09 Christmas Drop #182 for The Toy Society

Check out the toy society for all the great drops this year! Mine was a simple Reindeer:

• Dropped: Wonderland Carousel at Westlake Park downtown Seattle, WA
  
  Number of Toys: 1
  
  Made by: Mary
  
  Dropped by: Mary www.whatareyoudoingmom.blogspot.com
  
  When: Dec. 24th
  
  And Mary says: After riding the carousel with the family we left behind a reindeer for another family to find. Merry Christmas!

Car Caddy

I found this tutorial a while ago and then saw a different version of the car caddy by Jill onSYTYC so I had to try one for my nephew. I made it similar to Jill's because I loved the idea of reusing old jeans. I wasn't going to add the number's inside but without them it looked a little empty. I added a felt car on front and printed CARS on top. I love how it turned out:

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

I thought I would share this with you cus I love this color!! If you haven't read her blog you should go check it out, and enter to win a few of her amazing giveaways. But not this on because I want it ;)

The 8 O Clock Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Wreaths

A couple weeks ago I went to a spouse group craft night where we made christmas wreaths. It was so much fun, I made 2 that night -one for me, one for my neighbor. They are totally addicting to make and if I had the time I would make a million more!

the winner is..

Random.org picked #47 who said:

Jessica Christensen said...

I love the travel art kit. I am living in Texas right now, and I am making two quilts, three quiet books, an apron, a tutu, a doll quilt and problaby a pincushion before Christmas. Yeah, I hope that's all.

Wow, Jessica that is a long list... just as long as mine I think ;) Congratulation on the win! Please leave a comment with your email address, or email me at mecbruno(at)gmail(dot)com

It was so much fun to do this giveaway and read all the comments! You all have such wonderful projects going on right now! Have fun doing them!!!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

Today is Sew mama Sew's giveaway Day, I will be giving away gifts for your little one:

A doll I have been loving to make from Stitched in time.

And something I just tried for the first time, a travel art kit. Right now it is stuffed with some markers and something to make the mama's laugh (a fashion citation pad). You can fill the other pockets with crayons, stickers, a color book, and/or some paper. I found the tutorial here, and I agree that it is a great go to gift.

To enter please leave a comment on this post. I would love for you to tell me where you are and what you're making this week, or just anything about yourself.

I will draw a winner using random.org on Dec. 6th.

Don't forget to check out Sew Mama Sew's blog and look at all the other giveaways!

Ornament 2

The second cross stitched bird is complete for my nephew. I have had all my craft supplies out all day today with hopes of doing a few projects, but I was having to much fun playing with baby T. Now that she is sleeping, I would love nothing more than to go rest my eyes but I think I will stay up just a little longer and make a few things.

To wrap up the Movember month we went to a party downtown to celebrate the men with their mustaches. They had a contest to see who had the best mustache and R won!! This is R's second win in the mustache catagory, you may remember the prize I made for his last win.

Ornament 1

I completed one of three ornaments I am making this year. I took over the handmade-mostly cross stitched ornaments for my sisters kids and mine because one of our fondest memories from childhood Christmas was getting our ornaments from our aunt and uncle. They have retired from the ornament making so we wanted to carry the tradition on for our kids. Previous years I copied some favorites of mine, and one year I knitted a little tree. This year I decided to do a bird theme, the kids will each have a different bird.

I will be participating in Sew Mama Sew Giveaway on Dec 2nd. I will have to whip something up for it tomorrow so check back on the 2nd to see what it is!

this is me journal and high chairs

One of the first blogs I started reading was Thismamamakesstuff, I thought it was wonderful, it opened my eyes to the world of blogs. She has amazing ideas from everything to where to donate your halloween candy to baby clothes to triathlon advice. She is also the creater of the This is me journal for kids. I was lucky enough to win one on twitter during her week of giveaways. I can not wait until T can start to draw, She has held a crayon to paper but still can't get past the urge to taste it. I have been recording on a weekly bases milestones and funny habits and games we play since birth in her book, the new baby's baby journal and when I saw the this is me journal I knew it would be perfect for helping T and I record her life.

Last month she blogged about a fabric high chair she recreated from a 70's version. This high chair is just amazing and after countless nights at friends houses of

just letting T roam around while we eat, I thought this was something I had to make as soon as I could. She created a tutorial for it and I got to work. It was very easy to follow and did not take a lot of time. I made one for T and another for a friend. Definitely go check out her blog!

getting back to sewing

I am slowly fitting sewing into my day again. Baby T is getting to be a bit more independent but still needs a close watch so I have a little more time to sew while she plays, but then quickly have to put things down when she starts grabbing doggie's (which she screams) legs to pull him off the couch. I think I have organised enough that I can in fact have my stuff here and there and be able to put it all away and come back to it during a quite time. That being said I did have to ditch some things on my list from the last post. I'm not going to be able to make the advent calendars in time, sorry Mc's I'll do one for next year!! I've still got the ornaments, and card table playhouse, and of course I have added a few more.

