Lacy pink dress for Olivia and tie for my little man

So you know when dates kinda creep up on you until the event is a week away?  Well, my SIL's wedding is next week, and the dress I had 'planned' for Olivia to wear is still too small (yes, it's very weird having a teeny, tiny Dutch baby) so I had to come up with another solution.  I stopped in at the little one-horse-town sewing store here in hicksville (alright, it's not THAT bad...) and picked up some eyelet lace stuff 'cause I've been loving all these ruffly things around lately.  Since I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in the plethora of tutorials available, I whipped up my own 'pattern' for this beauty!

Since I wanted simple lines I didn't gather the lace, just sewed rows onto the top half of a rectangle (so the bottom isn't hemmed, just folded)

The pattern for the bodice is just 'traced' from one of Olivia's t-shirts.  There's a great tutorial for creating a pattern from a shirt on Craftiness is not Optional: http://theadventuresofroryandjess.blogspot.com/2011/02/charlotte-dress-part-1-making-your.html  Her little trick for puffed sleeves worked out great!  So I also added a little lace on the collar, and a little rose button (which I've been hoarding) and a bow on the front, snaps on the back for dressing ease, and pearl buttons over the snaps to dress it up.

  I think I'll have to pick up some flatter buttons though, since the little ball buttons might be a little uncomfortable in the car seat.  Here' some pics of my little model showing off her new dress (back lit and everything!)  Yes, my 5 month-old can stand when propped, and yes, I'm a little freaked out about her starting to run around!

I'm loving it!  Usually when I throw together something without a pattern I have to tweak quite a bit for it to turn out, but this one worked the first time!

When Ashton saw Olivia modeling her dress for Auntie's wedding he informed me that 'I want to be a handsome boy too!" So of course I had to whip something up for him!  Found a tutorial for a boy's tie at the Purl Bee: http://www.purlbee.com/little-boys-tie/  Although she suggests hand sewing the entire thing, I honestly don't have the patience, so I used my machine, then flipped the whole looong thing right side out.

I'm thinking it turned out fairly well considering it's not cut on the bias and sewn from broadcloth, although hubby informs me that it's a little too long for him (apparently a tie is supposed to hang untied around the neck with the ends hitting the waist.  It hits around his hips)

So both the kiddos will be all dressed up for the wedding, DH has a new snazzy shirt, and I bought something that looks slightly better than my usual attire (It reeeeeeally sucks shopping for a cute outfit when you have to keep nursing in mind - dresses are definitely out) I might end up trying to whip up a cute nursing top if I have time...

Childrens Books - choosing great literature for your child.

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally worth reading at the age of fifty - C.S. Lewis

Growing up my parents conscientiously tried to 'raise a reader'  I remember being read bedtime stories every night with one of us perched on the back of the couch 'doing' her hair, or at her feet giving her a 'pedicure' to keep her awake.  My mom had a copy of 'Honey for a Child's Heart' by Gladys Hunt, an anthology of children's books filled with wonderful ideas for helping your children fall in love with literature.  When I began teaching my mom gave me the fourth edition, and paging through it I recognized many of the titles.  The library was our main source of reading material, and we'd make the trek to the downtown branch every Saturday (and the children's section had ANIMALS! Jemima the puddle duck, who was none too friendly, and an elusive chinchilla which never came out of it's little hutch.  It was years later before I actually found out what a chinchilla looked like!)  My mom didn't only stick to picture books either.  She read aloud wonderful chapter books chosen to appeal to all listeners.
Even before Ashton was born I began a collection of children's books, which is being added to at all times.  I rarely buy new books, but hit the book section at each and every secondhand store, thrift shop or garage sale I hit.  Our book collection ranges from cloth and board books, through toddler and children's picture books, to children's and young adult novels.  I have to admit that my reading choices sometimes come from the latter (see above quote)
Anyways, enough with the chit chat - let's get to the good stuff!  Here's a list of my favorite books.  (ICR stands for I Can Read)

