I'm Forever Cutting Circles...

I think I might have some kind of manic craft disorder. I can go for long spells where I have no desire for crafting. That would be the low end of the cycle. Then I cycle up to where I am now, in hyper craft drive, where I can't seem to stop myself and leave a pile of projects in my wake. Here's what I've been up to lately.

I volunteered to make a cake for my friends daughters birthday. She was having a Halloween themed party this year, and was looking for a witch cake. After a little contemplation (and research on the interwebs) I came up with this;



Yep, that's all cake. Well, except for the hat brim and ribbon. I had a heck of a time trying to make black icing, so I went with a purple hat and what I like to refer to as a copper kettle for the witches cauldron. Hey, it's cake. It's more important that it taste good (which by all reports, it did). I made the card too. I KNOW. Paper is usually not my medium, but a while back I finally bought the paper dolls cartridge for my Cricut Expression machine (it was a gift if you recall) and I gotta tell ya...it's fun. I never thought I would find myself making cards, but there you have it.

I also never thought I would find myself making wreaths, but in the past week I've done not one, but two. I saw a tutorial this time last year at WhipUp for this ruffly felt circle wreath and my initial instinct upon seeing it was MUST MAKE. However, the thought of cutting a billion felt circles with the tools already in my arsenal didn't appeal. Which lead me to buy a circle rotary cutter recently.



Now I'm addicted to cutting circles. I need project ideas that require circle cutting. Any ideas? I need to justify the purchase of the tool for something other than felt circle wreaths (although I could make a couple more of those too. Quite a quick project to put together, and the result is pretty and satisfying. I'm thinking either one in Christmas colours or another in blues and white to go with my living room Christmas decor). The wreath is almost finished, I just ran out of felt last night. You really do need to buy it by the meter for this project. It takes quite a bit more than you think.



I saw something similar to this at one of my local yarn shops and thought 'Ooo, that's charming.' Yes, I say stuff like that to myself. So I picked up a small wreath at the dollar store and hot glued some yarn balls from yarn stash to it and badda bing, badda boom, you gotcha self a wreath. I'm thinking some small knitting needles or double points might be in order somewhere on there as well.



Also for the aforementioned birthday girl, I knit this matching sweater and hat set for her Build-a-Bear friend Bunny (which I guess would make her a Build-a-Bunny, but I digress). I wish I had thought to snap a photo of Bunny modelling her ensemble. She was quite fetching in her new digs.



I've also been stash busting. I threw together this trick or treat bag for Miss A out of stash materials. I inherited this rather hefty orange canvas that I wasn't sure what to do with, but it came in handy. I've also made two of these and two of these but they are going to be gifts, so I'll just leave that as a teaser.



Finally, I finished this quite some time ago and have been meaning to throw it up here, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's a little cloth book that I put together for Miss A and was mostly assembled for her first birthday. It's genesis dates back to, hmmm, 2006? when I cut out all the pages and the letters.



I used the left over material from A's crib set to make the covers and remnants out of my fabric stash for the letters. I wish I had been able to do a little bit better job of outlining the letters, like say machine embroidery or something, but after four years, I just really wanted it completed so the quick and dirty route seemed to fit the bill.

And that pretty much sums it up for the time being. I'm currently caught up in a flurry of Christmas projects that I'll be gobsmacked if they're done on time. Every year I swear I won't do this to myself and then do it anyway. Guess I'll go pick one to work on for a while. Until later...

My Girly Girl...

There will be people out there who deny what I am about to say until they are blue in the face, but sometimes stereotypes turn out to be true. I don't know as I would have wholly believed it myself until my wee one came into my life but there are just innate, fundamental differences between little boys and little girls. In my case, my little miss A is all girly girl.

I will admit that I have zero issue with dressing her in pink at any and all opportunity. I delight in doing her hair. Dresses make me all squishy inside. And then of course there were the 20+ pairs of Robeez in her closet before she was even born (cut me SOME slack, most of those were hand-me-downs). That being said, I also delight in watching her get dirty when she plays, buy her Tonka trucks and get equally squishy when she sits down to watch football or hockey with her dad. My mantra from day one has always been if she's happy, I'm happy.

But try as I might, she really does dote on her baby dolls to the exclusion of the Tonka's. The first time I took her into Payless, her eyes got as wide as saucers, her little index finger pointed in the air and she let a breathless 'SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEESSSSS' escape from her tiny mouth. I brought a bag full of summer clothes home from Walmart (of the Damned...can't say Walmart without adding that at the end) and she trailed after me wailing until I realized that she wanted to inspect and examine the contents. There she was, sitting on the kitchen floor, holding up her outfits and smiling with approval. You can't teach this stuff.

Then there was the day that she started doing this;



That's just a little plastic bag that some doll accessories came in, but one day, I happened to glance up from whatever and there she was, parading around the house with her little bag in the crook of her elbow. Shortly after that, I picked up a little silver clutch from Frenchy's and today, miss Fancy Pants had to have it with her at lunch.


The lady who lunches

She's all about mimicking now, wanting to do what I do. I think it's fantastic. Watching her learn something new every day is really the most incredible part of being able to stay at home with her as I do. She'd been wanting to use my broom and dustbin prior to our trip to PEI, so I had it in my mind to get her her own little set of cleaning tools. I remember playing with my own when I was a child and just the mere fact that they were scaled down for my size delighted me. Sure enough, I found a complete set at that fabulous toy store I mentioned in my last post.



