Baby it's cold outside!! And a freebie!

The last few days, it has been between -35C and -52C at my house. I'm so not even kidding! See?! I think my lens even fogged up as it was so cold outside!! This was this morning. I still packed up the kids, and off to pre-school we went to drop Chase off! Unless the school is closed, we go!! That's life in Northern Alberta for ya!! lol.

Anyways, I got out this weekend to get some shopping done, so I'm pretty much all set there except for my hubby, who I hope to finish off this week. Other than that, Christmas can come if it wants to!! I've got the perogies, cabbage rolls and meat pies in the freezer, so all is well. I even had a little time today to do some crafting, I decided to make Chase this really simple polar fleece neck warmer...only it turned out to be not so simple...for me!! (And if any of my crafty friends are reading this and can tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong, please step in, as I spent two hours picking stitches out, because I keep trying different ways to sew it together! This is how it starts out, and how I would like it to look, green around the one side, and the camo on the other. So the inside is one color, and the outside is another. I wanted to make sure all the seams ended up on the inside, so I sewed the ends of the green together, and I sewed the ends of the camo together, and slipped one inside the other and sewed the tube at the top and bottom, leaving a space for turning. But...When I turned it, this is what it looked like!! A narrow tube not large enough to fit over Chase's head!! And the colors aren't where they are supposed to be either, and there is a seam right in the middle!! AURGH! I totally took these pictures thinking I was going to post a cute little tutorial on how to do this, then realized I couldn't even figure it out myself. I'm totally going to email my pal Ashley at Make it and Love it and see if she can tell me how to do this!!! Seriously, such a simple concept and I have buggered it up beyond the point of it being worth it! I just want to go buy one for $8 and say forget it! lol. Ashley, help a girl out, won't you? Look, I'm pathetic. lol.In other news, Cheri at Dream Big Designs has a freebie collab kit on her blog this week, so cyber run over there and check it out! The bright colors are so much fun.Here is my layout, you may not be able to read the journalling, but it just talks about what a sassy little girl my daughter is becoming!! Also, the girls at Scrap that Idea have a great shopping incentive, or deal, or whatever you want to call it! Check this out:

Isn't that great? You get to give and receive at the same time, what could be better than that? Not much if you ask me. Thanks for hanging out with me today, if you're in a warmer climate, please send some sunshine and warmth our way!! (It's supposed to be only -3C by Friday, isn't that crazy!!)

Giveaway Day three!! And some crafty business

I am so glad Halloween is over!! Well, more so that the pumpkins are gone lol. I spent twelve hours yesterday in the kitchen doing this to my pumpkins (I had six)!!I made this delicious Citrus Pumpkin Butter out of my Bernardin canning book. I made it a couple of years ago and got rave reviews so I thought I would make it again. All the relatives I can't afford to buy gifts for are getting pumpkin butter instead!!! I'll dress up these jars a bit of course. Then I took the seeds and did this with them:I used a recipe I found on the daily digi. It is the best seed recipe I've found so far, my husband even likes it! They end up tasting candied, with pumpkin spice. So yummy. And here is Chase in his Halloween outfit, he was Flash. Every year he's been a superhero, and the masks never fit, he ends up peeking out at me with one eye. hehe. And here is Rayna as the cutest little ladybug ever. I also made these cute Halloween bags using the pattern I found here. For this one I used my scrap booking program to make an H the size I needed, and printed it off and used it as a template. I cut out the H on the fabric as well as the fusible webbing, and once I had ironed it in place I just stitched around the H before I sewed the pockets onto the bag.I seriously wonder though if one of those bias tape makers would be handy, as I made these straps by hand, and all that folding and ironing takes some time.This one I just used patterned fabric, and used jumbo ric rac for the straps. Much easier, but the pocket came undone after they used it, so next time I would stitch the pockets on first, then add the ric rac after, instead of sewing it all at once like in the pattern. With the ric rac it's hard to tell if you're catching the edge of the material or not.Then I used Modge Podge and tissue to make this cute little pumpkin, like the tutorial I found here or the one here. I used a baby jar instead of a full size jar, and a pipe cleaner for the top instead of painting it, and thought what an appropriate place to put some suckers! I think this would also look cute as a tea light holder, and the light would shine really neatly through the tissue. I'm gonna make a Santa and snowman version too I think. The only thing I noticed was that there was some black stamping printed on the glass of the jar that didn't wash off, and I never noticed it, and it showed through the tissue paper after it dried. Woops. And our pumpkin looks slightly like a pirate, thanks to the black foamy stick on "x" I used for his mouth lol.So that's what I've been up to the last few days. I actually did some crafty stuff!! Ok, and now, what you've all been waiting for! Today's giveaway is a free kit from Stacey's Scraps! All you have to do is visit her store, and leave a comment on this post to let me know which kit is your favorite. And yes, I know it's hard to pick just one!! The winner will be chosen at random next Monday, November 9, 2009. Thanks to Stacey for sponsoring today's giveaway, and as always happy scrapping!! (And make sure you check the posts below for the other giveaways!!)
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Another Smish Smash

