Thank you - 3 times thank you

Thank you so very much to all that took the time to write a support message. I truly appreciate the kindness and it helps tremendously. Kindness and empathy are such a blessing.

I'm still in a bit of a crafting slump (all I have done lately are fabric flowers) but I used up the time organizing and de-cluttering the house some more. I have a trunkful of various items to be donated to Goodwill and a cleared up guest bedroom to show for it. 

Amie (Kittycats and Airplanes) and I may be going craft shopping together this weekend. I hope we can work it out and hopefully the inspiration will kick back in for both of us.

In the meantime, does anybody fancy guest-posting ? If you do, please email me.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE 

Oh and I just noticed the counter ... 250, I say wow, whoop whoop and thank you for joining my blogging experience. Stay tuned because there will be some very special gifts for you very very soon. 

Words you hope to never hear

My father-in-law is a wonderful man, a book worm, lover of the arts,  photographer, father and grandfather extraordinaire, passionate about trains and firefighters. Now he's also a cancer patient. Those words you hope to never hear, they entered our lives. And all we can do is pray and hope the ugly word will be wiped again by all the treatment he will be going through over the next weeks and months

I'm sure you can understand why I'm taking a little blog break. 

I'll be back soon.

The beauty of it

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of winter. I grew up in the south of France in an area where snow is something that happens every 5 or 6 years. The cold is not my friend. I need sunshine and warmth. But still I can appreciate the beauty of it all. 

Last night, this is the view that greeted me as I switched of the lights of the living room. My neighbor's back porch light was on and turned the trees of the back yard into a fairy tale landscape, a stunning, incredibly gracious tangle of branches in their white fluffy coat. A magical moment to remember. 

 So I grabbed my coat, my camera and my tripod and ventured on the back deck for a few pictures

Winter makes me feel blue

53 days until spring. 53 ? I've got the winter blues. I'm longing for spring, sunshine and flowers. 

Hearts and blooms

The little hearts Amie and I crafted together needed a bigger life.

 And they got it.  Remember the Christmas tulle wreaths I made (yes there were 2).

I removed the bow and flowers from the smaller one and whipped together a few flowers out of the same satins the heart were made from. I {heart} fabric flowers.

More organized

As I mentioned in a previous post,  after spending much time reorganizing and de-cluttering over my holiday break, I've changed the way I handle the everyday household "maintenance". It's been working quite well for the most part and freed some time to tackle some overdue organization. 

I have a few sewing, crafting books that had been tucked in a box when my studio moved from a corner of the guest room to the basement and forgotten in the process. Also forgotten in a box, crafting and quilting magazines, my sewing machine's manual and sewing patterns. I stumbled on all this while de-cluttering the house. They needed a new home in the new studio. An organized home. 

Last time I went to Ikea I had grabbed a few magazine organizers and this weekend just turned out to be the right time to get this all done. All is now there, sorted by type and season. Hmm a tad OCD maybe.

I so like having everything so handy and still not in the way.

Last day for QLD flood victims auctions fundraiser

Just a quick word to remind you there is a few hours left to bid for handcrafted items or craft supplies to benefit Queensland flood victims. Check out the auction list . Some of the items are raffled for as little as $5 and every bit helps

What I've been up to this week - Week 4

Not the best week on record. As usual when I'm on call at work, everything else is affected. Crafting time was as scarce as sleep. I did squeeze a couple of hours of crafting (mostly last Saturday with Amie).   A couple of hours of join efforts yielded a dozen Valentine's hearts.

Satin Valentine's heart

I played some more with beads and made a green yellow and peacock necklace for me and a pink heart necklace for my little bug.

Peacock necklace

Pink heart necklace

 

My sewing machine didn't work very heard this week. Only this pillowcase got finished.

Stripped pillow

Lastly I figured out the solution of my engineering issue with the play tent and it's is now standing strong so I'm now putting the finishing touches. A few more days and it'll be read to ship to my nieces.

Play tent

Stripes are chic

I know I've been very absorbed by beads the pas couple of weeks but I haven't boxed my sewing. I'm in planning mode rather. 

I recently scored that blue fabric for a song ( I think it came down to $1 a yard). It doesn't really have a right side and a wrong side but rather a lighter and a darker one. I like both and the color marries perfectly with the chocolate brown of the basement's sofa. Out with the old yellow pillow cases and in with the peacock blue. I started with stripes but I'd like to make the other ones in other variations of the same fabric. Currently digging for other design ideas for bicolor patterns.

Sweetheart... really

My little bug is fascinated with the new goodies in the studio. The past couple of  days, she has asked to sit on my lap while necklaces and bracelets are coming along. All those shiny beads, it's a lot of temptation for a little girl that loves bling.  But she has been awfully good about not touching any. So when she asked "Maman, tu me fais un collier, s'il te plait" (i.e. Mommy, can you make a necklace for me please), I had to make something special for my princess, she's such a sweetheart. So we went together to pick beads last Monday and I finished it last night.

She likes it a lot 

  

Progress report - The princess tent

Things are coming together a bit slower than I had hoped but so much better! A girlfriend commissioned a fabric organizer and bought waayyyy too much fabric for it. The organizer is done and delivered, and she gave me all the leftover fabric. So the tent now has a 'floor' made of that really solid grey fabric. It attaches to the body of the tent with snaps and conceals the bottom tube structure. I also started sewing the embellishments : flowers, pennant banner and curtains (yes curtains). I'm also finishing up a couple of pillow cases with the same fabric as the pennant banner. 

Here are the latest pictures... I think I'm in the race for aunt of the year :)

Ok I can't believe I'n typing this... I should really iron it before taking pictures next time :p

Hooked on beads

I kinda got hooked on making pretty jewelry. I blame it all on Amie (Just kidding... I'm very thankful). I got a few supplies and made another necklace. I'm still working out the design here. I may add another row or two.

Trading Post - Oh my {heart}!

This past Saturday, Amie from Kittycats and Airplanes came to my house for another crafty play date. We had bounced ideas via email about Valentine's crafts and decided on little satin hearts. I showed Amie how to make the hearts following the same method I used to make Christmas ornaments. We picked a smaller heart shape. Instead of hand-stitching the opening, we used a special foot and topstitched them

Here they are all naked, but not for long

It was time to beautify them. My ruffler foot got another workout with lace and organza. Then we plugged the glue guns and dug up in beads, buttons, ribbons, lace, glitter and even feathers and decorated them. We ran short of time so 2 of them were not finished when Amie had to head home but this is what came out of our combined efforts. 

Here are the ones I trimmed, all 6 now finished.

This one is my favorite, Amie got the idea and I loved it so much I had to have one too...

A fun afternoon for both of us. Next installment soon. We already picked a date for next month. I can't wait !!

PS: Have you seen the GFC counter?? Almost 250!! Amie kindly agreed to craft something special for a giveaway to celebrate this milestone. I'm psyched!!

Featured !!