Sweet baby hat

Fresh off the needles, I present a silk-wool blend baby hat in orange for sweet baby James.  His mama said he needs an orange hat, but she couldn't find one she liked.  I took this as a personal challenge, and I hope it fits they love the result.  It certainly looks cute on Ruthie.



(project ravelled here)

First snow

We awoke to a snow-covered world.  Some autumn colour lingers on the trees, and the sun came out to play mid-morning, making for the most beautiful of days.  I abandoned the to-do list for a long, meandering walk with my camera in hand.  11/12/13 is such a fun day on the calendar, and Mother Nature decided to make it extra gorgeous for us.

Art inspiration: Ed Emberley

Art and crafts used to be part of our everyday doings, but somehow that has tapered off of late.  I've been wanting to get that going again, ideally by planning simple things for the girls to dive into during the tired, cranky period after school and before dinner.  During my stint reshelving books in the school library Tuesday morning, I spied two Ed Emberley books: Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book and Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book.  This afternoon, I put out some heavy-duty paper, 7 coloured stamp pads, a smock (watch out for those ink pads!) and thin markers.  The girls were fully absorbed in the fun for nearly two hours.  Highly recommended project!

Banff

A couple of weekends ago, we disappeared off to a fabulous vacation that almost wasn't.  Hubby had to go on a work trip to Banff in Alberta, Canada, and asked if the girls and I wanted to come along.  "Obviously!" was my response.  From the grey skies and hills of Pittsburgh to the huge open skies and flat plains of Calgary and the Canadian Rockies in the distance...my sense of awe felt tremendous.  I gained such peace, relaxation and joy just from the sheer majesty of the landscape.  Before long, words deserted me and I became prone to throwing my arms up at regular intervals in an overcome gesture of "Will you just look at this?!!!" (so please excuse me in the photos to follow where I adopt the "go big or go home" approach)


We stayed in the Rimrock Resort (the location for the conference that brought Hubby there).  We soon took to enjoying most of our meals in the lounge, where the views from the windows was this:

A few minutes walk took us to the gondola ride up Sulfur Mountain.  I am no fan of instability at height, and I admit that gondola ride--while stable and very well-maintained--was a wee bit scary for me (which amused my children to no end).  The sights from the top, however, were worth every bead of nervous sweat.  360° views of the Rockies and an unobstructed view down to the town of Banff nestled in the valley.  

In order to keep the effusiveness relatively sane, I'll toss out there that we also visited Lake Minnewanka and the Cave and Basin Museum (which was the birthplace of the Canadian National Park system, in case you like trivia).  The food in Banff was delicious (the French Toast at the Bison Restaurant was revolutionary).  We even managed to test out the health care system during our trip, and we are happy to report it seems top-notch!

Another wonderful benefit to our trip was meeting up with an old friend who now works in Calgary.  Although we are in touch, we hadn't seen him in many years so it was a fabulous reunion with him and a chance to meet his sweetheart.

The trip was amazing and felt much longer than its three short days.  We came back renewed from the crazy weeks past and ready to move on to the new challenges ahead.  Thank you, Banff!  We'll be back.

Halloween costumes

The homemade Halloween costumes was so much fun, and the girls could not have been happier with the results.  The fact that they were made from fleece worked out rather well, as the weather dripped an icy, misty rain all through Halloween night, but my little tiger and bat were snuggly warm and happy as can be.

 

Sewing Halloween costumes

There is something vastly pleasurable in the sensation of sewing fleece fabric on a brisk autumn morning.  The fabric is so soft and cozy beneath my fingers, and I smile knowing how warm it will keep my munchkin in the days ahead.  The print is a bit wild, though.  I am sewing a tiger costume for my wee girl.



Unfortunately, my girls seem to have inherited my procrastination gene.  They only decided last Friday (under duress) what their Halloween costumes will be.  Of course, we cannot buy them.  For one, everything good has been sold out for weeks anyway.  For another, making them is so much more satisfying.  Thankfully, we have three whole days left before the deadline (ha!).

After much debate, our sweet Eleanor decided she wants to be a black bat.  She wants the costume to be as simple as simple can be "because my teacher doesn't like Halloween and I don't want my costume to upset her."  As thoughtful and sensitive as that reasoning is, I couldn't accept it and insisted she at least look at some grander ideas, still on the simple theme.  I want her to like it, not just her teacher.  Luckily for me, her friend was over when I pulled up this bat costume tutorial on MADE, and her friend gleefully proclaimed we had found the perfect costume.  Ellie scaled it back (wearing a hood or sewing shiny material on the inside were out), but then proudly participated in the making.  She helped draw the pattern onto the felt with chalk, cut as carefully as she could and then loved her first experience sitting at the sewing machine with me standing by (rather than her in my lap) as she sewed the detail lines in dark grey.



I added the arm loops and attached bat ears to a headband with a hot glue gun, and voila!  Now, I just need to track down a black long-sleeved shirt and pants for her.  I have two more days, right?



Stephanie wants to be a tiger.  Of course, not only are there no tiger costumes to be found, but there are no tiger costume patterns to be found either!  All sold out weeks ago, the sniggering lady at the fabric store assured me.  No matter.  I'm winging it.  I bought some tiger-print fleece from JoAnn's and am sewing a tunic, pants, a hood (similar to the MADE bat hood) and possibly mittens, if I can get it all done in time.  The pants are my favorite basic pant from Happy Handmade Vol 2, and the tunic is a basic peasant dress adapted from this tutorial.  Everything is cut and the pants are sewn.  If I plow through the school day today, I might just get it done!



My favorite part of Stephanie's as-yet-unfinised costume is her creativity applied to the idea.  When I brought home fancy fabric hoping to inspire Eleanor to bat wing enhancement, Ellie rejected it...but Stephanie loved it!  She immediately declared she wanted to be a flying tiger and promptly drew me a picture.  I love love love this.  I can't wait to see the result!



Will your family be dressing up for Halloween?  What costumes did you choose?

Away we go

Nothing helps relieve the mania like a little holiday, no?  We'll be back on Monday night.  I expect to have many gorgeous photos to share!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend!