Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas 2011

It was a good year this Christmas! We managed to make over half the gifts we gave this year. I had hoped to make it an entirely homemade Christmas but the reality of time constraints led to a compromise. Of course I forgot to take pictures of all the items, but here are a few:
Fabric bookmarks for Papa, Batman dress-up commissioned by a friend, and crochet hook organizer for Nana
Not pictured are a turned wine bottle stopper, doll clothes, and embroidered dish towels.

The most popular gifts the family received this year included:
Woodland Park Zoo Family Membership
Alex Paint Porcelain Party

Legos!
Xavier was tickled pink about his handmade jammies from Nana and a new scooter from  his godfather.

I hope everyone's Christmas was as joyful as ours!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Winners


Winner of Giveaway #1 two Deluxe Infant Bibs goes to Darbishar who "like[s] giving bags/purses, they are always useful :) Thank you so much for entering the giveaway and giving me the chance to win!"


Winner of Giveaway #2 three Wash 'n Go Toddler Bibs goes to Rane.  Rane is a busy mom to six kiddos and is building the blog I Remember Sleep to help her find herself again.


Giveaway #1
Giveaway #2

Friday, December 16, 2011

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day Late Entry

Thank you for visiting. This giveaway is now closed.




I could give you every reason why I'm entering on the last day, but let's not focus on the negative, instead look at it as less competition!


Giveaway #1 is for two Deluxe Infant Bibs. Felt appliques made from recycled water bottles are mounted on 100% cotton and backed with a super soft, minky like backing and a hidden layer of PUL creates a waterproof barrier between your little one and their messy mishaps. 


Giveaway #2 is for three Wash n' Go Toddler Bibs. Dare I say toddler proof? The sturdy size 20 resin snaps, a favorite of diaper makers, is difficult for toddlers to rip off. These cotton bibs are lined with cotton batting to improve absorbency and decrease the likelihood penetrating spills. Just toss these in the wash with your dishtowels and use again and again. (Please excuse the wrinkles; I'm racing the clock!)


Each giveaway has their own page to distinguish between people interested in only one or the other sets. Please follow the link here for Giveaway #1 and here for Giveaway #2.

If you comment to this post, I will remind you to post on one of the links above.

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway #2: Wash n' Go Toddler Bibs

Thank you for visiting. This giveaway is now closed.


This giveaway is for three Wash n' Go Toddler Bibs. You can choose any of the three patterns. These bibs are super easy to care for and almost toddler proof! Size 20 resin snaps, a longtime favorite of diaper makers,  are sturdy and the side placement means that even when your toddler tugs down on the bib, the back of the neck receives the force, not the snap.




  • This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. 
  • To enter answer the question "What is your favorite handmade gift to receive?" in the comments section below.
  • For a bonus entry become a follower and leave a separate comment indicating you are a follower.
  • If you are unsure if your e-mail address is automatically included with your comment entry, please leave you contact information in your post. You can leave it as "name (at) blahblah (d0t) com" if you are worried about bots.
  • Winner will be chosen by a random generator tomorrow after I tuck the kids in bed (after 7pm PST) and contacted according to SMS guidelines on December 18th via e-mail.


and 

Thank you for visiting Angie's Whim and don't forget to check out Giveaway #1: two Deluxe Infant Bibs.

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway #1: Deluxe Infant Bibs

Thank you for visiting. This giveaway is now closed.


This giveaway is for two deluxe infant bibs. You can choose one of each style or two of the same style.




  • This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. 
  • To enter answer the question "What is your favorite handmade gift to give?" in the comments section below.
  • For a bonus entry become a follower and leave a separate comment indicating you are a follower.
  • If you are unsure if your e-mail address is automatically included with your comment entry, please leave you contact information in your post. You can leave it as "name (at) blahblah (d0t) com" if you are worried about bots.
  • Winner will be chosen by a random generator tomorrow after I tuck the kids in bed (after 7pm PST) and contacted according to SMS guidelines on December 18th via e-mail.


and 

Thank you for visiting Angie's Whim and don't forget to check out Giveaway #2: Wash n' Go Toddler Bibs

Sunday, December 4, 2011

~ : Sneak Peek : ~

My latest soakers combine sewing, needle felting, machine and hand applique. Just as soon as I get some decent product photos they will be stocked in my Etsy store . . .  unless they get snagged up by one of my followers. In the meantime, Nigel Nightowl asks:

Monday, November 21, 2011

Craft It Forward 2011: Update

Update: Originally I posted that I would get back to my first five comments on 11/25, but that was more a strategy to make it through Thanksgiving than a deadline. I'm still hoping for a few more comments to meet my five Craft it Forward obligation.

Photobucket

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I have decided to join Craft It Forward 2011. It is a pay-it-forward model where you promise to send the first five people who respond to your blog post or your comment on the Craft it Forward facebook page before the end of the calendar year.

I was inspired by Celina's blog Petit à Petit and Family, and followed her link back to Zuhause for the button. Even if, like me, you are not one of the first five to comment, I was the first to reply! Even if you are not, I encourage you to take a few hours out of your holiday plans to participate.

