Cheerful Christmas Apron

This is the apron I made for a customer who came into Bungalow Bay recently. She was looking for a full bib style Christmas apron. I like how it turned out, the fabrics were fun to work with. that is a ruffle at the bottom. It was a pretty simple design, ties at the neck and waist and pockets on the top and bottom panels. I actually think it looks better on than laid out, it's boxy, but that gives it a clean look when it is on and it also highlights the bottom ruffle. I may just have to make a few more Christmas aprons, and perhaps even keep one...it would put me in a seasonal mood

14 Items

A summary of my random recent happenings:

1. I've been asked to do a couple of custom pieces for Bungalow Bay recently, some onesies and an apron, those opportunities make me feel good!
2. I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7...in the process I lost all of my bookmarked pages - kind of a drag! But, I do like the new version much better, I'm having an easier time getting online with our Verizon mi-fi card now.
3. Two friends recently asked me (separately) to make nursing covers for them to give as presents to new mama's. Like #1, this makes me feel good!
4. I am already decorating our house for Christmas in my head...when I get the chance, I hope to sew up a couple of new decorations.
5. This Saturday the husband and I begin a two day (consecutive Saturdays) course to learn to be snowboard (me) and ski (him) instructors. I spent a little time the other night previewing some of the course materials with the husband before we went to sleep. It will be the first time we've done a class together like this, I'm excited about it. If we get jobs for the season together it will be even more exciting.
6. On the same note as #5, one of the mountains nearby, Mt. Baker, opens tomorrow (Thursday), it is an early opening, made possible by the recent storms that have passed through...our plan is to go up on Friday...the first day of riding for the season is always a big deal to me!
7. I have been kind of quiet on this blog lately, but it's not because I've felt quiet, I've just been busy. I've really thrown myself into the work routine in the last few weeks...the job has already proven to be a good fit, I have a fantastic mentor and I get along well with my boss. Working at home rocks!
8. One of the reasons working at home rocks has been my flexible schedule. For the last few weeks I've been heading to Zumba classes a couple of times a week in the mornings (and one evening class last Friday night). Zumba is a dance based exercise...it's great cardio. I leave each class completely sweaty and feeling amazing from the exercise endorphins. I like being in a room full of women who are having a good time burning calories. Sometimes I have trouble catching on to some of the routines, but generally I've been pretty pleased with how I've been able to catch on and learn the steps/moves quickly. My core region is tightening up which is an amazing feeling. I'm one of those people who kind of likes having sore muscels because it means I worked hard and am on my way to being in shape.
9. Oh and #8 is going to help a ton with the upcoming snowboarding season...Zumba involves a good amount of squats, an important part of a good snowboarding stance.
10. After finding an amazing deal on plane tickets to Oakland, the husband and I decided to head down to the Bay Area for a few days next month. Family stuff can be complex, hopefully the visit will be a good one.
11. Our friends/next door neighbors just got engaged...the wedding will be on their beautiful property late next spring - Memorial Day to be exact. I'm already starting to brainstorm a wedding gift I can make...
12. Lastly, the picture above was taken last night at Mallard Ice Cream in Bellingham...we went there after having a delicious and much anticipated meal at Fiamma Burger. I love the vibe in Mallard, it reminds me of places I went to when I lived in San Luis Obispo during college. Their flavors are unique and delicious. I had a scoop of Strawberry Rose in a waffle cone. It tasted like a summer garden, which when I write it sounds strange, but believe me, it was delicous!
13. Before heading home from Bellingham last night, we made a stop at Trader Joe's...always a treat! While we were there I was inspired to do an original "advent calendar" for the husband...we are trying to keep Christmas more simple this year, so I'm trying to go heavy on the creativity factor. I'll write more as my ideas progress.
14. That's it for now...hope you're having a great Wednesday! Happy Hump Day!

Christmas Swap Owls

I mentioned not too long ago that I am participating in an ornament swap that is being sponsored by Sarah of the blog Small Fox. The thing that drew me into this particular swap was Sarah's pictures of the ornaments she's made for swaps in the past. I loved her style. I also love the idea of receiving ornaments that other's have handmade. Even though this can be a busy time of year, I decided that making ornaments would put me in the mood for other present making. I am trying to have a more "handmade" type of Christmas this year...it turns out that is easier to say than to do. So my contributions to the swap are done now. Clearly from the 7 pictures in this post, I had fun doing a little owl photo shoot even though it was cold outside. So now my little ornaments are all ready to send in the mail. I did make a few extras, 8 extras to be precise. I kept 3 for myself and the other 5 are now at Bungalow Bay where hopefully they will find owners to love them and take them home so they can be a part of an annual Christmas tree just as mine will be. It will be fun to share with you the ornaments I receive in the swap...already there is a flickr group going for swap participants to share photos of their creations, I've just uploaded my pictures. I will be peaking at it every now and again in the next few weeks to see what other people are making, now you can too.