Grab a cup of coffee, and settle in, this is a long one! First of all, has anyone been to Face in Hole.com?? This is a great site for simply wasting a whole bunch of your time. Check out what I did with it:Of course I searched for the Twilight themes. hehe. This one is my favorite. I didn't use it because I couldn't get my face the right color to match the photo, have to use a sepia tone photo to upload. Seriously, I searched, where did they get that picture? Now please make note, I, in no way wish to be Kristin Stewart. I am not in love with Robert Pattinson. Seriously, has anyone seen how grungy he is when he's not Edward?? I would however, love to be Bella, in love with and being loved by Edward. Ahhh, I can just picture it. hehe. My face photo may not have been the ideal shot of me to put in the face hole, but I was just messing around and I thought I would share it with you. Can you believe only 102 more days til New Moon comes out?? EEEEEEE! I'm so excited. I'm going to have to re-read the book before I go. And of course, I can't read New Moon without re-reading Twilight first! I lent them both to my sister so I'll have to wait til she's done with them.

Alright, moving on! I haven't posted anything crafty for quite some time, I have been doing a lot of scrapping, so I thought I would share a little tote bag pattern that I found last year (I think) and I made one and think it's the cutest thing. It was a challenge for All People Quilt.com, and they have a few other free patterns on the site as well, it's also a great resource for anyone that is new to sewing or quilting. So here is the one I made: The one handle is longer, as it slips through the other one to carry. Cute, right? I know! (Can you hear Monica from Friends saying "I know!"? Or is it just me?Ok. Now, to get your freak on, the bag is totally reversible. That's right. So here is my inside, on the outside. hehe. Now I put pockets on mine, so while it is reversible, I'd look like a dork carrying it this way, plus I'd lose stuff. This is just for show and tell.The pockets are a good size, but I honestly think I'd leave them off next time, as I don't use them as much as I thought I would. Now a little pouch with a zipper would be a different story. But I don't know how to do that, so I would have no pockets. SAY NO TO POCKETS!!
So if you would like the pattern just go HERE. It's a free down loadable pdf file from the All People Quilt page.

Alright, moving on! At the beginning of the month we went camping, we pulled our trailer to a friends acreage, as it was close to where we needed to go (we were actually going to my Uncle's 50th birthday surprise party as well as their 30th Anniversary party!). Plus, it was free, and they took us horseback riding, quadding and berry picking. We had fun by the bucket full! Here is Chase after our Saskatoon berry picking excursion (little hint here, he won first prize for purple-est face!) He wasn't too happy that I was taking his picture lol. He had a blast picking berries, although his bucket contribution was a little on the low side, can you guess where his berries went??

His fingers stayed blue til the next day's bath!
And here is what we brought back, two of which I took home! Not a bad haul for three hours work! So I quickly looked up a recipe and made this: And topped it with vanilla ice cream:Want the recipe for this Saskatoon Rhubarb crisp?? It's very yummy :) Plus, it uses up 6 cups of Saskatoon's (of which I have plenty) and 2 cups of rhubarb (of which I have plenty as I insanely planted four plants last year!) Satisfies my sweet tooth too. You don't really taste the rhubarb.

Ok, moving on. I don't know if you remember the post I made about the giveaway at P.S. I quilt?? While I was away, I won!! I have a $50 gift certificate to use at The Fat Quarter shop! This is what I decided to get so I can make a cozy quilt for the camper (the colors are a great match to the interior)

But I also wanted this, which I just love!! I love the birdies and the colors, so pretty!Which I would then use to make this, which is a new pattern for me, as up to now I'm all about squares and rectangles. I would love to try something a little bit different (although it still has a lot of squares! What's the term, comfort zone? hehe.)Well that's about it. That's what happens when I don't post for two weeks! I still have more to show you too! I will sign off with a little question for anyone that has upgraded their internet explorer to version 8? I originally upgraded, but had problems posting in blogger, so I tried to uninstall the update, but then explorer kept freezing up and crashing on me (which is very annoying when I do so much downloading!) SO I re-upgraded, but am still having the same issue in blogger, which is that it won't let me drag the pictures down past what I can see in the "compose" box. I have to click and drop, scroll, click and drop, scroll etc all the way down to the bottom of the post. I'll have to upload my photos first next time! What a painfully slow process this post was! It also doesn't let me edit my text, as in, it doesn't insert new text, just types over what is already there, so if I go back to the middle of the paragraph and decide to change my wording or add something, it types over the text and I have to re-type the whole paragraph?? Anyone else having these issues and how do I fix it?? Till next time! (and who knows when that may be?? lol)