Do you want to be the recipient of one of my five craft it forward gifts?
  • Be one of the first five US residents to comment to this post.
  • November 25th, I will send out an e-mail confirming you made the list and asking a few questions to come up with a suitable item of crafty goodness.
  • I will send out your gift after you have posted your own Craft it Forward appeal to your blog or the Craft it Forward facebook wall.

Friday, November 18, 2011

{this moment}

As inspired by Soule Mama:
A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
 
Post a link to your moment in the comment section.
 
 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Life's Little Lessons

The last few weeks have been a blur of projects. Nothing brilliant or worthy of a tutorial, but all with their own little life lessons.

Lesson 1: Sharing the Workload is Less Stressful
Kristin of Intrepid Murmurings organized the kindergarten class' contribution to the school auction, a flag banner featuring artwork from every students. One of the other room parents approached me to handle the assembly. Never has a school project been so easy to make and so difficult to photograph. I wish I had been able to get a photo of it hung artistically against a rustic backdrop, but there just was not time as I raced to get it to the auction committee at the eleventh hour.


Lesson 2a: It's Okay to Be Semi-Homemade
When I was teaching Halloween always fell at a bad time for creating two elaborate costumes. A couple years ago I gave myself permission to focus on just one costume and purchase the other. This gives me time to enjoy focusing on the details. My personal challenge this year was to offset the store bought portions of Chiara's costume with upcycled materials for Xavier's. The yellow fabric and belt buckle were the only purchased items. Chiara's costume is made from a store bought leotard and skirt embellished with ears, rose, and tail to transform her into Angelina Ballerina for a dual purpose Halloween/Book Character Day costume. It turned out Angelina was a much better costume for her schools Book Character Day than for chilly trick or treating. Even with added leggings and swapping ballet shoes for sneakers, we had to cover the costume with her warmest winter coat.
Lesson 2b: Costumes Should Match Your Climate



Lesson 3: Test Before You Invest
I was very lucky this year to have two friends let me piggyback on their craft bazaar to get a feel for the experience without the expense. It was fun spending the day together, but in the end I decided the bazaar network is not for me.



Like hand dyed merino wool or hand knit baby items? Check out Sarah Brown Design and Pam Radmacher Crafts on Etsy or at the Seattle Christian Christmas Bazaar December 3rd.

Lesson 3: Don't Be Scared to Try Something New
Pumpkin seeds are pumpkin seeds, right? Nope. Usually I just plant seeds from the pumpkins harvested the previous year, but this last year I found myself buying new seed.  I grew a variety of pumpkins called Triple Treat. They were described as large enough to carve, flesh as good as a sugar pumpkin, and tasty seeds. I was drawn to this variety more for the dual purpose of carving and eating. I never expected the seeds to be so delicious! Unlike traditional pumpkin seeds the protective seed coating is thin and puffs into a light, crisp, football shape that doesn't interfere with the nutty goodness of the inside.



Lesson 4: Perfect is Boring
We made a trip over to the old house to clear out the last of the garden. We had planted our winter garden before realizing we would be moving, but as fate would have it, the house is still not rented. Only about half the carrots and turnips were full grown, but that did not bother Xavier. He gladly gobbled down sweet carrots, naming and eating the forked ones first.


Lesson 5: Teaching is More Rewarding than Doing
So much of the teaching I do as a mom is mundane and I had begun to forget how rewarding it is to share something you are passionate about with an eager learner. Although not her first sewing project, this is Chiara's first project that she conceived of, designed, planned, and executed with very little help from me. It is so rewarding to watch her use skills I have taught her to create her own project.



Friday, November 11, 2011

{this moment}

As inspired by Soule Mama:
A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
 
 

Friday, November 4, 2011

{this moment]

As inspired by Soule Mama:
A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Cowboy & Cowgirl Dress-Ups or Costumes


Despite my cultural concerns as a history teacher and my concerns for the environment, I appreciate the romantic aspects of frontier life - the self-reliance, the do-now spirit, the sense of adventure. So I jumped at the opportunity to try out Made's Frontier Vest.

For Battle of the Sexes, the high school I taught at and my kids attended preschool, had a Toy Story theme. So I decided to make a Woody-esque version of the vest for Xavier and draft girly one for Chiara.

I did not have any felt on hand so I substituted Alova suedecloth from my stash. I picked up trim from my local fabric store.

Dana over at Made has an excellent tutorial for her Frontier Vest pattern. If I have any requests, I'll scan the pattern for Chiara's vest and include a tutorial. As long as you use a non-fraying fabric like felt or suedecloth binding or finishing is unnecessary. I chose to sew on the extra frills, but hot glue would work just as well if it was for a one time use.

Then you can have plenty blissful sibling moments like this one:

Monday, October 17, 2011

KCWC Swing Apron Giveaway Results

Whoops! Typo: TheRosary Lady did not get two entries for following the blog; one was for leaving a comment.

