Flag bunting Extravaganza!

Ever since spotting my first flag bunting over on ohdeedoh I've been totally gaga for the spiky, novel room decor. Post after post displayed beautiful handmade buntings that really made the spaces they were in pop!





Needless to say I caught the bug... the bunting bug! We're fortunate enough to have a nice large room to dedicate as a playroom but the walls are made of rock and the ceiling is a slanted dark wood paneled one... hardly very cheerful. I would have loved to paint the room in one or several of my favorite bright hues... but it's a rental and rock... so no such luck! Then I got thinking a flag bunting would be such a fantastic way to introduce some colour and whimsy! I decided to make a bunting for the back wall... so you'd see it on entry and from other parts of the house... Now that wall is almost 8 metres long! we were going to need a lot of bunting!



I had a really hard time choosing fabrics and ended up going for a whopping 18 different patterns in almost every colour of the rainbow. I used a mix of designer fabrics by Amy Butler (used several colourways of the Wallflower fabric), Heather Bailey, Erin Mcmorris, Alex henry, Joel Dewberry, as well as some others I had lying around. I made three flags out of each fabric for a total of 54 flags! I used a cardboard cutout template and cut out the fabric flags with a rotary cutter. The Cutting and sewing of the flags was long and laborious... The part I was dreading the most.. affixing them to bias tape actually turned out to be so fast and easy the flags were on and the bunting complete within less than half an hour! after debating for days how to sequence the flags I made up a random pattern and repeated it three times.



I love how it turned out and hope to be able to enjoy it in our playrooms for years to come. It's really that missing piece that lends the room some pizazz! My daughter let out an enthusiastic "wwowww" and "pretty" when she first saw it so I guess it's got her seal of approval too!

Felt Food Frenzy!

Ever since stumbling onto etsy.... albeit "accidentally" I've loved felt food. In all honesty it was love at first sight! how cool to have lifelike goodies and dishes all lovingly handmade with felt (wool felt for the connoisseurs...) I've been impatiently waiting for my little one to grow up and start to appreciate the art of pretend... that way I get to play tea party all over again! While we aren't quite there yet, just a rather mature 16 month old... I figure it'll take me a while to curate and make these goodies so I could get a head start already...

There are many books on making pretend felt food goodies... all of them in Japanese?! maybe something to do with the Japanese fetish for all things Kawaii... while I have a couple on my wish list I've been perusing the web for free patterns and with a little improvisation making my own. Let me tell you it is addictive!!

So far I've been "baking" up some cookies and we've "harvested" some veggies.... and I can't stop!! nor do I really want to, not until we have a play kitchen full! I'm making some "reverse" patterns, meaning cutting freehand and tracing the successful pieces... trying to get hubby to help transfer some to pdf form so I can post a tutorial or two... In order to make my creations complete I wanted to learn some new embroidery stitches, thanks to youtube (I love the possibilities of the net!) I now know how to execute the blanket stitch and the very evasive french knot! Below are the video tutorials I watched.



So simple! really it is!



I could do this stitch in my sleep now... whipping up a new batch of cookies in no time...


Here's a plate of dark chocolate raspberry cream filled cookies... looking almost good enough to eat on my mothers vintage Noritake.


and of course some classic choco chip and choco sprinkle cookies...



Sweet tooth's aside we try to get a health dose of wholesome veggies everyday...


The felt food craze fits my Montessori and Waldorf influenced parenting style spot on, I mean what could make a better plaything for a toddler than felt food loving whipped up by your doting mother?

Busy Bee!

I've been quite busy lately trying to work on stuff for my shop, learn how to knit... (well sort of..) complete my assignments for school; I got to design a chair, a lamp, and packaging for spaghetti! and I'm currently drawing up plans for a duplex conversion, all while still taking care of my little pookie, whom by the way is growing up way too fast... and oh yeah! I'm an Aunt! My sister in law had a son, my first nephew! last week.

So I've designed and ordered labels for my etsy shop wares, and I'm anxiously waiting for there arrival! I've even figured out what was causing my sewing machine to fly out of whack....(cracked engine case...) and have designated some time towards my sewing. Here are some things I've been working on lately;



This is a bib I made for my daughter, I just love polka dots especially in some of my favorite colours, red and white! with some brown thrown in for good measure! it still needs some final stitches but all in all I'm happy with its outcome!


These are the pacifier clips I'm working on for my shop, "Preppy stripes", there were more but we're using some and others I gave as gifts... I hope to finish them up as soon as the labels get here and start listing on my shop!


Speaking of gifts, these toy blocks will be a set of three for my nephew, made with some of my favorite Amy butler and Joel Dewberry fabrics! I think they work great together! I'm also making another set for friends, hopefully after that I'll have some time to make some for my shop...

I was asked to help decorate the tables for my nephews Bris, the theme was green and blue, so I made these "Gift box" centerpieces....

Lastly these are some Cath Kidston fabric swatches I plan on turing into a "Shabby chic" block set for my own little girl, gotta love Cath! I'd seen and heard of her stuff before but I really became a fan after purchasing a "Letter pillow" from Yvonne of Yvestown with my daughters initial. Yvonne is totally gaga for Cath, check out her home on flickr, it's like an ode to Cath kidston!