A New Favorite

 I realized the other day that it's almost August and well past time for me to start getting more Fall stuff into my shop.  Yikes!  So I started sewing... booties of course!  These happen to be my new favorite and I'll definitely be making a pair for Ara this Fall!

I also made some Saskatchewan themed booties.  Saskatchewan themed in that they are green and gold and well those are the colors of Saskatchewan!

Then of course I had to add something a little more girly:

I have five more pairs that just need their buttons sewn on.  Some of those will be going into my shop and some the others will bring my total made for the Calgary Pregnancy Care Center up to three pairs.  You can read all about that here.

I'm hoping to get a few back to school items in my shop yet but it looks as though the weather might turn nice again soon so maybe I won't ;)

And the Middle One Turns Three

nope not this one... she's not quite one and she's my adorable niece all ready for the pirate party!

pirate cupcakes and the birthday boy!

there's them cupcakes!

this one really enjoyed them...

and this one obviously enjoyed both his cupcakes and his present!

big brother there to help, just in case ;)

A Wedding Gift

My lovely sister in law Kara got married last month so naturally I decided to make her something.  I knew she wanted table linens and I knew she loves linen so here's what I came up with.

brown tea towels with a cream strip and stamped bird

cream and brown place mats

I also made a long simple table runner out of that creamy/beige linen but somehow forgot to take a picture of it.  (Kara maybe you can send me one?)  That's okay though, seeing as the others are all taken on my not so pretty iron board.  (which I just replaced... so much prettier now!)

My other sister in law Shelly (the one who does all my logos, banners, etc.) and another lovely friend Jessie and I all took Kara out one night for a little bachelorette party and rather than each getting her random pieces of lingerie we all contributed differently to one special package.  My contribution was a linen lingerie wash bag and some lavender sachets.

again, lame pictures but it's a drawstring bag hand stamped.

This was my first time working with real linen and despite the fact that it was more challenging than cotton, I loved it.  I've already made Ara a pinafore out of it and really hope to get some more projects made in linen soon!

Pinafore's In Shop!

 

You can find all these pretty pinafore's on sale here:  Handmade Therapy Kids Dresses

Why I Do What I Do

I often get asked why exactly I sew.  There are so many reasons why I do but here are a few:

• It really is fun, 95% of the time I love being behind my sewing machine!
• I have this constant "need" to create.  I really can't handle not being productive so it really does satiate my need to create things.
• Sewing and selling things in my shop pays for all my crafting and sewing supplies.
• I love being able to make something for myself that I would otherwise have to buy
• My kids LOVE it when I make things for them
• I really do love handmade.

Okay so now you know most of my reasons but there's one thing that's been bugging me lately about all those reasons.... they are almost all about ME.  Granted I've donated the odd item over the past couple of years but those have been few and far between and really just not enough.  So I'm working on it, I'm working on changing my hobby into being about OTHERS just as much as it is about ME.

How am I going to do that?

From now until this fall, I'm going to try and make as many Baby Booties as I can.  I won't be listing them in my shop however (at least not all of them) instead I'll be packaging them all up and bringing them over to a place called the Pregnancy Care Center   In their own words the Pregnancy Care Center is "a non-profit agency offering assistance for anyone facing an unplanned pregnancy or experiencing post abortion stress."  At the Pregnancy Care Center they have an area they call the Layette Room where the keep new things donated to them.  If a mother uses their services on a consistent basis when baby is born they fill a basket full of new items to give to her.  The booties I donate would be included in those baskets.

So my goal is to get at least one, hopefully more pairs of booties made per week for the center.  After that I'll keep my eyes open for other non-profit organizations within my home city of Calgary that are in need of baby items.

Want to help?
If you have polar fleece you want me to make into booties, send it to me!  I'll do my best to get all donated fabric sewn up for the Pregnancy Care Center.  If you live locally I hope to do a "mass production" evening.  Basically if you have a sewing machine bring it, if not, bring a pair of scissors and you can help cut the booties out.  Double bonus of coming to help make the booties?  You also get to learn how to make them!

Feel free to shoot me an email at handmadetherapy(at)gmail(dot)com if you have any questions or need a mailing address to send some fabric my way. I can't wait to see how many booties I can get made up in the next couple of months here!

Geekery

I'm not going to lie, I am a big Harry Potter fan so naturally I'm pretty excited to see the final movie this weekend.  Not suprisingly Etsy is full of some pretty cool HP related stuff so I've made a treasury or two to get all those fans extra excited.

'Countdown to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows' by handmadetherapykids

I'm counting, are you??

wickedillusion $128.00	ViperCoraraDes... $10.00	HesedBooksAndG... $3.00	kristinatuck $13.00
HollyPresley $53.00	kylespears $20.00	dresslikeaunic... $17.00	tesorojewelry $18.00
evietees $19.45	nikinut $10.00	PolkaDotToadst... $18.00	EMichniacki $25.00
fantazy007 $7.00	aspiecraft $12.00	iconicearrings $20.00	PurpleHeartz $20.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

 

 You can click on each item to be taken to that particular shop, or you can see the full treasury by clicking on the title!

Are you going to see The Deathly Hallows this weekend?

 

Garage Sale Finds

I've always loved garage saleing.  This year though, is the first year in a while that I've actually gone, I don't know why I ever stopped because boy can you find good deals!

Here's my favorite deal of last weekend.... this awesome sewing box (the same one my mom had/has and therefore makes me feel all sentimental) full, and I mean FULL of thread.  Every color, type and size imaginable for a whopping $20.  There's well over $100 worth of thread alone inside so I'm pretty happy with my score!

 

 

and my favorite, a few vintage wooden spooled threads!

In The Garden

 Today we spent the day in the garden.  Travis actually dug out a new one, filling it with grape vines!  This whole wine making thing he's gotten into may be getting out of hand...  good thing we both love the stuff!  I moved a bunch of my perennials around, I want to fill my side of the house garden with strawberries so the flowers had to go.  My sister in law took a few, my neighbour a few, and the rest I moved to other places around the house. 

 

 freshly planted grape vines

 

My vegetable garden is looking the best it ever has!  Things are starting to get dry here so Trav used all the lawn clippings as a mulch to keep the moisture where we want it.

 

Last but not least, our raspberries are finally producing!  We should get a really decent crop this year which I am really looking forward to, we only planted the canes 3 years ago.

So our little yard is slowly but surely becoming as much of a food producing place as it is a play place.  It may not be our dream acreage but I'm not complaining!

Holidays - At the Beach

We have been on holidays a bunch in the last couple of weeks, thus my excuse from blogging.  I took so,so many pictures that there is no way I can share them all, so I'm just going to do a couple posts of my favorite moments.  First favorite moment?  At the beach on the South Saskatchewan River near Herbert, SK.