That time I Ripped Up Pride & Prejudice

I came across this tutorial and loved the quirky wreath style and thought it would be a perfect Christmas decoration for our house.

I would have loved to use the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens because in my mind that would have been perfection, however I couldn't find it in the particular op shop I was looking in on the day I decided that I wanted to do it....and well we all know I am nothing if not headstrong and impatient at times...and this was one of those times *ahem* character flaw, moving right along... I did come across a copy of Pride and Prejudice and in my version of logic it was ok to buy it only to rip it to pieces because I already own it and have read it a few times. Problem solved. If you are not as pedantic as me when it comes to literature you could always use any book you don't like the look of, but personally I wanted to be sure I wasn't investing a lot of time into hanging tripe on my wall.

I'll be honest, I did squirm a bit when ripping out the first few pages, it just seemed so wrong. I suppose the fact that I majored in English literature didn't help either, but after I got over the initial uneasyness it was actually quite relaxing to rip a book to shreds. You should try it sometime, it had almost a cathartic effect.

I ran out of glue so will need to buy some more before it is totally finished but here it is so far:

I burned myself countless times with the glue gun, I even have a blister to prove it, but don't let that deter you from giving it a go. I just don't have any idea what I'm doing but jumped in and did it anyway...hmm impatience seems to be a theme, should probably work on that.

Happy Christmas :)

Service with a smile...and surprises :)

I'm seriously loving these little homie pants, I made some for Tavi and wanted to make a pair and matching onesie for Sienna who I photographed the other week.

Hopefully Sienna and her Mama like them and the photos :)

And my little accomplice? 

He busied himself with a top hat and I'm so very glad he did. 

This is why i tend to have my camera close by at all times. I think you can sometimes have all these great ideas for photos but the best ones are often totally random things that happen. Here's to cherishing the fleeting moments, baby smiles, and random happenings amongst the chaos of life!

Sew look what I made :)

Aside from finishing off Tavi's quilt (except for the binding) I also made an eye mask today. My sister is heading off to China next week and I thought some pretty eye shades might be nice for her trip. The last few times I've travelled they didn't give out eye shades unless you request them but even then they are made of el cheapo elastic and plasticky material, not very nice at all. These are made using material I had from other projects and some of the lovely bamboo wadding from Tavi's quilt, I plan on finding a use for all of the leftovers cuz its just so nice!

These are simple to make once you get your head around piecing it together...I had to borrow Chris's brain because spatial awareness is definitely not my strong point, but the sewing was very straight forward and it doesn't require much material. If you have some material and wadding leftover from a quilt these would be a lovely gift for anyone heading overseas or who just wants to sleep in after the sun comes up (and really isn't that all of us?). If you'd like to have a go at making an eye mask for you or someone in your life I used this tutorial. Quick, easy, pretty, what more could you want?

Baby Homie Pants

About half way through my pregnancy I had an insane urge to sew ALL THE THINGS! However its wasn't until this weekend that I finally made Tavi something to wear.

Try your very best not to be too jealous of my iphonetastic photos, I'm not sure where my normal camera was at the time so these will have to suffice. Normally I avoid any and all types of sewing that involve a pattern, I'd love to say this is because of my fancy free nature but really it is simply because I have the spatial awareness of a brick. No wait, that is too generous, but the point is I'm so very bad at translating a bit of paper and instructions into creating something nice. Thankfully Chris is usually there to save me and bring a bit of logic to the situation. He also provides some lovely tunes and entertainment for Tavi while I sew .

I finally found a boy pattern that I thought I could manage in amongst the abundance of girlie girl patterns online. I won't lie, there was some redirection and unpicking involved but after an initial minor hiccup it was all good and actually fun to sew. No swearing at the machine involved! To make some pants for the little guy (or girl) in your life, check out the tutorial and free pattern along with many others here.

Also a bit of advice, if you plan on doing any major sewing, quilting, or just want to make life a bit easier invest in a rotary cutter and mat, I got my cutter on clearance for $5 and it was well worth it. It came in handy particularly for making these pants, no pinning or marking involved, just hold the pattern firmly on top of the material and cut around.

The original motivation was to make some pants for him firstly because he has grown out of pretty much everything, and secondly to make some pants big enough to cover his huge cloth nappy covered butt! I also liked how these were 3/4 length, so not too hot but long enough to cover his knees when he gets a bit more mobile. Speaking of which, he has started a crawling action but minus the arms which lay flat by his side, resulting in him looking like a deranged caterpillar. I'm sorry my love but its true.

 Ok, a very cute deranged caterpillar. 

Sadly there was no way the green ones would cover his ample rump with a cloth nappy on so I made him a bigger pair too which he wore to church :) 

So there you have it, easy to make and undeniably cute baby homie pants. Next time I might try adding some more details, cuz you know, bright green and blue polka dot pants are definitely not attention grabbing enough ;) I also have a few more sewing projects in the works, that might help give you some ideas if you are thinking about doing any handmade Christmas presents this year but I need to wait until they are gifted first so hopefully I'll be able to post about those in the next week or so.