Tuesday 4 September 2012

Dear lovely peoples who follow me....

August has been insane. I've been going crazy in the art room. But I have also been busy cleaning, painting, and planning. With Little Badger's first birthday party... yes. first.  I can't believe he's already a year old.  It's just crazy. You blink, and the go from squishy little tree frogs...




to silly, giggling, squealing, energizer bunnies


He certainly keeps me on my toes!


...to the geek convention, Fan Expo, I went to. And the few other genereal bits of crafting I've done, not to mention finally getting back to work on that shelf from way back when. The weather turned hot and the summer turned busy and work on it got put on hold for .. well.. till this past weekend.

But I do have a stock pile of things to talk about! So please, bear with me a bit longer as I now play desperate catch up on the masses of pictures I've accumulated so you can SEE all that I've been making.  Just a bit longer....

Thank you. In the mean time, what to tell me what you've been working on?

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Yeah I've been quiet/my first zipper pouch.

We life hands you little sleep, you don't get much done...

So yeah. This is why I mentioned no promises to regular content.  Life gets distracting sometimes. my craft room went a few weeks untouched. But I finally manages to wiggle my way down there for a day a couple weeks ago.

That was back when I was talking about my RAOK and therandomact.org.  I mentioned a act that I was planning that I was working with them on.  So here it is along with my very first zipper pouch which I made to present my RAOK to my friend in.



About the pouch:

 The patch you see there is the actual therandomact.org logo. I made the patch by using a tacky spray glue on a piece of card stock, letting it dry until it was JUST sticky enough to hold a piece of fabric to it but not enough to keep it glued or get any residue on the fabric.  So then I pressed the fabric firmly on to it and trimmed the edges to fit the card stock, then I simple printed the logo right on it from my computer and printer.

The colors came out a bit muted but still worked out pretty great.  Then I cut it out, zigzagged it onto one circle of fabric, then  zigzagged that to a second circle with a circle of heavy interfacing ironed onto it.  That gave it a bit of structure.

To make the pouch itself I followed See Kate Sew's Basic Zipper Pouch tutorial.  Super easy. Now I'm not so scared of zippers anymore!




About the Act (I have her permission to share all of this publicly):

      I have this friend who right now is going through a terrible mess of a time.  Trying to get a divorce from her verbally and emotionally abusive husband. Living in the basement of her house since she can't afford to move out right now and the only shelter is too far from her kids schools and her work.  Health issues in her lady parts. Mental health issues with one of her boys who has just been re-diagnosed from high functioning autism to Tourrettes syndrome and a few other things. He's undergoing a bunch of tests and they are messing around with his meds which is making him lose control more often than not right now.

Ad in social workers, shrinks, and children services in dealing with the verbal abuse (and let me tell you, I've heard it myself. She caught some on tape recorder once and played it for me. I cried and the next day booked a ticket to fly home to see my own mom. Seriously.)

Then top it off with lots of debt while working 2 min wages jobs and barely making enough to make her car payments let alone the bills her husband (who makes near 90,000 a year) is refusing to pay. 

During all of this mess she has also lost about 50+ lbs between all the stress and the sudden decision to start eating healthier and to stop eating junk. So she had almost nothing that fit her anymore.  All her cloths were falling off of her and she couldn't afford new ones.

Well a couple months ago I saw a video about how therandomact.org helped a couple of single moms in Maine who were trying to get back on their feet. One by paying for part of the repairs on her broken down car, and the other by sending a $300 gift card for work and interview clothing.  So on a long shot, I sent them an email, they explained how it worked and a couple weeks later I had $300 to give my friend a bit of a moral boost via new clothes for her slimmer self.

This is the reason I have decided to start fundraising for therandomact and why I want so dearly to give back to them. They are a great site. Please check them out.

Once all of the shopping is done I'm hoping to put together a little video of the whole thing and she has given me permission to share it on here. 


That's all for now.  Hopefully I won't take another couple months to make my next post. ;)


Monday 23 July 2012

All waking and no sleeping....

Ok, haven't had time lately ot sit down and get my post together about my therandomact.org  act of kindness.  been a bit busy rapping up my last couple of art shows. Won't be selling my photography in person for a while. Only on Etsy or via my website for a while.  The art show seen just isn't doing well for me right now so I need a break.

Top that with a baby that's STILL waking every 1-2  hours every night 11 months old and well,  naps look much better than sewing, crafting, or blogging lately.

But I figured I'd at least poke my head out for a minute. And to do so I decided, "why not!" and snagged My 1/2 Dozen Daily's  Sunday night chit-chat. (Even though it's Monday now.)

So with out further ado....


Now if only he'd stay like that for more than an hour at a time....


Reading? Jim Butcher's 7th book in the Dresden Files series, Dead Beat.  I love this series. It's gritty and dark but it's an easy read for me and when I pick it up I can't put it down. This is a good thing for me since I LOVE to read but am a fairly slow reader.

Watching?
At the moment, of all the silly things, Hubby and I are watching the first episode of season one of The Muppet Babies. And no, Little Badger isn't here. He's in bed.  We've been watching The Muppet show and I got all nostalgic about how I loved The Muppet Babies as a kid and was curious to see it if was all I remembered. It's not, but that's ok. It's still cute. *lol* The best part is it was my hubby who suggested we pop it in and watch it. <3

Listening to?
Fitz and the Tantrums courtesy of Marissa over at www.newdressaday.com who mentioned them in a post last week. I gave them a listen out of curiosity and got hooked. :)
 
Cooking/Baking?
Absolutely nothing. Hubby does most of the cooking since he's 10x better than I am. (Though I'm the better baker supposedly) And with my trying to lose weight lately I've cut back on baking. Of course hubby yesterday decided he's try to bake homemade cinnamon rolls and my god they were good.  So much for that weight loss. ;) 


Happy you accomplished this week?
Finally sewed up a new seat cushion for Little Badger's highchair. The buckle on the first one had cracked and I had wanted a better thicker strap anyways and had intended on just stitch-ripping it open and replace the strap but apparently I sewed it a little too well and after an hour I gave up and just made a whole knew one instead which worked out for the better as I made this one a bit longer than the last one so it goes up above the back a bit. (has likes to swing his head backwards and whack it on the back of the chair on purpose O_o ... yeah I don't know.)

Looking forward to this week?
Sushi tomorrow with a friend and fellow mama I haven't seen in almost 3 weeks because Little Badger was fighting off a flair up of ringworm and I couldn't let him near any other babies. Now it's just his eczema flaring up that we have to get back under control.  His ringworm ointment did that last time too.   :/

Thankful for today?
My hubby for watching Little Badger today while I got to go into Toronto (an hour's train ride) and have lunch with a friend.
 
*Bonus Question*
What is your favourite summer food and/or drink treat? 
That would have to be my husbands amazing gazpacho! It's so zingy and refreshing and slightly not entirely pureed smooth so it has a great texture to it.  When it gets hot that's a big go to around here!




Thursday 12 July 2012

That Thing I Made this time?

A store That Thing I Made on Etsy

Yeah yeah. A store.  Won't be much in it for now. I had intended on having my booboo buddies be the opening act.  But a few hours today spent in photoshop making something for a friend led to a an idea that just ran away with me!

She had told me a lovely story this morning about how she was having a terrible horrible no good very bad day when in the drive thru waiting for her coffee she decided to pay for the people behind her.  Doing a good random deed for someone else turned her day around and she left the drive thru smiling.

I've always believed in random acts of kindness.  Big or small, flowers for someone who's having a bad day,  help the elderly or at least sit and listen to their stories if they want to tell them, mowing your neighbours lawn, organize a neighborhood cleanup, leave an extra big tip,  donate, help, give hope.  I think these big and little things help make the world a much better place.

So to help support and encourage random acts of kindness, I've made these little tickets or tags. Whatever you'd like to call them. 




I will be selling them in a sheet of 8 as printable PDFs at $3 each.

When you order one, not only do you get your own Angel # which no two purchasers will share, but 75% of the monies made go to a fantastic site called therandomact.org

therandomact.org is a website dedicated to helping to facilitate or fund, and to connect individual who want to make a difference with acts of kindness!

They recently have helped me out with a friend in need (which I can't post about till the act of kindness is done but there will be a post!) and so now I want to help raise money for then in return to help them fund more acts of kindness

So for each $3CND that comes into my PayPal,  $2.25 CND will then get sent over to the Crowdrise fundraiser for therandomact.org you see on the right over there.  (Also the main cause for the new layout. Not sure what I think of it yet. Might need a new banner)  Since that is a fundraising site though, if you want to donate without buying feel free! The money goes from you, through Crowdrise, right to therandomact.org! And you'll be able to follow it's progress from here.

Next post: I will show you how they helped out my friend.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Booboo buddy #2; Senior Froggy!

And here he is!



Tried something a little different this time.

Quilt batting on the animal side.  Makes it a little stiffer around the opening than I'd care for but it does prolong the cold life of the icepack (tested it compared to Finley Fox)
         


 


Also, it's obvious that my embroidering is going to need some more practice. (As this was actually the first time I've ever done it. The flies are, well,  yeah.  Though there was only supposed to be one fly then I realize I put it on the wrong corner. So this one has two.  Yay for prototypes!



 
Any thoughts? I'm contemplating little feet on the next frog...

                                           Also, if I created an Etsy shop, would you buy one?

Next up,  Mr Monkey! Linked Up!

Saturday 23 June 2012

That thing I (wanted to) harvest.

So, last week I was walking back from the library with a friend when I noticed the empty lot near my house had an abundance of beautiful red clover. Excited, I planned to go back soon to do a little harvesting. I was too late....

Look at all that lovely MOWED OVER clover. 

But while wandering around the lot I did find some other treasures I look forward to going back for.

A nice patch of chicory.



Wild Yarrow (though we have some growing in our garden) Yarrow is known to be good for wounds.

And not pictured is a nice supply of Plantain that's actually farther away from the road than I usually find it. I'm going to try to harvest a bit and I might try to use it to make a salve. 

Here is a neat little bit of info:  If you ever run into a patch of stinging nettles, find a plantain plant, chew up a leaf, and place the chewed pulp on the rash.

And further up the street on my run this morning I spotted St Johns Wart!

It does take some fancy foot work to navigate the lot though as I discovered it's a bit of a snail haven.

I'm looking forward to going back when it's a bit thicker and seeing what else I can find!


***  Most of the plants listed above are not safe for pregnant or breastfeeding mama's. Please do your research before using any herbs for teas, foods, or healing.***



Wednesday 20 June 2012

Presenting the Booboo Buddy!

An idea that struck me about a month ago that I just yesterday finally got to sit down and bring it into realization.



The cute animal side is the opening to insert the little ice pack.  



The other side is a nice soft fleece for placing against your booboo.

For size reference.

Things i learned making thing, sewing things that stick out onto corners of things to be turned inside out is a pain in the bum.  Will need more practice.

But I'm really happy with how he turned out!  And t his little fox is just the first of a few animal ideas I have.  Next up I'm going to make a frog!


Linked up!

Photobucket

8:23

This year saw my first Mother's Day and just last weekend, my hubby's first Father's Day. So I wanted to do something really special for him to thank him for being the amazing father he has been.

When my friends are complaining about how their guy can't or won't do this chore, does this wrong, makes messes, can't or won't even change a diaper. I just look at my husband and think. . . 

wow, I'm spoiled.

Super dad here is the only reason our kitchen isn't buried in dishes. He does all of Little Badger's bath times. Washes and folds all the laundry (I put it all away). He changes diapers, does most of the cooking (really really really good cooking) takes care of all the yard work, takes out the garbage and recyclables, cleans the litter boxes more often than I do, and still works a job he commutes almost 2 hours to (each way).

Listing all of that makes me sounds like a lazy lay-about. Though in my defense, at almost 10 months old I'm still up with Little Badge almost every 2 hours most nights (sometimes every hour on a bad night)

I still do all the house tidying and vacuuming and most of the sweeping and counter cleaning. But he is just amazing.

SO when I saw this neat idea on another blog (need to find the link again will update as soon as I find it) I thought, "PERFECT!"



Starting at 8:23am (since Little Badger was born August 23rd), and on every 23rd minute of every follow hour till 8:23pm. 


13 packages in all.  


Gifts ranging from a package of Fisherman's Friends, or a candy bar, to meaning full handmade items, and one really serious gift of a much needed new wallet. (he's has his for I think he said 20 years now!) There is also an ice cream scoop a car magnet that came in his card, and a Dr Who magazine.

The handmade items were a rock with LB's hand print on it and the year and his name painted on it. 
A dollar store frame I repainted and painted on the words Daddy and Me. A bookmark with his first baby photo mod podged on. The bookmark reads "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."


And a dollar store framed family quote that I painted LB's name and birth date on. If we have another I'll add it on the bottom of the frame.



Over all it was fun putting it all together and he said it was a really great surprise. I think I'll try this again in 5 yr and next time LB will be old enough to pick out all the gifts!

Saturday 16 June 2012

Sweet Treats from a Sweet Lady!

I came down yesterday from putting Little Badger down for and early bedtime (he was really tired) to find out we had had a visitor while I was in his room!



Sweets from the sweet!  Susan of Food Allergy Chronicles had mentioned plans of strawberry picking when I ran into Friday morning. Little did I know I'd be receiving some of the spoils
What you see in the picture above is a jar of regular strawberry jam, a jar of Splenda sweetened jam, and a small strawberry cake! *Update, it's a tea loaf! Either way it was delicious!* And my god is it good. O_o But that's no surprise when it comes from Susan's kitchen!!!

Though I received my lovely gifts on Friday, I didn't get a chance to try them (or at least the cake) until today as I did my own little bit of baking on Friday. 


Behold! My very first French Silk Pie!




I had been craving one of these for the last 3 years. French Silk Pie was my all around favorite any time pie back in my home town.   But seeing as there is no Perkins near buy I couldn't indulge.   So I finally caved and made my own.



I have to admit I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.   The recipe was fairly easy.  One I got off of CafeMom.com

Here it is from the site:
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 egg yolks, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons whipping cream
  • 1 baked 9 inch pie shell
  • whipped cream (for serving)
  • chocolate curls (for garnish)

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, combine the 1 cup whipping cream, chocolate pieces, butter and sugar.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, till chocolate is melted.

Remove pan from heat.

Gradually stir about half of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks.

Return egg mixture to saucepan.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, till mixture is slightly thickened and almost bubbly-- 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat.

Stir in whipping cream.

Place saucepan in a bowl of ice water, stir occasionally till mixture stiffens and becomes hard to stir (20 minutes).

Transfer chocolate mixture to a medium mixing bowl.

Beat the cooled chocolate mixture with an electric mixer on Medium to High speed until light and fluffy 2 or 3 minutes.

Spread filling in a baked pastry shell.

Cover and chill pie 4-5 hours.

Serve with whipped cream and a garnish with chocolate curls.


 I look forward to the next one!

Linked Up!

Monday 11 June 2012

My Treasury Monday #4

So hot! High of 31C called for today.  And our AC is busted. Not an uncommon issue right now as Carla of My Half Dozen Daily is having the same problem. Wish we had a pool.  Might have to fill up Little Badger's baby pool and have a sit this afternoon!  But I am on the hunt for a good beach!  In the mean time here is my latest treasury of things I've been drooling over.


'Beat the Heat - Swimsuit Style!' by LifeinaLens

Summer is here, the weather is hot, and water is waiting! So here are some fun suits (and even a swimable mermaid tail!) to get you in the summer spirit!


Sailor Color Blocked Nautica...
$106.00

Retro Red and white Polka do...
$69.00

NEW: high waisted bikini swi...
$95.00

The Piccadilly Lilly is a V...
$120.00

Black with Cherries straples...
$45.00

Light Green Hawaiian Print 1...
$85.00

BELNEM: Underwire one piece
$175.00

humanize master one piece xs...
$150.00

Teal Halter Onepiece Bathing...
$84.00

Victorian & Polka dot print ...
$89.00

swimmable mermaid tails
$250.00

Isis Swimsuit- in Brown
$117.00

Maternity Liz 2 piece lot...
$134.99

Crazy for Paisley High-Waist...
$150.00

FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE Swim...
$98.00

Amber Ruffle Bikini Bottom
$30.00