(I) May Catch Up!

We finally have Spring in Vancouver!


Not related to post, but so stinkin' cute!
Taken over Easter in his outfit from Nana

 How has it been almost 2 months since I last posted?!? I have had lots of things to post about, but sadly can't get my act together enough to take any pictures.  There were:

- Easter packages to nieces and nephews which included little felt chicks and beeswax candles along with a homemade card.

- Board books for birthday gifts to Charlie and Anya

- a lunch bag and cosmetic case for a sister's birthday

- another Milo vest (this one for Davin - hopefully I will actually get a picture of this one!)

We've had a busy Spring with LOTS going on including:

- planting our first vegetable garden. We've started small, just going with tomatoes, peas, carrots, sunflowers, adn a few herbs. I'm so excited to see how it goes.

- I started on the GAPS diet, which truly deserves a post of its own. So much to learn, so much time in the kitchen trying to get organized, so much more meal planning until we get into a bit of a groove.

- William is 8 months old (what?1? how did that happen?). He is a happy easygoing little guy who we all adore. Cutting some teeth and trying really hard to talk and walk when he is not eating everything under the sun - look out world!

- The other night Davin staged an impromtu photo shoot and then wanted to send the pictures to grandparents and friends wishing them a Happy Mother's Day, which we did:

The girls are stuck to each other like glue these days, playing together all day, for the most part pretty peacefully.  I hope their close relationship continues as they get older, it is so sweet to see.

Hopefully now that I've actually posted something it will spur me on to become somewhat consistent again... no promises!

The Eiffel Tower

Davin's best friend (or her twin as she likes to refer to her) turned 5 last week and had a french themed birthday.  She loves Paris and the Eiffel Tower.  In coming up with a gift idea we decided to go with it and made her a shirt with an Eiffel Tower applique. 

I just bought a plain shirt at H&M, and then got an image of the Eiffel Tower online, using scraps to attach.  If I had more time I would have hand stitched it on, but time was at a premium, so I used the machine.

It turned out pretty cute, and the birthday girl seemed impressed that she had an Eiffel Tower shirt.

Chair... recovered...

This is one I really should have taken a before picture of.  We bought this chair when Davin was about a year old, and although she enjoyed it, I think she used it more for doing tumbles off of than actually sitting in.  Miren, on the other hand, sits in it every single day while she watches her show.  The original light green gingham was looking a little brown, and overall it was just looking like a sad little chair.  Enter some Anna Maria Horner fabric and a new cover and it looks good as new!

I have never recovered a chair before, so I thought the easiest thing to do would be to deconstruct the existing cover and then use those pieces as my templates.  It was a bit time consuming, but I think it was worth it. 

I had a stack of Little Folks flannels that I was planning to make into a blanket, but given the fact that Dame and I already have an ongoing battle about exactly just how many blankets one family needs (I say you can never have too many, he argues they are just something else to fold and tidy up!), I thought we might be better served by using it for the chair cover, and I'm really glad I did, it adds such a great pop of vibrant colour to the room.

It took a few nights, although I think that was mostly in deciding which fabrics to put together, and then piecing it together.

I love how it looks, and Miren is pretty happy about it as well!

Advent Calendar

This year I decided to finally make an Advent Calendar like the one I had when I was growing up.  It is a little different than most you find online, the idea is that you just hang an ornament each day as a count down to Christmas.  There are no gifts included like many others, I just feel that they get enough this time of year.  I found a few pictures online for inspiration, and they made up my own measurements and templates.  I need to add a back to it to give it more structure, but otherwise I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Here is a closer view of the ornaments:

Davin enjoyed it quite a bit, and I hope it is another tradition that will continue for many years.

Birthdays & Loot Bags!

We celebrated Davin's birthday over 2 days - her party with her friends last Sunday, and then a family celebration on her actual birthday.  For Davin's birthday party we just invited 4 of her friends plus their younger siblings for a total of 7 children plus Davin & Miren and went to 4Cats Arts Studio for a Paint Splatter Party.  It was a lot of fun for all.

I wanted to keep the loot bags simple and include a few things they would actually use.  I decided to make some fabric bags, and used Betz White's great shoe bag tutorial, but then scaled it down, cutting the fabric to 9" X 10" and reducing the top hem to 1".  To reduce the fabric I put unbleached muslin on the reverse side, and some fabric I had on hand for the fronts.