Crafty Bug

Well, the crafty bug done gone and bit me!! Where's my after-bite?? hehe. SO I seriously got the itch to start sewing today, and that led to other crafty material things...I got a few little things done today. First thing, was a an external hard drive case for my sister in law. I made myself one and she liked it and asked me to make her one, so I did! And to be honest I think I did a better job this time than I did on my own! Plus I finally tried out stipple quilting...not too sure about that yet, I know I need lots of practice! So I started out with a material for front and back 15"x8" plus a thin needle punch batting. I put them right sides together with the batting on the bottom, trimmed the corners for my flap with my triangle thingy (I'm all about proper terminology), then sewed around leaving an opening for turning.

I tried my darning foot or hopping foot or whatever the heck that thing is called. (Again, proper terminology). The first try it didn't work (I thought I had it on wrong then realized that I just didn't put the presser foot lever down - duh!) So I ripped it out and tried again.

I did some loop-de-loos and even tried to make a couple hearts.

The front looks OK, for my first try I thought, but something about the way the stitches look on the back bugs me. I found it really hard to keep my stitch length even, since this is free hand, and I'm not sure if that's why the back stitches look that way? I tried adjusting my tension but it only helped a little bit. Any ideas or suggestions? Can you see the stitching? I don't even know if I got a close enough shot of it for you.

Anyways, then I added a couple pieces of velcro to one end where the flap will close over.

Then I folded it in half, to the point where the flap will bend over the top. (Right sides together). I sewed a seam up each side. Then I top stitched around the opening and flap, to give it a nice finished look. I wanted a separate compartment for the cord and for the hard drive, so I used masking tape to give me a nice line to follow (I'm all about using the right tools. hehe. My fabric pen wasn't really showing up on this fabric.) I straight stitched a line from the top of the pouch to the bottom.

I added the other two velcro pieces to the flap to finish off the closure.

And its done!

Ready to go scrapbooking.

Next have I ever mentioned that I love panels?? No?? Well, let me tell you, I love panels. They're the next best thing since sliced bread. Seriously. I went to the fabric store today to get some backing material and Chase came with me and once he got hold of this spongebob material, I couldn't pry it from his grubby little hands! He originally spotted some spongebob patterned cotton, and wanted me to make him a spongebob blanket. This kid has enough blankets to warm half of Alberta. I'm not even kidding, it annoys my husband to no end. So I convinced him to get this little pillow panel instead.

I purchased a little red zipper and a pillow form as well. And let me tell you, that zipper wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, even with a zipper foot. (I mean really, does there HAVE to be a separate foot for every single thing? C'mon.) I probably didn't sew it on the way most people do. The hardest part for me was getting around the zipper pull. Knobby little thing. I attached it to one side of the panel first, then flipped it over and attached it to the other side.

Then I sewed around the other three edges, pillowcase style, making sure to run over the tails of my zipper at the beginning and end.

Flipped it inside out, and voila! Pillow is done, 4 year old is happy, and I got to be crafty. Everybody wins. I think the zipper turned out pretty well.

Finished spongebob pillow. Chase slept with it tonight, and that always makes me feel great when he loves something I made for him.

The last thing I made tonight is something I have been meaning to make since I first saw the tutorial HERE on Ashley's blog. Her button is also on the side of my blog if you ever need to click over there! She has so many cool tutorials for handy things around the house, and done in a way that is cost effective too! Rayna has quite a bundle of little barrettes already, and I mean little barrettes, I'm lucky if they're an inch long. They always end up on the bathroom counter after her bath and I am constantly trying to round them up so I don't lose them. This was the perfect solution! I picked up the frames at Zellers, 3-5x7 frames for $5!!

I had quite a bit of Modge Podge on my hands by the time I was done, and I wrecked half of a fat quarter as I measured incorrectly the first time for my frame, but I'm so happy with the end result! I also added some little purple silk flowers on the corner just to dress it up a little bit. I hung it in the bathroom between the mirror and the bathroom cabinet. It fit perfect! I also managed to cover up a scrape in the drywall as the old metal bathroom stand we had, had a screw sticking out of the back that rubbed a hole in the drywall because the stand wasn't bolted to anything. So I killed two birds with one stone. (Well, no, not really, I love birds!) Please don't mind my mismatched towels, I can't help it if Chase loves Batman lol.

Okay, well that's all folks! Thanks for reading, and if you have any tips for my stipple quilting, I would ♥ to hear them!