Today I finished a doll and 2 frogs for a Christmas project R's school is doing. The doll you have seen before, the frogs I freehanded a pattern based on this one from Lil Blue Boo -a blog I adore. I double stitched around, filled the mini frogs with barley and finished them on their right foot. These 3 things went in a snow man bag with some crayons and a notebook. I hope someone will have fun opening there gift!

* R is still going strong for Movember, he has been so busy its hard to get him to stay still for a picture..

Movember Sewing

On my crafty list this month:

• Card Table Playhouse for T's christmas present
• Advent Calendar for The Mc's
• Advent event banner for us
• C, M, and T chirstmas ornaments

All the while I will be crafting and of corse playing with T, R will be growing a mustach for movember. He started the month clean shaven, and shaved for the first time yesturday. He grows a beard in less than a day so it should be interesting to see this stash grow. You may remember he won the mustache march contest a while back. I will keep a weekly or maybe more tab on him and let you know how it grows.

Halloween Baby

Oct. 31 2008

I got up at 5am with contractions and walked around to the song vogue by modanna playing in my head. I woke Richard up around 7 excited to tell him the contractions had been going on pretty steady. We called the midwife on call who told us to take a walk and try and wait to come in til my appt. at 10 if I could. After a walk under the big umbrella holding bruno on my big belly we packed the car with our things just in case and went to our appt. Cathy, the midwife, told us we would probably have her the next day, that I was only 2 centimeters. After that R took me on the longest walk up tons of hills to 'do errands' (he works at the hospital), 2 hours of walking the contractions got more intense, I remember walking on the bridge to the library having to hold R's hands who was walking backward, and thinking the people around me must think I'm in labor. Well I was! We made our way to the delivery room and 40 mins later we had our little girl.

Oct. 31 2009

Just as much emotion, we set up for our party while baby T took a long nap. The guests arrived, we played games, opened presents, ate great food, and handed out some candy. It was a beautiful day shared with some great friends and family.

The weeks prior to the party I had been working on a few crafts:

First up 'Pin the Smile on Jack' The orange material is from her carrot blanket costume we wrapped her in at the hospital last year

Halloween Banner with her name printed on one side

Trick or Treat bags for guests

and of course baby T's costume she was a plane and R and I were the pilots

Portland Fashion Week 09

I am still out of town but will be back in time for Portland Fashion Week. I have worked with them for 3 years now and it is always exciting to get so close to the event (Oct. 7-11) and see everyone's hard work come to life. Not to mention all the fabulous designers spring 2010 collections. If you are in the Portland area you should definitely check it out! You can save 10% on your ticket purchase by buying them online and entering 'bruno' in the promo code area. Check out http://portlandfashionweek.net/ for details!

And if you come to the event make sure you come say hi!!

Bellatrix Lastrange

Oh no its Bellatrix Lastrange, Draco's nasty aunt from Harry Potter! No its just baby T!!

My sister is having a Harry Potter theme 30th birthday party at the end of the month, baby T and I are flying in for the occasion. We needed something fun but comfy so decided to go with mean ol bellatrix breaking out of prison. I will be going as her nephew Draco with a suit and cape and slicked back blond hair =) I made this little get up for baby T along with a bellatrix doll from the scraps.

We are in a transition with sleep patterns and moving and all sorts of other things around the household, so it leaves me little time for sewing and even littler time for blogging. I am currently working out a schedule which will hopefully help me do more of both.

Banner

Today is the start of my sisters birthday month. Baby T and I are going to fly east for a big (harry potter themed) birthday bash at the end of the month. You see in our family we believe in celebrating a week, or better yet month of birthday fun. Which is why I decided I had to make a birthday banner. I loved it so much I left it up for a couple days to celebrate the last few days of my birthday month :).

This was super easy to make. I made the triangle pattern on some paper then cut out twos of 10 different fabrics. Serged there sides then printed them with there letters, made some bias tape and sewed away. Alright it was pretty time consuming especially because baby t only took a short nap but I did finish it in one day. I feel like I want to make more of them! Want one?

Birthday and Toy Society

I turned 27 yesterday. We started the day off with breakfast, got up and went swimming. We came home and I finished up a little dress for another doll I made, then went for a walk to drop it at an outside play area in doernbecher childrens hospital. R left us to go study at the library so baby T and I walked around the area so we could check back by and see if someone found it. As I left the play area a family had arrived, by the time I got to the elevators that look at the area they had found it =) Hope they open, keep it, and love it!!

For this doll I changed it up and made her naked to begin with in hopes to make cute clothes for her. That didn't go so well, the body is just to hard to fit. I ended up making a dress with an elastic top out of some scrap bamboo fabric. I think she turned out pretty cute!!

The rest of the day was just as fun, and it was wonderful to celebrate with my little baby T, its her turn next. Only 2 more months... YIKES!

Easy Skirt

While in Manzanita, OR I stumbled across a wonderful fabric store 'Creative Fabrics'. They had such a great variety of quilters' cottons, a lot of fun handmade things, oh and an amazing view. Baby T picked out a finger puppet and I picked out 3 different fabrics. One was this wonderful Alexander Henry 'favorite things' print. I got it out today and whipped up a very easy to make elastic skirt. I like it a lot but maybe I should have gone with a different look. Maybe put in a few pleats and a different color waistband, or just some darts and a facing.... I am going to wear it like this for a day or two and revisit it later.

