Gearing Up For New Years...

Going back to work after the holidays isn't that much fun... I am sitting at my desk today thinking about all the work that I should be doing, but just don't have the heart to dig into it quite yet. We arrived back in Victoria late last night - our flight was a couple hours late, but nothing out of the ordinary for the holiday season.

Calgary was great! We spent most of our time visiting friends and family and of course eating way too much! db got a video camera from my parents to record the baby... yup, you heard right... new baby! I have been hesitant to announce that db and I will be expecting our first child in March (I guess I wanted to make sure everything was okay). There is still lots of things to do before the little person arrives, but we are taking it day-by-day.

Plans to decorate the baby's room are fully underway with the help of my talented sister and I will be posting photo's on here as it progresses. Anybody want to come help me clean up the room?? Hahahaaa... Also, anybody know a good painter in the Victoria area?

I am on the search for a great rocking chair - so far, I haven't found the perfect one, but I haven't given up hope! I really love this chair, but not being able to test it out is a big red flag for me... but I may just bite the bullet and buy it anyways!


In other news, the Olympics are coming up fast! My sister and I have a bunch of tickets and are getting very excited to be able to go. Looks like we are going to be staying with some of her friends that have offered us a bedroom in their close-to-downtown apartment in Vancouver. I will be 8 month pregnant, so sleeping in a bed was sort of a requirement. We are super lucky to have such great friends to put us up!

Well, I think that is all the news from my little family! Wishing you all the very best for 2010!
<3 Ariane, db and new little person

Remember this?

Okay, I know that I am not a huge fan of the cold - but there is some activities that I miss now that I live in a milder climate. Here are some of the things I miss:

- ice skating outside
- making coloured blocks... loved this!!
- tobogganing (or tubing)
- bumper skiing (ya ya - I know it is dangerous, but still wicked fun!!!!)
- snowball fights
- Christmas lights shinning in the snow

Well, only a couple more days left until we head back to Calgary where hopefully we will get to enjoy some of the winter fun! Hopefully it won't be too cold!

Does Your Desk Need Something for the Holidays?

My dear friend and co-worker was complaining that our office looked so bare for the holiday season. As I was reading one of my favourite blogs, I found the perfect idea! These little guys are pretty darn cute! Check out ours:



Thank you Makula! See the Makula website to make your own!

Yearly Wreath Making!

This is the 4th year that my friend and I attended a wreath making class. I always love how my wreath's have turned out and this year is no exception!

Here is my wreath:



Here is my friend's wreath:


Click here to see our wreath's from last year... so different!

Happy Halloween!

Oooohhhhh Halloween was great this year! I carved my pumpkin in a pretty simple design compared to previous years. I loved my sister's pumpkin! It's awesome! I wish she would send me pictures of it in the dark!

My pumpkin for 2009

My sister's pumpkin

Then a bunch of us went to the local bomb fire and fireworks party down at the ball fields. The fire seemed really big this year - but I think it is because we got there early. Great fireworks display too!

Back to Halloween Fun!

I found this awesome tutorial to make some fun Halloween decorations on Forty-two Roads blog. They look so fun! I want to make them!

I already bought my pumpkin and am excited to carve it!

I'm Thinking of X-Mas Already??!!

I know that Thanksgiving has just passed and Halloween isn't even here yet, but I can't help but thinking of things I want to make for X-Mas! So, I did some searching around and here are some great tutorials that I found:

1. Ribbon Wreath

Picture from The Long Thread

2. Advent Calendar

Picture from Sew Mama Sew

3. How to Make a Paper Finnish Star

Picture is from Craft Ideas

4. Quilled Snowflake Ornament

Picture is from Reese Dixon

Berry Crisp... Nummmy!

I am starting to get more energy and I decided to go to the market this weekend. There was lots of fresh fruits and veggies and I ended up spending about an hour there. The local berries looked amazing and it is getting to the end of the season, so I had to get some! I ended up making a beautiful berry crisp with them and it turned out wonderful (see picture above - nummy eh?). db is really enjoying it with ice cream. The crisp was super simple to make and took about 20 minutes (mostly because I couldn't find the brown sugar!) to put together and I baked it for about 45 minutes.

I got the recipe here. I made a couple changes:

- I used margarine instead of butter (I had no butter in the fridge)
- I used blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries - approximately 2 cups each
- I baked mine in a 8 x 13 glass dish - wouldn't do this again! I would use a deeper dish and not as long of a dish.
- Next time I make this, I am going to cut out some sugar - even though it was really really nummmy - I don't know if it needs all that sugar!

Tuesday Tutorial - Smoothie Goodness!

This week's tutorial is going to be a little different. When I wasn't feeling well, I only could drink smoothies for breakfast and I thought I would share the recipe that I found that worked the best:

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie (Try other fruits too!)
1 cup of milk
8 ice cubes
1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt
1 - 2 bananas
1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberries

Put everything in a blender and mix! Makes about 2 pint sized glasses of smoothie.

