I made a hat!!

If you have a look over at my Flickr pics, you can see the hat I made for myself this week. It turned out quite well in the end, especially for a first attempt. I will definitely be making variations of this for myself, as I often wear hats and like to have a bit of variety. It will be interesting to see how it washes – most of my other hats are woven paper or straw and I’m not sure what you can do with them once they get dirty, which they inevitably do when you wear them in the garden. Oh, and when you let your children borrow them. And they eat chocolate. And transfer it to your previously pristine white hat…

The pattern I used for the hat was McCall’s M4400. As I made this on a whim, I didn’t have any interfacing handy and just used some muslin I had in stock. I also had to reduce the height of the crown as it was too big for me. The next time I make it, I think I will use medium weight interfacing for the brim and reduce the height of the crown at the pattern stage.

The main issue I had with making this hat was that I broke the needle in my sewing machine, which resulted in an unpleasant and worrisome noise. I took it in to the shop, where they prised the beloved machine from my fingers. It was quite difficult to leave it behind. When I learned that the chap wouldn’t be able to look at it until he returned from holiday some time next week I decided to retrieve it. At least I would have it in my possession. As it turned out, the very, very kind repair man was in the shop at the time and mended it for me while I waited! What an absolute gem! It was just a burr on the bobbin case, so he could do it then and there. I cannot tell you how very happy I was to have my lovely machine back safe and sound and working perfectly again. I felt rather lost without it.

Anyway, all is well now and I have heaps of projects in mind and a few orders to fulfill, too, so it is going to be a fun summer! Crowns, tutus, bedding, another kaftan, lounge pants, handbags, crayon rolls and maybe even some things for me!

Happy Canada Day!!

It is a glorious, sunny day and we’ll be out enjoying the festivities. It is also 8 years since my husband first came to Canada and fell in love with the place (thank goodness!). Arriving on Canada Day and celebrating at the park, seeing happy people, listening to music, eating good food, great weather and a wonderful atmosphere sealed the deal and he proposed a few days later!

Today is also a big day for us as my brother arrives from Australia today. We haven’t seen him for two years and we are all very excited. I hope he isn’t too tired from his long journey because the girls have plans for him! They have been waiting for someone to play football with them. Not just anyone, someone who has skill!

Will pop back later and post some pics of the fun!

New bag

I made a bag for my wonderful neighbour, Elaine. She is a lovely woman and is very tolerant of the girls talking to her endlessly and making her dog run up and down along the fence line. If we go out in the garden and he’s not there, they call for him! They also pick daisies and dandelions and pass them to Elaine over the fence.

Deluxe big bag with lots of pockets

Interior of bag

The exterior of the bag is made with home decor weight fabric with beautiful bold flowers on a warm brown background. The front features a divided, lined pocket. The lining is the same fabric as the upper facing inside the bag. The lining of the bag itself is a medium weight cream cotton and the base and pockets are made with a quilting cotton with a print of butterflies on a cream background. I wanted the interior to be light, so that it is easy to find things – I learned my lesson from making my own bag with a black interior – not so good! The interior of this very spacious bag features a key clip, as always, and pockets for cellphone, pen and notebook, as well as several other pockets. Even with the pockets filled, the centre of the bag is still available for carrying a sweater, shopping, snacks and drinks or whatever you need. The closure is a reinforced magnetic snap.

End of the preschool year

Tomorrow is Pip’s final day at preschool and it is definitely a time of mixed emotions. She has absolutely loved being at Beach Kids and has thrived under the care and attention of the lovely teachers there. We will do our best to have playdates with her friends over the summer, but she knows that come September they will all go their separate ways. As excited as she is about starting kindergarten, she will definitely miss the friends she has made and we will both have to start afresh in September, with all new people.

As a small thank you to the preschool teachers, I have made some coffee cup cozies using a tutorial from the talented Erin over at House on Hill Road. Even though I don’t drink coffee, it will be hard to give these away!

