kirstencan

Framed

Our trip to IKEA this week was in part to pick up some frames.  Not that you need a reason to visit IKEA... but I had a stack of things I've been wanting to frame and hang.

Upstairs hallway - framed Swallowfield print.  I didn't hang this too high, so the kids can see it, too.

Also in the upstairs hallway (at least for now), my favorite new work from an up and coming new artist (Thomas).  It's called 'Dinosaur'.  I love the expressive brushwork.  It had to be framed.

In a small corner of our living room - I framed some of that folklore forest fabric I made a cushion out of.  This is a small frame, the opening is about 4" square.

Some of these Syko postcards are going to look great in the playroom.

I also picked up a poster frame for the cool poster Chelle gave me a while back - I can't wait to hang the rest of this stuff up! 

Now to find a hammer...

Oh, and by the way, my new bag is handling well - I'm sold on it.  And Princess hadn't seen it until we were getting out of the car at IKEA - she stopped short and said "Oh. My. Goodness.  That is the cutest bag I've ever seen!"

Aw, sweet girl!

Summer Clothes

Sorry it's been rather boring here of late - we're just busy.  Life never seems to slow down, only pick up!

I've been thinking of summer clothes, even though yesterday it was SNOWY.  On May Day!

Anyway, this is a made-over skirt for Princess.  It used to be mine, but I don't wear it anymore.  I saved it, hoping to make a cute top for her (cut down + add straps) but she really wanted it to be a skirt.  So, a quick 2 minute makeover and she is very happy.  She's such a skirt girl.

She's wearing it over her dance clothes - hence the pink, but she has cute white and brown tshirts to wear with it, too.

(It really would have made a super-cute top, huh?)

Here are two 'enhanced' hand-me-down shirts for Monkey.  He was so excited to see the robot: "I have TWO robot shirts now?!"

And band shirts for the boys (freezer paper stenciled).  Thomas' is the drums.  He is such a wanna-be drummer.  Some of his favorite music right now (besides Arcade Fire) is Taiko drum music.  He LOVES it.  He loves to listen to it or watch youtube vids (here's one). I really wish the drummers would come to the library again.

Also on the summer clothes list:  turn Thomas' torn pants into shorts (actually, my mom does this for me, her machine has the best stitch for it), make cropped pants for the boys, and linen skirts for me!

Do you have any summer sewing projects on your list?

Young Jedi

My handmade gift for Monkey's birthday was this Jedi costume.

I made it from super cheap fabric (I think the whole thing cost $5, including the bias tape).  I made up the pattern - thank goodness it worked - and fit!  It only took about an hour to make.

I didn't have enough material left for a belt - so I used some white webbing left over from their pilot costumes - which the boys took joy in fraying, so I'll have to replace it.

Outfit - check.  Lightsaber - check.  Shaggy blonde hair - check!  It's official, he looks like Luke Skywalker.

Monkey loves the costume.  He HAS to wear it when we watch one of the movies (it works equally well for Luke Skywalker, Anakin, or Obi-Wan-Kenobi-when-he-gets-younger) or when he's listening to the Star Wars soundtrack he got for his birthday (Thanks, Nana! -  We also got him a couple of these freaky Star Wars toys that he really really wanted - he LOVES them).

What cracked me up was when he wanted to take his Jedi costume off the other day, he insisted on wearing this shirt - that HE found at the thrift store:

Especially perfect as it's a little big - so he looks extra small in it. ;)

Miniswap 3 - Sent

We had a lot of fun planning treats for our Miniswap partners - two little girls - such fun!

T-shirts (thrifted) dressed up with some appliqué.

Little embroidered fairy dolls on linen.  The design was just a little doodle that I did.  Princess helped with some of the stitching.  The backs of these are two pink cotton prints.  I'm especially fond of the wool felt wings.

Hand-dyed playsilks and peg dolls.  Princess helped with the dolls, too.

One morning I got all three kiddos stringing beads.  It was one of those awesome moments where everyone is happy, quiet, and doing a project.  I love those (fleeting) times.  If you look closely at the beads you might notice a couple of clay ones and a few fabric ones that Princess and her friend made one day.

I packaged each girl's gifts separately - and there were a couple more goodies included in the package as well.

The Miniswap is such fun - and such a great idea.  It would be fun to do a little miniswap of your own with cousins or friends that live far away.  And the Miniswap flickr pool is a great place to get ideas for handmade gifts for kids.

(And here's what I sent and received last year).

Belated

I took the kiddos with me to Thomas' class Valentine party.  Princess and Thomas were both wearing red and looking very cute.  Thomas for some reason had an opinion on his wardrobe that morning - and would not wear a red shirt - until I whipped up a Darth Vadar button for him to wear with it (picture from a Lego magazine + thrifted button maker = rock on!). 

Monkey wore red, too - except I put him in his red shirt far too early, and, of course, he spilled on it.

What should you wear now?

Oh, I'll wear my robot shirt!

(Oh, the plain shirt that you've picked out for your robot shirt, but doesn't actually have a robot on it yet?  He's always been a little envious of Thomas' robot shirt, I think.)

Well, I spent literally 5 minutes stenciling this little guy - who has a heart because of the holiday.  And I dig his turquoise shoes.  He dried just in time to wear to the party.  It's a little sloppy, but Monkey was very very proud of it.

He kept looking down at it and pointing out his robot to people (and we all wore little felt heart pins- made from that felted sweater that I made Princess' stocking from).  And then we had pasta for dinner and he proceeded to ruin his new shirt.  Figures.

Cream puffs were on the menu for Valentine's day - and they didn't happen for some reason or other.  But tonight I made them.  They're really so easy to make - impressive, but easy.  I fill them with a faux-mousse made from pudding with cool whip folded in - quite yummy. Since the boys' don't eat any dairy, Princess was quite impatient for them to go to bed so we could eat them! :)

Playsilks

I had some fun this morning dying playsilks in Kool-aid!

