole is a maniac for hats. we have a big basket in the living room that contains a number of novelty hats - two cowboy, one pirate, a green robin hood/yodellers cap (depending on your pov), a fireman's helmet, an archaeologists hat obtained at the natural history museum in oxford at great peril to my sanity (gift shop was full of children on a field trip), a knight's helmet from the monstrously cheesy warwick castle and a yellow construction hat that says, nonsensically, "tool boss". i think that's it. he likes to run over to the basket all day long, pulling out hats, putting on hats, putting hats on us and the dolls and lining them up on the table.

well just got a couple of new sewing books in the mail and had to make this hilarious and potentially functional winter hat, despite the fact that it's july:

for more info on the books, please skeedaddle over to my other blog, hudsonny. ;-)

homemade playdough recipe!

homemade playdough. i remember it fondly from when my mom made it many years ago and i just spotted this recipe & how-to over at the craftzine blog. i'm not sure if i should try this one yet with cole, but i'm going to have to and get some cream of tartar and give it a shot next week. (side note: what on earth else is that stuff for?) if the worst thing he can do is eat it then that's probably not too bad.

and better than the craft we tried the other day - stringing eco felt and cut-up straws onto a piece of wool. it was more of a random rainy day activity we could do together than a craft for him to do - i knew i'd be doing the stringing and a lot of hovering to ensure small bits remained uneaten, but cole ran off with all the supplies before we got too far. and i punched the holes too big so the felt pieces just came off and we were left with a string snake of straw bits. but it was still a lot of fun - he had a blast whipping felt around and chasing our pitiful snake, and it was our first craft together!

will report back on the success of playdough as soon as we try it out...

cole's new shorts...

check 'em out! details over here at my other blog hudsonny, you know, cause i have so much spare time that i had to have two blogs.

Baby fest!

The Yaletown baby & toddler fair today was a good success... Cole stopped by for a visit (thanks Grammie + Gramps!) and had a field day reaching for all the bunnies. It is so hard not to give him nearly every toy i make. ;-)

For a real round-up of the event please check out my shiny new blog, hudsonny. Lots of new blog smell, whatever that is! I felt the need to start this new blog because so many of my posts here have been crafty lately and thought it might be time to separate the family stuff from the crafty stuff... Don't get me wrong, you can still expect far too much rambling on crafty matters here, but I feel good about a new space to put the bulk of it! ;-)

What have we been up to, you ask?

Well, we've been busy around here lately...

When I was at the Spring Fling I agreed to take a table at another fair-type-thing, this weekend's looming Yaletown Baby & Toddler Fair. It's at the Roundhouse and is more of a baby-related event for moms and moms-to-be, rather than craft event, but they have a craft section and I was asked to participate and figured it would be good. I might be crazy though, because I have really no time after doing other projects! I'm feeling alternately frazzled and ready... Making more gnomes, lots more bunnies, more felt pins and so on. On Sunday Jamie took Cole for a walk to Granville Island while I made more gnomes while eating Easter candy and watching British history dvds...

Other than sewing, we've been doing some relaxing local stuff... Visiting with friends, starting on a big freelance design project for the company I was with before mat leave, trips to the library and a good trip to IKEA by myself on Saturday which didn't result in the coat stand I was after but did leave me with some kind of pulled muscle between the chicken wings (you know, that area of your back? The technical term escapes me and am too busy to Google.). At random intervals it feels as though I'm being stabbed through the breastbone (for some reason I feel the twinge there). I blame pushing that heavy, listing IKEA cart. I was trying to be speedy and had to kind of throw my whole self at the cart when reeling around corners...

Anyway, for the sale, I've made a bunch more bibbler drool kerchiefs to go with the bibs and toddler scarves that I have already. I figured I needed some better photos of them in action (ie - yes, pregnant ladies, these bibs fit actual babies. I didn't think so either before I had a baby! Now since you don't already have a baby go and stay out all night!) and Cole was happy to oblige... Some of the funnier shots:


And this one 'cause I think Cole is just so darn cute...