Best...purchase...ever. There hasn't been a day pass since that she hasn't swept or mopped or toted her little cleaning bucket around. She even learned how to empty her little dustbin in to the garbage. Best part? That's the only time she ever opens the garbage. Hysterical.

Domestic goddess in training

I've even conned her into doing her own laundry. 'Bout time she started earning her keep around here.



After a long, gruelling day of housework, a little preening is in order. Always best to keep up appearances.

All in all, she's a hoot. I can't get enough of her. I could go on all day, but I suppose this will suffice for now.

Until later...

October Light...

I really don't know how it got to be October already. I mean that. I've been in such summer ending denial that even the other day, as I was culling my daughters drawers and closet of pretty little summer outfits that tragically, weren't worn long enough at all, I still kept a few tops and skirts and shorts near the top of the pile kidding myself into believing that there may yet be a few more warm days. But the cold is coming. I can smell it. Winter is there, lurking, like the giant Nothing that threatened all of Fantasia in the Neverending Story. I really don't know what it is about this year, but the prospect of the unceasing void of dull and dark and grey has me gripped in a vice of dread that I can't seem to shake off.

On that happy note, it's nice to be back. It was an unintentional absence I guess. I've been grappling with the fact that this is a hobby blog and I rarely hobby at all any more. I have a bolt of fabric in the craft room for curtains, a half spun bobbin of fiber on the wheel, three quarters of a pair of socks still lingering on the needles. Lots of great ideas, little to no ambition when the days work is done at 8 pm. I've come to terms with it. A few stitches here, a sideways glance at all my former creative outlets looking forlorn and collecting dust. I really don't know how some people do it. But, with the onset of autumn, I seem to be feeling the spark of renewed interest. My cooking mojo is slowly returning. I actually want to finish those damn socks cuz it's driving me crazy. I have clear deadlines for a few projects I'd like to finish. Other than that, it's all gravy.

Part of this may have to do with the fact that I recently got back from a wee vacation. The constable, myself, the wee one and the constable's brother's family all loaded up and headed off to PEI for a week. I hadn't been since I was six or so. I was looking forward to going back.

With two couples and three kids total, we rented a cottage. This was it



and it was awesome. Plenty of room, all the amenities you'd need and a hot tub. With a view of the strait. Score.

After settling in, our first road trip was to Cavendish, natch, to visit Green Gables. The movie had just come out prior to my last visit, a million years ago, and my mom had read me the book prior to our trip as well, so going to Anne's house back then was a HUGE deal to me. I heart Anne, always have. Going back I felt like a kid again. I wanted to jump up and down.



I'm such an Anne dork that I put both little A and myself in braids for the occassion. Anyhow, with kids in tow, we didn't spend as much time there as I would've liked but opted instead to check out the Avonlea village attraction thing which, surprise surprise, was closed for the season (it being September and all). Rather disappointed in that one. Looked like it would've been fun for the wee ones. Always next year I guess. I did manage to drop a stupid amount of money in the Anne gift shop however, getting all the movies on DVD and some raspberry cordial.



The whole area is just one big Annapalooza, and I ate it right up.

Speaking of eating, we weren't far from the Cows Creamery factory, so we did a little day trip there as well.



Maybe the best ice cream I've had. Pretty darn creamy.

Then there was Charlottetown and shopping and the discovery of perhaps the happiest place on earth, a toy-slash-yarn store. Yes, you heard me correctly. Toy-slash-yarn. The place was called Owl's Hollow and I could've spent all day there. I was expecting the yarn selection to be of the Walmart variety, but I was pleasently surprised and picked up some Diamond Baby Alpaca Sport and some skeins of a merino silk blend (couldn't find a link to that) both in pretty shades of blue (no photo, cuz they're upstairs and I'm down here and it's already taken me three months to get back to blogging. If I leave now, there's not telling when I'll get back here). I also picked up some fiber for spinning from the Rustico Bay Wool Sweater Company and some other knitty/sweatery/wooly/gifty shop in Charlottetown. The fiber there came from Belfast Mini Mills, another place I'd like to check out if I ever make it back.

Then, on the last day of our trip, before we headed back to NS, we took in one of the events of the Fall Flavours Festival with takes place during the month of September on PEI. See, the constable and I and his brother and wife, we're big fans of food and cooking and perhaps the eating most of all. We were pretty excited about the prospect of an ENTIRE month dedicated to good eats. Some of the events on the calendar were a bit out of our price range however, but there was a family picnic scheduled the day we had to check out of the cottage. So we headed back to the Cavendish area on our last day for lunch.

If you're familiar with the Festival then you might know that it's hosted by chef Michael Smith, the Food Network's Chef At Home (here in Canada at least...not sure about the States). I'm a fan, so is my sister-in-law, and, well,



we got to meet him too. I bought a cookbook, got a signature and on Sunday night, we made page 196



the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart. People...this dish is life changing. It's two pounds of bacon. It's bacon pie. If you want your man to be putty in your hands, make this. Then lord it over him for the rest of your life. "If you finish those bathroom renovations today, I'll make bacon piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
Despite the fact that we didn't make any of the other culinary events, the entire week was full of epic dinners that were full of awesomeness. A roast over an open fire, a lobster feed, fettucini alfredo with enough butter and cream to make your heart stop. *Sigh* It was delightful. We concluded that it's probably best that the four of us don't live closer together since we'd all likely be pushing three bills by now.

So those were the highlight. It was nice to get away and even nicer to visit with family. I took a whole heap of knitting stuff with me and barely knit a stitch. But I've got a bunch of projects lined up from now until Christmas, so hopefully I'll have more success in both the hobby and blog departments.

Until later...