I have a very warm feeling when I think that a year ago I was in a place where I was aching to be a more actively creative person. I had lots of ideas, but I was not acting on them. In the past 11-12 months I have really allowed my creative side to come out. It was a bit intimidating to think of sharing what I was doing on this blog, but it has also been a great source of accountability and inspiration. I think the thing I'm probably the most proud of has been taking the time and effort to learn to sew. I have a long way to go, I'm no where near the seamstress that my Oma was, but I do feel "closer" to her when I sit down at my sewing machine. I wish I could have shared that with her when she was alive, but I think she knows that and is happy for me anyway.

Well, Happy Sunday to you, I hope your weekend was restful and that the week ahead has started well!

No, I Haven't Forgotton How To Sew...

...I've just been busy with life. Adjusting to new responsibilities, schedules, and seasons. I did however get back into the swing of things a little bit last week, finishing the two aprons. They are now at Bungalow Bay, waiting for their owners to come and buy them. This one was especially hard not to keep, it looks very cute on and I could picture myself making pumpkin pies while wearing it...these two projects were actually great to finish, neither one was too difficult for me, I felt like they showed how far my ability to sew things has come.

Sorry the photo below is out of focus, I am still so proud of those labels, I love to show them on things I make.

Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed today...lots to do and it seems there's never enough time to do it all. I need to take a deep breath...to be honest I know I can finish everything, just not in the amount of time I want to finish it in.

I walked into our pantry this morning and inhaled the delicously sweet scent of ripe pears...nice right? Well to show you how stressed I feel today, my first thought when I smelled those lovely pears was "Crap, now I've got to figure out when to do the canning, I thought I could hold off until Saturday, guess not"...again, deep breath!

I'm working on finishing up the training for my new job, I still have some nursing covers to finish up, the garden could use some attention, the chicken coop needs to be cleaned out by tomorrow - Friday at the latest, I still need to come up with some aprons to show to a gal who owns a local wine shop, and I need to go by Bungalow Bay and give Michelle some new stuff (and pick up the $$ I've made - yay!). To top it off I've watched a few of the episodes of the A&E show "Hoarders", which brings up some of the horrible habits that my maternal grandmother had when she was alive (definitely a long story there). The show gives me these OCD impulses to clean our house, organize things and purge things. In the end probably not a bad thing, but still, it doesn't help with the stressed out feeling I'm having.

On a bright note, I'm wearing my DMB Toms shoes which make me happy, and I am going to meet up for coffee with the friend whose baby I made the quilt for, even better, I get to meet the baby too.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time!

Custom Baby Quilt

Here are the promised pictures of the quilt I made for a friend's new baby...I love how it turned out, making it was such a good experience for me! My friend specifically asked for the map fabric and the elephant and giraff applique's. The rest was pretty much my choices. I have had the backing fabric for a while, it is a very soft flannel, the colors worked perfectly, so I had to use it. I wanted to use the blue polka dot fabric to make it a little bit whimsical. The light brown linen type fabric was my way of keeping the quilt from being too busy, it is meant for a boy, so I wanted it to have a simpler feel, not too overdone. I used a natural cotton batting material. When I washed and dried the quilt, the texture became very soft and fluffy, exactly what I was going for, actually. I will definately use that brand of batting again when I make my next quilt. It's a heavier quilt than I would have predicted, not too overwhelming, but it's definately not lightweight. Again, it was a good experience, I can see now why so many people are "addicted" to making quilts, they are very satisfying!

New Blip On My Radar...

"Hooter Hiders", "Bebe Au Lait", Nursing Covers, call them what you will, about a month or so ago, I'd never even heard of them. Then a gal that I've sewn a couple of projects for asked me if I thought I could sew her one for the baby she's having soon...well, first I had to figure out exactly what they were, once I did, I was pretty confident I could make one, they really aren't too complicated. So, I offered her a bit of a deal to get two, since some of the supplies, the boning and D-rings come packaged with more than you'd need for just one cover. I have to say though that because I like options, I like to also give other people options...so when it came to figuring out what to use to fasten the neck strap, I considered velcro an option. When I asked her about her preference, she said definitely D-rings, the velcro would make too much noise and wake a sleeping baby...silly me, of course velcro would wake a sleeping baby! I got such a kick out of that, I guess there's somethings that (for me at least) are learned through experience, and I'm pretty much at zero on nursing baby experience!