Fantastically flung at the spring fling

I had a terrific blast at the Etsy Spring Fling on Saturday! It was lovely - such a great vibe, really good traffic and I was so happy to see folks smiling at my creations. It was quite awesome to see people actually wearing my pins and carrying away my little treasures. Strange too - in the best, best way.

Everyone loved the gnomes to a crazy degree and also very popular - my felt toast pins. I made them late and didn't even get a chance to photograph them.

One little girl just stole my heart. She took her time choosing a pink bunny, came back with her Mama and wanted to know the bunny's name (Keiko)and was generally just so adorable. I had to get up the guts to ask to take her photo when we saw her walking around the hall hugging the bunny. Oh, so sweet!

I'm a bit shy in these situations and it was so nice to have company, support and help from Kim who got there early and stayed all day. And someone to get us some extra change and to watch the booth while I wandered and ogled everyone else's great stuff. (And someone to suggest and encourage taking that photo!)

I meant to get photos of my favourites and the other tables to do a proper write-up, but of course I got busy and forgot! Check out posts by Smeeta (love her stuff!) and Akane Designs for some great photos! I wanted so much to buy about five times as much stuff as I brought - where to start... An apple cozy from Roxypop (and a catnip gyoza if I had a cat - they were adorable and so well presented), this clutch from Davie & Chiyo, a terrarium from Thyrza, jewelery from everyone and the most lovely skirts from BonBon across the way. I managed to restrain myself - for a short while only, I'm sure... After all, my mat leave monies (thank you for the pittance, government) run out anytime now!

Here, little mouses...

New in the shop - stenciled cork mouse pads! The bird comes in three different colours, pink afro lady is all on her own for now. More designs to come soon... I love these - cork makes me oddly happy.

The stencils are from the perfectly awesome Ed Roth Stencil 101. Now that I've got the hang of it, I'm going to cut some of my own with my shiny new (and probably dangerously sharp) exacto knife...

Self-imposed deadlines and spontaneous developments...

So I've been slacking a wee bit lately on the blog. You see, I was invited recently to sell at an upcoming craft fair organized by another local Vancouver Etsyian and I decided to sign up for a table! I figured it would be good motivation to make stuff, and I can't wait to see the other folks. Since it's smaller than some of the larger fairs I find it (conceptually at least) a little less initimidating... Crazy though, maybe, since I have more ideas than finished stuff to sell, so I've been patiently crafting during all of Cole's naptimes lately. I prefer to spend my evenings being lazy (aka sleeping or watching tv), so it's just the naptimes that I have to work with. But I'm making progress - yay! I've got a few weeks left to get ready - if you're interested and local, do come on by:

Saturday, March 21st
11-5pm
Cambrian Welsch Hall
215 East 17th Avenue (just off Main Street)
Vancouver

Anyway, the whole raison d'être of this post is to bring the world (and the Grandma's!) up-to-date with Cole's recent activities, since I've not posted for more than a week.

He's walking!!! He started walking last Monday, the day before my birthday, when he decided it was time to let go of the sofa. He had been pacing like a little caged lion around the edge of his play area (our whole living room, barricaded off with tubs of fabric and rearranged coffee tables) holding the edges of things the whole time but just all of a sudden he decided it was ok to let go! He can now take a few steps all on his own and he can walk around the whole room holding on to just one of our fingers. He loves walking back and forth between us too. He's unstoppable! He can also stand up all on his own for quite a while without going anywhere at all.

He's also understanding so much more. We can ask him things like "where is your barn?" or "let's walk to your books" when he's doing something else and he'll stop, turn around, point to them and then go off on a mission to get them. It's an amazing feeling to know he can understand us.

And he just learned to clap on Friday! We clap for him all the time but we didn't really practice it or anything and then all of a sudden he started clapping. I wasn't even doing anything particularly clap-worthy, like getting up at 3 am or wiping up food off the floor... ;-) He is getting really good at it...

Oh, and he's really into initiating peek-a-boo. We'd been having fun with it for ages, but I think he's realized that he can start the game all on his own and he will hide behind random things and then pop out and laugh, laugh, laugh when we "find" him...

