Saturday, January 31, 2009

A Day in our Life!

Ok, it's ready. I must admit I had a more exciting day in mind when I took that first photo at 7:28am. We had big plans, tentative to head to an indoor playground, and firm plans to head up to the barn to see our horse in the afternoon.

The snow changed everything. The driveway was a bit snowy, the drive at the barn wouldn't have been possible for my car.

So we stayed home and did laundry. I also never realized what a major role food plays in our day until I was taking photos of it.

Enjoy our day, and if you've made a 'DITL' somewhere, leave me a comment, I'd love to see it! If you haven't ... what are you waiting for?

Friday, January 30, 2009

What we are reading today

I thought I'd try to share the books we are reading on Fridays.

(DITL is coming soon, maybe even later today, editing and organizing all those photos is taking longer than I'd thought!)

So, today, in the children's lit category - we are enjoying "Found You Little Wombat" by Angela McAllister. It's a sweet little story, with only a sentence or two on each page, a quick read within a toddler's attention span, and the illustrations are nicely done as well.

My own reading, I'm slowly working through "Exile" by Richard North Patterson. It's going slowly, as I don't get hours in a day to read like I used to! I'm only on page 42, and that's taken 3 nights to get to. Hopefully progress will speed up and I'll have a new book to list for next week!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Something new

Some other Canadian artisans & I have been working on a new project, and it's beginning to come together.

I'm also working on a DITL (day in the life) photo set for a contest on a forum I'm on. Expect to see some great (or very ordinary) photos tomorrow of what we've done today.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sewing Shorts from old pants

Some shorts for the little guy, cut from the bottoms of pants that I can't/don't/won't wear anymore. It'll be a while (months yet!) before we're ready for shorts, but I wanted to get them off my 'to do' list. I left the existing hems intact and matched up the new topstitching as close as I could. 20090125 020 20090125 021 20090125 023

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Laptop Sleeve for cj

My sister requested a protective cover for her laptop, and a little pouch to stash power cords and such. I took the measurements, and well, winged it. It worked out pretty well, though I had to use a slightly different sized laptop for the photos.

Today was a busy sewing afternoon, but I didn't get photos of the rest yet.

Friday, January 23, 2009

The rest of the Spotted Box

I did forget to mention yesterday, that one of the samples in my box was my own! The boxes are completely random, so this can happen. Keep an eye out at babyGO for it to be a FFS (free for shipping) give away!

13. Mini potholder sample from Jekuthiel's Handmade Gifts, it's very cute, and I think I'll put some string thru it and hang it on the Christmas tree next year.

14. Fuzzy crochet scrunchie from Crochet Frog which will come in handy as my hair is long(ish) again, and I'm alwasy running out of gadgets to keep it off my face!

15. Flannel wipe from Princess Julianne's Closet, a very cute print, I may save it for my sis & her new baby, or add it to our wipes basket.

16. Magnet from Flirtbuttons, I love the heart on it and may tuck it away to include with a Valentine's gift or put it on my file cabinet right away!

17. Handmade all purpose cleaner from Picnicbasket Crafts, I'm going to try this out this afternoon - there are bathrooms to clean today.

18. Apple Jack & Peel Laundry detergent from Jenny's Simply Clean, I love the sample size detergents, I like to take them when we travel as they are the perfect size and it's nice to have great smelling laundry away from home!

19. Heart hair clippie from The Little Love Bug, we'll share this with my son's best little girl friend for Valentine's day.

20. Ceramic Coaster from T and Little S Designs, which is on my desk just waiting for the next cup of tea.

21. Amaretto Soap from Breezy Bug Boutique, smells great!

22. 5$ Gift Certificate to Closet on Queen Creek

23. 5$ Gift Certificate to The Melting Pot

This was a great box! You can get your own on the 15th of every month on both Hyenacart & Etsy. Including the item of my own, and our 3 faves in yesterdays post, we received 26 items.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Two days in a row. Crazy.

So, my Spotted Box. I love the idea of the Spotted Box. It gets complicated for me as a vendor to contribute, as shipping from Canada is so expensive. Also, the first set of samples I sent, back in 2007, was lost in the postal system for a long time. Fortunately, they were insured, Canada Post paid out my claim, and a month later they did finally show up at their destination. Photobucket As a vendor who contributes samples above a certain threshold, I received a box of my own. This one was the best yet that I have received. I was really pleased, and most of the items are useful for our family!

Go check out some of these great vendors ....

First up, yesterday I mentioned that the little guy had his own fave - Photobucket

Play dough from Sewing Alley.

My two faves are:

Photobucket This note card from DFMI Designs.

Photobucket And, these earrings from Shine - great prices on Swarovski crystal jewelery.

Other samples included

1. Diaper Doubler from Creativitykes Very useful, as our son is still in diapers, and we use cloth.

2. Mini Wipe from 2by2 Boutique We use this size as 'kleenex' when our son has a cold.

3. Breathe Easy Massage or Bath Oil from Scent-sory Creations I'm hoping this is a more natural version of the Eucalyptus bath gel I've used in the past when I've got a cold.

4. Hair Clippie from Social Butterflies I was going to gift all the hair clips to little girls I know, but this one might make its way into my collection.

5. Bath Salts from Glory Be Herbals, these smell great, a patchouli/orange blend.

6. Seeds from fluffnflowers, I'll pass these on to a friend with a green thumb - I'll get to enjoy them that way - if I keep them, they'll die!

7. Sample Curriculum card from Earth*School I've got a couple of these tucked away already for when the little guy is a just a bit older, great ideas.

8. Peppermint Diaper Pail Freshener from Jenny's Simply Clean, this is always appreciated!

9. Button/Pin from Buttered Parsnips This is going to live on my bulletin board, right next to my Spotted Box pin.

10. Knitting Pattern from Megan McDermott I was kinda bummed to see this is free on her website. I was going to include it with yarn for a knitting friend's birthday gift.

11. Toddler Girl's bracelet from Tiffany's Trinkets This will be gifted to a little girly-girl we know.

12. Bow Clip from I Heart Bowheads This is going to be gifted as well, it's sweet, but we have no little girls in this house, and I think I'm too old to pull of a big bow!

There's about 10 more samples, but this is taking far longer than I'd anticipated! Those will be listed tomorrow :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Well. That was a bad 'resolution'.

Ok, so you know you don't update (or even look at) your own blog often enough, when you check in and think you've got the wrong blog! I forgot I changed the template. That was silly. Oh well, at least it's not yet been an entire month! So, technically, I am doing 'better'. My son is very funny. That's why I logged on, to let you all know how amusing he can be. At 23mths he's got this crazy vocabulary that surprises us daily. Today, our TV is not working correctly, and he told me 'broken, fix, cu-du (screwdriver), hammer, tool box, help, daddy, door' (Daddy's tools are in a room behind a door). He then headed up the stairs to get Daddy to help fix the TV. I'm pretty certain that no tools are required for this repair - maybe they'll want to smash the silly thing with a hammer though! I also got my Spotted Box today. More about that when I get the pictures off the camera. So far, the little guy is loving the play dough from Sewing Alley, and I can't decide who I should send this great little card to - it's from DFMI designs.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

A New Year

Dare I make a 'resolution'. One I'm sure every person with a sort of neglected blog makes. To try and post more often, more regularly. :) We'll see. Enjoy the first day of 2009! We're going for a walk, a hike or an adventure. Maybe to Niagara Falls.