Christmas Craft Fair circuit

Whew!

With 3 out of 4 craft fairs done, I am ready to take a break today.

And of course, taking the time to say hello to you is on the top of my list!

This table set up was at the Ingomar sale. 

Jam packed on a 5 foot table.

I can confidently say that most things on this table are gawn.

 

For some reason, I don't have a picture of my sale at the Fire Hall, so I move on to the sale at The Grand Hotel in Yarmouth.

Sorry for the fuzzy... I cleaned my lens after this.

I can confidently say, that most things on this table are available.

Weird show.. Widely advertised and attended, but not a lot of buying. hmm?

 I needed a break from sweater sewing one day, so I played around with cashmere scarves.

Voila... hot water bottle covers. love em

 These cashmere infant hats are soo soft and adorable.

Like my balloon display?

Basket of mittens from sales ago. 

All gone, but I do have more. Of course.

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little kid section.

Those puppets please me.

And working with the felt in hair clips and tooth fairy bags. niiice

My first batch of stockings. gawn

My second batch. All available

And amongst the Christmas making, I got to make this little one for a new wee one in the world.

With a reversible dress.

One more craft sale on FRIDAY, at the Lockeport Pavillion 12-4

I will have a few more things added. Hopefully with a kid focus.

For a more up to date view of what I am doing,

check out my facebook page

ta ta for now....

Amanda

look! it's not mittens!

After 2 weeks of sewing mittens, I needed a break.

So I made a few more infant hats.

And some Christmas Stockings!

What a nice change

 Some have the same on the front and back, and some have a solid back

There are more sweaters pulled for making today. 

And now for the obligatory, albeit somewhat not up to standard, photos of Halloween costumes

And the adults who borrowed heavily from the kid costume box.

My husband and I would have won the best couple award, but I went home at midnight to relieve the babysitter. So they gave him the best male. My little badge says, "he's a keeper" HA! get it!

Hope all is well where you are..

Ciao,

Amanda

The week in between

Howdy.

How goes?

It's the week in between Christmas and New Year's. 

I love this week. 

We visit family and come home to enjoy our quiet with new toys and joys all over again.

It's the time of year where my "Mitten making blinders" are off and I can see what state my house is in! Messy!

And now, now I have time to attend to it. See, it waited. Nothing exploded. No need to worry about it.

I started with the upstairs today, 

the kid's room, (not the toy closet, gosh that needs it's own day/week/month).

But the den and the nook. 

When we walk by to get tot he bathroom or the kids room, it's a nice breath of fresh air. ahhhh.

Enough of that, Here's something nice to look at...

A new bird feeder. More like a condo. 

It took awhile for the birds to come. I don't think they're used to the perch idea yet, but come they did.

And I've been knitting. See how big those pegs are? That's because those socks are bitty! For 1 yr olds.

Now that my baby gift requirements are fulfilled, I must make a pair for newborns.

I need to see how bitty they will be. :}

Oh, and that mitten making frenzy?

There were a lot of mittens.

And some more

And more...

And many, many more.

Here is this year's obligatory picture of the tree getting...

And the tree decorating....

The kids decorate it. 

We bring out the boxes and they go to town. 

We choose to put all the hand mades out with a few of the fuzzy balls we got when Rafael was a baby.

It was frosty today. First time in some time to actually feel the cold of winter. 

Christmas day was 14 degrees celcius. Crazy.

I can't wait for the pond to freeze over so we can skate on it. 

As a kid, we used to skate ont he pond behind the mall.

The ice was always different, depending on if it was windy when the water froze, how much snow was on it , if it melted and froze again.

The kids have never skated on a pond before. They are looking forward to it. Me too.

And tomorrow, a new day. 

the beginning of a new year.

I wonder what it will bring to us?

I'm ready.

Cheers,

Amanda

Happenings

G'day.

How is it where you are?

This is what we woke up to.

Nice isn't it?

This kind of snow is what I call "movie snow".

It means it's warm enough to play in.

This year, the spirit of Christmas is being sponsored by my 7 year old daughter, Neve.

 She created this little display. Cute.

The kids are wearing their fuzzy Santa hats everywhere. She is singing Christmas carols constantly and is learning a few on the piano.

 Secrets are being whispered to the elves. The kids were disappointed one day when the elves were suspended from a disco ball in the living room. They couldn't touch them and the elves were too high to talk to.

 I got some socks made to donate to the kids' school for a raffle.

 

Sadly, there weren't enough ugly Christmas sweaters in my travels this year. 

Guess they've caught on for all those "Ugly Christmas Sweater" parties.

If you're local or in town, pop over to the Gallery 138 shop on Water street, next to the Bistro 138.

Some nice stuff there for someone on your shopping list.

And one of my favourite small town moments..

 Mail for the kids without any address on it. 

It was a thank you for them playing the bells, tictoc blocks and whip in the Hand bell Choir selections at a concert. I don't think I have a picture. hmm, just a video. It was our 2nd year participating and it was lovely.

Today, there is no school, Parent-teacher interviews. 

There is fresh snow, sunshine, kids who are self entertained- at the moment- and a sewing list that has to be addressed. 

Looking forward to a slower paced day.