More pictures of all this new stuff soon. So much of it happens when you are least expecting it... Or when I'm not willing to grab my camera and trust that Cole won't take a face-first tumble into the floor while I'm documenting his advances! I just got a new external flash (and then had to temper my excitement by waiting to go buy a battery and then spend all day charging it!) and suddenly the dim lighting in here at least doesn't seem like such a problem... Hoorah! I used to have a ban on in-the-house photos (maybe since I'm usually in old sweatpants when at home) but of course with a wee one so many funny moments happen during the regular mundane activities. Must capture for posterity! Pointing! Teeth! Adorable bowl-licking...

A plethora of pincushions

Because I'm having fun hand-sewing and feeling crafty lately, I've been thumbing through my books looking for ideas. I kept seeing pincushions, so I got out the scrap basket and made a few new ones that used up little treasured bits of various fabrics that I can't ever seem to part with.

First up, the quick and adorable tartlet pincushions from Zakka Sewing. You can find these little tartlet tins at any kitchenwares store and truly - the actual project takes no time at all.

And have been wanting to make this other one from Last Minute Patchwork for ages. It looks far more complicated than it turned out to be. Although the pattern didn't call for buttons, I have a small handful of lovely vintage ones from my Mom and I have been keen on adding them to some projects lately. This one was too good with these fabrics (plus it covered up the fact that the points didn't match 100% perfectly on the top!).

I don't need all of these, so I think I'll use the button one for myself and save the others... Yay - I can finally retire the pincushion that I've been using for ages! It has a number of needles stuck inside, so I am randomly poked when I least expect it. It will be nice to avoid that.

A new use for beans

The title of this post implies that a) I already have many uses for beans and b) I had some spare ones lying around the house collecting dust. Neither of those things are true. We do love us some beans & wieners here on occasion, but I'm talking about the dried kind of beans. The ones you put in beanbags.

Randomly the other day I was reading about how to create your own beanbag chair and thought that I hadn't seen any actual beanbags lately. I have fond memories of them from childhood - it seemed that beanbags were involved in many of the games played at school and I thought we could use a few around here...

They were a really fun project - easy and a great use of fabric scraps (boy, do we have a lot of fabric scraps!). And if you did have copious amounts of dried beans to get rid of this would be a great way to use them up. We didn't have any, so I bought a $3 bag of small white beans. Very descriptive. For 900 grams they are a much better deal than the polystyrene beanbag filler available at craft stores, and my theory is that if Cole manages to gnaw a hole in the bag I'd prefer he ate actual dried beans rather than plastic or whatever...

Although to greatly reduce the chance of that happening at all these are triple sewn. They're lined with plain, sturdy white cotton (which has double-sewn seams) and then that little bag is enclosed in a little case of heavier weight fabric. A little beanbag pillow case, sort of! The little beans will have to break free of three separate barriers if they want to escape, and I'm just not sure they're that smart... Check out step-by-step photos & instructions of this project over at Flickr, if you're interested in making your own. So easy.

One thing I've found lately is that I really enjoy hand sewing. In the past, I would do anything to avoid hand sewing, but I've discovered that it's such a methodical, slow process that it's actually very relaxing. Spending a lot of time at night now watching old British mystery shows and slowly hand-stitching things.

Anyway, Cole loves his beanbags! He likes to crawl around with them hanging from his mouth and patting them. I made him two sets. The first was out of an upholstery-weight ikea fabric but then I couldn't resist making 5 more in awesome Japanese cotton/linen prints and they're very popular here. They make a lovely rattling sound and have a really pleasing weight to them. Oh, and they do have that authentic beanbag smell. Mmmm....

Oh, and I guess we do have another use for beans. Cole is trying them today. But the baked variety and I didn't make them. Thank you Amy and your organic canned goods. ;-)

Update!

New stuff is in the shop! Just a few things so far, but more are in the works. Hope nobody minds me posting these things here, by the way... This blog started out mainly about Cole, but it's also about our daily lives and crafty things are a big part of that.

These bunnies are my new favourite thing. They're called 'pajama bunnies' since I picture their little faces peeking out from head-to-toe pajamas. They're scrappy and fun and not store-bought perfect but I think that's part of their charm.

And the hot water bottle cozies use the Spoonflower fabric that I ordered a million years ago. They have six different sayings related to the fact that bottles are hot and you climb into bed with them. ;-) I kept forgetting to take the photos... The light in our place is really bad but I figured it wouldn't get better for a while so I might as well just go for it...

PS - Canada Post, I dislike thee. Your employees are helpful (and all the women at the central branch love Cole) but the rate for sending parcels in this country is absurd! It costs half as much to send a stuffed bunny to the US than it does to send something to Toronto. Why? Sorry, fellow Canadians. My goal - making things that fit under the 20mm thickness so they can all get sent at cheap letter rates. The bottle cozies fit into that category... I'll make it up to any friends & family who order from me, if the postage is high... ;-)

My hope is to get a bunch of stuff into the shop and then apply for a table at the craft fair someday. Eeek - intimidating!

Hip hop...

Bunnies are coming. Is it Easter already? Nope... Just finished a schwack of soft stuffed scrappy bunnies and am in the process of changing my mind about the Etsy shop. The holidays derailed a bunch of plans to create things for v-day and such and of course I changed my mind about the look, the possible contents, whatnot. I wish I was not so wishy-washy. Or do I?

Anyway, photos of the bunnies coming soon. A preview first. I love these squishy little guys and gals.

I have to march off to buy a fun paper backdrop for their photos today. Well, "have to" is perhaps a stretch, but "am going to" is the truth.

Do-It, 1960's style

So I was out walking with Cole the other day and we stumbled across a great, if rather dank, thrift shop on Drake at Granville and as usual made a beeline for the books. It was run by two really sweet guys dressed as punk rockers who were blasting Dr. Dre, perhaps ironically.

Anyway, couldn't believe my luck in finding this gem - the McCalls Golden Do-It Book of crafts for kids, printed in 1966. 50 cents!

I love this era. The retro graphics alone sold me right off the bat, but there are a ton of great rainy-day arts & crafts inside, all using items I'm supposed to have around the house, like paper plates and pipe-cleaners. Most of the ideas are pretty cool. A few are downright weird, but that's part of the charm. Lots of paper crafts, projects that use materials destined for the blue-bin and it even has kids beginner level crochet, knitting and sewing projects. It also promises that the activities only require a minimum of adult supervision at best, which is always good, so one can get back to mixing a Rob Roy or washing the Plymouth or whatever one might have done 40+ years ago with a certain amount of free time afforded by keeping the kids busy.

A few pages, for your viewing pleasure:

Hip, hop, hippity hop

Finally - have found time to make something new! It's been a long time, what with the Christmas holidays and whatnot... I thought I'd get lots done while Jamie was home for two weeks on vacation between Christmas and New Year's, but of course I just spent whatever leisure time we carved out watching really terrible old mystery shows and making hot chocolate...

Found a great book - Aranzi Cute Stuff - by two crafty Japanese sisters. The book itself is fantastic - really quirky and full of translated glory. And it has a ton of terrific projects. Good basics, too, even if you don't want to applique everything with characters. I have at least half the pages dog-eared with projects for Cole (and myself too)... They have a Baby Stuff book coming out next month that I'm preordering now - can't wait!

First up though: this cute bunny for Cole.

It's from the "long doll bag" pattern, and is supposed to be a little purse with a zipper in the back that you can carry on your wrist, but I modified it a little and just stuffed the torso. I'm going to try making it a friend in a different fabric. Cole was instantly a big fan - grabbed it off the doorknob where it was hanging before I even had a chance to photograph it.

He chose the vintage fabric from my scrap stash himself! The eyes and mouth were supposed to be appliqued felt, but I figured he would just chew them off so instead I used non-toxic fabric paint.

He is a big fan of bunnies in general lately. He loves turning the pages of I am a Bunny and pointing out Nicholas, the little bunny who lives in a hollow tree. He also gets a big kick out of Mrs. Bunny, a weirdo hand puppet that we found at Yoko Yaya at Christmas time. He smiles from ear to ear when she pops out to give him a little talk. She seems to have a good opinion on most matters (as voiced by yours truly). Her bunnies always eat their veggies and take their naps.