Congratulations to Anna Mursin! She is the proud new owner of our first giveaway, a scaled up, reversible version of Amy Karol's Swing Swing Apron. Thank you to everyone who particpated.


My KCWC for the last half of the week are coming soon, but the challenge overlapped with apple pressing. Talk about your late night grind!



Thursday, October 13, 2011

KCWC Day 3 & 4: Paisley Slippers


I have begun to lose a little steam. I am averaging a garment a day, but technically these slippers took me two days. Day three was a little busy with my husband out of town this week I hosted dinner guests solo. Somehow between tucking the kids into bed, doing a sky high stack of dishes, and falling over exhausted, I managed to pick out the project and fabrics.



Chiara outgrew her slippers from last year and now that the cold weather has arrived, the hardwoods and tile are a might chilly. I was originally going to make some fuzzy, felted wool slippers from an old sweater, but it just did not have the "girly girl" look my daughter loves. The day before I noticed a pattern for slippers in the Ottobre I was working on from my son's Vroom! Vroom! PJs, and selected some suitably girly fabric.



I did not have the required "fusible volume fleece" so I substituted stretch terry I had on hand. I added fusible webbing to attach two layers to the foot pad and then lined the top with the fleece. I anticipate tossing these in the wash on a regular basis, so I added quilting to the top as well to help prevent shifting.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

KCWC Day 1.5 & 2: Vroom! Vroom! PJ's

Forget sewing an hour a day, I started at 9:00pm on day one and finished at 3:00am on day two!


Xavier's down to just a single pair of pj's and I thought my next challenge garment needed to address the issue. I have stacks of knits leftover from my diaper making days, but nothing large enough for a pair of traditional pj's. Flipping through my Ottobre's for inspiration, I found these patterns in issue 6/2010:

Kuperkeikka and Hippotamus Hoppulainen
(image from Ottobredesign.com)

Both patterns feature panels, eight on the shirt, and four on the pants, letting me utilize smaller scraps of fabric.
  • Rib knit print by Baby Lulu from stash, purchased at SewZanne's Fabrics
  • Medium blue rib knit upcycled from Merona t-shirt
  • Light green heather jersey knit from stash, unknown source
The Kuperkeikka pattern does not call for a banded waist or ankles, but I modified the pattern so that I could use the the printed fabric that was a few inches too short.

KCWC Day 1: The Swing Swing Apron Saga & My First Giveaway



Elsie Marley is sponsoring her twice yearly Kids Clothes Week Challenge. She challengers her readers and fellow bloggers to spend one hour a day sewing clothes for their children.


I have decided to challenge myself with a garment a day, and for my first challenge I decided to make my godson's birthday present. After my latest trip to the library, I had picked up Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol (who blogs at Angry Chicken).


I picked out the Swing Swing Apron, sometimes called The Birthday Apron by other crafters. My journey started out simple enough. It called to blow-up the pattern 237%. I decided to use the old grid enlargement method I learned back in grade school since I did not want to waste any sewing time running to the copy center.



I had the bright idea to simplify the process by increasing to a nice round 250%. The resulting reversible apron was perfect, but would fit a first grader; much too large for my two year old godson.  Here it is on my large four year old:


I rescaled it to 200% and realized that it was a lovely size for a baby bib, but much to small for a toddler. I was beginning to feel little like the Goldilocks of pattern sizing when I finally found my "just right" size at 225%.


I was not able to get a picture on my godson, so Xavier agreed to model it for me before we wrapped it up with a few cooking tools.

The Giveaway!

Now I have a lovely reversible version of the apron available as a giveaway! One side features a soft denim with a whimsical turtle pattern pocket, while the otherside has a toss print of baseballs on a medium blue background with a contrasting red pocket. This would fit size 4 toddler - child's medium. It is pictured above on my daughter who wears a girls' 7/8.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:
  • Giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canadian residents
  • To enter:
    • Post a comment with your e-mail address below OR . . .
    • Become an official follower of the blog.
    • You get two entries if you do both!
The nitty,gritty details:
  • People in my immediate family are unable to enter . . . just ask and I'll make one for you, silly.
  • Please be honest and fair, do not enter more than once.
  • Contest ends midnight, October 16, 2011.
  • Winners will be selected using a random number generator at Random.org Monday morning.
  • If technical difficulties, fraud, or any circumstances hinder the integrity of the giveaway, I reserve the right to notify participants and reschedule.
  • I will pay shipping to the winner (hence, limited to US & Canada).
  • By entering the giveaway, you agree to these terms and the following "fine print":
    • LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY The Released Parties are not responsible for: (1) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Promotion; (2) technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (3) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Promotion; (4) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Promotion or the processing of entries; or (5) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Promotion or receipt or use or misuse of any prize. If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another entry in the Sweepstakes, provided that if it is not possible to award another entry due to discontinuance of the Promotion, or any part of it, for any reason, Administrator, at its discretion, may elect to hold a random drawing from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein. No more than the stated number of prizes will be awarded. In the event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than stated number of prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed, Administrator reserves the right to award only the stated number of prizes by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible prize claims.