Cheers,

Amanda

of things burlap-ed

I'm in a decorating mood. A Christmas decorating mood.

But in orange. No reds or greens here. 

I'm decorating the brewery in burlap, doilies, silver and orange. Lots of orange.

These jars will hold tea lights.

 Stairs wrapped in burlap, silver ribbon and glitter balls. 

The stockings are made from grain sacks. 

That's only a little example of other plans I have for grain sacks. Can't wait to have time to do them.

 And on the tree..

Burlap wrapped balls... white Linen wrapped balls and orange too.

 Snowflake wool hearts... burlap and orange ones too.

 Burlap and doily stars

Oh, I forgot to show the burlap bunting. 

But more pics will follow. With a proper camera, in proper light. When it's all done. 

A few more touches and it will be good.

I also made this little canvas for an art auction at the art centre.

It's a great, fun fundraiser.

How it works: 

You buy 2 canvasses for $10.

Decorate them as you wish.

Once they are displayed, they are for sale for $25 each. the artist gets $10 back and the centre gets $15.

Ones unsold are returned to the owner.

It was a lot of fun to do and to see all the canvasses, trying to guess who painted what.

Various levels of talent and various mediums.

That's it for now,

Cheers,

Amanda

Christmas Stocking a les laines

So last week, when I bought my hill of sweaters, I knew some of them weren't suitable for mittens, or puppets or hot water bottle covers.

What I did know, is that they would be very suitable for Christmas Stockings!

Yes, Stockings!

With that idea in my mind, I went crazy.

Here is my first one.

 I was thinking of different designs to make when a post by Betz White popped up.

They were perfect. And to make it even better, I owned her book, Warm Fuzzies, with the pattern in it.

 I just couldn't stop myself! I'm so pumped to make more, 

but I must make the cashmere linings for my mittens. 

And add a few embellishments to these new babies.

Ciao,

Amanda

Sandwich Wrap

I was given Betz White's book Sewing Green when I turned 40. I remember it well. Not because it was my 40th, but because we were camping on the May 24th weekend. It was actually a nice one. Sitting outside in the sunny spot, I sat in a lawn chair and read every. single. word. and poured over every. single. picture. in that book. Uninterrupted!

I had wanted to make the sandwich wrap, but didn't want to use just cotton. I wanted a laminated cotton. Laminate on the INSIDE of the fabric! Not the outside.

Let's just cut the story short, my quest brought me to Ikea's acrylic coated fabric from a few years ago, but it was on the outside, not inside. NOPE.

Then this past fall, someone told me of an iron on vinyl at the amazing fabric store Avonport Discount Fabrics in the Annapolis Valley. I made sure my next road trip included another reason to "pass by".

 I bought some. Made a little doggie treat pouch for my friend. meh. Decided to try it again on the sandwich wrap. But not on the inside where I wanted it to be. I could not find any information that said it was food grade. Since the sandwich would be directly on the vinyl if it was on the inside, I did it on the outside. 

It's much bigger than I though it would be. It was a bit more labour intensive than I wanted it to be because of the extra step of ironing on the vinyl. I did however, cut out the hemming step by serging the ends. 

We've used it to hold a beef patty and a sandwich. Easy peasy. I may make another one, with that pre laminated fabric from Ikea for my daughter, but there are more things on the list to do.

 I didn't make any new ornaments to sell this year, but at the last minute, made a pile of Sweater hearts for my friends. I think I'll make these to sell next year. I like them. (stamps from Stampin' Up!)

One more Show and Tell....

A Craft FAIL! The picture below is supposed to be a bird in a nest!!! FAIL.

Stop laughing. The kids guessed beaver, weasel, and some other non-sensical things.

This one stayed home.

Rafael's 9th birthday is this Saturday. He has requested a Minecraft Birthday. Music has been chosen, style of cake (to be made on Friday), creeper cookies are cooling as I type, waiting to be decorated, and other elements of minecraft are creeping around here. 

You know I'll show you!

Cheers,

Amanda

This past week....

We've had a great week. It started with a bit of this...

 Caught only 2 days before just outside the harbour here. Fresh, full and yummy. It was a bit of a sad day though. You see, My son has decided that he likes the whole lobster. That leaves less for me to eat and I have to share more! :}

Here is the tree waiting for all the relatives to come!

 And come they did! 18 for supper and 14 overnight. It was so nice to host my family for Christmas! Only a few pictured here. Thanks for coming guys!

 Last night it snowed! in Shelburne- the banana climate of NS! 

 The kids went outside to play 3 times today. Even in the dark. I used to love playing in the snow int he dark. My favourite was to lie under a street lamp and watch the snow falling. Hay bales at the base of the trees to remind us of a great sledding hill in Toronto that does the same thing. They sure come in handy.

 Just as dusk was coming, I went to help make a snowman. It was nice a warm out there.

Movie snow! Green grass!

Tomorrow, we shall be having our annual Raclette for New Year's Eve!

Rafael is a little sad to say goodbye to 2012 tomorrow "because it was such a fun year!" Now that was nice to hear from a boy who had a little difficulty adjusting to a new home. I think he's finally here now.

Hope you have a good end of the year and many blessings to you all! 

Thank you for stopping by to visit!

Cheers,

Amanda