Coffee cup cozies

We had to go to Tom Horton’s today to buy a drink so I had a cup to test the cozies on – I didn’t want to put the buttons in the wrong place. Of course, while we were there, we had to buy some doughnuts too! Before you get totally disgusted, no, we did not eat them all! A dozen is a much better deal than buying them individually and I cannot resist a bargain!

Doughnuts

Back to the subject of preschool. As you may have gathered from previous posts, Pip is quite particular about things. She knows what she likes and will not be swayed, even if it means that the preschool “graduation” photos do not go quite as planned. She did NOT like the black gown and, as much as she likes having her photo taken generally, she really did not want to cooperate! She could hardly wait to get the gown off and get back to the normal routine of preschool.

Preschool grad

These are a few of my favourite things

Evening light in the garden

garden

Washing hanging on the line

I love hanging washing out to dry, especially when it includes new fabric!

Beautiful surroundings

Being able to make really good pie!

My incredible husband

Sewing/embellishing/storage

My studio

Baking, with my little helpers!

Snippets of garden

We have quite a large garden – our lot is nearly 11000 square foot, 1000 of which is house footprint and approximately 750 of vegetable garden, plus flower beds. So, yes, it is big! We are what I like to call “experimental” gardeners. We try things, observe, and hope for the best, then move plants if they don’t thrive. The place is always changing, as we come up with new ideas, see what grows well, receive cuttings and transplants from friends and family and need to relocate things to improve the layout or flow.

It is a labour of love and we get enormous pleasure from our beautiful surroundings. It is by no means perfect, but it is all ours and it is a happy space.

Face painting

We went to a Healthy Start to Learning event this morning and the girls had their faces painted. The lady was very talented and the girls were utterly delighted by their new look – and the attention they received throughout the day!

butterfly girls

Now I just have to figure out how to get it all off…..

Birthday party fun

Little P is 5! How can that be? Where did all that time go?!

I am too tired to write much about it right now, but I can post a few pics from the day….

birthday girl in her new dress and crown

Birthday treat - breakfast at A&W

Pip's fabulous cake - exactly as she wanted

This cake turned out exactly as she wanted. She spoke to the man at the shop and asked if she could have a rainbow cake with sparkles and this is what he did for her. One side is chocolate, one side plain, Bavarian cream filling, rainbow, edible glitter and no flowers to fight over! Success!

Party banner and gazebo

inside gazebo

sunflowers for goodie bags

That’s it for now. Will download photos from the other camera and continue later!

Missing links

Not sure what has happened to all my links. Apologies! I will try to figure it out and get them back as soon as I can.

Birthday goodies

I had my birthday a few days ago, our daughter is turning 5 next week, the gardening season is definitely upon us and I have also been busy sewing birthday gifts for multiple parties, so I have been neglecting my poor blog. I promise to get back in the swing of things very soon, with lots of pictures and news of creative excitement. Well, excitement for me, anyway!

For my birthday, my lovely mother gave me two thread holders. I had 3 clear thread boxes, but they took up quite a bit of space on the desk and I was always putting stuff on top of them. This solution is awesome!! I now have space for 120 spools, which is fine for now. Despite being able to almost fill them both, I find there are a few colours I still need, so when I get those I can shift some of the extra whites to my sewing box. I had to include the embellishment storage unit in the photos because I love it so much!

thread racks

The weather has been fantastic for the last few days and we have been spending a lot of time outside. If we didn’t need to feed the children, we would probably be out there until it gets dark. It is such a busy time of year in the garden and so much needs to be done to get set for the season, but I really, really enjoy it. Every day I am thrilled to see what changes are happening, what new growth has come up, what new joy our lovely space has to offer. I feel refreshed and peaceful, even though I know I still need to keep pace with weeding, more seeds need to be planted, etc. We all love this beautiful place. I haven’t been quite as vigorous with the work for the last few weeks, thanks to my injured back, but between us we are managing it all.

Pip’s 5th birthday is next week. I will be back tomorrow with details of the plans for the festivities, as well as some shots of the garden, hopefully! The picture below was taken a couple of weeks ago and it looks different already. The rhubarb in the background has been fantastic this year and I hope we get an equally good crop of cherries. Back soon!

cherry tree and rhubarb