YAY!

My custom fabrics finally arrived yesterday from Spoonflower. I've been checking the mailbox every day (well, I ususally do that anyway) and did a little mental jig when it was in there. Not an actual jig - I'm sure that would have creeped Cole out... I'm so happy to see that the quality of the print is fantastic and Kona cotton has a good hand.

The colour turned out a little different than I had intended - the red has more of a yellow undertone than a blue, making my hot magenta more of a warm red, but I actually like it better like this. Can't wait to cut it up for it's intended use. Unlike when I randomly buy fabric in general, I designed these two yards for a specific purpose. The fabric is in the dryer right now and I'm tipping my toe waiting for that infernal baby-waking buzz to tell me it's finished. We have very demanding appliances - even the toaster won't chill out when the toast is ready. Five beeps? That seems excessive...

Will post the results asap and hopefully will have some stuff online in the shop within the week!

Hey Cole, how's the weather up there?

Jamie gave me a special treat today - five whole hours of independence! I took a fantastic trip with Kim to Portobello West for craft ogling (and a little buying). We also dropped by the drool-worthy vintage and crafted shop Lucky Rooster on Charles at Commercial (add one more metre of vintage fabric to the vault) after deciding that it was not necessary to eat with other people's children at Little Nest since we had no babes in tow ourselves...

My boys ambled over to buy a couple's pass at Science World (Cole is free - lucky lad). We are pretty nearly across the street from it, so it's handy. Though Cole is a bit wee, Jamie said that he seemed to have a real blast looking at stuff and touching things. And I think generally being with Daddy of course... No photos - I did request it, but apparently taking care of the baby by oneself is quite a handful without the obligation to record it for posterity... :-) So anyway, we're set up for a year of all things science-related.

And the fun didn't stop there! This evening they made their first couch fort. We had to stop in the middle of construction for a bit of impromptu vacuuming of crumbs from beneath the cushions. Disgusting! How did so many crumbs get back there? Do I need to start serving us out of a trough? We eat all our meals from the couch despite having a perfectly functional table, which triples as my office and craft command centre.

While they were enjoying the newly-freshened couch cushion fort, Jamie got out the yardstick (technically a metre, but hey) and got down to measuring Cole's height. It would appear from our measurements that he's no taller now than he was several months ago (about 27 - 28 inches) but that can't be true since we keep raising his jumper and buying the kid new pants! Also, we have very little skill at baby measuring and Cole likes to lean...

Chugging along...

A very big thank-you to Jamie, guest blog poster extraordinaire, who kept the NaBloPoMo streak churning ever forward. I apparently need to give him a posting profile so folks don't suspect I've just suddenly gone off my rocker and started referring to myself in the third person, which I do around the house anyway, sadly. "Mama's going to get her coat on and then we're going out Cole!". Sing-song voice and third person = cuckoo whack-a-doo!

I am not so sure about the whole concept of posting every day. Or make that of having to post every day. I just don't have that much interesting grade-A material! But since I started, I have to finish. I would make an excellent drug addict, I think, since I am very all-or-nothing!

Anyway, feeling better today. Many slices of dry toast and nearly a whole two litre bottle of gingerale all to myself later, I am feeling less nauseous. I get that way when I get a migraine and man, yesterday's was a doozy. Glad that's done with! Jamie knows I feel miserable when I'm willing to go to bed at 7:30. Normally I fight bedtime like a toddler.

We had an easy day today - plans with a friend for coffee got derailed due to illness (hers - I'm fine now!) so I spent the morning lazily strolling around with Cole and stopping by the library. I figured that I should stop ordering so many things online in the middle of the night only to wonder why I don't have any money in the light of day... Hey - did you know the books at the library are free?!? ;-)

Can't wait to get a better look at Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals and see what I can make for Cole. Yay - more projects? I have a bunch of requests for plush toys and embroidery books that I had in my shopping cart at Amazon a few nights ago. I'm not patient and am more than willing to pay for books that I love, but I figured that I might as well test the titles all out first! There is that saying that you should be able to use at least two patterns in a book to justify buying it... I hope that the 'simple instructions' in this title is true - I like simple instructions. Perfect for my (baby-created) short attention span these days. The patterns are from 24 different artists from around the world and I must say that I love that whale.

