New Skills

I had such a great Saturday night.

My Favorite Girl has been wanting to sew something now for ages. I taught her to do a simple running stitch a few years ago, and since then she has made a few little projects. Sewing together is not something we do a lot of, frankly because it's a lot of work for me. I can't sew my own stuff while she's working, because there are always interruptions due to tangled threads, needles that need to be re-threaded, and ends to tie off. What I do know about me, is that I don't like to be interrupted.

Saturday night I knew I really shouldn't put it off anymore, and My Favorite Boy wanted to learn how to sew as well. I figured between the two of them, I would have enough to do that I wouldn't be just sitting there waiting to thread/clip/untangle.

We decided the kids would make little stuffed owls out of felt. They picked their colors, I cut the fabric out and threaded the needles and off they went. My Favorite Girl, who has been sewing a while, was quick to go. I convinced her she was old enough now to thread her own needles, and all I had to do was knot the ends.


My Favorite Boy took to the task like he's been doing it for two years. I was so proud of him. He was so focused, and took such care in stitching, I didn't have to re-thread too many needles. He hardly even poked himself, which is something I remember doing a lot!

The three of us sat on the floor, chatting and stitching and supervising; and it was so great. My Favorite Boy was really excited to be learning how to do this; something he's been watching his mummy and sister do for a long time. He told us all the things he was going to sew for us, now that he could sew. I heard pyjamas for Daddy and Mummy, and a stuffed toy for his sister. My Favorite Girl had her list of projects too; I think her brother's enthusiasm was catching. Nobody got bored, and the long moments of silence in our little circle as they stitched amused them.

I hope they always remember the peace that comes from doing a task with your hands.

I wasn't sure if they could get the owl done in time for bed, but they worked diligently and had their owls finished in time to snuggle up and dream with. The next day they wanted to make smaller owls, and that was the first project of the day.

These are My Favorite Girl's owls, happily roosting in the kitchen for a photo shoot:

And these belong to My Favorite Boy. He had a little help from me, but most of the work is his - including the button eyes!

Aren't they great?! (Just like my kids)

50 % Day

You know I love shopping at thrift stores. Heck, you know I just love shopping, period. Now 50% off anywhere is great, but it's even better at thrift stores. Cheap goods, half off. I knew Value Village was having a half off sale on Monday. Mr. Crafty completely surprised me on Sunday by suggesting we have a look at the thrift stores, and scout out anything for the sale the following day. Not going to let that opportunity pass, I was ready to go. Didn't I find the chair I was looking all summer for, tucked away under a big pile of other furniture? It was marked at $30, which is waaayyy too much. They had the matching settee too. I said I would come back the next day and if it was there I would buy it for $15.

The next day My Favorite boy and I braved the crowds and made it to Value Village a whole three hours after they opened. I went straight to the back and saw the settee was gone, but the chair was still there, only someone had pushed it even further back into a pile of stuff. I could have jumped for joy, but it's hard to do that when you're digging a wicker chair out of a pile. So here's my $15 chair that I'm totally in love with, and plan on putting it in my sewing area so I can look at all my lovely books. Of course it does need a make-over. I would love to paint it a lovely duck-egg blue, but then I recently came into some pretty lavender floral fabric that would look lovely on a white chair. Decisions, decisions. Suggestions are always welcome, just click on the comments part at the bottom. In case you didn't know :)

Our clean and shiny bathroom is almost finished! I am going to buy the paint today. Didn't I say I was going to retire my paintbrush for a while? I guess that time is up! We also decided that the other bathroom upstairs could use a "do-over", so that will be started next week. Two nice shiny new bathrooms. Now that's lovely.

Have a lovely day.

This and That

It's been a busy two weeks, but good busy. My parents came for a visit and we had a nice time eating, playing, doing a bit of travelling. My Mum brought these flowers from her garden all the way from B.C. Aren't they gorgeous?!

Just look at this dahlia:

The sweetpeas were the prettiest shade of lilac, and they smelled wonderful.

After they left we had to get Our Favorite Boy and Girl ready for school. I was a bit anxious, wondering how they would do after all this time, but then 11 weeks at home is just too long for all of us. I don't think I have to tell you that the minute I dropped them off I went thrifting. Oh my, how lovely it was to just wander, wander, wander those aisles and look at everything I wanted for as long as I wanted. Other mums had the same idea, because it was pretty busy that day!
I did pretty well as usual. I bought a lot of wool sweaters to felt. When I washed them they shrunk to Our Favorite Girl size. Mr. Crafty World was excited because he said she could wear them. I wasn't so excited because I bought them for crafting with. Luckily (for me!), they proved too scratchy for her, so I get to use them for crafting after all. Watch this space!

My thrifting treasures are rather mixed up, so I'm not sure what I got when. These are a few random pictures of stuff I have thrifted and bought off eBay.

1930's prints for Our Favorite car-loving boy:

Cooking pamphlets from 1917 through the 1930's. We used to have a wood stove like the one in the bottom center. My dad bought it at a second hand store for $35 dollars around forty years ago. I would love to have it now, but it also weighed a ton, and I think we would be black-balled by every moving company there is. We can't afford to tick off the moving companies..

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I love this perfume bottle. It's petit point done on silk:

I buy embroidered dresser scarves and table toppers to cut up for other projects, but I keep finding them in really good condition and I don't know if I can take the scissors to them. I'm really sure this time that this dresser cloth is going to be made into a pillow!

This BHG magazine from 1932 has wonderful house plans in it. Too bad builders couldn't take a cue from the old plans, though I don't suppose the house would fit on the dinky sized lots they sell these days.

We are getting our master ensuite "done over" now too. We are very excited to have a nice shiny, brand new bathroom. When the contractor was gutting the bathroom, he found an extra "pocket"of space. Free space!! Now along with my nice shiny bathroom, I'm going to have a nice big closet for all those bathroom bits and pieces that normally have to live somewhere else.

The weather has been so great lately too. You know fall is coming, because the leaves are turning and the nights and mornings are cool, but these days are glorious! Sunshine and just enough warmth to do stuff and not get over heated. If I could only put my sewing machine outside and work away in the sun.....

This weekend we took a walk around Fairy Lake. I'll leave you with a few fall photos I snapped using my new camera: