Treasuries!

Just wanted to share with you a couple of treasuries on etsy!  This one here features one of my bags... Purses to Drool Over
And this one is one that I just curated to help celebrate Canada Day tomorrow!  Canada From Sea to Shining Sea

Enjoy! :)

Giveaway Wins

Last Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day I won something!  This lovely pack of fabrics.  Aren't they fantastic?  Not sure what I'll make with them yet but there are so many pretty prints in it. Any suggestions?

Thrifty Finds!

While in Manitoba we stayed with Trav's Aunt and Uncle in a small little town just outside of Winnipeg.  In that town they had a huge MCC Thrift Store so of course I had to go check it out.  Wow did I get some steals!  I couldn't believe the prices there.  I bought everything you see below and tons more for a grand total of $20!!  And people say you only get good deals in big city!

some felt and vintage buttons

I plan to make some new dish cloths out of this waffle fabric

a pretty scarf, I thought it would make great lining fabric for a bag

a couple of pretty handmade doilies

pretty fabrics

I fell in love with this table cloth

not sure what I'll use these for, there are 4 of them and they are so pretty

more fabric

besides all this lace and trims, I also got a ton more for my sister

okay I'll admit I didn't need these, but the packaging was awesome and for .10 each, I picked them up anyway.

Besides all that I also got more vintage buttons and a bunch of patterns.  Score... no?

Holidays Part One

I'm back!  Back home that is.  It is so very nice to be home after a great holiday.  Travis just left for work for the first time in over 2 weeks so it's time for me to get used to just me and the kids again.

Our holidays were great.  We spent a week in Manitoba visiting with family and cousins and going to 2 weddings.  The weather was great just about the entire time but wow were the mosquito's bad!  We survived them however and spent lots of time outside shooting bows with Trav's cousins.  Travis had made one for one of his cousins and it turned out that pretty much everyone loved shooting so his list of bows to make has just grown immensely.  Both the weddings we went to were supposed to be outside ceremonies but they both ended up indoors.  The one wedding got rained out and the other one got moved indoors because the ground was just way too wet!  I have to admit it was nice to not have to worry about slapping mosquito's off myself and the kids during the whole ceremony.

The boys had a great time with Trav's cousins kids, and his cousins.  I don't think they've ever gotten so much attention.  They also did amazing in the van considering in total we spent over 40 hours in over the 2 weeks.  All the stickers and coloring books and kids music Cd's really helped.  I don't really think there was ever a point where we just couldn't keep them happy anymore and for the most part they fully entertained themselves.  (and yes! we did all that driving without a DVD player!)  Ara also did amazing in the van.  I made a point of feeding her every time we stopped for gas or a potty break or to eat and we never did have to stop specifically for her.

The second week we spent in Saskatchewan at Trav's parents place.  We spent 2 full days and one night out a their cabin canoeing and quading and hanging out.  I also managed to finally finish the book I started before Ara was born!  (The Fiery Cross (Outlander) by Diana Gabaldon)  We also got some visiting in with friends, I got to see my friend Pam who I haven't seen in 5 years!  And the best part was probably getting to spend some time alone, just Trav and I which really doesn't happen too often.

there isn't usually water here, but Saskatchewan has gotten so much rain this spring this place just filled right up enough water to go canoeing!

Anyway, enough talking about my holidays, here are some more pictures!

Riding at Trav's Aunt's stables, Prairie Stables

Brayer had a great time riding with daddy, Kaed was a little too afraid to try.

Here's the bow Trav made for his cousin Kaeleb

Having ice cream at The Forks in Winnipeg

Brayer and his much loved Uncle John

Brayer loving life at the cabin

Sore Back?

When we were at the Museum of Manitoba last week I saw this display of a lady sewing cross legged on the floor in a tee pee.  I swear I will never again complain of a sore back from sewing.

Holidays!

I am currently in Manitoba having a great time and quite literally getting eaten alive by mosquitos.  It's beautiful here though, so green and so many trees.  Yesterday we went to the Museum of Manitoba  and I took a bunch of pictures of old sewing machines and displays so I'll be sharing those with you when I get home and on my own computer.

We have a couple of days left here in Manitoba and then we'll be heading back to Saskatchewan for another week of relaxing.  Holidays are fantastic :)

Where I've Been

Well we've had quite the week!  We were in and out of the Children's Hosptital here in Calgary all week with Kaed.  He was having some kidney issues and after lots of tests and ultrasounds and things they've concluded that he just has a virus of some sort.  Thank God!  We were even able to leave for holidays today, right on schedule so now you know where I've been and now you know I still won't be blogging for a while!  I'll be back home in a couple of weeks and who knows, maybe I'll find a computer here and there to update you all on our travels!

Addiction

I have an addiction.  It used to be scrapbook paper, now it's fabric.  At least the fabric I generally can make into something I can sell but sometimes I just need to learn to stop!  Fabricland (the big chain store in Canada) has had a pretty insane sale the last week and I've been twice.  The problem is that each trip generally tends to result in another rather large stack of fabric and another rather large chunk in my bank account.  One of these days I'll take a picture of my fabric closet for you (there's infinitely more cloth in there than in my clothes closet..) but for now here's some of the stuff I've bought recently.

Jammy's for the Boys

I finally got around to do some sewing for the boys again.  I picked up some dinosaur/truck flannel the other day for really cheap so made up some jammy's.  The shirts they already had and have had a bit of wear... too worn out for nice use so perfect for jammy shirts.  I just used the last little bit of the fabric to cut out a couple squares and sewed them on.  They should fray a tiny bit around the edges after the first wash which is what I was going for.  The pants were really simple, I just used a pair of their best fitting jogging pants as a pattern and went to town!  I love how the whole shirts/pants set turned out and the boys loved them even more.  Once the sewing was all done we went outside for a photo shoot!

apparently sticking out your tongue while modeling is the thing to do...

and this is what they did when I asked them to show me the back

The Shelly Bag

Well I did it... I made a bag for myself!  It's been a while but wow do I love it.  It was actually a trial run for a custom one I'm doing for my sister in law. (thus the name of the bag... The Shelly Bag)  She showed me a few pics of bags she liked and I just went from there!   This was my first time just looking at a bag and then trying to sort of reproduce it on my own.  Making the pattern was a bit tough but it worked!  I'm pretty happy about the whole thing and it was really fun to make something totally my own rather than just reproducing the same bag over and over again.  Don't worry I have a feeling there will be a lot of bags in this style in my shop in the near future :)

and once again blogger is being ridiculous and flipping this picture on it's side... sorry!

In the Shop

I listed these gift packs in my shop last night.  I made them with the intent of selling them as a 3 pack but now I wonder if I should maybe sell them separately instead?  What do you think?

This one is my favorite and I will definitely be making more like it.  Maybe incorporate the ruffles into a handbag or something.  I've seen other zipper pouches around with the same idea so I just kind of took a chance and tried to figure it out on my own and it worked!  The pouch I use for my makeup now looks so boring I think I'll have to make a new one :)

Jewellery Tutorial

My little sister made a "tutorial" on her blog.  It cracks me up.  Go read it here

yes, that is a ferret.  go find out what it has to do with making jewellery