Supremely exciting!

OK, so perhaps that is a little exaggerated, but I am really stoked about a big new project. Yes, yes, I do have all those other projects going on. I am a bit wonky, you might say, to be adding new stuff to my list considering that I keep bemoaning the fact that I can't get anything creative done. But, this new thing is super cool.

I'm getting a couple of yards (yes, yards - you Americans and your outdated measurements) of custom fabric printed over at the totally rad Spoonflower. Not finding exactly what you have in mind at the fabric shop? Well, you can design your own fabric and print it for a mere $18 per yard. I'd been stewing for a while about what to print and then BAM - yesterday inspiration struck... I can't say what it is yet, but I think it's hilarious and can't wait to see the fabric and put it all together...

All this is part of a larger plan, to start selling handmade baby & home textiles stuff on Etsy, the online craft marketplace. I've been meaning to for ages, and have a closet full of material (partly sourced for this use!) that I'm finally getting to. Today I spent a few hours sewing a stack of baby bibs as a start - a simple project that I find really relaxing. I also ordered business cards, labels and packaging materials too. I don't know why I'm mentioning all this before I can show anything (NaBloPoMo, that's why!) but in the next couple of weeks once everything arrives I'm going to be sewing like mad. My very own sweatshop! :-)

Wish me luck!

The Creative Family

Fall is making me feel more and more nest-y every day. Perfect timing then, for a new book to arrive on my doorstep, courtesy of Jamie delivery. For some reason I have problems with a few delivery companies actually getting stuff to our door here (um, it's a buzzer - ring it!) so I send stuff over to Jamie's office frequently. It also saves me the walk a few blocks over to the Chinatown post office, which is where our things go when they don't fit in the mailbox.

Back to the topic at hand... My new book! It's The Creative Family, by the amazingly talented Amanda Blake Soule, mother to four (any day now) and author of the popular blog SouleMama. The book is all about embracing the handmade way of life and awakening a spirit of creativity and appreciation for simpler things in your children. Using basic art materials, natural elements, found treasures and a lot of family playtime, it's definitely 100% inspirational.

Her blog just adds to my longings lately for the East Coast life. Way out East, like the maritimes. I could do Halifax - I've been there before and it's adorable... I need me some apple picking, Atlantic seashores and proper flea markets... Maybe some culture? Or history? Some depth? It's the furthest I can go on this continent, I figure... I've already tried going as far as I can go this direction! I'm finding BC a little soul-less lately - I love it and hate it at the same time... I feel a little like there's nowhere to go for a change of scene. Does that make sense? Maybe it's just because I'm home all the time? I mean, there's stuff to do in Vancouver; I love the city itself but it all seems the same once you leave downtown. Just big box stores and pick-up trucks... We don't manage to blend urban and countryside well here, I think. I'm running out of things to photograph, it feels like. Jamie reminds me that our career options may be a tad limited in the Maritimes, which is certainly true, but geesh - we could get a house! And it'd be only a few hours flight to Europe.

Back to the basics

I needed something crafty to do with my hands this week while watching copious amounts of election coverage on TV. I'm less inclined to become apoplectic when watching stressful things if I'm doing something that diverts at least part of that steam towards a productive activity. Same goes during the hockey playoffs (during which I usually knit scarves) except then, instead of cursing, I mutter about the fact that someone who's paid x million dollars should be able to score a goal...

But, I digress... One positive result of this excess of fidgitiness on Sunday night was a new bracelet.

I have a disturbingly large collection of semi-precious and vintage glass beads that are all languishing in a tackle box because I'm not in the midst of a jewelery-making craze, which was definitely the case a few years ago. But that does mean that when inspiration strikes, I have the supplies... Another victory for compulsive craft supplies hording!