Mardi Gras Preparations

This evening I had a few lovely friends over and we created colourful masks for a Mardi Gras party we're going to this weekend.

Beautiful things came from such humble (and boring) beginnings:

I have a feeling they will look even better on - stay posted!

Quilting Up A Storm

I have been pretty busy over the last few weeks and this might have contributed to my lack of blogging. So the least I can do it share with you some of the things that have been keeping me busy:

1) A center piece for our table, with festive colours and birds wearing earmuffs

2) A quilt from (mostly) scraps left over from wedding crafting, the large backing pieces are new.

I need to take a totally finished picture as I put binding around the edges of the quilt and I actually quilted squares and rectangles throughout.

3) This quilt is finished, but here's a look at the piecing together stages:

I have one other piece to post about and then the final pictures of the two quilts, stay tuned!

I Made a Dress!

In the past I've tried my hand at sewing my own clothing - the outcomes have been less than I'd hope for. First I made a t-shirt, this shirt is reserved for messy tasks and playing frisbee. The second project was a skirt, this turned out better but I only wear it around the house.

So I really upped the ante when I set my sights on making a dress.

I got the idea from these two pieces of clothing:

Source

Source

I like the idea of the first dress but wasn't so keen on the GIANT cowl and preferred a hood. I really like the hood from the second picture so I tried to mash them together. I started by looking up how to make a sleeve pattern, made one (right), then realized that I have a book with patterns! Making the sleeve pattern was fun though, it's satisfying to use math practically.

The book! I picked this up for under $10 at Coles last year and only used it once to make my 't-shirt':

I used the hood from a hoodie I like to make a pattern and just measured the length and width for the front pocket.

So my first dress is much more successful than my first t-shirt or skirt - hooray!

Halloween Party

Like many others Greg and I had our Halloween party on Saturday night. Here's a look:

I made some pumpkins from styrofoam balls, yarn, acorns and a bit of hot glue:

Some of our costumed guests:

Greg went searching for old lady glasses and came back looking like a hipster, but it works! We went as Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf:

Halloween Crafting

I stopped by the local fabric store this afternoon and picked up some festive fabrics:

I'll be posting what I make with this soon!

Created This Week

There is a teen art exhibit next month in New Glasgow and Greg wanted to get the Library's Teen Advisory Club involved by creating art from recycled books. Using an idea from Pinterest he came up with this and brought home the materials to create a sample for the teens. Being keen to make something I put this together, it was my first try and it didn't turn out too shabby but there are some things that I'd do differently if I made another one.

The idea is that this would hang evenly from the center of the spine. The hanging paper is from pages in the book. If they get the exhibit up and running at the library I'll try to take a picture to share.

Oh, here is the picture from Pinterest, so much cleaner...I have much to learn:

Source

Greg went to a health fair in Pictou Landing yesterday and someone had a button maker (I immediately was brought back to my love of Empire Records...and the button maker from that movie). This is a button he made for me...made it's a sign of my fishing love to come?

DIY Skirt

I picked up a meter of jersey knit fabric at the local fabric shop over a month ago with the intentions of making a skirt or shirt out of it. I think I might be able to make both now that I've cut it up! Anyway, I finally got around to making it today and it turned out okay. Certainly not perfect, it's the first skirt I've tried to make so I'm happy with it.

Waistband rolled down a bit, I'm not sure which I like more yet

There wasn't much selection for jersey knit at the fabric store, I'm not much of a tye-dye person but it was good fabric to work with.

I used a skirt I already owned for the pattern, just measured,
traced and cut. 

Sections for the waistband. I ironed a crease into them to
make the waistband more structured....it seemed to work

Waistband not rolled down
It's hard to take pictures of myself in clothing, since Greg isn't
home this weekend I went with the mirror option

Weekend Photos

A compilation of photos from this weekend

Wandering around New Glasgow Saturday we found an antique store that's only opened on Saturdays. It has lots of strange and interesting things like these doors used as room dividers:

More doors and an old fellow...Greg thinks it's King Midas

Not sure how this works

Saturday:
Coffee and a dairy free treat at BaKed, New Glasgow's finest

BaKed

After eyeing up old crates like this for a really long time I
finally bought one. It will be incorporated into our wedding!

For now it's a plant and picture holder

Greg bought me flowers, AND supporter cancer research!

Saturday sewing

Sunday breakfast

Lesson planning on a Sunday morning at school

Sunday
After finishing my first hour long run of the season, huzzah!

Sunday
Greg and I will be attempting to grow our own vegetables this
season since we have access to outside. No doubt many posts
will be dedicated to their progress

Sunday: New found beer love

Sunday
Greg made a zucchini loaf, I made bread. Omnomnom

Sunday
I also made naan, to celebrate finishing The Kite Runner
in my English class. Nothing says we're done a novel study
like eating!

Next Crafting Project?!

My friend Matt sent me this awesome project:

Greg should be preparing to live with a dozen new squirrel friends.

Gift Giving

I had intended on getting these pictures up earlier than now, but for the past few weeks I've been sick and spending most of my time sleeping and being a wimp. It looks like I'm finally on the mend and can get back to blogging about incredibly important things - success!

Greg and I decided this year to make as many Christmas presents for our family members as we could.  We of course had to buy the things to make the presents, but to keep costs down and thoughtfulness up it was a DIY year.

I couldn't post these pictures as I was making them since it would give away what people were getting so here they are now:

Laying the giant pieces of fabric on the floor for quilt #1

Ironing the GIANT sheets!

Laying out the squares after quite a long while of cutting

Terry in his quilt!

Quilt #2 - this one was much smaller (baby sized!)

Handwarmers, with ceramic pie weights to keep the heat

Snowman pin

Sewing kit in a jar

Omnomnom, homemade granola

Homemade salsa

These are just a few things we made, hopefully Greg and I can keep the creativity going for next Christmas, but I guess we have just under a year to prepare!