Anybody else have a favourite smootie recipe?

Tuesday Tutorial - Cute Skirt

Hopefully I am on the mend - I have been sick for a couple weeks and I have had no energy to do anything. Today I am still feeling queesy, but am fighting it. I have been to the doctor and I think we have figured out what is wrong and she has prescribed some antibiotics which I pick up today. I am hoping that will make for a fast recovery!

Okay, now on to fun stuff! I have a couple of beautiful nieces birthday parties to go to in September and I wanted to make them something really special. I have been flipping slowly through blogs, when I found this amazing blog by this nice lady Dana called Made. She has tonnes of tutorials and links to fun kids clothing tutorials. I am digging this blog for sure!

The first tutorial I think I will try from her collection is this market skirt. It looks fairly simple to make, but has some funkiness to it. I have some cute fabric that should work perfectly. Hopefully if I am feeling better in the next couple days I can get to work!



This cute market skirt tutorial can be found by clicking here.

I Promise...

These past couple weeks have been a bit crazy... we had 3 sets of visitors! I promise to post something fun this week! I PROMISE!

Bag for Kat

I have a little time in between ball games today, so I thought I would share a bag I recently made.

A good friend of mine asked me to make her a bag similar to the pink bag I made for the Book Lovers Craft Swap. We talked a little about what she wanted and I made a new pattern. This bag I made was bigger, had 2 different sized pockets, and a magnetic clasp. I used the MoMo Wonderland Twill fabric - which I LOVED! It was really nice! I wish I would have boughten more of it! Overall, I really liked how this bag turned out.

The inside of the bag - 2 different sized pockets.

This bag turned out to be 18" wide by 14" tall (finished). I used the same tutorials to create this bag as the previous one:
Mama's Pocket Book - Free Tote
Lazy Girl's Instructions on how to do boxed corners

If you are wanting to make yourself a nice bag this summer - I recommend starting with these tutorials. This bag probably took me 2 hours to make. Most of the time was spent on cutting out the material as I used interfacing on all the pieces to ensure the bag kept it shape. I also used fusible fleece to interface the handle - this will make it comfortable on the shoulders.

Pimp My Office - Craft Swap

Remember I promised to post some photo's of what I received in the 'Pimp My Office' craft swap? Well, here it is! My partner used some of my Wists to create some neat pieces:

1. Fun Comic Book Tray - Looks like she recycled a box and covered with Batman pictures. It is pretty cool - I probably won't take it to my work office, but leave it at home to put my sewing projects in.


2. A Desk Calendar - I love having a desk calendar to quickly look at dates. My craft partner made this cool desk calendar that can stand up. I love all the pretty paper she used to create this!


3. A pretty cool ring - I am not sure what this ring is made of, but she used wonderful colours and it is really funky


4. A vase which broke in the mail (boo hoo). But I think I can salvage the beads!

O Canada!

Happy Canada Day everybody! For readers outside of Canada - July 1st is Canada's Birthday (Wanna know more about Canada's Birthday? Check it out on Wikipedia).

Another item to celebrate is it our friend's little girl's first birthday! We will be attending a BBQ to celebrate both occasions. I been stressed to the max trying to decide what to get her for her birthday. Still not sure - but I will hit the mall and hope for some inspiration. I would have made her something, but we have been away at a baseball tournament and just got back this evening.

Tuesday Tutorial - Oven Mitts!

Picture taken from Savy Seams

Okay - let's roll with the apron tutorial and now figure out how to make oven mitts! I found this great tutorial by Savy Seams that has a downloadable pattern and everything. One thing I would add is a loop so the mitts could be hung, which wouldn't be difficult to add.

The one problem is that searching through my fabric, it is mostly pretty girly. Not that it is a bad thing, but I want some nice fabric that is gender neutral and would be a nice addition to someone's kitchen. Any suggestions?

I won!

Picture taken by Life in the Lyon's Den

Earrings I won! Picture taken by Life in the Lyon's Den

Whoa - during the May Day craziness, a couple of blogs around were also giving the chance to win beautiful items. I had made a list of the blogs, but hadn't had a chance to go back to the sites until yesterday. And guess what?! I actually won something! Life in the Lyon's Den had two draws and I won a funky pair of earrings. I would have LOVED to win the necklace she was giving away, but I can't complain! She does have an etsy store that you can check out by clicking here.

Hoooorrrayyy!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there! My daddy is in Radium, BC hanging out. I called him this morning and chatted with him. Of course I mailed his card late - so he won't get it until next week. Oppps! Luckily my dad is easy going & just likes the phone call.

Craft Swap - Pimp Your Office

I recently joined another craft swap and the theme was Pimp Your Office! My office mates and I are currently attempting to decorate our office - so I thought this was quite timely.

