Okay, I know I just got many gifts in the past couple of weeks, but if you know me, you know I really like presents. What you may not know is that I really love Cath Kidston, but we can barely get anything of hers in Canada so if anyone feels like ordering me something in time for my birthday…just 4 short months away….or maybe my retirement….just 6 months away, here’s an idea.

The Cath Kidston Paisley Red sewing basket. I have never seen such a pretty sewing basket. They are always so ugly in sewing stores. Wouldn’t it look pretty in my new crafting space?

Big news! In just two weeks time my sweetie and I are moving into our first place together - a brand new, never lived in, condo at 12th and Main. It’s very exciting. A bit faster than we had planned to take a new place, but we really loved this one so we grabbed it while we could. Hopefully the cats will love it as much as we do. They will have a lot to look at and more space for kitty sprints.

The area is perfect - yoga studios just around the corner, a Pure Nail bar just out front, IGA and pet store across the street, two wool stores on the same street (!!), a video store (sweetie says no more cable), almost all my favourite clothing stores, great book stores, and tons of restaurants. It’s going to be so great to live so close to all those services, which are very lacking in my current neighbourhood.

In the midst of all the packing I have to do after more than 6 years at the LKC (as well as the purging of all the purely girly stuff I have accumulated living on my own - no more pink walls and decor for me, although my awesome boyfriend bought me some lovely pink prints for Christmas to make up for that) I am also getting excited about the potential for crafting in our new space - the new curtains I could sew, the throw pillow covers, the tea towels, duvet cover, wall decorations…oh the list is endless. And maybe even room for a little craft space.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to get too much into the decorating until after the election in May, but I will surely have a long list by then and lots to keep me busy. I wonder what I can do with the new Tina Givens fabric I ordered on Boxing Day.

I need to start myself a small business to sell craft goods/do future political consulting maybe. I am taking suggestions for names…..

Here is the skirt I made in sewing as modelled by my handsome boyfriend for Pride as it turned out to be two inches too big for me. It was still a good lesson for me and a simple pattern.

I made this cute summer tote before we headed up the coast and it was so handy for almost everything I needed while on vacation from being a purse, to carrying my clothes to the shower, to going to the beach. Very easy and quick as well. I might make longer straps next time so I can put it over my shoulder.

How to (very quick notes, sorry)

Two 16 by 17 inch pieces of Amy Butler fabric for the interior
Two 16 by 17 inch pieces of Heather Butler fabric for the exterior
Four 2 by 16 inch pieces of the Amy Butler for the straps

Pin together, right sides facing. Sew up three sides (pressing seams on each of course); repeat for interior. Flip exterior fabric right side out. Keep interior fabric right side in and drop it into the exterior fabric bag. Line up and press. Flip over an inch of the interior fabric so an inch of right side interior fabric shows on the top of the exterior for contrast. Sew straps to the inside.

What is a holiday without indulging in fabulous food? We were actually quite well behaved for the most part. We did stop at almost every ice cream parlour on the Sunshine Coast, but we stuck to most dinners on the campstove as planned allowing us more treats by day.

The tastiest morsel of the trip was hands down the Blackberry Cinnamon Bun at Nancy’s bakery in Lund. Warm, sweet, and sticky baked goodness, it was my treat for avoiding flour on our trip. Mmmm…must learn to make some.

Although, we did agree to vacation on Savary Island in the future, so I will surely stock up next time I am passing through Lund.

We made it into a lot of galleries on our trip (yes, I found a guy who actually likes going into galleries).

My favourite pieces were in Robert’s Creek at the Golden Egg Studio.

There were a number of paintings and prints I could have happily brought home, but I am trying to restrain my spending these days. I love the birds in gold leaf as well.

Maybe one of you could buy one and I can come over to admire it?

I was born to run around barefoot. Not just because I, like you, was born barefoot, but because I am truly happiest in places I can toss off my shoes and just run around until my feet are completely filthy. I think the true sign that my vacation with my sweetie was perfect is that even after a long bath and lots of scrubbing, my feet are not yet willing to come clean.

I think it’s because my feet are as reluctant as I am to part with the white sands of Savary Island that nurtured our souls; the smooth grains of the ocean floor that held us up while we jumped into the waves; the cool mud of tidal pools we peered into; and the general dirt of the great outdoors on multiple beaches and campsites that we explored hand in hand.

Well, more like a cruel, dry summer. I’ve been on the wagon again for a few weeks - although this time not by choice. Long story short I’ve been taking some medication while we waited for test results to figure out what is making me unwell lately. Before you panic, it’s not a serious unwell from all indications. It’s just an annoying, unusual unwell I would like someone to fix up. I finished 3 weeks of meds on Thursday and now regret not really tying one on this past weekend as those damn test results today didn’t come up with anything, so mean old doctor put me back on the meds for 6 weeks! 6 weeks of the wagon. Argh.

Quick and easy project this evening to wrap a pretty birthday present for a friend of my sweetie’s in tomorrow. And I thought collecting random pieces of fabric when I was waiting for my sewing machine might end up being a bad idea…

I just took a piece of scrap fabric, cut it in half and sewed it together. It’s so tiny that I ended up just using steam-a-seam to finish the top.

I took today as one of my long weekends. For some reason I woke up at 6:30 am, which I never do on work days, so I just went with it and got up. By 9:30 am I had made my first skirt.

It needs lining or at least a slip I think as it’s quite sheer. Either way it’s likely to be more of an around-the-house-skirt as I had some problems with the sizing and had to take 3 inches off the waist even though the pattern was made to my measurements. I’m not too fussed about it not being perfect as the fabric was cheap and I wanted to practice. I don’t think I’ll make the fold over elastic waistband again though.

Skirt completed I went for a long bike ride on the seawall. I love living in Vancouver for things like the seawall. What a view!

Once I got home, I did the strangest thing (for me). I had a two hour nap covered by kitties on the couch. It was lovely. I guess my body needed it now that I am off the stupid drugs (as of yesterday). The rest of the day is for lounging on the patio reading with the furry pumpkins, then a nice low key dinner out tonight, nothing crazy as I am still not sure if I can drink post-drugs (they warned me to wait). The rest of the weekend will likely be pretty busy so lots of relaxation today is perfect. All in all a great day off.

Some folks seem to be scared of the death of the free internet. Me, I think it may save me some money. For example, without the internet I would not trip over fabric designers like Tina Givens with must have fabric designs. I have this fabric coming already through an Etsy order.

She has a new line coming out this fall called Fairy Tip~Toes that is so adorable and that I absolutely must have. Must!

And for the grande finale…the cute baby hat.

I love this hat. It’s a combination of a couple of patterns. It will be given to a new baby this weekend.

Only evil because it took so long and kept me from other crafting as I commited to finish it on a timeline and I am easily distracted by other pretty patterns. It was made for my massage therapist to give to her friend.

It’s a slightly modified version of this great and easy pattern - the very easy baby blanket.

It’s cute…but just cute enough to be a gift bag for a 3 year old. Next one will be perfect.

This is from the S.E.W Everything Workshop.

I usually take a month off in the summer thanks to working my ass off the rest of the year. This year it’s so busy that I’m just taking some long weekends and then a week off that includes a trip to the Sunshine Coast with the best boyfriend a girl could ever ask for. This means I’ve been cramming a lot into my weekends knowing that the fall, winter and spring are going to be crazy busy (but then, in just 11 months from now, I get my six months off).

This past weekend was no exception to the jam packed weekend trend. (more…)

Like I didn’t want to move more than anything already…..

Day two of no power in our area. 20% of the downtown core was out due to a massive underground fire, but most of the area seems to be getting back up now while our corner of the world still has a big red circle over it and a note that says we may not get power back until Thursday morning.

One night of camping out in one’s own home isn’t so bad. I had sewing until 9 pm and I had stopped after work to pick up water and batteries for my flashlight, knowing exactly where they were in case of emergency. There was a security guard stationed at our front door for the night, so that was reassuring being on my own and knowing some friends in the building had claimed refugee status and moved out Pitt Meadows for the night. It was still light when I got home so I had time to scramble for more candles and matches (non-smokers don’t keep lighters in the house, ya know).

The poor kitties were quite freaked out (more…)

I started taking sewing lessons last week and I love it! Especially after I spent quite a bit of time last weekend (while M was on a boys only canoe trip) just learning to sew straight lines. The sewing course I am taking is offered at the sweetest little sewing studio in Strathcona called Haute Kootoor which has an excellent variety of sewing classes offered on a very regular schedule. I am just taking the beginner class, but am considering more when I get time as it’s been great. A nice small class of just four students which means a lot of hands on instruction, which is something I really appreciate when learning a new skill.

Coincidentally the instructor is a very cool friend of a friend I have met a few times before and the project we are working on is a skirt pattern I had already bought as part of my Amy Butler obsession - the Barcelona skirt. We are doing the A line version but I am keen to follow it up with the apron overlay soon.

My sewing attempts were much more successful this week due to not being as hopped up on painkillers and antibiotics as I was last week after a wee relapse of an annoying condition I’ve had lately. This resulted in the beginnings of a damn cute skirt (if I do say so myself) using some on hand fabric from my stash that I had intended for a skirt even prior to starting the class - Amy Butler’s Coral Star Paisley from the Lotus Collection:

I have a full on sewing bug now. One (and only one) good thing about having no power tonight (day two of the Vancouver power outage) is that I can’t play around with my sewing since I really need to finish knitting that baby blankie I am doing on commission first. It’s so hard to be disciplined when I have so many pretty things to make!

I respond really well to bribery - even if it’s just me bribing myself. I’ve been paying myself to do things like not going to Starbucks for a whole week (drinking my protein shake as I am supposed to), bringing lunch to work, doing my own laundry instead of dropping it off, and so on. It’s working well. I like to see the savings account increase.

Given my lack of interest in exercise lately, I am going to do what I did months back to inspire myself to workout regularly since it worked so well - I am offering myself a bribe. Last time I got a wicked knitting bag that is the envy of many for sticking to my regime for a month.

This time, I get to buy my much desired rollerskates.

I figure this is a win-win. I get a prize that involves me exercising and I can start training for the roller derby. And they are so pretty.