apron pattern

Simple apron pattern. Click on the images to enlarge/save. Because this is hand written, please let me know in the comments if you have a hard time interpreting my scratches.

Pauline Pattern

Since I've been doing a lot of cooking and crafting I finally treated myself to making an apron. I decided I wanted a large pocket in the front, onto which I would embroider my drawing of Pauline from Der Struwwelpeter. I'm a novice embroiderer so it took me a couple of hours- I just would remind myself that all of her ribbons is what makes the image so horribly funny. I will post the rough pattern for the actual apron (hopefully) soon.

To transfer the (or any) pattern from paper to fabric, I found two methods online. The first, was to get an embroidery transfer pencil, available at fine fabric and craft stores everywhere except where I live. The second, more painful, but doable, way is to trace the pattern on to tracing paper (tissue paper would work just as well). Pin the paper to the fabric, place the paper and fabric combo in the embroidery hoop and start sewing through both the paper and the fabric. When you are completely done embroidering the design , gently tear away the paper and carefully remove any little bits that are stuck with a needle- as soon as this goes through the wash any last remaining bits would be removed anyways.

faux porcelain bird

Another basement find was a leftover spray can of "Killz" - it's paint you use to cover water damage on walls. Since it was years since the last dishwasher accident, I used the rest of the spray (it comes in spray can and regular paint can at home depot) on some Styrofoam birds. Normally painting these styrofoam birds doesn't work with acrylic paint, but with the killz it sure does- not only that the killz is gooey, so the resulting bird looks like porcelain. After the spray dries you can apply any paint colour you like- I left mine white and hot glued the fellow to the top of a shadow box.

painted floor mat

I got the idea browsing Martha's site, I think she calls them canvas mats, but she lost me at gesso, since I'm not paying for canvas and gesso to make a floor mat. But the idea sprang back in my head as I was de cluttering- I had some old scraps of fabric (sewn together) and some left over wall paint in the basement- and I needed a mat for my front hall. This one ended up being 7 feet long and cost zero dollars.

March Update

I've been staring at this page for far too long, so I'll just dive right in. The beginning of the month was strange, an hour after toasting the official/legal birth of our company with delicious sparkling wine, we learned of the sudden death of the husband's aunt due to cancer. I mean it was just a few weeks ago we learned she was sick- added to our guilt that we didn't take the time to visit her, is the fact she was such a nice lady. sigh.
As we were leaving the funeral, her husband (my husband's uncle) gave us the flowers right off her coffin- they were really beautiful, but after a day I couldn't stand looking at the arrangement (you know the bridge-like shape that goes over the coffin) so I pulled the arrangement apart and sorted like with like flowers into different jars and spread the new arrangements all over the house- now the house felt like spring was coming.
Other than that I've been keeping busy working (well not getting paid for anything yet), de- cluttered the entire house for charity, started a vegetable garden from seedlings, and I'm learning french cooking from my new best virtual friend Laura. Oh yeah and crafts. Speaking of which, I'm going to be posting a few tutorials with hand written text and we'll see how that works. Although not as nice, I'm finding it harder and harder to find the chunk of time to ink and type etc etc.
If you can't read the writing, just post a comment -oh yeah I'm a terrible speller, so mea culpa in advance.

still to do this month:

• apply for EI
• re pot seedlings
• go see the snakes of Narcisse- well this may be next month since it just snowed again

glove frog

Small, cute and really quick to make. My husband says he looks angry- but most frogs do ;)
I admit that I hesitated to post this, because there is a small amount of wasted material (see step 12)- but you can felt this and save it for a small separate project. I used a non-stretchy glove that was wrist length- so you may have to adjust step one for your glove (and most likely you'll have less waste!) supplies:

• one glove
• needle and matching thread
• 2 pipe cleaners
• fiberfill/ stuffing
• beads/ buttons for eyes

click on the tutorial to print/ save, as usual it fits on a 8.5 x 11" sheet

catching up

I've been away visiting lawyers and accountants with my husband and our business partners so I have a few things to catch up on. First, as usual, a big thanks to everyone for the encouraging words. I try and read/ respond as much and as fast as I can- but this week I dropped the ball (if only you knew how backed up in craft tutorials I am!) - I apologize to Rachel who asked me a question, and it took a while for me to respond. I will edit the about me section to include that it's okay to link to any of the posts.

Tomorrow I will try and post/play this beautiful blogger game Amy recommended. There are so many great sites out there that I regularly visit - and not just the "big ones" either- I'm a bit of a Luddite, so it may take longer(!) to figure out.

Last but not least, a big thanks to Heather of Dollar Store Crafts for posting the Owl Oven Mitt tutorial