Before I show what I received, I thought I would share what I made:

1. Shoe bag - fefff, this was the hardest thing I made because I messed up my measurements and had to insert a panel. I cut 1 square for the bottom of the bag, then one rectangle that would be sewn to the square to complete the bag. Before I sewed the rectangle and square together, I sewed a "tunnel" (sorry - my brain froze, I can't think of the correct description) for the ribbon to pass through to close the shoe bag. Then I just sewed the square and rectangle together the best I could. To finish it off, I threaded ribbon through the "tunnel". I didn't line this bag because it is meant for shoes. The inspiration came from these bags that Smiles of a Summer Night made - big difference between the one I made and hers are the size - I made mine quite large. Oh ya - I used home decor weight fabric that I bought from Ikea - I used this heavy material so I wouldn't have to line it or use interfacing so it would keep it's shape nicely.


2. Magnets - these are super duper easy to make. I bought all the supplies at Michaels - what was needed is glass beads (found in the plant section), decorative paper, glass glue (modge podge works), and magnets. One trick I learned is to glue the glass bead onto the paper BEFORE cutting the paper. It is way easy to cut the paper nicely so it fits the glass bead. Then glue on your magnet!


3. Birdie pencil holder - I found a wooden pencil holder and I actually covered the front with fabric. First step of course is to paint the whole thing white (I did 3 coats of white acrylic paint). Then I covered the pencil hold part with some nice paper. Lastly, I glued on the fabric - I traced the bird outline onto the wrong side of the fabric and then cut it out approximately 2 cm bigger than the outline (this is so it could be glued to the edges). Once the fabric was glued on, I glued on white ribbon around the edges to cover the seams of the fabric. I think it turned out quite nicely.


4. Chalk Board Painted Pots - This was super simple! I painted 3 pots with black board paint (comes in a container or in a spray can - I used the container type because I wanted some texture and didn't want to deal with spraying the pots). I painted 3 coats of the blackboard paint to ensure complete coverage. Once dried, I modge podged some pretty decorative paper around the top. I actually put a coat of the modge podge glue over the paper to ensure that it was water proof. Voila! A pot you could write on!


5. Dreamcatcher - my swap partner had put a dreamcatcher on her wish list, so I thought I would take the opportunity to learn how to make one. There are a lot of great websites out there that provide wonderful instructions! I had no problems making it and I think it turned out quite nicely.


6. Lastly, I gave my craft partner a wall sticker - Obviously I didn't make it! I found a bunch of pretty cool wall stickers at a local store called Paboom.

Wall sticker in my craft partner's office

I will show you what I received back soon!

New Baseball Babes + Tuesday Tutorial - Hooter Hiders

We have a new addition to our baseball team! One of the ladies on our team had a little girl last Saturday. She is so adorable! Mom and babe have been at our last 2 games. Here is a picture of our new little Chronic (our team name) at her second baseball game:

Second game for our newest team member!

Michele and baby hanging out at the baseball diamond.

Mom didn't receive a "hooter hider" at her shower - so I have been searching for tutorials how to make one for her. I found a couple tutorials, but I am pretty sure there are more out there:

Hooter HIder tutorial by Made By the Mama Monster

Hooter hider tutorial by Bliss Tree

Our friend that plays on a different baseball team had a baby shower for his little girl. I whipped up a baby towel for him on Saturday. His team all wears camouflage, so I made a towel in a pink camouflage fabric. It is pretty cute! Sorry for the bad pictures of the towel, I was in a rush to get to the shower! Dad did try the towel on too - so funny!

Auntie Mandy and newest team member of the Bratz crew!

Easy Peasy Swap - Pillow

Photo taken by MelMakesPretty

Thanks to Mel Makes Pretty! She took some photos of the items I made for the easy peasy swap. When I was reading her blog, I noticed we sew similar items - so I wanted to mix it up a little. I decided to make her a pillow (it was on her "like to have" list). I bought the fabric while I was in Calgary and I made my own pattern by using the dimensions of the pillow that I bought a couple years ago. It was pretty simple to make - one thing I would do differently next time is make a pillow insert this way the cover could be put in the washing machine. If anybody wants the dimensions, send me a message and I can post them on here.

I also made Mel a pin cushion like the one I made myself. I didn't fill it so I could save on shipping and included the instructions how to finish it off. The fabric is by MoMo Wonderland. I love this fabric. Unfortunately I have used every single piece of it! So, I may have to go find some more online.

Photo taken by MelMakesPretty

Photos are Back!

Alrighty! I found the camera charger (don't ask where I found it... I feel pretty silly!).