*Just outside of the fabric store above the quilt hanging up was a bird's nest with the sweetest little babies waiting their turn for food from mama. I was able to capture this after my dorky pose in front of the shop =)

Wedding Recap

We had a lovely time at the coast with our friends. It was a beautiful wedding on the beach and perfect weather for the occasion. I wore my hemmed vintage dress and got many compliments! Thanks for all your comments, they are probably the reason I wore it! Before I left I had enough time to whip up a little skirt for baby T out of the remaining fabric. Since it was a windy day we paired it with a long sleeve onesie (I was going to doll her up with a cute top but I had to be practical) The onesie did say LOVE on it so I thought it was appropriate. Here are a few pics of us in our matching outfits, which got a lot of ohhhs and awws.

throwing sand (yes she ate some)

on our way to reception
meeting the princess

Vintage dress shortened

I have a wedding to go to this weekend at the coast. I have a few go to black dresses that I may end up wearing but saw this vintage dress in my closet and thought I would at least try. My mom was here all week (she left today) and she helped me pin the length. I cut and sewed it in no time, and I think it looks pretty cute now! I just have to decided if it is right for a Sunday night wedding on the beach. Any thoughts?

Just can't do it...

I totally wanted to post everyday this month with some progress of a project, but my plans have not come to reality. My mom is in town and we are in constant motion. We have been crazy busy for 3 days straight with no plans on slowing down. So posting on here is harder than I thought.. I have been working on things but will have to postpone my plan of doing this daily til another month. I will go enjoy the family, and the doggie in diapers now!

Bruno Bruno

One of the loves of my life:
*He is almost blind
*He has selective hearing (can hear the word treat sometimes)
*He has a back problem and all sorts of stiff joints

*He tinkles where he should notHe is 16, we got him when he was 12 in Princeton, NJ. I don't know what my life would be without him, he is what completes the Bruno family. I mean how could you not love a dog with your last name. So to help Bruno out we are in need of doggie diapers. I made these, but think I may need to purchase a real one and copy the pattern. These are just a bit to baggy and seem pretty uncomfortable. So I will have to check out some pre made, or try and find a pattern... which I have not had success with so far (know of any?).

Yesterday

all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks as though they are here to stay.

We watched a funny beatle's movie called Help the other night, writing the title to this post made me think of it then I had to sing it, and now it will be in my head for the rest of the day. GREAT!

So yesterday T and I had a full day of playing, not much sewing happened. I cut out a few pieces for the doggie diaper I am making, layed them out, and figured a few things out.

On todays agenda is to pick mom-mom up at the airport. YAY!! We also picked a few apples from the tree to make a pie.
But back to mom-mom! Since my mom is in town I am hoping to get a few projects done!! (seems like I write that a lot) We have a couple things planned but I think I can sqeeze in some sewing. We will have to wait and see!!

slow sewing

I only managed to sew the parts for another doll today. That was after some frustration trying out shirring or smocking on an outfit. I had everything right (I think) but the top thread kept looping in the bobbin, was my tension to loose?! I tried several different things but nothing seemed to work so I did the quick sewing of doll parts. Any advice or wisdom would be appreciated, I really want to get this right!

I also got a bike today! I'm pretty excited about it, can't wait to take a ride. We have some bonding to do but I think she and I will like each other a lot. =)

Happy August

August is my favorite month! It is my fav. number (8) and has my birthday at the end (24th), it also is usually filled with fun parties, sunshine, and good fresh food from the garden. I have decided to challenge my self to blog everyday this month, hoping that they will be filled with fun craftyness or just updates on what I am working on and how it is going. Obviously I didn't get a great start as today is the 2nd, but I was working on something yesterday until I got invited to one of those fun summer parties! I had the intention of posting last night but did not get home til 9 o'clock and I only had the energy to sing my sweet baby to sleep then fall asleep myself.

Today I am anxiously waiting for R to return from his conference, 5 days is to long! I do not know how my sister does it with a husband gone for 6 months over seas (he is in the navy)!! *4 more weeks J!

And for my craftyness today I will continue where I left off of the muslin I was working on yesterday, hopefully get that done so I can go pick out some cute material sometime this week. I will also make a cake, maybe even decorate to say ''glad you are back", because really you should have a cake to celebrate everything!

Also just to let you know I have some rhyme to my reason, I have planned out this month by picking 20 things from my never ending list to finish this month. Some are really easy, quick projects others will take some time. I mapped out the supplies needed for each project and I feel like I can get everything done, I think posting everyday will help push me to do a little bit each day =)

Just one more thing, On our walk this morning we went by the playground at dournbecher just to make sure the doll was gone, she was!! When we walked back home we passed some art work in the hospital. All ages with epilepsy and some with autism find there relief with drawing. Some had a little blurb written with them that was pretty inspiring. It made me want to make another doll and leave it next to the paintings....

Here is a picture (taken with phone) of a 4 yr olds drawing. Written below said that this was a self portrait with tears because some time seizures make her cry.