So here are a few shots of my finished products, I am quite proud of them. Also, this is the first time I've posted pictures with my new labels sewn onto one of my handmade items...I love the labels, they give everything a very finished look. Learning to make something new is always very satisfying, having it turn out well is even sweeter! The funny thing about these nursing covers is that now I see them everywhere, a lady at Costco has one out, another gal at an outlet mall I go to from time to time had one resting on her stroller. It turns out that several of my mommy friends use them or plan to use them. I'm now going to be making a few more for friends. I am a little amused by this new hobby of mine, but I have to say that I am proud of the fact that I have the skill to make them!

Finishing Up

This post is going to be full of promises of future posts, kind of the nature of what is going on in my life...so much keeping me busy that I have to tackle one thing at a time or else end up too overwhelmed to do anything. Sooo, the picture above is representative of two things...one, it is the top surface of my new desk. It is finished up as far as the husband's building it...but it still needs drawer pulls. The drawers are built flush with the fram of the desk, a beautiful, very clean looking effect, but inorder to be able to open the drawers and properly use the desk, I need drawer pulls. The plan is to make it down to one of my favorite stores ever, Anthropologie, to see if they've got what I want. Really, any excuse to go to that store is fine by me, the closest one is down in Seattle (there are two stores there actually), which is about a 45 min to 1 hour drive on a no-traffic Sunday...perfect! The flower in the milk bottle vase is kind of part of a new promise to myself. I've been trying to keep fresh flowers on my bedstand, sometimes just a single stem, and I'd like to do the same on my new desk in my new home office. Recently I've been bringing in sunflowers and dahlias, since that's what is in bloom in my garden. As the fall and winter approach I may have to become a little more creative about where I get my flowers, I may even have to (dread) buy them. So, that is my goal...so simple, but it makes me happy!

So far the first half of today has been a time to finish up a few projects. I begin training for my new job on Monday - this will be the first time that I've started a new job while staying at home. I think the idea of working from home is still very odd to me, I guess it hasn't sunk in completely. If I were to talk with a friend who works from home about their job, I'd still experience a little bit of longing, wishing that I could have their situation...I guess it hasn't hit me that I do have that situation. Again, it's still kind of odd to me.

But, I have felt a little anxious about finishing up some projects that have been put off to the side for the past few weeks. One of those is the quilt for a friend's baby that I showed a little sneak preview of the other day. The other project is two nursing covers ie- "Hooter Hiders" or "Bebe au Laits". I am making them for the same gal that I made a Happy Birthday banner for not too long ago. She's an amazing mother of 5 with her 6th on the way. I admire her not just for enormity of her task, 6 children is alot! But, I also admire her because she's been able to trust me, someone who has never made a nursing cover before, to give it my best try. In general, I appreciate that she wants to support someone in her community, it helps of course that it's me, but even if I remove myself from the equation, I still admire someone who is willing to take a different route from typical retail purchasing. I will post some pictures of the covers sometime in the next few days. I am also excited to share some pictures of the baby quilt I made, it turned out very sweet, I'm proud of my work, and I learned a ton from making it.

Actually, the quilt experience made me feel a bit braver about the idea of attempting the king sized quilt for our bed that I've been kind of dreaming about for the past several months. I've been collecting fabrics here and there in shades of blue and green, all sorts of patterns. The fabrics have been purchased locally, but also on our trips to Brazil, NYC, and Hawaii. It is going to be a big project, so I'll probably wait until after I'm settled into my new routine to get started. But, doing a quilt that turned out nicely gave me the confidence to imagine being able to successfully make my dream quilt.

That's probably enough rambling for now, I've got things to do!

Lots Happening Here

It's been a busy week. I had a few friends that I know from my last job over for a little lunch party...it was fun to set a nice table, I hadn't done that in a while. The flowers came from my garden, sunflowers and dahlias.I have also been working on a quilt for a friend's baby...he was born a little over a week ago and has had a few health issues. I want to have the quilt finished this week so I can give it to his mama to wrap him in. I am using an all cotton batting and I am going to use a soft blue and brown striped flannel for the backing, it will coordinate perfectly with the block colors and will be smooth on his baby skin.Another thing that's going on is that this 4'x12' piece of hardwood gym floor is currently being turned into my new home office desk. It came from the RE Store in Bellingham. They sell recycled building materials from tear downs. This was from the Carver Gym at Western Washington University.I'll have more pictures to share as the desk and the quilt are finished up. It seems like the next week is only going to get busier and busier.

I Acted Boldly This Past Week...

