5 Things I Couldn't Live Without in February

This series of posts started with inspiration from GnomeAngel. I thought I would try to continue it for every month this year.

So here is what I could not live without in February 2015.

1. Shovel...so boring, I know. But there has been a lot of snow this month. And cold. It's been cold.

2. My nephew, Lucas...I have been spending a lot of time with this little guy in the past month, and I cannot get enough of him! He and Maggie are best buds and I am so glad that they will have each other as they grow up. He just turned one last week and I cannot believe that the time has gone so quickly! That means that Maggie will be 1 in a few short weeks...

3. Treehouse...the kids tv channel. It is on in the house as background noise. I have come to appreciate the educational aspects that are built into some of the programming. Peg + Cat is pretty much all math based and problem-solving. That is awesome.

4. Adult night out...For my friend's birthday, I left Maggie with my parents and off we went to the big city! A great dinner, followed by dancing and a drag show at a club and topped off with an overnight in a hotel with great friends. SO. MUCH. FUN.

5. CAA...Along with the cold came the trunk latch not catching one evening, so the interior lights were on...all night. Dead battery.Thank you, Dad, for the annual CAA membership!

I am really enjoying being more mindful of the events, people and things in my life to be thankful for.

More to come,

Lucas is 1!

This is a picture post today, cuz pictures say 1000 words, right? 

My nephew, Lucas, turned 1 yesterday. I can't believe that the year has gone by so quickly. Here are a few pictures of his first year.

1 month old: Hanging out on my tummy (Maggie)

Don't look at the camera!

Cousins

1 year old

More to come,

It's Elementary Soft Book

Last night I dusted of the sewing machine and revved it up! I had done some sewing for Christmas gifts, but as I was sewing last minute, I had no time to take pictures, let alone write a blog post. Someday I will catch you up on what I made.

I bought this soft book panel at Sew What?, a lovely quilt shop in Buffalo, NY, when I went on a shopping trip with friends in December 2013.  I was 6 months pregnant at the time, and having strong nesting feelings at the time. I bought a whole bunch of fabrics, most of which still need to be used in some way.

It's Elementary soft book panel by South Seas Imports

It was so cute, I couldn't resist buying 2. And they sat and and sat and sat. I even took them to my mom's place when I moved there just before I had the baby and for 2 months after. And they sat there, too. 

My nephew is going to be 1 year old on the 25th. It is hard to believe that the year has gone by so quickly! I mentioned Lucas in this post. (I am also planning on completing The Quiet Book.) My own baby girl is now 10 months old.  10 months! Since my sister-in-law is planning Lucas' birthday party, I figured I should finally put this together.

I was a little nervous about this project. I have used my machine for piecing and for sewing clothes, but never with a layered quilty project like this. I read the instruction panel and a bit of it didn't really make sense, but I figured if I just started, it would straighten itself out by the time I got there.

First step was to cut out the book panes on the dotted line. There was a note about leaving 1/4 inch for the seam allowance, but that is already included in the dotted line space. That was confusion #1.

2 panels cut out

Next, I layered the listed pages with right sides together, then placed them on a piece of quilt batting.

Pages layered with batting

All lined up and ready for pins

The batting I was using was iron-on, so for the first couple of pages, I used the iron. I found that the batting would stick to the ironing board, then to the cloth I used, so I decided to skip the iron and just pin the panels and the batting together.

All pinned up and ready to sew!

Next, I sewed around the outside. There was a white line on the front of the panel that I could see through on the back, so I sewed just to the outside of that line. 

On my first page, I left a 3 inch gap so it could be turned inside out...I learned my lesson! On the remaining pages I left 4-5 inches open to make turning easier.

The seam

The gap - needs to be larger!

The edges need to be trimmed to reduce the bulk near the seams when the pages are turned right side out. Also, the corners nipped off so the corner is a pointy as possible.  Here, I learned an important lesson...in order to hand sew the gap after turning, you need to leave more fabric at the gap...in other words don't trim the fabric off. The batting at the gap, however, should be trimmed lower than the seam, so that it does not get in the way when closing the gap by hand.

Trim...

...nip off the corners...

...and turn.

I closed the gap by hand sewing, using a blind stitch (I think).

For Maggie's book I decided to top stitch around each box on the page. It turned out a little wonky, so I skipped that on Lucas' book.

Last, the pages were stacked together in the correct order and I sewed the all together down the centre.

TA DA!

All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours to put both of these books together. I am quite happy with how they turned out. An easy project, made with love. I would definitely buy another soft book panel.

More to come,

Scooter

L-R: Scooter, Jeff, Lucas

See that dog in the picture, up there?  He looks really sweet, doesn't he?  Well, looks can be deceiving, that dog, right there, is a maniac!

This dog is going to kill me...or I am going to kill this dog!  

While my brother, Jeff, and his lovely little family (wife, Nikola and son, Lucas) are in the Czech Republic for 3 weeks, I am house sitting.  Basically, the house looks after itself, but it is air conditioned, and my house is not.  Score!  

So, really, I am devil dog sitting.  Scooter is a 1.5 years old and still behaves like a puppy.  The ad on Petfinder.com said he is a Labrador/Golden Retriever mix, but I have seen pretty good photographic evidence that suggests that he is, in actual fact, a Labrador/Pit Bull mix.

Really, he means well.  Really, he does.  Right?

For example, when people are in the pool, he feels that it is his duty to make sure that they are safe by dragging them back to the stairs.  Or if he can't get to the pool (because maybe someone lashed him to the wrought iron patio table), then he will bark incessantly to alert the entire neighbourhood of the impending danger of being in the water.  Charming...

Or when he dug his nose into the very closed diaper bag, did not disturb a thing, but was able to pluck my black leather Coach wristlet out and take it to the couch to give it a good chew.  Why?  Because I'm pretty sure that he thought the cow wasn't dead yet.

I guess I'm done using it!

The bad news:  this is not the first item that has been damaged.  
The good news:  Maggie's face has never been cleaner!  :)

And just for a little Maggie update, here is a photo collage from when my sister, Kari was playing with her last week.  She is now 3 months old!

That's my girl!

More to come,

Maggie Monday...er...Tuesday!

This past weekend, I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day.  Maggie and I did our usual morning routine, then when we came downstairs, I found a little surprise waiting for me.  It turns out that Maggie had been conspiring with my grandmother, her great grandmother, to get me little present.

Then my brother and sister-in-law came over with my nephew, Lucas, and we went for a walk at the waterfront.

Maggie and Mommy

Lucas and his dad, Jeff

My life has changed A LOT since becoming a mom on April 1.  Maggie is the sunshine of my life, to steal a phrase from Stevie Wonder.  It is still a little unbelievable that she came from me.  Of course, there are times that she drives me crazy, but I haven't wanted to hide under the covers...yet. :)


More to come,

Getting Ready

Getting Ready

Post #2!  Already double the posts I published on my first blogging adventure.  Woo hoo!  

My main inspiration for starting this blog is to share my progression as I participate in "The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along" by Sherri at ThreadRidingHood.

Near the end of January, she shared the quiet book that she made for her little ones.  I was hooked!  Since my sister-in-law just had a baby and I am due to have Butternut in 4 short weeks, I thought this would be a great project to work on as the year progressed, and the babies grew.

Baby Lucas

Butternut

More to come,