• A Hole Is To Dig by Ruth Krauss  Fun book of 'definitions' Dogs are for licking noses
• Make Way for Ducklings and ...
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• ANYTHING by Richard Scarry.  Our favorite is Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
• What Dads Can't Do by Douglas Wood
• Little Critter books and...
• A Boy a Dog and a Frog and...
• Frog goes to dinner and...
• What to do with a Kangaroo by Mercer Mayer
• Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar and...
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
• Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep by Joyce Dunbar
• Andy and the Lion by James Daugherty
• Morris goes to School (ICR) by B. Wiseman
• Sammy the Seal (ICR) and....
• Julius (ICR) and...
• Danny and the Dinosaur (ICR) by Syd Hoff
• Dandelion by Dan Freeman
• the Frog and Toad books (ICR) by Arnold Lobel
• ANYTHING by Dr. Seuss (or his nom de plume - Theo Le Sieg) A lot of them are ICR, but don't forget his longer books like Bartholomew and the Oobleck, The Grinch who stole Christmas and The Lorax
• But No Elephants by Jerry Smath
• Are you my Mother (ICR) and...
• Sam the Firefly (ICR) by P.D. Eastman
• Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo  This was actually an 'Ashton choice' at VV but has catchy rhythmic and repetitive poetry about MACHINES!
• A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock
• Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (ICR) by Al Perkins  Wonderful rhythm book for younger toddlers

• Clown by Quentin Blake  QB illustrates the Roald Dahl books.  This is a book without words where the illustrations tell the story.  Also a great tool for beginner writers to create their own story.
• Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkinn
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes
• Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber
• Guess how much I Love you by Anita Jeram
• The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack
• the Olivia books by Ian Falconer (not just because I have an Olivia!)
• The Mitten (and others) by Jan Brett
• the Pinkerton books and...
• Won't anybody play with me? and...
• The Enormous Tadpole by Steven Kellog
• The Girl who Hated Books by Pawagi Manjusha
• Parts and...
• More Parts and...
• Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold
• the Frances books by Russell Hoban

• Anything by Barbara Reid  She does wonderful plasticine illustrations
• If you take a mouse to school by Laura Numeroff
• Anything by Robert Munch  his funny books are only eclipsed by his hilarious story telling.  I've heard that some think his books are a tad disrespectful, so please review before reading them to your kids
• the Berenstain Bear books by Stan and Jan Berenstain not really for literary purposes, but they are great teaching tools for certain issues (I'm currently borrowing a copy of 'Learn about Strangers' to introduce that concept to Ashton)
• Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman
• Aesop's Fables illustrated by Eric Kincaid wording is for older kids, but illustrations are phenomenal
• Mr. Archimedes Bath by Pamela Allen
• Imogene's Antlers by David Small
• The Library by Sarah Stewart
• anything by Bill Peet  some of his books are in rhyme and some in prose
• Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak why oh why does Hollywood insist on trashing these wonderful classics?!?
• Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
• Stone Soup by Jon J Muth

Here's some longer novels that are GREAT for reading aloud:

• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
• Charlotte's Web by E.B White
• the Roald Dahl books
• the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

• the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• the Ramona and Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary

and especially for the boys:

• Homer Price and..
• Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey
• Shane by Jack Schaefer I've never read this, but my DH remembers his mom reading it

I'll revisit this topic with more novels for older kids later on, but I think this post is long enough.  Happy Reading!

A few past crafty things...

So at the moment I'm trying to paint the basement in the half hour cat naps O's been giving me.  While my crafting is on hold, I thought I'd give a peek at a few things I've done in the past.

  I sewed these Noah's ark animals for Christmas 2009 (?) It took a LOT of time, but was really fun to do!  I bought the pattern online from Three Score Ten (sorry, no link, can't find it back...)  So it was a multi-step process making these: first I sewed them all (most tedious part of the process) then I primed them with gesso twice, then painted all the underbellies white (with acrylic paint - NOT the craft stuff)  The fun part was painting them all!  I then used embroidery floss for the manes of the zebras and giraffes and all the tails, and some weird rope-ish wool for the beard, hair and the lion's mane. Lot's of fun, but of course Ashton was more interested in all the store bought toys he got that year...  Two years later I'm still waiting for DH to make a wooden ark to store them all.  When I stuffed the dove I put a magnet in it's bottom, so when he gets around to the ark I can set a magnet on the top of the ark so the dove can perch on top!

  REALLY easy craft that anyone can do - all this is is scrapbooking paper and foam letters from Dollarama.  I had this frame which wasn't being used (I keep a large collection of frames and change my photos out fairly often - people change over time you know!) and was kind of scratched from the last move, so I just scratched it up a little more.  It now hangs in Olivia's yet-to-be-used nursery (she finally sleeps well in the bassinet, so I'm keeping her in there as long as possible)  The nursery is blue and classic-Pooh themed (the book, not Disney)  I'll probably have a post about muraling a little later on...

