Bunny finger puppets

Wow I haven't posted anything since Feb, thats crazy... I really thought I had. Hmmm o well I'll just have to make up for it this month. I made a few things for the Easter party we are going to tomorrow. We all bring 10 eggs filled with toddler appropriate things. I'm thinking there will be lots of candy, and since I will end up eating Tilly's loot, I thought I would make some bunny finger puppets to stuff in the eggs we will bring.  The purl bee has this great tutorial for them, and they were so simple to make. It took me some time to cut everything out but once that was done I whipped them up in a nap time. I love how they turned out! You still have plenty of time to whip some up, I may even do a few more. 

Princess Crowns

It's always fun to celebrate a little ones birthday, and I especially love to give handmade gifts. I didn't think I would have time to make anything for a party last week so I ended up buying our now 2 year old friend a little something. But of course last minute I remembered the princess crowns and thought surely they wouldn't take to much time to make. I was right, I made 2 in one day. One for our friend and one for my neice who is now 4. I had bookmarked this page and used her flower ideas for the sides, I did not use interfacing and they help up so wonderfully I really don't think they need it. I hand stiched everything except the sides and bottom so that the elastic would be held on tight. Luckily I snapped this picture with my phone, to show my mom and sister, cus I forgot to take 'real' pictures. I hate not taking pictures of stuff I have made... it makes me feel like I never made it- no fun.

Art Case

Our friend turned 2 last week, and for his birthday I made him a travel art case. Very similar to the other one I made. I think he will enjoy taking it places and drawing galore, maybe they could fit a little book in one of the pouches... it seems big enough.

Now I am working on a felt playhouse for T. I will be using a card table we have had in the back for ages. I have got all the material and plenty of inspiration from homemade by jill, now I just have to get to work! Hope to have it done some time this year ;)

Now I know my ABC's

We had such a wonderful Christmas in Seattle with family. We saw lots of decorated houses, and went to see the lights at the botanical gardens, which was amazing! Baby T had such a great time looking at them. Christmas morning was so much fun, T says "awww" to just about everything now, so that was her reaction to most of her gifts when she wasn't trying to hug my aunt's white lab Lucky.

This is a present I completed in December for T. It was fun to make, I had seen a few tutorials online for magnetic abc's but I wanted something bigger. Something we could play with on the floor, spell words, and learn the letters. I made the template for the letters myself, I probably could have gone an easier route and printed out big letters but I had run out of printer ink and decided just to draw them out. After cutting out the paper, tracing it on fabric, sewing the fabric with fleece in the middle, I thought pinking sheers would be a good easy finish. I love the way they turned out and T and I have been having lots of fun with them.

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:

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..

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

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!

The Toy Society

I found this street art blog on twitter and was so impressed. I immediately thought I had to do it. It was the perfect quick project (not on my list) that I needed to get back to sewing. Those t shirts really wore me out!! I also really wanted to try one of these nutcracker dolls, so I got all my supplies out and worked it up while T was sleeping. It was mostly hand sewing, very little on machine. Once I finished all the details I printed out the papers to go along, with her and placed her in the playground at doernbecher childrens hospital. I was so excited!! I sat inside for a little bit to see if any children went out, but no luck. I had to leave not knowing if she would be found at all, but I'm sure she will be! I am prolly going to go for a walk tomorrow to see if she is gone =) So I loved doing this, giving something for nothing, thinking that I would make some little ones day! I may have to do it again soon. But for now it will be on with my list, to which I have just added about 10 of these girls for all my little girl friends!

Catching up

Wow, I have not have much time to post recently but I have been plenty busy. I finally have a moment to catch up and post all the pictures that have been waiting.
Here is R's father day present I made him. Swim short or running shorts which ever he prefers. They came out wonderfully and I had a lot of fun sewing them!

This is the skirt I sewed along with presser foot blog's sew along last month. The pattern was Butterick B4686. I changed the waist band to have the pleats peak up and I think it looks cute. I don't think I will end up wearing this a lot, I'm not sure what it is I don't like but it's something. I also need to hem it!
This is one of my fav. grocery bags! It was so big and sturdy but unfortunately it got beaten up and had a hole near the bottom. So.....


I made this out of the bag. It is a brush case for a wonderful friend who happens to be a wonderful artist. I think it turned out great, and I will prolly have to make a few more of these!
I think that sums it up for now. My in laws are in town for the holiday and we are going to the coast and some other sights around the area this weekend. Should be beautiful weather for it so I am looking forward to it!

All in a days work

I managed to accomplish quite a bit today. I started early and had the whole day to sew. I finished up the Sewn Giveaway prize for Linda and put it in the mail today. I made a hemp clutch with a design on it for her and a little dino (made from eco friendly felt) for her baby on the way. Thanks for playing Linda, I hope you enjoy your gifts.

I also finished a smock dress (obviously didn't iron it) and a surprise project that you can take just a peek at. I'm finishing a lot of things for etsy and hope that I can post all the things shortly. I am having a lot of fun creating everything, and hope I can keep up the momentum.

We have been having just a bit of bad luck today....not really bad luck but just frustration with things that should only take 15 mins but instead take about 5 hours!! Like the itunes not installing correctly and day 2 of R figuring it out he had to call apple support. You know something has gone wrong when he calls for support, seriously the man knows everything about computers...or almost as much as one of my fav. cousins in law does. The other thing was threading a drawsting (part of that secret project) through the waist... it is still sitting there. I have had to seam rip areas to get the safety pin through, and it's just annoying.

Anyhoo... I had a fun day, and I hope you did too.

also I believe it is my friend KJ's birthday, Happy Birthday!!

Sewing Day

It was a successful sewing day. I think I completed everything I had planned to. I am starting up an etsy store, getting all the things done that need to be photographed. I won't show you all the tricks I have up my sleeve, but here is a little something I am particularly proud of. I drafted the pattern for these baby pants, great for crawling which baby T has been doing now for a week! I need to tweak one thing when I sew them but for the first pair they turned out GREAT! What do you think? I love the bottom of these pants--it makes it easier to turn them up and get more use out of them as baby gets longer. After a great sewing day R, baby T, and I went to go downtown for a scavanger hunt fittness challange. When we got on the tram it was a nice day out--but when we got off the tram at the base it was crazy windy and looked like rain was going to pour down on us any second. So we headed back home watching the porta pottys and long fences blow over as people stood by taking pictures and trying not to get too much pollen blown in their eyes. All I can say is thank goodness we had the rain cover for the stroller! We made it home right before the rain came but boy was it windy!!

WWW/T

I had every intention on posting last night for WWW, uploaded all my pics and had everything ready. But instead of writing I sat outside with R and talked the night away. So here it is a day late, I wore my hemp pleated skirt that I made a while ago. It's one of my fav. skirts and I made it without a pattern... which I regret now because I would like to make another one. It couldn't have been that difficult so when I find the time I will have to copy it. I would put a pic of what I am wearing today but really its a tank top and stretch pants, and I can't think of anyone who would want to look at that sight! Today is my sewing day. R takes care of baby T all day! They are outside watering the garden right now. I have a few patterns to make and hopefully will have time to create them. Maybe I will have stuff finished and ready to post again tonight... I will make that my goal! Until then...

sheet shorts

I wanted to change a shorts pattern I had into something a little more fitting for me, so I needed to make a test pair first. I still had plenty of sheet material from this dress so I made them out of that. They turned out great and I kinda like the shorts in this material, I have already worn them twice. I am wishing I had not used the bright blue zipper....but I don't think anyone can see it. I also made a crafty apron for a crafty friend with scrap materials. I am finally getting into a routine that allows time for sewing and I have a list a mile long, so hopefully I can get things done and post a lot of fun things!