Saturday, December 24, 2005

Kiki uses a treadmill!


I never thought I'd see the day, but when I did it wasn't surprising that he was using it for napping purposes only.

Zack's closet


It's not every day that you come across a closet with contents like this. And so, I post this closet photo for you to observe and/or admire...

I outdid myself, I really really did!




I made this totally awesome (not to be boastful here, but seriously, as I was making it, I was impressing the pants off of, well, me!) knitting bag for my amazing cousin Amelia. Basically it's a tote-bag, but on the inside I sewed a pocket with a lot of skinny sections in it specifically to hold needles. So I guess that means that when not in use for a knitting project it would make a handy purse.
Since she loves horses, I decided I would quilt a horse on the bag, so first I decided to see if I could draw a horse - as it turns out, I COULD draw a horse - then it was a simple case of fabric selection, carefully cutting, and hours and hours of sewing by hand (which is easily one of my least favourite tasks).
Finding purse handles was also tricky, after deciding against every ugly pre-made gigantic purse handle available, I stumbled across wooden numbers and letters for house fronts. Two "O"s made perfectly adequate, and much more charming handles. I topped it off by including yarn and needles in the bag...

Sunday, December 18, 2005

'Tis the season...






I put up my tree. Then, without planning, ended up finding ornaments that I actually liked, purchased them and decorated. The question then is, how many dinosaurs can you fit in a 1 foot tree?

Friday, December 09, 2005

The 2-day Quilt



I'm really not a big fan of x-mas gift exchanges. You have a limited budget, and so very few people are creative enough to get something cool with it that you end up with a singing santa or ugly snowflake doilies, or cheesy stuffed x-mas trees, or hideous wooden snowmen, or I don't know what - but essentially something that you don't want, will never use, and will probably end up donating to the Goodwill, where it will then be picked up by someone else, presumably to bring to a gift exchange... I have one of these gift exchanges tonight.

Well, being ME, I of course take the challenging route and decide to make something. Something appropriately x-massy without being too x-massy, but also being within budget. I went to the Goodwill. I bought several (overpriced) sweaters - I think my local Goowill is totally overcharging, I need to find a different charity store for future projects.

Anyway, so I buy several sweaters, demolish them all, sew like MAD for 2 days, and complete a reversible quilt to give away tonight. See pictures above. On the purple snowflake side you can barely make out the seams - which are at funky angles to make up for lack of colour, and you can also barely make out the silver star buttons scattered throughout - but believe me, they're there!

Needless to say, I got NO work done during this time period.
Also needless to say, I will doubtless be returning to the Goodwill to drop off whatever it is that I receive at the exchange tonight...