I put myself completely out of my comfort zone this past week. I went to two different stores... ...to find out what they'd think about selling my handmade goods .One store was the coffee roaster where I've been getting my burlap sacks for the past few months...

The other store is owned by a gal that I met a few weeks ago at the fair, she stopped by my booth and loved what I was selling...

After dropping in at each place early in the week and being met with interest, I spent some time for the rest of the week making several more aprons and a few pillows...
I also spent time stamping the fabric bird labels and bird price tags you see in several of these photos...

I have some professional labels being made by an artist I found on etsy, but those are still in the works, so the fabric bird stamps are my current substitute......I actually like them well enough that even once I have my "real" labels, I'm thinking I'll still put a fabric bird stamped label on everything because it adds a nice handmade touch...

...As far as my price tags, those I made with a paper punch...it took a little practice to get the desired effect, but I like how they turned out...
...to attach the tags to items I am going the thrifty route and using strands of jute that come from the coffee sacks...the stuff literally litters my sewing room floor whenever I'm working with coffee sack bags...

...With a cute little safety pin, everything is ready to be priced. I can't tell you why I didn't do this sooner, it'll be much easier to have everything tagged ahead of time rather than using the sign/clothes pin method I have been - although the clothes pins are kind of cute...

...The tags just look a little more professional and finished...
Bungalow Bay Boutique, pictured above, is owner by Michelle, who blogs here. She is an incredibly friendly and energetic person...the type that gives off an amazing energy. I can tell that she and I are going to get along! I plan to go back down to the store in a day or so to check out the window...she said she was going to display my items there! There will definately be pictures!The other place is Camano Island Coffee Roasters...I love it that they focus on socially responsible business practices, all of their coffee is fair trade. The folks there are also friendly and helpful. I've received many compliments from the ladies that work there for my aprons and pillows. Even if I never sold a thing there, I still have benefitted from the ego boost!

So all of this has been a huge area of growth for me recently...putting my creativity out there and taking a risk.

As I type this (Saturday night) I have spent a big chunk of my day in the kitchen. My task today has been to turn 25 pounds of fresh tomatoes into marinara sauce...so far so good, I've already had one batch turn out nicely. The trouble is that my largest pot is only big enough for about half of the sauce, so it's taken twice as long as I figured. We had some of the sauce over spaghetti for dinner, so at least I didn't have to double up and make dinner on top of all of the canning work...and it was a delicious dinner! I'll post some canning pictures later this week.

This weekend hasn't been all work (thankfully!), the husband and I had a date night of sorts last night. We went out to Snow Goose Produce for an ice cream cone - their ice cream really is the best around here! We ate our cones outside and enjoyed the scenery. While we were there a convoy of harvesting combines drove past (it's very much farm land out there)...it's definately harvest season. The weather was a little cooler this past week which was a reminder that fall is around the corner...something I'm dreading and anticipating all at the same time. We took home a 1/2 flat of raspberries (still haven't done anything with them...jam tomorrow perhaps?) and the box of tomatoes that has been my companion today.

Then we went to my favorite kitchen gadgets store, Gretchen's, for a cherry pitter. I tried it out today and love it! It makes me want to get my hands on some more end-of-the-season cherries to freeze or can!

After Gretchen's we went to see Julie and Julia. The husband didn't realize it was such a "chick flick"...I think he's going to try to get me back with a Rambo marathon or something equally as gruelling...he did like the part (don't read if you haven't seen it) where the husband is treated horribly by his blog obsessed wife and she has to apologize and make it all right...I think it reminded him of us (hmmmm?), I think he was just being dramatic :-)

Anyways, Happy Sunday!

Tags!

I should have my tags in the mail soon...they are being made by JennifersJewels from etsy...she also has another shop, StateStreet, with some fabulous tops at very reasonable prices...I'm thinking about this one for myself...possibly!?

Can't wait until those tags show up so I can start using them! I promise there will be pictures of them sewn to my stuff!

New Items Made Last Week

This post will have to be photo-heavy and word light. I am spending this week catching up on house chores and getting ready to go away for a few days to Whistler BC with the husband and stepson. I may get a little sewing in this week, I have some ideas for new pillows that I'd like to try. I also need to fire off a few more onesies for a farmers market I'm doing this next Sunday.

The pictures in this post are some of the projects I worked on last week as I prepared for the fair...it was a very full week! I did accomplish more than I would have thought I could, a nice feeling, but it was exhausting! I have to point out though that I had a little help with the garden signs - the husband did the constructing then I did the painting, a nice joint effort!

The rest and relaxation I plan to have in Whistler will be a nice balance. I may have a few post scheduled before I go, and I definately look forward to sharing pictures of our trip when I return!