Backyard Adventure

Yesterday DD and I had a backyard adventure. Absolutely epic, I assure you. It's quite fascinating.

First she examined the fountain and found it to be lacking.

 

What to do, what to do. (Sidenote, I made those leggings. They were tights. Not really a huge project but a good use of tights that were getting too small, I feel.)

 

We shall fetch us a rock.

 

Insert rock into fountain...

 

Presto! She has a knack. For something. Not sure what.

 

She runs away, happy with the fountain and it's new 'je ne c'est quoi.'

 

She has more to do. She must conquer the picnic table!

 

One giant leap for babykind!  (Seriously, though, I couldn't climb onto something that tall in relation to my body, so snaps for DD.)

 

And she finds and scatters the flyers I was looking at. How can I covet without first looking through the flyers? I have to chase after the flyers and hunt them all down. Mommy is not super thrilled with this.

 

Sensing my lack of enthusiasm, she offers me a stick as consolation. Peace is restored to the jungle.

 

The End!

Yes, my picnic table is in sad need of a new coat of paint. A project for next summer! For you may note, she is wearing a puffy vest and long sleeves... tis early fall already! (Booo, winter is coming. She has decided she is an outdoors kind of gal just in time to spend the next half year Indoors.)

Big Old To-Do List

Okay, so I have quite a to-do list going on, crafty wise. Next wednesday (augh i am so running out of time alskjdf;laskufjowierul;kjfds what is wrong with meeeee *spazzfit*) I am co-hosting a double babyshower. I am super over ambitious and like to work under pressure, apparently, since that's how i keep doing everything. The plan is to make up some invitations (which go out on sunday), make some boxes into pretty memory boxes, and make some notebooks into pretty notebooks where the guests will post the best and worst parenting / baby advice they have recieved.  Personally, best = she will not die from crying. If there is nothing else wrong, just put her to bed and let her cry. Odds are she is just tired anyways.  worst = 'you can get her ears pinned back for free'. I had nothing to say to that one but "hm." or something equally clever. Would do alter the looks of this baby?

I think her ears are cute and funny and do not stick out enough to need surgery, by far! yeesh.

Anyways. To Do List.
I also want to see if I can do anything with my grad dress. Whether I made a gorgeous skirt or a top or even see if I can throw in some boning and make it into a laceup dress. And I went to fix the hem of a cream coloured cord skirt I made out of old cord pants, and they were lovely but one hem I did I apparently overestimated the amount of hem before stitching because it came out. And I couldn't find the stitch ripper so I tried ripping the seam and I TOTALLY RIPPED THE SKIRT. So I would like to see if I can salvage any of it to make DD a skirt out of it, because it is a nice colour of cord and i'm so mad about it. 
I would also like to continue on knitting Gigi, I am nearly done Left Front and must forge on to complete Right Front because them I'm just seaming and DONE! My summer sweater in time for fall. Speaking of sweaters, I also want to unravel this tunic sweater I bought for $5 at Old Navy last year and knit a sweatery jackety thing instead, there's more than enough yarn for it. It's a nice cotton/lambswool blend in a natural lightbrown kind of colour but I might try dye it dark brown. It just bags on me though so that's why I'm refashioning it.

So, to do... boxes, invites, notebooks... Gigi, grad dress, unravel/redo sweater... and I want to do it all yesterday. That and make a wallet for me and for DH out of an old pleather jacket of his with a rip in it. And possibly turn an old suit of his into a new suit for me but I have to go relook at the colour first. Need more hours in the day, and less TV as well. lol.

I'd like to end with a THANKYOU to knittin4britain, she killed me in Yarn Smackdown with the most gorgeous merino/cashmere pink lace scarf and I feel like such a fox wearing it.

  I love this scarf LONGTIME. it's long and pretty and soft and i love it.

PS if anyone can name all the feet in this picture, and the wierd metal thingie (possibly a screwdriver) I swear I'll knit/crochet them something and send it. Because I think I found most of them online but if somebody is sure about them that'd be fab. They came with my sewing machine from my mom, and a manual DID NOT.

Camping

Well, I'm back from camping. I have a lovely tan, no burn, and a newly strengthened resolution to get back on the weightloss wagon. Nothing makes you realize you're getting to an uncomfortable state of weight than camping in hot weather. I've felt like I looked fat for a bit, but I didn't really FEEL fat until last week when I was camping. So I'm going to go down to the pool and buy a little thingie where I can swim as much as I want for three months. Cheaper than a gym membership, less commitmenty, and I love swimming. Now if only I had some sort of underwater ipod device.