I want to give them to the kiddos for Valentine's day.  They've seen them around drying, but since I'm always doing something weird with fabric, I don't think they suspect that they're gifts. ;)
(Actually, the neighbors probably just shake their heads at me, too: 'What is that crazy lady taking pictures of now?').

I originally wanted purple, green, blue, red and two shades of pink.  Well, I bought the wrong flavors of Kool-aid, apparently.  The blue was actually red in color, and one of the pinks was red, too. Oh well!

I was shocked by the vivid colors.  I didn't expect the Kool-aid to work THAT well (and if freaks me out a bit that people drink this stuff!). The one red scarf is REALLY red.  The other red (which was supposed to be pink) I actually dumped out all the dye after the first heating.  I added more water to it and it STAYED so red!

It was cool to see the dye transfer.  At the end of most of the colors, the dye water was clear!  And I've washed these already - none of the color has washed out.  They have a very faint fruity scent, too - I imagine this will fade with time.

Details:

I bought the scarves here (I wish I would have bought more as they'd make great gifts) and used this tutorial (via Alisa).

Lessons learned:

• Check the colors of your Kool-aid.
• You don't really need gloves.
• Dye two silks at once (in their own bowls) since they have to microwave and rest for the same amount of time - just keep switching them.
• The end of a wooden spoon works great for stirring them.
• If you want a pink (not red) scarf - go for the pink lemonade flavor.

I wish I would have known about playsilks when the kids were younger.  I mean, they are still little, but Princess would have loved having a bunch of these as a toddler.  Seeing the illustrations in the Magic Cabin catalog (where I want everything) really made me realize how many different things you can do with playsilks.  But dying your own really is so much cheaper - and fun!

Introducing: Spacerobot

**Updated to add:  Spacerobot is not so cute when you get woken up at 1 in the morning because Monkey NEEDS him.  Not so cute at all...**

Last week I was browsing flickr, and came across the Spaceboy and Robot flickr pool (before I made Spaceboy).  Monkey walked in:

What are those??!!
Spaceboys and robots.
I want those!
Okay, which one?
Both.
Okay, but which one should we make first?
Two.

(You get how the rest of this conversation went.  Eventually, he settled on a robot.)

He named him Spacerobot.  And he was adamant that Spacerobot not have a smile, because he's a bad guy.  He's Spaceboy's sometimes friend and
sometimes Archenemy.
 

But I couldn't do a total frown, you know?  So I told him that this was kind of a mean smirk. 

I changed the antenna from the pattern - and it didn't work too well, but Monkey carries him around by it, so it's alright.  Spacerobot's catch phrase is:  "I am a space robot.  I heart destroy." ( Aaron has this shirt from threadless that the boys love).

The control panel was fun to put together - except I shouldn't have sewed it while watching Pride & Prejudice while I was tired in dim light.  It's a bit crooked!

The boys like it anyway.

Monkey helped pick the fabrics, like Thomas did, and sat on my lap to 'help sew' (read:  make things harder, get into trouble, and play with bobbins).

It was still fun, though, and he's SO proud of himself.

(This is another great Wee Wonderfuls pattern).

Introducing: Spaceboy

I bought the Wee Wonderfuls pattern a few months ago, and pulled it out this week.  Thomas decided he wanted the spaceboy, and after I pulled out a bunch of fabric that I thought might work, he picked out what he wanted (good job!).

The felt for the belt, etc matches surprisingly well, I used it because it was the only wool felt I had in big enough pieces that wasn't pink or purple! :)

The pattern really is easy and the doll came together surprisingly fast. I wasn't intimidated to try this one (as I am with the Olive & Archie dolls - I just let my mom make those!).  I used tan flannel instead of felt for the face, which worked well.  And I didn't stuff it too tight, so he's really snuggly.

But I held my breath until the face was done.  That's what makes or breaks all of these dolls...

Ahh, I'm feeling okay about this one! 
And Thomas loves him - completely - and has named his doll after himself, which makes it all worth it.

 

Up To...

Actually, we're not up to much here today.  I'm feeling quite boring, really.  Sorry about that!

I finally sat down and sewed something - first time in a month!  Isn't that crazy?  Stupid strep... I never made Christmas gifts for Thomas' teachers because I was sick. I'm thinking of packaging these tissue holders with anti-bacterial gel... or chocolate.  Since they're very very late.  (He has a lot of teachers - just like last year - same gift, too).

Today we pulled out the fingerprint book and inkpads, and when we weren't looking Thomas scribbled all over Princess' lovely pond drawing.  That's the not-so-good part.  But then, with his own paper and unsupervised, he made this:


Tie-Fighters!   I love this - they look like them!  We usually draw them (he's always asking us to draw Star Wars stuff) with a circle with lines on the side.

He's been a stinker today (no school) so this is something positive to talk about. :)

Oh, yeah, I signed up for Miniswap3, too - anyone else in?

Horsey Skirt

A new skirt - made with the Heather Ross horse fabric.  The same as Princess' scarf and bag, but green.  Princess really wants a 'horsey skirt' now.  I wanted to add black ric rac to the bottom, like my matryoshka skirt, but got to the point where I wanted it done now, and didn't want to go to the store.

If my knee looks a little funny here,

it's because of this:

I've screwed up my knee in some way - pulled muscle probably, hopefully nothing more (but it does pop sometimes...).  For now, the brace and lots of motrin are helping (Dr.'s orders).  I was hoping the black tights would help camouflage the brace for church.

I still don't know how I hurt it.

Too much Dance Dance Revolution? :)