  Ashton's room is truck/construction themed (gasp! Really?)  Not sure how long he'll be into it (although his obsession with wheels started at 6 months and shows no sign of stopping) so I didn't do any murals in his room, but painted this little grouping of canvases for him.  I just bought a cheapy set of pre-stretched/gessoed canvas at Michael's and used an overhead to sketch them on.  I really like creating my own artwork for the kids' room, saves me a lot of searching for stuff that matches...
  Speaking of matching, have you ever felt that overpowering frustration when searching for just the right night-light?  Well I sure have!  So I upcycled this old Ikea lamp (you've probably seen them, with the paper?)

 The paper was ripped, so I took it off, then glue-gunned the fabric onto the rings.  No need to be perfect in the length, because it stretches to fit!  It's a flannel, which isn't technically fireproof, but I only put a 25w in there, and it doesn't seem to get to warm.

Anywaysssss...wish me luck on the basement.  By my calculations it should take me about 3 years to paint the whole thing...

itty bitty baby dress and bonnet

Made this 'itty bitty baby dress' (found here :http://www.made-by-rae.com/2008/04/free-itty-bitty-baby-dress-pattern.html) for Easter.  The pattern is for a preemie size, but I managed to scale it up for 3 months.  Unfortunately Olivia was unable to wear it ON Easter Sunday since we decided last minute to spend and extra day at my parents.  Ah well 

  Here's a pic of Olivia wearing it on Ashton's 4th bday (she had just found her hands and thought they were the neatest toys EVER.

  I also tried to draft a pattern for a sleek, non-ruffly bonnet.  It works okay, but if I ever make it again it needs a bit more work - darts and stuff.  A little longer in the back too, but since this is more of a Sunday bonnet instead of a summer one, I don't want it to cover the neck.  The best example of what I want to make is here:

  Isn't it GORGEOUS!  Luckily Little Betty is offering this sunsuit pattern for free!  http://littlebettydesigns.blogspot.com/2011/01/ruffle-sunsuit-free-pattern-and.html  So I'm thinking this might me one of my next projects.  I do have to do some investing to update my fabric stash though.  I'm thinking we'll hit the Reuse Centre after Ashton's opthomologist appt. this week.  (yay!)

SPRING MARKET - May 6, 10-3, Covenant Christian School

So I signed up for the Spring Market when Olivia was in her 'extreme cranky phase' thinking that even if I can't get anything else done, at least I can crochet or knit while holding her.  Of course my eager mind started thinking up all sorts of things I could make for my table, so the last few months have been FULL of sewing and crocheting and glue gun-ing.  Here's a preview of what will be available at my table:

Red Riding Hood capes (size 2T-4Tish) and Superhero Capes

Stuffies-they each come named with a little introduction-'cause I'm not enough

of a dork already...

Caterpillar puppet thingies (made these with my Mom probably 20 years ago-they're so cute!)

Clip Barrettes

Baby Boleros - Summer's coming up, and those little strappy

dresses for kids are so gorgeous, but a little cool for our climate...

problem solved! Sizes 6m-3T

Hats...

...hats...

...and more hats. Sizes 3m-child/teen

Crocheted stuffies.

There might be a few more of these added if my hands need something to do while holding my grumpy baby (who, at the moment, is screaming because she is unable to rip her toes off...or something.  Anyways, she's frustrated) Hope to see you at the market!

WHOO has time for housework with so many fun crafts to do?

So word of my addiction is getting out, and I was asked to sew some owls for some kids of a friend.

These kinds of crafts are one big reason I keep all sorts of funky scraps in my fabric stash.  And where do I collect these scraps?  My favorite low-budget outing of all time: the REUSE CENTRE http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/garbage_recycling/reuse-centre.aspx  I've really (really, really) been missing it since we moved, but I recently managed to stop in on one of our errand trips into the city (DH wasn't too pleased with all the 'girly' errands, but I've collected enough hours sitting outside of pawn shops not to feel guilty)  I picked up some fun stuff, including tons of felt, with which I plan to make some puppets for Ashton (and adding a puppet theatre to our ever-growing basement reno plan) but my most exciting find was some off-white eyelet material!  So excited about this!  It's gonna make the cutest summer bonnet for Olivia...

Reasons for crafting.

My two beautiful kiddos - the reasons I craft!  I love sewing and knitting my kids stuff, taking their pictures and generally spoiling them with stuff I make!  Ashton is a newly turned 4 year old (!) and Olivia was about 10 weeks here.

I took pictures of Olivia over the course of a week to get a full 'set'.  Inevitably this is how our shoots ended: