Christmas crafting

I've started some dolls for my girls for Christmas this year. I have both finished up to the hair at this point, but my camera is busted so I can't get an updated pic! So, this will have to due for now... A decapitated 'Abby' and a bald 'Betsy.

Hopefully I can borrow a camera or get mine fixed soon so I can post an update.

Are you crafting anything for Christmas?

Halloween costumes - Part 2 - long overdue!!!

So... I'm a bit late... but I have a really good excuse. We bought a house! We have the inspection later this week, and as long as there are no more hiccups we will be moving the first week of February! Yay!

Anyway... onto the matter at hand. I did eventually finish our Halloween costumes. And, even though this post is very late, they were finished before Halloween, just in time for the party. The husband aka Marc Antony won best costume of all the men! 

Here are the finished costumes:

 Too tired to add detail, but I don't want to bore you either. If you have any questions about the construction, let me know and I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

Goodnight :)

Halloween costumes - Part 1

There is a lot going on in our crazy house right now... Betsy is trying to cruise around furniture, Abigail is learning tons at JK, even colouring in the lines now AND our house is up for sale. Which means I have to keep it tidy everyday just in case someone wants to come and see it. It's hard, especially with two crazy kids.

In light of all this, I find myself needing a distraction from the house-selling stresses so the obvious choice is to get busy doing something easy, simple and relaxing right? Nope, not for me... I've decided to take on the task of making halloween costumes for both my husband and myself. Ghost costumes would have been perfect... or even bride and groom... but no, we're going as Cleopatra and Marc Antony.

I have decided to blog about my challenge. Mind you, I have NEVER made a costume before, let alone completely constructing clothing for costumes as well as all the associated accessories.

I found a lot of free resources online, including some videos on helmet constructing from youtube, but nothing had exactly what I wanted so I had to add on to what I found and take bits and pieces from different tutorials and piece them together.

Here's what I've done so far:

I made the base of the helmet with cardboard. The top rounded part is made using 3 strips of cardboard, taped together in the middle in a star formation. To the right you can also see my Cleopatra Crown and a couple other details as well.

The shield is made using a $1 store tin foil tray and a large flat bottomed bowl, also from the $1 store. I hot glued them together, which won't hold them together well enough so I will paper mache it all later. I added some detail to the front with cardboard. 

The other side of the shield. I used vinyl straps attached to the tin foil tray with nuts and bolts. One is bigger for the forearm and the smaller one is for the hand.

This will be the medallion for my husbands robe. Two cardboard circles, one bigger than the other. I drew on a basic image initially, which I traced over with puff paint later.

The shield has been paper mached. 

The helmet was painted all over with a dark green paint and then painted over top with gold to get this bronze look.

I bought some feather-esque things from the dollar store and hot glued them to the top of the helmet.

The medallion and shield were painted with gold spray paint first and then I took some black paint and wiped it around with a cloth to create the same bronze look as the helmet.

I cut the head off of a rubber snake from the dollar store and hot glued it to the top of a broom stick. I wrapped some cording and webbing around it to add some detail.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for updates :)

Long time no blog

So... it's been a while eh? I'm such a poor blogger... I just get started and suddenly drop off the face of the internet for over a month!

My excuse? Well, things are a little busy over here. My youngest has been teething... and teething...and teething... and now she's sick. My eldest started her first year of school (also how my youngest got sick) and celebrated her 4th birthday. Also, I'm organizing my first ever mom2mom sale, preparing for a big Mompreneur event in November and I'm also sick. So, am I forgiven?

I have some exciting news to share though. I finished one of my patterns. It's for these little guys... Aren't they cute?












They are even cute unstuffed.

See?? I LOVE these guys and my testers have had nothing but good things to say about them.

This pattern is now available on my Etsy for an introductory price of $6! It includes all 5 types of bugs plus different variations on the pattern to make them into different items like stuffed toys, hot/cold packs, flat bugs... bean bags and more!

Anyway... enough advertising for now. What do you say about me sharing a free pattern... or two? You'd like that? Well, stay tuned... I have a couple things up my sleeve!

Till next time!

Adelle

drama... drama... drama...

I'm not a fan of drama. Not referring to 'drama class' from highschool. I LOVE that kind of drama. I'm referring to issues between people that start up other issues and it snowballs so that everyone is affected and has to choose 'sides' and such.

I went away with my husband and two girls to visit my Dad and his girlfriend - no drama there thank GOD! Only to come home to not only 1 kind of drama but 2! There has been drama in my work-at-home-mom group as well as in my family. No details, sorry, I am not your source for gossip. But I'm just emotionally spent on this. I don't understand why people a) just can't be honest with eachother and b) have to turn their issues into a 3-ring circus.

Not to mention that baby #2 popped her first two teeth within this past week so she's been pretty misserable, especially in the evenings...

Probably something else making this all seem so much more frustrating is that I'm turning 29 this coming week and I'm not ready to get older... It will be my last year in the 20's, technically after Thursday I will be living in my 30th year. Man... time flies.

Life is short people so we should spend more time on honesty and integrity instead of lies and betrayal.

Adventures in baby led solids

I tried starting my youngest on solids at around 4 mth because our doctor told us she was ready. It didn't go well and because of the extra iron in the rice cereal she got really constipated. I found out later that fortified rice cereal isn't really that great of a first food because of all the extra iron.

When she was around 5 mths, I tried again with some purees that I had made myself and all she did was spit it out. She also seemed to want to be more involved in her eating as she was grabbing at the spoon. Around that time I read about baby led weaning (or baby led solids) and I was intrigued. It makes sense to teach them to feed themselves rather than teach them to be fed and then teach them how to feed themselves later. This way it helps her learn hand-eye coordination as well.

So, I started giving her pieces of food in sizes large enough for her to hold it in her hand and I let her at it. We haven't yet found a food that she doesn't like. She sits there kicking her feet and grunting.

No, I'm not afraid of her choking on food. I'm introducing softer more chewable (or gummable in her case) foods. Yes, she has gagged now and then but that happens with purees as well, even water or a milk can cause baby to gag. She eats supervised so I'm there to help if she needs me, but most of the time, she's in control and she seems to really get a kick out of it.

So far she's tried:
Avocado
Banana (try to limit this one right now because it's mosquito season)
Bread
Chicken
Sweet Potato
Carrot
Rice
Veggie Pasta

I have found this blog quite helpful, recommended to me by a friend, and if you click 'search by week' she breaks it down by the age and shares what the response was. Very helpful for me in choosing what foods Betsy will be ready for.

What a pain in the butt

I am embarrassed to admit it but I can't hide it anymore... I have Piriformis syndrome. I think I have had it since the birth of my first daughter, almost 4 yrs ago. I have been seeing a physio therapist for some other issues I have, also baby/pregnancy related in my back and neck for a couple of months now. I finally mentioned something to him about my 'butt pain' at last weeks appointment.

I wasn't sure what he'd say... or what the treatment would be and I REALLY didn't want him to have to touch or look at the problem area but I knew I had to do something, it's too painful. Just touching the 'area' hurts like the whole thing is bruised.

So last week he did a treatment with the tens machine and ice followed by ultrasound therapy and some good old active release therapy... OUCH! Today was acupuncture and ultrasound.

Apparently piriformis syndrome is very common, he told me. Even he has suffered from this terrible pain in the butt. I have some stretches I'm supposed to do that will help and I'm supposed to ice it when it gets really bad.

And no, I don't know why I feel the need to share this with everyone... maybe it's because I don't want to be embarrassed about it anymore... maybe it's to help you, yeah you, you know who you are. You, with the butt pain... You are not alone. Chances are if you've had a desk job, ridden a bike, carried a baby... you've had or do have this pain. Take comfort my friend, there is help but it does involve having someone, possibly a perfect stranger give your derriere some much needed attention.

She rolled... and rolled... and rolled...

...and I didn't get to see it :(

So my chubby 5 1/2 mth old still had not rolled yet up till yesterday. And I was fine with it because it meant when I put her down, she would stay there. But now all that has changed, and I didn't get to see it!

I had to go out last night to get some household items and groceries. When I returned I was told that my dear sweet baby rolled over and over... and over.

I must say I was a little upset about it. But then to hear that she rolled repeatedly again this morning while I wasn't around made me even more upset... How can I be a stay-at-home mom and still miss these milestones? I then sat on the couch and stared at her for the longest time hoping to catch her doing it. And nothing. I layed down beside her coaxing her with my voice... and when that didn't work I used one of her favourite toys. She would almost roll, have her one leg over, knee touching the ground but the upper part of her body stayed put. She was taunting me...

I then moved to the couch again and stared at her. My older daughter distracted me and when I looked back at my littlest one she was on her stomach! Was she toying with me??? Was she doing this on purpose??? I promptly put her on her back again and resumed my hawk-eye stare... waiting... waiting... Two near attempts failed and she rolled back to starting position as I sighed in dis-belief. Then... suddenly... her exertion paid off and she made it all the way over! The angels sang, the trumpets blared and Mommy was happy once again.

And then I thought to myself... I just spent an hour waiting for this amazing and beautiful thing, which I indeed am thrilled about... But now I have more things to worry about. Now her reach is longer, her mobility is more... um... pronounced? And crawling is next... I'm sooooo not ready for this!

Pictures of my craftiness...

I made these two babies:

 

However, I did have some help from God and my husband... it was a group effort.

I have recently been on a hair clip kick:

 

 I made myself a SSC! I found this tutorial online and tweaked it a bit.

 

...and yes... the picture is sideways (can't figure out how to rotate it)... and the mirror is dirty... I don't have time clean mirrors since I'm so busy crafting, taking care of my kiddos and well, blogging :)

I made this romper recently for my littlest one. I trace around one of her rompers and added a bit more room for her fluffy cloth diapered bum:

 I also made up these cute baby sandals... but they're too small for Betsy :( I made them using a pattern purchased from www.ithinksew.com

 

...why blog?

No one has ever suggested to me "Hey, you should sooooo write a blog!". I don't have any particular extensive knowledge base to gather from and I'm not an expert by any means in really anything at all. But, I love writing... and I love sharing with people... and that's enough right?

The things I hope to share in this blog are obviously my crafty pursuits, plus some family stuff and I'll likely be sharing links to my favourite patterns, tutorials and WAHM's (work-at-home-moms). I often find stuff online and I think "I can make that!" so I do... or I at least try. I hope to encourage other mamas (or Dads... or ladies who aren't moms... or... well... anyone... ) to try and put a little more creativity into your life.

I'll keep this first post short and sweet since I'm finding a hard time thinking of anything else to say. Off to a great start aren't I?

I hope you stick around and find me inspiring... or witty... or hilarious... or ummm... addictive... maybe?

Cheers! And happy crafting!