I then filled them with these pinecone skiers which I made into tree ornaments, inspired by these.

I also included a pack of fruit chews, a couple of tattoos, and a glow stick bracelet.

The hit of the party was the rainbow cake Dame made, inspired by this one - admittedly we did use 2 boxes of Duncan Hines white cake, but we used the recipe on the back, substituting milk for the water and adding 3/4 cup of sour cream to make it lighter.

This was the table that greeted her on her birthday:

 

I kept the birthday shirts simple this year, appliquing a small "5" on the top right side of the shirt with some wool felt I had on hand. Other than that we just gave her a purple sleeper with feet which was a big hit - she LOVES sleepers with feet!  She got plenty of other gifts between family and friends, although I was happy that most were thoughtfully chosen puzzles, board games, and clothes which will all get a lot of use.

Davin ended the day by saying dramatically "thanks so much guys for the wonderful day!".

A Simple Bag

My sister made D a trick-or-treat bag a couple of years ago, so I thought Miren should have one as well this year.  Notwithstanding that I put it together on Halloween day, lucky for me it was a very quick project to come together, exactly what I need these days, thanks to Larissa who has the best tutorials.

It turned out great and will be used for many years to come.  I have enough fabric left to make a second one which I plan to try and do in the next couple of weeks to be put away with all the Halloween decorations.

A Room for Baby

Well, amazingly, the baby’s room is done!!  All due to baby being 7 days overdue, no less.  I’m really happy with the result, and love that all it took was a fat quarter bundle, Central Park by Kate Spain and some tablecloth material.

We started by painting the walls a beautiful light blue/green, Innocence, by Benjamin Moore (we used the zero VOC Natura line).  I loved how it lightened and brightened up the room.

Once the walls were painted I set to work making some art for the walls, starting with a banner over the crib using the Central Park fabric. 

I also used some hoops that I had picked up at Value Village and some fabric to decorate over the change table.  I had a few empty picture frames left over from another project, and inspired by Tiny Twist Creative used Feed your Soul to find some free art work.

For the small frames over the change table I chose Ashley DeVrieze and Angela Vandebogaard.

For the large frames I went with Ruby King and Tanya Newbury.

Lastly I had an old wooden table that I bought years ago that needed a tablecloth, and our glider and ottoman that needed recovering.  Some tablecloth material and a pillow sham I found on sale did the trick to help pull it all together.

   

Overall I’m really happy with the result and think the room is perfect for the newest member of our family – you can come any time now little one! 

Banners

I love wall banners, we have our birthday banner we use each year, and ones we use to decorate the mantles.  I decided to make one for each of the bedrooms as well to decorate the walls, a different shape for each and fabrics to coordinate with the rest of the room resulted in 3 very different banners:

Davin’s room – my Purple Murple:

Miren’s room – she loves pink:

Baby’s room:

I love how they look in each of their rooms.

Bedroom Signs

Given the girls’ names are a little unique, it is next to impossible to find anything that actually has their name on it.  I’ve been thinking about making signs for their doors for a while now, but it wasn’t until seeing this post on Tiny Twist Creative that I got inspired (she always has such great projects.

Mine was a bit of a different twist, I started with some hoops I had picked up at Value Village a while ago, and some fat quarters that were left from other projects.  Then I used coordinating wool felt to put their names on.

A simple project that just took a few hours – always satisfying to complete a quick and easy project!

For the Home

Earlier this summer I was looking for a few projects to brighten up the dining room.  I found a used sewing machine table for $20 on Craigslist that fit perfectly in the corner, but then wanted to make a fabric cover for it.  I found this tutorial which to give me a little guidance.

The fabric were some fat quarters I picked up at Purl Soho when I was in New York on a girls trip back in April.  I think they are Amy Butler.

Then I used the leftovers to create a coordinating table runner.

* These pictures aren't great, I was a little impatient taking them at night.

With another piece I updated our nature table for summer, simple, but I liked the effect.

The little gnomes disappear regularly only to be found after be played with in various rooms of the house.  Perfectly perfect in my opinion.