The baby party is coming up this weekend. There’s still lots and lots of prep work to do, and one whole day will be dedicated to baking. You see, one of the events at the shower will be a good old-fashioned Cake Walk. I love them! Every year my public school would host a Fun Fair and I would go running over to the Cake Walk area in hopes of some good luck and chocolate-y sweetness.
This Saturday my tiny little kitchen will be home to the greatest cake bake day it has ever seen. Sure, lots of baking happens in there (be it successful or not) – but it has never met some many qualified ladies at one time. If you can’t tell, I’m excited. Or pregnant. Or both.
Here’s a peek at some of the sweets we’ll be whipping up on Saturday.
(clockwise, from top left)
Caramel Coffee Cake (recipe from I Like You by Amy Sedaris)
This is the blog that everyone wanted but was too afraid to create!
Regretsy is terribly entertaining site and somehow a wonderful marketing tool for some of Etsy’s stranger handmade goods. Already generating huge online buzz, this site draws tonnes of traffic and treats them to quick doses of Helen Killer’s undeniable wit.
Like it or not, this site will be around for a while. But if you can take a little taunting you may sell that denture key chain in spite of the numerous spelling and grammatical errors in your item description (oh, and the item itself).
Check Regretsy on a regular basis. It’s already pulled me out of a crappy mood several times in its short life span.
Why? Why has it taken me so long to figure out how to piece a log cabin quilt block? I’ve loved it for years and I’ve collected fabric scraps just as long. But the day has finally come – I’ve figured it out and this pattern has been mastered. It’s totally simple and such a great technique for beginning quilters. You can only imagine how many more quilts will follow in a similar fashion.
Okay, you can probably tell that I’m pretty excited about this new skill. I wanted to take a second to share my newest WIP and my first log cabin quilt.
I blew the budget on photo fabric because this is a very special project. I scavenged my grandmother’s photo albums and selected 7 of my favourite snapshots.
This week I managed to print my fabric, cut my fabric strips and construct the quilt blocks. Now I just have to find the perfect connecting fabric and I’m off to the races. Have a look see at my progress so far!
I have to admit that my head has been in Christmas-land for the last few weeks, but I think it’s finally time to take a break and backtrack to Halloween-ville. I really enjoy Halloween, but for the past few years I haven’t really had the chance to celebrate (okay, I’ve been lazy too).
This time around I have someone in my life who is very into this holiday. We’ve been searching the internet for costume ideas, and there certainly is not a lack of them. I wanted to share one of my favourite costume related sites – WTF Costumes. It’s full of some seriously strange/funny/disturbing dress up ideas for this, the spookiest of celebrations.
Sorry I’ve been such an absentee blogger lately. I’ve been running in and out-of-town (meaning that I have varying degrees of access to a good internet connection). The bright and shiny lining of this whole situation is that I’ve had lots of time to make things (Internet fixation? No I wouldn’t say I suffer from anything like that).
Last week I finished up a little piece of embroidery I’d been working on. A couple years ago I picked up Aunt Martha’s Baby Animals embroidery patterns, but I hadn’t sat down to work on them until now. After finally finishing the piece I wasn’t too sure what to do with it, so I turned to everyone’s favourite standby – throw pillow.
The finished pillow is still a little wonky looking. It needs to be used a bit to pack down the new filling then it should be looking normal.
The border fabric was found at one of my favourite thrift shops in Belleville. I’m so glad I decided to hand wash the fabric beforehand because it bled like bananas. I rinsed it again and again, so hopefully it’s all done with this colour shedding nonsense.
This lovely will be offered as a prize at a little baby shindig I’ll be co-hosting next month. I’m hoping whoever picks her up will give her lots of love and a happy home.
I freakin’ love Bad Bird’s (aka Andrea Zuill) embroidery patterns. Yes, her illustrations and fibre art are amazing, but there’s just something I adore so much about the embroidery patterns.
I just finished up work on on the mermaid that was offered as the August 2008 free pattern on her blog. She’s an adorable little sea creature. Now I just have to decide what I’m going to do with her. Diaper bag? Quilt? Appliqued to the back of a jacket? I just can’t figure it out quite yet.
I found these really cute vintage stools, but they are in desperate need of new upholstering. How cute are these going to look on pieces of matching furniture? I’m really excited to show off a finished product.
Grosgrain has done it again! I’m really digging this tutorial on how to change a regular pair of pants into a stylish pair of maternity pants. I can’t wait to get some free time and try it out for myself. My results won’t be quite as pretty because I’m lacking in the serger department, but I’m hoping for a functional pair of that are pretty on the outside.
Have a look-see at the tutorial by clicking the image below.
I happened across this posting today and it got me feeling particularly inspired. Frenzied and inspired. Since watching it I’ve been searching the internet for a new machine. I love my Old Blue, but it’s a very small model and it doesn’t have a lot of space for quilting. I also need (want) a bunch of new attachments in order to do some free motion embroidery.
Oh gosh, I’m so excited. I’m hoping that I’ll have some happy new machine news within the next day or two.
The Dresden Plate design has to be my absolute favourite thing in quilting right now. I am truly and absolutely obsessed.
What I want is to create a quilt of my own, what I need is the energy to do so. Imagining a project that could take weeks or months has always been a huge road block, and I think this is where my motivation is dying here. But soon enough I will be off work and I’ll have a little free time to work on personal craft projects.
For now I just wanted to share some of my inspirations. For more quilt inducing photos, check out the Dresden Plates in Quilting group on Flickr.
There are many, many loves in my life, but perhaps the longest standing passion of mine would be thrift store shopping. I’ve been told I’ve been harvesting clothing ensembles from the shelves of the Sally Anne since I was a toddler. And sure, I still love the clothes – nearly everything in my closet is thrifted. But what I adore now is things. Vintage things. Loved things. Dusty things. I know this sounds terribly materialistic, but I try to keep that mentality to a minimum. I buy for myself, but I also buy tonnes with others in mind. Then when my time with this second hand treasure has come to an end I pass it along to someone else who will give it a loving home. Sometimes I sell it through Etsy, other times I hand it over to someone who has had their eye on it.
Now to the point of this whole thing. I’ve been wanting to start a regular weekly feature on this blog for sometime. I’ve really struggled with a theme for this. I fully understand that showing off thrifted pieces is not entirely original, but I don’t think it makes it any less fun. What I really love about second hand shopping is the innately one of a kind nature of the whole thing. So sure, other blogs show of their weekly vintage finds – but we’re not all showing the same thing. Anyone who appreciates bargain shopping as much as I do will appreciate this feature for what it is – unadulterated bragging about my latest bas ass thrift shop find.
Here goes! Last Sunday I took a trip to the local flea market and had some massively wonderful finds.
I picked up this sweet little souveneer tray from one vendor. I haven’t found the perfect place for it in the apartment quite yet, but this happy little chap will have a steady home soon enough.
I grabbed up an adorable vintage cookie jar from the same vendor. Now it’s in my cupboard holding salad cookies (croutons, I think you say). I just love the type face on the lid.
Check out this cute little Blue Mountain deer. Plus, I got it for half off! This lovely has taken up residence on my pure white mantel.
Finally, last but not least, I have to show off this stunning set of kitchenware. It was super dusty and sad looking when I carried it home, but now it’s all shiny and once again serving it’s purpose in my home. The set includes a bread box, cake tin and serving tray. I love this set so much! How lucky was I last week?!
