Because I am not busy enough...

I have been teaching myself to crochet over the past little while.  So far nothing has turned out but I am still at it.  My mom thoughtfully got me all three of Ana Paula Rimoli's books.  So cute - she has an etsy store!!  I am having trouble with a few things, counting stitches and for some reason the heads are a bit off.  Photos will follow when something turns out!  I am currently using the tiger pattern in Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too  to make a hot pink cat for the baby.

Also I have decided (for some crazy reason) that I should make a few sock animals.   The poor baby doesn't have her own sock animal and her sister was so fond of Lennie the Sock Monkey.  I am going to make her a cat, I have several patterns but am not sure which one I like best.  I think the infant appeal is the long arms, legs and tail but the little sitting kitties are so cute.

I have also been working on a few quilts (one for the poor baby) and a few as gifts.  I need to focus and finish one project at a time but I get bored easily, hense the huge rubbermaid of unfinished projects!

Finishing Projects Update:

A month ago I finally completed my first ever quilting class project, it is over 2 years ago that I started and only needed to complete the binding. (Then the digital camera broke, then the computer was hooped, blogging and crafting is HARD.)  It took two episodes of Sesame Street. I am not sure why I waited this long.

It Bit the Dust

I have had to finally give up on my  my mother's old Kenmore sewing machine.  Apparently my mom and grandma split the cost when I was a baby.  It definitely needs a tune up before I return it to my mom and I think it will go back to working fine but for now I need to use a better machine.  It has stopped zigzagging and now it will not even straight stitch.  There is probably an easy explanation for this but I can't figure it out.  I am now using a Necchi.  It is OK but change sucks!  It is still faster to figure stuff out on this machine than screw around with the Kenmore every 20 minutes.  I really want a Pfaff,  cash donations are welcome!

Friday Night Fun

Since my husband spent his Friday golfing and is now watching the hockey game I am going to spend the night in my sewing room!  I can't decide if that is sad or not!

Thank Goodness for the Practice Cake

In honour of my inlaws' 40th wedding anniversary (and the arrival of my Kitchenaid) I decided to bake a lemon chiffon cake.  They are my mother-in-law's favourite and it never hurts to suck up.  The good people at Kitchenaid even have a recipe for such a cake so I knew it would work out.  The day before I decided to make a practice cherry chiffon cake (substitute cherry juice for lemon flavouring and add some almond extract).  To complicate matters the practice cake had to be gluten free, sometimes gluten free things turn out funny.  Too dry, too heavy, rarely too wet.  All went well until I decided to use a bundt pan in lieu of an angel food pan.  I filled that pan right to the top without thinking that the cake would rise.

It tasted fine but the oven needed a good scraping out (and will be cleaned eventually) before I could bake the real cake.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

The actual lemon chiffon looked and tasted great thanks to the correct pan size and my husband who scraped the oven out!  I forgot to take a photo though.

A reasonable approximation of my cake, I did add some food colouring to the glaze.



A Good Day!

Happy Mother's Day
My husband REALLY loves me!

Today I got to use my Mother's Day Gift for the first time!  I made a cake with my toddler for my mother-in-law's birthday.  There were still a few lumps in the batter so I don't think I let the Kitchenaid do its' thing long enough.  The icing was SUPER light and fluffly though! This weekend I am going to try two chiffon cakes, one gluten free and one regular.  I have a recipe from the good people at Kitchenaid so hopefully they will both work out.

The finished product.  Note how the smarties are either pushed deep into the cake or held on with toddler spit!

I also completed Chickenbutt's Sir Topham Hatt doll.  I have to say that it looked a lot better before I sewed the applique down.  I used the (cheap) Heat N' Bond and am not very happy with the end result.  I did not find that it stuck very well and it is quite crunchy to the touch.  If I were to redo Sir Topham Hatt I would use felt.  I think it is more toddler friendly.  I also should have cut him out right side out, he is not quite even.  I would have liked more green background.   However since Chickenbutt is currently playing with a paper print out of Sir Topham Hatt I think this will be OK. 



Oh!  My little puffin has turned into a Wren, a happy little songbird!

A House Full of Chicks



In preparation for spring and Easter I mistakenly decided to make a chick craft with the Chickenbutt.  She had a great time and suddenly we needed to make at least one chick a day for at least a week.  I was pretty impressed as she was able to decide where the face parts and feet should go without my help. 

One of the first chicks and a bunny.  This is the lone bunny as chicks are way more popular around here.



 I did learn that one should be willing to spend a bit more for glue both in quality and quantity. Dollar store glue is not going to cut it for toddler crafts!







A free form chick with pink feathers.  The danger of leaving all the pompoms available for use!

 



A chick with pompom feathers and the painted plate chick.