Halloween Prep

Last Halloween was a bit of a bust, while Greg and I carved pumpkins (well it was really squash since the pumpkins were all sold out), gave out candy (to five children despite living close to 3 schools) and decorated the house (but not enough so anyone could really tell from the road) it just didn't seem to really do the day justice.

This year we have learned from our mistakes: we've purchased pumpkins in advance, have lots of decorations to catch the eye of passing trick or treaters and of course have time to make great costumes (last year we moved from Saint John to New Glasgow on Halloween weekend and unfortunately costume making wasn't high up on the to-do list. I really didn't know where my sewing machine was at that point).

This weekend I started to put together my costume after finding all of the pieces (well enough to get sewing). I am going as Little Red Riding Hood and this is what I started with:

I picked up both of these dresses from a second hand store downtown and was happy at how they fit and that I don't have to do much tailoring.

The red dress came with really awesome shoulder pads which I promptly cut out and tossed in the garbage can. I also snipped off the little black bow but kept it just in case it seemed to fit the costume somewhere else.

I cut off the cream coloured dress just above the stitching at the high waist, that way I didn't have to hem anything there. I did have to sew in a draw string to pull it snug around my waist (top picture below). The embroidery is covered by the leather 'belt' I also made. Rather than hemming the cream dress I gathered and sewed to give an 'older' feel to it, I'm not sure why this was something I thought necessary but I think it turned out okay (bottom picture):

I'm not done the dress, I still have embellishments to add and I also have to start the hooded cape but I'll give you a sneak peek of what I have so far (keep in mind that yesterday was particularly cold so I'm wearing leggings which won't be part of my costume, and that Greg wasn't home to take my photo so I had to take matters into my own hands):

I'm not sure about the boots. I also have black shoes I could wear but I will be making that decision when everything else is done.

So there is my costume so far, let me know what you think!

Coffee Challenge

Monday of this week was the last time Greg or I had coffee. We decided a little awhile ago that when our seemingly endless supply of Christmas present coffee ran out we would go without for a week.

We are are 3 whole days in and still alive. I might be crankier than usual but that could also be because I have a cold. I don't think the getting a cold came from a lack of coffee, but one can never be sure!

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Perhaps it wasn't the best of timing, since we are both participating in the Bluenose run this weekend. But mornings seem to be treating us okay and afternoons are the toughest.

Because we are not complete masochists, we have replaced coffee with tea. It's not quite the same but drinking warm liquid that has a smidge of caffeine  helps a bit!

A Crafty Saturday

After a great start to a sunny Saturday I spent some time trying my hand at making fabric flowers. I was inspired after seeing a few different approaches to fabric flowers on Pinterest (which I love SO much).

This is the website where I found tutorial, but mostly used it for approximate measurements of fabric and experimented with a variety of folding/twisting/glue-gunning methods. It worked out pretty well, I have a few ideas for where to use these little flowers: on a pin or a head band, for a little something extra on a wrapped present. I'm sure there are more.

My crafting stations:

Coffee, music, glue gun and fabric

Iron and ironing board set up on the stove,
not quite ideal but it works

After a few glue gunning incidents (my fingers getting stuck to EVERYTHING) I got the hang of the folding/twisting/gluing and managed to make some decent looking flowers:

My first three (left to right) can you see the improvement?

Overexposed end product

Slightly underexposed...I'm working on it

 

Since I didn't have the pins on hand to make something you can pin on a coat OR a headband I went with fake flowers. I just took skewers and stuck them into the bottom of the flower...tada!

Christmas Crafting

I like crafting and I like giving people presents. So it makes sense that I give homemade Christmas presents.

It took a little while but I managed to make all that I wanted to. Here are some photos of a few things I made:

Aprons!

Quilting Is Fun

I posted a photo of the very first quilt I made on Facebook earlier this week in lieu of a post since I was busy busy with school work. So this post might be a lack luster post, but here it is:

All of the small squares came in a bundle of 'matching' pieces of fabric meant for quilting. It took me awhile to get the pieces in an order that I liked, I would move the squares around then walk away and come back with fresh eyes to make sure there wasn't a bunch of one colour in one area. I don't think this is what I decided with in the end but here is one look:

Laying out the squares

A closer look at the squares, I'm definitely in love with these fabrics:

I first sewed the squares in rows and then sewed the rows together. Then I placed the batting (which is pretty thick for extra comfy-ness) in between the sewn together rows and the backing fabric. I actually took the backing fabric and ironed it up over the top of the quilt, I'm not sure if that's what you're supposed to do but it made sense to me.

To keep everything in place I sewed all along the border and then the long way down each of the rows. Again, I'm not sure if this is how it's done but it worked out!

The finished product

I've since learned how you sew the little designs or shapes in the squares, my quilting lady friend at the quilting shop told me about it (who is WONDERFUL!) and I'll be trying that out on future quilts. I'll no doubt be blabbing about that down the road.

PS. I made this quilt for my cousin who is 2.5 years old, I expect it will be covered in small child grossness come a week. Hooray!

1000 New Friends

A Greg Post:

After living in Halifax for a little over two years I got very used to composting and enjoyed the fact that I was doing something useful and good for the environment with all of my food scraps. When I recently moved to Saint John, NB I was faced with the prospect of not being able to compost my kitchen scraps anymore. Not because the city doesn't compost, they do. However, because I live in a building with more than 4 units we have a private contractor that deals with our waste "life leftovers". So I decided to learn a few things about vermicomposting. Through watching some tutorial videos (I have to give props to one in particular) and reading lots I finally decided that I would give it a shot. I quickly ran into the first hurdle. Turns out to start a composter the size I was hoping for I needed to get 1lb of worms (approx. 1000 individual worms). So I was faced with the question: Where the hell do you get 1000 worms? Not only that but I needed a certain species, namely, large red earth worms or eisenia hortensis

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Next Project

I'm going to try my hand at quilting!

It's easy to find inspiration when things are just so cute:

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Next Project: The Kitchen

The kitchen will be a yellow-brown colour as well, good-bye wall paper and border!

This AMAZING kitchen!

This will be going, but Greg can soak it up in the meantime

Greg's New Digs

A painting project to turn Greg's lovely apartment into a more current spot. We started on the living room on this visit then it's the kitchen.

The first idea was to paint the room green...but that turned out to be a poor choice, you can see our adventures below...

A view from the door

The out of commission fireplace and amazing bookshelves

New to Greg couch and paint supplies

The first colour we tried...it looked less than stellar in real life

So it was back to Kent in search of a new colour, much better!

On the way to looking spiffy

11 foot ceilings, require two stages of painting

The fireplace wall with one coat of paint

So much sunnier!

We did a final coat but I forgot to take a photo, so the final project isn't quite as streaky.

Next project the kitchen!