One of my favourite friends just let me in on a big ole secret that she's preggers. I'm so excited for her. Gonna start stashing my baby clothes and hoping she has a girl. I think she'd be pretty happy with that too, and I know she'd love my babyclothes stash. And she, like me, is one of those people who will totally take a good clothing stash any day. It's not charity, it's recycling, and it's awesome. Especially when it's all well taken care of and nice namebrands. Some of which is second hand, some of which is not. Some of which is from other people's stashes of baby clothes! Love sharing the babyclothes love.

Speaking of babyclothes, ever since I saw a project on craftster to turn a mens shirt into an adorable toddler dress I've been eyeing up all the men in church and deciding whether thier shirt would make a cute dress or not. rofl. Mentally undressing them... to steal thier clothes. I need to go on a good thriftstore run!

Wardrobe Refashion

I'm going to take the challenge for the 2 Month Pledge at Wardrobe Refashion starting in September. It would be an interesting and creative challenge. It would also prompt me to think of new and creative ways to use this new beast i have tamed, Mr Sewing Machine. In particular it will be fun for DD, I can turn all those clothes I'm too fat for(don't try tell me I'm not fat, I am and it's because I am too lazy to exercise and I am very aware. I was super healthy and active when I was pregnant and just after, and then just became overly sedentary and I don't deserve comfort, I deserve a kick in the pants.) into beautiful clothes for her. She's so cool she can pull anything off.

I'm going to be on holidays next week! Yay. I shall be camping. The weather is supposed to be unbearably hot. I shall come home brown and I was going to say thinner but I looked over and noticed the giant pile of junkfood we obtained for camping, so I'll go with Hopefully Not Fatter instead.

DH has a new job. He will have longer hours. I'm hoping for a new job too, I really want a job at my local fabric store, they are looking, I just need to convince them that I am the one they are looking for!!! I will pursue this job because it sounds fun, I was talking to one of the ladies that works there and there are some sweet perks that involve free patterns and free stuff to make the patterns, followed by that item being on display for three weeks, and then it's yours. ooh lala. Me want. Plus she said the boss was really nice and everyone was nice. And a lot of the ladies are older ladies, and I love older ladies, they are often so nice. And older ladies often love babies, and anyone who loves babies loves mine in particular, for she loves everybody. Even people who don't love babies love her because she forces them with her contagious smile and laugh.

There is honestly something wrong with you if this kid can't make you smile back.

New Obsession

I finally sewed my first thing and now I'm hooked. The basic concept isn't as hard as I'd thought. Now that I've started, I'm so excited! I can make clothes that look way cuter than I can afford, in a matter of hours! Which is great, because I've reset my DD's internal clock a bit and changed her from two awkwardly timed naps to one nicely timed nap. Now she goes down for her ONE nap at around lunchtime, for as long as she needs, and then goes to bed at 7:00 for the night. This is excellent! That one extra hour at night makes the whole evening feel more open, because 8 is a bit late to start doing things, whereas seven is just perfect.

My husband is a mix of enthusiastic of less than thrilled. He told me I have to finish knitting my sweater before I can go on a shopping spree in fabricland. I understand this, Gigi must be completed. And the poor guy has kind of watched me bounce from hobby to hobby a bit this year. I'm still a fan of scrapbooking, I just like knitting and sewing too! And I think that having all three is actually an amazing thing. Crossing the concepts over back and forth is great! From scrapbooking, I have a good grasp on combining colours and adding embellishments, both helpful in knitting and sewing. And in knitting and sewing (and crochet, but I bunch that in with knitting) I'm creating garments. Once I get more skilled at sewing, I will barely need to buy things! haha. Theoretically. However, I'm going hunting for a part time job tomorrow, because I enjoy working, so I'm thinking I won't have the boundless time to sew that I'd like to think I have.

Here's my little cutie patootie modelling the first thing I sewed, a cute little skirt for her! (and DH in back engrossed in his own hobby)

It is far from perfect, but I doubt anyone will notice, and I'm pretty proud considering it's my first garment. Or at least, my first since I sewed a polarfleece hat in Grade Seven Sewing Class!

I'll end off with one last picture, one of my favourites of DH and DD together, and totally unrelated to any hobbies aside from photography in and of itself.