First I want to show off what I received from a swap I participated in. MelMakesPretty sent me this beautiful necklace and bracelet. She is also from Australia, so we swapped chocolates... yummy! I can't wait to try them out. I wasn't able to take photo's of what I made her - but I made her a pillow and a pin cushion, like the one I made myself. Hopefully she will take some photo's that I can post on here.





Here is some of the fabric I bought the other day. Yikes! What am I going to sew with all of it? My favourite is the penguins - I think they rock! So, I am definitely going to make myself something out of that fabric!

Late! Tuesday/Wednesday Tutorial

Okay, I am a little disorganized this week. db is now working in Vancouver 3 days a week for the next couple of months. This means lots of organizing life and other stuff like ball without him. The one thing I have noticed is that I spend about 1/2 my day looking for items I have put down. Usually I would just ask him where I put something and he usually knows. Like my glasses and keys - I swear I am going to put a beeper on them!

One of the things that I have magically hidden somewhere in our abode is my camera charger. I can't seem to find it anywhere. I even called db in Vancouver tonight to ask if he knew where it was - but he didn't. So, that means no pictures of the wonderful crafting I have done lately. Sigh.

I also went fabric shopping today and spent way way way too much money. Yikes! I got some really cute fabric including some of my favourite Arcadia by Sanae! I have no plans for any of this fabric I bought today, but I love it all.

Onto this week's tutorial: APRONS! I found this great site that lists 52 free apron patterns. I haven't gotten through all of them yet, but there are some goodies in there! I am attending a couple of weddings in the fall, so I might make a kitchen basket with a apron, oven mitts, coasters, glass magnets, place mats and some pot holders in it. What do you think? Would you have liked/like to receive this sort a gift at your wedding? I can't decide if it is too old ladyish of a gift. Anyways, check out the 52 aprons and let me know which is your favourite and that you would like to receive as a gift!

Tutorial Tuesday - Baby Dress/Tunic + Catch UP!

First I want to congratulate my baseball team - we won the Union Bay tournament we went to this past weekend! It was a very fun tournament and we had amazing weather for camping. We walked away with $500, but donated $200 to one of the team's efforts to raise money for Breast Cancer. I tried to take some photos, but when I went to use my camera, the battery was dead. Opps - my fault!

Hope everybody checked out Sew Mama Sew blog's May giveaway. Unfortunately it looks like I didn't win anything - oh well! I figure that I am saving all my luck to win a huge lottery so I can retire. Hope some of you out there had better luck than me.

Now that summer has arrived, I found a perfect tutorial to make a little girl dress/tunic. Made by Petchy created a pattern which you can download for free and posted very well written instruction how to make this cute dress. What I really like about this dress is that it could be a shirt also. My plan is to download and print the pattern and try making it a little bigger so it fits a 24 month year old little girl. Of course that is after I finish all the other sewing I have to do.

photo taken by Made by Petchy

You can find the instructions and downloadable pattern by clicking here.

May Giveaway Day

Okay - this week, I am mixing it up and not posting a tutorial, but spreading the news. Sew Mama Sew is hosting a May Giveaway day! How it works is, visit Sew Mama Sew's blog and check out all the blogs that are posting giveaways. I already found 2 and look forward to checking out some new blogs. Looks like there is some nice stuff out there that could be won! So, go check it out!

If I had more time, I would have participated. With baseball, work and traveling - I had no time. Next time though!

Tutorial Tuesday - Lil' Owls

I am coping Indie Fixx's Tutorial Tuesday from awhile back, but only because it is totally worth spreading it all around!

Alex from MOONSTICHES put together this really well done tutorial, which was inspired from a pattern she found in a book (info on the front page of the tutorial). Since Alex does not share the pattern from the book, you can buy the book (although it’s in Japanese) or come up with your own pattern and use Alex’s tutorial as an inspiration for your own owl. For more inspiration, visit the Owly Love Flickr Pool.

Click here to see the full tutorial that MOONSTITCHES put together to make these cute little owls. I am definitely adding these guys to my "must make" list!

Tutorial - Boxed Corner Bag

For the Book Lovers craft swap that I participated in, I made a reversible box bag. I started with using the instructions from Mamas Pocket Book Blog, but creating my own pattern. My pattern measured 18" (length) x 12" (height) with the small squares 2" x 2". I also used super duper heavy interfacing on BOTH the lining and the front of the bag. I really wanted this bag to keep it's shape. When I got to sewing the corners of this bag - I was confused by the instructions, so I found new instructions for the corners on Lazy Girl's Design Blog.

With these two tutorials, I created exactly the bag I wanted! I am currently creating a new bag using these two tutorials + one other... I will post links & pictures soon!

In other news, db and I are off to Calgary for the next wedding. This will be the second out of five we will be attending this year. db is not really wanting to go; he would rather stay and play baseball, but it is his dad that is getting married so he has no choice :)

I will be back from Calgary next Tuesday with a fun tutorial! Have a great long weekend everybody!